The old teacher was making the bed, preparing to sleep with many thoughts lingering in his mind. "Ric, this child can't express himself clearly. Well, he will eventually open up. But how did such a child end up in that state when we found him? Are his parents even alive? Maybe I should try to ask him again." Suddenly, he felt a chill in the atmosphere. "Bloodlust?" He quickly left the room and entered the corridor. "Who could it be? Is someone attacking the orphanage?" The old man ran, following the bloodlust to find its source. "Wait, is it coming from the library? No! There are children there!"

On the other hand, little Jim, who had finally managed to get his hands on the water jug, smiled proudly, as if he had saved the world. "Hehe, I alone went into the kitchen at night and got the water jug by myself! I will brag about this to others tomorrow," he mumbled excitedly, not realizing that his excitement was about to be shattered by harsh reality.

Carefully jumping around in joy, trying his best not to break the glass jug, suddenly, a blood-curdling scream echoed throughout the empty corridors, piercing Jim’s ears. “That voice, it’s Arfen!” In a state of panic, Jim dropped the jug of water, shattering it into pieces, and ran towards the library.

“That guy must have done something to Arfen!”

As he got closer, a thick red fog started to envelop him, making his body heavier and heavier. The fog seemed to pulse with a life of its own, and the closer he got, the denser and more oppressive it became. The pressure was too much for his little body to handle. Gasping for air, he found it increasingly difficult to breathe. The pain was immense, like invisible hands were squeezing the life out of him, but he didn’t give up and continued. Eventually, his legs gave out, and he started crawling, dragging his body through the dense, foggy corridor, which now seemed like an endless road to hell.

*Gasp* “I- I got to find” *Gasp* ”Arfen!”

The fog was so thick that he could hardly see anything in front of him. Shadows moved within it, whispering unintelligible threats. But he crawled. He felt immense pain, like knives were stabbing into his flesh, but he crawled. Strange voices echoed in his head, taunting him with nightmarish visions, but he crawled and crawled and crawled. In that seemingly hopeless situation, where he could barely see what was in front of him, in that oppressive darkness, he saw a flicker of light! Piercing through the bloody fog and reaching his eyes. As he got closer to the light, the fog started to dissipate, the crushing pressure on his body eased, and he was near the library.

But even after reaching the library, he could do nothing. Exhaustion had drained every ounce of strength from his body. He was about to pass out. Gasp “Ar-fen,” he mumbled. His lips were trembling as he saw the bright silhouette of a man standing in front. The figure exuded a benevolent aura. “W-what’s that? No, wait, I gotta see Ar-fen.” He turned his head to the side, peering into the library, and through his fading vision, he saw the blurry image of Arfen lying motionless in front of Ric before everything went dark.

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[Back to the present]

Ren was trying to calm him down, But Jim was still angry and annoyed. Even though he knew the one who hurt his friend, he couldn’t do anything which made him frustrated.

On the other hand, Ric was observing all this “That guy, he is probably angry about that day. Even though I can’t remember what happened that night, I can still somewhat tell that Arfen going into a coma was probably my fault. Everyone said that he fell and hit his head on a boulder, But, the one who was the closest to him was Jim. The anger I saw in his eyes was not something trivial, and due to this I tried to ask for forgiveness many times, but after that day he would not even listen and just spouted some insults poetically and ignored me, Which eventually also made me give up on the idea. Maybe, I should…”

“Ric! What’s going on? What are you thinking so deeply about?” Yota interrupted him.

“Oh, Nothing I was just… never mind. You go check on those guys for now, we need to hurry if we wanna pass. ”

Yota nodded in agreement and went towards Fray and the others, meanwhile, Ric walked towards Jim, who was still quite annoyed. He called out to Jim and said

“Jim, I am so-“

“Shut up your mouth, Oh you fool,

You’re not worthy, You’re not cool,

Talking to you, I won’t waste my time,

Your letters and words, are not worth a dime.”

Jim shrugged off Ric and walked away, Ren following him, “Hey Jim, wait for me!”.

Ric just looked at them and sighed, “Well, maybe it’s better like this, I will tell him when he can accept it.” Ric approached Yota and others and asked “Hey, are you guys ready yet? We must go full speed from now, so it’s better to be in good shape.”

Yota glanced at Fray and said “Hey Ric, why don’t we rest for now? I think Desos and his Friends need some rest, can we-“

“I am fine” Desos interrupted their conversation.

“I- I am also good” Fray followed.

“This is nothing for someone like me!” Jeff roared proudly

“Yeah, a gorilla shouldn’t be tired with just this.” Ren joined the conversation by mocking Jeff

“What did you say shrimp?!”

*Sigh*” And they started fighting again.” Yota exclaimed.

Ric came forward and stated in a serious tone “Hey, I don’t care if you are fine or not, all of you should stay here rather than become baggage.”

“Hey Ric, that’s rude!” Yota exclaimed, But Ric ignored him and followed

“And there is a saying, useless baggage is meant to be abandoned, whether they are people or things,” Ric said what he wanted to say, then walked towards the edge of the pillar and started stretching up.

“Don’t mind him, he is kinda weird. We won’t abandon anyone! So don’t worry.” Yota said, trying to ease their worry.

“No, he is right. It’s normal for people to abandon others if it doesn’t benefit them, You’re the weird one for helping your enemies.” Desos looked at Yota with a cheerful smile on his face. “Well, I’m glad that you are.”

“Hmm? Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”

“No sir, let’s go”

And like that, they continued their journey to pass the exam and overcome the obstacles that came their way.