Prince of The Abyss

It had been a month since they entered this story; he had gotten tired, really tired. But he needed to keep pushing forward; after all, they were close to the finish line. He had already killed seven guardians and their villages; he had passed the halfway mark, but still, he needed to get things done faster. This was too slow. He wasn’t going to spend two of the three months he had available on this story.

He had fought a giant sea monster inside a massive lake, which had not been fun at all, since he didn’t know how to swim. It was probably the hardest fight out of all; he was lucky that the monster itself was on the weaker side.

A White Stag inside some giant plains, a giant spider inside an underground mining city. Which had again been a fight that he had not liked at all... not because he had a reason; he just didn’t like spiders, plus, it had laid babies mid-fight, so he also had to deal with them.

A Bear in a valley famous for medicine, and they had stolen some of course, a wolf in a northern forest, with a lot of snow.

And now he was inside a massive canyon, for what the guardian he was going to have to fight he had no real idea; after all, he had been pretty wrong most times, like when he had thought he was going to fight a snake and instead it was a bear. It was good to try and guess, at least if you were right, since you were able to get everything done for it. But at the same time, if you guessed wrong, you prepared for something else, so good luck.

The canyon was filled with merchants trying to trade, the only thing being that they didn’t have any money... which made him wonder why he had not stolen any from the villages they killed. They were dead either way... ’I guess we’ve never really needed money in the first place. Just playing with the person at the Inn to let us stay for free just one night, and go and kill the guardian, then the village.’

The only good thing he could say was that at least the merchants weren’t selling anything that looked that intriguing. But he was a bit sad, since who knew, maybe they had a relic somewhere there, one that could help him a lot.

...

He never knew what to do in times like this; they always challenged the guardian the next day of their coming, so they could get rest, and for Sena to have time to get her pets at night, doing it during the day was bad because she had to keep them for longer, so her head hurt more.

And most times, in days like this, he had no idea what to do. And to think he still had four guardians after this, if he took a minimum of two days, it was eight, but to get to each one it took even longer, and he had no idea how to judge how much time he had for walking between regions, but it had to be at least ten days left, and even that seemed too little.

They were probably going to get out in the middle of summer, and he hoped to get a good score; even without thought, it was still ten sync, but still, this much time for that? It was too little; if he got the highest rank, that was forty, which was good. It made sense, half for half; he didn’t think he had a chance of getting to Enlightenment in this practice season, but if nothing happened in the Winter, he was going to be done by the end of it. Which was good... was he going to challenge his trial? No, definitely not; he needed some time to also get his Rank up, at least once. People got a lot of shards from their trials, after all, since it was a class higher; if their sins were high, they were going to have to fight some powerful people.

Which led to a lot of shards. Just like for him, he had reached Echo because of Frozen Crown, and while reaching Beast, the other book he challenged with his Rebellion also helped; most came from Demon of Dread. He didn’t doubt that his Bearer trial was also going to give him a lot.

Another reason he wasn’t challenging his trial was that he didn’t want to do it alone, not again. He had almost lost his life so many times, and since... apparently he hadn’t gotten that strong, he was yet again going to have a hard time; after all, it wasn’t like he was any nicer as a Seeker, and he wasn’t going to get a high rank.

With whom he was going to challenge the Trial. He had no idea; it would be fun to get someone who didn’t have that many sins. That way, it was a bit easier, but at the same time, he wanted someone who knew how to fight. Since if he wanted someone to drag with him and protect him, he could just get someone from the story.

...A part of him hoped he was going to be able to challenge the Trial with the other Vessels... as much as he hated Lilith, he was powerful and would make the Trial a lot easier, even more with Iris, which would help with his Bane. And he was friends with Sena, so he would have at least someone to trust with him. He wasn’t saying he didn’t trust Iris, but then again, everyone trusts their friends more than someone they just know.

...

The only thing that made this option not plausible... was the fact that he doubted they would allow him to join them. In the King’s eyes, he was not one of them... if this happened... then he was just going to have to find someone else.

And for some reason...

he had someone in mind.