Reluctant Hero

Eleven

TIMESKIP 1 WEEK

"We've been living here for what... Our entire lives? And we have never seen this bridge before."

"Well we're both blind as fuck."

"True."

"And we have no reason to go this far out of the city."

"True."

Haerin looked around, the group was under a bridge that went over a river near the outskirts of the city, and no one seemed to be around once again.

"Which one's this one?"

"The triforce of power," Minji glanced over at the cat, "I'm sorry Haerin but that's all I know. All this modern architecture is messing with the trials the goddess normally planned with every reincarnation cycle."

Haerin shook her head, cracking her knuckles and rolling her neck, "it's okay, let's do this."

The bear nodded, doing the same intricate motions as before before gently touching one of the bridge's columns, the group hidden from view from its shadow.

But unlike before, no structure seemed to shift in and out of existence.

Haerin glanced down at the new opening, "I'm guessing I'm going down?"

"Yes, and like before you'll come back either through this pillar or any of the other ones."

The cat took a deep breath, "I'll be back."

She carefully went onto the ladder that went down the pillar, meeting her friends' eyes one last time before going down.

"Stay safe up here too."

...

...

...

The more she went down, the hotter it seemed to get.

'It's so dark...'

After a couple minutes of descent, Haerin's feet met solid ground. She turned around, her eyes flickering at the more spacious hallway that slightly resembled an old sewer system. She summoned her sword and shield, cautiously walking down the corridor until it widened into a huge room.

"Woah..."

Haerin tensed as she saw the room, 'I have to parkour???'

There was an opening the same size as the corridor she came from on the other side of the room, which the sword pulled to.

But it wasn't just tall pillars she had to jump up on to reach her destination.

It was a mixture of stagnant and moving platforms, and a drop if she fell.

Haerin stared down at the drop, realizing that it was filled with water and at a similar depth to the deep end of a community pool.

She then looked up at the end of the parkour trial, 'that's still gonna hurt if I fall from up there...'

She unsummoned her equipment, stretching a little before walking up to the first platform.

'Thankfully I didn't wear anything too much today...'

She jumped onto the first platform, thankful it wasn't slippery.

'And thankfully Hyein made me practice jumping around and vaulting over shit at the playground.'

A new thought occurred as she jumped onto the second platform, if she fell into the water, her clothing would get wet, which would make it harder to jump or hold onto ledges if she had to restart.