Alnea blinked, read the instructions on the Assistant Panel, blinked once again, and then read the instructions once again. Except for the last row of symbols counting down the time they had left to complete the Trial, everything else remained the same. Subduing the unrest welling up in his Heart, he glanced around at his teammates, and found a similar look on their faces. A look of helplessness and—

  “We really got a special mission,” Ralph mumbled, staring incredulously at the empty air above his Blood Card. “Even though we prepared all those plans…”

  “Let us look at the bright side,” Norren said, patting Ralph’s back with a chuckle. “At least we have already completed a part of the mission.”

  “A small part.”

  “…Small would be an overstatement. I think miniscule should be the right word to use here.”

  “…Maybe we should have come a bit earlier for the Trial.”

  “Coming here a couple of hours earlier would not have helped much,” Vestia said, shaking her head. “At best, we would have been in a little better condition. The progress of our Trial itself would not have changed much.”

  “…Maybe we should have come a day earlier?”

  “Wanderer Bains and Maxel were already arguing just because Wanderer Maxel proposed to send us to the Final World a couple of hours earlier. Do you think they would have agreed to send us here an entire day early?”

  “We could have tried…”

  “You all are missing a point here,” Yuri said, glancing at the Star Seekers. “We were not assigned any of the Trials we read about in the information given to us. Our Trial was generated for us right on the spot, according to our past performances and our current conditions. Including the fact that we began exploring the Final World before our Final Trial could begin.”

  “…Are you saying that it is only because we were exploring the Final World that we were asked to do the same in the Final Trial?”

  “Most probably.”

  “…Then would it not have been even better if we came here earlier?”

  “You still do not get it, do you?” Yuri said, glancing towards the swamp. “For a moment, forget about the Trial, and think from the perspective we had when we came to the Final World. Can you do that?”

  Everyone stared at Yuri, not knowing how they should respond. Not because her request was too heavy, but because it was too easy. So easy, in fact, that for a moment, most of them wondered if she was mocking them on purpose. She had their Captain’s trust though. And she had always proven herself to have the keenest insight of them all on more occasions than they could count. Not to mention her unique and terrifying Arcanas and Glyphs…

  “…That does not seem too difficult a task.”

  “Good. Then, can you tell me what we were exploring the forest for?”

  “…To secure a base?”

  “And since we have already secured a base, without the notification of the Final Trial, what do you think we would have done next?”

  “…Expand outwards?” Cecilia said, a bit hesitantly. “At least that was our initial plan. To expand outwards, and clean out all the dangerous factors. Maybe look for a second base that has nothing to do with swamps. And if possible, lay a few traps for our enemies.”

  “…I think you got the order wrong,” Vestia said to Cecilia, before turning towards Yuri. “But that was the gist of it. Once we had secured our base, we were going to expand outwards.”

  “In other words, expand our territory.”

  “…You can say that.”

  “Do you see the problem now?” Yuri said, glancing at the rest of the Star Seekers. “Had we come earlier, our focus would have shifted from just exploring our surroundings to expanding our territory. Correspondingly, once the time for the Final Trial would have come, we would not have been asked to simply explore the Final World. Or would you have preferred facing thousands of Wanderers head on?”

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  “…I think what Yuri wants to say is that, though exploring such a large area of Final World is going to be troublesome, it could have been even worse,” Alnea said, rescuing his teammates from further embarrassment. “Besides, it is not as if all our plans our going to waste. We just need to adapt our plans to our current situation. Just like how we did earlier, when exploring the forest.”

  “…What should we do now, then?” Karl said. “Do we go exploring right away, or first lay down some traps?”

  “…Before we decide anything, let us sit down first,” Alnea said, spotting a comfortable knot of roots sticking out of the ground, and taking his seat, with the rest of the Star Seekers following his example, finding a suitable knot of roots for themselves, forming a circle, as they were used to. “This feels much better.”

  “…It all feels the same to me,” Cecilia said, earning a smile from both Vestia and Alnea.

  “That is because you are used to moving your body around, and have trained as a Warrior for years. There are others here who have not trained their body as much. Not to mention that talking while standing may incite a sense of urgency within our Hearts, which might affect our judgement. It would have been fine if the situation itself was urgent. Since it is not, we can take our time to make our decision, and while we are at it, get some rest.”

  “…On the contrary, I think we should hurry up,” Karl said in a gloomy voice. “Since the Final Trial has already begun, our enemies should have also come to the Final World. And they might even be coming towards us as we are speaking. Sitting around, and discussing our plans is the last thing we should be doing. At the very least, I think we should go out to lay some traps. Or make some false tracks to confuse our enemies. Regardless of what we do though, we should get moving quickly.”

  “Yet, it is exactly because the Final Trial has begun that we can relax a little,” Alnea said, letting out a relaxed smile. “What is the objective of our Trial?”

  “…Exploring the Final World,” Karl said.

  “A small part of the Final World,” Vestia added.

  “Exploring everything within a radius of a hundred kilometres,” Ralph said, staring incredulously at Vestia. “You call this a small part?”

  “Compared to the entirety of the Final World, that is indeed a small part.”

  “Yet, exploring just that small part alone is going to take most if not all of the time that the Trial gave us, not to mention the enemies that will be trying to stop us,” Karl said, before turning back to Alnea. “Are we really going to just sit around, and discuss our measures so leisurely?”

  “Calm down first, Karl. You will get your answers in time,” Alnea said with a wide smile, and turned towards Vestia. “How large is the area we have to cover, Vestia?”

  “A little over thirty thousand square kilometres.”

  “And how many people have challenged us to the Final Trial?”

  “Around two thousand, I guess. We did not check the numbers before coming, but it should more than two thousand Wanderers at the very least.”

  “Two thousand Wanderers… That is not a small number,” Alnea said, before glancing at the rest of his teammates. “How do you think these two thousand Wanderers will be distributed around us?”

  “Did it not say in the rules that except for Wanderers belonging to the same team being teleported next to each other, everything else about being teleported to the Final World will be random?”

  “Still, there must be some rules within that randomness. For example, the city cannot put all two thousand Wanderers together. Neither can it transfer them so far away from us, so that they will not even be able to reach us before that Trial is over.”

  “Is that not obvious?”

  “Sometimes, the obvious may hide more things than you can imagine… What do you think of the side mission?”

  “Defeating the challengers?”

  “Not just any challengers, but the challengers trying to stop us from exploring the Final Trial.”

  “…Is there a difference between the two?”

  “There is, if you look carefully,” Alnea said, nodding solemnly. “The first one just asks us to defeat other Wanderers, while the second one tells us that the people who challenged us to the Final Trial will be trying to stop us from exploring the Final World.”

  “…Why do I still think that there is no difference between the two?” Norren said, scratching his head. “Is that not the reason why those people challenged us to the Final Trial in the first place? To stop us from clearing our Final Trial?”

  “That was their intention, yes. But for the city to specifically mark that fact in the information about our Trial means that a part of their Final Trial will be to stop us from exploring the Final World.”

  “So?”

  “So, there are a little over two thousand Wanderers out there, whose Trials include stopping us from exploring the Final World. However, that alone cannot be their Final Trial. After all, we are just ten Wanderers, and they are over two thousand in number. If all of them can clear the Trial by just stopping us, then this whole Trial would be a farce. And yes, I know what some of you are thinking, but let me remind you once again.

  “The Orthodoxies who are after us may have some control over how the city implements its rules, yet it cannot dictate its rules. Even if the council can manipulate the rules of the city to pit us against thousands of Wanderers, it cannot directly break the rules. Especially since they have no say in determining the Trials. As such, other than stopping us from completing our Trials, those two thousand wanderers must also have Trials of their own.”