"Come on…" Said a man with light leather armor wielding a curved blade in the image of a scimitar. "Just give us your bracelet… your class isn't meant for combat anyway."

He looked to his left, then to his right, signaling to his two companions to circle around the woman and block off her escape routes.

The woman wore a sour expression. Her obsidian eyes were sharp with disdain. "How disgusting…" Then, she clicked her tongue, and she suddenly turned to the bushes. "Hey you! If you help me out with this, I'll let you have all of their armbands, and even give you mine willingly!"

She was looking straight in Verity's direction, which shocked him, as he believed he'd concealed his presence quite well.

He looked at her armband. It was purple, which meant that she was a rank 3, just like him. He then looked at her attackers. The one who seemed to be the ring leader also wore a purple armband, while the two behind him wore a yellow one, which meant they were one rank lower.

If he really was to obtain all of their armbands, he would gain a total of six points. Not enough to complete the trial, but still quite a good head start.

The men who had cornered her scoffed. "You really think we'll fall for something like that?" One of them said, a sneer on his face.

The man with the curved blade raised his weapon, and let out a resigned sigh. "Oh well, if you want to play it like this, I don't mind getting rough either."

The woman's brows furrowed. She knew that defeating the three before her would be a considerable effort, and if she succeeded, she wouldn't so without significant losses. She took a deep breath. "I know you're there, in the bushes!! I'll even add some rare potions to sweeten the deal! Just come on out and we can discuss it later!"

The man wielding the curved rolled his eyes and brought it down with a powerful swing.

CLANG

The tip of a spear stopped his swing dead in its tracks.

Verity, with a smirk, looked at the man, a fire dancing in his eyes. "Sorry but… this one's under my protection!"

…

A tumbleweed could have been heard passing by.

Verity's cheeks reddened. "S-Sorry, but… this one's—"

The woman behind him interrupted. "I think they heard you the first time, and it's not 'this one', my name is Ifedolapo."

Verity wanted to curl into a ball and roll away.

The man whose sword he had stopped, backed away by half-a-step awkwardly. "A-Anyway… I don't think it's in your best interest to help her. This is still a three against two."

Verity did his best to conceal his embarrassment and he took his stance. If it had all gone well, he would have said something cool here too, but he just wasn't in the mood for words anymore.

BOOM

He exploded forth, a shockwave raised in his wake, and he lunged toward the three armed men.

The battle did not last that long.

The man with the scimitar was decently skilled, but Verity's style was overwhelmingly superior and with the stat boost from [Beyond Reason], his stats were also somewhat higher.

Of course, these men had all reached the fourth trial, so they weren't weak, but they simply weren't on Verity's level. It might have been a tad bit more difficult if he had been alone, but Ifedolapo, the woman who stood behind him, had pulled her weight.

As soon as Verity had drawn their attention, she had quickly summoned what resembled two golems made of dirt. These colossal monsters were able to take care of one of the three men on their own, albeit not without nearly falling apart.

A few minutes was long enough to decide most battles between combatants of their caliber.

Once the three men lay unconscious, or utterly defeated on the ground, Verity exhaled sharply, and he lowered his spear.

Behind him, someone gripped his shoulders.

"Hmmm." Said Ifedolapo.

She began feeling his entire body up from head to toe.

Verity, only after she'd been about halfway done, jumped away in a startle. He covered his body with his hands. "Ifedolapo… was it? Can you explain just what the hell you're doing?"

Ifedolapo shrugged. "Just call me Ife, and I was feeling you up, obviously."

Verity wondered if he'd heard wrong. "...Sorry?"

Ife looked him up and down, placing a hand on her chin. "You heard me." She tilted her head. "You're from Earth, aren't you?"

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Verity froze. The grip on his spear tightened, and he took one step back. His mind began racing furiously. There was a certain confidence in her voice, which suggested that this wasn't a question, but simply confirming what she already believed.

'I can easily run away from here… and if I need to then I can also…'

Ife rolled her eyes. "Relax! I'm from Earth too!" she exclaimed. "Smartphones, internet, electricity, whatever you need as proof, I have it."

Verity instantly relaxed. He clicked his tongue. "If it had been someone else, they might have killed you on the spot…. And how did you figure that out anyway?"

Ife pointed to his mouth. "It's the way you speak. It looks like after coming here we all speak the same language, or we at least all understand each other, but Earthlings all speak differently, like an accent of some sort."

Verity narrowed his eyes. "I… never noticed that. You must be really observant, or you've met many from Earth… or both."

Ife then pointed to the ground behind him. "Yeah, and another trick. If you look behind you, you'll see 'gullible' written on the ground. It's a good sign."

Without fully registering what she had said, Verity immediately turned around, and Ife burst into hysterical laughter.

She slapped her stomach and she rolled on the ground. "HAHHAHA!! THIS ONE ALMOST NEVER WORKS!! HAHAHA!!!"

Verity's eyes twitched.

He thought he somewhat understood the gist of her personality in that short exchange, and he realized she would be a pain to spend an extended amount of time with.

"So the thing about 'accents' or whatever wasn't true…?" Verity asked.

Ife wiped tears from the corner of her eyes. "Duh. You think the people from the Temple wouldn't have picked up on something that simple by now?"

"Were you even in actual danger?"

"Not really, but I would have had to use some important seeds if you hadn't been there…" She clasped her hands together and flapped her eyelids at Verity. "So thanks for putting me under your protection, savior!"

Verity, fed up, and not able to handle another word coming out of her mouth, put his spear on his back and raised his other hand. "Ah! Whatever! I'm out of here! Good luck!"

Ife's lips tightened. 'Oops, did I go too far? I still somewhat need him…'

She cleared her throat. "Well, that's that. In any case, don't you think we'd work better as a team, uh…"

Verity looked over his shoulder. "Verity. And there's no way in hell I'm spending another second with you after this."

Ifedolapo raised an eyebrow. "...Verity? Is that your real name?"

Verity let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. "I'm leaving."

"Wait! Wait! It's a fine name! Just help a fellow Earthling out!"

Verity whipped his head around. "Will you stop saying that? How do you know they don't have devices listening to us!??"

"They don't, stop worrying."

"How do you know?"

She pulled on her ears. "The forest told me."

A vein bulged on Verity's temple, and he turned around, his foot nearly slamming into the ground.

Ife raised a hand. "That wasn't even a joke! I'm a Druid. The forest literally speaks to me…"

Her status window was heavily concealed, so Verity wasn't entirely sure she was telling the truth, and he wasn't too inclined to blindly believe her, so he pinched the bridge of his nose, and he turned around again.

'Well, yeah, she's probably not lying. I'm not getting any weird feelings from the rune of Truth and the dirt golem pretty much gave that away…'

He narrowed his eyes while looking at her. "What else can you do?"

A wide smile tugged at Ife's lips and she placed her hands on her hips. "My direct combat power is limited, but I'm extremely versatile, incredible at reconnaissance, tracking, stealth, and my skill with the sword is comparable to a first rate-warrior!"

Verity stroked his chin. "Hmm… I can handle myself just fine in combat, but if we want to find the exit, and those treasures… you might be useful..."

Ife nodded in agreement. "See? We can work in a symbiose! Help each other out," she said as she took a few steps forward.

Verity took a step back, and she halted mid-stride.

"You're not going to betray me... or try something funny, are you?"

Ife tilted her head. "...No?"

The rune on his chest pulsing, Verity nodded. "Hmm, alright, and you've told me everything I needed to know… you're not hiding some major piece of information that could threaten this temporary alliance?"

Ife raised an eyebrow this time. "...Nope, I've told you everything you needed to know."

He paused for a moment, studying Ife intently, then his lips parted. "Goo—"

"Ah, scratch that. I should probably let you know that there's someone approaching us quickly. Red armband, really doesn't seem to be in a good mood."

A red armband signified a rank 1 challenger, two ranks above both Verity and Ife. Of course, the ranks didn't mean much in terms of combat prowess, and were strictly based on how well, or how poorly each participant fared in the previous trials, but regardless, a rank 1 meant trouble.

Verity looked at Ife. "Shouldn't we get the hell out of here then?"

Ife shrugged. "He's already here."

A voice emerged from the thick trees of the jungle. "There you are."

Verity whipped his head toward him. "...You're… that guy," he said.

Elio looked back at Verity with a complicated expression on his face. "The name's Elio, you fraud."

He was wearing the same long black coat he had worn during the first trial, and his obsidian black hair was slicked back above his head, revealing even more of his blindingly handsome features.

Verity could only sigh internally as he looked at Elio.

Did he have to be this handsome?

Elio's hand rested on the sheath of a shining silver katana attached at his side. "I see… so you've even gotten to her, huh."

His expression darkened, and he slowly drew his weapon, its blade reflecting the bright light of the two suns above.

He pointed its tip toward Verity. "Well, this is good. She's not watching, so there won't be any issue in killing you."

Verity shook his head dejectedly, raised his spear, and pointed it back toward Elio. "You know, I could ask what you mean, or why you're doing this, but for some reason I feel like you won't answer even if I do…So I'll ask after beating you up."

Elio scoffed. "For a faker, you sure have a mouth on you. But…"

In the next instant, he was in front of Verity. "You're not at a level where you can face me. Just die quietly."

'W-what the!?? That fast?? I didn't even see him move…!!'

Elio brought his katana down in an arc. To him, the battle had already been decided. Verity would not be able to defend against this, but before he could finish his swing—

"Tsk. You're lucky I'm indebted to you."

From his chest sprouted a large flower with green petals, and in an instant, it spread millions of spores in Elio's direction.

Elio was quick to react, he immediately closed his eyes, and he jumped back.

"Crafty as always…" He muttered under his breath.

Verity also jumped away from the cloud of spores. "What the hell was that??" He asked.

"Think of it as pepper spray, but a thousand times worse, no perhaps ten thousand times. He'll be blind for a while."

Verity pushed her hand away. "No! I mean why did it come from my chest??"

Ife tilted her head. "...Because I put it there?"

"When!?"

"When I felt you up, obviously. Why are you worrying over details like these?" She replied as if she was talking to an idiot.

Verity scrunched his nose in utter annoyance.

Still, she had saved him just now, that much was true. So he bowed slightly. "Anyways… thanks for the help."

Ife smiled widely. "You're welco–"

SLASH

Her chest was torn open, a torrent of blood erupting from it.

Elio, some distance away, held his eyes shut tightly, and he slowly lowered his katana. "Ife… I'll have you stand down for now… until I'm done taking care of the fraud."

Ife coughed up a mouthful of blood, and she dropped to one knee. 'Damn… haha… if I hadn't had this protective armor under my clothes… I might not still be conscious…'

"Who are you calling Ife… we're…not that close…" She said, her voice laced with painful groans.

Elio looked or rather, turned his head toward her, a blank expression on his face. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but he took a long pause before replying. Perhaps if one looked closely, they could have seen his lip quiver slightly.

But he regained his composure quickly and he eventually raised his katana again. "...You're right. We're not."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.