The next morning.

Bloed was on the roof of a building, looking in the direction of the tower with a pensive look.

Last night, he had contacted the other candidates and came with a plan to cooperate with them.

And now, he was waiting for the time strike.

While he was looking at the tower, someone climbed to the roof and walked towards Bloed.

"… So you are here, huh." The newcomer said.

Bloed looked back and found a rabbitkin girl walking towards him.

She was Rana, a member of Moonlight Glow currently cooperating with him.

"I'm keeping an eye on the Ranks guarding the tower," Bloed said. "I want to be ready in case something unexpected happens."

"How careful..." Rana nodded admiringly, but Bloed tried to ignore her. He just continued looking at the tower silently.

Unfortunately, Rana seemed interested in striking a conversation with him.

"By the way, I was surprised when you managed to convince the other contestants yesterday," Rana mentioned without hiding her astonishment. "To be honest, I did not think you would succeed."

"It was in part thanks to your help. If you would have not spoken when you did, then I would have not succeeded so easily."

"You don't need to be so modest." Rana giggled and her eyes shone with a mysterious glow. "In fact, I'm pretty sure they would have agreed even without my interference. At most, it would have taken a bit more of time."

Bloed did not reply. Instead, he looked at the rabbitkin girl carefully before looking away.

This girl was definitively not simple.

Bloed had already noticed it, but as expected, the partic.i.p.ants gathered in this ruined town were outstanding talents in their own ways.

Even this seemingly bubbly and happy-go-lucky girl gave Bloed an unfathomable feeling.

Even when she was praising him, Bloed could not help but keep his guard up.

At that moment, someone else came up to the roof.

It was Liu Ying.

The demon was startled when she saw Rana, but she ignored her and spoke up to Bloed.

"Bloed, he is here."

"Mm?" Bloed raised an eyebrow in surprise. "He is early. Let's go to see him."

Liu Ying nodded. The group then returned to the place they had been using as their hideout.

As soon as they returned, they felt a dangerous presence p.r.i.c.kling against their skins.

Bloed recognized this presence easily. In fact, he had faced it just yesterday.

And as he expected, he saw a cougarkin young man standing coldly in front of the entrance with his eyes closed.

He was the fifth member of Bloed's team for the attack.

When he felt Bloed's arrival, the cougarkin opened his eyes and stared at him.

"... Bloed."

"I can see you are alright, Atai."

"Of course. The other candidates are unable to injure me." Atai said matter-of-factly; as if the other candidates being inferior to him was something normal.

Bloed smiled wryly. He could see Atai was not someone good at socializing.

Just like yesterday, Atai was wearing the clothes native to his tribe, with a bone bow and several bone arrows on his back, plus an a.s.sortment of bone knives hanging from his waist.

His expression was indifferent, bordering in coldness, and his body was tensed up, ready to attack at any moment.

When he looked at Bloed and the girls, he seemed like a savage beast eyeing his prey.

"Thank you for joining us in our plan," Bloed said, trying to bear the killing intent coming from the cougarkin.

Atai shook his head.

"I just think your team is the most likely to succeed. And if I join this team, there is no way an Rank pract.i.tioner alone can stop us."

Bloed did not reply, but it was obvious he agreed with Atai's words.

Just like Atai said, Bloed was confident in his chances.

To be honest, he was confident in his chances just with Aya, Liu Ying, and him; and with Atai and Rana joined their group, the chances of success were much greater.

But even so, Bloed did not let his confidence get the best of him.

Instead, he kept calm at every moment, constantly keeping an eye on the situation in case of an unexpected incident.

The morning advanced slowly. While Bloed and the others waited for the time to start the attack, two more partic.i.p.ants arrived.

To Bloed's surprise, he recognized both of them.

They were Gorde plus the unknown batkin that attacked Bloed and Aya before.

As soon as they appeared, Bloed explained to them the gist of the situation.

Fortunately, both the wolfkin and the batkin agreed to Bloed's plan easily (Rana's help to persuade them had a lot to do with that). They easily integrated themselves with two of the groups and got ready for the time to move.

But when there were three hours until the time they agreed, Bloed's expression changed.

The eye in the sky, Oculus, sent an image to his mind.

A middle-aged beastman with a greatsword in his back was rushing towards the tower.

"Dammit!" Bloed cursed.

An unexpected accident had happened.

One much worse than anything he imagined.

Liu Ying, Aya, and the others were surprised. But before they could ask Bloed what was happening, Bloed closed his eyes.

With a thought, Oculus divided itself into five dragonflies that flew towards each group.

"Guys, the situation has changed," Bloed said with a grave tone of voice. "A new Rank has arrived at the tower."

[[[!!!]]]

Through the dragonflies, Bloed could see and hear the gasp of surprise of the other contestants.

Even Liu Ying and the others beside him were surprised.

[What do you mean?] One of the contestants asked.

"Just like I said, a new Rank has arrived at the tower. Now six people are protecting the tower instead of five."

[That is…]

[Impossible!]

[You are joking, right?]

"I'm not joking," Bloed said immediately. "I fear we need to move now. Otherwise, if more Ranks come, we will not have any chance to reach the tower."

Silence was transmitted through the dragonflies. Obviously, the other contestants were considering Bloed's words.

Finally, one of them spoke.

[… What are we going to do about the sixth guardian?]

Bloed hesitated. But in the end, he gritted his teeth and told them the hard truth directly.

"We can do nothing about him. If we divide the groups more than this, the chances of success will reduce considerably… Hence, we need to continue with the plan… Unfortunately, one of the groups will have to face two Ranks... That group should curse their bad luck."

n.o.body replied. All of them knew the meaning of meeting two Ranks.

Failure.

But finally, one of them sighed.

[… There is not another option. Let's do it.]

[Yeah, it looks like we don't have more options.]

[d.a.m.n, why did they make this test so difficult?]

Bloed exhaled and looked around to his companions. Liu Ying and the others nodded to him, showing their support.

Bloed exhaled heavily and spoke up again.

"We will start in ten minutes."

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