As both Eldric and the girl kept on looking at each other, the uncomfortable silence grew increasingly.
It wasn't until a few more moments passed that the Girl spoke first.
But her very first words confused Eldric.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Even though she asked a question, Edlric felt like she was telling him to start talking. As for the topic...
"Talk about what?" With a frown, Eldric asked. In his heart, he was a bit nervous. Perhaps the girl was asking him to talk about the sudden disappearance of the materials as well as using a completely new skill.
After all, she wasn't blind. And with the things she knew...
"Really...?"
With a sneer on her face, the girl kept on looking at Eldric's face. As if hoping to see a reaction.
"Sigh..." Since it has come to this, Eldric could only try to explain to her about this ability of his.
"It's actually a pretty long story."
"Go on... I am listening." She replied in a flat tone.
"The thing is... I had a dream and in that dream, I saw an old man telling me that I have an innate skill through which I can use materials to strengthen my other skills.
This is the reason you see the materials..."
"STOP."
Interrupting Eldric in the middle of his sentence, the girl snorted in displeasure. "I don't care about your skills or how you strengthen them.
What I want to know is how were you able to finish the first floor of the trial this easily?"
"Eh!?" Even though he was suddenly interrupted, Eldric wasn't angry. On the contrary, he was confused by the girl's words.
"What do you mean, how I completed the first floor?" Looking at her like he was looking at an idiot, Eldric added further
"You were there the whole time. Didn't you see it yourself?"
"Don't act ignorant." It was now that the girl raised her voice a bit.
"I am asking about how were you able to fight with those beasts this easily?"
"Uhh!" Eldric was expecting many things but he certainly wasn't expecting this question.
"Isn't it simple?"
"Certainly not." The moment he asked, the girl replied in a cold voice.
"Not by someone who has never fought before.
You have been on this school grounds for a long time. You certainly didn't have the resources or time to go outside the city to hunt monsters.
And you certainly didn't fight when Ellina summoned all those bears.
So... The question still remains.
How were you able to do that?"
With every word she spoke, her eyes narrowed a bit and her voice increased. By the time she reached the end of her sentence, her voice had now filled the entire room.
"..." Eldric who was stunned by her sudden outburst didn't know how to react. Should he console her, or should he tell her the truth?
But even if he were to tell him that he just did it naturally, purely on instincts, he doubted whether she would believe him or not.
"..." The girl on the other hand took Eldric's silence as an admission to his guilt.
"Good... Good... Good."
Saying good three times, she kept on nodding her head.
"And here I thought we have some trust between us.
I thought that I could trust you.
But thank you for telling me that this is not the case."
The more she spoke the angrier she got.
Eldric on the other hand stayed silent. He didn't know what happened for the girl to suddenly give out such a big reaction.
"It was my fault for trusting you. I guess the time we spent together meant nothing to you."
"What the...?" Listening to her, Eldric felt like she had a problem with her head. Or how else would one explain this sudden outburst and the completely irrelevant reasoning behind it?
But after listening to her, even he was beginning to get a bit angry. In his eyes, she was making a mountain out of a mole.
Gritting his teeth, Eldric finally decided enough was enough and stood up from his bed, directly facing the girl.
With his face inches away from hers, he began to speak.
"I don't want to hear about trust... Especially not from you."
"You..." Pointing her finger, the girl gritted her teeth. "What do you mean?"
"What do I MEAN?" Pointing towards himself, Eldric let out a sneer
"I don't know what you learned or what you know, but trust goes both ways.
If you want my trust, then how about gaining mine first?"
The more Eldric spoke the angrier he got.
"From our very first meeting, you never told me who you were. You never told me where you came from or what happened to you.
HELL... You didn't even tell me your NAME."
With a scoff, he sneered "And you want me to trust you... A complete stranger."
With a brief pause, he looked away from her.
"What a joke."
.
.
.
"....." The room plunged into a long silence as the girl kept on looking at Eldric with a stunned expression on her face.
She still couldn't believe that he would be daring enough to shout at her.
Biting her lips, she looked at Eldric with misty red eyes.
'Shit...' Looking at the little girl who seemed like she was going to cry, Eldric cursed loudly in his heart.
He didn't know why he suddenly got so angry. He usually keeps his calm even in the worst situation. But now...
Thinking about how to salvage the situation, Eldric gritted his teeth and was about to say sorry when he saw the figure of the girl disappearing completely.
"Sigh..." Helplessly, Eldric could only swallow back his words.
"You there?"
"Hello."
"Oh come on."
Eldric kept on shouting but to his dismay, there was no reply. The girl seemed to completely vanish.
"Sigh... Forget it." With a helpless sigh, Eldric could only shake his head and focus on the things in front of him first.
.
.
.
After taking a rest for three hours, Eldric chose the tower of trials once again before disappearing from his room.
"Let's see what kind of monsters I am going to face now?"
Searching for a while on the first floor, Eldric finally came across a pitch-black door, leading to the next floor.
Without any hesitation, Eldric stepped in.
"Ugh..." The second floor looked exactly the same as the first floor. Except instead of Oxen, numerous horses were roaming the field.
"What even is this trial?" Speechless, Eldric walked towards the nearest horse before standing in front of him and using his newly evolved skill, 'Blitz Assault'.
His hand turned into an afterimage as it hit the horse on the neck.
Without any surprise, this newly gained skill broke its neck in two punches, leaving behind the body of a twitching horse which soon disappeared too.
[Red: 101 Points]
Looking at his points, he nodded in satisfaction. He didn't know what was the use of these points. But since he could get a hundred points from every floor, he was more than happy to get them.
Hundred also seemed to be the limit of monsters that he could kill.
"Can I just ignore these monsters and step into the next floor?" As soon as this thought came to his mind, Eldric began to search for the door. And within a few minutes, he was able to locate it.
It was in the same position as the previous floor.
Looking at the pitch-black door, Eldric was sure that he could step into the next floor. But he didn't dare to.
Passing of trial was less of a concern to him. In his eyes, there was something even more important than passing the trials and it was getting those sweet sweet tokens.
Thinking about it, Eldric waited for the next two minutes before hunting another horse.
Now that his skill has evolved, he could use it for ten seconds, letting him kill two horses after activating it.
And with the cooldown as low as two minutes, he was able to kill a hundred horses in the next two hours.
[Red: 200 Points]
[Tokens: 8]
Looking at the increasing number of tokens and points, Eldric smiled before walking toward the third floor.
Throughout the day, Eldric kept on hunting the beasts in the trial.
Just like the first and second floors, the rest of the floors were grasslands too.
The third floor had sheep as opponents, the fourth floor had giant rabbits, and the fifth floor had ducks as the opponents.
For Eldric who was now steamrolling with his newly evolved skill, this trial was a place to earn tokens.
And by the time it was evening, he was able to finish all five floors.
[Red: 500 Points]
[Tokens: 23]
Standing on the fifth floor, Eldrix was looking at a golden portal in front of him. If he was right, then passing through this portal means completing the trial.
With a heart filled with curiosity, Eldric slowly moved his hand forward, trying to touch the portal.
And as soon as his hand came in contact with the portal, a new mag suddenly popped in front of him.
"Whether to finish the trial?"
"No." Hastily choosing the 'No' option, Eldric took a step back. He wasn't here to complete the trial but to earn as many tokens as possible.
Thinking about giving up on the trial, two options appeared in front of him.
[Give up] [Exit]
This time, Eldric didn't choose to exit but gave up.
Abd the moment he did, he appeared in the familiar empty white space with four difficulties to choose from again.
[Ordinary] [Hard] [Hell] [Nightmare]
Thinking for a moment, Eldric chose the [Ordinary] difficulty again.
He wanted to see whether he could complete the mission of earning tokens once again.
If that was the case, then he was going to stay in trials for as long as possible.
But unfortunately, the reality is often disappointing.
Looking at the Golden Portal in front of him along with an empty grassland, Eldric let out a bitter smile.
"It is not possible."
Giving up the trial, he again stood in the white place looking at the remaining three difficulties.
"Let's just see the Hard difficult."
With this, Eldric made his selection and as soon as he did, he found himself standing in front of a five-story tower once again.
Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the missions.
[Hunt 100 creatures on the first floor: 5 Tokens]
[Hunt 100 creatures on the second floor: 5 Tokens]
.
.
[Hunt 100 creatures on the fifth floor: 5 Tokens]
"At least increase the rewards." Looking at the reward of five tokens in dissatisfaction, Eldric complained in his heart but still chose to step through the door to the first floor.
Looking at the large grassland similar to the previous difficulty, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the opponent he was going to face this time.
In front of him was a creature that looked like a large lizard. Its body was the size of a large dog and its four legs were constantly digging the ground, perhaps polishing those thirty-inches long pointy claws.
Occasionally, it would open its mouth to let out a hiss.
"...." Looking at this creature, Eldric was silent for a long time before shaking his head and slowly walking towards it.