Leaning my back against a tree, I looked over at the spot where six Crocalist corpses lay sprawled on the ground.
These cursed creatures were bipedal relatives of crocodiles that had once inhabited one of the southern nations.
As far as I remembered from history lessons, the Crocalists had once been an intelligent race.
However, the Cataclysm had driven them mad, turning what was once a strong and advanced people into monsters.
To this day, historians still could not agree on what had truly happened.
Some claimed the Crocalists had angered the Chosen One of some race—or perhaps even a god—and were punished for their arrogance.
Others believed the race had simply reached the peak of its development, after which an irreversible regression began.
But neither theory had any convincing evidence.
These six were the last Crocalists I had managed to find near the mountain.
Towering over their bodies stood the orc, still gripping his massive sword.
After actively using Blood Call and the Seven Tormentors for so long, I had gradually learned how to strengthen summoned beings, which meant I had to personally interfere in battle less and less often.
Touching my emblem, I opened the rankings and began scrolling downward until I reached the top five.
My brows involuntarily rose.
First Place — Lei`Xu
Second Place — Heya
Third Place — Trey
Fourth Place — Nreu
Fifth Place — SuNiho
Placing a hand against my temple, I slowly began massaging it.
Knowing Nreu and Heya's personalities, there was no doubt about it—they wouldn't calm down now until they surpassed me.
Should I accept their silent challenge?
Sweeping my gaze across the surroundings, I noticed several wandering golems in the distance, a pair of wolves, and even farther away, a group of Crocalists.
A predatory grin spread across my lips.
Hopefully, they wouldn't be too disappointed when they saw the final results.
I could already imagine their dejected expressions.
Pushing myself away from the tree, I walked toward the orc and the two elves.
Lowering my gaze to my hand, I slit my palm open with a knife without hesitation.
Clenching my fingers into a fist, I allowed the blood to slowly drip into my other hand.
The orc and both elves turned their heads toward me at the same time as soon as they caught the scent.
At moments like this, I increasingly found myself thinking they might actually possess intelligence.
Or at least the beginnings of it.
As I approached, all three knelt before me on one knee, waiting patiently.
Once my palm had filled with blood, I touched the orc's forehead first, then the foreheads of both elves in turn.
At that same moment, I felt the power emanating from them.
It was noticeably denser and stronger than before.
A smile tugged at my lips.
That was perfect timing.
Looks like it was time to issue my own little challenge to every race still remaining in this trial.
"Let's go. We still have plenty to finish before the trial ends. I hope you won't disappoint me," I said, addressing the tormentors.
Turning around, I headed toward the monsters I had spotted in the distance.
I didn't even need to look back to know they were silently following behind me, waiting for new orders.
The director and deans watched as the expressions of the remaining stufons changed one after another the moment they opened the rankings.
Surprise. Disbelief. Irritation.
They understood that reaction perfectly well.
If they themselves hadn't witnessed what Trey had done, they likely would have doubted the fairness of the trial too.
"How did that little monster even survive long enough to enroll in the academy?" the director broke the silence, not addressing anyone in particular.
Shaking his head, he continued watching the screens.
The deans knew exactly who he was referring to.
If at the beginning of the trial Shego`Lo had treated Trey with a noticeable degree of skepticism, by now she had fully acknowledged his talent.
What interested her most were the techniques he possessed.
They were unusual, dangerous, and most importantly, completely unfamiliar to her.
Ama`Lein knew more about Trey's peculiarities than anyone else, but even he did not bother hiding his surprise.
A question involuntarily surfaced in his mind.
Did all of this mean that in the future, Trey would become so dangerous that he could pose a threat to any race—or even an entire nation?
At that thought, the dean slowly shook his head.
All he could feel was silent pity for anyone foolish enough to become this half-elf's enemy one day.
By observing Trey and speaking with him, Ama`Lein had already come to partially understand his personality.
Trey did not seem like someone driven by vengeance.
He didn't appear aggressive, nor did he seem eager to take revenge on the Krey Empire for his exile.
And yet, Ama`Lein couldn't shake an odd sense of unease.
He himself didn't understand where it came from.
But for some reason, he was certain of one thing:
if someone ever truly managed to make Trey genuinely angry, the world might simply not survive it.
By now, Cassandra was no longer surprised by the sight of an orc and two elves kneeling before a half-elf.
She had already seen it several times over the past day and night.
And with each repetition, she noticed the same pattern—the magic emanating from that trio kept growing stronger.
It felt as though each new portion of blood they received from the half-elf gradually empowered them further.
That was what worried her the most.
Cassandra tried not to look at Trey any more than necessary.
Every time her gaze lingered on him for too long, she felt something watching her in return.
Heavy.
Warning.
At first, she thought it was merely her imagination.
But over time, the strange occurrences became too frequent to ignore.
Every time she shifted her gaze toward Trey, the elf with the staff would lightly tap it against the ground.
Sometimes, he would even turn his head directly toward her.
Cassandra tried to find a logical explanation for what she was sensing, but her instincts insisted otherwise.
She wasn't imagining it.
And the best decision right now was not to provoke that trio.
She was gradually beginning to understand why Samantha had been so insistent about paying attention to this particular half-elf.
Now everything was falling into place.
He was dangerous.
Strong.
Talented.
As for his cunning and intelligence, Cassandra still could not make a precise judgment.
Up until now, Trey had only fought monsters incapable of strategy, deception, or tactical thinking.
So it was still too early to draw final conclusions.
Nreu and Heya continued hunting wolves, but eventually it began to grow dark.
Deciding to check the rankings, they opened the list at the same time—and froze.
Second Place — Trey
What they saw only became an even greater motivation for the siblings to continue hunting.
After that, they switched targets to spiders.
However, things turned out to be significantly more difficult here.
Unlike Trey, they did not possess good night vision, making the hunt a constant struggle.
Several times, they got caught in webs, and occasionally realized too late that they were facing more than one spider.
But despite the difficulties, the siblings kept hunting.
Only after a long while, once they were completely exhausted, did they decide to check their results again.
Satisfied smiles appeared on their tired faces almost simultaneously.
First Place — Lei`Xu
Second Place — Heya
Third Place — Nreu
Fourth Place — Trey
Smiling at one another, the siblings returned to their temporary camp.
There were only three hours left until the end of the trial.
They were certain that Trey would no longer be able to surpass them in monster rank within that time.
Waking up inside the tent, I stretched and immediately touched my emblem.
The rankings appeared before my eyes at once.
My position had dropped to fourth place.
Looks like Nreu and Heya had truly gone all out.
I smirked.
Then it was time for me to stop holding back as well.
Getting out of bed, I summoned the orc and the two elves.
I hadn't spent those few hours resting for no reason.
Even before sleeping, an idea had occurred to me: find B-rank monsters and earn far more points from them than from all my previous hunting combined.
But for that, I needed preparation.
At the moment, aside from the darkness element, all I had at my disposal were Blood Call and three tormentors.
After two days of actively using those techniques, I had arrived at an interesting thought.
If those two techniques were truly capable of strengthening one another, then why stop there?
To realize this idea, I had specifically prepared the bodies of certain monsters in advance: Crocalists, a basilisk, and a golem.
I was going to create a new tormentor.
Not just another servant, but something entirely different.
The orc and elves belonged to known races, which meant methods for dealing with them had long existed—dating all the way back to the Exodus of the Five Races.
And since then, combat tactics had only continued evolving.
That meant relying on predictable creatures in the long term was inefficient.
The solution was obvious.
Create a new servant race.
One no one had ever encountered before.
Most users of similar techniques relied on already known monsters or creatures as assistants.
But the unknown always granted an advantage.
If your opponent doesn't understand what they're facing, they waste time analyzing.
And sometimes, a single mistake is enough to lose a battle.
My fourth tormentor needed to be strong, durable, and possess an affinity for multiple types of magic.
I didn't know whether it was even possible to combine all of that into one body.
But I chose to trust my talent.
Closing my eyes, I began mentally shaping the image of the creature I wanted to create.
Once the picture fully took form in my mind, I activated Seven Tormentors and sliced open my arm, allowing my blood to soak into the prepared bodies.
Waiting for the right moment, I closed my eyes again and began using Blood Call, fusing the body parts together.
At first, nothing worked.
The connection kept breaking apart, the structure collapsed, and the energy dissipated.
The process turned out to be far more difficult than I had expected.
Hours passed.
Gradually, the headache grew worse and worse, as though someone were slowly driving burning needles into my temples.
Several times, I came close to stopping everything.
But at some point, a complete image finally appeared before my inner vision.
Exactly the one I had been trying to achieve.
Catching hold of the correct structure, I concentrated harder and, ignoring the pain, began the final formation of the fourth tormentor.
Another hour passed.
When it was finally over, I braced one hand against the edge of the bed and closed my eyes for several seconds.
Nausea churned in my stomach from exhaustion.
My body had weakened from blood loss, and my mind was on the verge of complete depletion.
It felt like one more push, and I would simply black out.
But all of that stopped mattering the moment I opened my eyes.
My new creation stood before me.
A tall creature with four arms and four eyes.
One pair of eyes was cold and lifeless, like frost-covered ice.
One glance at them was enough to understand—they belonged to the ice basilisk.
The second pair looked entirely different.
Heavier.
Rougher.
I immediately recognized the traits of the fire-magic golem.
Remembering that fight, I clicked my tongue irritably.
Back then, I had nearly lost the orc.
The creature had four arms.
Its upper pair held long halberds.
Its lower pair gripped short sharpened blades.
I had deliberately distributed the weapons that way.
If all four hands had been armed with long weapons, the tormentor would have become far too cumbersome in close combat.
This way, it maintained a balance between attack range and speed.
Carefully examining my creation, I slowly exhaled.
It worked.
Better than I expected.
Checking the rankings once more, I confirmed I was still in fourth place.
For now.
A faint smile appeared on my lips.
Not for long.
Letting out a quiet groan, I got to my feet.
My body throbbed with dull pain from blood loss, and my head was splitting from overexertion.
If someone saw what I had gone through to create this being, they would probably ask whether it had been worth it.
I would answer immediately.
Yes.
Without the slightest hesitation.
Closing my eyes, I summoned the other three tormentors.
At the sight of their new counterpart, they showed no reaction whatsoever.
With that, my last doubts regarding their intelligence finally vanished.
Looks like everything I had noticed before had only been my imagination.
Pouring mana into the tent, I waited for it to fold itself up and stored it back into my backpack.
Swinging it over my shoulder, I swept my gaze over my tormentors.
Now there were four of them.
That should be enough.
Turning around, I led them forward.
It was time for the final hunt.
The one that would overturn the rankings and change the entire top five before the trial came to an end.