Someway or another, Sofia ended up grilling sausage over the fire with Ezerid’s group.

“... so, yeah, that is really oversimplifying things, but basically I am preparing to kill a God,” Sofia said, flipping the sausage over the fire.

“Well damn,” the man in full mithril armor said from under his helmet, “We should count ourselves lucky that our patron god has been nothing but good to us. Our saintess is pretty happy with her position too…”

“Right, my turn to ask questions now, from what you’re saying, you four were all summoned by the same Saintess? Which God is that?”

“Progress,” Ezerid answered, “His previous Saint died fighting the Phageid, now he is raising us and his new saintess hoping that we will be ready to help during the next invasion.”

“And you’re all fine with that? I know some heroes are resentful to even get summoned here in the first place…”

“We are all just happy to be alive,” the gorilla beastman explained,”Ezerid here got summoned just as some giant sea monster from his world attacked his city, I fainted as I bled out after a work accident and woke up in this world, and our two human friends here were both terminally ill with the same sickness, if you can believe it. We were all given a second chance by being summoned here, so we want to repay that.”

“It’s not like we’re forced either…” the short human blonde girl added.

“I see, I see… The same sickness, you say? That’s quite the coincidence… Just by curiosity, how would you describe that disease, would you say your body was like, eating itself from the inside?”

“You know about it?!” the armored man cried out, leaning in Sofia’s direction.

“Interesting… I have a human hero friend who went through the same thing,” Sofia said, remembering Everelle’s story, “She didn’t go into details but that is how she described it.”

“Quite the coincidence, as you say,” the man said, “Would it be possible for you to get us in contact with her?”

“Sure. Do you guys know where the human peninsula is?”

“N- not really…” the woman of the group said, and the others seemed to be in the dark as well.

Two humans in your group and you don’t even know where the humans in this world are?

“Alright, not a huge deal, give me a second, I’ll draw you a map, sure makes me curious about where Progress is established, though.”

Sofia summoned a bone slate and started sketching the approximate shape of the area of the world she knew relatively well, including the Exidian Empire, Elven capital, human continent and beastmen continent.

“There, I placed the main landmarks, the red sand desert should be pretty easy to find, and you just need to go south from there. Just be careful not to enter the leviathan’s territory, which is this entire zone right there. When you enter the human kingdoms proper… Let me draw another map, actually…”

Sofia quickly drew a more detailed map of the human peninsula only, “Alright, so this is a contaminated zone, you’d do well to avoid that place, this is where Scripture is, same thing, stay away. I’m right there, next to the spirit forest. Don’t enter the forest either, there are level 400 spirits in there and they are pretty aggressive. Just come to me and I can try to arrange the meeting.”

The armored man grabbed the bone maps and lightly bowed to Sofia, “Thank you, I have to admit we were not expecting any help from you…”

“Don’t mention it, this is nothing. And I feel a bit bad for making your trial harder just by being here, honestly, so…”

“You don’t need to feel bad,” Ezerid interjected, “We rushed into this with little training, to begin with. It’s annoying but what is done is done. I am hoping I will get to seriously duel you by the end, though!”

“Is that so? Why did you not come fight me for the thrones, then?”

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“I would have liked nothing more!” Ezerid said, “But we are a team, I have to think about that first.”

“Even during the solo events?”

“Perhaps if they are truly solo, but they aren’t always,” Ezerid said, “with how much influence you have over what the fake people are doing, some events get overcrowded, making it harder to get a good score there alone… We also have a means to share information between ourselves so taking the same event separately is still beneficial in that way.”

“Hmmm, hmm,” Sofia reacted, chewing on her grilled sausage, she swallowed before speaking, “Well, I have a feeling we will get to duel in due time. It would be weird to call the place the tournament ark without a proper tournament, don’t you think?”

“True,” Ezerid said, “What worries me is the true challenge of this trial. There must be something, right? A floor 100.”

Sofia’s eyes looked up, even though she couldn’t actually see the crown sitting on her head.

“I’m sure there is one, yeah. Though we could argue the slumbering god event was pretty up there. I saw you got historic seventh? Pretty good.”

“You say that while you ranked first?” Ezerid asked back, “I’m not gonna say anything but can you explain how your time was ‘no’?”

“Oh, very simple, that’s because I killed the god so I couldn’t die to have a timer.”

The following silence gave Sofia the feeling that she was probably not going to encounter Ezerid’s group in the coming events as well.

When the next event rolled around, Sofia’s group was ready in room 1.

“As expected, another group event,” Mornn noted, “Which one do we pick?”

[Sixth wave: Group trials]

[Your group must vote for a group event to participate in. The most votes wins, in case of a tie, your group will be randomly signed up for one of the tied results.]

[Available sixth wave events:

* Defend the ship - Dreams of a sky merchant

* Track record - Hot summer days

* Turn-based battles - Tactical Team Fighting]

[EVENT: Defend the ship - Dreams of a sky merchant]

[Your mercenary band has been recruited to defend a fleet of flying merchant ships from a continent to another, but other mercenaries are also on the job, and the merchants’ money is limited. Who can make the highest contribution and receive the better pay? Will the fleet even reach their destination at all? It’s all up to you. TvT enabled.]

[EVENT: Track record - Hot summer days]

[You have been invited to compete in the most basic of competitions, under the blazing sun, enjoy a full day of mixed sports events. Wait, the main judge is a Kleptra? This competition might not be so basic after all. Time to go all out, push it to the limit!]

[EVENT: Turn-based battles - Tactical Team Fighting]

[A new form of entertainment is all the rage in the Toir kingdom, groups of four people take turns attacking and defending. In which order should you fight? Which skill to use first? Can you really waste your cooldown now or should you wait for the other team to blow their signature skills first? Use your brains to the fullest in these tactical TvT battles!]

“It’s as Sofia said,” Kuli commented,”we need as much fighting as we can get to awaken the hearts…”

“So the weird turn-based event?” Mornn asked.

“I’m not sure,” Sofia said, “This might not be the best. Since it seems we only get to battle other trialees in this one, if no one else picks it and we end up alone like I did with the thrones… It will be an easy win for sure but we will make no awakening progress. The merchant thing sounds like we would mainly fight against monsters so it could be a safer choice.”

“I agree,” Kuli said, “But I have to say flight is not my strong suit, so a full event in the sky… Not to mention the defense part of the event, I assume we will truly have to defend the merchant fleet, our skillsets are not the most appropriate for that.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have a shield mage skeleton?” Mornn asked Bookie who was silently sitting on Sofia’s bed petting Crowie’s skull.

“Uh?” Bookie reacted, surprised that he was included in the conversation at all, “Not… Not really? We have a high-priest skeleton with a shield spell but most of the skeletons are more focused on attack,” he said, sounding slightly embarrassed.

“What bothers me also is that nothing on there says the other trial takers are forbidden from attacking the merchant fleet themselves to sabotage our trial,” Kuli continued.

“Fair point…” Sofia conceded, “But what then, that only leaves us with the event with no apparent fighting…”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that actually,” Mornn said, “It mentions the judge is a Kleptra… I really struggle to imagine an event run by one of those things not ending in a blood bath one way or another.”

“Are the Kleptras all really that bad?” Sofia asked with a raised eyebrow. The one Shaily met didn’t seem too bad…

“They are pretty bad, yeah,” Mornn said, “I’ve not interacted with them much, but since Sun brings me to ‘social events’ sometimes, I have seen them on occasion. They, uh… They have a tendency to very easily resort to violence. To put it lightly. I don’t know what the ‘sports’ will be, but it would truly surprise me if it was anything normal…”

“Alright, well. I guess we might have to try that,” Sofia said, “Tough choice this time…”