"AHH!!!" Lyrica suddenly cried out in shock, waking up Shiro from her nap.

"You ok?" Shiro asked with a frown. She could see Lyrica with a pink glow meaning she passed but she didn't look too well.

She was currently sweating and touching her right shoulder for a reason unknown to Shiro.

Turning around, she saw Shiro sitting on a rock and instantly went on guard.

"Shiro."

"Sup." Shiro replied casually.

"Tell me, do you like me?" She asked with narrowed eyes.

"Like? Well yeah. You're my friend." Shiro raised an eyebrow.

*sigh

Lyrica sighed in relief as all strength left her body. Collapsing on the ground, she took a moment to calm herself down.

"I'm guessing the trial of heart did quite a number on you." Shiro asked, laying beside her.

"Trial of the heart?" Lyrica asked as things started to become clear to her.

"Yeah, probably something like testing to see if your suited to the path of the sword or some bs like it." Shiro shrugged.

'So it was all just a hallucination…' Lyrica thought sadly.

"How long were you in the trial?" Shiro asked curiously. She had to wait quite a long time for Lyrica to escape after all.

"Hmm… about a month or maybe more? I'm not sure since I didn't keep track of time. What about you?" Lyrica asked.

"Not even a day."

"Huh?"

"Yeah I killed everything and ended the trial quite quickly." Shiro yawned and prepared to nap once more to wait for Silvia and Madison.

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"What happened in your trial?" Lyrica asked, curious as to why Shiro was able to get out so soon.

"Well, in the trial, Silvia and Madison were eliminated from the cave but you survived. But you were heavily injured so I hid you somewhere and looked for medicine." Shiro said as she recounted what had happened.

"I found a pharmacy at the town but it turns out to be a blood demon. I fought it and was about to kill it when they took you out and held you hostage." Shiro continued.

"What happened next?"

"Well I killed everything. Their impersonation of you was crap. Like hell I would mistake my friend for that fraud." Shiro rolled her eyes.

Lyrica only smiled sadly at her response. In her own trial, she indulged herself for a month before finally realising something was wrong. And yet, Shiro was able to tell what had happened on the first day.

This only proved to her that she was too blinded by her own emotions to notice the change in Shiro's personality.

'She's not someone that would love another so easily…' She thought to herself.

Looking up, Shiro noticed a small change in Lyrica's eyes.

'Seems like the trial has matured her quite a bit.' Shiro thought with a smile. She could tell that Lyrica would be harder to fool from this point on.

"Hey Lyrica." Shiro called out.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Why don't you rest for a bit." Shiro suggested.

After the stress of such a trial, she knew one would need a decent rest.

"Hmm… Sure. But before that, can I ask for a favour?" Lyrica asked.

 "Shoot."

"Can I borrow your thighs for a bit? As a pillow." Lyrica smiled whilst putting her hands together in a praying motion.

"Sure, why not. It's not too much of a problem." Shiro shrugged as she decided to indulge Lyrica a little.

Lyrica smiled contently while resting her head on Shiro's thighs.

"Good night." Shiro smiled and pattered Lyrica head.

Nodding slightly, Lyrica fell asleep.

However, a problem started to occur after a while.

'… This princess can't feel her legs anymore.'

…

…

'F*ck.'

###

""GAH!"" Both Madison and Silvia passed their test at the same time. Looking around in a panic, they calmed down seeing everyone else in the group.

"Seems like you guys have passed." Shiro said with a smile.

"Yeah we have. Thought it looks like you two been having some private moments." Madison said with a small laugh. She could see Shiro lending her thighs for Lyrica to sleep on while patting her head at even intervals as if stroking a cat.

"Anything happen in the trial?" Shiro asked, gesturing them to sit down near her.

"Nah, it was mostly just annoying. Though I still can't believe I only noticed after a long time." Madison lamented whilst sitting down next to Shiro.

"What about you Silvia?"

"Pretty much the same." She smiled and sat down as well.

"Oh yeah, Silvia, how did you even pass the cave trial? Wasn't there a small monster attacking you?" Shiro asked as that had confused her.

"Oh, that, well I just kept healing and the monster ran out of stamina. I stabbed it after that." Silvia rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Good job." Shiro smiled since tenacity was one of the healer's best traits.

If you can't provide enough damage, the healer would still be healing after they tire you out.

Plus, as a grand healer, Silvia's mana pool and magic efficiency should be much higher than average.

"Mn…" Lyrica woke up hearing the commotion around her.

"You had a nice nap?" Shiro asked with a smile.

"Ah yes." Lyrica nodded and sat up with a small blush.

"So shall we go to the next spot then?" Madison suggested.

"Sure, but first, can we wait a while?" Shiro asked.

"Why?"

"Because this miss can't feel her legs right no- never mind I think I can feeoOOH MY GOD WHAT THE F*CK!" Shiro cried out feeling a static shock through her legs with even the smallest movement.

Looking at Shiro who was trying her best not to move a single muscle, the trio looked at each other before smiling evilly.

"She's got pins and needles doesn't she?" Silvia said with a eager grin.

"Yeah she does." Madison nodded.

Shiro, who heard what they said, looked up and made eyes contact with them.

"Hey Shiro."

"Yeah?" Shiro replied through her gritted teeth.

"Remember that day when you let a rabbit chase me?"

"Yeah?"

"Well let's say this is revenge." Silvia grinned before poking Shiro's leg.

"&"^£%&^$&^£!!!! Just you wait!" Shiro cried out whilst trying to smack Silvia's arm away with her hand.

"No swearing." Silvia said, poking her legs once more.

While Silvia was humouring herself with her long awaited revenge, Madison and Lyrica decided to join in the fun.

Shiro, who was subjected to this punishment, started to make plans for her own revenge.

'Maybe I should take them into a level 55 dungeon during their sleep and wake them up near a spawning ground.' She thought.

The trio didn't know why but they suddenly felt a shiver. Shrugging it off as cold wind, they continued to poke at Shiro's legs.

###

After the trio had their fun with poking Shiro's legs, they continued their way to the other markers.

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"Well anyways, there's 4 more spots near us so we should check them out first." Shiro said pointing at the map.

"Urg, I hope those are a little easier. I can't stand taking another one of those heart tests again." Madison groaned in annoyance.

"Agreed." Lyrica nodded.

"Well don't worry about it too much. It's just a trial. If you really want to earn some decent treasure, I can teach you a bit of my martial arts and get one of my friends to make you some armour and weapons. No biggie." Shiro smiled.

Both Madison and Lyrica's eyes glistened when they heard the suggestion.

"I want to learn the 3rd Phantom!" Madison replied almost immediately. If she was able to learn the principles behind the Counter Weight Phantom, her tanking capabilities would shoot through the roof.

"I want to learn 2nd Phantom" Lyrica followed up. Since her class was all about speed and attack, the second would be the most beneficial for her.

That being said, 1st phantom was also a good choice but she couldn't be greedy and ask her to share all of her skills now could she?

"What's this about phantoms?" Silvia asked with curiosity.

Lyrica and Madison looked at each other, unsure as to whether or not Shiro would want Silvia to know.

"You see, I use a set of martial arts called Yin Style Phantom Arts. There are 5 stances I suppose and each one has a different effect. The first one makes me almost undetectable, the second one makes me quick, third one allows me to redirect weight and force, the fourth one allows me to ignore defence and the last one is all out kill or be killed." Shiro said with a nonchalant smile.

Since they were going to be teammates, it didn't matter if she knew about the martial arts. Especially since she uses them all the time.

"Heh~ I didn't know you practised martial arts." Silvia replied in surprise.

Most mages don't practice a martial art since they spend most of their time studying and learning spells. At least that was what she did in order to class up to a grand mage and learn support skills that buffed her teammates.

"Well I don't actively learn martial arts. This was just a reward of sorts I earned from a trial I did." Shiro shrugged.

They continued to chat for a bit longer whilst making their way to the next locations.

Thankfully, the rest of the trials were just tests of strength that required them to fight bosses as a team.

Naturally, the trials weren't easy either.

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However, Lyrica was practically carrying the team since she almost didn't allow Shiro to make a move. The sheer density and power behind her attacks allowed her to push some bosses on the defence.

But even though she had improved massively, she was still lacking experience which caused a few openings in her defence to show up. For those, it was up to Shiro and Lyrica to support her.

While they were fighting the boss, Silvia would help by healing them occasionally, allowing them to fight at peak power.

Looking at Lyrica. Shiro was curious to know what had happened in her trial that caused her to improve on her swordplay so much. But she didn't pry into it so much since she could tell that Lyrica was avoiding questions that would ask her about what happened.

The duo, Madison and Silvia also noticed this and dropped all questions regarding what had happened in Lyrica's trial.

Looking up at the night sky, Shiro wondered about whether or not they should continue.

"Do you girls want to rest for now and continue to the rest of the markers tomorrow?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, Lyrica's been fighting for quite a while now." Madison nodded.

Since Shiro didn't have access to most of her inventory right now, she wasn't able to pull out a tent.

"Honestly, the best thing to do is for us to just rest in the trees. That allows us to hide our bodies as well as staying away from ground ambush during sleep." Shiro suggested.

Looking up at the trees, the group nodded without hesitation.

After all, it wasn't strange for adventurers to camp out. A common occurrence.

Looking for a good branch to sleep on, Shiro stretched her body out before relaxing herself.

###

Repeating the same process as yesterday, the group fought their way through strength trials. Each of the subsequent bosses was much harder than before. It was to the point unless the three attackers worked together, it would be very hard to pass the trial.

That was due to the fact that during some fights, they discovered that some bosses needed to be hit in certain spots at the same time or else they won't die.

Shiro tried to use Ascendant Dream to help her but the defences would react instantaneously as if to stop her from attacking weak spots twice.

She guessed this was the case since Lyrica and Madison were given a slight leeway in timing for them to hit the spots.

However, even after they finished all of the marker's, they still couldn't find the springs.

"Hmm… You think the feeling you were getting leads to the springs?" Shiro asked.

"Maybe. I mean, the feeling's grown stronger the more tests I've passed. What about you Madi?"

"I don't have this feeling that you're talking about." Madison shrugged her shoulders in helplessness.

"Is that so." Lyrica replied with slight disappointment.

"Well no harm in checking it out. Lead the way." Shiro smiled and gestured for Lyrica to lead the way.

Following behind Lyrica, Shiro realised that the path they took should have taken them back to the start but instead it was a different place.

'Strange…' She thought to herself since she was confident in her ability to map out an area. For her map to collide with itself was definitely the first time in a long long while.

Plus, it wasn't as if they had walked up/down a hill either.

However, she trusted Lyrica and didn't speak up. Greying out the area on her mental map, Shiro continued to edit it whilst walking behind Lyrica.

"It should be near now." Lyrica said, raising her guard so that she was ready for any kind of ambush that may happen.

Hearing her call, the rest of the group also got ready.

Leaving the forest behind them, they saw a huge temple. The temple was made from dark purple material. Cracks and other evidence of its age could be seen on the walls.

Pillars were broken and some bricks were even missing.

Looking at the giant set of doors that displayed rows upon rows of engravings showing different swords, the group couldn't help but notice a spiritual entity that sat in front of the gate.

[After discovering a temple of sorts, you see an entity guarding the door to the temple. Rumours state that the entity is known as the watcher. He tests the participants one last time before they're allowed into the springs.]

"Seems like we're here." Shiro said seriously seeing an update in the trial quest log.

"Step fourth, and I shall test you one last time." The watcher said emotionlessly and turned around to face the girls.

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