The 'Guardian'[3]

[Ace POV],

"All right, let's get moving," I said, thinking we'd had enough rest.

It should be around two hours since the incident involving the Fire eagles and Bravyrr wolves.

It wasn't a lie when I say I was expecting something else to happen but thankfully it didn't as I was able to get some rest.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Anna asked as she rushed to my side, gesticulating to the humans around us who were already recovering.

"Why?" I inquired.

"To help in some way. Even in their current state, everyone should be able to help each other, right?" Anna inquired as she moved the sleeping mia in her arms to a more comfortable position.

Hearing what she said, I spoke.

"And what makes you think that if we all cross the bridge at the same time, another event or quest will not appear because of our numbers or something?" I inquired as I drew a bottle of water from my storage ring to drink.

Anna, when she heard my question, was unable to respond. She only spoke again after a few seconds.

"Well, it doesn't really matter. I believe we are strong enough on our own, and we also have crow ", Anna said, turning to face the motionless crow on her shoulder.

Looking at the shadow crow she was referring to, which appeared to have never fought in the first place, I remembered when she used her infuse skill on it.

The skill's effect is straightforward and practical. In layman's terms, the skill's effect is similar to a booster.

If you use the skill on a normal blade, you will infuse your mana into it, making it sharper and stronger.

When you use the skill on a shield, it strengthens it and increases its durability.

In the case of the shadow crow, Anna utilized the infuse skill to hasten its recovery while Emma threw a healing spell on it.

In the end, all that matters is that it's healed, which should make us contend more with anything lurking deep in the fog when we cross the bridge.

We finally arrived at the bridge as I was thinking about these things. I only needed a few more steps to get inside the fog.

When I saw this, I tightened my grip on the twin blades in my hand and raised my guard to the highest level. Turning my gaze to my teammates, who gave me a nod to indicate they were ready as well, I returned my attention to the fog covering the bridge and entered it.

I was going to cross the bridge eventually because the gray light curtain from before was still there doing its job of keeping us on the trial ground. I simply resolved to make my own sooner rather than later.

.....

"Nothing," I murmured when I realized I couldn't see anything when I entered the fog, but it was then that I realized I couldn't hear my own voice even though I knew I was speaking.

Seeing this, I tried to speak a few more times, saying a few different words, but I still couldn't hear my voice.

Now that I think about it, this place is unusually quiet. It was so quiet that I couldn't even hear my own breath.

'What a strange place,' I thought as I turned to look behind me to see how my teammates were doing, only to see dense fog. It was as if they had vanished. The fog appeared to have thickened even more. I didn't even bother trying to yell my teammates' names as I still couldn't hear my footsteps.

Seeing this, I turned my head back to the front, only to discover that the fog had thickened to the point where I couldn't see my hands.

When I turned around again, everything was the same.

'What trick is the primordial chronicle playing here, or is this something caused by the guardian?' I thought as I continued forward, tightening my grip on the weapon even more.

Everything I've seen so far in this fog has been either confusing or difficult to explain. It was strange, in a word. Perhaps if we hadn't entered the fog when we first saw it, this wouldn't have happened, but if we didn't try to go, we'd have to hunt for other ways to fulfill our job quest, and for someone like me with a time constraint, any time wasted is a major loss.

Shaking my head to clear my mind, I concentrated on what was more important.

Though I was intrigued by this 'guardian,' my life was far more important.

The primordial chronicle also stated that I had to either cross the bridge or defeat the guardian, and it was clear which of these two sounded easier.

I didn't need to confront the guardian since all I had to do was cross the bridge, but even with something as simple as this, the primordial chronicle wasn't ready to make it that simple for me because something unusual began to happen.

At first, I thought it was my brain playing tricks on me because everything was devoid of sound and it subconsciously started to produce sounds itself when I started hearing voices in my head, but when these voices, which initially sounded like whispers, became louder to the point where it sounded like someone was shouting in my ear, I knew it wasn't what I thought it was.

Seeing this, I raised my already high guard even higher as the voices in my head became louder and clearer I began to distinguish the distinct voices, and when I did, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and question if it was genuine.

Right now, three voices in my head sounded like they were shouting, and the strange thing is that I recognize these three voices.

One belonged to my mother, one to my elder sister, and one to Gustav, and the odd thing was that they were all shouting the same thing.

They were all asking for help.

.....

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