When Astre finally opened his eyes, he shot up to his legs and looked around. Realizing where he was, he sighed and relaxed, slumping down to the ground under a tree. His feverish nightmares of red and death soon forgotten.

He felt right as rain, at least compared to his previous state. The numbness was gone, and the skull drilling pain now was but a small migraine. He stretched his sore arms and got up from the plain on grass he was laying on.

He opened his menu and scratched his cheek. It seemed there were thirty-eight hours left till the end of the competition. It appeared he had been out for more than ten hours. It was a bit sloppy of him; he should have asked for someone to wake him up. His only consolation was the sight that greeted him when he opened the leaderboard.

1. Astre - 638 points 2. Sparrow - 374 points 3. Draq - 305 points 4. Ghost - 175 points 5. Crass - 123 points 6. Dozer - 95 points 7. Boss - 70 points ...

The total number of points long passed the number of participants. The total sum of the top twenty spots was 2430. He guessed it was possible with each Star of Genesis being worth fifty points and their helpers twenty. Monsters added to that equation too.

Still, he already didn't feel safe. If the top spots started killing each other, he would lose the top spot quickly. He needed to do something, that meant finding out what the sanctuary was and how he could use it.

Astre took in his surroundings. The area appeared to be placed in a hollow pocket surrounded by rocks. It was quite vast, and it would take him a dozen of minutes to walk from one end to another. The only light source was a large star-shaped crystal that currently glowed with gentle blue light. He remembered it being bright white before passing out.

The celling of the cave was made of multiple patches of different crystals. All of them reflected the blue light in their own colors, giving the area a mystical vibe. The crystal formations looked too uniform to be natural, but what it meant eluded Astre.

The flower beds grew extensively in the area. The various flowering shrubs and now closed bulbs decorated the place. While the garden clearly lacked human touch, it brimmed with life and natural beauty. Sometimes, when he found such sites when looking for new farming spots, it made him forget, for a while, about his problems.

Now he didn't have time for such things as he gathered himself and moved from under the tree towards the white dome. The structure was tall, surely being at least ten stories tall. He expected to meet the rest of the alliance there.

There was no door, only a circular opening leading inside. A weak yellow light illuminated the interiors. The first things Astre noticed when he entered were giant books. Tomes, the size of his torso were laying everywhere. They have pilled on the grounds, shelves, and a table.

The furniture was massive too, clearly made for someone twice his size. Giant chairs surrounded a round table made of dark wood that took half of the space on the first floor. On one of such chairs, he saw the two sisters sleeping with their shoulder touching, their black and white hair entangling.

Confirming their peaceful expression, he looked around. The books were written in one of the in-game languages he didn't recognize. The shape of brush strokes on the pages reminded him of eastern scripts he saw when traveling to different continents.

At the same time, he saw picturesque glyphs often found in ancient texts, from before letters were a thing. Without some language or reading-related skills, he had no hopes of reading them. Shrugging, he looked for a way to the next floor.

Looking over the whole floor, he found a circular platform near the wall opposite of the entrance. Wondering what it's use was, he noticed it started to glow with the whole spectrum of colors, reminding him of when he used the key to get here.

In a flash of white light, Judgment appeared in front of his eyes. Noticing him, she flashed him a smug smile and made a V sign with her fingers. Contentedly proclaiming, "This place is amazing!"

"I'm guessing you had some time to investigate when I was out," Astre spoke. "What did you find out?"

"Praise me a bit!" Judgment yelled before disappearing in a flash of light.

From the light, this time, Blaze emerged, kneeling down and touching the runes bellow her. When she finally saw Astre, she moved her mouth as if to say something but closed it soon after. Few seconds passed like that, and just as she opened her mouth again, she disappeared in a flash.

When Judgment once again arrived in the room, she immediately jumped off the platform. Sighing, she explained, "Those teleport you between floors, I guess if someone is on the other end, they get forcibly teleported. Well, I wouldn't want to teleport into something and explode into a gory splash."

"I can appreciate that not happening," Astre spoke as the runes lit once more. "I wouldn't want to have to wash that off. I didn't see any water here too."

"Just enable the kid mode," Judgment retorted snarkily, "All the blood will be water for you."

Blaze arrived once more on the platform and got up to her feet while asking, "How do you use it just by touching it with your legs?"

"It works like using a scroll. You just need to think that your foot holds it. At least that's how I do it," the blond girl explained.

"Oh, that trick, took a while to grasp it," Astre stated. He remembered taking an hour out of his sleep for three weeks to get it working. It was easier than silent ability use, but it was more about tricking himself into thinking that he held it, rather than misleading his brain into thinking he said the ability name. The imagination method never seemed to work for him.

Blaze looked at her feet for a while silently. Slowly frown on her face increased, before she shut her eyes. After clenching her jaw and her face going red, she disappeared in a white flash.

"Let's follow her," said Judgment hopping onto the platform. Waiting for Astre, she hurried, "Come, I want to see you using it."

The adventurer shrugged and walked onto the platform. He looked around for a while before trying to use the platform. He believed he touched it with his hand and felt a tingle in his hand. The platform shined in light for a second before dying down.

"Oh, right, you need to choose the floor," Judgment realized she didn't tell that detail. She pointed with her finger at a set of glyphs on one of the platform's edges and explained, "The one with the line and two dots is the third floor where the amazing stuff is, line and dot is a second floor, sleeping area. The two lines and two dots lead to the fourth floor, I think, some weird observatory. The final circle with three dots is the roof."

"I see, I guess we are going to the third floor," Astre said, placing his foot on the symbol. This time the light took him away with the familiar feeling of displacement.

Once the light subsided, Astre greeted a bizarre sight. There was a giant stone throne with embedded blue crystals on which a straw doll wearing green ceremonial robe sat—a white circlet embedded with a red gem resting on top of the stone seat.

On the wall next to it was a tall wooden black mask with a pierced nose, and various shapes were drawn on its surface. A ceremonial golden and red carpet laid down on the floor with a giant boulder on top of it.

The most outstanding piece in the room was a giant mural painted on the back wall of the room. It represented the genesis of each race the game world had. Humans finding their beginning walking out of a jungle in the middle of the desert region. Only to be enslaved by nomadic tribes or a scarlet variant of daemons. Some escaped slavery to the northern, more moderate climate, only to return hundreds of years later and turn the tables around.

Spirits with bodies made of mana walking out of the center of the world. Some of them staying, protecting the origin forest, their bodies settling into physical shape, growing tall, and fit for their environment, turning into elves. Others left, slowly, some entering the depths, evolving into dwarves.

Many other races, finding their beginning and settling their version of habitats and societies. Sometimes mixing and clashing, leading to the state of the world before players entered the game.

He remembered WGames advertising the game with it's uniquely generated cultures and races. A fully immersive world with thousands of years of history. To this day, no one could piece the whole history of this world, a lot of lore seemingly lost to the rivers of times, leading to theories and a lot of arguments.

Then there were four figures in the cardinal directions on the mural. Each had three scenes painted around them. The painting to the south represented a ruby bird with a bigger one next to it surrounded by fires. The first scene represented it turning, ground, stone, nature, and people into pillars of flames.

The second scene showed a small man's figure, kidnaping the gem bird when it was sleeping. The third depicted a giant man with ruby feathers in his hand, sealing the flaming bird in a red orb.

The north figure, while could hardly be called one, reminded Astre of a white cloud. It's scenes showing frozen land, a shard of ice being stolen and buried, the cloud dispersing, the ice melting.

The figure to the east looked like a walking giant made of trees and stone, assimilating all nature into its statue. The final one placed to the west was a mangled piece of flesh, rotten tentacles, and acidic gasses destroying the land, shining blue eyes devoured the souls of its victims. Both of them defeated by the small and giant personas.

Looking away from the mural, Astre turned his head to Judgment beside him, just in time to notice the runes under him glowing. The adventurer jumped away, landing outside of the platform, but the mage didn't have the chance.

Blaze appeared in the flash of light before jumping off the platform quickly. "Oh, you are here," she voiced. Turning her head to the platform, she complained, "Couldn't this have been designed better? This is just annoying."

"Well, maybe different platforms for going up and down would be a good idea. Not that we can ask for a redesign whoever designed this," Astre stated before going silent.

The two of them stared silently in different parts of the room afterward. Astre wondered when did he think inviting her was a good idea, it must have been between the time his brain was flowing out and his legs resembling wet noodles after seeing a giant eastern dragon.

It was too dangerous to go back on it now. Astre's only choice was to stay vigilant. He concluded that as long as he didn't present them with opportunity at any point, he should be safe, they already had a chance to kill him if that was all they wanted.

The awkward silence didn't brake until Judgment reappeared, "I hope I waited long enough. Oh, both of you are here, good. So what do you think?"

"I'm sure any lore maniac would pay just to be here," Astre commented. It was all nice, but it wouldn't let them win. "Did you find a way out? The place we teleported to had nothing."

"Eh, that's what you worry about. Did you look at that shelf? Judgment complained pointed with her finger.

"I would say it's quite important," Astre responded, shifting his head.

On one of the walls rested four normal-looking items. The four silver orbs the size of his hand didn't stand out in the room filled with exotic accessories. Astre used Analyze on them, hoping to find something useful.

??????? (Silver Orb) ?????? Filled with magical energy. ???????

The rest of the orbs were the same; he walked over to them and carefully examined the items. The orbs seemed awfully simple, and further Analyze only changed the description to Filled with great magic energy. He activated his Eye for Details, hoping to notice something miniature maybe, when he did, Astre got a strange feeling for a second that he couldn't describe, but as soon as he focused on it was gone.

"What are those?" Astre asked. The fact that it didn't give him item grade meant it was a trigger item for something, those were usually quests items. He discarded the possibility of the orbs being common grade items.

"No idea!" Judgment said gleefully. "But they seem important."

Astre sighed, "I guess."

"They do shine weirdly," Blaze commented, her eyes shining red for a moment. "I looked at them with magic sight. Useful for identifying what spells are being cast."

"Having it against Zesimos would have been nice," Astre stated, choosing not to comment on the mostly situational ability.

Leaving the orbs alone, he turned around, "Where is Hermes?"

"That guy didn't seem interested in this place and fell asleep on the fourth floor," Judgment informed with irritation in her voice.

"Wasn't there a sleeping area?" Astre asked, wondering why they didn't go there to rest.

"Well, Sanguine and Eclipse fell asleep when we were trying to activate that platform. Hermes just dropped off when we were trying to figure out what the thing on the fourth floor is," Judgment informed.

Astre nodded, "Are you tired? We need to find a way out, but we should all get a chance to rest when we can."

"Are we that worried?" Judgment inquired. "We have a pretty big lead."

"Once the top of the leaderboard starts duking it out, we can lose the top spot easily," said Blaze, joining the conversation.

"True, people finding each other will also be mostly a fluke, now that the players' density went down," Astre complained. "That's why we need to get out and get some points before it gets nearly impossible to find anyone."

"I guess, I have no idea how to get out of here though, my guess would be teleporting out," Judgment spoke. "We still don't understand this thing on the fourth floor."

"You called it an observatory?" Astre clarified.

"Well, there are those lenses and crystal, and the ceiling resembles the nightly sky," Judgment explained. "There is a lot of weird machinery that we can steer. It doesn't seem to do much, though."

"He should just take a look at it," Blaze proposed. "It will be easier to understand that way."

Judgment agreed, "I guess."

When the white flash dissipated, Astre appraised the new sight in front of him. This place seemed to want to resemble everything yet nothing from what he knew of the game world.

A large circular platform stood in front of him. Like the one he stood on but much grander, it was covered in all manners of symbols, creating patterns of circles and pathways. Platelike crystals of red, blue, and green shades followed the paths, slowly moving between them. The platform itself was made of white stone. Its edges engraved with letters and symbols he saw before on the first floor.

Many mechanical arms, made of copper, held glass lenses of different shapes, sizes, and colors. Some were the usual flat lenses, but many had the form of triangle or spheres. Few of the arms were empty, seemingly designed to be able to hold anything in them.

The celling was indeed a stary sky. Different from a real one, it moved in a slow spinning fashion. Some stars gave very bright light too, and no moon was to be seen. Few dark clouds moved with the firmament, creating an outline around the stars.

"Yep, I have no idea what it is..." Astre spoke hopelessly. "Did you check around the perimeter of the cave. Is there anything on the walls, or maybe the spot where we arrived?"

"Nope and nope," Judgment replied.

Astre could only groan, it seemed it was time for a puzzle, and there was no rage-quit button. "You get some rest. Then, once we figure this out, we will have to work hard."

"I'm not that tired," Judgment opposed.

"I slept for something like ten hours. We want all of us to be up, rather than having you falling asleep in the middle of operations later. We have stuff to talk over, too," Astre explained. He doubted he would be sleeping himself till the end of the competition. At most, he would just sit down to rest for a while.

"If you state it like that," Judgment spoke, suddenly having to contain a yawn. "Just wake me up if you figure it out, I want to see it."

The blond mage walked over to the smaller platform slowly. Blaze looked at Astre for a while, then at the ceiling and the apparatus, "I will get some rest too."

"Right," Astre nodded.

When the two women disappeared from his sight, Astre sighed. He needed to think about how he would explain he couldn't share the reward in case they won. Also, figuring out how to deal with the whole party, so he doesn't have to worry about getting backstabbed.

He couldn't dodge the conversation, by the end-user license agreement, any money won in competition in a team was to be shared between the members. The split could only be changed by everyone agreeing to it.

He doubted he could start trusting them, but with the alliance system, he had some safety net. He would pay attention to their reactions when they talked later and plan around that.

He walked over to a stone counter with multiple buttons and levers embedded in a metal desk. Pushing a button, he observed as a metal arm with a lense moved up and changed its position. A pull of a lever shifted one of the crystal plates ran along the edges of one of the symbol patterns.

He probed the mechanisms for a while, familiarizing himself with the controls. Soon he discovered it was possible to achieve different results by pushing multiple buttons and levers at once. The options for movement multiplied itself quickly, slowly overwhelming his memory with each new action.

After dozen of minutes of trying to figure something out, he sighed, his headache slowly returning. He already felt that unless he found some clue, he would get nowhere. The chance of brute-forcing it was minuscule.

Looking around, Astre noticed something next to the metal desk, a blue mush that slowly moved up and down. Peering over, he saw Hermes sleeping, sloppily enveloped in gray blanket the mage carried in his inventory. Next to him was a small spot of ash. On his robe, there was a small area with few torn golden strings.

Astre pulled over his cloak to look at the insignia on his arm before tearing it out. When his outfit self-repair triggered, the emblem didn't reappear, only a few golden strings in circular pattern remaining. He didn't pay attention to Judgment, but the symbol was already barely visible on the yellow part of her robe, most likely deliberately.

Kneeling, he grabbed Hermes by the shoulders and roused him gently. While sleeping in an uncomfortable position, in-game, wouldn't cause back pain, it would still affect the rest's quality. The mage slowly opened his eyes, and groggily stared ahead.

"What?" the young man asked, looking around. "Huh? When did I fell asleep?"

"You should go to the sleeping area," said Astre standing up. "We will have a lot of work later."

"Hmm..." Hermes wiped his eyes as he stood up. "Where did Judgment go?"

"To sleep, she tried to solve this thing, but it's already quite late," the leader said as he walked back to the machinery. "I just woke up, so I'm going to work on this."

"I guess they didn't find another way out then," Hermes said to himself as he caressed his unkempt hair. "You don't need any help?"

"If I don't figure anything out in few hours, sure," Astre affirmed before repeating what he said to Judgment. "I need you rested, though, so go get some rest."

"Alright," the mage nodded and yawned, before heading to the teleporting platform.

Astre quickly called out, "Would you wake up Sanguine and Eclipse and tell them to go to the sleep area? They fell asleep on the chairs in the entrance hall."

"Eh, I'm bad at dealing with them, but sure, I will just hope that Judgment thought of that already, or maybe I should just tell her that," Hermes mumbled as he bent to touch the runes. Before he disappeared, he added, "Good luck."

"Thanks," Astre replied, even though the mage was already gone, as he pulled another leaver, he should look for some paper and something to draw with.

After finding mostly clear parchment and a charcoal pencil stick, he started fiddling with the machinery and noting down what each lever did. After over an hour of trying out different things, he managed to place three differently colored and shaped lenses in front of a single shining star on the ceiling.

A ray of blue light reached from the ceiling, through the lenses towards the platform below. Seeing some progress, he moved a few clear lenses trying to direct the light to different spots on the platform below. When he managed to land it on one of the crystals, it shone in bright light, only to go dim shortly after.

Astre sighed once more, as he noted it down, he already knew it was going to be a long night. He needed to figure out how it worked before he started looking for clues, as brute-forcing the solution was unlikely to happen before the end of the tournament.

Astre sighed as he tore his eyes away from the contraption. Over eight hours have passed since the beginning of his torture. Only a little less than thirty hours were left till the end of the tournament.

He didn't even think about going to sleep, and with each hour, his frenzy in finding the solution increased. Every hour he opened the leaderboard, and his frown intensified.

1. Astre - 638 points 2. Sparrow - 531 points 3. Draq - 469 points

On top of the quickly closing gap between him and Sparrow, the number of players on the leaderboard was dropping by the hour. Only fifty-seven names were left on the leaderboard.

There was a pile of things he thought that might be connected to the machine next to him. He visited the third and the first-floor multiple times, bringing anything he considered related with him. Considering the number of useless items filled with crystals and papers with symbols that piled on the floor, his results were minimal.

Astre felt like he was close to figuring something out, but at the same time, he felt like he was just a step away from making a lore link chart. Right now, his guess was this place existed as some collection of the history of the game world.

Looking once more over his latest note, he pulled the levers, moving the lenses and crystals to test his theory. Different colored lasers hit the plates one by one, each placed in significant spots in the symbol formation. He tried something similar before, but now he was sure a white plate needed to be placed in the center of the platform before the thing had even a chance to work.

It was only one of many possible combinations, and most of the patterns were left empty. Each of the crystal slowly shined with light, mixing the colors of the rays and their own. Then the formation shone with multicolored light, changing between shades as if uncertain of what it was supposed to do.

Then, the light died down, and the device returned to its default state. Still, Astre considered it a success. Now he only needed to find one of the absurdly large number of combinations. He didn't remember the combination formula, but with sixty crystals that could release ray of light down on sixteen crystal plates, which could be located in different places, it made his head hurt.

Satisfied, Astre walked away from the desk, carefully stepping around the mess he made, trying not to get his feet injured on a random engraved dagger he found. Making his way towards the teleporting platform.

Placing his feet on the symbol of line and dot, he watched as white light enveloped him. With the feeling of momentary weightlessness, he found himself in a round chamber, with four entrances to adjacent rooms.

Astre walked through an archway three times his size. It was the only one that seemed to have stone beds with brown mattresses visible through it. The beds ended at his head height, allowing him to see if someone was on it barely. The room was broad, containing three rows of five beds.

Seeing only a bundle of blue hair on one of the corner beds, Astre called out as he walked closer, "Hermes, wake up."

"Hmm?" the mage picked himself up with his arm, looking over the mattress's edge, he said displeased, "Oh, you..."

Astre raised his eyebrow, a bit startled by the negativity, "Not a morning person?"

"What?" Hermes let out in a huff before stopping for a second. Wiping his face with both hands, he apologized, "Sorry, had a weird-ass dream."

"That's fine, I guess," the leader said, looking for the other members of the alliance. "Where is everyone else?"

Hermes similarly looked around after the question, "I have no idea. They went to sleep after me, I think, whispering about something, but they were here."

"I guess I left you here in the minority," Astre said with a small smile. Without Flash, and by adding Blaze, the balance between genders shifted heavily to one side. "Hopefully, we can get out of here quickly and keep ourselves busy with getting points."

"Right, I slept through the girl talks, so no problem," Hermes said, flinging himself over the bed's edge onto the floor. "Hey? Ehm. How do I ask about it?" The mage murmured after initial call to himself.

"Yes?" Astre said, waiting while trying to find any clues where the rest of this alliance could have gone.

"What do you think... about Judgment?" the young man asked silently.

Astre looked at the mage, getting the hint he considered his words carefully, "As a mage, she is competent, even if her build is unconventional, it has its uses. As a person, she is smart if bit eccentric, but a lot of players are like that, it's a game after all."

"Well, I mean..." Hermes mumbled his words.

Astre sighed, "I'm not interested anyhow in the way you mean. Moreover, my mind is occupied with something else, even to consider it. I will explain it soon, as it's kind of related to the competition's reward, even if I don't want to share it. I just don't want to repeat myself."

Hermes showed him a look of relief, then confusion, "The reward?"

With one more sigh Astre started walking, "Soon, let's find them."

Hermes followed soon after, with a questioning look on his face, but didn't say anything further. The two of them walked over from one room to the other. The first room they entered was a kitchen with a storage compartment. All the cooking utensils looked too big to be wieldable.

The next room revealed itself to be a study room with giant-sized scribing desks and piles of books put on shelves. Astre let out a groan when he saw this, while Hermes moved curiously between the rows.

"What's this?" Hermes spoke from behind one of the desks.

Astre walked over to find the fairy mage holding a piece of parchment. It was mostly blank, outside of a compass drawn in the top right corner and thick black outline on the edges.

"Some kind of parchment for a map?" Astre asked.

"Looks like it, but it's even titled, look," Hermes pointed at the words on the top of the outline. "It's in Gresslish, the one of the simple alphabet swap languages you can find all over the game world. It says 'Origin Island - Origin of beginning and end'."

"I knew I recognized them. Could it mean this island? We already have Ragnarok-Grade monsters, and this place looks like some weird testing place for devs... Is there a completed one?" Astre asked, now engaged in the topic.

"Let's see," Hermes said, looking around.

Both of them searched the room, soon finding six more empty maps. Placing them on a big chair in front of them, they stared inquisitively. Astre's Analyze failed to bring anything useful beyond the title that he already knew.

"So, anything magical?" Astre asked.

"Doesn't look like it," Hermes shook his head, "tried activating it, but there is no reaction, focusing on it with Mana Manipulation active also does nothing. I wish there was like a sixth sense for mana or something, would make things easier than just fumbling around trying things."

"Don't ask for impossible, just affecting our five senses takes all the processing power the headsets have," Astre responded. "Still, that leaves the usual stuff, like light reflection, or invisible ink, maybe some item."

The leader took one of the maps into his hands and brought it over his head, facing toward one of the lights in the ceiling. A faint outline of an island showed itself, but it was too weak to discern any details.

"It seems I was right," Astre stated and pulled out a scroll of mage light. Now that he could use the skill without feeling his head being split into two, he didn't need to pass it to Hermes.

When he placed the paper over the blue light, he saw now much more tangible figures. The map represented a large island with nine distinctive areas. While it was black and white, it was easy to tell what each zone was, with the jungle that took the middle west portion of the map was filled with imagery of lush vegetation and rivers.

From it, going clockwise, Astre saw the previously known desert, then a steep highland with canyons, an area with what looked like large mushrooms and spreading rot, a grassy plain, a muddy marsh, a sea area with many islands in it, many of which seemed to float in the air, and finally the tundra that was south of the jungle.

"Eh? Some people were chilling on grassy plain or island shores, and we got jungle?" Hermes voiced his complaint.

"I doubt they were chilling, there is nowhere to hide on a grassy plain, so it was probably a giant battle royale there," Astre conjectured. "Swimming between islands is also something I wouldn't want to do. I'm more interested in those symbols," he added, tracing with his fingers to small circles with triangles in them.

"Hmm, who knows, let's look at the other ones."

Each map had a different set of symbols drawn on them, but all were put in the same corresponding locations. Astre was now more or less sure this clue contained the answer on how to use the machinery. He wanted to dart off and test his new ideas, but he still had to talk with everyone.

"Those will be important," Hermes stated. "We should look for the girls, talk about what you want to discuss, and solve this place. Maybe it will make for a good addition to the lore wiki."

"Are you active there?" Astre asked a bit surprised.

"Not as much as I would like to, between all the tutors my father signed me for, and in-game my brother doesn't let me outside of his eye view," Hermes said spitefully, then sighed.

"Will they be angry?"

"Father? It depends what my brother tells him, though I'm not supposed to ever oppose Apollo's family in any manner, who knows?" the young man shrugged. "I will worry about this later. It's already after the fact. Though if I get kicked out of the house, will you let me crash at your place? I doubt anyone I know would want to cross my family."

Astre looked at the young man in front of him. He wasn't sure how complicated the situation was, but if it was true, he didn't see any reason to disagree, "Well, if it comes to that, sure, no problem. Though is it impossible to talk things through with them?"

"Never worked. Usually, I got dismissed as whiner on a good day, getting more work on a bad one," Hermes explained as he sighed, "Thanks, let's go."

Astre nodded, the two of them left the room, heading for the last archway. Before entering, the adventurer quickly grabbed the fairy mage by the shoulder, stopping both of them.

"What's wrong?" Hermes asked, concerned.

"Listen carefully," Astre said.

Hermes closed his eyes, and soon his face expression tensed, "Good ears, let's go back."

The two of them turned around, walking back to the study room, leaving the sounds of dripping water and murmurs behind them.

Astre sat on the grass, waiting for Blaze and Judgment. Blaze insisted on having her morning coffee before any serious talk, for which Astre was a bit thankful. As much as he wanted to get through this, he hadn't managed to think of any sound way to introduce the topic.

No matter how hard he tried, no words formed in his head, he has never told anyone about it. He and his few in-game associates never talked about real life. Whenever they tried, he would escape with some excuse and go farming.

Only now he realized how much he wanted to avoid this. He wasn't used to ever talking about his problems; dealing with them alone was his preferred option.

"What's with the hard look," Judgment asked as she passed Astre a hot oversized mug of coffee.

"Thanks," the blond man acknowledged, taking the drink and chugging it down his throat before twisting his face at the slight burning feeling.

"Are you alright? It was boiling less than a minute ago," Judgment said, looking worried.

"Good thing my pain setting isn't too high," he said as he looked into the remaining black liquid.

"I thought calm and cocky were the only mode you had," Blaze poked at Astre.

"Yeah," Astre sighed as he took another sip.

He looked over the people surrounding him. Sanguine and Eclipse watched him silently, the black-haired sister hiding the coffee in the grass next to her while the other sipped her drink slowly. Hermes, who refused a drink, stared at him curiously. Judgment looked uncertain with the sudden shift in tone. Blaze raised her eyebrow in a questioning manner.

For a second, he considered if he should just lie. He could just hide the fact and hope to convince them somehow afterward. He couldn't run away with the money if they won even if he wanted to, the law was against him, and he would never see it if the rest of the team complained.

One more reason he should have turned back then. He wondered whatever the mysterious ability was a blessing or a curse. Why did it show him the vision when he wasn't in danger was something he didn't understand. He would need to have a serious talk with Calli; he couldn't forget the drilling pain of yesterday.

He had to deal with the situation in front of him first somehow. He didn't trust in his ability to create a believable lie. Acting and misleading people into his traps wasn't the same as trying to get their compassion. In the end, he could only tell the truth and hope for the best.

"Look, the silence, and the long face makes me think you are going to tell us that you are going to drop out or give up," Blaze stated with slight irritation in her voice.

"No, no, I can't give up," Astre said instinctively.

"Can't?" Judgment repeated inquisitively.

"Yes, well, I don't have any good way to say it," Astre said, stumbling for words. "I, kind of, really need the whole first-place prize."

There was a moment of silence, Hermes and Judgment stared at him in surprise, while the sisters enigmatically tilted their heads. Blaze calmly took a sip of her coffee.

"Are you indebted to some loan shark?" the fiery redhead asked with her eyebrow raised.

"I wish it was that," Astre sighed. "I will just tell you everything."

Over the next thirty minutes, Astre spoke about his sister's illness for the first time in his life. He explained everything, from what it was to when it started and how much money they needed. He answered every question they had for him too.

When he mentioned his mother died from the same illness, he stopped himself. He didn't want to talk about his memories from back then, even more, just thinking about it after this conversation caused him to choke on his words.

He didn't want to start crying. At some point in the conversation, he hid his face by looking downwards. In the end, he fell into silence as no more questions came.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, someone spoke, "Sorry," said Sanguine in sorrowful voice. "After Eclipse bought... some rusty sword, papa took away our card."

"Sorry," Eclipse apologized, her voice filled with genuine anguish.

Astre brought up his face, and he saw the two sisters looking to be in even more pain than him. He chuckled and walked over to them, "Don't apologize, I wouldn't even think about asking you for money. Still, thanks."

Blaze coughed awkwardly, "I want to think that you are pulling our leg here. But even I don't think so. Shit. This makes me feel bad about always trying to get better of you."

"Don't be. I ended up gaining a bit of money from the items you dropped," Astre joked, his voice sounding only barely forced.

Blaze punched him in the shoulder, enough for it to hurt slightly, "Shut up. Fine, I didn't expect to get anything anyway, since, in the end, you are helping me out too. I can ask my parents for money to pay lawyers fees too."

Astre looked with a surprise at the redhaired woman, "Thanks," was all he could say.

"Eh, well, I wouldn't say I didn't hope for small part, hoping to put it into my business, but well, I don't need it THAT much," Judgment said a bit bashfully. "Honestly, I wish I could help, but I'm really just starting out and already straining my limited resources. My parents won't share a cent too."

"You don't need to go that far. Really, just your cooperation will mean everything to me," Astre responded quickly. Only now realizing that somehow this ended up a thousand times better than he imagined. What did he do to earn their support was something he asked himself.

"Eh, with everyone like that, do I even have any say?" Hermes questioned with a bad joking voice. "I can't help in any way, but I don't need money, just let me crash at your place as you promised."

"It's small but feel yourself always welcomed," Astre said, unable to control his emotions. He wondered if he should have opened to someone beforehand. "Right, well, thanks, honestly."

"It's fine," Hermes said with a wave, turning his face to hide his eyes as a bit of red entered his face. He twisted his cheek, wincing a little, before speaking, "Judgment, I didn't know you had a business."

"Oh, well, that's just something I needed to do," the young woman said, somewhat surprised. "I needed to if I wanted to have any freedom in choosing my future, but let's talk about this later. We have to get out of here. After all, we have a tournament to win."

"Wait, I didn't ask, but what is your plan if you don't win?" Blaze asked, realizing the hole in the arrangement.

"Loan shark?" Astre stated, questioning himself.

"I will beg of dad," Eclipse stated, assuring him.

Astre smiled at her, "No, really there..."

The adventurer stopped as something moved in his field of vision. Immediately, his mind turned cold and calculating. The world slowed around him as he used Focus, a slight strain settled on his mind, but he didn't care about it.

A black knife soared at him, its owner quickly disappearing from sight. Astre used Analyze as he pulled out a sword from his inventory. With perfectly aimed Parry, the projectile landed behind him.

A cloud of mist exploded and enveloped the team altogether, clouding their vision beyond a few feet. Astre muttered under his breath as he devised a plan, "Ghost."