The giant wiggled his fingers, which were covered in black, pointed metal shards. His pupilless, black eyes looked extremely menacing and piercing.

Brand felt cold sweat cover his back as he tried to regulate his breathing.

*HUA!*

After a deafening roar, the giant rushed forward at an absurd speed and swung his fist to turn Brand into a ball of meat.

Brand managed to dodge his fist at the last moment, stepping aside.

As the giant's fist passed him, the airflow it created left him breathless for a moment, causing his hair to flutter wildly. For just a second, he felt as if his spirit had moved several meters away from his body with that fist.

Brand had stepped aside at the last second, an instinctive step to live, so he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

Fortunately, the giant also wobbled under the impact of the explosive power contained in his fist. Otherwise, a second punch with no time gap would have turned Brand into a dead man.

The giant roared and jumped several meters with all his might, trying to smash him with his elbow.

Brand rolled forward to avoid being under him.

The stone floor trembled violently and shattered as the giant's elbow hit the ground.

Brand quickly rose from the ground and leaped toward the still-unrecovered giant, swung his sword, and slashed him downward.

The giant's hand moved like a shadow and caught the sword. There was a scratching sound as the pieces of steel rubbed against each other. Then he pulled the sword with all his might and threw it.

Along with the sword, Brand was swept away as well.

If he had let go of his sword, he might never have had a chance to reach it again. So he risked being swept away with it and crashed into the wall hard.

He tasted the blood rushing into his mouth as every bone in his body groaned in agonizing pain.

After the giant hurled it, it quickly stood up and started charging towards him like an angry elephant.

Swallowing the blood in his mouth, he gripped the sword hard with both hands and waited for the giant to get closer to him.

After an enraged roar, the giant sent a deadly kick to his grounded foe.

However, at that time, Brand quickly strengthened his legs and dashed to the side.

The giant's kick missed his target and hit the wall. A few plates on the wall were completely shattered by the impact of the kick, and cracks appeared in various parts of the wall.

But it wasn't just the wall that was damaged!

The giant's toes were bent at abnormal angles, and blackened bones protruded from his skin. His ankle was completely smashed, and he was unable to stand still.

*WUAARGH!*

The giant let out a deafening, painful cry.

Brand steered for his other foot, which was completely intact, and cut the foot tendon.

Losing his balance completely, the giant collapsed to the ground and began to wave his fists nonstop.

He was punching the air like he was completely mad with anger. He picked up a piece of stone from the shattered ground and threw it like a cannonball.

Brand dodged it by stepping aside. Then he met the giant's angry eyes.

"Fuck off!" he frowned and started running.

He ran towards the place where the giant had come out and began to rush down the stairs.

He could hear the giant's furious roars coming from behind.

"I hope I can find a way out; otherwise, that bastard will even crawl and catch me!"

Brand raced forward in the darkness, with the golden light provided by the horn hanging from his belt. After a while, he again reached a large hall with many columns.

"Oh, no no no. Not again, please!"

As he looked around worriedly, he saw a small beam of light ahead.

He immediately started running and soon began to see stairs going up.

"Run!" he repeated over and over.

As he ascended the stairs, he began to feel the grains of sand hitting his face. As he got closer to the light, he realized that it was the sunlight seeping through the stones.

He started kicking the stones with all his might, and after a short struggle, he managed to push them down. He jumped up and pulled himself up holding onto the outside.

He was out in the desert again.

He lay on the ground for a while, panting. After some time, he got up.

When he looked at the place he had come out of, he saw that it was actually a down road covered with stones.

"Damn it... I'm exhausted." he muttered.

He glanced around and realized that he was actually quite close to the pyramid. Although he still had some distance to walk, it did lift his spirits a bit.

Moreover, when he saw it more closely, he realized how gigantic this pyramid was.

He began to walk over the hot sand to reach the pyramid.

When he thought about the Test in general, he openly admitted that he was on a very different level from the Test he had taken in his previous life. The experiences he gained from his previous life, of course, made him much stronger, but the level of the Test was also all about tearing him apart.

In fact, he couldn't help but be surprised by the fact that his willpower was much stronger than he had thought. He had lived and seen things that were never easy to accept; however, all these experiences seemed to solidify his character.

The sun was about to set when Brand stopped to rest. Thanks to the horn that radiated light around him, he would be able to continue advancing even after dark.

He no longer had to travel under the scorching sun. He thought that if he didn't encounter any setbacks, he would have reached the pyramid before sunrise.

After a few hours of rest, he got up again and continued on his way.

Although he was in pain all over his body, at least it was much easier to continue as the heat didn't drain his energy.

At the end of the all-night walk, he finally reached the gigantic pyramid.

The sun was just starting to rise.

In the middle part of the pyramid, there was another building adjacent to it. It looked like some kind of temple; it was as white as the pyramid itself, but hundreds of times smaller than it.

As Brand started to move towards it, he saw the floor plates covered in sand. These plates were placed in a certain proportion towards the entrance of the building.

When he entered the structure, he found himself in a large and ostentatious room. The interior of this room was illuminated by six different statues holding torches.

Directly opposite the entrance was a stone door, about 15 meters long, filled with various symbols. At the bottom of this stone door were three different carvings carved into the corners of a triangle.

"Oh? Wait…" Brand suddenly noticed something as he looked at the carvings.

The carving positioned at the top of the triangle was in the shape of the golden horn.

To confirm this, he took the horn and placed it in the carving.

It fit perfectly!

At that moment, he heard a distant noise and realized that the surroundings were momentarily illuminated. As he turned his back, he saw a red ray heading towards the sky.

He took one last look at the door, then shook his head. When he got outside, he could not clearly identify the source of the ray. He had to get closer to see it for sure.

"Great! I've got a new destination." Brand smirked sarcastically.

Confident that the Test wouldn't be too friendly to him, he started to proceed toward the ray.

He had at least one consolation: The ray wasn't too far from him.

After a few hours, he reached the source of the ray in the desert, which started to heat up rapidly with the rising of the sun.

Three red crystals stood on an altar in the middle of a small crater among the sands. The source of the ray reaching into the sky looked like these crystals.

Brand felt a strange energy envelop him as he approached the altar. He felt as if the weight of his body was getting lighter and lighter.

The more he continued to approach the altar, the brighter the crystals emitted.

"Hmm?" Looking around, he noticed that his surroundings were spinning. He quickly looked at the ground on which he was standing, but could not identify any abnormality.

In a short time, the image around him shattered like glass, and darkness enveloped everything.

In just a few seconds, the darkness dissipated, and the environment completely changed.

"What's going on?" Although Brand managed to keep his cool thanks to his awareness, he was confused.

Where had the Test brought him?