After the battle

Ren simply stood there in that spot relishing in the afterglow of the fight he just had. This was the most exhilarating fight he had in ages. A fight were he actually needed to use everything, and he still wasn't sure if he could win it. This excitement, this thrill was something he had lost in the stream of time. While basking in joy, Ren noticed something happening to the flowing mana that came out of the fading King Drake.

As the King Drake's body started to turn into mana, something weird happened. Instead of the mana returning to the Dungeon Core, it headed towards Ren's scythe which began absorbing it. The death energy that surrounded Ren slowly faded revealing the pale faced Ren, who had a look of confusion.

"What happened? What is this Silika?" Hilda who saw that Ren was talking to himself, started to think that Ren might be going crazy. Yet as she thought that, she noticed Ren's scythe had disappeared and what replaced it was a black cloaked, black veiled person.

Seeing this Hilda got confused, and started questioning if she was the one going crazy. Ren and Silika who noticed Hilda since awhile ago didn't bother with her for the moment.

"This one of my skills, from one of my more famous legends which portray me as the harvester of souls. Any enemy who dies, after you my master use that technique were I drain you of blood to strengthen myself. The soul of this enemy or just his mana is devoured by me. Doing this strengthens me, and you as well. We both gain a bit of the enemy's mana. Don't you feel it master?"

When Ren heard Silika's explanation he checked his current mana capacity, and sure enough it increased. As he confirmed what the situation was, Ren didn't say anything anymore. He simply looked at the spot where the King Drake died.

"Master?" Silika who saw her silent master, couldn't understand what happened. Her master who usually showed an overconfident, arrogant expression was just staring at that one spot.

Hilda who saw Ren's reaction after talking to the veiled figure, couldn't describe what she was feeling at the moment. The always overconfident expression Ren had was replaced with a stoic one, as he stared silently at a spot.

Somehow looking at Ren's stoic face, Hilda could feel a sort of sadness engulfing him. As Hilda tries to understand what was happening to Ren, he suddenly looks at Hilda and smiled. As he did this, the veiled person beside Ren disappeared as if if that person never existed in the first place.

This strange occurrences have bewildered Hilda, who was unable to understand anything as she silently stood there with no clue about anything that had transpired. The only thing she thinks she was sure of, was that she saw Ren kill a King Drake... But after everything that happened even that was a question for her sanity.

"Oh you finally arrived Hilda. How about Lara where is she?" The switch of atmosphere Ren went through was amazing, and Silika who had witness everything was as confused as Hilda. Who simply stood there in silence not answering.

"Hello Hilda? Are you okay?" Hearing Ren, who almost sounded a little bit concerned made Hilda wake up from her trance like state.

"What the hell was that? Did you just kill a King Drake?! Also who was that person wearing a veil? Was that person even real? Did I just hallucinate everything?" Hilda suddenly asked Ren a barrage of questions. Her confusion, excitement, and fear somehow blended together as she asked all of these questions.

"Calm down alright. Everything you saw was real. Everything you said happened." Ren answered while trying not to laugh at Hilda's confused state.

"How?"

"Okay, I will answer all of your questions, after you tell me where Lara is, alright?" Hilda who heard Ren's question was trying to calm herself down. The conversation can't continue if she couldn't calm down. After breathing in and out for a few seconds, Hilda was somehow able to control her raging emotions.

"Lara is fine, I left her near the staircase at the upper floor. So Ren tell me what happened here."

Ren then started to explain about how he cleared the other floors, before facing the King Drake in this floor. He also explained that he has a weapon that could be pulled out of the void, but he didn't explain anything about Silika.

Hilda who heard Ren's entire explanation, now knew how much she had underestimated Ren, but she couldn't understand why she would hallucinate about another person talking to Ren. Was she still exhausted from her previous fight that she would start to hallucinate?

The answer was a no, that would mean Ren was simply hiding something from her. Well it was his choice if he didn't want to say anything. The only thing different in her evaluation of Ren was his strength. He was still an overconfident, violent, and scheming person. It was just now there were some indications as to why he acted this way.

"So anymore questions?" Ren didn't care if Hilda suspected him of anything, as he smilingly ask this.

"Why do you want to be B ranked? As the Guild Master said with your power you could shoot straight up to S rank, even Lara is of A rank quality. So then why go through all of these? Why do you want to be a B rank? What are you scheming?" The only thing this test proved to Hilda was that Ren was someone she needed to keep an eye on even more.

"I do want to be S rank, but just not right now. Also being B rank is the best position for me right now. I don't want to raise too much suspicion. Getting S rank or even A rank after the initial test is too much. Getting B rank, on the other hand, is still somewhat believable. Lara and I will simply be labeled as geniuses instead of monsters and other such colorful nicknames."

"Why are you telling me all of these things? Aren't you worried I'll tell other people, or I'll just tell them the real results of the test?"

"First off even if you do tell anybody else, we have the Guild Master on our side. Who do you think the other branches of the adventurers guild will believe, you the secretary or Nezard the Guild Master? Even with his peculiar background, they would never suspect Nezard to do something that requires more paperwork. Finally, I don't think you will do anything of the sort."

"Are you threatening me?"

"How does that sound like a threat to you?"

"..." Hilda couldn't say anything anymore since everything Ren said was the truth. Also, there wasn't really any harm if they were made B ranked adventurers. It was just that Hilda didn't like the feeling that Ren was in control of the whole situation.

"Any more questions?"

"..."

"None? Alright then let's go pick Lara up and head to the Dungeon Core."