Chapter 3 [The Golden Lotus Lake]

The sun shone brightly over a vast forest filled with giant trees as a thin old man wearing a white uniform swiftly traveled along the tree branches.

He moved his body agily as he jumped from one tree to another, but despite his rapid actions there wasn't even a drop of swaet on his face.

Thud-

He suddenly came to a stop and quietly hid himself behind some tree branches to observe.

On the ground a muscular humanoid creature with green skin was facing off against a large grayish blue wolf.

The green skinned humanoid had a hideous face with sharp canines sticking out of it's mouth, he wielded a large rusted sword to keep the wolf at bay but the wolf was more agile and would occasionally land some hits.

The green skin was slowly but surely getting injured and exhausted, if things kept on going like this he was bound to fall.

"Gwaaaargh!" The green skin roared furiously at the wolf and in a bid to end the fight quickly by risking his life charged at the wolf with his sword pointed forward.

"Grrr-roaaa!" The wolf also didn't back out and lunged out with terrifying speed.

Bang!

The two monsters collided creating a loud noise and causing blood to splatter everywhere.

The wolf was biting on the right shoulder of the green skin and the green skin had successfully penetrated the wolf's abdomen, the victor was decided.

Splat!

With a forceful jolt the rusty sword was pulled out, causing blood to gush out of the large wound.

The giant wolf fell down with a thud, breathing heavily, it's eyes filled with unwillingness.

"Guooh!" The green skin gave a cry of victory, and slammed it's feet down on the wolf's head, crushing it's skull and ending it's life.

It was a very brutal inspiring scene, two hot blooded monsters fighting for survival, but Danes focus was already on something else.

He was looking at some bushes a small distance away from the fight.

In the bushes a group of small green skinned humanoid creatures with long ears were aiming their arrows.

Looking at their skin people might mistake them to be either underlings or allies of the other green skinned monster but their eyes were filled with bloodthirst as they immediately fired one arrow after another at it.

The muscular green skin hadn't even taken a breath of relaxation before it's body was filled with arrows.

Some arrows went through it's abdomen, filling it's insides with a special poison that caused it's body to immediately stiffen.

An arrow went through it's throat, destroying the windpipe and making it unable to breath.

Another penetrated it's chest, going all the way through the heart, and completely ending it's life.

Another body fell with a thud.

In a matter seconds, the celebrating champion of a fight had become the prey, it was a cruel and vicious cycle.

Dane shook his head at the green monster's fate before continuing to move through the forest.

.....

Back in the cave, Alph was currently sitting cross legged with the grimoir of gluttony opened in front of him.

A holographic projection was displaying the scene of Dane moving across the forest.

It was the Observe function of the Grimoire Of Gluttony, it allowed the user to observe and command their slave no matter where they were, all he needed to do was turn to the page of the slave that he wanted to observe and if the slave in question was a certain distance away from him he just had to think about it and the function would activate.

"Orcs, goblins and giant wolves! This really is a fantasy world!" Alph had been observing the old man since the start and he had seen everything, even the fight between the orc and the wolf and the eventual demise of them both.

Previously he had been contemplating of going out of the cave himself but after much consideration he had decided to make use of his new found abilities and had ordered Dane to survey the surroundings.

Of course, at that time he had no idea abou the Grimoires remote observation function but he was very grateful that he had sent Dane instead of going out himself.

According to his observations, the cave was located on the side of a small mountain which was located in an unimaginably huge forest.

For the past 3 hours Dane had been travelling at an astonishing speed and yet there wasn't even any sign of human activities.

"Hmm? A lake?" Currently the book was showing the scene of Dane coming across a lake.

The lake looked extremely breathtaking, it was littered with innumerable golden lotus flowers that were shining with golden light.

Aside from the glowing lotus flowers, he couldn't see any other creatures, Dane looked at it for a second before continuing to move forward.

"Stop! Go and pick up a lotus flower from the lake!" Alph felt that the flowers weren't anything ordinary so he decided to command Dane to pick one up.

"As you wish, great master!" Dane hurriedly bowed towards the cave and replied.

Without any hesitation he jumped down from the tree and approached the lake.

Suddenly the golden light being emitted by the flowers exploded in brilliance completely blotting the vision, before returning to normal but this time there was a giant golden lotus flower in the middle of the lake with an elegantly dressed girl comfortably sitting on top of it.

She appeared to be in her late teens with wavy golden hair and milky white skin and she was wearing a white and golden elegant robe that fluttered without any wind.

"Brave warrior, do you seek the golden lotus?" She looked at Dane with her glittering eyes and asked while smilling.

"Yes" Dane gave a short and firm answer, his voice was extremely calm and composed.

The elegant girl was somewhat taken aback at the composure displayed by the seemingly thin and weak old man in front of her.

"Oh my~ I have never seen such a peculiar person as you in all my time as the guardian of the golden lotus lake!" She looked at Dane, who was wearing a bloodstained white uniform, her face brimming with excitement for some reason.

"Very well, if you seek the golden lotus, you must pass the trial!" She announced before wavimg here hand and shooting out a golden light, hitting the ground in front of Dane.

As soon as the golden light touched the ground, it turned into the figure of Dane, making Alph who was watching all of it through the book gasp in astonishment.

"The rules are simple defeat your opponent, yourself, without the use of any treasure and you shall pass the trial!" The guardian of the lake smiled and looked at the old man, anticipating his next actions.

"Accept the trial!" Alph immediately ordered Dane through the Grimoire.

He was now certain that the golden lotus was an extraordinary treasure and obtaining it might increase his combat capability which would in turn increase his survivability.

Dane once suddenly dropped to his knees and bowed towards the cave, which made the girl guardian to raise an eyebrow with confusion and interest. As strong as she was, she couldn't read the skinny old man in front of her.

After a brief bow, Dane immediately stood up and uttered some incomprehensible words which caused a silvery light to appear in his hands, the light then turned into two silver daggers, one in each.

"Blade magic? But it seems to be of a very low level~" The guardian of the Golden Lotus Lake slightly leaned herself forwards, as if she was very interested in the fight.

Dane's clone mimicked his actions without even a second of delay, as if it was his reflection.

Bang!

The two Dane's dashed towards each other with great speed and momentum causing dust to fly up.

"Hmmm~? The old man sure is weak! But what gives him so much confidence and how is he so calm? So interesting!" The guardian seemed to be having the time of her life as she almost fell down from the lotus due to leaning too much..

Clang- Tang- Clank!

Sound of steel hitting steel rang out as sparks flew about from the collision between the four daggers.

Dane tried all his methods, he tried faking movements, using extremely complex moves and even tried discarding the knife and going hand to hand.

Yet the clone perfectly mimicked every single one of his actions, it really was no different from fighting a reflection in the mirror.

"Dane stop!" Alph's command echoed in his head, causing him to suddenly stop.

"Oh~? Tired already? Don't worry there is no hurry at all, take your time~!" The guardian had a triumphant expression, as if she had finally seen through the old man's facade.

However, without sparing a glance at her Dane suddenly bowed towards a certain direction.

"This again? If I'm not mistaken little Tesiya was talking about building a cave of tranquility or something down that way, what's this all about?" The guardian mumbled to herself in confusion.

After a brief bow Dane stood up again, casted blade magic to materialize a long knife, and plunged it right into his heart.

"Huh?" The elegant girl was speechless as she looked at the old man fall down on the ground.

Bang!

The clone also mimicked his actions without any hesitation, causing it to explode into a golden light.

"I mean, sure you can pass the trial this way but what's the point? You are also dead!" She shook her head in disappointment, she had been expecting a better show from the such a confident old man, however in the end he couldn't even last an hour.

Contrary to her thoughts though, Alph was currently beaming in the cave.

"If my deduction is correct then Dane should have passed the trial, now he only needs to go back and collect the lotus!" Alph couldn't help but feel proud of his genius.

After all not only were the slaves created by the Grimoire Of Gluttony basically immortal, Dane being the First Slave didn't even have to wait before being resummoned after death.

"Go and collect the flower!" He re-summoned the old man and ordered him.

Dane bowed and dashed out of the cave again, after about an hour of dashing through the forest he arrived at the lake again.

The lake was the same as before but the elegant girl was nowhere to be found.

However once he walked towards the lake, the same phenomenon as before occurred again and the elegant girl sitting on the giant lotus appeared.

"Brave Warrio- WHAT!!" She was shocked halfway through her sentence as she looked at the thin old man before her.