1st: Unknown Party . Leader: Desir Arman

2nd: Blue Moon Party . Leader: Argeria G Roglan Nimbias

3rd: Red Dragon Party . Leader: Radoria von Dorice

Desirs party, that had only been in 3rd place up until now, suddenly reached the top rank in an instant . Confirming this fact with his communication pad, Kelt took a deep breath .

This is rather ridiculous .

The increase in points was massive . It was never meant to be possible to reverse the rankings like this .

Snapping out of his reverie, Kelt looked around to confirm how the others were handling this . The reaction of the Blue Moon party members was fairly similar across the board . They all felt horrible .

They just passed us? That doesnt make sense . We are at the last zone of the second stage .

This doesnt make sense at all . The difference between our progress points was almost 500 . Thats like three zones worth of distance

How did they shorten the point gap? How did they catch up? Kelt Nippleca could only think of one possibility .

No way Did they take on the Tyrant-Tula passage?

Other than that, it was impossible to explain .

It was not easy to locate the Tyrant-Tula in its natural habitat, let alone take it on . The Blue Moon party was skilled enough to do so, but not without taking casualties . If the party suffered a great loss in the second level, it was almost impossible to reach the third stage of the dungeon . It simply wasnt necessary to attack Tyrant-Tula when there were such large demerits associated with doing so .

He is not a man that would gamble like that .

After recalling what he knew about Desir Arman, Kelt Neppleca immediately corrected this view .

If he knew that he could do it safely

After sorting out his thoughts, Kelt shared his hypothesis behind the Desir partys meteoric rise in the rankings . After contemplating the matter, the Blue Moon party leader, a first place single ranker of the third-grade, Argeria G Roglan Nimbias expression turned into one of utter seriousness . He intuitively felt that this was the only reasonable explanation for the phenomena .

Argeria glared at the leaderboard on his communication pad and after confirming the rankings for the umpteenth time, he finally opened his dried lips .

this cant be .

The Blue Moon party was the largest gathering of Alpha Class talent . In other words, it was the most powerful party in Hebrion Academy .

They were provided with high quality armor and weapons suited for the best of the best . Professor Pugman also invested heavily in them to demonstrate the superiority of the noble class . It was due to this fact that Prof . Pugman, who was in charge of this party, had placed his high expectations on them to do well in this tournament .

Argeria turned to Kelt, who happened to be standing right next to him .

Kelt, did the professor tell you anything before the party competition started?

Be sure to defeat the Desir party

Hmmm .

Argeria knew how Prof . Pugman felt about Desir . For Prof . Pugman, who had fully subscribed to the belief that nobles were superior to commoners in every way, he was like a thorn under ones nail . In particular, Desir was directly combatting this ideology of noble supremacy by including Beta Class party members in their party for this competition .

If he was beaten by a party like Desirs

*Gulp*

Argeria suddenly felt a bout of intense anxiety . He was no longer so certain about his well being after this competition ended .

Argerias footsteps that were laden with all kinds of thoughts suddenly came to a stop .

He pointed forward after signaling the party members to be quiet .

Desirs party was resting where his finger pointed at . It seemed like they had just finished fighting a tough battle and were in the middle of a short break .

The Blue Moon party unexpectedly felt a growing sense of relief and thrill .

This is our chance, leader .

The sixth place ranker of the third grade, Mn whispered .

If they just finished attacking the Tyrant-Tula, there is no chance that they are in fighting condition . Lets attack them before they recover .

The Blue Moon party was shaken out of their depression .

Surely as he said, this was their best chance .

Furthermore, they are not as vigilant as they normally would be . If we attack them all of a sudden then

A voice cut off Mns goading .

Its silly for us to attack them .

It was Kelt . He had pointed his finger at Desirs party a little earlier than the rest of the party members even realised what was in front of them .

Look at them now . Do you think they look tired?

The party members looked over towards them again .

Um

Desirs party was laughing and relaxing . It didnt look like they were tired from conducting a massive battle at all . No wounds could be seen . It wouldnt even be a surprise to see them suddenly leap up and start fighting .

I dont know what theyve done but theyve defeated Tyrant-Tula without sustaining any damage from it .

Kelt continued .

Im honestly not convinced that we can win against them without losing . So while they are taking a break, I suggest just ignoring them and moving on quickly .

Argeria nodded . This course of action had merit .

He had heard several rumors about Desir Arman . Whether the rumors were true or not, the recurring theme was that he was not one to be trifled with .

Even if some of their party were from Beta Class, he wasnt sure that they could easily win .

Then, will we just pass by them?

Argeria shook his head . They couldnt do that either .

But if we dont deal with them now, we may end up regretting it .

After all, it was Desirs party that had overturned a significant point difference in one go . Even if they managed to regain their lead, they couldnt be sure that Desirs party wouldnt do the same thing again .

If thats the case, are we going to attack them then?

As Kelt mentioned earlier, we cant . Even if we defeat them, the damage to our side will be huge . We would be helping the Red Dragon Party by doing so .

If so

We dont have to attack them directly, do we?

The Great Worm .

A mean grin found its way onto Argerias face .

Do they have a trait that would summon a crowd of them?

***

Romanticas detection magic spread out encompassing a large distance .

She drew the dungeons terrain on paper based on the information that she got from the detection magic and handed it over to Desir .

Okay, this is the path we should take .

Desirs party was smoothly raiding this dungeon . They were calmly killing monsters and destroying traps . Then proceeding forward until something else came into range of their detection magic, before repeating the entire process again . They had been doing this for so long that it had almost become a comfortable routine for the party .

After the fifth cycle of spreading out detection magic since their short break, Romantica started to complain

How long do we have to keep on doing this for?

Rather than being taxing on ones mana or magic formation skills, detection magic consumes a lot of mental power due to the strain from processing the sheer volume of information from it . She had repeated this process of detection and fighting several times already, so she could not help but be tired .

Im almost done, Romantica .

Desir showed her a nearly completed map .

We will find the exit out of the fifth zone soon . There is not much left for us to explore until we inevitably find the entrance to the third stage .

Romantica took back the map and pen from Desir .

Alright . Ill invoke it again .

In the front of Romantica, detection magic arrays started to form again .

[Detect]

*Hoowoong*

They were finding less and less obstacles and monsters after coming this far . A huge vacant cavern soon appeared in her senses, as well as a set of stairs that led downwards .

Romantica smiled .

Ive found it .

Well done, Romantica .

But wait, theres something in front of it . This is !

Romanticas voice suddenly softened in despair .

There are Great Worms!

Weve met one or two Great Worms already . You dont have to make such a fuss now .

You idiot! I said Great Worm S! Not one or two! More than thirty!

Desirs pupils instantly dilated .

What?

*Clank*

*CLAAAANK*

As if to prove the words of Romantica, the sound of the ground crumbling from far away echoed down the passage .

The sound was getting closer . The ground also began to vibrate . Dust billowed up in great big clouds .

Everyone get into formation!

Desirs party began to quickly move into battle ready positions . In the meantime, a conversation was quickly shared between the worried party members .

What, what happened?

This cant be happening . Great Worms basically move alone unless a wounded worm runs away and calls a colleague

We defeated everything clearly! We didnt miss a single one!

We did indeed . Unless someone was fooling around and let one go Wait a minute .

Desir raised his head .

No way

The ground started to crack with a crumbling sound and a bunch of Great Worms jumped out of the wall and on to the floor as if they were swimming through water .

That wasnt the end to them though . A procession of worms filed into the area, seemingly ready to overrun the party . Explosive bursts of dust and stone debris were continually launched .

*Baaaam*

There were sparks as Takirans great sword and the body of a Great Worm collided . Prams sword pierced the body of a Great Worm in an instant, like a blinding flash of light . Bodily fluids started pouring out of the wound . A myriad of spells were launched by Adjest, Romantica and Desir .

Great Worms by themselves were not particularly strong in comparison to Desirs party . However, the growing problem in this situation was the sheer number of them . They were rapidly losing control .

At that time, the Blue Moon party moved past Desirs party, ignoring the Great Worms as if to prove Desirs hypothesis .

Take care .

They continued to move along while flashing smirks filled with ridicule .

Kelt turned and looked at Desir . As soon as their eyes met, he bowed slightly to Desir and followed after his party again .