[00:51:07]

I lost count of the gnomes that surrounded me.

It hasn’t even been 10 minutes, yet hundreds of gnomes gnawed at my barrier. I was safe for now because I buffed up my shield, but I wasn’t sure for how much longer. If it was just one, or even 10 gnomes, I wouldn’t have been required to put so much of my mana into it.

But hundreds? And soon thousands?

I was in trouble.

At first, my plan was to keep my dome-like barrier as small as possible. That way, less mana would be needed to maintain it. But as more of them dropped from the sky, they were piling up on top of my shield. They were becoming heavy enough to cause cracking on the top, so I had no choice but to enlarge my barrier.

Even now, the gnomes were climbing on top of each other and slowly blocking the light. The inside of my dome was becoming darker, making it feel like I was being buried alive.

I was already beginning to feel tired. Just the thought that so many more of these little fuckers were going to swarm me made me sweat.

Will I be able to last another 50 minutes like this?

I wasn’t sure if I was good enough Support to survive this strange test.

Ding!

Fwoom!

Why the hell did people say this was the easiest test? They were all freaking liars.

Or could it be that this WAS an easy test and I was just too weak? Have I been too cocky to believe that I could do this?

But there was no point in blaming anyone right now. I needed to be smart and think quickly all the while making sure to concentrate on sustaining this barrier.

Gomi seemed to understand that I needed to focus because she hasn’t said much for the past few minutes. It was rare to see such serious concern on her baby face.

“Gomi,” I called out. “Any idea?”

Gomi tilted her tiny head which was too big for her body. I could tell she was thinking very hard.

As far as I could tell, I had two options.

For now, the most obvious and safest choice was to keep up this barrier as long as possible. Only time will tell how long I could hold this, and when this time is up, I will have to begin fighting. My concern was that I might feel too drained by then to battle effectively.

The thought of these sharp-teethed beasts eating me alive was enough to make me shiver.

I guess the other option was to forget about the barrier and fight. The question was, will I be able to handle the growing number of them for almost an hour?

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Gomi looked up at me and apologized, “I’m sorry… I don’t know what I should do…”

“What about that barrier you formed during the first test? Remember when we first met? Can you do that again?”

The barrier she created then was strong enough to block a giant goblin. Gomi hadn’t been able to do this while I was training in the Door, but I thought that perhaps she could only do it during the tests.

“No…,” Gomi looked down in shame. “And I figured out why I couldn’t do it before. It’s my Defense level. It’s too low.”

Oh. I did remember that the last time I checked on Display, her Defense number was unusually low compared to the Offense value. Was this why she couldn’t buff up my barrier?

That actually made sense, but… learning something new and important like this now didn’t help me at all.

Wait, but that meant…

“Your Offense number is pretty high, right? So you can help me fight then?” I asked, a glimmer of hope beginning to grow inside of me.

“I sure can!”

Suddenly, I jolted a little when I felt a boost within my mana as Gomi’s own power added to mine. I didn’t think this was going to be enough to get me out of this mass, but it was something at least.

If I chose to fight or was forced to fight, I would have something extra.

I contemplated, unsure what choice would get me out of here alive.

“It’s your call, Leah.”

I could feel Gomi’s trust in me, making me feel both encouraged and burdened at the same time.

What should I do?

Ding!

Fwoom!

“I think… we should play it safe. Let’s just try to stay behind the barrier as long as possible. Who knows? We might get lucky,” I decided, knowing full well that I should never rely on luck inside the Door.

***

[00:44:30]

Ding!

Fwoom!

Crack.

Feeling the crack in several places, I buffed up my barrier further. It was both mentally and physically draining to be in this dark place while the vicious monsters scratched at my shield. The nail-on-chalkboard sounds made me want to scream.

Didn’t these stupid monsters ever get tired?!

I know I shouldn’t, but I imagined being snacked on by these gnomes alive. Their teeth were sharp, but they were so small that it was going to take them a long time to kill me.

A long long time.

Ding!

Fwoom!

If I made it out of here, those two sounds were going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

I desperately wished I had a machine gun. If only human technology would work here… And if I got my hands on a shiny machine gun, I could annihilate them all.

I whispered like an incantation, “Machine guns and bombs, machine guns and bombs. Oh and flamethrowers…”

“What are those?” Gomi asked quietly. She was trying not to bother me, but it appeared that she couldn’t control her curiosity.

“They’re weapons,” I answered.

Her eyes sparkling with recognition, the baby exclaimed, “Oh, I’m a sword.”

“Yes, I know dear.” I tried to be patient, thinking that if this was going to be our final moment together, I didn’t want anger and annoyance to be her last impression of me. She had already burnt to death in her previous life as far as I could tell, so I wanted to show her kindness if I could help it.

Just then, as if she was sharing a big secret, she whispered, “But I am much more.”