The Sun was at the horizon, as the chilly wind rose in the trial zone, blowing the dry leaves of the trees. It was unusually silent in the jungle, nothing but the slow regard of the wind, and the thumping of three pairs of boots.
Elior was not in a good mood. Part of the reason was he did not find what he was looking for, and the thing with Ileana was still bugging him. He hated to leave things to fate, but what he could do as he still could not decide.
"Brother Elior, why are you sulking all day?" Shin asked as they walked to the empty spot surrounded by trees. It was on a higher ground than the neighbouring regions.
"It's probably because he is not satisfied with the number of tokens he got today," Lyra said. "Even though he is third on the list."
Elior was carrying the dry woods as usual, and Shin carried the dead rabbit as they went down in the middle of the spot. It was time to make the meal. Elior made the fire while Shin was cleaning the meat. Lyra wanted to give a hand of assistance as well, but Shin dismissed her without thinking.
A small smoke appeared where Elior was making fire. He blew air from his mouth to the smoke to ablaze the flame. The woods burned in crimson flames after a couple of minutes, and Elior finally lifted his head up.
'I need to do something to distract my mind,' Elior mused inwardly. The thought of Ileana bugging him more than he had thought.
"About 18 hours left for the trial to end," he opened his mouth quietly, looking at the other two. "Are you two satisfied with your result?"
The two went silent hearing that. The orange clothed elf opened her lips first. "I wanted to enter top 3," she said. "But I guess those three spots are already filled."
The top two positions on the merit list were unchanged, while Elior joined the third spot yesterday. The one at the top was some guy named Renal with 1478 tokens. While the second spot was still Leroy, holding not even half the numbers. Leroy held 566 tokens, only a few more than Elior.
"What rank are you now?" Elior asked Lyra.
"12th," Lyra said, clasping her arms. "I will probably enter the top 10 before the end."
Elior's gaze moved to Shin who was already engaged in cooking while keeping an ear open on the conversation. "What about you Shin?"
'I'm ranked 487th," Shin said, while his hands were busy cleaning the meat. "With the exact 100 tokens."
"Oh, I forgot you are still repaying her for your misbehaviour," Elior said unintentionally. "I'm third with 534 tokens, yet about a thousand tokens away from the top."
"Why does it sound like you are not satisfied?" Lyra asked, eyeing him.
"Because I'm not." Elior rubbed his forehead, remembering the bet he made with Yemrmix. Even though this trial did not mean much to him, he hated to lose.
"Well, you are just a dozen or so away from the second rank," Lyra added.
''Second is not enough."
"I thought you would say that," Lyra snickered. She asked jokingly, "Do you have a Plan C?"
Elior's eyes glinted as he laughed. "Yes," he said. "But we have to skip sleep to start the plan."
"That was given." Lyra did not laugh as she really thought about what plan Elior had, though all the plans A and B were nothing but a single line of phrases. She asked, anticipating something similar. "So what's the plan?"
"Simple," Elior said, looking somewhere among the trees. "Rob the top ranker."
"I imagined you would say something like that. Are you sure? This Renal guy might have a group with him. It will not be a simple task."
"Do I look like a guy that would fear someone or some group?" Elior asked as if he did not care a penny for the top scorer of the Trial. 'Trying to be the first is a good distraction.'
Actually, he truly did not. The name of the top scorer—Renal—did not ring any bells. He's probably not something big, or Elior would have heard about him in his previous time. Maybe he was just some rich young Lord leeching off his father's grandeur.
While for the 1st runner-up, it was another story.
"I'm going for a stroll," Elior said as he stood up in the blowing chilly wind. Something else was in his mind as well, other than Ileana for a few hours. "Shin, how long do you need to prepare the meal?"
"Half an hour or less."
Nodding, Elior left the spot as he walked into the thick trees again.
Gusts of wind hit on his face as his hair and black leather jacket swayed according to it. Elior moved fast and stealthy under the thick canopy of the tree. The surroundings did not have much light, but Elior could see everything if he tried a little.
The reason Elior left the other was because he always felt someone was tailing him for a couple of hours, moreover, the one following was through in his or her skill as he found no sign other than a few broken twigs.
But when he was conversing with Shin and Lyra, he sensed something, as his mind was always on the surroundings. He heard a small noise that could be some animals or other things.
Elior put his ears and mind to work. He was doing the listening, like the sight that you can control what you see or what you wanted to see. He could concentrate on one singular noise as well, while the other turned silent for him. It was the true listening that he learned years ago.
A fleeting notice of moving entered his ears for a moment, then it turned silent again. Elior moved towards the direction it came from for a while, but found nothing. He looked for a few minutes more before walking back.
'Maybe I was wrong,' he thought, then he felt a disturbance coming from where he left off his other two companions. Elior's leg moved as he left the thick canopies and almost laughed at seeing the scene before him.
The one that caused the ruckus here were some folks Elior had already met in the trial. He taught them a lesson as well, yet they never learned. It was Sarrat and Sarvat, the two twins whom Elior left bare on the first day of the trial.
They were wearing wolf's fur now, with the front upper body bare. With the same sword and bow in their hands, they were trying to rob again.
Lyra was alert, even before the two newcomers arrived, while Shin joined her, noticing their presence as well. The pair of duos looked warily at each other. None wanted to lose out in eye contact.
The newcomer that held the bow, raised and motioned it towards Shin while the other one moved towards the orange clothed half-elf.
By the time Elior arrived, they had already exchanged a few moves while Lyra was at the dominant end. Shin did not give the archer any open spot, either.
"It seemed the lesson I taught you two was not enough," Elior said as he stomped a kick on the archer. Giving a side look at the fallen figure, he looked at the swordsman. "Sarrat, was it?" he asked. "Bugger off before you two regret coming to the trial."
"I am Sarvat," the swordsman yelled as he rushed at Elior, leaving the dumbfounded Lyra.
Sarvat motioned his sword at Elior with panically quick slashes, but Elior dodged them all. Elior grew bored soon enough, and thrashed Sarvat to his twin brother in a similar fashion.
"Now I'll make sure you could not show your face to anyone," Elior advanced towards the twin siblings. "No, not even to each other."
"What will you do?" Sarrat, who was more docile between the two, opened his lips first.
"I won't do anything." Elior's smile broadened. "You two will do it yourself. How would you feel if your first time was taken by your brother?"
The orange clothed elf blushed hearing that. "Pervert," she muttered, while Shin snickered from behind.
The identical duo shuddered, remembering just hugging each other naked in the chilly wind gave them enough goosebumps that those two could not meet one another's gaze. While what Elior said just now was crueller than the death sentence to them.
"Don't, please let us go," Sarvat cried out loudly this time, recalling the naked experience a couple of days ago. He wanted to delete the memory from his mind. Looking at the exterior of Elior, he found there was no chance that this deviant would let them go. "No, no, keep us. We will call you boss from now, do your dirty work, just don't make us do that . . ."
Sarvat could not complete his sentence and turned silent as his brother joined him. "Yes boss," he said. "Please take us under your wings. I swear I will follow every order to the best of my abilities."
Elior thought for barely a few seconds before he agreed. "Alright," he said.
Making them do other things would surely be fun, but Elior did not have time to enjoy, as not even a day left for the trial to end. He needed to use them in other tasks, and he definitely needs a few people now to do his errands.
"Just don't be any pathetic from now on," he said. "Get up."
The trio got back to business as the two newcomers join them. Shin went over to do his job as the cook, while Lyra gave a suspicious glare to the two newcomers, but their frightened expression told her they would not try anything funny as long as Elior was there.
"Huh?" Shin grunted, looking at the meat on the fire. He inspected them carefully with a frown.
"What is it, Shin?"
"I think some of our meals were stolen?" Shin was still frowning.
"Eh?" Elior scrutinised for a while and found what Shin was saying was true, but he had no mind to find some thief for now. "It's probably some homeless stray, don't mind it. We'll have to go busy after eating."
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Next Chapter: Food Thief.
For every 50 power stones, there will the 1 extra chapter in the following months.
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