Chapter 4001: Challenge of Teamwork II Crack! The clay pot cracked, and the numbers flew out of it and floated above people's heads. It took a second, before the number floated up and, of course, the number is one. If the big fucking target on my back wasn't big enough. This had made it even bigger. "You got to fucking kidding me," said my first teammate. It was none other than Fox Beastman. "I thought you liked me?" I asked with a hurt expression on my face. "I like you, but I don't want to associate with you. What likely to be a bloody affair!" He replied. "Don't worry, I will protect you," I said when my expression changed. I saw two of my teammates appearing in front of me. When the Fox Beastman saw them, his expression had turned strange, before a big smile appeared on his face. "It seemed like the creator of challenges really has a twisted sense of humor," he said. The two other teammates were none other than the mustached man and girl who came first in the last challenge. When we saw our last teammate, nobody was surprised. She is a purple-horned girl that always stays in the top five. The castle had put the top five together. One can already predict the shitshow that will occur. People will get a lot from killing us. Especially those below us. They have been eyeing us since they had gathered. It is not just us, but many are eying us and they do not have good intentions. "Now that we gathered, let's introduce ourselves," said Fox Beastman. "I'll start with me, I am Iarys," he said and turned to the mustache man. "Aros Gravkis," he introduced. "Hayat," said the girl with purple horns. "Anna," said the girl who came first in the last challenge. She is a half-elf, with forest green and blue eyes. She has average features; she is pretty by human standards, but average by elves. "Hadis," I said. "Now that really feels like a fake name," said Iarys, while I simply smiled. "So, who is going to be the leader?" asked Iarys. "Since you like talking so much, I will nominate you as one," said Hayat, the purple-horned girl. "Seconded," I accepted immediately. "I don't have any problem as long as get to be first," said the woman, while the mustached man simply nodded. "Don't worry, your leader will take you to the victory," he said pretentiously, before his expression turned serious. "We should discuss our strengths and our specialties. It will help us deal with the trouble well," he said, and a hesitation appeared on our faces. "I am the one strongest among those who entered the realm. I am an offensive fighter," stated Aros simple. "Defensive," said Hayat. "Offensive," said Anna. "General," I stated. I got a few looks, but nobody said anything. "Good, let's now discuss strategy," he said, and we did. Nothing too complex. All of us are unwilling, but everybody knows how dangerous it is going to be. So, we all revealed some things about ourselves, rather unwillingly. When the last minute had remained, we entered through the gate. Step Step Step! "A forest," said Iarys looking at the tall trees around us, before focusing on the map floating in front of us. The first thing I did was to summon my armor. It is going to be very dangerous. I do not trust anyone here, including my teammates. They are the first people who will benefit from it as they will move up. Iarys took the map in his hand, and we all looked. "It seemed like a puzzle," he said, and lines crisscrossing each other. It is a puzzle, which my clones had begun solving. "It looks quite difficult," said Hayat, before turning to me and Fox Beastman. "You two are runemasters. you guys are good at puzzles," she said. "That is a stereotype, madam," said Iarys in mock outrage. Though a moment later, he focused his eyes on it. I tried to remove a few things, but couldn't. It is restricted. So, I simply activated the stealth, and others saw it and copied it. I have to say, the stealth method of all of them is top-notch. The best I had seen. They had disappeared from common soul sense. The map had no signature, it couldn't be seen other than eyes. So, unless one has a really powerful soul, sense, or close. They will not be able to sense us. While we two looked at the map, the other three took various positions. All of them are powerful and smart; they know their strength and weakness well. So, they let us do our job, while they moved to do theirs. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎 "Each line had a different aura which would change as they correspond with each other," "It's really an exquisite piece of puzzle," he said with his eyes serious; all mirth that was present in his eyes had vanished. I nodded. It is really exquisite. Minutes passed and my clones worked together, before finally solving it after five and a half minutes. I looked at the map in his hand and moved my finger toward it. he didn't say anything and just watched. My finger touched the map, and I started to move the lines with my fingers one after another. Buzz! The change occurred before it finally buzzed, revealing the real map, with one dot shining on it. "I would have needed had hour to solve it," he said, looking at me in shock. "I had solved thousands of these kinds of puzzles. I am really good at it," I lied. To be honest, I would have needed about an hour. If I had been on my own without my clones' help and the time dilation. "We have found the location of the first mark. Let's go," said Iarys, informing everyone. They came and looked at the map, and a few seconds later; we began to move. We didn't fly or move from the ground, under the protection of stealth. It's the best way. Flying would be inviting people to kill us.