"Alright. I'm gonna wait for you guys in the next challenge."
The demon smirked as dark wings burst from his back, and he shot up into the sky.
Soon, the candidates couldn't even spot his shadow in the blood-red sky anymore.
Now, the moment of decision had arrived.
Almost instantly, one of the candidates lunged forward, heading straight toward the pack of fiends in the north — no thinking, no hesitation.
Alaric gritted his teeth, staring at the fiends in the distance. His mind now held only one thing: get through them and reach the place where the second challenge would happen, no matter what.
He summoned his [Mission] screen, and his expression shifted immediately.
--
Normal Mission (0/1)
Status: 🔒 Undiscovered
Life-or-Death Mission (1/1) | Recovery in: 9:30:00
Status: ✅ Discovered
--
Which meant his normal mission still hadn't found a proper mission for him—meanwhile Life-or-Death Mission needed time to recover before generating another one.
But right now, none of that mattered much. If he died here, missions were pointless anyway.
The other candidates looked at the slave with confused and uncertain eyes. They figured there must be something wrong with his brain. But at the same time, they couldn't deny they admired his willpower — whether it was for survival, or for God's reward.
"He's so brave," Curry said with a small smile as he watched the slave.
"Or stupid," Morris muttered next to him.
"So… what do we do now?" the butler asked, worry clear in his voice. He couldn't believe his master could stay so calm right now.
Curry shrugged and glanced at Morris.
"Now, I think you should reveal your secret… You knew something about this challenge, right?"
Morris grimaced.
"Only half. About this part, I have no clue."
He looked at the slave again, a bit uneasy.
"That slave will be a good test… We'll decide after watching how he does."
***
The slave, ragged with breath, quickly summoned his massive stone egg before the pack of fiends could reach him. With a swift motion, he hid himself behind the massive stone egg as a shield.
Settling his rhythm of circulation, he leaned his back against the stone, sensing its vibrations from the constant impacts between fiends and stone.
"Damn it. If I die, at least I'll take one of you with me." The slave, face twisted with madness, glared at the pack of fiends pressing against the massive stone egg.
He no longer had any way back ever since stepping through the gate. He understood that clearly. Anyway, even if he died, if it not be by fiends, it would be by the bacterial wounds. All he did was die, anyway. He had no reason to be afraid.
If he died, he would die following the great way, proud that he had defeated a fiend of hell. That would be a huge achievement for a slave like him.
He looked up and saw a short, human-looking fiend standing atop the stone egg, staring at him maniacally, its face ravenous. Then it jumped down, lunging its teeth-filled snout at the slave.
Alaric smirked in a mindset of having nothing left to lose and summoned his rusted sword with both hands, swinging it upward to slice the incoming fiend clean in half with a single strike.
[You have killed a fiend]
[You gained 5 Chaos Points]
Staring at the bisected fiend, he froze for a moment, then glanced down at the rusted blade in shock. He had no idea how he'd just swung it like that—like some seasoned swordsman—despite never touching a sword in his entire life.
A faint tremor buzzed through his hands from the rusted sword. It was screaming, urging him to tear the horde of fiends into a hundred pieces.
He let out a weak smile. Fine by him. As long as this damn sword helped him clear the challenge, he wouldn't complain.
Meanwhile, the other fiends nearby seemed to be laughing, mocking the stupid died fiend. But then a few of them quickly rushed at the slave, ready to rip the wretched man apart.
Alaric roared and charged straight at them.
"Fuck you. Come on—follow me to hell."
Something felt off the moment he said it… Yeah, right. This place was already hell. Still, he didn't care.
[You have killed a fiend]
[You gained 5 Chaos Points]
…
[You have killed a fiend]
[You gained 5 Chaos Points]
…
"Damn… this sword is squeezing my energy dry and grinding every damn muscle." Alaric gritted his teeth, feeling each cell in his body screaming to collapse every time another fiend fell.
What's worse, the rusted sword moved insanely fast—so fast it nearly snapped the bones in his hands with every strike, forcing him into its skillful, deadly movements until his whole body felt like it was about to fall apart.
Alaric wanted to loosen his grip, just ease the sword for a second, but he couldn't. His instincts were screaming at him: Drop that sword and you'll be torn apart by the fiend horde.
[You have killed a fiend]
[You gained 5 Chaos Points]
…
As time passed and the body count hit thirty, the fiends finally started to feel it—that creeping terror toward Alaric, as if he was the real fiend here, not them.
Their fight against him was nothing but a one-sided massacre.
Of course, Alaric was the predator, and they were the weak prey.
But Alaric could no longer keep going. His body was on the brink of breaking, and the rusted sword was in the same state—tiny cracks beginning to show across its surface.
Not that it mattered anymore. The fiends were scared enough.
They scattered and fled, leaving Alaric completely alone, trembling and barely holding himself up with the rusty sword as support.
A moment later, the sword slowly dissolved into nothing. Alaric collapsed along with it.
He stared up at the blood-red sky with blurry eyes, forcing himself to breathe. He was dying, completely wrecked.
"D-Damn…"
[Congratulations, Host!]
[You have accomplished the first challenge of the Nameless God]
[Rewards will stack once you finish the final challenge]
[All fatal wounds will be healed]
Suddenly, warmth rushed through him. Pain vanished. His vision snapped back into focus. He took a deep breath and slowly pushed himself up.
"I almost died…"
He sighed and glanced at the runes floating in front of him, then nodded once he understood his situation. He hadn't expected that rusty sword to help him… but unfortunately, it had already dissipated.
—
[Personal] [Summon] [Gacha] [Mission]
Chaos Points: 150
—
''Great. It seems I've killed around 30 fiends''
Surely, 30x5=150
But he couldn't just stand here any longer; he needed to move to the place where the next challenge awaited.
"Let's go."