End of the test

Gen was without any strength after that blow, but with no other option, he had to start running.

As he ran, he began to think, 'Why did a bear appear out of nowhere? It's as if it came out of the rock. That's not possible. Animals aren't born from rocks, although it's quite strange, to say the least, to find a lion and a bear in the middle of the desert. Maybe they really did come out of the rock.'

Gen looked back and noticed something strange, 'Why aren't they following me?', the lion and bear were standing in the same spot as before, 'how strange.'

Gen kept running while looking at them until, at some point, they started to run after him, 'Well, it's only to be expected that they will follow me again. Now, what do I do? I don't have the strength to fight them anymore. I have to find a way to lose them.'

Gen then looked around, and then, in the distance, saw a very high dune and thought, 'Hmm, if I can get to the top, maybe I can lose them by going down the other side very quickly.'

Gen then started to run towards it, when suddenly he heard a very familiar noise, 'Roar!!!!', 'Roar!!!!', as he looked back, Gen saw two waves of sand coming towards him and thought, 'Damn, it looks like the lion realized that I am in no condition to fight and used that blow again. Unfortunately, I won't be able to dodge it, and lying on the ground is not an option because if they get to me, I'll be dead. It looks like there is only one option.'

Gen then continued running towards the dune, and when the sand waves were about to hit him, he jumped and received them on his back. The first wave of sand threw Gen a few feet forward towards the dune.

He then thought, 'Great, looks like the plan worked.', but when the second wave hit him, it knocked him a little off course, throwing him a little to the side towards another black rock.

Seeing this, Gen thought, 'I can't believe it. It seems that my birthday is not a lucky day at all.', Gen then, in mid-air, began to approach the rock, he then came very close to it and leaned one of his hands on it, passing over it. He then fell into the sand rolling, and without wasting any time, he got up and continued running towards the dune.

After a short time running, as he expected, he heard the noise, 'CRACK', he then without even looking back continued running towards the dune, until one moment he heard the explosion, 'CRACK!',

Gen then looked back and saw the lion and the bear standing next to the explosion, and next to them, there was now a tiger. Gen then thought, 'A tiger! It's getting better and better.'

He then kept running, and after a while, he looked back and saw that the three were standing in the same place.

Gen then thought, 'Why did they stop again? Could it have something to do with the explosion?', Gen then looked around and started towards the nearest rock. When he arrived, the three animals were already following him again. He then touched the rock as he passed it and continued towards the dune. The noise came again, and after a while, so did the explosion.

Gen then looked back and noticed that, again, the animals had stopped around the explosion, and then he thought, 'Looks like that's it. For some reason, they always stop around the explosion, as if waiting for the new animal to appear. That's weird. It's like they're protecting it.', and then Gen had an idea, 'It's kind of risky, but I think it's worth it.'

Gen then looked again for the nearest rock and headed in its direction. As Gen passed it, he touched it, took the opportunity to look back, and noticed that now a wild boar was following the other three. He then turned forward and moved quickly towards the next stone.

Gen repeated this process about ten more times, trying to slow the animals down as much as possible. Still, as he touched the last of the ten stones, Gen noticed that the animals began to split up to protect several stones at once and then thought, 'It looks like I can't stall any longer than that. It will have to be this stone. I'm also close enough to the dune already.'

Gen then turned to the stone he had just touched and got into position, holding Scar with both hands and pointing the blade down. He then took a breath, 'Choooo!', 'Ssshhh!', and then began to wait for the explosion, until it came, 'CRACK!'.

Gen then used the same blow that opened the sand wave to avoid the impact of the explosion and immediately ran toward the stone that had exploded.

Gen approached quickly, gasping for breath. The explosion had raised a cloud of sand, but even though he couldn't see anything, Gen advanced through it. As he entered the sand cloud, Gen heard three roars and thought, 'Looks like they really don't want me to come in here.', and then immediately threw himself to the ground.

A few moments later, the three waves of sand passed by and almost covered Gen's entire body in the sand. Gen then hurriedly stood up, shook as much sand off his body as he could, and then headed towards the center of the explosion. A few moments later, Gen arrived there and saw a circular gem floating there. It then slowly began to pull pieces of the black stone that had been destroyed towards itself.

Seeing this, Gen was decisive and moved towards the gem, thinking, 'It seems that it is this gem that builds the beasts, but for some reason, the beasts already built want to prevent me from approaching it. Well, it looks like you guys failed.'

Gen then used Scar to lunge toward the gem, and as he touched it, Gen realized that the gem was much harder than the beasts it made. He then began to think about how he would go about breaking it until he suddenly heard a voice speaking in his head.

"Approved. Time taken to complete: one and a half hours. Number of animals used: fourteen. Total damage done: eighty-one. No essence use detected. Calculating Rank."

Upon hearing this, Gen began to think, 'Approved? What? Is this some test?', and then the voice continued, "Calculated rank, Red Diamond. Bring the gem to the entrance to begin the challenge."

Hearing the voice speak again, Gen thought, 'Challenge ... It seems that all of this really was a test. When did it start? It must have been around that time that I was hearing the noise. Right after that, all my things disappeared, and out of nowhere, it was daylight.', Gen then remembered, 'Wait, the animals!', He then quickly looked around and realized that the animals had stopped following him.

All the animals were heading towards the dune he planned to climb. They then lined up in front of it and roared in its direction, 'Roar!' The gusts of air hit the dune and caused much of the sand that made up the dune to rise into the air, making a large cloud of sand. Gen then picked up the gem from the ground and started walking toward the animals. When he got to their side, he looked at the dune and started waiting for the dust to settle to understand why they had done this.

After a few moments, the dust settled completely, and where there had been a dune, there was now a large door. Gen then thought, 'This must be the entrance the voice spoke of.', and he began to walk towards it, and soon he was standing in front of the door.

He then realized that in the middle of the door was a space where the gem would fit perfectly, and then thought, 'Well, I guess this is where the gem goes.'

As it was inserted into the door, the gem began to glow and gradually melt, turning into a liquid that started to spread along an existing pathway in the door, which made some pattern. As it filled the pattern, the liquid solidified and began to glow. Soon after this, the door started to open slowly.

Gen, seeing this, began to think, 'This is probably the ruin I was looking for, but if these beasts are the test of entry, I don't even want to imagine the real challenge.'

The door then finished opening, and Gen could see nothing inside but darkness. He then began to back away, but before he could complete the first step backward, he slapped himself on both cheeks hard and said, "Now I'm here. This is no time to be afraid! I'm going to get my essence back, no matter what it takes!", and then walked through the door.