Awakening: I Ascend As A Legendary Ranked Necromancer-Chapter 50: The sea

It took a while before my eyes adjusted to the light, longer than it did for the others and the spirit didn’t give us much time. It summoned a glistening gate of light and ordered the survivors to enter quickly.

I blinked several times and avoided looking directly at the gate as I passed through, feeling its warmth play across my skin. "Where are we?"

Because the other side was far too cold.

A chilling wind slammed into us without mercy, and my eyes widened. We were standing on a beach of red sand. Before us, the sea rolled in heavy waves.

Murmuring spread among the Awakeners as they got the full grasp of the location they found themselves in.

"What are we doing here?"

"I’ve lost three of my teammates to the goblins. Why can’t we just start hunting monsters already?"

"What exactly is going on? This is looking more and more like a floor test of some kind! All this because a zone appeared in the ruined palace of some unknown general?"

"Issh! Don’t let that spirit hear you!!"

"Maybe the spirit is the main monster of this zone, and we’re just playing its games! And it’s making fun of us to kill us!"

More and more people began to complain, and I couldn’t blame them. I had the same doubts. Now, looking at how drastically our numbers had been reduced, I couldn’t help but think of the previous floor test.

"This is not looking good," Temur said quietly.

"Well, this is the first time I’ve heard of a spirit appearing in a zone before," Litha frowned. "The only problem is that I don’t know whether we’re doing this trial to access the zone, or if we’re already inside it and this is a monster controlling us."

Everyone exchanged looks. Why hadn’t we thought of that? Why had we all simply gone along with what the spirit said? It might just be an elaborate death game!

"That... makes a lot of sense," Cele said.

"Yes, but who are we to know this isn’t legitimate either?" Tim asked.

Temur quickly counted the Guild teams gathered. "We should just follow along for now, like all the other teams are doing. Look, only The Blazing and us didn’t lose at least one member."

I turned toward The Blazing team and noticed two people watching me. One was the dwarf assassin, and the other...

A lion.

A beast-man of the Leo bloodline stood tall and silent, a quiet, majestic dignity clinging to his burnt-brown fur, the same color as his yellow eyes tha was trained on us.

"That must be King,"

I had never stood before one, but instinctively I knew royalty was looking at me. The urge hit me like a wave, to bow, to kneel, to throw myself at his feet and swear loyalty to him.

I took a step forward...

....and froze.

My stomach twisted violently, and green fire flared in my eyes. I blinked.

What just happened?

It felt as if I had just torn myself free from something gripping me tightly. "What the hell..."

A hand rested on my shoulder, and I jumped, turning to see Dile looking at me.

"It’s a charm, Torvan," he said. "That’s King."

"King? A king?" Litha asked, surprised but not shocked. The Tower was vast. Countless worlds were hidden within it, and who was to say a king wasn’t climbing in our set?

The tension between the two Guilds was obvious now, the way we watched each other was wary and alert as if we are waiting for the other to do something.

"No," Dile continued. "His name is King. That’s the name he took after his Grimoire awakened. I don’t know the full details, but I heard he awakened some kind of ruler ability. He can charm, too, and he’s powerful."

Dile’s fur bristled. "He’s begun calling himself the King of the Beast-men. Blasphemy! Even the Sovereign wouldn’t dare claim such a title!"

We all stared at him. It was the first time I’d seen Dile speak this much or show any emotion beyond disinterest.

The spirit chose that moment to interrupt us. "So some of you managed to survive! I’m surprised! Maybe I didn’t make it hard enough, but alas! I’m merely carrying out the will of my dead master!"

Somehow, I doubted that and I didn’t hide it from my face.

"We will continue with the next trial! It’s just as simple as the first one. See there? Those ships!"

The spirit gestured toward the shoreline, which suddenly filled with ships and boats of all shapes, sizes, and colors, from old, crumbling vessels to ones that looked like battleships and luxury cruisers.

What startled me most was that every ship was manned. Crews dressed in black robes and cloaks stood aboard them. Only their hands were visible and even those flickered like ghosts.

"Go and meet the captains of the ships and bargain for your way across. What you seek lies on the other side of the sea! The captains will demand payment and that payment is the green coins you collected earlier! Oh, and only ten ships may land on the opposite shore.

"If more than ten ships touch the sand of the other beach for longer than an hour, you will all be disqualified. Death!"

A chill ran down my spine. Out of the hundred ships scattered along the shore, only ten could land. What would happen to the rest?

A male Awakener raised his hand and shouted, "Does that mean we’re supposed to destroy each other until only ten ships remain?"

The spirit giggled. "I never said you must destroy one another. The ships simply must not exceed ten. They can be fewer, or none at all. But let me share a popular saying, what happens on the sea stays on the sea!"

The Awakeners erupted into heated discussion. What about those who hadn’t managed to obtain any coins? How were they supposed to pay? This was wrong. Cheating. Look at them, they must have so many coins! But wasn’t it the spirit’s fault?

Yes. Yes, it was.

Shouts rose, and Temur ordered us to move away from the center as things began to heat up. "Things are turning ugly."

Then one of the Awakeners did something reckless.

He raised his hand and fired a bolt of white-hot energy straight at the spirit.