After several hours passed, Alen opened his eyes. He had fallen asleep while the rest of the team bickered.

He rubbed his eyes and looked at his surroundings. It was the same as always: dead trees with purple leaves, wrapped in pitch darkness, with only the light of the campfire illuminating the small clearing. In the sky, gray clouds still gathered, hiding the three crimson moons.

As Alen stared blankly at the sky, a voice suddenly called out to him.

"Hey, kid! Are you awake?" Bram asked.

Alen ignored him completely. He had already told them not to call him ’kid.’ It annoyed him to death.

"Hey kid, are you even listening?! Or are you starting to hallucinate? Is he really stuck in some hallucination spell? That’s not entirely impossible... Anything is possible in here."

Alen glared at him with one eye.

"What the f*ck do you want?"

"Oh... it seems you’re completely fine, I guess. We are going to discuss about facing the boss monster of the trial. You can join us if you want."

Alen looked at him blankly.

’Boss monster? What exactly is that? This is the first time I’ve heard of such a thing...’

’Do the trials even have boss monsters?’ ’Well... probably. It makes sense. I presume that the exit gate will only open after defeating the final boss of the trial. It’s similar to how dungeons worked in the fantasy novels I used to read.’

Alen stood up, walked past Bram, and headed toward the rest of the team, who were sitting in a circle. He sat down on a secluded rock nearby to listen to their discussion.

Behind him, Bram awkwardly stepped forward and rejoined the group. He had just been trying to get to know the boy, but he had impulsively made a bad impression instead.

"So, now that everyone is here, let’s discuss facing the boss monster of this trial," Kira said.

She stood at the front and spoke calmly. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was clearly heard by everyone present. She acted like a true leader, carefully planning how to achieve victory for her team.

"Judging from the scenario, I’m guessing the boss monster must be some type of undead..."

"Ugh! ’Undead’? I feel disgusted just by hearing the name. I don’t want to fight such a grotesque creature. It feels gross just looking at them," Lina protested.

Her words were true. The undead were certainly disgusting creatures that ate the flesh of humans and monsters—and even their own kind when food was scarce. They were not just ’non-living’ creatures; they were a ’curse’ upon the world, killing various living organisms to sustain themselves. They acted like parasites, making themselves stronger by consuming flesh and blood. Such beings directly disrupted the natural order of the World.

"Lina, just because you don’t want to fight it doesn’t mean we have another option," Kira said sternly.

"It is completely mandatory to kill the final boss in order to successfully pass the trial. There is no going backward. We either face the boss monster, win the battle, and leave... or we fail, stay here, and fight different kinds of undead for the rest of our lives until we die."

"Ugh!... I don’t want to stay with the undead! Let’s just fight it, then."

Kira sighed, shaking her head at Lina’s childish personality. She then looked at the rest of the group and continued.

"As I said earlier, let’s presume the final boss is an undead. From my guess, its power will be completely different from the enemies we have faced up to now. The ones we have fought so far were barely D-Rank or lower, making them easy to defeat. But this boss monster will be several times stronger than them."

The atmosphere turned solemn. No one denied her words. This team had already completed two trials before stepping into this one, so they knew firsthand that a boss monster’s power was on a completely different scale. They wouldn’t just blindly charge at it; that would get them all killed.

Alen watched them closely as they discussed their strategy.

"But where are we going to find the final boss of the trial?" Alen asked.

Kira shifted her gaze from the group toward Alen and answered,

"Most of the time, the boss monster usually appears in the later half of the trial’s time limit. Since this current trial lasts three months, and more than two months have already passed, the boss monster must have already been summoned. It won’t take long for us to find it."

"Most of the time, the boss monster stays with the horde to gain protection, making it more difficult for Awakener to reach it."

"So, if we find a trail with an increasing number of undead, it should lead us straight to the boss."

"So, what do you all think? Is everyone ready to fight?" Kira asked, looking around the circle.

"There isn’t much time left before the trial ends, so we have no time to waste on long-term plans. Let’s go find the boss monster!"

"Yes!" the team cheered.

As the whole team stood up, with full of fighting spirit, the battle with the boss monster was finally on the horizon.

"Alfred, focus your senses and track the stench of rotting meat. We can find the undead horde through that," Kira ordered, immediately slipping into command.

"Lina, prepare your magic and defend the team’s rear in case the undead attack from behind."

"Bram, guard the team and act as our shield when danger arises." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Maira and Alen, stay at the back and remain alert."

"I will lead from the front. Everyone, remember the rule: take every step with caution, or we might get stuck in a trap. Let’s move out!"

Kira signaled for Alfred to see if he could detect any scents nearby. Alfred closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. His senses slowly expanded outward, and a faint, disgusting stench of rotting meat caught his attention.

He snapped his eyes open and spoke.

"The smell of flesh is coming from the southwest at about a 35-degree angle. It’s stronger than in the other directions, so we might find a clue there."

Kira nodded. She trusted his tracking skills and started walking in the direction he pointed.

As she walked forward, everyone slowly fell into formation behind her. Alen looked at the team, then stepped forward and took his place at the back next to the quiet mage.

He didn’t know much about this so-called boss monster, but if defeating it meant he could finally get out of this cursed forest, he would surely fight it with everything he had.