"A hero?" Raven froze in place.
He blinked a few times, then reread the system's message.
"[The hero is inside. Be careful not to get involved with him. It will endanger you!]"
"The hero? Endanger me?" Raven narrowed his eyes.
He didn't understand what the word "hero" meant.
Was it a title? Or perhaps someone's name?
"System, can you explain? I really don't get it," Raven said irritably.
Ding!
Another message popped up, and Raven immediately opened it.
"[In short, a hero is someone blessed by the gods. He is among the thousand people taking this test, but he did not come here entirely because of sin or evil like the rest of you. Instead, he is the gods' pawn, sent to resolve the crisis in the world of Alvas. By the way, the hero and women with S to SSS ratings share a certain attraction to each other. That's why I warned you not to get too close to him. Otherwise, Claire or Rose might fall into his hands.]"
When he finished reading the message, the corners of Raven's mouth curled upward.
'A hero… or should I call him the main character?' he whispered with a small chuckle.
Who would've thought… someone like him would actually show up here.
He had assumed such things only existed in novels, but apparently he was wrong.
The hero truly resembled the protagonists from the fantasy novels circulating on the market.
Although Raven didn't particularly like stories like that, he had read one before, so he understood how they usually went.
"Raven? What's wrong with you?" Claire's worried voice came from beside him.
Raven quickly composed himself and gave her a casual smile.
"I'm fine. Anyway, let's go inside," he said, slipping his left hand into his trouser pocket.
A hero? Hehehe… I want to see just how strong and special you are…
Claire blinked in confusion but didn't say anything. She and Rose quickly followed behind Raven.
As soon as they stepped inside, a pungent, foul stench hit them.
Claire immediately covered her nose and muttered, "It stinks."
Rose nodded in agreement and covered her nose as well.
"I can't stand the smell. I feel like… ugh!"
Rose suddenly turned pale and vomited.
Claire was startled and hurried to her side.
"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly, gently patting Rose's back.
"I… I'm fine," Rose said between breaths, though she was still vomiting.
Raven merely glanced at her without saying a word. He didn't understand why she was so weak.
It was just a foul smell.
"Don't linger here. Your vomiting will attract the monster's attention," he said coldly, without a shred of emotion.
"Raven, aren't you being too cold?" Claire protested, clearly dissatisfied.
However, Rose wasn't angry. She wiped the corner of her mouth and patted Claire's shoulder.
"Raven's right. I'm the one who caused trouble. Let's keep moving."
Claire was still worried about her condition, but they didn't have much time, so she didn't argue further.
The deeper they went, the stronger the stench became. Even Raven, who had been unfazed at first, began to frown.
"This is truly disgusting," he muttered in annoyance. "Just how many corpses are rotting in this place?"
The stench of dead bodies was utterly repulsive. Worse still, the corpses belonged to monsters, far larger than humans.
After walking for a few minutes, they finally arrived at a vast open area. The ceiling rose nearly seven meters high, and several passageways stretched out to the left and right.
Raven turned to Rose and asked, "Which path is safe?"
Rose smiled awkwardly and shook her head. "Sorry, I don't know. I only know the location, not the layout."
Raven nodded and didn't say anything. He studied the passageways one by one, then licked his index finger and held it up.
Faintly, he could sense a draft coming from the right. That meant the safe spot was likely in that direction.
"Follow me," Raven said, heading right without further explanation.
Claire and Rose didn't question him and followed closely behind.
***
"Oops! Gotcha!"
Leo raised his sword and slashed at the small goblin in front of him.
Not stopping there, he thrust the blade into its heart, making sure the monster was truly dead.
"Phew!" He let out a long sigh and grinned. "That's the tenth goblin. We need twenty more to complete the mission of killing thirty level-one monsters. After that, we can look for level-two monsters and, finally, level-three ones."
He then looked up and saw Reina, who had also finished dealing with her target.
"How about you? Did you get a lot of crystals?" Leo asked.
Reina nodded. She reached into her pocket and pulled out ten blue crystals, each about the size of a thumb.
"These are the extra experience points I extracted from the remnants of life force in each monster's body."
Leo stared at the crystals greedily. Reina possessed a rare S-rank skill.
Its name was Life Force Extractor.
This skill allowed her to absorb the lingering life force from a creature's corpse and condense it into crystals, which could later be consumed by anyone and converted into experience points.
Leo had only learned of this ability after Reina explained it to him herself.
"Can you hand them over to me?" Leo asked, extending his hand.
Reina furrowed her brows, looking hesitant.
"Leo… can I use them first? I'm still level three, and I haven't leveled up at all in the past two days. I'm afraid—"
Before she could finish, Leo snatched the ten crystals, shoved them into his mouth, and swallowed them.
Reina froze, her eyes widening in disbelief.
"You…"
Before she could finish her sentence, Leo smirked and said arrogantly, "Reina, your role is just support, while I'm the attacker. Isn't it obvious that I need to get stronger as quickly as possible? Otherwise, who's going to protect you?"
His cruel words made Reina's blood boil. Her chest tightened, and her breathing grew heavy.
Yet not a single word came out. As much as she hated to admit it, Leo wasn't entirely wrong.
All this time, she had relied on him to keep her alive.
If it weren't for Leo, she would have died long ago.
Still, she couldn't simply accept it. It felt as though she were working only to make him stronger, receiving nothing in return except a fragile sense of safety.
Leo didn't notice the change in her expression and turned away.
"Let's go. Our mission isn't over yet."
Without waiting for her response, he walked off, leaving her behind.
Reina glared at his back with hatred. But in the end, she said nothing and followed.