章 28: Test of the fallen

He wondered what the point of the test was but he soon dropped it. There was no point in understand that woman; she was planning for something and he was part of it or as she said, she was bored so she called him for entertainment.

"I hope I am doing a good job, you swindler," he yelled on top of his lungs.

He immediately hit his mouth for yelling. The monster of the river was a creature that didn't like noise. He remembered the shadows of the night and quickly gathered small branches and two rocks to start a fire. It wasn't wise to just stay at night in a forest without light. The light balanced the shadows; they could never roam near one.

He placed rocks in circle to seal the fire and placed the branches in the middle. His hands attempted to start a flame several times and it was until the evening was there that he finally lit one. He lied down on his back and placed his hands on his stomach gazing at the sky. He had never seen so many sparkling stars at once. Even on Earth, the light of the city made the stars fade and at Masmoenia, the mist made it impossible to even look at the sky.

As he began to drift to sleep, the gentle flames of the campfire slowly dying, images of what happened until now flashed before him. It was like the sky provided a good screen for his memories to spill over it and run like a movie.

"It was quite the adventure. I don't hate it," he said, a sense of satisfaction sending warm waves to his body.

It was the case. No matter how he almost died many times or met new people that he couldn't trust and they didn't trust him in return as well, it wasn't a displeasing journey. Secretly inside him, he was thanking her for bringing him to that world and giving him a chance to do what he liked. He felt his eyes closing and his mind finally surrendering to sleep. He was tired and needed a good rest before doing the test. He was smart and had great luck; he would manage to finish it before the end.

Suddenly, something moved to his left yanking him back to reality. There was the loud crack of a clumsy foot. He leaped up on his feet and looked around motionless but on high alert, ready to run away. He thought about the possibility of that ogre returning but he soon brushed it away; an ogre would never take on a monster it couldn't defeat.

Slowly he walked towards the bushes where the noise was heard. There was nothing. He let out a sigh of relief believing it was an animal. However, as he turned back, there was a silhouette sitting by the campfire with a long cape hood hiding the face and the rest of the body. He moved slowly back to the campfire. If the sudden appearance wanted to kill him, he wouldn't wait until now. He was sleeping a moment ago and Stephan couldn't feel him moving to the campfire.

Looking for a way to approach the individual without offending him, Stephan moved to the campfire to stir the embers again. He crouched and his eyes moved slowly towards the individual. He was a skeleton. The realization made him fall backwards. He had to run away but the silhouette immediately waved his hands helping him back standing up with a gust of wind.

"You don't have to be afraid of a creature like me I mean you have to if it wasn't me but not me," he started. "I am Gilbert, the guardian of this place and your guide in this test. I presume you would like to get the access to the secret passages of Dimitruicasten."

"Indeed, your greatness…"

"You don't have to call me so," he cut him. "I am not a higher being and even those higher beings are not that great. The goal of this test is to find a gem in this forest. Some people might be familiar to it if they have enough years in their life given to the past, but I assume you are not one of those people. I congratulate you for reaching this far in the castle. A minority are given the privilege to reach this test."

Stephan whispered his name, which caused the skeleton to stare unblinkingly at him. It wasn't like the individual had eyes to begin with; he only had two small orbs shining dimly in red.

"Giving blank quests and goals is hard. If I had enough time then I would explore this place and find what is asked from me, but I don't have much time…"

"Indeed, friend, indeed," he cut him again. "That if time here is like the outside world. There is no way of coming out of here if the mission isn't completed. Once the mission is triggered, there is no coming back from the start. You can come out as a corpse or alive by reaching the end of this story. Don't worry too much about the 24 hours given to you. If you look at your game system, you will find out not even an hour passed."

His eyes jolted back to the game screen and indeed, the time moved slowly. All that running and the sun moving down while the moon rose high in the sky, it was only an hour.

"I will be your guide in this test. I will follow you around and show you the missions meant to be done to reach the main goal. First, you need to reach an elf party around here. They came for a specific reason but humans hunted them."

"It's wrong to hunt someone when they haven't touched you."

"Most humans are doubtful creatures. They like to do anything under the excuse of safety. Work well, outsider. You might already know this but this journey is worth it for your main goal."

The skeleton turned into mist, blending with the game system inside Stephan.

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