The offer was tempting, but Faust had to think it through.
There's a high chance he plans to lead me there, hoping I'll die so he can steal my Soul Fruits… He also refused to reveal the content of the third trial, but judging by how people are moving in groups, he's probably right about it being hard to complete alone.
On the other hand, he's almost powerless, yet he still wants to advance through the trials… Maybe, from this point on, raw strength doesn't matter? I doubt it. The voice spoke of forty-nine fruits for ninety-nine people… That means at least half will fail. Considering people are hoarding the fruits, I doubt more than twenty will pass to the next trial.
I could take the risk and search for more fruits, but I'm alone—and the other party is likely larger and stronger if they managed to seize a Soul Tree. I could pass the trial right now, but I don't know what happens once I do… It's also highly probable that the other party has the gold-ranked adventurers.
Alright, so my options are: pass the trial now with the slave and strengthen my soul once, whatever that actually means; eat all the fruits myself and leave the slave behind, losing a potential guide and an asset for the third trial; or gamble and try to find more fruits.
He turned to the slave and asked,
"How do I absorb a Soul Fruit?"
He had already made his decision. He would try to get just one more fruit before passing the trial with the slave.
Greed.
Just one more—that would be enough to double the strength of the soul fruit.
According to the slave, absorbing it was not hard; you just had to eat it and then wait a little for the effects to show, which you would then have to somehow control. This slave was knowledgeable, much more than Faust; he had lived among those who explored this place for months, heard multiple scraps of talk, and was able to piece a lot of information together.
After roughly understanding it, Faust asked about the location of the soul tree the slave had mentioned, and the slave smiled as he guided Faust, but a thought crossed his mind.
"This little shit… I helped him already and he still hasn't given me the soul fruit, what is his damn problem?!"
For him, Faust had a debt to pay. He had given information but Faust still hadn't given him a soul fruit.
Anyway, he had no other choice. He guided Faust, and both started walking through the labyrinth once again.
******
At the same moment, in another part of the labyrinth.
Rho, the Blade of the North, stood unrivaled before a Soul Tree. Many of its flowers had already bloomed and revealed fruits. Around him, dead bodies littered the ground—most of them from his own group.
His body was injured, bleeding and paling, but he still stood on his feet, his black metal greatsword impaled into the grassy ground.
In front of him, Maya the mage and Yuser stood almost side by side, separated only by the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Maya's group still had three people alive, while the Young Noble Demon and the Blade of the North groups were completely annihilated.
Rho's face was twisted with anger as he glared at his foes.
"You really want to kill me, cowards! You tried it once and failed, and now you decide to attack with all you have."
His sword dripped with thick blood; presumably, most of the kills here were his.
His curses fell on deaf ears as Maya and Yuser ignored him.
"Now you're going to keep quiet… hahaha! Truly fitting of cowards!"
Even though he was cursing, his real goal was to buy time. They were all exhausted. Maya was recovering her mana, while Yuser and he were recovering their stamina.
Rho's aura had also faded; he was waiting for it to recover.
Behind him, there were over ten fruits.
Both Maya and Yuser also carried fruits they had obtained from the same Soul Tree, having failed to take Rho out earlier.
The battlefield was still. Everyone was too cautious to make a move, knowing the first to act would expose weaknesses and be at a disadvantage.
Then, arrows flew.
Yuser had opened the attack. The arrows shot toward Rho, who deflected them with his sword.
Yuser rushed toward Rho but was forced to retreat when three wind disks flew toward him.
The moment he retreated, arrows flew at him again, and he deflected them once more.
But this time, another attack followed—a wind arrow pierced his forearm, blood oozing from the wound.
"These two…"
Rho realized the two were actually working together to take him down. He had few options left other than to stand on the defense.
If he tried to rush Yuser, he was stopped by Maya and bombarded with a flurry of arrows.
If he tried to rush Maya, he was forced to defend against Yuser's attacks and got injured by Maya's wind magic.
He was at a great disadvantage. But then, gritting his teeth, he rushed toward Maya, judging her to be the greater danger.
Yuser shot arrows at him, but Rho didn't bother to defend, letting them hit non-vital areas.
Maya attacked with wind disks and spears, but without Yuser distracting him, Rho was able to defend and close the distance.
Just as he was about to land an attack on Maya, one of her group members unnaturally jumped toward him, their body glowing heavily.
Mana Overdrive!
He realized as he jumped back. But the person ran straight at him, and in the next moment, a huge explosion erupted. Rho was sent flying, spitting a mouthful of blood. A massive crater opened in the ground, but the tree remained intact.
The sound reverberated multiple times before finally starting to dwindle, but everyone's ears in the area were ringing.
When a mage chose to collapse their own mana circles and detonate, an explosion would occur—the more circles, the stronger the explosion. But it was very rare for a mage to make such a choice, because in that process, they would die too.
Maya's body was slightly hurt by the explosion, but a shield of wind around her absorbed most of the impact. She smiled.
Yuser, on the other hand, was injured quite heavily, though not as much as Rho.
That… that… she did that on purpose. She wants to attract more people and kill me in the process… damned witch.
They had gone too far to kill him. Rho's heart pounded faster as he struggled to recompose himself.
The mana in the area was so dense that even non-mages could see the particles—they were almost tangible. But then, the mana began to rapidly dwindle.
The three gold adventurers knew the sound would be heard throughout the labyrinth, and for some reason, one of them wanted that. It wouldn't take long before other adventurers converged here and fought for the soul fruits and tree.