"Young Geniuses, as the Top 100,000 Cultivators, you are the future of our continent. If you sense that your life is in danger, please do back out and go to the east end of the island. There are already more than 5 million deaths in the preliminaries. Each of them was promising in their own right, but ultimately it still led them to die in the process of gaining glory."
Everyone was shocked to see the death toll but quickly returned to normal as this was expected. This also happened in every other previous Grand Sea Continent Meet, so nobody cared. But they cast looks of gratitude towards the voice as it told them to retreat when danger closes on them.
However, Davis sneered, 'Huh! What please do back out? You guys only want to recruit them and get them under your control, strengthening your respective empires in the process."
The voice then continued, "However, if you are caught cheating, instead of you youngsters getting yourselves killed by the magical beasts, you will be executed by us!"
The Top 100,000 participants who had thoughts of cheating, immediately wiped away such thoughts.
"Also, the spatial bag contains your token, and it works in tandem with a formation. So the number of points you obtain will be updated in the scoreboard which is on the deck of the ship. In fact, you youngsters should also try to work hard, because another scoreboard is also in the Main Arena, so your ranking will be displayed in front of the Great Emperors!"
The youths clenched their fists in agitation, dreaming to arrive at the top position, so they can distinguish themselves from the others. They were all thinking that once they reach the Top 10, they can enjoy all forms of luxury for the rest of their life.
The ship then continued to sail to the island where the second round will take place.
Time passed by as the twelfth day arrived.
In the distance, a huge volcano could be seen on an Island.
Davis and Ellia, who were on the deck, looked at it in awe. But what they were admiring was not the volcano, but the island which was divided into two by a river.
The whole island was elevated while one end had a volcano while the other end looked like a glacial mountain.
"An Ice volcano..." Davis muttered as he looked at it in awe. He never saw an ice volcano before, this was a new sight to him.
"Young Geniuses, we have arrived at the designated island! Now is the time to prove yourselves in front of everyone and make it to the finals! Move on to the island!"
"The second round will last for a total of five days! Collect as many cores as you can! I hereby declare the start of the second round of the Grand Sea Continent Meet!
Just when everyone was going to jump out of the ship, that voice kindly echoed again.
"Uh... Don't forget to collect your spatial bag from the exit of the ship..."
The contestants had black lines on their faces as they forgot about it or either thought that it will be handed over once they reach the island.
Suddenly a youth ran in front of the exit and inserted his hand into a big chest. He took his hand out, collecting a spatial bag in the process. He then made his way out as he went to the island.
Looking at that, all the youths understood one by one as they made their way to take their spatial bags that were in the chests. They all understood that it was a formation but couldn't figure out which type of formation it was.
'An identification type formation?' Davis thought while he looked at it. He had more knowledge than these people concerning formations. He had read about it in the library, after all, he had almost spent two years there, only reading books.
"Why do they take a random spatial bag from the chest? Didn't that voice say that our tokens are also in a spatial bag?" Ellia asked in confusion. Although she was in the Royal Castle, she wasn't allowed entry to the Library after all.
Davis explained as he shifted his look to her, "What the formation does is identify your energy imprint. Everyone has their own unique aura, energy and soul. So what the formation does is match your energy with the token and bring it out."
"So what I take out is mine?"
"Yes, you can say that." Even though Davis wasn't totally sure, but he assumed that this was the case.
Ellia nodded as she understood, but she also lamented at her ignorance. She secretly vowed that once she had reached enough strength, she will achieve something and get permission from the Emperor himself to gain entry into the library.
Just when he was watching the exit of the ship, he saw Evelynn and her team approaching the exit.
'Hmm? Why is she still participating? Didn't she only come here to battle with me?' Davis thought as he looked at her in confusion.
'Maybe I was secondary and she came to achieve a position for herself in this competition?' Davis laughed at himself but felt a little sad for some reason.
'Well, I'll keep an eye on her too. In case if anything happens...'
Suddenly, his face was pushed aside. He turned to look back at Ellia, who was the culprit who pushed his face.
"Uh... Ellia? Is something wrong?" He asked in incredulity as this had never happened before.
Rather than being angry at her, he felt happy that she pushed his face aside because she never had the courage to touch him herself, not even once.
Ellia just pouted without saying anything, as she moved towards the chest at the exit of the ship.
'Ahhh... What did I do? Why would I do that? It's that, it must be that!' Ellia panicked internally and had no idea why she did that. Sadly, she could only guess.
"Wait! I'm also coming!" Davis had no idea what had happened, but he happily rushed forward as he caught up and walked aside her, jubilantly.
They collected their spatial bags and then reached the Island.