After finishing their breakfast, there was finally a moment of calm found in the world-class trial as the sound of birds chirping filled the jungle sector of the valley. The early portions of the day were spent by him getting more reading time in, delving into further sections of the journal while Melisande continued practicing the spells she was taught.

He sat on a log just outside of his tent with his journal in his hands and his staff between his arms, periodically looking over to make sure Melisande was practicing properly and seeing Yuna sharpening her arsenal of blades.

Everett picked his shield up, “Alright, how’s about I take care of lunch n’ dinner for today?”

“Sure, need help?” Emilio looked up.

The shielder shook his head, “I’ve got this! You all just rest up and leave it to me!”

It was difficult to imagine how one would efficiently hunt meals with a shield, especially carrying such burdensome armor, though Emilio chose to not to question it before he simply nodded.

Melisande and Yuna didn’t have any qualms with this either, seeing as they were busy with their own activities, leaving Everett to happily march out to hunt.

I hope he can catch a hog. I can go for some bacon, Emilio thought.

Since it was dangerous within the valley, the deal was between the group that if anybody was to travel alone, it’d be only a short perimeter from the camp. Still, Emilio hardly felt as though somebody as tough as Everett would need babysitting.

While he continued reading his journal in peace over the next few minutes, he was quickly proven wrong by his assumption on Everett as the sound of the man yelling and rapid footsteps quickly approached the camp.

Everybody was on their feet, preparing for a fight as the armorclad man rushed back into the camp, stumbling and nearly tripping as he breathed heavily.

“What’s wrong?!” Emilio asked, stuffing his journal away.

“Th-they’re coming!” Everett said.

“Who’s coming–?” Yuna pressed him for information.

It was hard to dig an answer out of the frantic bumpkin as he was out of breath, seemingly having to run all the way back.

“It’s..it’s..!” Everett tried to explain.

Though before the shaggy-haired shielder could get it out, “what” was approaching became known, both in sound and appearance as Melisande noticed first.

“Err, you all..Are those monkeys?” The silver-haired girl pointed out.

As Emilio looked towards the direction Everett ran in from, his stomach dropped at the sight of dozens, if not a hundred strong, abnormally large monkeys swinging through the trees, howling and shrieking with their teeth bared.

Killer monkeys?! He realized.

“Run!” Emilio called out.

It hardly needed to be said as they began racing in the opposite direction together, abandoning their camp.

Yuna briefly turned around, flinging throwing knives to the trees to try and lessen the apes’ numbers, though she quickly realized the futility of it as the swarm continued sweeping through the trees above.historical

“Tch,” the sharp-eyed woman clicked her tongue before continuing to run.

It completely filled the jungle; the apes’ war cries and the sound of them jumping from tree-to-tree, using vines to swing while some raced across the jungle soil.

“..I-I’m outta breath here!” Everett huffed out, lagging behind.

Emilio glanced back, noticing the shielder was breathing hard and moving slower than the rest, undoubtedly going to get caught by the ape swarm.

“He’s not going to make it..!” Melisande said, looking over at Emilio.

It was clear that he needed to do something, but what that something was still posed a question to him as he had little time to decide.

..C’mon! He thought.

Pointing his hand back towards Everett, he manifested his intent of sturdy rock through the formation of a giant hand forged of soil and stone, scooping the shielder up who yelled out at first before realizing what was happening.

It took an immense amount of focus to keep the stone hand conjured while having it constantly hover forward while carrying dense baggage.

“Oh–! ‘Preciate it!” Everett called out.

“Save your breath! I’m not holding your heavy ass forever!” Emilio responded.

What made running from the flood of rabid apes even more troublesome was the geography; curtains of verdant tendrils hung from trees, fallen logs obscured the path, and constant dips made it difficult to traverse the terrain in a hurry.

“Ah–!”

While running, Melisande tripped over a jutted-out rock, falling down, which was certainly a death sentence in the current situation.

Emilio was too far to the side to make it in time to help her, though he was about to try, only stopping as another went to aid the girl.

“Ngh..!” Melisande winced, looking back.

To the girl’s surprise, she received a helping hand from Yuna. It was unexpected to her, thinking the demi-human rogue was only in it for herself, but she accepted the cat woman’s hand gratefully.

“Thanks,” Melisande nodded after being helped up.

“Come on–we’ve got to move!” Yuna told her.

The shrieks and cries of the teeth-bearing apes continued echoing behind them as pebbles were tossed.

“Are you good now?!” Emilio asked, glancing over.

Everett was still resting on the hovering stone hand, seeming to grow comfortable on it but nodding as he hopped off, “Yeah! Thanks!”

Not a second was wasted by Emilio after the man hopped off from the rock appendage, making use of it by rocketing it towards the swarm of apes, knocking a group of them back harshly.

“Hah! Serves you right!” Everett called out, pointing back at the monkeys.

“Eyes forward, man!” Emilio yelled.

“Right!” The shielder nodded, focusing on running.

It was a long stretch of running without stopping, causing the group to have to slide down a hill of flowers, push through dense foliage, and cross a river before crossing the boundary from the jungle back to a familiar biome.

After leaving the jungle, the howling monkeys seemed to stop at the edge of the territory, finally leaving them a moment to rest.

“..Hah..!” Melisande dropped down, catching her breath.

Everett did the same, plopping down on a patch of gravel as he let out a heavy breath, sweating profusely.

“I never would’ve thought this trial would..include getting chased by monkeys..” Everett said between breaths.

“That makes two of us,” Emilio added, sitting down to regain himself as well.

Yuna wasn’t hard of breath or fatigued in the least, standing and leaning against a tree as she kept watch quietly.

Glancing around, Emilio wiped the sweat from his chin, “Back to the forest, huh?”

“Kinda missed it,” Everett chuckled, breathing out.

It was difficult for him to disagree with Everett’s words while sitting there, seeing in the distance that the horde of apes quietly watched them from the territorial line of the jungle. There was no part of him that wanted to return to the jungle biome with the killer monkeys sharing the place.

Yeah, I think I prefer this part of the valley, thank you, he thought.

Minutes were spent solely on Everett catching his breath before the group moved on as a whole, moving into the tall woods while they still had the light of the artificial daytime on their backs.

“Do you think Amon came back here, too?..” Melisande asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s not worth being worried about,” Emilio answers, using his staff as a walking stick, “Though the image of him being chased out by those monkeys is pretty funny..”

“He-he, that is,” Everett chuckled.

The most noticeable change from the jungle sector to the forest was the lack of oversized insects and frequent snakes, which seemed to be much to Melisande’s relief as she no longer had to walk around waving her arms and dodging falling bugs.

“I was thinking..we’re halfway through now,” Melisande remarked.

“Yeah,” Everett responded.

“It feels like we’ve been here forever..I guess these have just been really long days,” Melisande noted.

Emilio felt the same, missing the outside world from the isolated valley that was much kinder than the malignant creatures stored here, “After we get our world-class insignia, we can go anywhere we want. Where do you want to go first?”

The question was posed to the others in the group, prompting them all to think before the first one to answer quite quickly was Everett.

“My first stop is Ennage!” The shielder claimed with vigor.

“Ennage? That’s the continent of demons, right?” Emilio asked for clarification.

Everett nodded, “Yeah! I heard they’ve got the wildest food you can imagine–colossal serpent meat, minotaur marrow–all of it!”

“Food is all that’s on your mind, isn’t it?” Yuna sighed.

The Milligardian bumpkin seemed offended by the tone of the demi-human’s words, “Oh yeah? Then what’s your first place?”

It took Yuna a moment to respond as she seemed reserved in her motivations, moving with silent steps over a small stream, hiding her mouth with her scarf before answering, “..I’d like to see Bellmisa.”

“Bellmia? Why’s that?” Emilio asked.

It wasn’t a country he’d read much about, though it was treated as a ‘neutral’ force by all kingdoms on the human continent; the land where the ‘Grand Church’ rules as the supreme governmental force.

“Well..I’m told it’s a beautiful place,” Yuna glanced away.

Clear enough to him was that the red-haired rogue wasn’t exactly happy to continue clarifying, so he instead looked beside him to Melisande.

“What about you?”

Melisande looked at him, “Err, well..”

“What is it?” He looked at her.

“I was going to save this for after we made it through the trial, but..” Melisande fiddled with her silver tufts, “..I think I’m going to stay in Vasmoria after this.”