All the people who join the competition do not have the same purpose. While some were there to win, most of them had joined for a different reason.

Deep within the forest, where the image stones couldn’t reach due to the immense darkness that increased the further one moved towards the centre, participants battled.

Among the participants were hunters who had joined to satisfy their lunacy. This was the best opportunity to kill and for them to enjoy the feeling of taking someone’s life without consequences.

"He’s an expert, all right," he muttered in amusement while plucking a fruit from the tree.

He unhurriedly washed it and took a large bite, the juice escaping between his fingers. It was washed away. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He couldn’t hide his amusement at the sight before him. A man covered in blood was running, stumbling as a group of about ten hunters ran after him, shouting for him to surrender everything he had.

The usual nonsense, the strong preying on the weak. He ran a few more steps then came to a stop, his expensive space pouch visible to his hunters.

Suddenly, a twisted smile bloomed on the man’s face his gaze turning from that of prey to predator immediately.

’This is getting more interesting.’

The group was surprised by the sudden change and hesitated not knowing how to proceed.

’Fools’

The man straightened, the false wound on his back suddenly healing. The group stepped back.

"How fun it is! When predators turn to prey. It gives me such joy that I wish to never stop doing this at all."

"What are you saying, attack him I saw he has an enchanted dagger."

The leader of what looked like a bandit group, shouted pointing his sword towards the man.

"Greed is not a good thing," the man said calmly, a dagger appearing in his hand.

The men’s eyes widened in delight, their greed fully ignited. They jumped at him without another word.

Atheline almost laughed out loud. He had seen the man hunt an A-class monster with ease and kill a few more participants just for the sake of it. He seemed to enjoy the feeling of being chased then turning the tables around.

"Oh.."

Atheline marvelled as dagger-shaped flame projections impaled the men straight to the heart. They weren’t given time to scream at all, and the fire spread faster burning them to a crisp.

This all took place in under five seconds. The attack was so fast that if he had been weaker he would have missed it.

’I like that, he’s really good. Maybe I should be more creative with my power.’

He opened his palm, and a small dagger made of flame and water floated on his arm, but it kept on producing too much steam. He closed his palm.

"It’s not as hard as I thought," he mumbled to himself.

His attention shifted to other competitors. He was enjoying this too much to stop. A few beasts gathered below the tree but were vaporised before they could reach really far.

"Found you," he muttered, his eyes narrowing slightly, " you seem to have improved even more."

’Just how lucky was the protagonist?’

Caius was easily battling an A-class monster, while Yander stood by the side proving occadional support to steer the monster back and prevent it from escaping.

’Why am I not surprised, should have expected that’

His vision moved until he came upon a person fighting a low-grade monster. He paused, he didn’t know what but the man’s fighting style was what caught his eye.

"Now, who are you?" He chuckled a little. " I seem to be meeting more and more interesting people."

.

.

.

The huge claw came crashing down with massive force but it didn’t reach him, he vanished, the claw missing just by a small margin.

It turned mid-descent but still missed again. He materialised above it, sword slashing down. The monster didn’t have time to react before it was sliced in half.

He landed softly, a few steps from the monster. His breath came out laboured having used most of his energy to teleport short distances over and over again.

Poller, sighed as the familiar feeling of defeat started to slowly take over.

’Space, why didn’t I get a normal element’

Poller thought to himself bitterly. He had been happy when he first knew he had the rare Spacial element but as time passed it became harder to increase in power and rank.

This was why he was only a captain. That didn’t bring him down though, he had worked his way up and he will continue to do so.

Teleportation had drained most of his Aether but his body was working just as fast to recover. A minute later, he felt good as new.

He ran a hand through his hair before looking down at the number of monsters he had killed. He smiled to himself.

"This should be enough."

He patted his trousers’ pockets and took out a small round stone. An image stone. Like the other stones, this was made for players to view their progress.

They only got to view the ranking half of the screen while the other remained hidden under a black veil.

"Let’s see..." he murmured before imbuing his Aether into the stone.

Soon a small projected screen appeared above it and he could see the rankings.

[Poller Diaz, one hundred and nine kill points, ninety-nine]

He gritted his teeth," ninety-nine..."

Why was his rank so low, he had been in the top twenty at the start. Why on earth had he dropped so fast?

He had been fighting nonstop from the outskirts of the centre but it seems his efforts were for nought.

He had been fighting for the past three hours, wasn’t that something?

He shifted on his feet, frustration starting to take over. He had expected everything to be okay for him to be at the top not here. He wasn’t even near the rankings.

He wanted to make his fellow guards proud but reality seemed to be slowly catching up to him.

He scrolled downwards.

"Just how high are the top rankers in kill counts?" He mummbled to himself.