“Y-You’re Reinhart, right?” the bandit named Kael asked.

Reinhart snorted. “Are you the one asking questions now?”

The bandit stammered in fear. “N-No, I mean… Y-You are looking for Rickard, r-right?”

The knight seemed surprised. “How do you know that?”

“H-He told us before we left. H-He said that Gustav would probably send someone after us…”

Reinhart hummed to himself. “That’s interesting… But I don’t see how that’s relevant right now. I mean, is Rickard close by?”

“N-No.” the bandit shook his head. “W-We split up once we got to the trial entrance… Rickard rushed ahead with a few other people.”

“And what were you lot doing here?”

“W-We were just supposed to watch the entrance to this other tunnel and warn the others if someone arrived. T-They would come get us later.”

“Who are the others?” Red asked. “How many are there?”

“I-It’s the imperials…” the bandit struggled to speak as the pain in side flared. “T-They took half of us with them and left the rest here. S-So many of us died on the way over… Oh god, we’re all going to die! I-I’m going to die!”

The man collapsed into a sobbing piled.

“Hey, hey!” Reinhart tapped the bandit’s leg with his sword. “Don’t lose your mind just yet. We still need you to answer our questions.”

The knight’s “soft” encouragement seemed to drag the man out of his daze.

Red waited until the man had collected himself before repeating his question. “How many are there?”

“S-Seven.” the bandit said. “F-Five of our brothers and two of those imperials.”

“How many went with Rickard?”

“T-The two other imperials and the rest of our brothers… T-There were fifteen of them!”

Red nodded and examined the surrounding chamber. He could guess which of these tunnels this bandit’s companions had entered based on the direction Kael had run off towards earlier. It was the big, 7 meters tall tunnel, and it stood out amidst all the other entrances in the chamber as it led further down into the underground.

However, this wasn’t the only tunnel in the room.

“Which one of these did you come from?” Red asked.

He pointed at all the other tunnel entrances in the chamber. There were a total of 9 tunnels this place connected to, including the one they had come from.

“I-I don’t remember…” the bandit trembled. “I-I think it was that one.”

He pointed at one of the passages with his shaking hand, making it hard to determine which tunnel he was actually referring to.

“You think?” Reinhart frowned.

“N-No, I’m sure of it.” the bandit hurried to correct himself. “It was that one. W-We had to sneak past a huge lion to get here. A f-few of us got caught, but the lion didn’t chase us into the tunnel.”

‘So their tunnel entrance was also guarded by something dangerous that refused to come in?’

Red didn’t think this was a coincidence.

“What did those imperials tell you about the trial?” Reinhart asked.

“T-They told us nothing.” the bandit shook his head. “T-They just said that this was an inheritance left by one of their ancestors… T-They even took our own rewards from us! A-And Rickard just allowed it!”

“That’s really a shame buddy.” Reinhart feigned a tone of sadness. “How well are those imperials armed?”

“T-They exchanged our stones for a lot of talismans, and they already had a bunch from outside.” the bandit said. ”W-We even killed a Lesser Ring Realm monster with their help. A-And they have this weird compass, but they never told us what it was for.”

The knight frowned at these words. “What kind of talismans?”

“I-I don’t know… T-They had so many!”

His response didn’t leave Reinhart thrilled. “Is that all you have to offer us?”

The bandit trembled in fear. “N-No… I mean, for them, yes! B-But I know so much more. I can even help you guys ambush them if you-”

Reinhart cut his words short with a swing of his sword. The man gargled on his own blood, and life left his body a few seconds later.

The knight shook the blood off his weapon before sheathing it back by his waist. He looked over at Red with a smile on his face. “What, aren’t you going to scold me on this like your friends?”

Red shook his head, completely unsurprised by Reinhart’s actions. “You were supposed to ask me before doing something like this. I might have wanted to ask something else.”

“Bah, he knew nothing of value, anyway. Besides, we have to catch up with those imperials before they get the reward of this place.”

The boy frowned. “He said they have a lot of talismans.”

“It won’t matter if we catch them by surprise. Talismans take a while to activate.”

“He also said that this place belonged to their ancestor. They might have some kind of advantage here we don’t know about.”

Reinhart scoffed. “That’s complete nonsense, kid! This is a cultivator’s tomb, like that hawk itself said, and imperials hate cultivators. Besides, this is not even inside imperial territory, so how could this belong to their ancestors?”

Red was still unconvinced. “If that’s the case, why would they mention that in the first place?”

“Who knows?” Reinhart shrugged. “All I can tell you is that if that hawk is anything to go by, we don’t need to worry about anyone else having an unfair advantage here, so stop worrying!”

The boy sighed. “Then let’s continue.”

The worry remained in his mind, but Red recognized there was nothing he could do about it at this moment.

The duo looked through the pockets of the bandits, but just like the dying man had said, there was not even so much as a single Spirit Stone in their belongings, or anything of value, for that matter. After Red was done collecting his arrows, they set off to follow in that path of the imperials and bandits.

…

It turned out this was yet another long and seemingly endless tunnel. At the very least, Red could tell the bandit from earlier was telling the truth by the footprints he found on the rock floor.

They continued to walk down the passage for almost ten minutes, when all of a sudden, faint thudding sounds started to reach them. Reinhart frowned as he noticed these noises. He approached the wall and put his ear up to it, before looking at Red with a troubled expression.

“The tunnel is rumbling.” the knight said.

Red understood the man’s worry. He had witnessed his fair share of tunnel collapses back in the underground mine, so he was aware of how dangerous they were.

The boy, however, just shook his head. “All paths lead here.”

His implication was clear. This was probably the only way to move forward in the trial.

Reinhart sighed. “I hope being buried alive is not the way I die.”

As they got further down this path, the thudding sounds intensified. There was no definite rhythm to them, but it looked as though they were getting faster as the seconds passed. The rumbling beneath their feet also got stronger and stone dust started to fall over their heads.

Suddenly, the echoing sound of hissing reached their ears from ahead.

“We should hurry.” Red said.

Reinhart grunted in response.

The duo sped up, running down the tunnel. The thudding seemed to reach a crescendo a few seconds later, and they spotted something ahead of them.

“Light.” Reinhart said.

Along with that, the sounds of battle became clearer. There were human voices mixed in with the deafening hissing of a serpent.

The knight raised his hand. “Slow down.”

Red followed his instructions, and the two sneaked forward as the surrounding tunnel started to widen. Soon the light intensified, and the passage led them to an enormous chamber, lit up by lanterns hanging around the walls and with pieces of rock constantly falling from the ceiling.

In the center of the chamber, two humans and a monster were engaged in a fight.

The beast was a serpent, as Red had already guessed from the hissing. It looked identical to the snakes they had found before entering the tunnel, but this one was multiple times bigger, reaching over thirty meters from head to tail. There were multiple signs of injury on its enormous body, broken scales and blood littering its frame as it flailed around in a frenzy. This snake was the cause of the rumbling they heard, its gigantic body crashing around the chamber that was seemingly too small to contain its rage.

Its opponents were two men. The first one had long, blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, sporting a large build standing over two meters tall and a body bursting with muscle. The second one, while smaller, still had an athletic frame and was moving around even faster than his companion, having likewise blond hair, but shorter than his companion. They wore elegant scale armor, similar to the one Reinhart had used before, but clearly of a higher quality. The large man was carrying a halberd in his hand, which was covered by a living flame, while the second wielded a longsword and had a cracked barrier surrounding him.

Their superior equipment and noble-like features let Red immediately see through their identity.

‘Imperials.’

The boy also looked around for the bandits that were supposed to be accompanying them, but all he found were a few splotches of blood around the chamber. They likely hadn’t survived the encounter.

It was clear, however, that the two imperial agents never needed their help. They moved around the snake with skill and coordination, avoiding getting hit while chopping away at the beast’s body bit by bit. Red had a clear assessment at that point.

‘They’re strong.’

About as strong as Reinhart, from what Red could tell, and the two seemed to work perfectly as a team.

“Get ready!” the lithe imperial called out.

A grunt came from his larger companion, and the two immediately got into action. The shielded imperial knight distracted the snake, catching its attention by moving around its head. The beast promptly tried to take a bite out of the man, but its fangs dug into his barrier instead, causing even more cracks to spread.

The snake looked like it wanted to press further and break through, but the giant knight chose that moment to attack. His burning halberd dug into the creature’s body, causing a spray of blood and broken scales to fly out.

The serpent hissed in pain, flailing about to throw away its attackers. The imperials retreated as the beast’s long body started to crash around the walls and ceiling of the chamber, causing another shower of stones and dust to fall down.

“They’re going to kill it.” Reinhart whispered to Red.

The boy nodded. With the help of their talismans and superior skills, it was clear that the monster ahead would fall very soon. He only hoped this would happen before the whole place collapsed.

“We’ll ambush them.” Reinhart said.

Red nodded again. “Let’s get closer first.”

The knight grunted in agreement, and they approached the chamber, keeping to the shadows. Unlike the rest of this underground passage up until now, this enormous cave chamber seemed to be natural, much to the boy’s confusion. However, that at least provided them plenty of cover to approach their opponents.

“We’ll stay here.” Reinhart said once they reached a large stone pillar. “Don’t want to get tangled up in that before the snake is close to dying.”

The boy agreed with him. Red’s crimson sense could barely reach the two men and the snake from his position. He was able to confirm that the monster was at the Lesser Ring Realm, while the two men didn’t seem to have opened their Spiritual Sea yet. This made him even more amazed by their strength.

“Get ready to use your talisman in case things get ugly.” Reinhart said. “I might have a bit of trouble taking these two on at the same time.”

Red frowned. “I thought you were…”

The boy trailed off, looking off towards a certain direction. All he saw were collapsed stones and stalactites, though, that blocked his vision.

“Huh?” Reinhart looked at him in confusion. “Did you notice something?”

Red nodded with some hesitation. “Someone’s there.”

Not just someone. The boy recognized their fluctuation.

It was Narcha and Eiwin.