A few weeks ago...

In a certain part of the mountain slopes of the Dragon Valley, there are so many prehistoric animal carcasses are scattered all over the place. There are carcasses of Triceratops about twice the size of an adult hippopotamus, dozens of Velociraptors, and even a pair of T-Rexes.

It is not clear how much the total number of these dead monsters is, due to the lack of light at dawn.

Meanwhile, four warriors are taking a rest on a cliff near a giant cave. There are also bones of a pair of dragon thighs on the remnants of a bonfire near their camp.

One of them, a woman with golden hair wearing some kind of Magical Paladin Robe without its armor, just gets up earlier than the others. As soon as she sits up, she starts doing odd stuff, like touching the empty air in front of her.

“Status!” she mutters.

In that instant, an interface window appears in front of her, displaying various personal information about her personal status.

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[Lv 81. Loser No. 3 a.k.a. Leia]

- Class: Paladin Warrior

- Specialty: Aura Mastery

HP : 100%

MP : 100%

Vitality : 100%

Fatigue : 5

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That woman with the nickname Leia looks a little uninspired to find out there are still 5 fatigue points left. Of course she is also aware, a night of rest wouldn't be enough to eliminate all the fatigue in her body.

She stands up and starts stretching her body. A moment later, she walks over a man with a big body build who is still asleep in a crooked position.

All of a sudden, that woman kicks him in the ass.

“Woi, Gas! Wake up!” she shouts.

“Hmm? Just wake up the others,” replies that man as he tries to get back to his sleep. “You should know it already. I was the last one on guard last night.”

“Come on! I know you fell asleep right away. There weren’t any monsters in this area since yesterday,” she grumbles, giving the man another kick on the butt.

Meanwhile, the other two people wake up due to their commotion. One of them, a man with long white hair, is seen waving his hand so slowly. A chilling aura occurs around him. A moment later, a lump of ice is created from the thin air.

But before long, the ice immediately melts. He collects the water in the palm of his hands and splashes it on his face. He washes his face by repeating the same thing several times.

He even splashes the last water to the face of the other man who still looks sleepy. But the man is so indifferent, looking so uninspired to respond to his friend's jokes.

“Dude! Are you okay?” the white haired man asks with a frown face.

“Yeah!” replies the sleepy man curtly, with a languid face and eyes still not fully opened.

“What do you mean by yeah?” says that white-haired man with a slightly ridiculous expression on his face. “Leia, would you mind checking our condition?” he asks.

The condition of that sleepy man indeed provokes Leia’s attention. Immediately, she mutters to herself once more, as if carrying out an order.

“Skill Set! Activate scanning level 1!”

Immediately, an interface window appears again, displaying a list of the skills she possesses. But only a glance, since she issues the two commands at once.

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[Notifications!]

- Lv 1 Scanning is activated!

*******************

She turns her gaze to her friends one by one. She starts scanning the big man who is still sleeping, until it shows a brief info of the man’s personal status.

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[Lv 86. Loser No. 5 a.k.a. Gaston]

- Class : The Colossus Champion

- Specialty: The Firmness Of The Goliath

HP : 100%

MP : 100%

Vitality : 100%

Fatigue : 0

*******************

“Gas! Get up! The point of your fatigue is already back to zero. Don’t look for excuses to be lazy!”

After that, she checks the white-haired man who is already busy tidying up his things.

*******************

[Lv 80. Loser No. 4 a.k.a. Zul]

- Class: Grand Magus

- Specialty: Wizard Of The Frost

HP : 100%

MP : 98%

Vitality : 100%

Fatigue : 0

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 “Zul, your mana hasn't fully recovered yet,” Leia informs.

“I can see it myself. I just used my mana a little to wash my face,” Zul replies.

However, when Leia starts scanning the other man who is still so dispirited, she gets quite a strange status.

“What’s wrong with you? Azzim?”

His HP is stuck at 83 %, and it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any better. In fact, as far as Leia knows, Azzim's HP regeneration rate is quite high for an Assassin Warrior.

It's such a strange that his HP is stuck like that. What makes it even worse is that his Vitality falls so low, already below 50%. That’s a number usually found in someone with serious illness.

“Your HP is stuck at 83 % even after a night of sleep,” says Leia with a kind of awry face.

“I'm fine. It will be recovered later by noon,” Azzim replies as he goes back to sleep again.

“You idiot! Your HP won't recover with such a low level of Vitality.”

She starts checking on Azzim's condition with a more detailed examination by using a higher level scanning skill, until she gets info that Azzim’s blood had been contaminated by some kind of poison.

She then rushes to check his body directly and finds a scar that still hasn’t closed on the upper part of his arm. She even slightly feels a strange aura from the wound.

“You got poisoned. Since when did you get this wound?” she asks.

“Last night, I did a little patrol on the hill below. That viper did manage to touch me with the tip of its tail,” Azzim replies.

“Touch my ass! Don't you realize you've been poisoned?”

“Yea, yea!” Azzim ignores her and lays back down to continue sleeping..

Leia is squinting her eyes, looking so annoyed with Azzim's responses. She then rushes to the tent looking for something.

“You should know it already. We are going to face the Gatekeeper for this Sixth Trial Realm today,” Leia grumbles while busy unpacking her bag.

Shortly after, she comes back with a vial filled with a clear yellowish liquid. It’s a magical ether liquid that can be used to heal any type of poison.

“Drink this! If the poison doesn't go away, your HP won’t recover. Didn't we agree that we will only fight the Gatekeeper in our best condition?” she says rhetorically.

Azzim drinks the ether liquid from the vial given by Leia. That is the last vial of Ether they have. Within seconds, the liquid starts to work. Gradually, his vitality status rises. His HP is also starting to increase, albeit slowly.

“It will take a few hours before your HP is be completely recovered. We can’t enter The Boss’ Lair right now. After all, we have absolutely no idea what kind of monsters we will face later,” Leia continues.

“Why don't you just activate your Vitality Aura in its maximum level?” asks Gaston, who is busy putting his armor back on.

“I want to maintain my mana before we face the Gatekeeper later. We no longer have any elixir crystals nor an elixir liquid right now,” Leia objects.