We were surrounded by bright white light when we entered the gate, which quickly faded, revealing our surroundings.
And soon the oppressive and muggy heat engulfed us, and we realized that we were in a jungle-like landscape that resembled the Tropical Rainforest.
The gate through which we entered vanished soon after.
"Ahk! I'm already sick of this Gate!" Silvia grumbled, noting that the dungeon's atmosphere does not appear to be conducive to vampires.
[Clear The Gate In 2 hours 59 minutes]
[Phase 1: Kill 100 monsters in 59 minutes]
Everyone inside the gate exclaimed in surprise when the unusual Gate notification suddenly appeared at that precise moment.
!?
"W-wait, what the fuck? We only have less than 3 hours to get through this gate. And what's the deal with killing 100 monsters in an hour?" The muscular guy exclaimed.
"Something doesn't appear to be right! I've never heard of a Gate with a time limit," the blonde-haired man stated.
"...Y-yes, the same goes for me as well. As I'd never heard of anything like that before, and most importantly...w-what will happen to us if we don't make it through the gate by the time limit? And what if we don't get rid of 100 monsters in an hour?" The pink-haired lady inquired, her voice distressed.
"...Who knows, maybe there will be a gate outbreak and we will perish inside this gate," The blue-haired girl stated casually.
*Gulp
Her three companions audibly gulped upon hearing her casual remark.
"...Alice, why are you acting so carefree? Do you have a strategy in mind?" Curious, the muscular man asked the blue-haired woman, whose name appeared to be Alice.
"Hmm? Actually, no. But as long as we stick with him, I don't think we need to worry about anything," Alice said, pointing at Ares.
"...."
"Y-You! This is not the time for fangirling; regardless of how much you admire him, he is still a teenager with little to no experience in clearing gates," The blonde-haired man made an outraged remark, and the others simply avoided looking at her as if they agreed with him.
"...Well, even I don't know what makes me feel this way toward him, but...I have absolute confidence in him, and my gut feeling says that if we stay with him we would be able to overcome any troubles we are about to face," Alice remarked.
"...."
The other members of the group were rendered speechless by Alice's unexpected remark.
***
"Yup, that's it."
'A Gate quest with a time limit, just like I read about in a novel,' I reasoned inwardly.
Most likely, the trial gate is used to refer to it rather than as a gate quest.
"What should we do, Ares? Since we don't know what will happen to us if we go over the allotted time, we are merely wasting our time by remaining still," Silvia stated.
"Alright, shall we begin the Gate speed run then?" With a huge grin on my face, I said.
!?
"Speedrun?" Irethiel spoke abruptly, but when she saw Ares's grin, she got cold.
"...And what about them?" Silvia suddenly inquired, pointing to Alice and her companions.
"...."
As I turned to face the group, I remarked, "Hmm, Maybe we can use them in some ways.
"Do you believe they will readily comply with your commands?" Irethiel inquired.
"They really don't have much of a choice, and if they don't want to follow me then..." I spoke briefly before stopping.
"Then what?" Irethiel was perplexed.
"...Then they're all yours to hunt! As what goes in a gate stays in a gate," I responded with a smile.
"...."
"Yeah, nobody's going to know how they ended up dead in this gate anyway," Silvia said, her eyes glittering red as she stared at Alice and her companions.
***
"Huh? Why should we listen to you? Naturally, we have more experience than you in clearing gates. How many gates have you cleared up to this point?" The blonde man remarked sarcastically.
When I heard his response, I just shook my head because there was nothing I could do if he wanted to die so badly.
"Tsk Tsk, because of him, his poor teammates will perish as well," Irethiel remarked as she heard the blond-haired guy's sharp response.
"...Cut it out, Cole! We don't have time for this," Alice exclaimed abruptly.
As soon as I heard her, I focused my attention on her with interest.
"Please forgive him, sir Ares, and allow me to introduce ourselves," Alice said with a smile, pausing for a moment before continuing.
"My name is Alice, and I am a swordswoman. That guy with blonde hair is Cole, and he is an archer.
Alice continued to explain about their profession for a few moments.
After hearing her, I understood that she is a swordswoman, the blonde-haired man is an archer, the pink-haired woman is an earth magician, and the muscular man brandishing a shield was fittingly a Tanker.
"And we are willing to assist you in clearing this Gate," Alice, who appeared to be the group's leader, said on their behalf.
"Tch," Cole grunted indignantly.
"Let's use them effectively, shall we?" I muttered to myself inwardly.
***
Swish!— Swish!—
Numerous arrows were fired repeatedly at the same time, striking a horde of goblins that had been moving through the underbrush and knocking them to the ground lifeless.
Thud!— Thud!—
Some of them had arrows protruding out of their backs, while others had been shot in the head and heart.
It was a fantastic demonstration of archery proficiency.
[Killed monsters: 97]
"Wait, what the fuck happened?"
After witnessing the sudden slaughter of the goblin horde around them, Alice and her group struggled to keep their mouths close, when they saw Ares shooting arrows out of a bow at a distance.
"Is it really possible to hit a vital point from this far out in the dense forest?...because I've never seen Cole do the same," The muscular man inquired, finishing off the last goblin in the area around them with his shield.
[Killed Monsters: 98]
"...."
Although it wasn't difficult to kill a single moving goblin with a single arrow, but it was difficult to believe he could simultaneously kill a large group of moving goblins in a forest from a distance of more than 100 meters.
"...Are you guys forgetting that he is assumed to be a swordsman rather than an archer?" Alice abruptly stated.
They were flabbergasted by the sudden realization.
"...And he made it look so easy to kill 100 monsters in under an hour," The pink-haired lady made an abrupt remark.
"Yeah, Even though killing 100 monsters in an hour is not a daunting task, but we have to search for the monsters throughout this vast forest," Alice added.
"...."
"All right, let's get going!" Ares immediately said as he walked past them.
"Y-Yes," they all unknowingly responded in unison, with the exception of the cole guy, and began following behind him.
!?
"Pfft, they got humbled pretty quickly," Irethiel remarked telepathically, giggling.
"...Yeah, I honestly wasn't expecting them to follow Ares' commands so easily, I wonder how that happened," Silvia puzzledly asked.
"They are following me eagerly because I displayed my abilities and made them aware of the enormous gap in our skill, which made them instantly feel inferior to me and obey my commands as though it were natural to obey someone superior," I explained telepathically.
!?
"Oh, darn it! I forgot to write it down," Silvia exclaimed after hearing me.
"...."
I just shook my head and ignored Silvia's statement and continued moving forward, the deeper we go into the forest, the stronger the monster becomes.
And we soon came across three orcs, but instead of wasting time, I used my skill Atomic slash.
Slash!—
All three of them were killed instantly, without even allowing them to react, and only the pieces of their bodies were left to decay.
[Killed Monsters: 101]
[Phase 1 Complete!]
"...."
After watching Ares demonstrate his abilities, Alice and her group all shared the same thoughts "What other abilities is he concealing?"
Because they had already seen many depictions of what Ares is capable of today.
However, after seeing the notification of phase 1's completion, we carried on moving forward but encountered no more monsters as if they have disappeared into thin air.
...
"All right, this place is fine!" Ares abruptly halted his steps in a vast open field and said, which confused others, including Silvia and Irethiel.
!?
"Can you explain what you mean, Ares?" Silvia asked, perplexed, as the others looked at him with curiosity.
"We're going to set a trap here!" I notified them.
"Huh!" they all exclaimed, confused.
[Clear The Gate In; 1 hour 59 minutes]
[Be ready, Phase 2 is about to begin!]
It had already been an hour since we entered the gate, which was only the first phase in which we only encountered low-level monsters, and it was about time for the second phase to begin.
"There is a monster wave approaching us!" I stated while smiling.
And as soon as I said that, we received a Gate notification indicating the start of phase 2.
[Phase 2: Survive The Monster Waves For 59 minutes 58 seconds]
!?
And suddenly the ground began to vibrate as a result of the large number of monsters approaching in our direction.
Shudder!— Shudder!—
"S-Sir Ares, what should we do now?" Alice inquired hastily in the midst of quakes caused by the movement of a large number of monsters.
***