Red made a dash towards his weapon, trying to dislodge it from the monster’s corpse. The two wolves also reacted once they saw his movement. Another howl sounded out, sending shivers up the boy’s spines, and the creatures charged towards Red with bloodthirsty eyes.

With one last pull, the youth finally managed to pull his cleaver free and turned around to face the beasts. However, a grim realization came to him.

‘I can’t fight them.’

Maybe if he had more cover, he would have a chance. But here, in the snow? His movements were impaired, and he wouldn’t be able to outrun the wolves, either. Just as the boy was considering what to do, a fluctuation suddenly appeared within his crimson change.

Red looked over in that direction. Rog stood there a few dozen meters away from him, with a confused expression as he tried to adapt to this sudden change of environment.

“Wolves uphill!” Red warned him with a yell, pointing toward the charging beasts.

The hunter’s face changed as he looked at the boy and then in the direction he was pointing. It took the man no more than a split second to recollect himself. Without hesitation, he raised his bow and shot at the wolves in one fluid motion.

There was a shrill sound. Then a yelp. When Red looked back at the creatures, he saw the frontmost one had an arrow sticking out of its neck. Yet it wasn’t enough to take it down.

The creature growled and looked over at Rog. It suddenly changed directions, heading towards the hunter instead. Its charge didn’t slow down.

Red, however, didn’t have the time to pay attention to his companion’s reaction, as the remaining wolf continued to head straight at him. By now, the distance between them was less than 100 meters, and the boy braced himself to receive the monster’s attack. It was at that point, though, that another fluctuation appeared.

Red gave a quick glance at who it was.

‘Allen.’

The young master looked disconcerted, trying to collect himself. The youth couldn’t spare the time to wait for him, though, as the wolf was soon upon him. It jumped at Red from almost 10 meters away, its claws swinging down at him as its massive body crashed down with impressive speed.

The boy tried to dive out of the way, but the creature was too quick. The only thing Red could do before the claws clashed onto him was to put his cleaver up to block the swipe. A staggering force clashed onto the weapon, sending the cleaver and its owners flying in opposite directions.

Red felt a sharp pain spreading through his right arm that had held the cleaver as he soared through the air.

Then he crashed down.

The fluffy snow eased the impact, but it didn’t stop the boy from rolling downhill once more from the sheer momentum.

This time, when he was done rolling, Red didn’t manage to recover nearly as fast.

“Red!” a voice called out in concern.

It took him a second to recognize it as Allen. In his wobbly state, however, he didn’t manage to respond immediately.

‘The wolf!’

Red focused on his crimson sense, still sensing the wolf’s fluctuation as it moved in his direction. He didn’t have the time to recover from his dizziness. With some struggle, he got up and sized up the monster approaching him.

Suddenly, however, a voice caught their attention. “I won’t let you hurt him!”

Allen charged at the wolf with his sword, screaming at the top of his lungs. There was no hesitation behind his actions, nor fear of death. However, this didn’t make Red happy.

‘Why did you have to find your courage right at this moment, you moron?!’

The wolf also noticed the small child approaching it. It turned around, growling at the human as it prepared to strike him down. Red tried getting up to do something, but he knew he would have no time.

“Allen, don’t!” he tried to warn the young master, to no avail. Allen didn’t seem to be listening to him.

Right as the monster and child were about to clash, though, the beast whimpered and its steps faltered. Allen didn’t let go of this opportunity. The young master dove below the wolf’s head before it could recover and shoved his sword into its throat. The wolf yelped in pain and swung its head around, throwing Allen off in a similar manner its companion had done to Red earlier.

The damage was already done, though.

Blood poured down the wolf’s neck. The youth expected the creature to continue struggling until it bled out, but something shot into its head from the side, cutting its suffering short as it flopped down, lifeless. Red recognized the weapon.

It was a dagger.

Only now did Red notice the arrival of another fluctuation. Rimold was to the side, heaving for air as he glared at the monster’s corpse. It was he who had caused the creature to stumble earlier with his attacks and allowed Allen to leave unscathed.

Rimold looked over in concern at the area the young master had been thrown. “Young Master Allen! Are you alright?!”

The rogue ran over to the boy’s side, completely ignoring Red in the meantime. Allen, however, didn’t look to have sustained any serious injuries, and was just sitting on the ground, recovering from the hard blow.

“I-I’m fine.” the young master nodded. His expression changed, though, as he seemed to recall something. “Wait, what about Red?!”

“I’m fine.” Red said, approaching Allen after collecting his cleaver and while holding onto his injured arm. The limb didn’t have any external signs of damage or bruising yet, but the boy was aware it was most likely broken.

“What about your arm?” Allen didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure you're okay?”

“I said I’m fine.” the boy shook his head. “Besides, there are more important things we need to-”

Another yelp came from behind them, catching the attention of the group. They all turned around just in time to see the remaining wolf falling to the ground. At least 7 arrows were protruding out of the monster’s body, making it look no different from a pincushion. Not too far away from it, the culprit was approaching while lowering his bow.

“Phew, that was a close one.” Rog wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Took more arrows than I expected to take down this one… Is it all settled here too?”

“All settled?!” Rimold glared at the man. “The young master could have died if I acted one second too late! Does that seem settled to you?!”

“I mean, the wolves are all dead, so…” the hunter shrugged.

Rimold continued to glare at him.

“Look, do you want to blame me for this too?” Rog frowned. “How could I have known we would be teleported here?” he ignored the man and looked over at Red. “Is your arm okay?”

“Probably broken.” Red shook his head in resignation.

“That’s not good, kid.” the hunter looked at him in concern. “Did you bring any pills or anything that can-”

Before Rog could continue speaking, the world around them changed again, blurring before their eyes. This time, Red didn’t panic, though, already familiar with the process. They were being teleported again.

When the boy’s vision returned to normal, he found himself back at the labyrinth, standing at the chamber where the wolves had been just a few minutes ago. Right now, though, the monsters were nowhere to be seen, and all the equipment they had yet to collect back after the battle was cluttered in a neat pile in the corner of the room.

Red looked around and found his companions were also standing beside him. They looked just as disorientated by the experience as the boy was.

“We… We are back?” Allen asked, not too certain about his own assumption.

“Looks like it.” Rog nodded. “The creator of this trial might want to make the confrontations as fair as possible, so he teleported both the monsters and us to an arena rather than forcing us to fight in this place.”

“Do you recognize the place where we fought?” Red asked.

“Not really.” the hunter shook his head. “Not too familiar with snowy regions, but if I had to make a guess, he probably took us to a region of the Skycrown Mountains.”

“That’s an absurd guess!” Rimold protested. “The Skycrown Mountains are a forbidden land for cultivators and even sects are afraid of going into it! How could a cultivator possibly set up a formation to teleport us there and back?”

“I’m just guessing.” the hunter shrugged. “It’s the closest place with snow to us. It might still be another place, or it could be an arena the creator of this trial set up himself. Either way, now that we know they can teleport us, though, we know for sure they aren’t a common cultivator.”

Rimold frowned at these words, but he could only agree with Rog’s assessment.

“Can we take the treasure, then?” Red interjected, looking over at the altar in the center of the room.

His question served as a reminder for everyone, and they all turned to stare at the ornate box.

Rog looked eager to open the container. “Right! Let’s check it!”

“Wait!” Rimold held him back. “We need to check for traps first!”

“Traps?!” the hunter was upset at being interrupted. “Would they bother setting up traps after that whole fight?”

“How would you know what the cultivator who set this up would or wouldn’t bother to do?!” Rimold said with a scoff. “Just let me do my work and then we can check its contents.”

Rog looked unwilling, but he could only nod at the rogue’s insistence.

Red watched from the side as Rimold approached the box. Unexpectedly, the man also examined the ground around the altar and the pedestal the box was placed on.

“Nothing here.” Rimold said. “Now for the box…”

With extreme care, the rogue felt the box surface. He looked for any signs of traps, as well as pressure plates that might trigger once the container was removed. After finding nothing there, Rimold finally opened the box slightly, and checked for wires or triggers along the lid.

After almost two minutes had passed, the man finally sighed. “No traps.”

“See, I told you!” Rog nodded with a satisfied expression. “Now step aside and let’s look at what’s in there!”

Rimold looked upset at the hunter’s attitude, but he did as he was told. Rog took the small box out of the altar unceremoniously and brought it over to the group.

“This thing is way too heavy!” the hunter said with a troubled expression. Even still, he didn’t seem to have any problems carrying it.

He set the box down and looked over at the group with a smug smile. “Are you ready?”

Everyone nodded.

“Ok then.” Rog nodded. “Then here I go… In three… Two-”

“Just open the damn thing already!” Rimold snapped at the man.

“Fine, fine!” the hunter flipped the lid open.

Inside the box, the group saw a handful of dark, rugged metallic rocks. They were each smaller than an adult’s fist, and it was surprising that Rog claimed they weighed so much in the first place.

Still, this revelation clearly disappointed the hunter. “Rocks? We did all that for some rocks?”

No one responded to him, but by Rimold and Allen’s expressions, they seemed to share his disappointment. Only Red, however, was inspecting the rocks. A few seconds later, his eyes widened in surprise as he seemed to realize something.

He recognized these rocks from the books on materials he had read in the Sect’s library.

“These aren’t common rocks.” Red said. “These are Dark Iron nuggets.”

Rimold’s expression changed in shock, but Rog and Allen still looked confused.

“What do you mean by that, kid?” the hunter asked.

Red was surprised Rog would not know about it, but he continued to explain. “Dark Iron is a rare material for forging… As in, it is one of the most used materials in creating Spiritual Artifacts.” he looked over at Allen. “Like that Deep Sea Sword of yours, for instance.”

Realization came to Allen and Rog.

Red turned back to look at the rocks. “If these are genuine… Then I think we have just struck it rich.”