The next day arrived and Bloed's team continued hunting monsters.
During the entire day, Bloed's team hunted six B-Rank and two A-Rank monsters, plus one monster Atai hunted last night, they reached a total of eighty-three points by the end of the day.
This amount of points was already almost enough for the group to assure victory.
Even so, Bloed could not feel happy.
Quite the opposite, a feeling of uneasiness had been plaguing him for a while.
The main reason behind it was that the elves had not made any move even now.
Moreover, Bloed had kept an eye in Atai during the entire day, trying to find anything suspicious with his movements, but in the end, he failed to find anything.
Bloed even thought he was overthinking things.
But that feeling of uneasiness was becoming stronger and stronger, as though something bad was about to happen.
It was at the point that Bloed decided to use his connection with Regina to communicate with her despite the risk of it being noticed by any of the demigods around her.
Fortunately, only Eve seemed to notice something strange. But she remained silent and said nothing.
[… Are you there, Regina?] Bloed once more sent a message to Regina.
[Yes, Master.]
[Have you found anything suspicious?]
[… Nothing for now. I have kept an eye on the elves just like you told me, but their team is just chasing after their half-step demigod monster. They have not done anything suspicious.]
[Is it so?] Bloed furrowed his brows. Could it be he was mistaken?
[Right, what is their half-step demigod monster?]
[A worm, I think. They chased it inside some caves, and they have been fighting it inside for a while.]
[… I see.] Bloed sighed to himself. In the end, it seemed there was nothing wrong with the elves.
Could it be that he was truly overthinking?
Bloed's expression was a bit complicated.
Well, it was better to prevent than to lament.
'I'll guess I'll simply take the team to hunt the remaining monsters we need and wait for the competition to end. That way, even if someone is plotting something, nothing should happen to us.' Bloed thought to himself.
[… Master, I think you should be warier of the humans instead.] WHile Bloed was lost in his thoughts, Regina hesitated slightly before saying that.
Bloed frowned. That was another thing he was not expecting.
He thought that the Sun Kingdom would give up in the competition after losing four contestants, but for some reason, they decided to continue with only two members.
Bloed could not understand why they took that decision. But after thinking for a while, Bloed and Regina reached the same conclusion.
They probably were planning some kind of revenge against them.
Thus, there was a chance of them being attacked by the Sun Kingdom in the next few days. Even worse, perhaps they would join hands with the elves and attack them together.
Unfortunately, the dragonfly Bloed had put in the Sun Kingdom's team was burnt to cinders by Rana's magic, and because Bloed did not think they would continue on the competition, he did not bother putting another.
Thus, the current him was unable to know the movements of the two remaining B-Ranks of the Sun Kingdom.
Regina had tried to use her senses as an SS-Grade Valkyrie to spy on them and tell about their movements to Bloed, but the human demigods were too alert, using their senses to pressure the beastmen representatives. Due to that, she had been unable to find any useful information.
In the end, Bloed could only sigh and prepare as much as possible.
[Don't worry. I'll be wary just in case.] Bloed said.
[Understood. Be careful, master.]
Bloed nodded and cut the communication with Regina.
Even although their communication had not been discovered until now, Bloed did not dare to keep it for long. In the end, Regina was around eight possibly hostile demigods, so it would be troublesome if they discovered something.
While Bloed was processing the information he received from Regina, he heard Rhone gasp.
"Captain!" Rhone hurriedly stood up and shouted excitedly. "I found it!"
"Hmm?" Bloed and the others looked at Rhone startled.
"What did you find?" Rana asked curiously.
"Our half-step demigod monster!" Rhone was excited. "The Phantom Mole! I found it!"
Bloed and the others looked at each other in surprise.
"Are you sure?" Bloed asked again.
Rhone nodded hurriedly.
"I'm sure. It should be five kilometers to the east. I can hear its distinctive sound."
Bloed furrowed his brows. The phantom mole, huh…
"Bloed, what should we do?" Liu Ying asked when she saw Bloed stay silent. "Should we hunt it?"
Bloed did not reply. Instead, he looked at his team to see his reactions.
Rhone and Rana seemed excited by the news, eager to hunt the half-step demigod monster.
Liu Ying was a bit calmer, but her eyes were shining brightly. Obviously, she also wanted to hunt it.
As for Aya and Atai, they were usually expressionless so Bloed found it hard to gauge their reactions, but judging by the small changes in their expressions, they seemed interested as well.
Bloed thought for a moment before looking up at the sky.
"… It's almost night. Are you sure you want to hunt it now?" He asked the group.
"We know the weakness of the mole, so hunting it should not be too troublesome with Rhone here," Rana said with an excited smile.
Bloed thought for a moment and agreed with her.
In truth, hunting the mole was not a bad idea.
Hunting it meant getting fifteen points more. That was more than the points they needed to assure their victory.
And with Rhone's sound attacks, it should not be too difficult to defeat the mole.
Thus, after thinking for a moment, Bloed finally nodded.
"Very well. Get ready, we will depart in five minutes."
"Yay~!" With Rana's excited voice, the group started to prepare.
Half an hour later, they arrived at a small mountain nearby.
There, they found a giant mole sleeping over a big rock.
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels