'Dodge, thrust, grab, stab, redirect, stab, punch...' I thought in the middle of tens of monsters.

At this point, fighting them was starting to get boring. They just rushed at you mindlessly, and all it took to take them out was one move.

I dodged a sword aimed at my head, grabbed the arm of the attacker, and broke it at the elbow with the assistance of a well-placed knee while I held the arm in place. The monster shrieked in a voice that sounded like it had something stuck to its throat. In response, I put my palm on the back of its head and pushed it towards my knee, which was coming upwards to meet the monster's face. My knee connected with the monster's face and crushed its skull.

'That's the last one,' I thought as I looked around for survivors. There were none.

***

The amount of sand falling from the sky had increased a lot, but it didn't really bother me. I was so ahead of pace that I didn't have to worry about it either.

I simply continued walking in the direction where the golden line led me, and before long I found myself in front of a large door that had a large dagger in the middle facing down. It was just like the door I had entered the first ruin through, but this time the dark substance at the tip of the blade had color. It was the color of blood. Crimson, human blood.

My mind was full to begin with, and my mentality was unstable. I needed rest, so I decided to ignore the symbol for the moment and just walk up to the door, which unexpectedly opened and something even more surprising was revealed. The preparation room wasn't empty. Instead, I was greeted by six unarmed men who were eating at a dining table far from me. The dining table was much shorter than last time, with only seven seats. I assumed the last one was meant for me.

The door opening evidently made some sound, as they all turned to look at me and summoned their weapons immediately after I entered.

'One labrys, one cutlass, one crossbow, one morning star, one short sword, and one broadsword,' I thought as I checked out all of their weapons.

It was only after doing so that I realized the man sitting at the end of the table had a familiar face. It was that pale-skinned maniac with bluish-green eyes. In his hands, he had a completely black broadsword, which he held loosely as he waved at me. "Well, hello there!"

'Seems like we get new groups for every ruin,' I thought as I slowly walked further towards the group of six.

"Hey, you look kinda roughed up. You should take a nice warm shower and relax a little," the man said with a friendly and calm expression.

Did he not remember that he had already shown me a look of contempt back in the dome?

"Wait, why don't we just kill him? He survived the first ruin, so he's obviously strong," one of the men whispered, but not quietly enough for me to not hear it.

It seemed like they were fully confident that they could kill me. They also seemed to have no qualms with killing humans, so I assumed that they had exterminated their own group in order to evolve. They were the same as me in that regard.

The maniac shushed the others and whispered something. He was smart enough to not underestimate my hearing and covered his mouth, making it impossible for me to decipher what he said. "Hey, by the way, are you the only one that survived?" he turned to ask me after a while.

"Yes," I answered shortly as the man began to walk towards me.

I stopped approaching after I had closed the distance to about ten meters, but the man kept walking towards me. It was only after we were right in front of each other that he stopped.

"I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Atlas," he said as he held out his right hand.

I glanced at his hand but didn't shake it.

Atlas then opened his mouth with a look of realization in his eyes and unsummoned the broadsword in his other hand as a sign of peace. "It's just a handshake. I'm not going to do anything," Atlas said, acting like I was thinking, and then put my dagger in my left hand and put my hand out.

Stolen story; please report.

"I'm Akir," I introduced myself as we shook hands.

"I'm sorry, I think I might have given you the wrong impression of myself back in the dome. I was just a little on edge because of the summoning and all," Atlas said with a laugh.

"I get it," I said in an understanding manner, withdrawing my hand.

"You look different with your hair not in a middle part," Atlas commented, pointing at my hair.

'Oh, that's right, my hair is kind of a mess right now. I bet I look just like him.' I thought as I swept my hair to the sides.

"Yeah, I haven't paid much attention to my hair lately."

"Understandable," Atlas said with a chuckle. "Also, don't mind those guys' weapons. It's just hard to trust a stranger in this place."

"How come you managed to trust me, then?"

"Oh, I don't trust you just yet. I unsummoned my weapon just because I'm pretty good at hand-to-hand combat, and I thought it would get you to relax."

"Oh, okay," I said, moving my free hand animatedly in order to not draw attention to my dagger. These people had probably seen weapons with simple markings only, so having them see my dagger would arouse some suspicions.

"How about we sit down and eat? There's enough food here for seven people," Atlas suggested after we made our way to the dining table, and he gestured for me to sit.

I sat down next to the man wielding a short sword and opposite the labrys-wielding man.

"Since all the seats are taken, I don't think there will be any more people coming," Atlas said as he sat down at the end of the table and glanced at the door. Shortly after, he turned his gaze toward me. "If we plan to get through the next ruin by working together, we should collect all the information we have on the Ruins. Akir, I think you should start, since it's easy to forget details and there's no one here to remind you if you forget something."

'So they're planning to get some information out of me and then kill me,' I thought.

"Sure, what exactly do you want to know?"

"What kind of ruin were you in?"

I assumed by ruin he meant trial. It was a fitting name, so I went with it.

"The ruin I was in was a foggy desert of gray sand. There was a golden line in the sky that we were supposed to follow. Was the ruin you were in any different?"

"If you're telling the truth, then we really were in completely different ruins. Our ruin was a mountain path that was slowly breaking apart, so I assume that your ruin had some sort of timer in it too," Atlas shared his thoughts.

"Yes, there actually was one. The golden line that I mentioned actually worked as one. It indicated the pace we were to move at, and there was a gradually growing amount of sand falling from the sky, so I think that if I had been too slow, I would have been buried alive."

"Hmm, so the ruins we're sent to are different but have a very similar concept." Atlas concluded.

"I guess now that you've figured that out, you don't have a use for me anymore." I said as I looked at Atlas with my chin tilted slightly downward.

"What are you saying?" Atlas asked, acting confused.

"Wasn't that your plan? To get information out of me before disposing of me."

"Why would we dispose of you? The ruins brought us together, so obviously we are supposed to work together," Atlas said with a baffled expression, making all kinds of gestures with his arms as he spoke.

'It seems he hasn't gotten all the information he wants,' I thought, seeing as how he was still acting.

I, however, had gotten all the information I deemed necessary.

"Unfortunately for you, I have no need for weak underlings." I answered nonchalantly before exploding out of my seat and stabbing the man sitting next to me in the throat before anyone could react.