"Fancy seeing you here!"

'X' waved his hand to Arthur, who landed on the pillar to his. The parasite returned to his original appearance and gazed at the man whose face cannot be seen, neither reciprocating the greeting or reacting.

"Don't tell me you still bear a grudge? It's not like I tried to kill you."

"You've used me and that's enough of a reason to treat you like an enemy."

'X' scoffed at Arthur words and retorted:

"Oh please! Don't pretend to be righteous in front of me, it really doesn't suit you. I tricked you and you fell for it, moreover, I still granted you a second life… just like I promised. You should be thankful rather than behave with hostility."

Arthur harrumphed but spoke no more, his eyes glancing around, seemingly in search of someone. Noticing this, 'X' chuckled and added:

"You're looking for your wife? I don't think she entered the Red Tower."

Although he said that, Arthur kept ignoring him, pretending not to hear him.

"It's true. Eleven people didn't show up and I'm sure I saw all of the rest… not one of them was her."

"See, the more you insist she's not here, the surer I am that she joined the competition."

After saying his bit, Arthur took off, leaving a sighing 'X' alone.

"Now I understand why they said he's stubborn. Oh well, I tried my best."

'X' shrugged his shoulders, took out a chair and sat on it while humming, uncaring about the people who leapt at him. Everyone who got close to his pillar would be teleported hundreds of meters away and have their five senses temporarily disoriented. 'X' didn't even budge and wasn't interested in gaining points either, though he was fortunate enough that no Exalted God was in the area.

*****

Six hours after all the contestants entered the 2nd floor, the Red Tower announced the completion of the task, which wasn't stated at the beginning. To proceed to the 3rd floor, one hundred people must be eliminated one way or another. As only a minority were God Monarchs, it took more time than one might expect from such a thing to happen.

"All contestants will be teleported to the 3rd floor in one minute."

"I will announce the players with the highest points:

Ranked 1st: Arthur MoonStar: 27 points.

Ranked 2nd: Maxine Bull : 25 Points.

Ranked 3rd : Hach'ara : 19 points."

"I will announce the players with the highest elimination combo

BSD: 10 points in 9.8 seconds.*

Exactly one minute later, all 879 participants were teleported to the third floor, this time randomly separated into another vast world. Unlike the two first floors, Arthur was surprised to see himself inches away from another person, a woman, to be specific.

She had a grey hair despite looking in her twenties, her eyes seemed lifeless and her expression stiff.

*Celes Ardberg(Race: Human): Realm: Exalted God (Link Stage)

Age: 299 years old

Titles: Moving Decay - Physique Mastery - Soul and Body

Skills : Killing Touch (LvMax) / Truthful Copy (Lv430) / Death Blast (LvMax)

Information: She is the notorious Grey seat of Decay of Black Rose. Born in a prestigious family in the Heaven and Hell Universe and was once a priestess but was excommunicated due to her rare Physique, which negates anything related to Holy Magic. Hates talking and despises crowded areas.*

Arthur quickly read through the contents of the appraisal then looked at Celes, who was also staring at him with an expressionless face.

"Read enough?"

Her voice was even more chilling than when Lucy talks to strangers(males), her piercing gaze made him feel uncomfortable but he didn't act arrogantly as he remembered having a connection with Black Rose. He became the Red Seat of Blood but never met with Artid ever since, which made him think that they sent Celes specifically for him, though, unfortunately, he was completely wrong.

Celes had heard of Arthur but never actually met him. She wasn't interested in fighting him and, from the looks of it, they need to cooperate to clear this floor.

"For the 3rd floor, each one of you will be randomly paired with another contestant and cooperate together to find whatever the tattoo in your hands is. If the paired contestants are more than 15 meters away from each other, they'll be disqualified and sent outside the tower.

If more than one pair have the same tattoo, whichever acquires the target first is considered to have passed the task.

Please note that killing in the 3rd floor, the Ancient Land, is prohibited and is punished by immediate disqualification. Good luck."

Arthur looked at the back of his right hand and found a tattoo of a fat bee which had four transparent wings. Celes had the same exact tattoo but, unlike Arthur, she didn't seem to be ready to move.

He walked a few steps and when he noticed her not following her, he frowned and looked back only to find her sitting on the ground, on which a colorful tablecloth was spread.

"I'm exhausted from all the fights in the second floor. We will move after a short break."

Then she took teacups, hand-made sandwiches, and fresh fruits, ordering them in front of her and ignoring the dumbfounded Arthur.

"We have to move no-"

She cut him off by saying: "It never gave us a time limit. Finding the bee may take days if not weeks and I don't want to move around with an empty stomach."

With a hand on his temples, Arthur paced around, pondering about this outrageous situation. No one would think she's do something like that if they saw the appraisal status or her face, which was utterly void of any emotion. The phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' applies well in this kind of strange situation.

'I could still force her to come with me. She's a Death Magic user so [Unbound] will give me advantage but… if Lucy sees me carrying a woman on my shoulder… ugh'

In the end, he sat a distance away and patiently waited for Celes to finish her sudden picnic.

******

Hach'ara was a very strong Exalted God, his appearance was that of an old man with green, poisonous skin and lengthy and dirty nails. He had an horrendous smell and looked borderline grotesque as flies and other buzzing insects floating around him. Mind you, these insects were his 'pets' and the strongest thing in his arsenal. Basically, Hach'ara controls his insects to attack his targets, however, his melee fighting is not to be underestimated either. He has the Rat Poison Physique, a rather weak Physique which seemed to have been drastically altered, making Hach immune to anything poisonous and allowing him to move his organs all over his body.

Currently, Hach'ara found himself paired with an old man wearing a grey robe. Just by standing next to him, he felt an uncomfortable eeriness that forced him to jump ten meters away, unwilling to be influenced by the black fog emitting from him. Even his insects took a rather defensive stance, some even clinging onto his sticky clothes.

"You know, I've traveled to all kinds of places to procure precious materials for my pets… in one of them, I've stumbled upon a temple that had a statue with a face just like yours, hehehehe"

Zodiak glanced at the nervous yet excited Hach'ara, not confirming the former's suspicion. He looked at his hand and saw a jet black circle that lacked any necessary description.

"We should move."

"Yes yes, of course, we should. I'm sure this meeting is a fortunate event for us both, Zodiak."

"Quit your rambling and come on."