Waiting just outside of the cave, s.h.i.+ro started to frown.

[Player: -Silvi Has been eliminated.]

[Player: -Madison- Has been eliminated.]

Furrowing her brows, s.h.i.+ro started to shake her leg up and down restlessly.

'Two of them have failed, would Lyrica pa.s.s?' She thought with uncertainty.

However, another problem appeared. With both Silvia and Madison now out of the trial, they lacked a tank and healer. Since this was a team trial, you were supposed to complete it as a team.

s.h.i.+ro would look back and forth from the cave and her system. Thankfully, however, she saw Lyrica slowly walk out of the cave. Her body was entirely inured with blood and wounds all over her.

"Lyrica!" s.h.i.+ro cried out in shock and dashed over to help her.

Looking at Lyrica's injured, s.h.i.+ro didn't even know how she was still standing.

"I pa.s.sed." Lyrica smiled tiredly whilst relaxing in s.h.i.+ro's embrace.

"Un, good job. Rest for a little bit." s.h.i.+ro smiled and patted Lyrica's head.

Scooping her up into a princess carry, s.h.i.+ro took her over to a tree and sat her in the shade.

Lyrica would have normally burned the feeling into her mind but right now, she could barely feel the rest of her body.

A single movement would send a pulse of pain through her body.

"Do you have any healing potions on you?" s.h.i.+ro asked gently. She knew that injured people normally wouldn't like to have loud noises around them.

"I do but I can't take them out." Lyrica replied with a shake of her head.

Frowning slightly, s.h.i.+ro decided to try her luck in town.

"Wait for me here, I'll go buy some medicine for you."

However, before s.h.i.+ro could leave, a new concern popped into her head.

'With a beautiful girl like Lyrica injured and defenceless near a tree, isn't that asking for her to be *ahem* attacked?' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself.

"Actually, let me move you to somewhere more suitable." s.h.i.+ro said, changing her mind.

Lyrica only nodded her head obediently.

Scooping her up into a princess carry once more, s.h.i.+ro made sure that Lyrica was comfortable by using Third Phantom.

By transferring all of the momentum and recoil into her own body, she can avoid harming Lyrica.

'It's like a bed…' Lyrica thought to herself. Apart from the wind blowing on her face along with subtle shaking to inform her that they were moving, Lyrica felt like she was currently resting her body on a small ice bed.

Looking around the area, s.h.i.+ro found an obscure cave that was situated at the side of a mountain. To get to the cave, one would need to parkour from one side of the mountain to the other.

'This should be fine. Not many people can get up here.' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself.

"This should be quite safe for you. Wait for me here ok?" s.h.i.+ro smiled.

"Un." Lyrica nodded her head.

Walking back to the entrance, s.h.i.+ro looked back at Lyrica before leaping out of the cave.

Das.h.i.+ng through the forest, she soon found herself back at the entrance of the town.

"Now then, where is the pharmacy." s.h.i.+ro muttered with a frown.

Walking to the first stall she saw, she called over owner.

"Hel-"

"Where can I buy medicine?" s.h.i.+ro asked, cutting her off.

"Eh?"

"Where can I buy medicine. It's urgent." s.h.i.+ro repeated. Considering the severity of Lyrica's wounds, there is the possibility that she was inflicted with a bleed status. If she doesn't get medicine quickly, it would rob Lyrica of this golden chance.

'Since she said she could sense something in the north, I can't let her fail this trial.' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself.

"Ah, medicine. Right, erm, go down the road and take the right alley next to the tavern. You should be able to spot old man Gu's medicine shop-"

Before the woman could even finish, s.h.i.+ro was long gone.

Following the instructions of the owner, she saw a wooden door with the sight, 'Old Man Gu's Pharmacy'.

*Don Don

s.h.i.+ro knocked on the door and waited patiently. Of course, that was a slight stretch since if the person didn't respond in 30 seconds she was going to kick the door down.

"Coming…" A weak voice called out.

*Creak~

A wrinkled hand opened the door.

Looking at the small old man in front of her, s.h.i.+ro wondered if adventurers could even age like that. It was due to the fact that while adventurers did age, they would retain quite a lot of their fighting power even at the last stages of their life span.

For a person to look this feeble and weak, it was truly a first for s.h.i.+ro.

"Ah what a surprise. A young girl like you would visit this old man." He chuckled whilst checking out s.h.i.+ro.

'A slender waist, smooth skin, thin limbs and a beautiful face. While the white hair is a little weird, it's not bad I suppose hehe.' He grinned inwardly.

Pulling a face of absolute disgust, s.h.i.+ro already knew he was nothing good.

"You got any medicine for treating a large amount of sword wounds? Oh and also some disinfectant and some medical bandages." s.h.i.+ro asked whilst suppressing the disgust in her heart.

"Hou hou, I do but they're expensive. From the look of things, you're quite desperate for them aren't you? From your description, your friend must have suffered quite the injury from the sword trials right?" He said with a grin.

"Hais… I swear the amount of guys I've seen that act the same way as you." s.h.i.+ro said whilst glaring at him with disdain.

"Old man, let this princess teach you something…" She continued as she grabbed him by the throat.

"This princess ain't something you can obtain. F*ck that, you're not even worth a strand of my hair." s.h.i.+ro said coldly.

Her eyes radiated merciless killing intent that would destroy everything in life that she hated.

The old man paled slightly before his body started to convulse.

Reeling back in disgust, s.h.i.+ro threw his body against the wall.

*SPLAT!

The force of her throw turned his body into a meat paste that sent blood and flesh all over the room.

Walking into the room with disregard of the meat paste, s.h.i.+ro started to shuffle through all the drawers for something she could use.

"Why doesn't he have anything?" s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes in confusion.

Before she could continue her search, she instinctively jumped through the window and rolled a few times before stabilising herself on her feet.

She saw a black figure standing near her previous spot.

"Kekeke, as expected. Your instincts are sharp." The black figure said with joy in his voice.

Looking at the shadow, s.h.i.+ro realised it to be the blood of the old man that she had killed.

"Che, what's a blood demon like you doing at this place?" s.h.i.+ro questioned with narrowed eyes.

"Ohya? You know of my race? Well I can't help but admit that this is quite the surprise kekeke." He grinned.

Flicking his hand, he coagulated a sword made from solidified blood.

'Eh? He's not using lethal blood magic?' s.h.i.+ro thought with a mix of surprise and suspicion.

Blood demons were known for their dangerous blood magic that is almost impossible to defend against. However, if the blood demon in front of her was using a blood crafted sword instead of lethal blood magic, that could only mean it was restricted to the rules of this world as well.

'Then that means he's not a true blood demon in essence. But rather just a swordsman with the form of a blood demon.'

Tapping her necklace, s.h.i.+ro summoned her Ascendant Dream and grabbed one of the swords while the other three orbited her.

"Four swords huh? Let me give it a try as well." He chuckled before creating three floating swords as well.

However, before he could taunt s.h.i.+ro, he widened his eyes when he saw her right in front of him.

*DANG!!!!

Locking swords with her, he retreated a few steps.

"Has anyone told you about taking the initiative and not waste time? No? Let me acquaint you." s.h.i.+ro said whilst s.h.i.+fting her grip into a reverse grip and twisted her body.

*BANG!

Giving the demon a devastating roundhouse kick to the head, s.h.i.+ro threw her sword towards him.

*KLING!

The demon was able to raise his hand just quick enough to deflect the sword. But due to the fact that all four swords were linked to her, controlling the sword in the air was an easy feat for s.h.i.+ro.

Flicking her fingers, s.h.i.+ro controlled the sword to stab through the back of his hand.

"GAH!"

Grabbing his wrist, s.h.i.+ro grinned before stomping the back of his elbow.

*CRACK!

The demon gritted his teeth and tried to slash at her but s.h.i.+ro dodged easily.

Crouching down, s.h.i.+ro made eye contact with the demon and grinned s.a.d.i.s.tically.

She stabbed out with her elbow and jabbed the demon on the spine. This caused him to kneel forward.

s.h.i.+ro took this chance to grab both his wrists and step on the back of his head.

"How dare you! How can a weak human overpower me! A monster!!" He cried out in anger.

"Hahahaha, did this princess not tell you? You're not the only monster here boy~" s.h.i.+ro grinned before putting force into her legs and ripped his arms off.

Snapping her fingers, she controlled the swords to stab into his shoulders and lift him up.

He opened his mouth to speak but a sword plunged into his throat and through his heart.

However, his body broke down into a pool of blood before coagulating itself back together not too far from her spot.

Looking at the demon panting heavily, s.h.i.+ro made a blank face before tilting her head and smiled s.a.d.i.s.tically.

"Seems like you can regenerate. Feel free to entertain this princess ok?" s.h.i.+ro said with a small chuckle.

Glaring at her in anger, a creepy laugh started to seep out of his lips.

"Hehehe, let's see how long you can keep this up. My companion has your friend, and he'll be arriving soon."

This caused s.h.i.+ro to lose her smile as her face became that of a cold a.s.sa.s.sin.

"Speak of the demon and he'll appear." The demon grinned before pointing behind s.h.i.+ro.

"s.h.i.+ro…" Lyrica muttered weakly, grabbing s.h.i.+ro's attention.

Turning around, s.h.i.+ro saw Lyrica being held by another blood demon.

*DANG!

One of her swords collided with the blood demon's sword and stopped it from stabbing her head.

Even though she had turned around, it didn't mean her guard was dropped.

"If you want your friend to pa.s.s this trial, you better drop your swords right now." He grinned.

"You know, since this is a trial, death doesn't mean much." s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes.

"Why get so hung over a trial? Plus, I think I'll spare my friend the humiliation of being held captive with her not being able to do anything."

s.h.i.+ro flicked her wrist before allowing her swords to run rampant around the area, slicing up everything it touched.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!" He shouted out in shock.

"Yes~"

*PUCHI!!!!

Both of the demon including Lyrica was stabbed by the swords and ripped apart. However, Lyrica was still conscious with only her upper torso.

"Why?" She asked with tears in her eyes.

"Stop that. My friend won't act this way." s.h.i.+ro said blandly before stabbing her sword into 'Lyrica's' head.

*Ping~

The sound of gla.s.s shattering rang out as s.h.i.+ro realised she was still outside the cave.

"Test of heart huh?" She muttered with a frown.

Looking around her, she saw that Lyrica, Madison and Silvia were sitting in a lotus position with sweat on their faces.

"So they're in the same test."

During that test, she didn't even know when it had started nor did she know she was inside one. However, when she saw the demon bring in Lyrica is when she understood it was a test.

If she was put into the same situation as Lyrica, she would choose to struggle till her death in order to not implicate her teammates. It was only a trial after all. It didn't matter in the sense that it's not a case of life and death.

Not to mention, s.h.i.+ro understood Lyrica well enough to know that she wouldn't be fixated by a trial so much so that she would implicate her teammate's chances. She was just like that after all.

However, if it had turned out that Lyrica really was like that, picking trial over friends, then she could only blame herself for misjudging her character.

Looking at Lyrica, s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes as a question popped into her head.

'If the same situation happened in real life, would I still choose to kill the demons?' She wondered.

She was a selfish person in a way that she only had a look at things that interested her. Other things didn't matter.

To her, Lyrica was one of the things that interested her hence why she spent so much effort on her.

However, she didn't think she would actively use her life to protect something that only 'interested' her.

As cold as it was, she could always move on in life and find more things that interested her.

Of course, that was what she would have thought a while back. But now, the being that had interested her so far had evolved into something precious like family.

Lyrica was almost like a child she watched grow up from her timid self. Following her every step of the way.

Shaking her head of these thoughts, s.h.i.+ro smiled softly.

'No one knows what they would actually do in that situation. No matter what they say, no matter what they make themselves believe, no one is sure until the moment actually comes.' She thought to herself since she was the same.

She could say that she was selfish and would preserve her own life, or she could say she was selfless and sacrifice herself. She could also say that she would make her own path and avoid both of these options. But nothing was certain.

"Goodness, this trial of the heart really messes with ya." She muttered whilst laying on her back. She was going to have a short nap whilst waiting for them to pa.s.s the test.