Ainle had become so alienated from himself during his short life that he couldn't internalize that he was talking to himself for almost a year. However, this time hadn't been completely wasted; albeit slowly, the young druid understood that he had locked himself in a prison formed by the ideas of society and his parents.
"You don't need to answer me at all; all the answers are already hidden in your heart, and I can see them all just like you!"
A warm smile covered Ainle's scrawny face; this action was so sincere and scorching that even the snow accumulated on the arbor where they sat seemed to melt in these moments.
The visible scene said that the end of the druid's trial was very close; unlike him, the other two orcs were in a complete deadlock.
"You old pig, don't you have any intention of giving up?"
The black-haired Alyon continued to speak without getting bored at all; his target was the defeats the grey-haired orc warrior suffered in his first major war.
"You suppressed me for two years, but now this persecution will end!"
The copy, cornering Alyon—who entered the dungeon trial—with the blows he made one after another with the giant weapon, didn't hesitate to reveal his real problem.
"I suppressed you? I fed you with my warped thoughts for two whole years, and now you went mad because I don't do this anymore, didn't you?"
After the conversation he had with Nafız at the former main support headquarters of the Grey Hyenas, Alyon had started looking at some things with a different eye; the victim psychology with which he tried to patch his cracking ego was one of them.
"It's true that I failed, but this only wounds the image of the great Alyon who can protect everyone, which I created in my imagination; it cannot break neither my loved ones nor the real me inside!"
The moment the grey-haired orc warrior completed his words, an event occurred that hadn't happened throughout the fight lasting more than four seasons: half of the head of the black-haired Alyon, who always boasted of his youth, had turned white.
"You cannot defeat me; I will kill you right here!"
Then, two large pieces of metal would clash at full speed; the union of the emerging sparks with the breaths mixing into the misty air created almost a visual feast.
The two people experiencing the dungeon had reached a certain level of awareness; albeit late, Nafız was also realizing some things along with them.
"That naked one must represent my wildest impulses, and you, the armored one, must be my boundaries formed over time!"
"What I'm really curious about is what is inside that sphere and why you go crazy the moment I approach it?"
While the trio, thrown apart after a violent collision, looked at each other with ambition, what passed through Nafız's mind spilled from her lips.
"Both of you belong to me; I guess I need to do something you've never seen before to end this rebellion of yours!"
At that moment, the air surrounding Nafız began to bend; seeing the changes occurring in her body, her two copies, as if understanding that a great danger was coming, would attack her by taking the initiative for the first time.
"Too late, kids; time to understand who the boss is here!"
"Blood Dome!"
After Nafız applied her ability, violent sounds of collision rose from the area where no one from outside could intervene; unlike the long struggle lasting more than a year, the duration of the last collision would not exceed ten minutes.
When the Blood Dome slowly began to dissipate, the result was laid bare before eyes; seeing the naked one on her left and the armored one on her right watching her in a miserable state, Nafız whispered slowly while walking toward the sphere hanging in the air.
"In the future, I will listen to both of you, but carve into your minds that the final decision always belongs to me!"
The struggle was over; her copies, becoming slowly transparent with her every step, would also fade into nothingness the moment Nafız reached the sphere. Now, it was time to see the thing she had been curious about for a long time.
"Come on dear, is this really the true form of the Nafız inside me?"
There was a dense liquid inside the sphere hanging in the air, and floating within this liquid was the thing causing Nafız to grumble in astonishment.
This was a baby clinging to the surface of the sphere with an umbilical cord; this entity, half-orc and half-human, resembled a fetus in a mother's womb.
"After this age, I've seen my half-orc half-human babyhood too; what more could I ask for!"
Getting over her initial astonishment at the sight, Nafız started laughing heartily; no matter how much she thought, finding such a thing could not possibly have come to her mind.
"When I was born in my new world, my inside was still human but my outside was a female orc; although I tried to convince myself over time that I was completely an orc, my human side somewhere inside has evidently always been with me!"
"This is exactly who I am; stubbornness or denial will be of no use. Come here, little one, let's embrace and finally become one with you!"
Nafız decided to stick her entire upper body inside the sphere hanging in the air with her eyes closed to embrace her half-orc half-human babyhood; she wholeheartedly wanted to achieve her goal, but a breath later, she would open her eyes in the cave where the large stalactites on the ceiling almost touched the ground.
"Journey to the Essence Dungeon Completed!"
When the usual mechanical voice rang in her ears, Nafız, who had been wandering at the peak of calmness just a moment ago, was slightly irritated; her grumbling wouldn't end until she saw Ainle looking at her.
"This makes two; just when I'm about to enjoy the pleasure after suffering the torment, the trial ends. are you playing games with me?"
Just as in the first dungeon on the Wild Swamp, they had returned to reality after gaining awareness in the second one too; evidently, this situation didn't please the female orc at all.
"Welcome!"
Unlike Nafız, the scrawny druid seemed completely satisfied; the smile that settled on his face while talking to himself during the trial was still with him.
"When did you finish your business? It doesn't escape my eye, you are the first one out of the dungeon twice in a row!"
Although he faced words with an accusatory attitude, Ainle wasn't offended at all; he would continue talking not to miss the chat opportunity he rarely caught with the female orc.
"Actually, I could have left the trial even earlier, but chatting with myself was very enjoyable; I couldn't easily leave that ambiance!"
"What did you say you did? Can you say it again?"
Nafız, who fought constantly with her copies for almost two years, wasn't sure she heard correctly what the scrawny druid opposite her said.
"My trial took place in the form of chatting with a lookalike of mine about life, ideas, and the situation of our continent!"
Drawing a deep breath into her lungs, Nafız was at a loss for what to say; she was slightly angry, but a part of her also told her this was perfectly natural. How could the journey to the essence of someone who spent their entire life hiding behind a shield be similar to that of herself, who spent her first life as a normal human and her second as a warrior orc?
"This is how I handle the man; everyone watch your step from now on!"
Nafız, lost in thoughts, would come to herself with a scream resembling a neigh coming from a place not too far away.
The source of the noise was Alyon, who had completed his trial; judging by the swollen veins on his forehead and his fever that hadn't yet dropped, it was very clear that he hadn't had a similar experience to Ainle either.
"What happened Alyon, what happened? You tore the place down; what is this ambition for?"
In the moments she walked toward her friend whose fever had peaked, the female orc would make a reproach in a half-joking, half-demanding manner.
"I fought with a jet-black-haired, chatterbox copy of mine until now. The show-off talked a lot, but his end was still to be torn apart by these hands!"
Nafız, a bit offended because the trials of the other two people except herself ended with a satisfactory conclusion, couldn't hold herself back.
"What do you mean, were you able to destroy your copy?"
"Of course I handled his business; he was just an illusion I created with my warped ideas. Although he pushed me a bit at the beginning, he started to weaken slowly from the moment I began to understand who he was, and finally, his journey ended in these hands!"
It appears that they all had a different test and completely different problems they needed to face. In the end, the new perspectives and understandings they gained would remain as their profit.