The supervisor, Toipo, was watching the examiners atop a towering mountain.

　Naturally, the examiners were not working in unison. That's why I can't follow them all, but I can keep track of some of them.

(That's a dropout.... That one's going home too~)

　Several people have already fled the country.

　There is no need to declare a withdrawal from the exam. Therefore, the decision to abstain was left up to them.

　With an A-ranked exam, they could sense the danger to themselves.

　An S-ranked exam would also give you a chance next year and the year after. That's why he had withdrawn early when he found out that he was no match for them.

　But some adventurers still can't escape.

(Ah. That's bad.)

　An adventurer running through the forest enters Toipo's field of vision.

　It was clearly trying to escape, and seemed to have lost its will to fight completely.

　A lion's head and horse's limbs, an elephant on his torso, and a horde of chimeras with the wings of a dragon on their backs, were attacking him.

　If he didn't, he would definitely die.

　No normal supervisor would do anything to save him.

　Because this is a test, and you must not "interfere" with it.

　That's why the adventurer on his deathbed was in despair.

　That help was never going to be available.

　However, Toipo did not hesitate to deploy his magic.

　A rift between the tester and the chimera.

　The earth rumbled and a huge tremor hit the entire forest.

　The chimera stops in its tracks and the crack spreads between them.

　It's too deep to see the bottom when you look at its face.

'......!'

　The examiner returns to the human tribe's territory with all his might, surprised at the unexpectedly fortuitous coincidence.

　Seeing that figure, Toypo nods in satisfaction.

　A man with the alias 【Explorer】 and a few "individuals" with the title of S-rank - Toypo.

　His abilities are unmistakably genuine.

　Suddenly, Toipo notices.

　He realizes that a group of deformed beings are approaching from a still distant place.

(What's that?)

　It's a sure thing - it's a tumultuous opening to the exam.



◆



　Demon race.

　The appearance of the race is various. However, they are different from the human race and the beastman race in several ways.

　While the beastman race is a combination of beasts and humans, the demon race is a combination of demons and humans.

　That is, dragons, wolves, and even ogres.

　The clear distinction between monsters and beasts is the 'amount of magic power' that the species possesses on average.

　The amount of magic power is directly proportional to the strengthening of the body system, such as promoting the growth of the body or improving the life force.

　Demons have more and beasts have less.

　Naturally, the overall strength of the race is higher for the demon race. Both the human race and the beast race are inferior, except for a few peculiarities.

　Moreover, some of the demon race were far superior to the others.

　It's not clear how they managed to 'evolve' or 'degenerate' like that.

　This is because various theories are still being raised and studied.

　However, the most believed and easiest explanation is "because the gods made it that way".

　Anyway, that demon race was marching in large numbers and with discipline.

　The oppressive hordes were shaking the earth in numbers of more than a thousand.

　Among them, there were a total of seven who were of a different 'rank'.

　One was at the head of the march. A man with a two-meter tall physique mixed with a spider and a man with six arms, straddling a black dragon with its wings stripped off - Lonla.

　There is another person leading the way. A woman with a slender body and brass-colored hair - Liszt. This one is also lying face down on the back of a lion-like demon named Lionel, a crimson Lionel. Her arms and legs are hanging dangling and powerless.

　There are also two more people positioned further back.

　However, it is the three in the center who exude the most aura and bring a sense of tension to the demon soldiers beside them.

　They are lined up in three rows, and on the right is a quiet-looking man with silvery white hair that hides his right eye. He is dressed in Japanese clothing, a rarity on this continent, and carries a black sword, moving slowly but in sync with the pace of his surroundings.

　To his left was a skeleton with an arrogant and fearless smile.

'Haku, Ista.'

　The man on the right, called Haku, and the skeleton on the left, called Ista, each turned around.

　The man sitting in the center was the man on top of the portable shrine carried by the ten demon clans - Quartz. It's very humiliating for a prideful demon tribe to carry someone on their palanquin, but Quartz has the power to do it.

　It was humanoid, but its entire body was black. It has only one wing, with horns growing at right angles on either side of its forehead.

''Can I help you?''

　Haku takes the initiative to ask back.

'You guys do it,'

......--

　At first, no one who had heard Quartz's words could understand his intentions.

　However, an adventurer came out of the grass and trees by the side of the road. The distance was about a hundred meters, but it was enough for the demons to detect a sign.

　The skeleton noticed late and extended its right hand.

　A magic circle unfolds underneath the adventurer - the bones fly out from inside the body. It transformed into an unseemly figure.

''Oh, well, well. I didn't know a human race was mixed in.

　The skeletons say in an interminable voice.

　It killed, mercilessly.

　Before I felt hostile, I didn't even know what it meant to erase a life for nothing.

'A trivial matter. If it happens again in the future, I'll leave it to you guys. Keep going.

　Quartz proceeded to advance his army to the castle without looking at it.

　Implicitly telling them both that there was something similar to this order.