[Cerberus notices your presence.]
As the doors close behind us, I take in the sight around me. With what seems to be a burning wasteland, hundreds even thousands of swords are either stabbed into the ground, laying around or stabbed into each other. Nothing alive can be seen, the only thing in sight is more swords and flames. We are currently standing at the entrance, the only place not burning, on some grass. Looking behind me, I can see the door standing there, and behind it more of this wasteland leaving the door standing there by its lonesome. For now, it appears we are safe.
[Emergency Unique Quest: Cerberus’s Trial
You have intruded onto an ancient battlefield, a relic from a distant past and now Cerberus’s Domain. Cerberus wishes to test your might as a fellow Monster, prove yourself to him by overcoming his trials.
Rewards: To be determined by the results of the trials.
Failure to participate in this quest will result in death. Leaving the dungeon without attempting the quest will result in death.
You have unlimited time to prepare for the trials, the trials will begin when you step onto the battleground.]
Looking around, the grass terrain we’re standing on is huge, about 50 meters in length and width. Big enough for…a big dungeon raid team. Sighing, I glance at Sally to see her also looking at me. Seeing her nod, I’m sure she also received the same quest. Setting down Gray, Sally checks his wounds.
“I need your medical kit. Get some sleep, we should be safe for now.”
“What about you?”
Instead of answering, she shrugs and puts her hand out. Understanding what she was after, I open the System and request the reward from killing Thomas.
[You leveled to 6.]
[You leveled to 7.]
[Current Experience: 100/600]
[You received 1x medical kit.]
Handing Sally the medical kit, I drop the sack off my back, lay my head onto it and pass out.
After applying the healing potions and bandages to Gray’s wounds, I sit down and exhale. For the first time in my life there are no humans around telling us what to do, no one beating us for being out of line. I’m feeling lost on how to handle it, I have two newbies who are relying on me, and I don’t know how to help them properly.
Shaking my head, I open my System again and look at my level.
[Level 9 (Can Promote to level 10)]
This is strange, all the others were automatic, why do I have the choice to manually level up to 10? Without much thought I mumble “Level up”.
[Confirmed, good luck.]
“Good…luck?” Just as I whisper those, I feel a searing pain throughout my entire body. It was like every muscle, every bone was burning, changing. The pain was so sudden, so intense I couldn’t scream, breathing was nearly impossible. Gasping for air, the pain finally reached its peak, my muscles feel like they’re being torn apart one by one.
Time felt like it came to a standstill but also felt like an eternity until the pain started wearing off. Gasping for air and shuddering from the feeling of my body being freed of that torturous pain, the first thing I notice is that my vision is clearer. Looking at Alisha who is sleeping a good few meters from me, I can see finer details, like the tiny hairs on her arms, and count how many eyebrows she has. Sitting up, I check my status once again.
[You have leveled up to 10!
As you’ve reached level 10, your body has undergone a change.
The monster within stirs…]
----------------------------------------
Sally
Monster/Human Hybrid (Monster Species: Unknown)
Level 10
Health: 200
Mana: 20 (Locked)
Experience: 500/10000
Class: Not available.
Class Level: Ineligible
Experience: 0/0
Skills: None
Spells: None
----------------------------------------
“Health, mana?” A bit confused, I consider it as something that happens at level 10. Glancing around and feeling my body out, my wounds have all healed, vision is clearer and more detailed and I feel stronger. Taking a deep breath, I stand to take guard over the two sleeping behind me…and promptly fall back on my behind and fall asleep.
[Alisha’s PoV]
Flickering my eyes open slowly, I slowly get up. It appears I have slept for a long time, yet the dungeon remains the same, on the edge of night and day, with flames continuing to burn. Sitting up, I let out a yawn that had been building, I have never slept like that before, it was amazing. Stretching, I get up and look around for Sally and Gray. I can see Gray is sleeping but I’m surprised to see Sally also sleeping, I thought she would’ve been sitting guard until one of them woke up. Without much to do, I grab my sword and practice some swings.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
After some time, I hear Gray stirring. Sheathing my sword, I sit down beside him and check his injuries. The blade wound in his shoulder has mostly healed, and other wounds around his body have also disappeared. Sighing in relief, it seems like we managed to save him, though I’m not sure if we’ve truly saved him considering our current location and quest.
Watching him stirring for some time, I start feeling something I haven’t for a long time. Boredom, mixed with impatience. I start fidgeting with my sword. There is nothing to do nor anyone to talk to, and I’m full of energy. In an attempt to alleviate my boredom, I poke Gray’s check repeatedly. Despite having the name Gray, his hair colour was a bright violet. He looked young, around the age of 12 or 13, which couldn’t be his true age, the humans only put us into the batches when we’re 15, so Gray must age slowly.
“Heeeey, wake up alreadyyy. Heeeey.”
Continuing to poke Gray’s cheek like it alleviated my boredom, I lean my head against my knees and continue to wait.
[Gray’s PoV]
Groaning, I feel myself waking up. Something is hitting my cheek, shaking my head back and forth. Slowly opening my eyes, I turn towards the source and see a young girl with piercing blue eyes and black hair staring at me, with her head resting on her knees. As our eyes meet, I feel my face burn. Quickly looking away, I try to think of what to say to her. She was so close to me! Feeling my face burn again, I was about to ask her where we were, when I saw my status.
[You killed Gol.]
[You gained 500 xp.]
[You leveled to 6.]
[Quest: Kill Gol Completed! Rewards available.]
[Cerberus notices your presence.]
[Emergency Unique Quest: Cerberus’s Trial]
Seeing the list of notifications, I started reading them in more detail. Before I make it far, I hear shuffling and that girl's face appears again, this time above me. Seeing her raise a finger, I was confused until she poked my cheek again.
“Heeeey, say something. Are you okay?”
Nervously, I mutter out “P-please stop…” Wondering who this person was, I prompted the System for her information.
[Level 7 Demonic Fox, Alisha]
“D-d-d-demonic f-fox?” Loudly saying this out loud in confusion, I look at her again.
“Oh, you finally talked! How’s your injuries? Are you thirsty? Hungry? Well, we don’t have any food, maybe I should’ve brought a body in…”
Rattling off with more and more questions, I don’t know how to handle her. I get too nervous around everyone, especially a girl like her. All of a sudden I hear another voice speak up, one I recognise.
“You’re noisy, he’s shy, you’re being overwhelming.”
‘Sally is also here?’ Slowly sitting up, I see Sally walking over, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Looks like she just woke up as well. Walking over before sitting down with us, while the black hair girl, Alisha, also sits back down a bit away from me. Sally looks around, picks up a nearby sack and pulls out the rations within. 3 slices of bread. Wincing, Sally looks towards Alisha, who pulls out the rations she had in her sack. There were 5 pieces in hers. Checking my rations, I find there are also five pieces within. Sally nods while Alisha hands her one piece of bread. Hesitating, not knowing what is happening, I grab a piece and move to give it to Sally, but she stops me.
“She just ate so she gave me a piece.”
“Sally, can we not talk about that…I owe you a piece anyway.”
“Hm? But you did just eat.”
Seeing Alisha shake her head, seemingly a bit amused, I tilt my head and look back at Sally.
“What happened, where are we?”
“She released her Monster Form and ate Thomas, we ran away, the humans left, you were left behind and now we’re in the dungeon.”
Just like Sally, said with as few words as possible. Looking at the black haired Alisha, I see her blushing and looking away while scratching her cheek. Seeing her not deny it, I inch closer to Sally.
“It’s okay, she isn’t hungry anymore.”
“SALLY! I won’t eat him, I don’t just go around eating our kind!”
“You’re awfully talkative, what happened?”
Watching the exchange between the two, I nervously look around and see where we are. Seeing all the swords and flames, I felt nervous about where we were. Looking back at the quest I received while the other two kept up their exchange, I see that we have to participate in this so-called trial. Being too nervous to interrupt the two talking, I wait until they are done while claiming the reward from killing Gol.
[You leveled to 7.]
[You leveled to 8.]
----------------------------------------
Gray
Monster/Human Hybrid (Monster Species: Unknown)
Level 8
Experience: 100/900
Class: Not available.
Class Level: Ineligible
Experience: 0/0
Skills: None
Spells: None
----------------------------------------
[Alisha’s PoV]
“And that’s why eating bodies is fine.”
After saying that, Sally looked at me like she was teaching a toddler. We had been arguing about this for nearly 10 minutes at this point. Pouting, I turn away and stop talking. Sighing, I turn back to face Sally and Gray.
“Moving away from that topic, we should decide on what to do next. We’re well rested now, should we try the trials right away?” Asking this, I look from Sally to Gray, the latter keeps avoiding eye contact with either of us.
“Well, either we do the trials or we die. It’s fairly simple, so let's just do them.”
“I agree, it would be nice to know a bit more before trying them.”
“H-hold on, I d-don’t have a s-s-sword” Turning to Gray, who has spoken for the first time since asking Sally what happened to him, I gesture to the swords laying around the battlefield.
“Don’t get one now, if you step out of the grass the trial might start.” Following up with these words, I stand up, stretch and start swinging my sword again with the sheathe on. Sally does something similar and Gray starts eating something. Some time passes as we do our own thing, and after about an hour we step onto the wasteland of a battlefield.
[Trial One, Trial of Strength started.
Defeat the undead army.]
Seeing this very simple trial description, my stomach dropped. Seeing Sally and Gray’s faces also pale, I knew they thought the same. This was not going to be easy. Gray quickly ran to a sword, took it out of the ground and got ready, along with myself and Sally, and took up a stance. Behind us, the grass square and door disappear.
As the ground starts shaking, thousands of skeletons start dragging themselves out of the ground. All of the skeletons reach for a sword, and soon, we are surrounded by armed skeletons.
[Level 7 Skeleton Warrior]
“Level 7?” Muttering this, I look around and find they are all level 7.
“Level 7? I see level 10.” “I-I see level 8” Not sure what was happening, we moved back to back and prepared ourselves.