"Tell me, would you like to play with me in a game I like to call Who Gets Bombed First?"
Tuan said while folding his hand behind his back. His gaze told the hyenas that had come to feed on the free meat that they would have to pay a steep price for their aggression.
'Ray, you saw his fight from afar. What do you think?'
As Bianka heightened her vigilance against Tuan, she asked Ray. She had come to realize that what she had considered being a broken man hurt by his wife's betrayal was actually exceptionally cunning.
Bianka was after Katalina's Titus Points. Securing that many points would make this sneaky attack worthwhile. But she needed to assess the risk before attacking Tuan's group and targeting Kat.
'Sigh. Yes, I saw him take care of that monster. To be honest, we underestimated him, Bianka.
The last array trap he had used was enough to capacitate an Adept ranker. Even if all of us are in the solid stage of the Ace rank, we would be mortally injured if we got caught in his landmines.'
Ray spoke in voice communication while maintaining a stoic face. Silvera heard his response and added on.
'But what if he is bluffing? These array traps are weird. I don't think they are used by our generation of array masters. So it is difficult to gauge or analyze them. What if that guy is banking on this peculiarity of array traps? What if some of the array traps are duds?'
One had to admit that an elf's sensitivity to everything related to mana was exceptional. Silvera quickly identified that the array traps Tuan was using belonged to the previous generation. Because there were several generations of layouts and templates, she couldn't identify which era they belonged to. And the study of arrays was as profound as mana itself.
Ray shook his head and replied to Silvera in a serious voice.
'Even if he is bluffing, do you dare to take chances with array traps that can take down an Adept ranked entity? I sure as hell won't follow you in testing his bluff.'
Bianka didn't say a word. But she was listening to everything both of her raid partners talked about. She also agreed with Ray's judgment and decided to pull back.
"You got yourself another day, Tuan. Congratulations! Hehehehe! Enjoy this last day of peace. We'll come for all of you tomorrow."
Bianka replied and retreated in the direction she came from. Her raid partners looked at Tuan and his group for a brief moment before following her example.
Katalina and the rest took a sigh of relief after some time when there was no sign of anyone approaching them. This was a much-needed breather. Nobody could afford a second battle with competitors after clearing a monster nest that had an Adept-level Goblin Lord as its leader.
"When did you plant so many array traps? Are you… array master or something?"
Lily asked while being impressed with Tuan. She had thought that she would either have to fight for her life or run for her life to compete. But thanks to Tuan's stare down, the opponents had retreated without any sign of battle. This was a miracle because it was the 6th day of the tournament.
"Array traps? Um… they were all empty threats. Just the layouts I had inscribed on scrolls before planting them in the ground. This is not my first time fooling rankers with duds, Lily. And it certainly won't be the last either."
Tuan said and detonated all the array traps at once. And as he had said, no explosion occurred anywhere. Silvera had assumed that some of the array traps were duds. Whereas, all of Tuan's array traps were duds. He had averted the biggest crisis of the competition by hoodwinking Bianka's team.
Katalina was the first to start laughing like a maniac after she realized what Tuan had done. The rest followed his lead and started laughing too. Tuan smirked before telling everyone that they needed to get into the safe zone, lest they all get caught for their bluff.
****************************
"What… What is this place?"
Katalina asked while wondering about the location Tuan had found for both of them. They had entered a ruined building that was supposed to be hidden from competitors and organizers alike. But thanks to Alephee, Tuan had somehow found access to spatial distortion that compressed the space before expanding it inside another subspace.
According to Alphee, this area was completely free of any prying eyes watching over them. Katalina was assured by Tuan that they would not be watched by anyone outside the subspace.
This place was a giant library that had no books but only bookshelves. There were giant study tables and chairs. But they were all covered in dust.
Surprisingly, this library hall didn't look as damaged as the rest of the competition site. There were indeed signs of wear and tear. But those signs of decay were not prominent enough to be called part of the ghost city into which they were summoned.
A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling of the library's hall. Somehow the moonlight was still peeking through the giant gallery-like windows.
When Katalina peeked through the windows, she saw a shattered mirror-like sky and the surroundings that reflected the ruined building. When she looked up, she saw many moons that acted as the light source. All of them produced bright moonlight, but when it came down, it was severely lacking. As that moonlight was somehow lost in its way to light up this place the way it should be.
As illiterate in the field of arrays, as she was, Katalina concluded that this snow-globe-like space was an anomaly within the ghost city. She was now sure that the organizers wouldn't be able to see them. Because they wouldn't have let this place exist in the first place had they known about it.
Tuan concluded that he needed to activate the array layout that had the chandelier in the middle of its eye. So he extended his mana sense and did exactly that.
The chandelier came to life and started producing a pleasant glow. The giant library hall lit up and breathed new life into the gloomy atmosphere.
"Ummm… I was just looking for clues regarding another safe drop location and came to find this. Frankly, I don't want to know about the place. Some mysteries are better left to the imagination.
Most of those who chase after solving such mysteries end up becoming part of them."
