"I guess it is time to do things the rough way," murmuring deep under his breath, Licht manifested the pair of trusty gauntlets. The second trait of Sentinel's armor showed its effect in full form, as the crude gauntlets from before were no more.
Instead of the usual crappy ones he had made. These were far better, made with more finesse.
The bone gauntlets adorned Licht's hands, blackened skeletal material wrapped around his fingers, ending in sharp, wicked spikes jutting from the knuckles.
Each gauntlet boasted intricate engravings that made them look like weapons from ancient times.
Clicking noises echoed every time he clenched his fists. The gauntlets seemed to come alive. It felt like they were extensions of his will, raging to go into battle.
Getting into a boxing position with both of his hands near his chin, Licht rushed forward. 'Let's see if my punches are better than my kicks,'
Licht punched the ant while holding down its pincers. It staggered and flailed its head around.
But only for a moment. The ant lashed out again, its legs trying to scratch off Licht's skin.
In the heat of the moment, the ant's pincers finally collided with Licht's body, but alas. They couldn't pierce through Sentinel's armor.
The armor shone under the dim lightning as if mocking the helpless calamity.
Every time Licht punched harder than before, just because he had one worry.
'I don't know anything about this trial, so essentially I am fucked if I don't get details.'
'Will I have to fight to fight more of these ants?' Licht suddenly dreaded the thought of tens of ants clinging to his body, trying to flay his skin off.
'Bloody hell!'
Not wasting any time, Licht pushed his hands deep into its mouth, injuring the ant internally. Some pieces of its flesh got stuck to Licht but he was used to this gore.
The writhing of the ant was getting harder to control by the minute. Its legs and mandibles were finally starting to give him more than just superficial wounds.
Finally having enough of it, Licht overturned its body, making it flail the legs around while being on its back.
Its head turned in confusion while a sense of foreboding doom came from above it. Licht was upon him!
Just as this happened, the spikes on his gauntlets rose and renewed themselves. Licht slammed his hands on its body.
He banged its shell again and again until cracks started forming on the exoskeleton. The cracks started small but grew more prominent with each hit.
SHRIEK!
The ant writhed in agony, trying to gain the upper hand on him, but nothing worked. The human was far stronger.
A web of cracks had formed. They looked crumbly and fragile as if they would break down with a touch.
But Licht stopped this process and summoned Butcherer's knife. Its blade gleamed under the horror of the ant's eyes.
Pinning down the ant with one of his hands, Licht butchered its chest. Blood flowed out of its body as a gruesome mess of its insights was all left.
Slowly the writhing of the ant lessened as life flashed by its eyes. Its body became limp under Licht's knife.
Licht shrugged his hands off in the air, splashing the bits of flesh on them everywhere.
He looked at the corpse of the ant and taking a moment to himself, he decided to put it inside his inventory.
'Well, I finally got some food, time to save calamity souls...Hehe,'
But suddenly, a sense of foreboding took over him. Licht stood up and rushed to the opposite wall.
Resting his back on the wall, he opened the shop panel and frantically scrolled down. He searched and searched for minutes until he gave up.
The atmosphere in the tunnel got gloomy as the sound of something breaking echoed.
It was the sound of Licht's heart breaking, shattering into millions of pieces as he gazed into the air with dead eyes.
"Haha, I….I really fucked it up," Licht's voice cracked up.
"Saint Dorax's manual isn't there..."
"They….updated the shop catalog." Licht's disappointment was immeasurable, and his day was ruined.
Suddenly an ethereal glow surrounded his body as his body slowly started to break into particles.
"Ah yes, maybe they will send me back? I didn't get any notification for defeating this calamity as well, haha,"
Small, pain-filled laughs kept leaking from his mouth.
The sadness was apparent in his voice. Licht was too heartbroken to be affected by other things.
He had spent more than half of his time in this hellhole trying to buy that one manual, and now that he had enough calamity souls for it. It wasn't there.
The products in the shop had been upgraded, and they were far better, but they weren't better than the manual he dearly wanted. A hole had been made inside of Licht.
"Haha, what is the point of thinking of all this?" he spoke while his body got teleported back.
But the place he had come back to wasn't familiar. He wasn't still in that dark tunnel, nor was he back near the pond.
A fragrant smell greeted his nostrils. He was in a different world. A world he had only seen in records.
A completely new environment greeted his eyes. It was a world full of trees. Many trees.
Trees far bigger than the ones on Earth extended in every direction, their trunk wide enough to fit a whole car while their height couldn't be seen from the ground.
'Let's stop this for now. I will have my whole life to dread this mistake, haha.' Licht didn't want to cope, but he couldn't help it.
Licht's eyes darted everywhere while his body tensed up, ready to move at any subtle changes in this still scenery.
His sword manifested in his hand as he got into the position to parry anything thrown at him.
Yet nothing came. Not a single thing happened. He waited and waited, thinking it would change just at this moment.
Something would spring out of the sky or the ground, but nothing happened for the longest time.
The scene in front of him was desolate. No living being could be seen in the surroundings.
It was this kind of eerie silence that Licht feared even more than a roaring battlefield.
Author's Notes: Another chapter will be coming some hours later. Most probably at the usual time. I was out of town the whole day so couldn't write anything yesterday.