Mythology Rebooted-Chapter 577 - 246 The Judges Are All My People, What Will You Fight Me With?

Chapter 577: Chapter 246 The Judges Are All My People, What Will You Fight Me With?

April 2nd.

After twenty days of preparation, the second round of the Holy Maiden Candidate Examination began.

The Sorcerer Engineering Team at headquarters clanged and banged away for half a day, constructing a teleportation array around the villa. After several tests, they teleported away along with the villa and the candidates.

...

Fog.

The forest, shrouded in layers of mist, seemed to be at the edge of the world, with a sinister atmosphere permeating the area. Because it lay far from the center of the world, the sun’s grey, weak light could not dispel the chill in the air.

A biting cold wind blew through, rustling the leaves, while unknown beasts let out shrill cries, as if dead souls had come back to life, reenacting their final, desolate moments over and over.

Wayne circled the villa, the towering trees only half-visible in the thick fog, branches stretching out ghoulishly like twisted hands summoning the living.

The sound of crunching dead branches and leaves under Wayne’s feet, combined with the stench of decay in the air, inevitably brought to mind darkness and death.

Too creepy!

It was hard to imagine that this was a location for the Naturalism Church’s examination of Holy Maidens. It seemed more fitting for the Death Church.

According to the cheat sheet provided by Saina, the second round of the examination used a point system, with candidates progressing through a dungeon model based on the order in which they passed through the levels.

Furthermore, the higher-ups of The Church would constantly monitor the candidates’ performances, and their scoring would directly affect the rankings.

For instance, this dungeon, called Misty Hidden Forest, was a cursed land of darkness and death, where the power of the Naturalism Church’s Faith Magic was greatly diminished.

The candidates were to use their villas as bases, collect four teleportation magic stones, and activate the teleportation array to enter the next dungeon.

There were plenty of magic stones, enough for all candidates to reach the final dungeon.

By principle, a villa was allotted four magic stones, and candidates were neither to collect more after obtaining their quota, nor allowed to destroy...

Blah blah etcetera.

As everyone well knows, those who understand, understand. This is an unspoken rule.

Theoretically possible, but absolutely not in practice; in principle not allowed, but completely doable in practice.

When dreams confront reality, when rules meet exceptions, a bit of flexibility is understandable.

But back to the point, Wayne walked around the villa again, his thoughts drifting, attempting to meld with nature. The whispering cold, like a curse, entered his ears, narrating the horrors of the forest of death.

Not everyone’s physique is the same. While other mages might find the whispers maddening, Wayne only thought the forest was particularly noisy.

He could integrate, but the lifeless Misty Hidden Forest had little to offer him in the way of assistance. On the contrary, he had to use his own vitality to compensate for the imbalance.

Forget about connecting, you poor relatives.

Wayne ended the dialogue, suddenly curious about the forest. The Book of Greed peeked out, indicating that there were desserts of darkness and death in the forest worth sampling.

But as the desserts were too insubstantial, The Book of Greed wasn’t very enthusiastic, feeling too lazy to reach out its tentacles and waste time.

"Look at what I’ve spoiled you into, you just had too many good things..."

"What are you mumbling about there, huh? Are you talking about me behind my back again?" Veronica emerged from the villa, carrying her pack, and landed a punch on Wayne’s shoulder.

"Hmm, I think you’ve put on some weight recently."

"No way, where did I put on weight?"

Veronica turned pale with shock. With a reduction in her physical activity and having indulged in many sweet nothings, she also felt that her weight was starting to spiral out of control.

Wayne glanced at Veronica’s chest and couldn’t help but think he had an eye for potential.

The only thing missing was an assistant.

And there it was, as if nurtured, it had grown.

Bang!

Where are you looking?

Veronica pulled back her fist and huffed, "I don’t feel comfortable in this place at all. Let’s quickly find the teleportation stones. Since we’ve joined the competition, we must take first place."

"Friendship first, competition second. Winning or losing isn’t important; it’s the participation that matters..."

Wayne shrugged, squatting down and touching the ground with both hands, unleashing his magic power to activate the roots beneath.

With a rumble, vines and tendrils rolled across the soil, enveloping the villa and sinking it deep underground.

To prevent his home from being burglarized, he buried it exceedingly deep, confident that aside from himself, none of the other candidates would have the magic power necessary to excavate the villa.

Now that’s safe!

Veronica nodded to herself in approval. She never doubted the magical talent of this social misfit, having only ever heard praise and seeing no negative comments yet.

"I just realized there’s actually no need to bury it so deep. The rules only say we need to collect the magic stones and transport to the next level, but they didn’t say it had to be with our own villa."

Wayne stroked his chin, "I could blow up our home and then take someone else’s, or blow up someone else’s home so they have nowhere to go..."

"Brilliant, I’ve just thought of so many new tactics, all worth a try."

"Too slow, this is faster." Veronica shook her fist.

Right.

No need for brains when reason suffices.

Wayne deeply acknowledged Veronica’s suggestion, deciding to prioritize the fist as the primary strategy, his thoughts expanding to explore the surrounding environment to determine their position on the larger map.

Five minutes later, Wayne had barely pinpointed his location as a small black dot on the map.

The mist interfered with his thoughts, the difficulty tripling with each spread further from him; it was already challenging for him, but for other candidates, it would be no different than being blind.

As Wayne’s thoughts spread, The Book of Greed offered several reminders: The forest teemed with numerous Resentful Spirits, and more than a few could be contracted to become vengeful Resentful Spirits.