Chapter 2

After waking up from her displacement, Rachel slowly rose from the ground and looked around. She was transported to a field of sorts, completely covered with tall, golden grass that made it almost impossible to see anything. She glimpsed the blue sky, and then immediately pulled the hood of her cloak tighter. It wasn't so much the bright light as the general nervousness, which Rachel tried to calm or at least conceal. The Guardian's words were still ringing in her head, and at the same time the thought that everything around her was not real and she would soon wake up and find herself in the cave with Baam.

"A lot..." A low and husky voice from behind caught the girl off guard, and she turned sharply toward the source to see the teenager standing beside her, who was barely taller than she was. That's right, her bodyguard, whom she'd managed to forget about in her own thoughts. To be fair, Hizu did not utter a single word and only nodded as the Guardian introduced him and handed him a watch. Then the girl assumed he was simply mute.

"What...?" Rahel asked after a moment of consternation, but the boy did not answer, instead he slowly raised his head to the sky. After he had read the document, especially the last page, it was as if he was overflowing with energy in such a way that he could hardly keep from simply jumping on the spot, which was clearly unbecoming of an old man. Now it was the other way around and he felt as drained as a lemon. His thoughts flowed rather sluggishly and he didn't even want to focus on them, preferring to enjoy the simple blue sky. The only thing was that the dark, smoky lines stretching in different directions, invisible to anyone but Hizu, which hindered his contemplation; after all, his ability to sense people's fear had not gone anywhere, and there were no small number of creatures in this place who were afraid, no matter how well they hid it.

On the one hand, Rachel was grateful for a silent partner, but on the other hand, Hizu didn't look like someone who could protect her. Not that she doubted Headon-san's choice, for it was unlikely that faerie would send anyone weak, but the girl was still worried.

Meanwhile, the boy had stopped admiring the sky and turned around, beginning to look behind Rachel's back. The girl turned in the direction of her bodyguard's gaze, but she saw nothing unusual because of the tall grass. Before she could ask what was the matter, Hisu took a few steps and covered her back from the as yet unknown danger.

"Well, I was noticed," the girl in the yellow dress stepped into the small clearing, shaking off her vest as if to see if her bag slung over her shoulder was dirty, too. "I thought there will be only mediocrities."

Noticing that the girl behind the boy took a step back as she approached, the Regular involuntarily exhaled.

"Fear not, National Treasure in the form of me is not here to fight you," she smiled and continued, at the same time carefully observing the reactions of the two regulars before her. "You are gifted with the honor of becoming allies with Androssi Zahard herself."

The girl turned her nose up mockingly, expecting to hear at least words of admiration or a sigh of surprise, but reality only confronted her with a frowning blonde and a guy who didn't even move. Before Androssi could say anything, she was interrupted by an annoyingly loud voice overhead:

"Well, all the contestants are awake, it'll be a good start to the challenge! How many of you are there? Exactly two hundred? I don't like complexity, so who survives in half an hour will pass! Good luck!" Rachel only now noticed a balloon hovering over the field with a white hole in the middle and from which the voice was coming out. At the same time, her watch, a small black sphere on which the time was counting, appeared by itself beside the girl.

Rachel looked again at the brown-haired girl, and in her hands was a strange weapon: entirely red and more like a strongly extended spike than a full-fledged sword. Unwittingly there were new doubts about the bodyguard, could he really protect her with his bare hands? On the other hand, Androssi had said she was offering to be allies, so why not?

"My name is Rachel. Nice to meet you, Miss Androssi," the blonde tried to speak as confidently and kindly as possible, but a slight hint of nervousness was still evident. Seeing that her escort was in no hurry to introduce himself, she continued. "This is Hizu, my... bodyguard. I... we would be happy to be allies."

"Just Rachel, no last name?" Androssi tilted her head, looking at the blonde with a little doubt.

"Well... yes," Rachel answered a little uncertainly. She didn't quite understand what the question was about.

"All right," the phrase"I'll pretend to believe you,"was literally in Androssi's gaze, but she did not insist, turning her attention instead to something more important. "We've got half an hour, so how about we have a little fun and get rid of any future problems at the same time?"

***

Looking at the platform on which the participants arrived from the test site, Blitz Quant tried hard to figure out what the hell had happened in his area in those thirty minutes. Two hundred participants wasn't the largest number of regulars, but it wasn't small either, and now there were fifteen of them left. Now that's really not enough, and the behavior of the rest...

Three figures stood in the middle of the platform. The guy with the blue hair was looking in Blitz's direction, and behind him was a girl, covered in a brown cloak, talking about something with a brown-haired woman, the third member of their small group. On the clothes of the boy and the cloaked Regular, the trial administrator could see quite clearly the remains of dried blood. However, this group was supposed to be just fine, but the behavior of the rest of the Regulars was just out of place: all the remaining participants stood at the edges of the platform, as if trying to stay as far away from the described trio as possible and as if trying not to look in their direction at all unnecessary times.

"What the fuck happened out there?" Quant once again asked himself. The administrator was supposed to oversee the test, but Blitz, after announcing the conditions, stepped away to attend to the most important things... in his opinion. And what could Regulars do that had just begun to conquer the Tower? Shouldn't we contact the Director of the Floor?

"Admin! How long do we have to stand here like this?" Shouted the brown-haired girl of the trio of"normal"Regulars, knocking Quant out of her thoughts. Really need to talk to Yu Han Sung regarding this anomaly, after all if we conduct the remaining tests in the usual order there will be even fewer participants, even on the current one that Blitz is about to conduct at least a couple will fail.

"Well, if you think you've had enough rest, then let's have a little test," Quant, still frowning, stepped closer and released the shinsu, creating a barrier at the edge of the platform. It wasn't very dense, it would have been indistinguishable from just the pressure in those places on the eighth or tenth floor. "If you don't pass that barrier, you'll have no further place in the Tower."

"Simply put, we'll fail. You really don't like complications, Mr. Admin," the shaven-haired girl grinned, running her hand over the barrier. However, so far she did not dare to pass, or just did not want to. Instead, the girl turned around and walked over to her team. "Just going through the barrier sounds rather uninteresting. How about a little bet, Mr. Admin?"

"Bwah-ha-ha, boring you say?" To be fair, Quant was somewhat agreeable to this, for such a barrier test was both mandatory and at the same time the most boring part of testing the participants. "I will be so kind and great-hearted and therefore, ready to listen to your terms! That's how I am..."

"Like a little child..." Androssi spoke softly, missing a few more boasts about his own personality from the red-haired Ranker. When he was finished, she called out the details of their little argument: "It's simple. Guess which one of us will have the least trouble getting through the barrier. Naturally, without any of your Ranker stuff, unless, of course, you're afraid of losing the bet to some not-so-great, albeit incredibly beatiful, contestant."

"Me? Afraid? Bha-ha-ha! What nerve to suggest such a thing! Well, I agree! Bha-ha," Quant looked more seriously at the contestants. He had never considered himself clever or truly savvy, leaving the more or less complicated things to Lero Ro, but he wasn't an idiot either. So all Regulars except the Trio were instantly eliminated from potential options, though it was worth clearing up one more option before making your choice. "If I guess, you'll only call me "The Magnificent and Genius Mr. Quant"!"

Androssi could barely keep from laughing out loud, but she couldn't contain her mocking smile. A child indeed, not even taller than her.

"Good! If not, then you, Mr. Admin, will pay for all our purchases on the floor!" The girl closed her eyes dreamily, already imagining how much could be obtained at someone else's expense.

Quant, on the other hand, went back to thinking. Regular couldn't know that Blitz hadn't observed the test, and accordingly she assumed on the basis that the Ranker had seen their skills. But in that case such a bet is simply silly, or the brown-haired girl is hiding something... Admin shifted his gaze to the blonde-haired girl from the Trio and she immediately became somehow embarrassed under Quant's gaze. Then he looked at the Trio guy, who had been staring blankly at Blitz from the moment he got on the platform, and that was a bit unusual. Next, his gaze fell on the brown-haired girl, and the only oddity, other than the enormous confident, was the lack of blood on her clothes. Examining each Regular in turn, Quant came to one conclusion... He didn't have the slightest idea.

The blond girl looked the weakest and most insecure, but that said nothing, and judging by the marks on her cloak, she had had time to fight. The brown-haired girl was the complete opposite and most likely knew exactly which of their Trio was the strongest and what's more, just before she called out to Quant, she was clearly negotiating something with her group. At the time, Ranker didn't pay much attention to the words regarding "see something interesting" and "freebies".The guy was just acting the strangest, though he wasn't doing anything except looking in Blitz's direction. At all. Quant had no problem being sensitive to shinsu, but in passive mode other than positioning everyone involved, it didn't do anything. Though Lero Ro was much better at that, and he probably identified the right Chosen One with a fleeting glance.

"Tick-tock mr. Admin, don't keep the girl waiting,"the Androssi laughed softly."Make your choice!

"Agghhhh!" Quant grabbed his forehead. The thought of cheating flew off on its own, He is Ranker or what?! "All right! That... will be you!"

"Are you sure of your choice?" The smile on the Androssi face grew even wider, making Blitz hesitate.

"I... ahem..." what if she was really counting on it, and in fact the blonde is just hiding behind her back, so that Ranker does not pay his attention to her... Or this guy, though unusually behaved. What if the Chosen One is just trying to confuse him and if... "DAMN IT! It's the blonde in the cape! That's it! I'M AWESOME! Get ready to call me"The Magnificent and Genius Mr. Quant"! Bwah-ha!"

"Rachel, look, I told you!" The brown-haired girl laughed triumphantly and Blitz froze for a moment. No, she's just bluffing, isn't she? "So you go first!"

"O-okay," the blonde bowed her head slightly, and exhaled, trying to get past the barrier. It clearly did not want let girl pass and she had to make quite a tangible effort to and when she finally manage to did it, she fell down and had to spend some time in that position to banal breathe, "Phew. I thought I couldn't make it, ha-ha..."

"I hope you have enough money, because the needs of the Princess do not come cheap," giggled the brown-haired girl with a barely perceptible effort skipped the barrier and immediately after her not even noticing the barrier passed the guy. "Rachel! I think we'd better get you a better outfit and..."

The Ranker didn't listen any further. He was bursting with emotion, beginning with the obvious indignation of the situation and ending with understandable anger. Him. The Ranker. Fooled. By a mere Regular. Quant eye twitched and the red-haired man looked hopefully at the remaining contestants behind the barrier... but they were all hopeless by the end, and three of them couldn't overcome the barrier at all. Seeing all this, Blitz sacredly vowed to do everything in his power to get this girl to the Scout specialization...

***

"What? Only twelve contestants made it through the first test? How exactly did you administer the test?!" Yu Han Sung interjected. The administrator of the Second Floor and despite his feminine features and blond hair, he is a man, although even listening to his voice it is not immediately clear. Quant had thought of his superiors as female for the first week, and the way he had found out the truth regarding Yu Han Sung's gender, the red-haired man would prefer to forget forever. "Did you have some sort of endless death match?"

"Well... you know me," Quant rubbed the back of his head guiltily, "I don't like boring stuff, so I just did a half hour survival match..."

"So you're saying that only twelve out of two hundred survived in half an hour?" Yu Han Sung grinned, and his eyes were filled with doubt about his admin's mental abilities. "That's what you're telling me?"

"Well actually fifteen survived, three didn't make it through the barrier... But it's true! Three of regulars killed almost everyone else!" Quant, as he promised himself, looked at the tape of the test and more dossiers on each participant. And halfway through it he regretted it three times.

"Then, who're the three? Was Zahard Princess? Or an Irregular?" The administrator rolled his eyes.

"Um... Wel..." Blitz became even more embarrassed. "There were both."

There was silence. With every second, the Admin could feel the pressure building in the room, and Yu Han Sung's face changing little by little. The administrator exhaled, and then launched into such a huge tirade, which combined insults about Quant's intelligence as well as curses towards the whole situation and to Blitz's occasional excuses, he heard even more unflattering words in his direction.

"...COMPLETELY LOST YOUR MIND! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO EXPLAIN THIS TO EVANKHELL?! GIVING SUCH TEST WITHOUT CHECKING THE IDENTITIES OF THE PARTICIPANTS? GUESS WHAT SHE WILL DO TO ME AND YOU..." The administrator, as if he'd realized something, stopped talking, and then turned more quietly to Quant. "You know what, forget it. I'll think of something to way out of the situation."

"WOW REALLY?" Blitz, at the moment the Floor Ruler was already mentioned, was about to beg the Administrator for clemency in the hope that he would be able to do something about the situation. "I LOVE YOU HANSUNG!"

"Shut up and prepare coffe for me," the blond High Ranker breathed out tiredly. More trouble has fallen on his head."Go tell the contestants that their third test is canceled. Otherwise, proceed according to the standard procedure. Except they'll have a meeting to assign roles tomorrow at six, not today."

"Yes, yes, of course!" A happy Quant almost instantly stormed out of the floor Administrator's office without seeing him smile.