The forest was dead silent. Time stretched on for so long that he felt like an entire month had passed.

During this time, Alen faced many undead. He felt like he was currently at the very peak of the D+ rank and might break through to the C rank anytime soon.

As he survived in the forest, he began to notice new things he had previously ignored.

The forest was completely dead, but there was still fresh air to breathe. If there wasn’t, he wouldn’t have survived in this place up to now. That meant there had to be some form of life around this realm, either animals or plants, producing that oxygen.

There was no daylight in this place. He had spent what felt like weeks wandering around, but he still hadn’t seen even a hint of the sun.

He could still see the three crimson moons behind the clouds. They stayed perfectly still, as if the world had stopped spinning. He always found the moons in the exact same position: two moons floating horizontally side-by-side, with the third floating right on top of them in a triangle. It felt like they were attached to each other by some invisible force, similar to gravity on Earth.

Alen sat on a rock next to a small bonfire he had lit in the middle of a clearing. Two small stones lay beside the fire, their surfaces covered in deep scratches.

He had lit the fire by rubbing the stones together for hours. It was his first time camping outside alone, so he barely knew what he was doing.

He didn’t even have a lighter or a match. He had gained an affinity for all elements by absorbing the divinity from the Holy Grail, but he had no clue how to actually use them. Gaining an elemental affinity didn’t give a person direct magic spells; if you wanted to use an element like fire, you had to learn how to manifest it first. He had no skills in elemental magic. He had only recently learned how to throw a mana-infused punch. It was his first time learning a magical concept in his life, making him a complete newbie.

"Ugh!... My legs hurt! Damn it! What a pain in the ass!" he groaned aloud.

"I should have stopped my overconfident self for a moment and taken a break. Now I feel completely exhausted from walking for days."

*Sigh...*

"I feel so thirsty, but there is no sign of water. Where the hell did that fountain disappear to?"

During this time, he had searched for another oasis, but he couldn’t find anything. The first one had vanished right behind his back, so he thought it might reappear somewhere else, but there was no sign of it.

He also felt incredibly hungry and had lost a lot of weight. He was sick and tired of fighting the undead and walking endlessly through the dark woods.

He hadn’t gotten proper sleep in days. Whenever he closed his eyes, he felt like someone was constantly watching him. It gave him such a creepy feeling that he avoided sleeping as much as he could.

He stood up and stretched his tired body.

"Yawn... I feel sick living in this place. How am I supposed to get out of here?"

Just as he was cursing his situation, a heavy hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

*BOOOM!*

Alen spun around and punched backward instantly, concentrating a large amount of mana into his fist. There shouldn’t be anyone here except the undead, so he didn’t hold back.

But his fist was blocked by a bare hand—easily.

Dust kicked up into the air from the sheer impact of the hit. Alen jumped back, fully expecting the undead’s body to shatter into pieces since he had imbued almost half of his mana into that single attack.

But as the dust slowly cleared, Alen’s expression quickly changed to shock and extreme caution.

"Damn! Kids these days are becoming more annoying day by day."

A man stood there calmly. He was tall and incredibly broad, built like a heavy tank. He gave a genuine smile, which only made Alen more cautious than he already was.

’My attack didn’t give him even the slightest scratch. He is likely a C-Rank or higher.’

’But how the hell is someone else here? I haven’t seen a single human for weeks, and now they suddenly pop out of nowhere? I have to find out why.’

’If he have any knowledge of how to get out of here, it will be useful.’

"Who are you? And how did you get here?" Alen demanded, keeping his guard up.

"Tch! Rude kid. Forget it. I am Bram, the Shadow Knight! The strongest Dark Soldier in the world!" he declared confidently, emitting a faint aura of the shadow element.

But Alen didn’t feel the slightest bit intimidated by his grandstanding.

*THUD!*

The flat blade of a longsword landed directly and harshly on the top of Bram’s head. Bram fell to the ground, clutching his skull in pain.

"You are becoming more of a liar day by day, Bram. Can you stop trying to intimidate children? Do you think your newbie acting skills will even work?" a new voice said coolly.

"Stop using the ’Shadow Knight’ title. If the real one ever finds out about it, he will likely kill you for embarrassing his name."

A woman stepped out from the shadows behind him. She looked young compared to Bram, probably in her mid-twenties. She had black hair and sharp gray eyes, wearing gray armor that clung tightly to her body.

Alen could sense that she was strong. Even stronger than the broad guy groaning on the ground.

’She is at least a B-Rank. I can’t beat her with my current strength.’

Even a single gap in rank made a person exponentially stronger. Alen was currently at D+ Rank, making him practically two whole ranks behind her. Even if he were a C-Rank, it would be extremely difficult to beat her.

"Ugh... Miss Kira, I was just trying to make the kid comfortable around me. If I said I was a ’Shadow Knight’, I thought he would likely trust me more," Bram whined from the ground.

As Alen kept his guard up defensively, the woman turned toward him.

"Who are you, kid? How in the hell did you get here? And how have you managed to survive in this place alone? Are you from some noble house in the Empire?"

she asked, walking closer without a hint of fear.

To her, Alen’s defensive stance was probably nothing more than a child holding a toy.

Alen didn’t know what to do in this situation. Should he just attack her? Or should he tell the truth? Deciding that fighting a B-Rank was suicide, Alen relaxed his posture, stood calmly, and cancelled his useless defensive stance.

"I’m Alen. I came here by mistake and lost my way. Will you tell me how to get out of here?"

Kira blinked at his answer. She looked down at Bram, who showed the exact same expression as her—completely confused and surprised.

"You came to the ’Realm of Challenge’ by mistake? And you got lost? And you are here entirely alone?"

They stared at him in disbelief. It was their first time seeing some random kid lurking solo in such a dangerous place.

"Hey! Stop looking at me like I am a kid! I’m seventeen!"

Alen burst out, feeling sick of being called a child.

"Seventeen is still considered a kid," Kira replied dryly.

"Forget it. Now, what should we do with you... Hmm..."

Alen calmed down and waited for her decision.

"Come with us, kid. You can’t get out of here without completing the trial. Our team is here for the challenge. If you want to escape, then follow me."

"But know this: if you walk with us, your life will be in constant danger, and we won’t go out of our way to protect you. So make sure you don’t drag us down."

Alen looked at her calmly. A part of him wanted to reject her offer; he didn’t want to take the risk of joining an unknown team that might betray him the second danger arrived.

But he had no choice. He knew absolutely nothing about this place. The people in front of him clearly had good knowledge of the realm, so it would be highly useful to stick around and gather information from them.

He nodded.

Bram stood up, rubbing his head.

"But Miss Kira, he is just a kid. What if he drags us down? It will be riskier for him to come with us than to just stay hiding here."

Kira turned toward him.

"He can’t leave this place without contributing to the trial. If he doesn’t participate, he will just be stuck here forever. Fate has given him an opportunity. It is entirely up to him whether he stays alive or dies."

Bram looked at the silver-haired boy beside him and sighed.

"Fine. Hey, kid, you can join us."

Kira nodded.

"Follow us."

She turned around and started walking into the dark woods. Bram quickly fell into step behind her.

Alen looked at their backs and stepped forward to follow. He had no idea what specific trial they were talking about.

’I was already in a trial with the Forest of Dead, so which trial are they referring to now? The Realm of Challenge? What is that? I’ll have to stick around and find out.’