Alexandria fell silent upon hearing Draven's explanation. After a while, she sighed softly and said, "Don't lose hope. There may be no cure in a week-stronghold like the 36th, but there is a vast world outside. Out there, even bringing dead people back to life is possible if you can afford the price, much less repairing a broken inner world."
Draven merely smiled. Of course, he knew there might be a cure outside, but the problem was he was too weak to seek it. Even if it existed, it would never be his.
"During the trial, try to keep your distance from the beasts. Your accuracy is flawless, so shooting while running won't be a problem for you. As for your light element skill, just cast a blessing on yourself to increase your speed and defense," Draven advised the young lady, according to the analysis he had made of her skills.
Alexandria nodded seriously. After being encouraged by Draven, she no longer thought of her lightning arrow skill to be weak. In fact, she was a little excited to see how this skill would fare against her enemies. After all, even though she had practised this skill in secret since she was little, she hadn't used it in a real battle yet.
"Senior, I am ready," after sorting out her thoughts, Alexandria called out.
The next second, the old man appeared. Seeing the determined look in the young lady's eyes, he nodded in satisfaction. "Go ahead."
He waved his hand, and two white rabbit demons appeared some distance from her.
Seeing this, Alexandria didn't dare delay and drew her bow to a full moon. A lightning arrow appeared on her bowstring and flew towards one of the rabbit demons with a woosh.
But the targeted rabbit demon hopped away frantically and avoided the lethal blow, while the other rabbit demon hopped towards Alexandria with astonishing speed.
"Speed, defense, blessing of light!" Alexandria hurriedly cast the blessing skill on herself, and an illusory armor made of light appeared around her body.
Before the white demon rabbit could reach her, she sidestepped while drawing her arrow and decisively released it directly at the demon rabbit at close range, blowing its head apart like a watermelon.
The rabbit's body fell to the ground, twitching, with electric light still pulsing through its body.
"Swoosh!"
The remaining rabbit suddenly lunged at Alexandria from the side. Fortunately, she was paying attention and hurriedly smacked it away with her bow. She then fired an arrow at it before it could react.
Like its companion, its head also blew open, and this rabbit demon died on the spot.
"Not bad. Tell me when you are ready for the next trial," the old man said with a smile and vanished along with the rabbit carcasses.
"It seems you have found your true path. Congratulations," Draven said with a smile to Alexandria, who was still in a daze after the trial.
Alexandria looked at Draven blankly and, after a while, smiled brightly. "Thank you."
After expressing her gratitude, she removed the two golden contact lenses from her eyes and tossed them away. "From now on, like you said, I will live to please myself and not someone else."
Draven gave her a thumbs up. "That's the spirit. Believe me, freedom is the scarcest thing in this world. Even if nobody is with you because of this decision, at least you will live a life without regrets."
Alexandria nodded vigorously as if she were on steroids and called out directly, "Senior, I am ready!"
The smile on Draven's face stiffened. 'Did I perhaps motivate her too much?' he thought to himself.
"Don't you want to rest a bit?" the old man appeared in front of her and asked once more.
Alexandria shook her head.
The old man nodded and waved his hand, summoning four Minotaur demons before the young lady.
Seeing the enemies before her, the young lady hurriedly cast a blessing on herself and fired an arrow directly at one of the Minotaurs, piercing its eye and killing it before it could react.
"Moo...!" The remaining three minotaurs roared in anger and charged towards her. Seeing this, she didn't dare stay in place and ran away from them in a zig-zag pattern, making it hard for the minotaur demons to catch up. Every time a minotaur was about to touch her, she would twist her body in an unnatural way, narrowly avoiding the attack.
"Swoosh!"
Another arrow left her string and flew towards one of the minotaurs, piercing its neck. With a mournful howl, it fell to the ground. Though it wasn't dead yet, the numbing effect of the lightning rendered it unable to move.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, one of the minotaurs punched Alexandria in the stomach. Even though she managed to block it with her bow, she was still sent flying backward like a broken kite.
But what made Draven's eyes go wide was that, mid-air, this girl drew her bow and shot an arrow at the minotaur that had punched her, directly piercing its forehead.
"She is good," Draven said with a smile.
The old man also nodded. "Yeah, this little girl is not as timid as she seemed."
"She is copying my footwork. Even though it still has some flaws, at least she was able to dodge the attacks without much effort," Draven said after analyzing Alexandria's movements.
The old man stroked his beard and nodded in agreement.
"Swoosh... Swoosh!" With two subsequent arrows to the torso, she made the final minotaur fall to the ground. Then, holding her bow, she walked towards the two still-breathing minotaurs and delivered an arrow each to the head, killing them thoroughly.
"The trial is over. Now, it is time for your rewards." With those words, the old man suddenly clapped his hands. The next second, world around them blurred, and they reappeared in a grand hall filled with wooden shelves laden with treasures and secret manuals.
Draven looked at the massive collection of books and treasures around him in awe. Most of the treasures were in the form of different weapons, while there were also some oddly shaped treasures like chairs or cloths. There were also some empty shelves, indicating the treasures stored there had been taken away by other people.
"First for you, young lady. Tell me, what type of life-bound weapon do you desire?" the old man asked Alexandria first.
Alexandria thought for a moment and said, "Senior, I would like a bow."
The old man nodded and waved his hand. Suddenly, a white bow with blue runes carved on its surface flew out from one of the wooden shelves and landed in the young lady's hand.
"It is called the Celestial Maiden Bow. It can gather lightning energy on its own to condense arrows. If you feed it enough lightning energy, it can even shoot an arrow capable of splitting into more than a hundred arrows mid-air, catching your enemies off guard. Lastly, if you mark an enemy with your spiritual sense, your arrow will fly on its own and strike the target without failure," the old man said gently. He waved his hand, and the next second the bow turned into an illusory mist and condensed into the symbol of a bow on Alexandria's wrist.
Alexandria's eyes lit up and she bowed to the old man with her right hand on her chest.
The old man then turned to Draven. "I promised you an extra life-bound weapon. tell me your preferences?"
Draven thought seriously about what to choose. This was an incredible opportunity and he couldn't afford any carelessness, or he might regret it later. But even after thinking for a while, he couldn't come up with a solution.
So, in the end, he employed a tactic he had read in a story from his previous world. "Senior, please give me the strongest treasure you have."
The old man smiled upon hearing the request. "What a cunning brat."
He waved his hand and three items flew down from the shelves, floating before Draven.
One was a set of black full-body armor, its edges sharply defined by thin red lines. Next was an old wine gourd. The last one was a crooked staff with a round transparent orb at the top and a bronze bell attached to its neck, looking rather old and worn out.
Compared to the shabby-looking staff and the wine gourd, the black armor caught Draven's attention the most. It looked like a sleek ninja suit with a hood and a half-mask. Two holsters on its waist held old-fashioned revolvers, and a round shield shaped like a black bamboo hat was attached to its back.