Arella's eyes widened with surprise. This, wasn't this the Simulation Room of the Royals?
The announcement repeated thrice before everything became dead silent. Arella picked up the important words: Novice, and find the pearl. A flash of understanding glinted in her eyes.
She extended her palm and tried to call forth her healing powers. But this time, no blue flame responded to her call. True to the word, all powers were suspended! Even her healing power didn't work here!
No wonder the Simulation Room of the Royals was considered to be very advanced! There was normal simulation training available in the military and classroom lessons, but only the Royals had a Simulation room that had a defensive shield.
The shield had two functions, defense and isolation. Usually, while the trainees were engrossed in the simulation, their real bodies remained vulnerable to attacks. In such cases, even the lowest ranked could kill the highest ranked!
So, the Royals, in their protection, came up with the shield. It could safeguard the trainees' bodies during the simulation. And as a by product of such a shield, came the power of isolation.
It was the only Simulation Room that could isolate either their physical or mental powers! Such a room was a treasure in the Beast world!
A trainee could train the physical strength, mental capacity, and both without worrying about being attacked! But there was a catch too. The pain was real.
Unlike the other simulations, here, the pain, sweat, and blood were real. The sensations were real. They could bleed to death. They could be cut, poisoned, or attacked by the animals.
Of course, they wouldn't die, but the pain was too real, enough to give the trainees palpitations and nightmares for life.
This is where Arella was now, in the Simulation Room.
'Fantastic!' Arella mumbled under her breath.
A slight smile bloomed on her face. So, this was her weekend training? Unlike Andrew's perfunctory training, this was a real deal! Arella's eyes filled with anticipation as she walked forward into the dense forest.
It was a time to test her strength. She couldn't use her powers but her senses worked just fine. Relying on her ears, she picked up a faint sound of water.
She began walking in the direction of the water. Her objective was to find the pearl. Logically, it should be in the water. So, she walked and walked. The forest was eerily quiet—no sound of the wind, animals, beasts, and no birds.
It looked as if she was the only one in this sphere. She distinctly remembered the mechanical voice saying that extra points would be given for killing animals. But so far, she hadn't encountered one.
Points could determine their level and next landscape or mission. The more powerful one becomes, the tougher and rougher the tasks become.
Arella walked listlessly. She did not encounter any danger or animals at all. Within a few minutes, she found herself in front of the pond.
She felt a little dejected. What kind of training was this? Taking a long breath, she dived into the water. The pond looked clean. She dived in and swam freely like a fish, going deeper and deeper.
The pond had beautiful and colorful glowing flowers at the base. It looked enchanting and tempting. For a moment, she wanted to dive deeper and touch the flowers but her rationale stopped her.
These flowers were exotic and could be harmful. So, she decided to admire them from afar. But after swimming for a while, she felt a few fluctuations surrounding her. She looked afar and saw a tornado like vortex building above her.
Her eyes widened in alarm and she tried her best to swim away from it. But she was too slow and eventually got devoured by the underwater tornado.
Round and round and round, she kept on being ruthlessly played by the oncoming currents. After being swallowed by the broader top, she kept making the rounds till she reached the narrowed bottom of the tornado. And then, she was spit out.
The vicious tornado moved away, looking for another prey.
Arella took in her surroundings. She was lying on the bottom most area of the pool. She tried to stand up but her limbs were like jelly, unable to support her frame. Her head was dizzy and her eyes failed to focus.
Her breath was failing her now. She had to swim up to breathe in. But her limbs refused. She looked up, the sun shone bright. Its rays weaved a majestic web on the surface of the water. The rays danced playfully on the surface.
Her breath was waning. She could feel the suffocation. Her eyes followed the rays. Some stayed on the surface, scattered like stardust, while others penetrated the surface.
She followed the few rays that penetrated. She watched the beam of light playing hide and seek. Her blurry eyes became focused and then, following the rays, she found a glass bottle trapped in the reef.
She momentarily felt stunned, because the pond was clean without any things from the real world. The glass bottle was suspicious.
Her legs had regained a little strength. She swam towards the bottle, picked it out, and jumped up, swimming upwards with the semblance of a fading breath left in her.
Thankfully, the pond wasn't deep. By the time she ran out of breath, she was near the surface. She instinctively opened her mouth to breathe but accidentally swallowed the water.
Cough, cough, a horrible cough took her by surprise, but her limbs kept moving towards the shore.
Once on the land, she looked miserable. Her coughs took a long time to subside and she took a few mouthfuls of breath to calm herself down. Only after she felt that her core wasn't vibrating loudly, did she look at the glass bottle clutched in her hand.
She opened her fist and the glass bottle rolled out of her palm to the ground.
A white paper swirled inside the bottle. Seeing this, Arella took a breath of relief. This indeed was suspicious. Thankfully, she found it and took it out. She twisted the cork and took out the dry paper from the bottle.
She opened it and found a short paragraph written on it.
"Alert. The Rabbit King has stolen our pearl. Brave mermaids fought ferociously but failed. The cruel king has taken it out of the water. Without it, the waters will become uninhabitable. Leave the waters and find damp caves till our soldiers get the pearl back. Long Live the Mermaid King."
As soon as she finished reading it, the paper burned and disappeared within a second! Looking at the handful of ashes, Arella pursed her lips.
"Ding. Congratulations on completing Part 1 of the Find the Pearl."