A few moments later, Red came back to his senses. The first thing he noticed once he observed his surroundings was how dark everything looked. He squinted, trying to make out the details of the ground he was stepping on.

‘It’s rough stone. Am I back in a cave? Wait, that’s not-’

Before Red could finish his thoughts, a flash came from above. The boy was startled and looked up, seeing the highlighted dark sky hanging above his head. Then, a second later, the boom came.

It was so loud that Red couldn’t help but muffle his ears with his hands in shock, and he felt his whole body tremble from the reverberation. It wasn’t until ten seconds had passed that the youth composed himself and mulled over his situation.

‘I suppose that’s what they call thunder and lightning.’

It was his first time witnessing it. The town of Bestrem had light rains during this time of year, so Red hadn’t seen the phenomena before.

‘I thought there was supposed to be rain too.’

Although the boy was confused, he pushed the thought aside. The thunder and lightning continued to come from above him, but they weren’t as powerful as the first one that he had heard.

Red looked up, and with the help of the fainter flashes of light, he examined his surroundings. The boy stood at the bottom of a rocky trench that extended and twisted in both directions as far as he could see. The path was around ten meters wide, while the walls surrounding him on both sides extended to well over forty meters high, with the faint illumination of the cloudy and stormy sky bearing from above.

Red’s first instinct was to climb the walls and look at this place from above. However, looking at the lightning above, the boy didn’t feel like this was a good idea. Just as he was considering which direction to move on, he felt a familiar fluctuation approaching him from behind.

Red looked back and frowned. He couldn’t see the man clearly in the dark, but he knew he was there.

The knight stopped moving, seemingly noticing his presence, too.

“What a surprise to find you here!” Reinhart said.

The boy had a hard time telling whether he was being genuine.

“Why did the spirit have to put us close together?” Red asked with a sigh.

“Maybe they thought we were friends?” the knight shrugged. “Could be easy to get that impression from how we passed that challenge together.”

It was a reasonable explanation. However, Red felt it was likely that the hawk had been watching them since they entered the caves, so how could it not tell they weren’t companions? In any case, there was no point in trying to decipher the meaning behind that strange creature’s actions.

After the knight finished speaking, a heavy silence settled between them. Red was also hesitant about how to proceed.

Reinhart cleared his throat. “So… Do you want to continue our alliance?”

The boy frowned. “I don’t have Rog anymore to guarantee you won’t kill me.”

“Maybe, but you still have those talismans of yours, right? I know you exchanged for an offensive talisman with the hawk, so you could still threaten me with it while I walk ahead.”

Red remained skeptical. “You’re suggesting I should waste that talisman on you? Don’t you also have your protection talismans, too?”

“I do.” Reinhart nodded. “But it would also be a waste of my part to use a life-saving talisman to defend against you, so neither of us really wants to see it happen. It’s not as watertight of a deal as I had with Rog, but it should still dissuade us from backstabbing each other.”

“… Why are you so keen on putting your life on the line just for my help?” the boy asked. “What can I even provide for you?”

“You’ve shown your worth in that fight against the stag… And I feel like tackling this trial with an ally would be much safer, so I’m willing to be selfless to make sure you can trust me.”

“I understand.” Red nodded. “Then we can work together, as long as you keep your distance.”

Although the boy said that, he still didn’t trust Reinhart. It was likely the man had some other cards up his sleeve that he could pull in case Red betrayed him. However, the youth did believe the man was being truthful about his desire to cooperate.

In preparation, though, he still pulled out his Chain Lightning talisman and grabbed it with one hand.

A wide grin came to Reinhart’s face. “That’s great, then we can-”

Another powerful lightning, followed by the resound boom of the thunder, interrupted the man. Even Reinhart was startled by the sound.

He looked at Red. “I suppose it wouldn’t be a good idea to climb up, would it?”

The boy nodded. “I’d rather leave it as a last resort…”

…

A few minutes later, the two of them set off. Reinhart led the way, while Red stood around a fair way behind. He had chosen this distance with some considerations in mind - that being the speed at which he had seen the knight move before, and how long it took for him to activate a talisman. Then, he added a couple meters on top of that just to be safe.

Reinhart didn’t seem bothered by his cautiousness, though.

“See any signs of monsters?” the man asked.

Red shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

They hadn’t lit up a torch or lantern to navigate through the trench in fear it might attract unwanted attention. Still, they had the constant lightning from above to illuminate their way in this night sky.

‘I still can’t sense the lunar gaze…’

This told Red one thing - they were still in some kind of illusionary realm or special arena. No matter the option, though, the fact the maker of this inheritance trial could create such a realistic place was telling of their abilities.

Their journey continued on this irregular gorge for ten minutes more, before they finally came upon a change in scenario.

The path before them branched in two different directions.

“Another crossroads?” Reinhart frowned. “And here I thought we left the labyrinth behind.”

Red didn’t respond, just observing the diverging paths for any details that stood out. He found nothing in the end, though, and by the looks of it, neither did Reinhart.

“So, which one do we choose?” the knight turned around and asked Red.

The boy shrugged. “How should I know?”

“Come on, just pick one!” Reinhart insisted. “We can rely on your luck to get us through this!”

“My luck?” Red paused in thought. A few seconds later, though, he pointed at the left path. “Let’s go into that one.”

“Alright!” the knight nodded. “If we die, it’s your fault!”

The boy didn’t comment on his words and followed behind the man.

The path ahead didn’t seem any different from the one they had been walking on - an irregular ground full of rocks of all shapes and sizes. This continued to be the case for 15 more minutes until the two of them heard something.

It was a shrill sound, coming from very far ahead of them, bouncing off the trench walls to reach their ears.

Reinhart immediately froze on the spot once he heard this, though.

“Another monster?” Red asked.

“Sure sounds like it…” the knight nodded.

“Do you want to turn back?”

Reinhart laughed. “What’s the point? Knowing how the last trial went, I doubt there are any safe paths in this place.”

Red had to agree with the man. “In that case, we should…”

The shrill sound came again, interrupting the boy. This time, though, it was far louder than before.

“… Do you feel that?” Reinhart asked with a frown.

The question confused Red, until, a few moments later, he also felt it. A rumbling beneath his feet. The boy looked down and noticed that a few pebbles were also trembling under this tremor.

He felt a sudden sense of danger.

Reinhart, however, was faster to react. “Hide!”

Red didn’t need to be told twice. On his entire way over, the boy had already been paying attention to such hiding spots or covers he could use in case things got dire - a habit he had gotten from his time in the underground.

Red turned around and sprinted back the way he came. Much to his surprise, he noticed Reinhart was following right behind him. The boy frowned, but he had no time to tell the man off.

The rumbling beneath their feet intensified, and the shrill sound became even louder. It was at that point that Red noticed this wasn’t just one sound, but rather a cacophony of bellows put together.

There were a lot of monsters. In fact, there were too many to count.

Finally, after a few more seconds of running, Red found the cover he had been looking for. It was a large protruding rock on the side of the gorge, which created an alcove for the boy to hide under. Without hesitation, he crouched and moved over to the corner, trying to stay out of the way.

Unsurprisingly, a few moments later, Reinhart also jumped over and hid below the rock. Red stared at the man with a frown, but the knight simply hushed the boy.

The trembling seemed to reach its pinnacle a few seconds later. Suddenly, the rock Red and Reinhart were standing under shook, and an endless tide of creatures started to jump over it.

Red couldn’t see them that clearly in the darkness and the dust that was kicked up. The only thing he could notice from the beasts were four legs, all carrying hooves at their ends, as well as their beige fur color.

There seemed to be no end to the creatures, and Red feared that the rock he was hiding under would collapse. More and more of the same beasts jumped over them, the sound of their bellows and steps overwhelming even the thunder from above. The boy could barely hear his own thoughts, and his crimson sense was overloaded with the fluctuations.

This continued for almost a full minute, during which Red assumed there must have been hundreds of the stampede creatures passing over them. Finally, though, the trembling started to abate, as less and less of the beasts appeared. As the dust and noise subsided, Red could even see the creature’s appearance more clearly.

The beasts looked like sheep, except much larger than the ordinary animal, and they had two curved horns protruding from the side of their heads. Red had no idea what creature this was, though, and he was confident there were no sheep monsters in the Bestrem Forest.

The boy looked over at Reinhart, but the man shook his head. He must have known what Red was about to ask, and it seemed that he also had no clue about it. A minute later, the last of the sheep stragglers passed over them, and the trembling and bellowing finally subsided.

Neither Red nor Reinhart left the cover of the rock, though.

“Monster stampede.” the knight said. “Nothing quite as deadly for a cultivator.”

“They must have been running from something.” Red said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the way the sheep had disappeared.

“Most likely.” Reinhart nodded. “Could be the thunder too, but it could also be a predator. Which is why we should wait until-”

A deep, guttural roar interrupted the knight’s words. Reinhart fell silent without hesitation and scooted over to the corner. A strong fluctuation entered Red’s detection range, and the boy felt a great sense of danger attack him.

‘Lesser Ring Realm!’

He sensed the creature was moving extremely fast, and soon it had jumped over the rock they had been hiding under. Four clawed feet hit the ground in front of them and continued to give chase to the stampede of sheep. It was a large, dark blue-furred cat, bigger than the fireleaf stag they had fought, even.

Red and Reinhart held their breaths, hoping that the beast would not notice them. Thankfully, the monster seemed too distracted in its hunt to notice them, and soon enough, it disappeared behind a corner of the trench in pursuit of the sheep.

The duo continued to wait, though, but even after a few minutes, no other creature came flying over their heads. The knight let out a huge sigh of relief.

Reinhart looked at Red. “See, kid, I told you! We can’t go wrong relying on your luck!”