After those four men died, the quest was completed, and Zevien got a chain.

*****

[Chain activated: Black Night Lace]

-Follow the trail, find the location, and earn a relic.

*****

When Zevien saw the direction of the chain’s thread, he was startled. “The thread is going inside the cave! From the name, it feels like it’s related to the temple as well.”

“Oh? That’s very convenient,” Vernisia said as she jumped off the branch she was on with full power before landing beside Zevien at the cave’s entrance.

“Let’s complete the relic trial to get a relic since we are here. We still have over an hour, so we should be able to finish it,” Zevien said.

…_.

After Zevien and Vernisia arrived inside the cavern hall, they walked towards the temple with a female stone statue that had a black star-shaped thing behind her head, a black scythe in her left hand, and a book in her right hand.

The thread of the relic pointed at the statue’s face, which was covered by a piece of black lace. It looked worn out.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ Zevien decided to infuse mana in that place, which caused the black lace to glow. From looking worn out, it started shining with metallic black sparks.

Shortly after that, a black whirlpool opened in front of the statue that forcefully sucked Vernisia and Zevien inside.

*****

[You have entered inside the Black Night Lace’s relic trial. Find and defeat the Night Wound to obtain the relic: Black Night Lace]

*****

They appeared in a pitch-black place that made them uncomfortable. Vernisia quickly used her <3rd style of Primal Conjuring: Raging Inferno Phoenix> to light up the place.

“All relic trials are tricky, so we gotta be careful,” Zevien said as he looked around after Vernisia lit up the place. “We seem to be in some kind of ruins.”

“The brightness of my phoenix is so suppressed,” Vernisia frowned.

*screeeeeeeee!*

*puchi…*

“Arghhh…” Vernisia groaned in pain before she looked at her left arm. “M-my arm…” she said as lips trembled and she stammered.

The pain she was feeling was immense, but she gritted her teeth and didn’t scream despite tears already appearing in her eyes.

“Damn it!!” Zevien cursed furiously. Vernisia’s arm was cut off from her elbow! “Hold on! I will suppress your pain.”

Zevien first used <Omni-Barrier> to protect them before quickly conjured the spell formation of <Dreadful State> in front of him. While he was creating the spell formation, Vernisia also cast <Roving Aegis Guard> to cover them over Zevien’s <Omni-Barrier>.

Five seconds later, Zevien finished creating the spell formation of <Dreadful State> and pushed it toward Vernisia’s chest before infusing inside her and then using <Healing Ray> of Somatic Happiness to close the wound.

“I can’t regenerate the arm quickly,” Zevien bit his lips before he looked around with anger in his eyes. “What the heck was that?”

“I couldn’t see it as well,” Vernisia said as she returned to normal. The pain went away after Zevien used his spell on her. “It was too fast. After hearing the screech, I brought my arm to my chest since I felt threatened, but didn’t expect my arm would be cut along with the tough bracer of this tier-3 armor. Whatever it is, it’s very sharp.”

“Let’s wait,” Zevien said while looking around coldly with the absolute focus that he didn’t even show when comprehending spell concepts.

However, thirty minutes passed by in this darkness with little light, but nothing happened.

“It won’t attack while we are in the barrier, and we also can’t do anything while we are protected inside our barriers,” Zevien said with a frown before he narrowed his eyes and walked forward. He opened a gap in his barrier before telling Vernisia to open a small gap as well.

“You want to go outside?” Vernisia frowned.

“Don’t worry, I will kill it before it does anything to me,” Zevien said with utter coldness. “Just open it, Vernisia. I can do it.”

Vernisia heard the resolve in his voice and nodded as she opened a small gap. She knew that she couldn’t stop Zevien anymore after hearing that tone.

As Zevien walked step by step, he unleashed the maximum limit of Shaman-seed possible. After he became a 3rd class magician, he could get an even more powerful boost from it, making his magic power reach 8350.

“Come on, little shit. Attack me,” Zevien provoked whatever it was that attacked Vernisia while being completely defenseless.

“Fine, I’ll close my eyes. Don’t tell me you still don’t dare to come at me?” Zevien said as he really closed his eyes. ‘I have to sense and hear it because I can’t observe anything in this darkness.’

Zevien put all of his focus on his sense of hearing and magic power sensitivity after closing his eyes.

“Zevien, what are you doing?” Vernisia said worriedly after seeing him closing his eyes. “I’m going there.”

“No, just w- “

Suddenly, a sharp black dagger that was unobservable in this darkness shot toward Zevien when he opened his mouth to reply to Vernisia.

However, his ears twitched, and he also sensed some magic power in a certain direction before quickly using Tarto’s new spell that he unlocked, <Chains of Neo-Black>.

Ethereal black chains conjured in the direction of the dagger as they clashed. However, the chains quickly wrapped around the dagger and trapped it.

Zevien controlled the chains and brought the dagger in front of him before conjuring an overflow-cast <Rage Ball> on it.

*BOOOM!*

Zevien saw the panel congratulating him on clearing the relic trial, and he also sensed the existence of a new relic in his Magic Eidos Body.

They also came out from that strange black ruins place and arrived back in the cavern hall.

“The first requirement is to infuse 10,000 mana having the potency of 10,000 magic power,” Zevien said with a surprised expression. “Guess I’ll have to wait.”

After that, he looked at Vernisia’s cut-off arm. “How are you feeling now?”

“No pain after you used that spell on me,” Vernisia smiled.

“Alright, then let’s go back to the kingdom and regenerate your arm,” Zevien said as he princess-carried Vernisia and unfurled his vampire wings before flying back to the kingdom at full speed.