Faust dodged the attack from the first creature and kicked it into the vortex. It was devoured instantly.
Then came the second. He dodged again and stomped it to the ground. Not enough. He stomped its head twice—this time, it died, consumed by the sand.
Another approached. Faust dodged and shot four mana spikes at its head.
Being grazed by their attacks, he defended with his shackles and armor, then touched and activated a healing rune from his pouch.
Another monster! He dodged to the side and kicked it down, but didn't manage to kill it.
As the creatures kept coming, he defended, counterattacked, healed, and used mana offensively.
Only two minutes had passed before he began to be overwhelmed from all sides. His body was heavily damaged.
While he focused on defending and throwing enemies into the vortex, one monster leapt at him. Both his hands were occupied—one held the sword, acting as both shield and weapon; the other was used to grab healing runes and block attacks.
The monster aimed for his neck. His eyes tracked its movement, but he knew he couldn't defend in time.
His mana was running low, almost completely spent. As he focused on the attacker, he subconsciously shifted a burst of mana in front of his body.
Then—
Just as the creature struck, a plain blue square appeared, blocking the attack.
A mana barrier. A basic skill every mage should possess, Faust had read about it in the book he got from the first trial, but hadn't managed to actually use one… until now.
Faced with death, he triggered it without thinking.
But it came at a cost. His mana dropped from 24% to 19%. Five percent gone. He had only killed thirteen creatures so far. Now, he could only use a heal rune once.
Sweat ran down his brow. He knew he wouldn't last much longer.
Wounds multiplied across his body. More creatures surged toward him. His armor, though durable, was being shredded piece by piece.
Thanks to the barrier, his neck was spared—but another monster struck him from the side, piercing a weak point: the very spot the illusion beast had shattered before.
Blood gushed from the wound. Faust reached for a heal rune, but it was snatched from his hands by a monster.
At that instant, an idea flooded into his mind. Since he could feel his runes once they were infused with mana and "linked" to him, tracking them was possible. Usually, detonation rune worked best for that, since it could be charged once and store the mana until it was used.
But… what if he injected just enough mana into a heal rune—not enough to activate it and make it crumble, but enough to temporarily link with it? Eventually, the mana would disperse, but at least for a few minutes, it would be linked with him.
It was worth trying, at the very least.
Faust gritted his teeth. The situation was deteriorating rapidly. He was bleeding heavily, barely able to defend himself as new wounds tore into him.
He blocked another strike with his sword—but it was too chipped. The next blow shattered it into useless fragments.
But he used the opportunity. Grabbing another heal rune, he injected mana into it, just enough to link with it, and slapped it onto a monster before hurling it into the vortex.
Even though the monster was swallowed by the sand, the rune could still be felt. That meant the sand whirlpool didn't destroy everything. Still, a piece of paper was different from a human body—there was no way to be certain.
The battle dragged on. He fought with the last of his strength. After a single minute, his armor was almost completely trashed, and blood clouded his vision.
Should I just use my chance to leave? he thought, while defending monsters from all directions. Maybe that would be for the best… but what if I return and face the same in the dungeon, the Fisher wolves are quite strong too and I'm unarmed… What if the eighth trial is even worse…?
He hesitated—but in that moment, he felt the heal rune again. It hadn't traveled far, as if falling freely after being inside the vortex. That meant there was a chance… a small chance.
Glancing back at the sand whirpool, then at the approaching monsters.
Sweat clung to his forehead as he made his decision.
A slim chance of survival was better than the certainty of death.
Staggering backward, shielding himself with what remained of his shackles and armor, Faust closed his eyes and threw himself into the whirlpool.
The moment he fell, his insides twisted violently. Somehow, he managed to spread the last of his mana through his body. Would it work? There was no way to be sure, but he tried to mimic the process of transferring mana into a rune—only this time, he directed it into himself.
With his eyes shut, he accepted whatever came next. The dice had already been cast.
Within two seconds, he was swallowed by the sand.
Immense pressure crushed his body. Even with mana protecting internally, his organs began to rupture. Blood oozed from between his clenched teeth.
Just as his vision began to fade, the pressure began to lessen.
He couldn't breathe inside the sand.
Is it over?.. I want to ret—
Then, just before he wished to return, his lower body was free from the pressure.
No! Just a little more!
Resisting with everything he had, he didn't give up. Only his upper body remained trapped—until suddenly, he was spat out and began to fall. Looking below, he quickly estimated the drop: at least fifteen meters.
The vortex had ejected him into a sort of vertical corridor… an underground tunnel made of dark gray sand. The sand walls weren't too far apart, so Faust twisted his body and, using all his weight, hurled himself at one side.
His hands clawed at the gray sand surface.
Falling down, his plan was to use the surface to reduce his fall speed. Though it was just sand, it worked… however, skin tore from his fingers as his nails were ripped off.
Then, a numbing thud.
He crashed into the ground hard.
Despite the unbearable pain, Faust grinned, blood bursting from his teeth as he muttered,
"I'm alive… somehow."
First, he began to assess his wounds. His fingers, now stripped of skin, touched his legs as he realized nothing was broken, but his left leg had dislocated.
Looking at his hands, he saw the skin was mostly gone and so were his nails, blood coming freely. The pain was immense, but he ignored it.
The whirlpool had caused external injuries, but the internal damage was far worse.
Several organs had ruptured, causing internal bleeding. Closing his eyes, the only thing keeping his body from collapsing entirely was the mana he had instinctively used… it was acting as a crude mending force, holding his guts together.
Beside him, there were no monster corpses. But the rune with the healing paper lay there. Faust assumed the monster had died and merged with the gray sand once more, leaving only the rune behind.
With no other option and having discovered two new applications of mana, mana barrier and mana "mending", he resolved to rely on them to survive. Crawling toward the heal rune, he touched it and flooded it with mana, activating it.
His body slowly began to heal, but it was agonizing.
Yes, the pain was immense… but so what?
So what if there was pain? He had survived, that was enough. Pain was temporary, results were eternal. If he hadn't given up in the illusion, even after dying over a hundred times—why would he give up now, over mere pain?
He was alive. That meant he could keep going, keep moving forward. That alone was everything. To move forward, chasing a dream… chasing the absolute—what else mattered?
Collapsed on the ground, he turned his head to observe his surroundings. Beyond the tunnel he had fallen through, he was now in a wide corridor that branched in multiple directions, like an ant nest. But the location wasn't his biggest concern.
The real issue was that even if he left the underground or the trial… he couldn't do anything.
He was too weak. Up until now, his strength had been enough… well, his luck also helped—but that was no longer enough, he needed more.
The problem was, he was awful with mana. The weapon that he used for a long time had just been completely destroyed. The armor? It was so trashed it couldn't even be called an armor anymore. Runes? All his detonation ones were spent. He only had three heal runes left, and the rest and bind runes, which were both useless.
He had two pouches—one for quick-access rune paper, and another for his journal. The one for quick access contained his heal and detonation runes, which he had spent almost everything.
And the journal pages were all filled, mostly with bind runes and rest runes. One he still couldn't use, and the other was useless, since things didn't feel sleepy inside the trials.
So, with no better option, he chose mana.
Without wasting a second, Faust closed his eye and began to meditate, letting the heal rune slowly stitch his body back together as he accumulated mana inside his mana circles.