Chapter - III

Time went by while Survival Test continued on the Second Floor. Baran and Michelle wandered around, with Michelle stepping behind whenever someone tried to ambush them or attack. All of those were dealt by her partner. The sneaky ones proved to a challenge while the ones who preferred a straightforward attack seeing a pair of unarmed people were easy to deal with.

He didn't even bother counting how many he had killed by now. All he knew that there are still more than 200 Regulars left or else the Test Administrators would have announced something by now. This only means there are more bodies for him to drop.

Baran's prior battle experience proved to be a boon in this field as most attacks were predictable for him to deal with.

STAB!

With a plain looking sword of average size he had looted from a Regular whom he ended with his own hands, he stabbed another Regular in the abdomen who tried to attack him from his left side. Then pulling out the sword, in one single swing, he slashed the neck of the Regular, killing him on the spot. Blood splattered on his face but he rubbed it off.

The feeling of holding a sword again in his hands felt much better than roaming around barehanded. This sword was nothing compared to the Longsword he once had in his possession but something is better than nothing. Also reminiscing past glories and days won't benefit him in any manner in his current situation. Despite the sword being pretty normal without any additional qualities, it is still a lethal weapon.

"Get down!" Suddenly getting beside Michelle he pushed her down on the ground while at the same time swinging his sword for them to clash with a large black disc with a golden edge.

"Aren't you sharp." A mischievous female voice from behind a tall rock formation before the owner of the voice revealed herself. The disc hovered flew back beside her and Baran noticed that she had another similar disc in her possession. Both the discs were floating beside her.

The girl was a medium-heighted girl with short brown hair and golden eyes, and small horn that is barely noticeable was on the right side of her head. She wore a yellow dress with two red pins on it and wore high heels. Over the dress she had a brown vest and had a cloak wrapped around, similar to Michelle.

"I noticed that there was someone finishing off the Regulars and I just had to see who it is, sharing the same mindset as me." The girl giggled, observing the grey-haired male in front of her. "Its rare to see like-minded people--"

"Cut the chitchat. Your eyes are telling me that you want to finish the me off or I would be a pain in the future." Baran interrupted, having already seen through her intentions. "You are type who eliminates competition."

"You are right about that. I don't like sharing my meals." Seeing that her foe saw right through her, she didn't wanted to waste any time in eliminating him.

The male in front of her had a different vibe compared to other Regulars but that said vibe is going to the grave with him. She also wanted to ask why he hasn't yet killed the cloaked person beside him or are they companions or something of that sort. That mystery too is going to the grave with them.

In a swift motion, Baran kicked Michelle to the side, removing her from the discs' line of attack and struck both the incoming discs with his sword, barely avoiding get hit by them. Michelle rolled to the side from the kick but was unharmed for the most part. For now she focused on observing the fight.

The discs changed their course from being struck only to come flying back at him again. Not bothering to strike them again which would be pointless, Baran crouched down to let one of the discs fly over his head, only for him to grab it and swung it back at the other one.

Only that's when he understood his mistake and the fact that the discs were totally under the girl's control.

The disc he was holding, slipped out of his grasp and struck his torso hard. If not for his equipped special items, any other human would have been cut into two from the sheer force and the strength held by those discs. Thanks to them, he escaped with a cut on his torso.

'These discs are a pain and she is managing to keep the distance between us well enough..' Baran analyzed his situation while the discs flew back for their next round of attack. The girl merely stood with a hand on her waist, watching her foe struggle with amusement.

'From the dodge earlier, I can clearly infer that my reflexes are faster than the discs...time to put that to use then..'

Taking a deep breath, Baran dashed straight for the girl at his maximum speed, gripping his sword tightly. He wished to end this in one strike, not wanting to know what more tricks she could be hiding in her sleeves. For all he knew she isn't like the other Regulars he faced till now.

The brown-haired girl was visibly taken aback by the speed he was approaching her for a final strike. Was he hiding his real speed? There is no time to think about his hidden strengths right now.

With one motion of her hand, she sent both the discs flying towards him but he easily dodged them by crouching down against one and for the second one, he jumped over it. That did nothing to halt or slow down his movements at all. He closed the distance between them all too quickly.

"I really underestimated you." Right when he swung his sword to slash off her neck, the latter bend backwards while suddenly a set of weapons emerged to her side, where she picked out a sword and the blades clashed with each other. She then swung her left leg to throw Baran off balance with a sweep but the grey-haired male having seen it coming, jumped back, throwing off the stalemate they were in.

The set of weapons disappeared from view while the girl held on the sword with a golden cross-guard and a black grip.

'So that was a Pocket Inventory? Meh my Spatial Storage is better..'

"So you did had other tricks up your sleeve, vixen."

"Says the one who is hiding his true abilities." A ticked off mark was visible on her forehead on being called a vixen. "Are we still going at each other's throats?"

"Thought you would never ask." Baran replied without wasting a breath, already taking his stance.

But before any of them could go at it, a loud horn rang around the entire field, catching everyone's attention Right after that an announcement followed.

"Attention Regulars! Stay where you are! The First Test is now over and and any Regulars still fighting would be eliminated. To the 200 Regulars remaining, congratulations to all of you."

Annoyance was visible on both of their faces, having their fight interrupted in the middle when things were actually starting to get interesting. Sighing both of them de-materialized their weapons waiting for another opportunity to settle their duel but the real annoyance was yet to come. The announcement wasn't finished yet.

"The next test will begin shortly. For the next test you to have to form a team of three. The limit for the team formation will be 5 minutes. To be considered a team, you have to be in contact with some part of your teammates' body when the time is up. Ready? Begin!"

"Say what!?" Baran, nor the brown-haired girl had seen that coming and same could be said for Michelle. 'Did the rabbit bastard knew about this? Which is why he let freckles roam around with me?'

"It would seem that you and that person are already together so how about adding me to your little ride." The girl walked up to Baran, the discs reverting back into two small pins and attaching themselves back into her clothes. "As much as I hate forming a team, this is something we will have to do for the sake of advancing."

"I don't see any other choice either." Baran too wasn't a fan of teaming up.

They had to think this logically. If the further tests involved teaming up then teaming up with someone who is skilled enough to watch your back is advantageous rather than someone incompetent. But there are also chances of teammates stabbing in the back, something Baran is all-to-familiar with. Betrayal and abandonment isn't a foreign concept to anyone at all.

For all he knows, he will have to watch his own back. Nobody can be trusted.

"Let's get to know each other's names since we are forming a team." The girl stated before putting out her hand. "Androssi Zahard."

"Michelle Light."

"Baran.." 'Oh how I miss adding King of Demon Folk or Monarch of White Flames before my name! Fuck you Ashborne! Fuck you Antares!'

Both of them stated their names putting out their hands on top of Androssi's.

"Are you disappointed that you couldn't get to touch anything else other than the hand?" Androssi tried to tease while pulling her cloak over her head to obscure her face from outside view for the time being. "Most boys would die for an opportunity like this."

Baran simply rolled his eyes. "You never stop talking do you?"

"Most girls love gossiping don't they?"

"Shouldn't have asked."

"Times Up for the team formation! The three people holding each other at this moment are considered a team. You will be soon send to the next Testing Area."

A bright light enveloped the three once the 5 minutes given to them were over with. The soon vanished along with the white light.

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The trio reappeared inside a floating ship where they noticed the remaining 200 of Regulars also having appeared along with them from the First Test Floor. And there were a good number of them. Baran also took note of the fact that there weren't just humans but other sorts of creatures as well, like for example a tall, alligator carrying a red spear and a lizard carrying a green sword. There was even a weird human being sleeping in the open, not minding the people around him.

'Gives me feels like the Demon Tower where different species of demons used to reside.' He compared the abundance of species with that to his old residence.

Androssi wanted to pick on Ned more but then her eyes fell on the short lizard-girl carrying the green sword. Her golden eyes narrowed while a smirk appeared on her visage. 'There you are. Anak-Unni's child and Green April..'

The Regulars didn't had to wait for long as someone emerged from behind the large stage set up for reasons beyond anyone's guess. The individual that emerged was a tall, muscular man with blonde hair and yellow eyes, with two black spots under his eyes. He wore a white lab coat, black trousers and gloves.

"Regulars please focus over here." He clapped twice to get everyone's attention. "Greetings everyone, my name is Lero Ro and as you can see, I am the Test Administrator of this floor."

"Test Administrator? Then....he is a Ranker!!" Someone yelled out.

"What's a Ranker? Care to elaborate?" Baran whispered to Androssi, keeping his voice low enough for the brown-haired girl to catch it.

"Ranker are those people that have climbed to the top is what all I know about them." Androssi informed, also keeping her voice low. "The most important piece of information about them is they are insanely powerful beings of the Tower. Ranker is someone you do not want to mess with too often unless you are suicidal or confident in your strength."

'So I were to compare them they would be like General's or Marshals of our armies..' Baran thought to himself. He wanted to know a strength of a Ranker since he will be climbing the Tower too and there will be a time he will eventually face one of them.

Lero Ro resumed after a brief pause when enthusiasm and shock about him being a Ranker died down.

"Now that you had some rest, it is time for a little pretest. All three members of your team must pass this pretest in order to advance to the next test. Even if a single member of your team fails, the entire team will be eliminated."

Complains soon begin to be heard from almost everyone gathered. They were complaining about how they had to form the teams at the very last second and they don't want to lose because of one crappy teammate. While the complains went on, Baran and Androssi had only one thing to say to each other, as they waited on Lero Ro to explain the test.

"Don't pull me down."

"Likewise vixen."