As Hal and Marla interacted with Jack after their victory over the upperclassmen, they had spectators watching from behind the trees.

Five of them in fact.

They were there to prevent life-threatening situations. Unless such a thing occurred, they were not to interfere, even if a participant was been beaten to a pulp.

"Did you see that?" One of them asked.

"Of course I did. That kid used a Cosmic Attack" said another.

"What do we do? Do we report it?" Said a third.

"And what good would that be? That he's a genius doesn't mean he's suspicious" Said the Fourth.

"Nothing really. But add this information to the fact that he readily ended his brother's life..." Began the second before he was interrupted by the First,

"Not you too! What's so special about him killing someone? I get that the kids find it disheartening due to their 'innocence' but I like to think we're more experienced than that"

There was a short silence before,

"You're right"

"We'll just keep an eye on him for now," said the -up till that moment- Silent Fifth.

Meanwhile...

Hal and Marla left Jack behind to press on into the forest and seek out lairs. Where it was sure they would find participants who were sourcing for Rune tiles or had even found them already.

The sound of footsteps announced that they were being followed but the duo ignored it.

Ever since they walked past him, Jack had taken to walking behind them.

Almost as though he hoped his presence would be so unbearable that they would return his tile.

Eventually, Marla decided to engage,

"Why not go back to your friends?"

Jack looked confused,

"What friends?" He asked.

Hal chuckled while Marla frowned,

"Who else? Obviously, I'm referring to the ones who were injured while you went after the Rune tile and then escaped with it."

"They were not my friends. We teamed up because they needed my expertise and I needed their numbers" Jack said with a sigh.

"Will you share the Tile with them should you get it back?" Hal asked with a light smile.

"gods no!"

"Hmm. I like that and it almost makes me give it back to you.

Almost.

Now leave and stop being a third wheel" Hal said before he turned to shoo Jack away.

"What if I don't want to leave?" Jack said in a quiet voice.

"Hahahahahahaha. You know what? Stay if you want." Hal laughed finding the whole concept of Jack resisting against him hilarious.

It was obvious Jack knew he couldn't stay if Hal did not want him to.

"Yeah, when we want to be alone, we'll just beat you unconscious," Marla said as if that was the most sensible thing to do.

'Damn! She's so violent' Jack thought but ultimately kept his mouth shut.

...

Meanwhile, a short distance away, Frank was trying to resist the influence of peer pressure.

"I said I don't want to," He said in a tone and wording that showed this was not the first time he had refused.

The one who he was facing had Brown hair and brown eyes. He was just as tall as Frank and just as Burly. If one looked closely, a resemblance could be seen between the two.

It was not just him, every one of the twenty who stood with the two shared those similarities.

The Similarities marked them as Horst scions and right at that moment, they were planning a hunt. One that they insisted Frank must join.

"You can't force me, Eldo. I am not your slave. Far from it actually"

Eldo snarled,

"What? you're the leader?" He asked.

"Yes I am"

"Then act like one. You are poised to become the next lord of Horst Manor and so far you've just been acting like some whiny bitch"

"Watch it!" Frank warned with a finger pointed at Eldo which the latter swatted away immediately.

Seeing as things were starting to heat up between the two, another Horst scion stepped forward to mediate,

"That's enough." He said.

And then turned towards Eldo,

"If he does not want to help, then let him leave. He'll probably be dead weight anyway"

And to Frank, he said,

"Go! if you don't want to be useful then, Fuck off"

Frank took one last look at them, snorted, and took a few steps back which essentially meant he would not leave but he would not help either.

"At least we now know where things stand," The mediating scion said with a disappointed expression.

It was not that they did not know why Frank was acting this way, but that did not help his image in their eyes. He was a coward. There was nothing more to it.

Frank on the other hand felt he was quite justified, after all, it had been in this very same forest that he had met the mysterious woman who had told him he would die in a month if he did not enter into the service of the strongest Runemaster in Salmon City.

His Family just did not understand why he could not just scoff the experience off as a hoax.

The way she had appeared, delivered her prophetical saying, and vanished the next moment convinced him completely. Not to mention her ethereal appearance and the Ethereal looking cloth of pristine white that had coated her form.

It did not matter after that, how much he was told she was fake and merely some powerful powerhouse who gets off on messing with the mind of lesser beings like himself, he still believed her.

On that note, this competition as well as the Forest itself was a death trap. There was danger lurking everywhere, not to mention seeking out danger personally.

However, Frank was not stupid, just because he had no interest in joining their dangerous escapades did not mean he would wander off into the forest or out of it for that matter, on his own.

He needed to be in a group.

And this particular group was slowly nearing the lair of a particularly sly Demon beast.

The risk was far too high to go in on mere hunch or intuition.

And that was why their group was very lucky to have Eldo in the midst.

Eldo was born with an incredible sense of smell. Strong enough for him to pick out the scent of something marked with Astral and Cosmic Energy out of a Beast infested lair.

All he needed to do was sniff for something that did not smell like a beast or otherwise. Something that smelt different.

"How is it?" Asked the mediating scion.

Eldo took a deep and long whiff and then smiled,

"There's something in there alright"

The Mediating scion nodded,

"Good. What about the Toxic Viper?" he asked.

"It's there too"

They all became downcast.

There was probably no other beast as notorious as the Toxic Viper and the reason for that was closely related to what it was called.

While other beasts have a focus for their attacks, it was not the same for the Viper which had more of an Area of effect kind of attack.

It would release a thick cloud of Toxic gas from its body and it would affect anyone who breathes it in, even if they were a realm above the beast. As for those weaker, the Gas could very well rupture the skin.

That the beast was home was bound to cause problems, there was only one thing they could hope for now and it was that the beast was asleep as being nocturnal it had the habit of falling asleep for long periods, growing stronger the longer it's asleep.

"What do we do, Doyle?" Eldo asked.

"Well, I'm sure they won't allow life-threatening injuries, so I say we go for it"

Doyle said and they all became resolute while Frank took a few steps back.

Doyle looked at them all and could very well tell that there was no way he could tell anyone else to go in after it had been him who had suggested they continued. So it stood to reason that he would check to be sure the beast was asleep.

And so Doyle began his dangerous walk into the serpent's lair.

Once inside he had to cover his mouth to stifle the gasp that was about to escape. The cave lair was beautifully lit by glow worms that cast enough light on the right that had caused Doyle's shock.

The viper was humongous. Easily longer than a Boa constrictor and nearly as large and it was still growing!.

The barely noticeable increase in size was not something Doyle could sense but he could tell it was still growing because the beast was giving off the pressure of its cultivation base. Even as it coiled and slept.

The beast was at the 7th stage of the Energy sensing realm and even with his 9th stage cultivation. Doyle was not interested in provoking it.

However, he could not help but admit that the viper was beautiful, with its gleaming green scales but he could not allow himself to be distracted as he began to search for the Rune tile.

He searched and searched until he was quite familiar with the lair but the Tile was nowhere to be found. He was about to curse Eldo straight into his future generations when he noticed that one of the Viper's scales was gleaming even more than the others.

He got closer and saw that it was a Rune Tile stuck on the Viper's body.

'What good is your nose if you can't even tell me the Tile is on the serpent. Fuck you, Eldo'

Doyle gritted his teeth as he swallowed his fear and stretched his hand to the tile.

He touched it and smiled from the wonderful feeling of accomplishment...

*Hissssss*

...well, at least he did until he looked up and saw the viper starting down at him with what looked very much like a grin.

He would have loved to tell his subconscious that that was impossible as serpents don't grin but he was preoccupied at the moment.

Preoccupied with how to survive!.