-(Present || ???; Location: ???)-
"Haaah... Haaah..."
Rustle-
A figure darted through the jungle without a moment's rest.
Her breathing was loud and heavy, her heart pounding in her chest as she ran. She was covered in sweat from exertion, but it wasn't enough to make her stop.
She looked back every few seconds, fear clouding her countenance.
Swiftly turning right, she ran through the thicket.
The roots almost made her fall, the eerie silence making it seem like something would jump out at any moment.
But she kept running as if fleeing some unseen beast that only existed in her mind's eye.
Barely reaching in front of an inconspicuous tree, she mumbled something.
A magic circle appeared on the tree's bark.
"Ugh...<Roe Aiga>!"
The bark waved and vanished, the girl jumped inside the tree, and shortly the bark reappeared, closing the entrance the girl used.
The girl appeared inside a 4x4 sq.meter dark room.
Without minding the cramped space, she sat on the ground with her knees closed.
In one corner of the room was a large bundle of black hairs, it was the only noticeable object inside the room.
She was soaked in sweat and tears, her face pained as she looked at the carvings on the wall.
Several hours passed by and she stood up and made another mark on the wall.
Cutting the four lines with a larger line, she counted the total number of days she spent here.
Her viridian eyes were dull, her once-fair skin was cracked and her feet and hands were covered in blisters.
Slumping back, she hungrily devoured the fruit she bought from the jungle earlier.
There were no traces of beauty or grace left and she ate the fruit without minding her manners. The fruit tasted sour and bitter, and she choked down the last bite.
"It's all gone..."
She sighed with regret, her voice lifeless.
The words stuck in her throat, and she couldn't bring herself to speak them out loud.
Suddenly a string of notifications appeared in front of her eyes.
[Public leaderboard has been updated]
[A new addition has been made to the Hall of Fame 'Top 10 achievers in 1st [Singularity] Trial'
Would you like to see the leaderboard?]
"..what's this?"
The girl felt her throat burning with pain from exhaustion. Nevertheless, the notification was unusual.
"Hall of Fame? What's that?"
She pressed 'Yes' and a list appeared in front of her eyes.
======
Top 10 achievers in 1st [Singularity] Trial:
1. Mephistopheles, the Devil
2. Leonidas, the Lord of Lightning
3. Im_your_dad69 (New)
4. Obelisk, the Ruler of Divine
5. Kratos, the World Conqueror
6. Cassandra, the Protector of Life
7. Gamma, the Galaxius
8. Hatamoto, the Flag Bearer
9. Teslation, the Light Desecrator
10. Enma, the Traveler of Hell
======
"Im_your_dad69? Is this the new addition to the ranking?"
Noticing the new 'New' written next to the name, she wondered to herself.
"What kind of name is that?"
A smile appeared on her dull face. The name did not match the other titles written on the ranking list.
She chuckled every time she read the odd name registered on the list.
"This person has a weird naming sense."
The small burst of happiness bought relief to her tired self. The relief and exhaustion from the day's exertion made her eyelids heavy.
She had been awake for more than twelve hours straight.
It was only because of months of continuous exertion burdening her mind, that the girl failed to notice the severity of the notifications.
As her consciousness faded away, the girl murmured.
"...I need to... become strong."
Time slipped and, with a blissful smile on her dirt-covered face, she slept in peace for the first time in months.
Crash-
"W-what?!"
A sudden loud crashing noise woke the girl.
She looked around hurriedly and realized the room was now lit up.
Grrrr-
A menacing growl came from above her and she realized...
...the monster had found her hiding place.
***
-(Past || Ending of Intra Class competition; Location: Floor 10)-
"Phew, that was tiring.."
Leon slumped on the ground under the shade of a tree. He looked exhausted but there was a relieved smile on his face.
"I should be the one speaking that, you monster"
"Eeik!!"
Someone sneaked behind Leon. Feeling the cold hands on his neck, he flinched and a girly shriek escaped his lips.
"Don't shout like that? Someone will misunderstand."
Lilith covered her face as if she was embarrassed and sat besides him.
Leon was too tired to react to her antics. Drained, he rolled on the ground to get away from her.
"Why are you leaving? Are you throwing me away after using me because I became useless? Please don't do this to me."
Lilith spoke loud enough that other Cadets near them heard her.
Leon stopped moving away and quietly returned, rolling.
Looking at the people giving him weird glances, he wanted to cry but had no tears, 'She meant teaming up for the intra-class competition! Nothing Else!'
He lay on the ground next to Lilith. Time passed and both of the were resting their bodies.
"Are you alright?"
Lilith was startled by Leon's sudden question and tilted her head.
"Your hands when you touched me were cold, you shouldn't use your stigma too much"
Lilith was silent for a moment before answering, with a grin and, saddened tone, "I didn't think you were worried about me. T..thank you, I thought you never cared for me... sniff... sniff"
Leon's eyebrow twitched and he wondered how she was energetic enough to joke.
The intra-class competition had ended today after 3 days and the 10 Cadets who would be joining the inter-class competition on Floor 13 had been selected.
Although Katana-Class had a low number of Cadets left after the Floor 0 incident, all the remaining Cadets were talented and strong.
It did not help that Ken, another Top 25 ranker in their class, had quite strong Cadets working under him, all of whom grouped together and tried to eliminate the other Cadets to secure places for themselves.
'Fortunately, I found Lilith or it would have been too hard to fight Cadets and monsters alike singlehandedly'
Lilith and Leon joked for a few hours until Lilith stood up stretching.
"I'll be leaving then."
"Isn't it too early? We have a lot of days to reach Floor 13, no?"
Lilith blushed for a moment, but she hid it quickly and proudly revealed the answer.
"I chose [Expert] difficulty"
Leon had a questioning expression on his face.
Lilith shook her head helplessly before explaining to him. This wasn't the first time Leon was clueless about day-to-day common matters, it sometimes made her wonder if Leon had been living away from civilization up till now.
"The Trials are divided into 4 difficulties. Depending on what you choose, the time required to clear the Trial differs. [Normal] can take anywhere from 12 to 18 hours, [Hard] can take 3-5 days, while, uh-huh, [Expert] requires 1-3 weeks."
Finishing, she pushed her imaginary glasses up with a satisfied smile.
However, Leon held a dumb expression on his face.
"Isn't there [Singularity] too?"
"[Singularity]? That's only there for display. It's almost impossible to clear. Didn't you know if a Cadet chooses [Singularity] unless the Cadet is among the Top 3 or has exceptional combat ability, they'll be expelled? It's that difficult"
"E-expelled?!"
Leon covered his mouth, realizing that he spoke too loudly. He scanned the surroundings before whispering.
"I-s there any way to know what difficulty others have chosen?"
"No, but why are you asking this?"
"I was asking it for... For knowledge purposes! It's a good habit to know a lot of things, hahaha"
"Leon~"
"Y-yes?"
"What difficulty did you choose?~"
"[N-normal]"
Leon was stuttering and his eyes were darting everywhere. Lilith held his hand before he could run away and asked 'sweetly'.
"[Normal]? That's a good thing, but didn't you take 4 days to clear ''[Normal]'', 3 days more than average? And yet you can fight a small group from Top 100 Cadets on equal footing?"
"Hahaha, Lilith, I need to go somewhere, c-can you let me go?"
"Also, is it just me, or did your hair suddenly grow after you reached Floor 6?"
"Lilith, your smile is s-scary"
Leon was crying internally.
'Master said [Singularity] was the easiest difficulty! I shouldn't have believed her when she said that! Damn you, master!'
'No, no, no, first I need to mislead Lilith!'
"That just y...you, I'm sure."
"Then, ho-"
"Finally, found you too"
Cadmus walked up to them and called them out.
"I've been searching for you two for hours, you know?"
Leon inaudibly sighed and hurriedly conversed with Cadmus to shift the topic from the earlier conversation.
"Were you looking for us?"
"That..."
Cadmus looked around and spoke after making sure nobody was listening to them.
"...I wanted to work together with you two for the Floor 13 contest. It is embarrassing, but our class is the most disjointed among all the classes. Out of the 10 selected Cadets from our class, 5 only follow Ken's orders, among the four left Susan is a lone wolf and doesn't listen to anybody. If we fought the other two classes like this, we won't stand a chance. I'd like for at least us 3 to work together."
"But doesn't Ken listen to you?"
Cadmus' eyes slightly widened, but a second later, a small smile appeared on his face.
"Why would you think so?"
"Don't listen to him, he always speaks without thinking." Lilith interjected.
Leon was also confused why he thought like that. He had seen Ken objecting to everyone's opinion and several times almost fighting Cadmus.
"He doesn't. If Ken would listen to me, there would have been no problems"
"Can't you ask for Susan to work together?"
Cadmus turned to Lilith and answered her.
"Actually, I was hoping you would do that for me. I don't think Susan likes to listen to me."
Lilith had a hesitant expression on her face.
Leon knew the reason, some time ago, Lilith had told him that she didn't feel comfortable around Cadmus. When Leon asked for the reason, she answered him by saying that she didn't know the cause.
Cadmus never stepped out of the line and both of them were childhood friends, but for some reason, she felt Cadmus had a weird, almost sinister, aura to him.
"We'll try"
Cadmus thanked them and walked away.
Lilith and Leon searched for Susan to ask for her cooperation on the upcoming inter-class competition. They were also not very close with her, however, Lilith was naturally able to talk to everyone and Leon had conversed with Susan several times in the past, due to issues pertaining to Nathan.
It was when both of them were moving around, Leon suddenly asked something.
"Why did you choose [Expert]? It can take up to 3 weeks to clear, wouldn't it be a problem if you couldn't reach Floor 13 on time?"
A trace of sadness flashed across her eyes, but she didn't let Leon notice it.
"[Expert] difficulty is nothing for someone as beautiful as me. Besides, shouldn't you worry about clearing your ''[Normal]'' Trial, it will be a problem if are late."
"I'll think about it!"
Leon activated his stigma and sped up before Lilith started interrogating him again.
His reaction made her chuckle and she followed behind him.