The Mysterious Black Magician

From the perspective of the people who were watching it on the monitor, it looks like two bird-type Demonic Beasts were chasing each other.

But the explosion denoted everyone that something untrivial was happening in the sky of that world.

Three people instantly rose-up their points after the explosion.

"How can it be?!"

It took the interest of the empress that caused her to subconsciously jolted up from her seat.

This rash movement of hers caused a clatter on the table.

Beside her, her niece Ella also was staring at the monitor with a far-fetched face.

Ella understood her aunt's reaction just now.

In her mind, she was contemplating what was that thing that shot the Demonic Beast dead.

They saw it at a bad distance because it was already too late when one of the Monitoring Devices received a heat reaction from its sensor.

At first glance, they thought a large bird-type Demonic Beast was being chased by another bird-type Demonic Beast as well. 

However, Ella realized that there's no way that it was a Demonic Beast either. Ella knew every beast she put in that world, and she couldn't identify the chaser.

So it certainly wasn't a Beast. Especially a Demonic Beast.

Like a scared cat, the bird-type Demonic Beast tried its best to lose the tail of it.

Unfortunately, after a mile of chasing, the beast was shot dead when that thing collided with it. Then it was followed by a huge explosion that caused a phenomenon where the world was veiled with dark clouds, lightning strikes which followed by heavy rains.

The two disappeared sooner after the collision.

After a moment of silent,

"Aunt, could it be….. someone among the participants killed it?" With uncertainties, Ella asked her empress aunt who was yet to recover from her surprise.

The empress gasped for breath after a couple of seconds, "Do you mean that kid of Hammerhelm family?"

 Ella slightly nodded her head, "Possible," she said. But it was clear from her voice that she wasn't fully agreed at the thought.

The empress glanced at the person standing nearby, "What do you think, Mr. Knight-Captain Borge Bergal?"

The unexpected call of his name made the Knight-Captain blank out for a second before he opened his mouth to answer.

Noticing their eyes on him, he felt a little nervous and thought he could not mess up with his answer, "Yes, your majesty—" with a furrow, "Ahem, sorry!" He cleared his throat and opened his mouth once again. 

He paused for a second, and upon finding out the right word to satisfy their question he started saying, "I think, it was a condensation of a massive amount of energy that only the Real Path expert could achieve. I bet not even Roman is capable of doing it.

Unless he was really a Real Path expert but hid his real strength.

But, I don't think Roman is capable of hiding his strength—-"

"I see. Because the Hammerhelm family was known for their integrity. Right?"

The Knight-Captain wasn't able to finish his words because of the empress cut-in.

"Yes, your majesty!" He agreed.

It really was unbelievable that someone in the participants was able to kill such a monster.

Even the Knight-Captain himself would not wish to challenge it alone.

'But who could it be who killed that beast?' Borge Bergal thought inwardly. In any case, it was a waste of energy thinking about it at the moment, because the empress would certainly do an investigation later.

"Let's say multiple numbers of False Path experts against it. Do they have a chance to kill it?"

"No. It's still impossible for them to succeed, your majesty. Although it was only a copy of the original Demonic Beast, putting into account that it was Princess Merea Ella who made it, it at least had the 70-80% strength of the original. But if multiple Real Path experts are against it, I will say for certain that there is 99% for them to win."

Grateful for his answer, The Empress slightly nodded her head.

The empress glanced at her niece,

"Do we have a Real Path expert participant, Rea Honey?" She asked.

Ella put her finger below her chin. 

"I don't think there is. Probably none..."

"Hmm, then there was no one who could at least have a chance to win against it," The empress mumbled.

'Could it be there are intruders? No, it's impossible. Ella would certainly sense them the second they entered without her permission. Regardless, everything will be put in the light once everyone returns here.

She glanced at the monitor and saw the list of participants who had a noticeable increase in their points.

'Could it be…"

"I think it was one of them who was possibly behind it. However, just like what the Knight-Captain said, none of them were capable of doing it because most of them at the very least were False Path experts only.

But maybe… some of them have a way." The Empress pointed at the names that were listed who had a sudden climb of points a second after the explosion.

Deep inside, she was expecting for someone with a talent that could twist heaven and earth.

It was also one of her reasons to sponsor this competition.

To find that someone.

Ella glanced at the monitor to where the empress was pointing and saw a specific name among those which are listed in the monitor.

'Could it be him…?' In her mind.

From the other cities, those who had a glimpse of what happened had different thoughts about it.

Almina and the others were also talking about it. But they could not come up with a conclusion of what truly happened.

Or what is that thing that killed the fierce beast that they believed was a [Nightmare] class.

Even Ice could not give a good explanation about it as she was as puzzled as them.

Most of them had a doubt that something unordinary happened.

Nonetheless,

Before the explosion happened, Gilion unexpectedly encountered Roman beside the second barrier. However, the explosion happened and Roman decided to leave without making a fight.

But Gilion didn't like it, that Roman was seemingly looking down at him. He clenched his teeth and tried to stop him.

Roman just shrugged saying, "at your current state, You aren't even a match with your brother, so how come you think that you have a chance against me? 

Grow first before the second round of the competition started. If by the will of her Grace Htraerea a chance like this will repeat, I will fight you in that time…" he said. His voice was as calm as the wind breeze. Yet it brings the weight of a mountain.

Such domineering aura! Gilion thought. Well, he was a 1-star False Path expert and Roman was already a 5-star False Path expert.

However, he strongly believed that 'how one handles a fight is all that matters.'

Even someone like him could probably defeat a mountain — that is Roman Hammerhelm.

Before Roman could fully pass him, and when their shoulders were in line with each other, Roman whispered, "At your current strength, you can't even last a couple of seconds."

Then he took a step forward.

"Bigmouth!" He roared and grimly glanced behind him just to see….. no one —was behind him.

2 days had passed in the world of painting since the fight with the Demonic Beast.

Most of the participants had entered the second barrier. And one more to go for them to complete the first round.

However, their numbers were left with a few hundred.

Many participants were defeated in the search for the first barrier, and many that did not make it to the second barrier. Now, in the search for a third barrier, how many of them will remain? No one knows as the competition is still ongoing.

The betting system that was originated by the audiences, were on the climax. As more names started to climb their ranks of the most point holders.

After killing the Demonic Beast, Yman and Ember got a Sharepoint. But Cinder got the most points because it was her attack that killed it. And Yman only did a buff on her.

Although Ember's [Fireball] wasn't able to hurt the beast, the attack successfully landed on the monster. In this regard, it was counted for a share.

After killing it,

5000 additional points for Cinder and 2500 both for Yman and Ember.

After the explosion, it was followed by a strong shockwave, and after the shockwave, a strong gust of wind blew Yman and Cinder away from the group.

Yman used all the means he could for both of them to land safely on the surface, but because of this, he was knocked out for two days.

The cause was exhaustion.

After his fight with the Berserk dude, he was left with a little percent of stamina. And that encounter with the beast emptied him for good. He did not expect that buffing a 1-star False Path expert was so taxing to him who was only at the peak of level 3.

Fortunately, he succeeded in buffing her. And they succeeded in killing the [Nightmare] class beast.

Even though it wasn't the real one, it was a huge achievement to kill it for someone like them who were far below in strength compared to it.