“You are one odd human. I can see that you are not telling lies or using your tales as bait. “There’s no point for me to lie about it. Besides, I am nothing special,” I said, and went straight to the next question and another additional question. A series of questions, which I included as one query with branches that stemmed from its roots.“What happens now that you admit defeat? Will the second phase be uplifted? And I know I might be asking too much, but do you have any means or details that could help my party and me defeat the next monster… You know, just like you,” I asked. “And what’s with this ‘pet’ thingy? Does that mean I can enslave any monster attacking us? What are the procedures? Tell me. Don’t worry, I won’t use it on you… But there might be others out there that are interested in that power. I will not use the information to hunt you down or the things and creatures you love. But if the time comes that I need to use the technique, I will be grateful for your guidance.

[The Scarlet Dragon has been killed][The Contract is still active][The Second Phase was defeated.][You have been rewarded with experience points!][Since the Second Phase of the trial has been completed, every adventurer will be rewarded with twelve hours of break time! No monster will appear in all areas of the portal. Timer starts now!]I didn’t kill it… Even though the Scarlet Dragon was a monster, by the time we parted ways, it still had a few arcane and skills in its sleeves. Despite having the chance to kill the monster, that creature was by no means weaker than these swarms of monsters.So who killed the mighty beast? Everyone I knew was present before me. I didn’t do it. I would never break my promises, especially with this contract beside my name. But even though I had a contract, the scroll told me that I didn’t shatter our pledge. In fact, the contract was still there on my notification, but slowly faded away because of the Scarlet Dragon’s death. I was here protecting

Even though Will and the others half-heartedly fought me, I never lowered my guard and defended myself from their attacks. I also made sure that my shells would kill them or even hit their major organs. My attacks only grated their skin, and the elite adventurers of the Crimson Guild also did the same. We may be clashing swords, but these adventurers knew that hurting one another would bring nothing but trouble. After a few moments, Akai finally joined the fray. Since the Crimson Guild leader had connected with the rest, Will and the others had no other choice but to get ninety percent of their real power. I only called it ninety percent because Icarus still refused to unleash his blazing wings and golden sword in his body. But since he wanted to play seriously even for a moment, Icarus planned to even the score, especially when I kicked his ass the first time we met. Maybe that was the only motivation the team had while fighting against me. Before the fight could even start, I used

For a second, I thought I wouldn’t make it. But once I was near Akai, I managed to fire my sniper within close range and hit his blade before it could even reach the old man’s nape. Akai didn’t let go of his katana. But the force coming from my shot was enough to disturb his footing as I pulled the old man to safety.My body moved as nimble as a jaguar, and even faster than my bullets. Thanks to Vulcan’s additional improvements on my clothes, when I use my suit in full force, I could outspeed almost everyone with it. However, the down side was pretty harsh. Every time I pushed myself beyond what my clothes were capable of, my body was the one who suffered the most. Even though my outfit was meant for me, these perks the old man made were too much for a human to handle.“Are you alright? Did that blade reach you?” I asked the old man.The aged bloke shook his head. His eyes were wide as the plains we had seen before, bewildered after my swift movement as I evaded Akai’s attack. After

Back to Aoi’s Perspective________________I didn’t know if I still had the chance to defeat Akai and the rest of the Crimson Guild. Will and the others were by no means weak. But if they came after me with their numbers, I knew I could be easily defeated even after taking out some of them from the fight. But there was one way for me to ensure victory, and that was…“Am I ready to kill these people?” I wanted to kill Akai. I wanted to take him out from this world and reduce the weed besides the summonings of these portals. If I let this madman lose, Akai could kill more people with his twisted mind. He can't be left alive. And the only one who could stand against him was… meBut I had no idea if I was ready to kill someone with my own hands. I had never done this before. And as much as possible I never wanted to take someone’s life, besides Akai… Well, even if I was talking about Akai, if there was a way to punish him with the law, I would prefer that. But we were inside the portal.