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Knight’s offer to Elaine to travel alongside them, which she had already expected, earned a reaction of feigned surprise from her.
"Really!? I wouldn’t be imposing on you?" she asked.
"No, you won’t," Knight replied. "As I said, we’re heading back to the Regional Capital to officially receive our Hero titles, since our trials are technically finished."
Tank imdiately raised a hand after Knight finished speaking, clearing his throat before mimicking soone else’s voice.
"Your trial isn’t truly over until you’ve returned to your starting point!—is what my predecessor always said."
"True," Lancer agreed. "The journey back is the final part of the Trial."
Archer nodded as he spoke, his expression growing darker while he explained. "And it’s public knowledge that we’re on the final leg, which is why the Demonic Dragons are certain to make more moves, since this is their last chance to end the Hero Cycle. If they take us out, there won’t be enough ti for new Candidates to be prepared, and the Hero Titles would return to the planet."
Archer’s words gave Elaine more information than she’d had before.
"Why would the titles return to the planet?" she asked, and Mage stepped in to give a simpler explanation.
"The Demonic Dragons did sothing to the planet that disrupted the Hero Selection process. If the Hero Titles aren’t passed on every decade, their power starts to weaken and gets reabsorbed by the planet.
It’s already been a decade since the last transfer."
She spoke of a story all Infernal Devils were raised hearing, unaware that it was a fabrication created by the Infernal Devil Deities who ruled this world.
The reality was that the Infernal Devils themselves were the ones who damaged the selection process, and they continued passing on the titles so they could hoard both the titles and the power they carried, while the planet was attempting to reclaim those titles so it could grant them to mbers of other races, strengthen them against the Infernal Devils, bring them down, and finally remove the planetary shield that prevented the planet from expelling its excess cosmic energy.
"I see. So that dragon was an assassin, huh?" Elaine said, rubbing her chin as she thought.
"Since it failed, there’ll be more sent after it to finish the job."
Knight nodded at her observation and replied, "Yes. Asking you to travel with us actually helps us too, since you’d be extra combat power they’re not aware of."
In other words, he wanted her to be a wild card.
Elaine considered this for a few seconds before nodding in agreent.
"Okay, no problem. Thank you."
Knight smiled lightly. "No, thank you. You’re going to be helping us, even though we already owe you after all."
Elaine simply nodded without adding anything, yawning lightly, and Mage then said, "Yeah, you should really go to sleep now."
She turned to her companions and continued, "As for us, let’s deal with the Mayor and go to bed afterwards. We need the rest."
With that, the group dispersed, Elaine heading to her assigned room while the Hero Candidates left the dining area and went to the Mayor’s office.
However, the mont they stepped outside, Mage snapped her fingers and cast a spell to mute the sound of the conversation that followed.
"So, Archer. What do you think?" Knight asked.
Archer stayed silent for a few seconds before finally responding. "Well, I don’t think she was lying to us, at the very least..."
"But she wasn’t telling the full truth either," Lancer added, finishing the thought and prompting a response from Archer.
Mage just shrugged.
"Well, that’s kind of expected. We literally just t her a few hours ago. I’m surprised she even told us this much about her goal."
Knight nodded, showing he was equally surprised.
"You guys didn’t bring up her power again?" Tank asked, and Mage shook her head.
"Doing so would have made her defensive. She probably doesn’t realise her power was activated while she was unconscious. She doesn’t know we’re aware of it, so let’s keep it that way."
Tank shrugged at Mage’s reply, not caring either way, while Lancer looked like he wanted to say sothing but eventually stayed silent.
"What do you guys think of this ’Guardian’ of hers that she ntioned?"
Knight’s question had Archer sighing softly.
"Well, they definitely exist, that’s certain. As for the story about them being stuck sowhere and her needing to go to a Strong Magic Region (SMR), I’m not sure how accurate that is. I feel like there’s a lot missing from the information she gave us."
"I don’t think she’s lying about that part, though," Mage said imdiately after Archer finished speaking.
"When I went to get her from the library, I checked what she was looking at, and it was all about continental maps, Strong Magic Regions, and areas with high ambient energy concentration."
"Is that so?" Archer asked, then added, "Well, I’d wager that her guardian is the reason my Appraisal skill can’t work on her. Either he did sothing to her or gave her sothing that prevents the skill from functioning."
"Likely because of that draining ability she has," Tank added. "I’m sure your Appraisal skill would have detected the skill description, so he did that to hide it."
His theory seed the most plausible, and the others agreed.
In truth, Arthur had simply wrapped Elaine in a veil of cosmic energy that even she couldn’t detect. It blocked all Analysis-Type Abilities from scanning her body’s released magic power or examining her existential records like the Appraisal Skill did.
"Whichever it is, we should put this guardian on a watchlist, especially if he’s as strong as Elaine said," Lancer said, earning agreent from the others.
Elaine’s claim that her guardian could handle Class 2 Demonic Dragons in seconds placed him at Level 950 at the very least, matching the current Heroes at their peak.
The Infernal Devils weren’t about to let soone with that level of power roam around without docuntation or supervision.
◇ ◇ ◇
It wasn’t until the following day that Elaine and the Hero Candidates were finally able to leave the town and begin their journey to the Regional Capital.
The continent was divided into several Regions, with the Continental Capital at its centre, where the beings the Infernal Devils called the ’Lords’ resided.
These were the Infernal Devil Lords, the Deities who secretly ruled the world, and after receiving their Hero titles at the Regional Capital, the new Heroes were expected to travel to the Continental Capital and present themselves before the Devil Lords.
Unlike this Trial Journey, which was filled with danger, that trip would be heavily guarded, or so they had been told.
To reach the Regional Capital, they had to pass through nurous villages, towns, and cities along the way, many of which were near the frontlines of the conflict against the Demonic Dragons.
Barely three days into their journey, they encountered their first group of assassins.
It happened shortly after the group had packed up their camping gear and were about to set off, having spent the night in a small clearing in the middle of a hillside forest.
They hadn’t even begun moving when Elaine suddenly summoned her spear, aiming it toward the trees.
A second later, she narrowed her eyes and turned to the right, swinging her spear as she moved and releasing a wave of energy that split several dozen trees in an instant.
Her sudden action imdiately drew the attention of the others, and when Archer looked in the sa direction Elaine had focused on, his eyes widened, and he drew his bow, signalling to everyone else that enemies were present.
Elaine had reacted to the threat even before Archer, who was both the scout and the one with the best detection abilities among them.
All of them noticed this and wondered how she had sensed the enemies first, but if they took a mont to think about the abilities Elaine had already shown, the answer beca obvious.
Elaine’s life attribute affinity allowed her to literally see the ’life’ of living beings around her. She perceived the life signals of sentient humanoids differently from trees and other non-sentients, so she imdiately detected when humanoid-shaped life signals entered her perception range.
That range extended far beyond Archer’s presence detection, so it made sense that she had noticed them first and reacted before he could.
As for the presences hiding among the trees, upon realising they had been discovered, they revealed themselves, with confidence, at that.
There were three of them, all six-foot-tall humanoids radiating strong demonic energy, their bodies entirely covered in scales, even across their faces. They had curved horns, long, scaly tails, and one of them had a pair of folded draconic wings on his back.
Individually, they didn’t match the Class 2 Demonic Dragon that had attacked the Hero Candidates before, but they were still formidable opponents.
"We were told the Hero Candidates would be travelling alone. Why is there a child with them?" one asked.
Before his words even finished echoing, the one in the centre of the trio, whose voice was more feminine, responded,
"Curb your ego, you fool. That so-called child sensed us before their scout did. She’s dangerous."
This one was far more level-headed, assessing Elaine as a threat rather than relying on appearances alone.
"Is she a hidden candidate we weren’t aware of?" asked the one with his wings unfolded.
"No," the middle one replied. "She doesn’t possess a Pseudo-Mantle like the others. She isn’t a Hero Candidate."
Then, extending her hand, she summoned a staff into her grip, magic power radiating from her as she added, "Nevertheless, she’ll be eliminated along with them."
The three humanoid demonic dragons took positions at the north, south, and west edges of the clearing, encircling the Hero Candidates, who had arranged themselves in a circle at its centre, backs to one another and eyes fixed cautiously on their opponents.
Knight lifted his hand, about to signal a strategy to his companions, when Elaine suddenly released her spear and dropped into a squat.
Specifically, she had tossed her spear forward, the kind of action one would make when surrendering, and lowered herself into a squat, her body leaning forward as though she were about to kneel.
For the briefest mont, this left everyone, ally and enemy alike, confused, especially since she’d been the first to draw her weapon and go on guard.
That confusion was exactly why her next move caught every single one of them off guard.
’Vital Enhancent.’
Life energy gathered in her legs, and with all her strength, she leapt into the air, shooting directly toward the muscular humanoid dragon who had spoken first, the sa one who had dismissed her as a re child until his leader had rebuked him.
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