After blocking Renard’s punch, Alex forcibly took a step back.
But that single exchange taught him an important detail.
’As expected, he had just become a Ranker,’ Alex thought. ’I can do this!’
After his blow got blocked, Renard felt a prickle of pain on his punching fist, but he attributed it to the shield’s toughness.
Little did he know that Alex could reflect 15% of the physical damage he received back to the attacker as long as he successfully blocked it.
So, Renard didn’t overthink the pain and proceeded to unleash a flurry of punches and kicks at his opponent, who was expertly moving his shield to block all of his attacks.
"Dim!" Dim Dim, with a brittle vial already in its hand, asked Alex if it could join the battle.
"No, Dim Dim," Alex replied. "He’s not an enemy. For now, keep an eye on other people who might ambush us while we’re trading blows."
Dim Dim nodded before crawling up a tree to keep watch for the two young men currently fighting each other.
"Is hiding behind a shield all you can do?!" Renard asked, somewhat frustrated after Alex successfully blocked all of his attacks.
Granted, he was overwhelming his opponent with pure strength. But his fists were starting to hurt the more they collided with the young man’s shield.
"I can do this all day," Alex replied in a teasing tone. "What’s wrong? Is punching and kicking all you can do? Try something else."
Renard didn’t let Alex’s taunt get to him, but his blows became more powerful, forcing Alex to skid a few meters on the ground.
"You do realize, each time you hit my shield, you’re somewhat informing everyone about our location, right?" Alex said calmly. "Is that what you want to happen?"
Hearing his opponent’s words, Renard stopped his attacks.
Alex was right. That aside, his fists also started to feel sore, and the last thing he wanted to happen was to get injured during the first day of the trial.
He planned to survive for three days and become a scholarship student.
Lastly, while he believed he was physically stronger than Alex, he would not be able to defeat him in a short period of time when the latter was hiding behind a sturdy shield.
"So, a truce?" Alex proposed as he lowered his shield. "You might have felt it, right? I don’t have any hostility toward you."
"I still don’t trust you," Renard replied.
"I understand." Alex nodded. "How can I make you trust me?"
"Get out of my sight. Only then will I trust you."
Renard had trust issues, so even though Alex didn’t seem to direct any hostility toward him, he was still very wary of the young man.
Their exchanges taught him that the stranger who had approached him wasn’t simple and should be treated as a potential threat.
Alex pondered a bit before agreeing.
"Fine, I will stay out of your sight," Alex replied.
"Good." Renard eyed him one last time before walking away.
Alex didn’t move and simply let the young man distance himself from him. However, a faint smile could be seen on his face.
"Dim!" Dim Dim called out to Alex, making the latter frown.
The Dim Sum God had just told him that there were a few people approaching their location.
Alex nodded and caught his partner as it jumped off the tree before running away to hide.
Just like Renard, he didn’t want to attract any more attention to himself.
However, he didn’t go too far, wanting to see if he would coincidentally meet another familiar face.
Unfortunately, the three people this time were not familiar to him. He sighed in disappointment.
But it wasn’t all that bad. After meeting Renard, he could now see the other party’s location on the map—he had marked him earlier during their exchange.
His Map had a function that allowed him to see the location of his teammates and other people whom he had added to the list.
The current maximum limit of people and creatures that his map could trace was a hundred.
So, even if Renard was moving away from him, he could tell exactly where the former was at any point in time.
Though there was one thing he was somewhat sad about. As Renard was not Alex’s teammate, the areas that he explored would remain covered by fog on the map. This would prevent Alex from getting a clear view of the part of the island that Renard was at.
Just like Alex had done to Renard, he also marked the three people in the distance, so he could tell where they were located.
Dim Dim could easily warn him if there were others around him, but seeing them as green dots on the map gave him some peace of mind. He planned to do the same to other trial takers he might encounter, which he believed would make things easier for him later on.
’I’ve taken most of the treasure boxes near me,’ Alex thought. ’Should I head to the center and look for a hiding place while the sun is still up?’
All in all, he had managed to collect nine treasure chests before meeting Renard.
His haul wasn’t bad. Actually, not bad would be an understatement. After all, his haul had been so great that he had attracted the attention of the Headmaster of Frieden Academy, Rowan.
"Dim Dim, let’s head to the center of the island as carefully as possible," Alex said. "Warn me as soon as there are people near us, okay?"
"Dim!" Dim Dim nodded.
The young man wanted to meet up with Lavinia and Charles as soon as possible.
Fortunately, he knew exactly where they were on the map. Though it would take some time for him to regroup with them.
As the young man made his way to the center of the island, the other trial takers had begun to form groups and eliminate those whom they deemed weak enough to defeat.
Little did Alex know, Charles had made contact with one of the main Heroines of the story, Nessia, who was also taking the trial to be admitted as a scholarship student in Frieden Academy.
As for Lavinia, she was characteristically eliminating other trial takers who had the misfortune of encountering her. To her, this trial was part of her training to improve her fighting ability.
While all of this was happening, four Boss Monsters observed their surroundings and waited for the countdown timer placed on them by the Headmaster to run out of time.
They were ordered not to hunt any of the trial takers during the first 24 hours of the trial, giving the latter some time to adjust to their environment.
Of course, if someone were foolish enough to challenge them, they had permission to fight back and eliminate their enemies.
As the hours of the first day of the trial flowed like the grains of sand inside an hourglass, the sun had finally set, covering the island in a blanket of darkness, which would pose a challenge to the trial takers, who all just wanted to be admitted to Frieden Academy.