A little while after Nala finished her fifth cheesecake, the two began to walk over to the Ascendants Association building.

"Weird. Sero hasn't texted back where he's at." Nala murmured as she glanced at her phone.

"Maybe he's taking a nap," Amaya suggested. "He does seem pretty tired these days." The two of them continued their walk in silence until they reached the association building. As they entered, they could feel the tension in the air. Everyone was talking about the tournament, preparing, and making last-minute bets.

"Oh? There's three S-ranks participating this time." Amaya quickly scanned through the list displayed on one of the main TVs in the center. "Majority are A-ranks, and a couple of B-ranks..." She smiled fondly as she recognized some of the names she had helped as their liaison.

"Hey, Sero's on there." Nala pointed his name out. "They did not use a flattering picture of him."

Amaya laughed, but then a few names caught her attention. Her laughter died as she narrowed her eyes.

"I don't recognize these names." She quickly scanned their information. All A-ranks, unaffiliated with any guilds, and unregistered with the mercenary union. 1 male, 3 females.

"You think it might be 'them'?" Nala asked quietly.

"Four Ascendants with no connections? It's suspicious, but not unheard of." Amaya murmured as she snapped photos of them.

Nala's phone buzzed and the Shadereaper glanced at it. She turned to Amaya with a surprised expression.

"What?"

"He's in the library."

----------------------------------------

Deeply absorbed in the book he was reading, Sero didn't notice the two women walking up to him.

"Oh my god, Nala, he's actually reading."

Startled, Sero glanced up to see Amaya and Nala staring at him with varying levels of shock.

"Oh, you guys are here. What's up?" He set the book down.

"What were you reading?" Nala's eyes skimmed over the litter of books sprawled across the table.

"Fuck if I know." Sero shut the book. "Introduction to Quantum Theory."

Amaya raised an eyebrow. "Why're you reading that?"

Sero shrugged. "I used to study multiple engineering branches when I was in college. Wanted to see if I could understand other sciences."

The women were silent for a moment.

"You... studied multiple engineering paths?" Amaya was dumbfounded.

"Yeah." Sero grimaced. "I couldn't choose one, so I bounced around a lot. Didn't help my debt, but I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore."

Nala took a seat across from Sero. "That's cool." She seemed to have recovered from her shock. "But, why are you here?"

"Yeah, we thought you were napping or something." Amaya sat next to her.

"Well, I got bored, so I decided, hey why not register? And then I saw the library and thought, hey, why don't I use my skills like a real Scholar?" he lied as he scratched the back of his head.

Nala pulled the book Sero was reading and cracked it open to a random page. "What are two major interpretations of quantum theory?"

"In regards to the implications for nature of reality, the Copenhagen interpretation and the many-worlds theory are two examples. The Copenhagen interpretation can be further illustrated by Schrodinger's Cat whereas many-worlds theory, otherwise known as multiverse theory, explains that when any object exists in any state, the universe of that object creates parallel universes equal to the number of that object's possible state." Sero's Perfect Recall worked overtime as he was faintly surprised his Perfect Analysis allowed him to understand it immediately.

There was silence once again. Nala closed the book softly, and pushed it back towards Sero.

"You're a very interesting person."

"I know." Sero glanced at Amaya, who was still having trouble processing everything. "Why are you surprised? Even if I hadn't told you about myself, my class skills should be able to do this much."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"No, I just... I never thought I'd see you in a library." She finally sat down.

"If I had these skills earlier, maybe I wouldn't have dropped out," Sero cracked his neck. "Eh, what's in the past doesn't matter now. So, what are y'all doing here?"

"Well, we came to see the participants' list for the tournament; figure out any clues." Amaya began. "I guess I can fill you in."

Sero's eyes slowly glazed over as Amaya ran through the list until she got to the four suspects.

"These Ascendants registered without a guild or union membership. It's not exactly uncommon for Ascendants to go completely unaffiliated, but it does provide some grounds for suspicion." Amaya explained. She pulled up the photo she took earlier.

"Pierce Roy, Brawler class. Ester Pines, Raider, subclassed Thief. Minnie Stout, Sharpshooter, subclassed Archer. Melissa Holden, Exorcist, subclassed Mage. They're all A-rank."

Sero grunted as he looked at the blurry pictures.

"You... couldn't have taken clearer photos?"

The Ascendant Liaison blushed. "Hey, I'm not very good at taking them. Plus, the TV screen was bright so it affected the quality."

"Sure." Sero leaned back. "So, these are the ones we're keeping an eye on?"

"Yeah. There's a chance none of them are undercover, but we can't rule them out until we know for certain. I've already sent the information over to the Special Protections division so they can run background checks."

Sero drummed his fingers on the table. Strangely, he couldn't shake the feeling that all four suspects weren't involved at all.

"Anyways, that's all we know about them for now. Do you want to know about the S-ranks?"

A wicked gleam flashed in Sero's eyes as he leaned forward. "Of course."

"Well, you remember Raul, right? He recently got promoted to S-rank."

"Oh, damn." Sero thought back to when he received Raul's lesson. It did seem like he was holding back during their sparring session. "He's that strong?"

"Very," Amaya smiled. "And even though he's a close friend, I have to admit, the other two are much stronger in comparison."

She swiped on her phone screen, displaying a headshot of a serious looking woman. She had unblemished fair-skin and brown eyes were sharp and piercing, giving Sero the sense that she wasn't a very friendly person. She had a defined jawline, and curled black hair that fell to her shoulders.

"She's cute."

"Her name is Elena Hale, an S-rank Scaletamer," Amaya ignored his comment. "She's widely known for her specialty in commanding reptilian familiars as well as her incredibly quick advancement from the Summoner base class. In fact, she's one of the first Ascendants to advance."

"I met her once a few months ago during an A-rank outbreak. She took control of the situation and easily overwhelmed the invasion with her summons." Nala seemed excited about her. "She only said what needed to be done and pretty much eliminated any risk of casualties."

"Wow..." Sero said, trying to imagine what it would be like to fight alongside someone like that. He glanced at Amaya, who seemed equally enthralled. "What about the other one?"

Another swipe of the screen and Sero was looking at a photo of a man. He had short, strikingly white hair that was neatly trimmed and combed. His eyes were a sharp red, much more vivid than Sero's. He faintly reminded him of a vampire.

"This is Liam. Not much is known about his past, but he emerged as one of the very first few... S-rank Demons." Amaya shivered. "He's by no means a bad person, but there's just always been a bad reputation for Demon classes."

"Because they often have evil personalities or traits that resulted in them ascending as such." Sero finished.

"Yeah, that's- wow, you remembered." Amaya was taken aback. "But yeah, if not for that, then it's something else that's morally questionable."

"Hmm." Sero thought to himself. "So, these two are much stronger than Raul?"

Amaya nodded. "Honestly, I doubt you'll even face any of these three since you're ranked much lower on the roster, so you'll be facing off against similarly strong Ascendants." She leaned forward. "It's not important that you win the entire tournament, it's important that you stay in as long as possible so that we can determine if the Culling has infiltrated or not."

"Right." Sero sighed and leaned his chair back. "At least I'm getting a huge reward from this."

Amaya smiled. "Yes, you are. For making it past the first round, you'll be getting five thousand gold. That's more than you'll earn in a month of being an A-rank. And if you manage to make it past the second round, it's a hundred thousand gold."

Sero's chair slammed back down with a thundering boom, causing many of the other members in the library to stare at them.

"A hundred- a hundred thousand gold." Sero wheezed with a demented hunger in his eyes.

"Yeah," Amaya recoiled. "But don't get too ahead of yourself. Your primary goal is to hold out for as long as possible so that we can investigate."

Sero nodded, trying to calm himself. "Right. I won't get greedy." He glanced at the photo of Elena Hale. "Though it would be cool to copy her skills. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to face her in the later rounds."

Nala snorted. "I'd be your servant for a week if you manage to do that."

"Oh?" Sero suddenly looked at Nala with a sinister smile. "Want to bet?"

The Shadereaper shifted uncomfortably, suddenly regretting her words. "W-well, only if you manage to get her autograph, too."

"Deal."

"But, if you don't, then you'll be my servant for a week!" Nala quickly added.

"I see no losses for me."

"Ok!" Amaya held a hand out between Sero and Nala. "Let's stay on track. Sero, make sure you're prepared, ok? We're counting on you to last in the tournament and see if you can glean any clues from the suspects."

"Fine, fine." Sero licked his lips. Amaya stood up, Nala following suit.

"Ok, now that that's done, I have to get back to work. What are you guys planning to do today?"

"I'm going to the orphanage to see if they need any more help. Maybe just play with the kids." Nala replied, glancing at Sero with an inquisitive look.

"I'll stay here," he pulled over a laptop he had rented out and opened it. "I need to do some research."

Both women looked surprised.

"What? I need to see what Elena looks like. Among other things."

Amaya groaned and hung her head.