“Was that supposed to happen?” Allen asked from behind the group.

Rog’s glare, however, was enough to silence the boy. Rimold and Red, on the other hand, were too busy taking in the situation to pay attention to the young master.

Red examined their destroyed projectiles. “I suppose this must be the formation keeping the monsters in their rooms. Are these barriers always invisible?”

Rimold nodded. “Most of the time, yes. Still, this doesn’t make any sense… How are we supposed to pass by these rooms if there’s an invisible barrier in our way?”

“Do you think we can destroy it?”

The rogue scoffed. “With our normal weapons? Do you see any scratches on the barrier?”

The boy couldn’t actually see much of anything on the barrier, considering it was invisible, but he understood Rimold’s point.

“It makes sense, when you think about it.” Rog said. “It would be easy to take advantage of projectiles to kill these monsters, so the creator of this trial probably thought about that."

Rimold looked over at Rog with a frown. “Are you saying we need to walk into the room before we can attack the wolves?”

“That might be the case.” the hunter nodded.

“Are you insane?! These wolves could tear us to shred if we’re not careful!”

“I thought we already established this before.” Rog shrugged. “This is our only course of action remaining, so what choice do we have?”

“Rog is right.” Red said, agreeing with his companion. “I’ll try to distract the monsters by going in first. The rest of you can focus on taking out the wolves while they’re not looking at you.”

“Are you also going insane, brat?” Rimold looked at the boy with a strange expression. “Did you see the size of that room? There’s barely enough space to fight, not to mention dodging these wolves.”

“He’s right, Red!” Allen also stared at the youth in alarm. “These monsters can kill you!”

Red shook his head. “If there’s one thing I’m confident about, is in my footwork. Besides, I might not be able to last for long against them, but you shouldn’t need long to kill them either, right?” he looked over at Rog.

The hunter pondered, but ended up nodding. “If you can keep them off of me for a bit, then I can kill them.”

“Then it’s settled.” the boy nodded. “As for you, Rimold, you can help Rog with your daggers, right?”

“This…” Rimold hesitated. “… I should be able to, but are you not afraid we might not be able to save you if things go wrong?”

“I am afraid, but this is our only choice. I don’t feel as confident in my strength as the two of you, so it’s only appropriate that I act in the best capacity I can - as a bait.”

“W-What about me?!” Allen stared at Red. “Can’t I help as bait too?”

“You?” the youth frowned. “If you go in, you’ll definitely die.”

“This… This isn’t fair!” the young master seemed unconvinced. “It’s not fair that only you three get to take risks while I sit in the back and watch!”

Red shook his head in disapproval. “When it comes to matters of survival, we can’t take a chance. You are too inexperienced to handle these situations, so relying on you may not only be dangerous for yourself but also for the rest of us.”

Allen’s expression became downcast at these words, but he didn’t rebuke them.

Red, however, wasn’t done with his explanation. “Of course, this might change in the future as you learn and become stronger. However, realizing your own limitations is also an important part of survival. If you feel you can’t accomplish something by yourself, either don’t attempt it unless necessary, or rely on someone else who you know can do it. This is something you’ll have to learn too.”

The young master’s sadness slowly faded away as he digested Red’s explanation. A few seconds later, his helpless expression changed into one of resolve as he stared at the youth.

“I understand.” Allen nodded. “I won’t get in your way unless necessary.”

This was enough to satisfy Red. “Good.” he turned around to look at Rog and Rimold. “Are the two of you ready?”

The two men, however, were staring at Red in silence with strange expressions. Rog seemed surprised, while Rimold seemed to be struggling with what to think.

This reaction confused Red. “Have you two changed your mind?”

“No, no!” Rog shook his head and nocked another arrow into his bow. “Let’s do it.”

The boy turned to look at Rimold, waiting for a response. The rogue, however, simply nodded, taking out another dagger from his sleeve.

“Good.” Red also unsheathed his cleaver. His aim here was to run around and distract the wolves, not to kill them. However, he would still feel more comfortable with a weapon in his hand. “We still don’t know if Rog was right about the invisible barrier, but you guys should be prepared for anything to happen. There’s still a lot we don’t understand about this place.”

The two men nodded at him with solemn expressions. After saying his part, Red didn’t tarry around, walking down the corridor in the chamber’s direction.

The Skycrown wolves didn’t seem to care about the boy’s approach, and continued to laze around. Finally, Red stopped at the entrance of the chamber, only five meters away from the closest monster, who remained uninterested.

With one last look at the two men behind him, the boy finally took the last step and entered the room. No invisible barriers blocked his way this time, but as soon as he set his feet inside, his entire vision seemed to twist and the youth felt the entire environment around him change.

…

Rog, Rimold and Allen, who looked on from outside, were completely taken aback by the change.

As soon as Red stepped into the room, he disappeared in a puff. Not only that, but the three wolves also vanished not too long after, leaving the entire chamber deserted except for the altar in the center.

Allen couldn’t quite believe his eyes. “This… Where did he go?!”

The group had a bad feeling about the situation.

…

The first thing Red felt when he came back to was the cold. It was so cold in here that the boy couldn’t help but shiver even under the protection of his sect uniform. Then, when his vision returned to him, he noticed his entire surroundings had changed.

Red was in a world of white. All around him, the only thing he could see was this cold, pure white substance, interspersed by some bit of exposed rock surfaces. Even his feet were submerged in it as the youth stood in this steep mountainous terrain.

‘Is this… Snow?’

The boy had never seen it before, but he had learned enough while in town to recognize the material. Before Red could examine the area any further, though, a loud howl suddenly sounded out from behind him. He felt a shiver run up his spine, and just a few seconds later, another two howls joined the first one.

‘The wolves are here too?’

Red realized what might have happened, but right now he didn’t have the time to reflect on it. He looked around, searching for a place to hide or find cover, but all of a sudden, he heard the sounds of heavy steps approaching him from behind. The boy turned around to look in that direction, and sure enough, he saw the giant silhouette of a wolf heading straight towards him in a trot from the distance.

‘They’re fast.’

Not only that, but now that the beast was not lying down, he could take a measure of its size. Red was shorter in two legs than the creature was on all fours, which was enough to tell the boy nothing good would happen to him in a direct confrontation. He looked around in a hurry, searching for something he could use as cover to hide from the monster’s initial attack.

Finally, a few seconds later, Red saw a large rock up the hill a few dozen meters away. Without hesitation, the boy dashed towards it, but he was quick to notice a problem.

‘This damn snow!’

His feet had a hard time finding purchase on the fluffy ground, and Red’s speed was diminished considerably because of it. Still, he had no choice but to continue running forward as the wolf continued to close the distance to him. When the boy had made it halfway through to his cover, he felt the wolf enter the one hundred meter range of his crimson sense.

In his desperation, Red tried to push himself even harder, counting the rapidly closing distance between him and the wolf.

‘90, 80, 70… 50!’

At this point, the boy could even hear the growling of the wolf as it eyes its prey. Right as the monster was only 15 meters away, Red finally arrived at his cover and dove behind it.

The wolf growled at the sudden disappearance of its prey, but it didn’t stop running. A few seconds later, it arrived at the spot where it last saw the boy, but there was no sign of its prey there. The monster released a low growl, but it didn’t give up.

It smelled the snow and was quick to pick track of its prey. It started to wander around the large rock, ready to pounce. However, right as it was turning the corner, a cleaver swung at it out of nowhere.

The monster tried to jump back, but the weapon still managed to cut at its face, leaving a bleeding gash behind. The wolf yelped in pain, but Red didn’t let his opportunity go to waste.

The boy dashed forward, trying to close the distance to the creature. However, the snowy ground still held him back, and by the time he was close enough, the wolf had already noticed his approach. Even in its wounded state, the monster didn’t retreat, and swept its sharp foreleg claws at the boy in a panic.

The injury had taken its toll on the wolf, though, and Red had no problem diving to avoid the wild strike. His cleaver swung up in the same motion, cutting at monster’s extended limb.

Another yelp of agony. Blood sprayed in the air into the pure snowy ground as Red lopped off the beast’s front leg. The monster, keen to retreat, tried to support itself on its no longer existing paw out of instinct, but it ended up tumbling to the side as a result.

Seizing this opportunity, the youth dashed forward, cleaving at the wolf’s neck. The weapon bit deep into the monster and blood sprayed out from the cut. Still, Red didn’t manage to decapitate the beast as he wanted and, in its dying throes, it threw its head against his side, throwing him away into the air with immense force.

The boy fell onto the ground, tumbling downhill for what felt like an eternity. When his momentum stopped, he had a hard time catching his breath and getting up. However, he pushed through the pain and sat up, looking in the wolf's direction.

The beast was thrashing around all over the place with Red’s cleaver stuck in its neck. The whole surroundings were being painted with the monster’s blood, and some of it had even gotten into the boy’s face from their initial clash. He was about to clean up the crimson fluid that had gotten into his face when a burning pain attacked him in the area the blood had made contact with.

Red keeled over in agony. Yet, the pain didn’t last long, and it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. The boy still raised his hand up to touch his face and verify what had happened. However, when his fingers made contact with his skin, he could not feel the wolf’s blood that he was certain was there just a few moments ago.

‘… What just happened?’

By the time Red had recovered from his shock, he heard a thud from uphill. The wolf could not hold on and finally collapsed from its injury, blood pooling around its head. The boy pushed aside his pain and doubts and made his way to its body, eager to recover his weapon and retreat before the other wolves arrived.

That was when another couple of howls sounded out, this time much closer to him. Red looked up, and on top of the hill he saw the two remaining wolves, staring down at the boy and the corpse of their companion right next to him.

The youth had a bad feeling.