At the sight of the monsters, the three cowardly people beside Jonah and I threw their swords and ran away.
"Hey, come back!"
Jonah tried to call them.
"Forget those people! Focus on the enemies in front of you!"
I snapped at him for diverting his attention.
"R-right!"
Without letting the monsters out of my sight, I looked over to the three people for a moment and saw all three bumped into an invisible wall, preventing them to leave.
"Ah, there was also that barrier back in my first trial."
Jonah said while quickly glancing the three.
"I guess we're stuck here until we completed the trial then."
Graahhh!
The four goblins began their charge at us.
"Two each, right?"
Jonah reminded our arrangement.
I nodded.
"Indeed."
I then hovered my hand toward the monsters and casted a spell.
[Burst]
Using telekinesis, I enchanted the small boulder beneath the goblins and caused it to shoot upward from the ground. The four goblins were scattered as they were pushed by the boulder.
Seeing the opportunity, Jonah ran toward the goblins and used his spear to split them up even further.
As per to our agreement, Jonah chased two of them to a corner of the field, leaving me with the rest of the two which were already fixated on me.
[Maha Agni]
I spent no time to cast my second spell.
[Ignite]
A trailing ball of flame shot out from my palm and struck the two goblins.
Boom.
All that was left of the hideous creatures were their scorched-black corpses.
Thwack!
Shuck!
I looked over to Jonah and found him impaling a goblin right in the head. The other was already torn into half.
Based on Jonah's swift and powerful movement, I was certain his flock back home was well protected from the wolves.
A spear was definitely a great match for him.
"Nice work!"
I told Jonah, approaching him.
"They're much weaker than wolves. So it was nothing, haha!"
Jonah said wiping his sweat.
I immediately noticed a gashing wound on his left forearm.
"Your arm."
"Ah, this? One of them grazed me as I was trying to attack the other."
It would take a while for that wound to heal.
If only we had an alchemy lab and the necessary ingredient, I could make a health potion to heal it in an instant.
Jonah looked around the field which was scattered with goblin corpses.
"What now?"
Bluish-white light suddenly engulfed Jonah and I, as well as the other three that came with us.
"I suppose that's the end of the trial."
I replied to him.
The light grew brighter until we were trapped in this white dimension. And when it dimmed, the five of us found ourselves back to the massive room with the giant mirrors.
Upon returning, the wound on Jonah's hand started to close and healed completely.
"Ha! I knew it would heal once we're back!"
Jonah said smiling.
"Has it happened before?"
"During my first trial, the goblin managed to hurt my hand too. I was immediately healed once I finished the trial and returned here."
That was another important rule to take notice.
I supposed we would not have to worry about being gravely wounded in the trial.
As long as we could survive till the end, we would end up fine once we returned.
Drrrr….
Suddenly the entire chamber started to rumble.
"Serafina, what's happening?!"
"I'm not sure."
It lasted about a few seconds and then it stopped completely.
I looked around to see what had changed.
"There!"
I pointed to the shining mirror from before. The wording on it had changed slightly.
[Climb the tower and save the world!]
[Main Dungeon]
[Floor conquered – 1 –]
The number 0 on the conquered floor had changed to 1.
I assumed it referred to the trial we just completed.
"Serafina, does that mean the two trials that happened before this did not count?"
Jonah asked, which was a good question.
"Well, we did not go through this room when we entered the previous trials."
"That's right. We were standing outside and a light transported us to the burning village."
"Which means the real trials we have to do are the ones accessed through this room with the mirrors."
[Exactly!]
The fairy suddenly appeared in front of us, somehow with a rather pleased expression.
[You two did very well on the 1st floor. Keep doing that till you reach the top!]
Floor. I guessed that was how we were supposed to refer the trials.
"And on which floor would we reach the top?"
I asked.
[The 100th! It's still a long way to climb, so work hard!]
The one hundredth floor. Which meant we still had to do this 99 more times.
99 more trials awaited us. I wondered how we would fare against all of them.
"What will happen once we reached the top? Will we get what we want?"
I asked the fairy again.
[Climb the tower if you want to find out! The answer's there! Don't ask me!]
The fairy shouted before vanishing.
I supposed I would not be getting anything from her then.
That being said, the words on the mirror.
[Climb the tower and save the world]
I believed this was what the voice was referring to regarding my desire.
If I overcome every trials, conquering every floor of this 'tower,' then I might be able to save my homeland.
"Serafina, what was that you talked about with the warden? About getting what you wanted."
Jonah asked.
"I'm not entirely sure. But I think if we reach the 100th floor, we could go home."
"Really? If we win 99 more of this battle, we could go home?"
"It's likely."
I still had a lot of questions regarding the trials and the tower, but I thought it was best to leave it there for now.
The five of us then walked through the gate which led us back to the square.
The others were still standing there waiting for us.
They were all shocked when they saw the goblins' dark blood staining Jonah's clothes.
"So it's true! Master sent you guys to battle?!"
One of them asked.
The three people that came with us stepped forward with panicked faces.
"It is true! Master sent us to a field full of goblins!"
"And to make it worse, we could not escape!"
"Kya, it was so scary!"
Those three did a great job to make the others wary about the trials.
Perhaps now they would be motivated to train.
"But we got the mage to protect us in there. So we were fine."
Or not.
The three continued on how Jonah and I managed to exterminate the monsters.
"Yeah, the shepherd fought well. But the mage lady was powerful."
"Yes, she could beat all of the monsters by herself if she wanted to."
"True! We were worried over nothing!"
The fairy appeared in the square again and called out to us.
The large stone gate shined once more.
[Master is calling for you! If I call your name, go into that gate!]
Although they knew they would be sent for the trial, the people in the square were not as frightened as before.
"Don't worry, guys! We got the mage with us, I'm sure we'll be alright!"
[Jonah, Roan, Lumi, Horace, and Trevor! Go into the gate!]
The crowd furrowed their brows after hearing the names.
They looked to the fairy.
"Wait a minute. Wasn't the mage's name Serafina?"
"Yeah, why wasn't she called?"
The fairy shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes.
[Duh, she's not going, of course!]