"So our goal is to kill others who have kills… huh?"

The daughter of House Arclight whispered from her perch high in the dead tree, her emerald eyes fixed on a clearing of ash not too far away.

In the center of that clearing, meditating with perfect stillness, was Alvinar Seatra.

It had been about one or two hours since the trial started, and so far, Azel and Sylvia still remained at the top of the leaderboard.

Though she noticed they weren't killing many monsters anymore… their count had stagnated at forty-six kills.

'Strange,' she thought, tucking a strand of green hair behind her pointed ear. 'Why would they stop hunting?'

Still, it didn't matter. She had already decided that after she dealt with Alvinar, she would deal with them next.

"That seems to be it…" her lover said from the branch beside her.

He was leaning casually against the rotting trunk, his own eyes tracking Alvinar's slow breathing.

They had been watching him for nearly twenty minutes now, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"If we can manage to stack three hundred kills, then we'll be able to abandon this godforsaken place without having to kill the Boss."

The Arclight daughter nodded slowly.

"Yes. Then we can eliminate the rest of the competition too, though it won't be that easy." She shifted her weight, preparing to descend. "There are people worth mentioning with actual skills amongst these contestants."

Her lover grunted in agreement.

And just then, she caught something from the corner of her eye.

It was movement.

A figure approaching from the eastern treeline.

"Speak of the devil…"

Feliora walked casually toward the base of their tree, her steps were confident and unhurried.

Something had changed about the Lunar woman.

She seemed… different and the Arclight daughter's instincts flared immediately.

"Yo!" Feliora waved up at them cheerfully, a bright smile plastered across her face.

The Arclight daughter didn't hesitate.

She raised her hand instantly, and a burst of concentrated life energy exploded outward from her palm.

Normally, life energy was used for defense or for revitalizing crops and healing wounds.

But life energy could still have offensive purposes.

The sphere of vibrant green power slammed directly into Feliora's chest, and her entire body dissolved into shimmering mist that faded into nothing.

The Arclight daughter let out a slow, frustrated sigh.

"We're in an illusion…"

Her lover cursed beside her, already preparing a defensive spell.

The annoying thing about Lunar Illusions was that unless you had some sort of charm that prevented mental attacks, or an innate ability that defended against psychic intrusion, you wouldn't know when you had been hit.

You could be trapped for minutes… hours, maybe even days and you would never realize it until it was far too late, unless you paid a lot of attention to your surrounding.

"Whatever." The Arclight daughter exhaled sharply and released a massive wave of life energy outward in all directions.

The technique was called Arc Expulsion, designed specifically to shatter illusions by overwhelming them with raw mana output.

The false world around them cracked like glass, fractures spreading across the sky and ground as reality reasserted itself.

But when the illusion shattered completely…

All that remained was darkness.

Absolute, suffocating darkness that pressed against her skin like living shadow, threatening to consume them whole.

"She stacked it…?" the Arclight daughter whispered in horror.

Her lover grabbed her hand tightly, his own mana flaring as he tried to pierce through the second layer but it was too late.

…

In reality, Feliora was calmly dragging both the Arclight daughter and her lover across the ground by their ankles.

Their bodies were completely limp, their eyes were open but they could not see.

From the moment she had cast the first illusion, they hadn't stood a chance.

"This is how it was supposed to go with that Human guy too," Feliora muttered under her breath, glancing down at her captives with a mixture of pride and lingering resentment.

She could stack Lunar Illusions in ways most practitioners couldn't even comprehend.

The first layer attacked the body directly, forcing it into a sleep-like state while keeping the mind active and aware.

If the target managed to break free from that layer through sheer willpower or mana expenditure, they would naturally trigger the second layer.

And the second layer afflicted the mind itself, dragging it into unconsciousness.

It was a trap within a trap.

The Arclights were especially known for their exceptional ability to navigate through illusions, which was precisely why Feliora had used her strongest technique on them.

Currently, the question wasn't whether they would escape.

It was whether she could drag them back to the designated site before they woke up.

"I trust Azel will be able to handle them once they're awake," she said quietly, adjusting her grip.

Right now, they had captured… ahem "borrowed" everyone they could find except Alvinus, systematically broken their legs and arms to prevent escape, then healed them just enough to wait to be assigned work to do.

It really was unfair but effective as well.

Feliora couldn't help but respect the brutality of it.

"Now it's just for him to deal with Alvinar," she murmured, quickening her pace. "The quicker we leave this place… the better."

…

Alvinar continued meditating, his breathing was slow despite the lingering pain that coursed through his body.

He was aware that two people had been watching him for quite some time.

He had sensed their mana signatures hiding in the dead tree to the west, felt their eyes boring into him as they planned their ambush.

But then those signatures had vanished suddenly.

Taken out, most likely.

It made him wonder whether that was why he couldn't sense anyone else nearby anymore. Perhaps there was a hunter in this dungeon far more dangerous than he had anticipated.

"So this is where you were…?"

Alvinar's eyes snapped open.

The human stood several meters away with his hands tucked casually into his pockets and that same infuriating smirk plastered across his face.

Alvinar looked at him with pure, undiluted hatred burning in his eyes.

Just because Alvinar had blasted him with an attack that nearly killed him back at the Royal Dinner didn't mean this human had the right to retaliate in kind.

It was different.

Alvinar was an elf… A superior lifeform while Azel was human… A lower creature.

The rules were not the same.

"You…" Alvinar said slowly, forcing himself to stand despite the trembling in his legs. "Because of you, I can barely move my body…"

His mana pathways were still damaged from Azel's counterattack. Every circulation of energy sent spikes of agony through his core.

Azel glanced lazily at the glowing leaderboard hovering in the distance.

Alvinar was sitting comfortably in second place with thirty-six kills.

"Your ranking doesn't say the same," Azel observed dryly.

Alvinar's jaw clenched.

"It's because I've been—" He stopped himself abruptly, his pride warring with the instinct to justify himself. "Ugh… why should I even bother to explain myself to a lower lifeform such as yourself?"

He forced more mana into his legs, stabilizing his stance even as pain lanced through his body.

"Because of your humanly emotions, I'm left in a state where I can barely use my mana just to participate in this trial…" Alvinar's voice dripped with venom. "I despise you, human."

'Damn… he's even worse than Prime Alvinus.' Azel thought with mild amusement.

But that didn't matter to him at this point.

Alvinar slowly rose to his full height, staggering slightly but forcing his eyes to glow with concentrated mana. Green light flared around his hands as he prepared an attack.

"I'll teach you what it means to mess with a Seatra!!!" he roared, launching himself forward with everything he had left.

His speed was impressive despite his injuries, his form was perfect and his killing intent was genuine.

Moments later, he was sprawled face-first across the ashy ground, being dragged by one ankle as Azel walked casually ahead without even looking back.

Alvinar's face scraped against jagged rocks and dead roots, his hands clawing uselessly at the ground as he was hauled along like a sack of grain.

"Let go of me, you filthy—!"

Azel glanced back over his shoulder with the proud, satisfied expression of a slave driver who had just acquired premium labor.

"If you can move your mouth…" Azel said cheerfully, "you can work."

Alvinar's protests turned into incoherent sputtering.

"I'll put you to work as the benevolent human I am," Azel continued, his voice absolutely dripping with mockery. "Don't worry, we've prepared a nice big hole for you to help dig. Very therapeutic. Builds character."

Alvinar's screams of outrage echoed across the ashen wasteland but nobody came to save him.

…

Soon, Azel and Sylvia stood in front of the other kneeling members of the eleven houses.

They were all on their knees with their heads bowed and they were completely obedient.

It had taken some bone-breaking to make them listen to reason, but Azel was genuinely glad they were all in complete cooperation now.

He had healed their broken limbs and while wounded pride was harder to mend, he was sue they would manage to recover.

He surveyed them with satisfaction.

Feliora knelt near the front, her Lunar eyes downcast but alert. Beside her was her fiancée, still visibly shaken from his earlier dismemberment.

The Arclight daughter and her lover were positioned to the left, their expressions carefully neutral despite the humiliation of their capture.

Everyone else followed and hanging upside down from a nearby tree, bound tightly with enchanted rope, was Alvinar Seatra.

His face was purple with rage and blood rushing to his head, but he couldn't move. Azel had made absolutely certain of that.

"Don't worry…" Azel began, his tone almost conversational. "This truce will only exist for this trial, as it requires all of us to work together to reach the end."

He let that sink in for a moment, watching their reactions.

Some looked relieved while others looked skeptical.

"Or are any of you saying that you can easily solo a Rank Two monster…?" Azel continued, raising an eyebrow. "If you can, be my guest. I'll untie you right now and you can go face it alone."

Silence.

Azel cleared his throat and smiled.

"Like I thought. So now we will focus on the entrapment of monsters and the systematic killing of them." He gestured broadly at the desolate dungeon landscape around them. "There are still a great number of monsters roaming around, so that is what we will focus on. Raise your hands if you have questions."

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then, hesitantly, the Arclight daughter raised her hand.

Azel pointed at her. "Yes?"

"Why don't we just split up to hunt these monsters…?" she asked carefully. "Wouldn't it be more efficient if we covered more ground?"

Azel looked at her like she had just spoken something semblant to a curse.

His crimson eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Are you trying to get more kills than me…?" he asked slowly.

The Arclight daughter's face paled instantly.

"N-no, I just—"

"The whole reason I picked you all up," Azel interrupted, his voice cold, "is to ensure I get the highest kills. Do you understand?"

The Arclight daughter nodded quickly, several times in rapid succession.

"Yes. Yes, I understand completely."

She didn't really care about doing his bidding.

As long as she survived long enough to take revenge another day, she would play along with whatever this insane human wanted.

Azel's expression softened back into that casual smirk.

"Good. Now then…" He clapped his hands together. "I have an idea for a trap. We will be making a Triple-Layer Pitfall Trap."

The elves looked at him strangely.

Even Sylvia tilted her head with curiosity.

Azel blinked, glancing around at their confused faces.

"Come on, you guys live in the forest…" he said incredulously. "You can't tell me that you don't know what a pitfall trap is."

Silence.

Nobody answered the question.

'Fucking dumbasses,' Azel thought, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Instead, he shook his head and sighed.

"Alright, so first we'll dig very deep… enough to stack these three trap layers atop each other." He began pacing back and forth like a general explaining battle strategy. "For the first layer, I'll be making use of Feliora's illusions."

Feliora straightened immediately, saluting with surprising enthusiasm.

"You can project the image of a human corpse, right?" Azel asked. "Make it look like Alvinar."

Alvinar's face twitched violently from his upside-down position.

"You—!" he started to shout, but his voice was hoarse and weak.

He was currently tied upside down on the tree with enchanted rope that drained his mana constantly.

He didn't have nearly enough energy left to pull himself free, and everyone knew it.

Feliora extended her hand outward, her Lunar mana swirling elegantly around her fingers and then an illusion materialized in the empty space before them.

It was Alvinar, bleeding out on the ground and crying pathetically for help.

His robes were torn, his face twisted in agony and his hands reached desperately toward invisible rescuers.

It looked disturbingly real and it was real enough to make several of the elves laugh nervously.

Even Azel couldn't help but grin.

"Very good…" he said, nodding with approval. "Now, that will be used to cover the fact that there's a very obvious hole in the ground. Monsters will see the 'injured prey' and rush forward without thinking."

He turned to face the rest of the group.

"Next, we will grow roots at the second layer to entangle anything that falls through. But first of all…" Azel gestured broadly at the ground. "To even make the hole in the first place, do we have any Earth Elves in this trial?"

Two figures stepped forward hesitantly.

Elvira and Feliora's fiancée, still looking somewhat traumatized.

"Very good…" Azel clapped his hands while gesturing to the ground behind them.

They were currently gathered at the exact spot where Azel and Sylvia had first woken up in the dungeon.

The ground here was relatively flat, making it perfect for excavation.

"You will be creating deep craters into the ground," Azel explained. "Deep enough to contain dozens of monsters at once."

Feliora's fiancée shifted uncomfortably.

"I… I haven't mastered my Earth element completely to the point where I can make such deep holes into the ground…" he admitted quietly, shame coloring his voice.

Azel walked past him without missing a beat.

He reached up and tugged casually on Alvinar's head, making the bound elf swing slightly.

Alvinar's vision spun and he groaned in discomfort.

"You don't need to worry yourselves…" Azel said cheerfully, patting Alvinar's cheek with mock affection. "Alvinar will be the one creating the craters."

Alvinar's eyes shot open.

"What?!" he roared, or at least tried to roar but came out more like a strangled yelp.

Azel grinned wickedly.

"You heard me. You're a Seatra, aren't you? One of the most prestigious magic families in all of Elun'varis?" He leaned in closer. "Surely you wouldn't embarrass your entire bloodline by refusing such a simple task."

Alvinar's face turned an even deeper shade of purple.

He wanted to refuse and wanted to curse this human into oblivion but the words stuck in his throat because Azel was right.

If he refused now, word would spread. The Seatra name would be tarnished and his family would be humiliated.

And all because he was too weak to dig a hole.

"Fine," Alvinar spat through clenched teeth. "Untie me. I'll do it."

Azel's grin widened.

"That's the spirit."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.