Death, Devotion, Dissonance

"Hey, you must be Evin, right?" the girl asked.

"Yep," Evin replied in a friendly way. "And you are?"

"Ah, my name's Penelope, but usually people just call me Penny," the girl introduced herself and chuckled wryly. "I kinda noticed you have more food and supply cards than you need… I was just wondering if you would be willing to trade them for information?"

Evin wasn't really sure whether he needed the information or not, but he could entertain the group for the time being. And like the girl said, it wasn't like he needed 5 extra tents for himself.

"Depends on what kind? Stuff about the trials? Or something else?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'd love to hear this one. It actually pertains to you," Penny said with a smug smile.

From the words, Evin could guess what the girl was gonna talk about.

"Is it about the whole school year hunting me for a chance at tuition?"

"A-ah, you already heard about it?" Penny asked, looking quite flustered.

"Yeah. Ever since morning, people were trying to shoot me down on sight," Evin chuckled. "It's been quite terrifying to see so many people who look like they want to skin you."

It was a bit exaggerating, but Evin had enough people who were jealous of him for the guess to be plausible.

"Yeah… then you must've seen the huge mob who was sweeping the island in search of you."

'What the fuck?' Evin thought, but managed to keep his cool.

"Ha-ha, yeah. But if you happen to have some info on other things, I'm all ears, you know? Where did you get the food cards, anyway? The Dungeon?"

Penny thought a bit before answering, "We managed to get some from the dungeon. In fact, I think I saw about half the school year is loitering around that place. Luckily, our group woke up near the dungeon, so we were able to snatch some loot before anyone else was able to."

It was obvious that Penny wasn't very good at negotiating with others. Whenever Evin made a small guess about things and said some key words, like the school hunting for him, or the Dungeon; Penny would just assume that he knew everything about the topic and freely spout out information about the said topic.

Evin probably could've used this fact to wring out a lot of information out of her, but for the time being, he didn't really need to know anything. Hence, he decided to push the conversation towards its most desirable conclusion.

"Have you found any other cards, then? If you have, maybe you can trade it for mine?"

Penny considered the question and replied, "I need to discuss this with my other teammates."

Evin didn't mind and patiently waited for the other group to make their decision. Depending on the card, Evin didn't even mind giving away all his food for it. After all, he wasn't worried about not being able to find basic food cards.

Five minutes later, Penny came back and showed Evin the card they obtained.

[Slaver Card – bring five copies of this card to the Ruler and receive the Slaver's Chains (attach this item to someone's neck, to make them your slave through the rest of the test).]

Suppressing the urge to grin, Evin acted as if he was seeing this card for the first time and muttered, "Huh, so there's these kinds of cards as well."

"Yes. The Dungeons mostly had cards relating to foods and supplies, but sometimes, these kinds of card popped up as well. I heard about a Castle Card, cards offering information on the other locations, a Find Person Card, a Find Card Card."

'Find Person Card… and a Find Card Card…?' Evin thought as he listened. He was a bit disappointed that he couldn't find such cards in the Tunnels, despite the fact that he had the place basically all to himself. 'Perhaps the Dungeon's simply much bigger than the Tunnels? After all, it accommodated the almost 60 students and from what I can gather from it, there are still people exploring it.'

"Huh, I didn't know that," he admitted. "Anyway, how many cards do you want for this one?"

"We'll be fine with two tents, four bags and enough food to last us the day," Penny replied humbly.

Evin was feeling generous, so he didn't bother bargaining and even gave the group enough food for the morning after. After all, Evin still had enough cards left to last him ten more days. It felt nice to be a philanthropic rich person.

Finished with the trade, Evin got some snacks from the Shelter to eat during the walk. He then brought Amera and walked southwards, to the direction of the Infirmary. Then, he turned both of them invisible, and change their direction towards the Palace. If Amera had any trouble with all these extra precautions, she didn't show them on the outside.

After he decided that it was safe enough, he brought out the paper which contained the information on the Cove.

[Recommended for students who can use either Lumiaris, Exivear, Ivelisi to a respectable degree. The trial inside requires the cooperation between five students, so challengers are advised to bring people they are familiar with. The completion reward is the right to receive two World Shards of their choosing (applies to each of the five participants, so ten Shards in total).]

Evin glanced through the information and felt conflicted. On one hand, this was task that was going to help him outside the Island with the World Shards and whatnot. And two World Shards of one's own choosing wasn't so bad as well. Evin would finally be able to get the Shards of Ori-Etu, the World of Time, and Ferlour, the World of Emotions.

But for Evin, the rewards weren't as enticing. Although he had trouble getting his own World Shards, Evin knew that eventually, he would be able to get them. It wasn't a matter of 'if', more a matter of 'when'.

And besides, Evin's goal was the Helm. Something told him that a potential Helm wouldn't go around collecting World Shards during the test.

'Well, I don't feel like I'll be able to go around collecting five students to help me solve the puzzles, anyway,' Evin decided and checked out the more detailed map.

A cursory glance showed him that every detail on the map was better drawn and illustrated. The upgrade wasn't really useful, but it was nice to have. Then he noticed that the two previously unknown locations have been given names.

[Entry into Mt. Lor – the fiery core of the mountain awaits a worthy challenger.

Temple of the Heretics – A den of cultists. Proceed with utmost caution.]

But the most surprising thing Evin saw was a point near the beach that wasn't visible in the previous map:

[??? – Unspoken area.]

'Holy shit, that sounds ominous,' Evin thought as he looked at the area that wasn't even included in the first map.

On the previous map, the unknown locations were only mentioned as 'unspecified', but this time it was noted as 'unspoken'. Even the wording sent shivers up Evin's spine.

Then, immediately, he began to wonder how many people knew of this new location. Since Evin found the card for a better map at the Tunnels, then it wasn't implausible to think that someone in the dungeons found a similar one. In that case, perhaps the challengers of the Cove and Mt. Lor were also aware of this new area.

But something told Evin, that he was the first one to find access to the place, because the Tunnels were relatively easy to conquer. Evin couldn't really say the same about the dungeon, but it was what it was. Perhaps the place didn't even have the same card that gave access to a more detailed map.

But that didn't change the fact that Evin needed to hurry towards it. Even if he was the only one who knew about the place today, he wouldn't really be able to say the same tomorrow.

'Maybe I should visit this place next even if I currently have no information on it…' Evin thought. 'The Core of the mountain sounds like it's going to be hot and the Temple sounds like I'll fight real people. Both sound troublesome as hell.'