After having cleaned myself up, changed clothes, eaten, and rested, I headed into the tunnel that was to lead me to the next ruin.

I trudged towards the door that led to the ruin in an exhausted manner, even though my physical condition had never been better. I did not know why, but I felt like it was the fastest I could go. I had rested for a while, so I should not have been tired, but the mere idea that I was about to go through another ruin made me... emotional. What I felt was a type of tired anger. I felt like the tunnel would last forever, and that pointless hope was all that kept me going.

'Well, maybe that's the truth, but as long as I'm not sure, I'll stand up with my back straight and walk with clear determination.' I thought to myself as if I were talking to someone and raised my gaze in an attempt to motivate myself.

Then, after walking for a while, I found myself in front of a large door with a raised fist on it.

"Solidarity, huh?" I said out loud.

I then walked up to the door and pushed. To my surprise, nothing unusual happened. The door didn't budge, but nothing supernatural had happened.

"A regular door?"

I had pushed the door fairly lightly in the expectation that something weird would happen, but nothing did.

'I'll just push a little harder' I thought as I approached the door. I stretched my arms out in front of me and put them on the door. Then I breathed in through my mouth and prepared to push by leaning forward.

The muscles in my legs, back, and arms were engaged as I pushed. At first, it felt like the door would move, but after a little pushing, I realized that there was no chance.

The door hadn't moved an inch.

'Never mind. Of course, it's not regular.'

I stopped pushing and caught my breath while hypothesizing about possible solutions.

'The door won't budge, but there has to be a way to open it. It wouldn't make sense for opening it to be impossible. Do I try launching at it?' I thought as I looked at the door.

Then something caught my eye.

'The fist! Should I try punching it? Maybe the door is supposed to be broken. Wait, what do all the symbols on the doors mean? What about the ring on the last door? How does a ring have anything to do with that place or what I did? Whatever. It's best to just focus on getting into the next ruin. This door's symbol gave me an idea, but it may have just been a coincidence.'

I then shook my right hand a little and made a fist a couple of times. I was going to punch a really large stone door, so it was good to make sure I didn't break my wrist.

I thought about using my dagger, but since the door had a fist on it, I thought I should try to punch it a couple of times first.

I then readied myself and punched the door with one fluid and quick movement. It didn't really hurt me, but you could say the same for the door.

'Yeah, maybe the fist on the door just represents physical force instead of just an actual fist.' I thought and decided to summon my dagger.

The black and gold-colored dagger appeared in my hand shortly after I had that thought.

I switched from a normal grip to a reverse grip and then launched an attack at the door. There was a sound akin to that of a pickaxe hitting a stone, and a couple of rocks came loose and fell on the ground.

I inspected the damage and, shortly after, hit the door again. The result was the same, but this time I didn't bother to inspect the damages and instead kept hitting the door with violent, full-force attacks.

The door was thick. Very, very thick. About half a meter thick, to be exact.

Every hit managed to break parts of the door, but the amount of damage I had to deal to the door was not going to be achieved very quickly.

That did not bother me, though. I was used to boring work, so I just kept hacking away at the door.

Finally, after hitting the door repeatedly for some time, I managed to get my dagger through the door.

After I felt my dagger get through, I pulled it back to inspect the damage, and what I found was a small hole that you could see a forest through if you put your eye in front of the hole.

"Finally." I said, and I hit the surroundings of the hole with the dagger to make the hole larger. Then, after making the hole large enough, I canceled the summoning of my dagger, backed away, and readied myself to perform a little bit of acrobatics.

I then ran towards the hole and jumped through it with my hands up to avoid hitting myself on the door as I was in the air and to make sure I landed well.

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After getting through the hole, I saw some dirt under me and decided to do a basic forward roll to have a good landing.

After I was close enough to the ground, I touched the ground and exerted some force to slow my fall. I then put my chin against my chest and rolled forward.

After landing, I looked around and saw nothing but trees and dirt, since the door was nowhere to be found. Like always, there was no going back now. Well, it's not like I wanted to go back anyway.

I then inspected my surroundings more closely, but there was nothing else except tall, thick, dark brown trees with dark green leaves growing out of the branches.

Then there was a sound akin to the sound my dagger made when thrown.

'From behind!' I thought and summoned my dagger as I turned and dodged the projectile that was aimed at my back.

I managed to get a glimpse of the projectile as it flew by me on my right. The projectile was a small dagger that had a black hilt and a clean steel blade.

After the first attack, which I dodged, there came a second attack that was also in the form of another flying projectile from a place I had yet to pinpoint.

I had already expected another similar attack and prepared myself.

The projectile seemed like a blur because of its high speed, but I was still able to decipher its flight path and speed.

I waited for the projectile to get close, and once it was close enough, I swung my dagger and hit the projectile off of its flight path, and it flew into the ground on my left.

After defending against the second attack, I looked at where I thought the projectile came from.

"Projectiles won't work. Just come down here and fight," I said curtly in a fairly loud voice as I looked at the place where I thought the man was hiding.

My attempt to draw him out failed, and I got no response, at least not a vocal one. I did, however, get a response in the form of more projectiles from behind.

'In such a short time, he managed to travel to the trees behind me from those in front. Impressive,' I thought, turning around to face the projectile.

I thought I should dodge, but then I noticed that the number of projectiles flying at me was one more than I thought.

I had no more time to think as the projectiles were dangerously close, so I decided to grab the projectile before it hit me.

I then put all my focus into timing so that I wouldn't lose my fingers or my life. Then I carefully and precisely grabbed the dagger from its small hilt and quickly threw it at the other projectile coming at me.

There was a sound of steel hitting steel, and then two hand-sized objects fell onto the ground with a couple thumps.

I could have defended myself from the two daggers a lot more safely and easily, but I wanted to send a message.

"As I said, you won't damage me with projectiles. Now, do you want to come down, or do you want me to come up?" I asked the man hiding in the trees.

After a while, there was a loud thump as the man jumped down from the tall tree.

I turned to where the sound came from and found a man with light brown skin who was wearing dark brown hunter clothes that consisted of a shirt with elbow-length sleeves, pants that stopped at the middle part of his shins, some shoes and a hood that covered his head and cast a shadow on his eyes.

"Your reaction speed is excellent," the man said as he removed his hood and revealed his gray hair and brown eyes.

"They weren't my reactions as much as my ability to predict where a projectile would be at a certain point in time," I corrected the man.

"Whatever."

"Did you come down here just to compliment me?" I asked.

"Do you have anyone with you?" the man asked, completely ignoring my question.

"I don't need anyone's help," I said firmly, transitioning into a fighting stance.

The man heard my comment but did not respond, as he was cracking his neck lightly by turning it to each side and putting some pressure on it with his right hand.

I considered attacking, but I figured that if he was so inclined to expose himself like that, he must have had a plan.

Finally, when the man finished cracking his neck, he opened his eyes and responded to me.

The man grasped air, and suddenly, there was a dagger in his hand that was identical to the ones that he had thrown at me but bigger.

Then his eyes turned dark, and his gaze locked onto me. "You will."