-First commandment: always follow orders. Those who disobey will die.
-Second commandment: Blindly follow orders. Those who question orders will die!
-Finally, the last commandment: those who are useless will die as well!
'Did I misinterpret?'
As time passed, Mystic also began to display a sign of anxiety as she watched the participants leave one after the other.
Among the twenty-five candidates, only ten stayed with the two examiners, the others began the test after a moment of observation.
However, even after ten minutes of waiting, the other examiner did not give any sign of life let's not talk about motion.
Like a stone statue, he was behind the first examiner, his hands crossed behind his back.
After a while, another participant who reached his limit could not bear the tension.
"Shit!" He cursed as he ran towards the middle cave.
Unlike Mystic, this guy's clothes were soaked with sweat and his legs were shaking as if they would give way at any moment against the weight of his body.
If he still had a seven-of-ten chance of surviving laying on his speed, those chances would be useless if time passed without him moving from here.
'The golden rule is to arrive on time after the signal. As for how long the test will last, nothing has been announced on that yet.
In addition, you have to be at least the fourth last to finish the test, otherwise, it's certain death.
However, how to know that...the so-called signal has not yet been given? Since these two examiners are as alike as two coins of the same face, no one knows for sure whether he is wrong or not.
What to do? Go forward like the others or wait some more? In any case, if there are still so many people here, it is only because our number is greater than three. Otherwise, no one would remain here.'
Before Mystic finished sorting through her thoughts, she noticed one of the last seven candidates moving toward her.
'What exactly does this guy want from me!?'
Perhaps because of the mental tension she was currently feeling, she immediately got on guard when she saw this person's vicious smile.
Arriving a meter in front of Mystic, the man smiled before speaking.
"I didn't know you could make that face too."
Mystic's face, already in a bad mood, darkened upon hearing these words.
'Why is he so calm? Is he the strongest among us?'
This idea only lasted a blink in her mind before she chased it away by shaking her head slightly.
'I still remember what I felt before. I don't know about the other examiner, but the one who killed the girl had a red halo on his wrist while he used his strange skill.'
It was enough for her to gauge the power of the monster in front of them.
All the beasts she had encountered before were either surrounded by Silver or Emerald aura.
'The color of the aura means a lot in this world, it largely allows us to understand the power of an individual.'
Unlike humans who manifest the aura in connection with their grimoires, beasts and other creatures capable of using spiritual energy use another different method.
The color varies according to the power of the monster. If ivory and silver white define the basic and average rank, Emerald and Green mean that the monster is at the advanced and King level.
However, beyond these colors, there are blue and red. The blue color designates an emperor-rank monster.
And finally, only a monster of a higher rank than the emperor rank is capable of manifesting a red aura.
Legendary!
'With my current power, I can only beat a King rank beast. At a glance, I can tell that the other participants are no different either.'
With that conclusion, the man's nonchalance only served to sow more confusion in her mind.
'There can only be one answer.' She analyzed the situation without her eyes leaving the second examiner.
Noticing her silence, the guy smiled with a cunning face.
"If you ask me, this test is a mental test."
He stated while pointing his finger at the two men in the back.
"I already know that." Mystic retorted, answering the guy for the first time.
"Then why are you so tense?"
"..."
Faced with her silence, the guy shrugged.
'Phew, she's cold with strangers.'
Subsequently, he held out his hand in front of Mystic, channeling a black sphere the size of a basketball.
These actions obliged Mystic to frown at him in suspicion, however, something immediately caught her attention.
Soon, her eyes widened slightly as her mind created what seemed to be a myth.
"...I didn't know this place could be so weird."
Although she whispered those words with a small wry smile, doubts lingered in her eyes, however.
Without realizing it, this exchange with this stranger helped her regain her coolness and to be able to wait longer.
At this moment, the other examiner finally moved.
He took a step forward, captivating everyone's attention.
This time, he didn't utter a word but handed out scrolls to those who had stayed with them so far.
After retrieving the scroll that was floating in front of her, Mystic opened it and took a look inside.
'…A map?'
However, even more than containing the outline of an unknown topography, Mystic also saw dots on the map.
'Probably the locations of the beasts that are inside these three paths.'
These dots were different colors, ranging from white to blue.
'Without this map, any participant would have ended up dead.'
After a moment of observation, Mystic understood the importance of this map.
'It couldn't be a trinket after all.'
With regard to the second examiner, he took out his previous hourglass from his monk robe's sleeve and moved toward a rock right a step from him.
The small marble rock was tall enough to reach his waist.
With attentive eyes, Mystic noticed a significant detail that made her frown.
'Judging by the size of this hourglass, we have less time than before.'
Although the hourglass was the same size as the previous one, the sand it contained was a small amount.
Afterward, the examiner placed the hourglass on the pillar but in the opposite way.
"Second test began!"
As those words skipped his mouth, Mystic and the remaining eight participants sprinted at full speed toward the three main entrances.
With a map in their possession, each participant now had to choose the path that suited them.
However, since the test is not based on the number of points, but on speed, about five people chose the shortest path, the middle one.
Mystic had the same goal in mind.
But before she could decide, the voice of a person she thought she wouldn't hear from anytime soon whispered in her mind.
"[Take the left one!]"
-!!
She froze after a moment of surprise.
'...Just now..!?'
Her eyes turned to the man behind her who strangely hadn't moved from his place yet.
She frowned at his usual harmless smile.
In the end, she trusted Devon's voice and took the path on the left, also the longest.
She wasn't surprised to see that besides her, the man took the same path as her.
Anyway, although she suspected this man to be Devon, she didn't jump to conclusions.
'If it's him, why would he bother communicating with me telepathically when he's right next to me?'
Remembering Monica's warning, and the previous scene that had taken place when they arrived in front of the gate, everything started to rush through her mind.
On the one hand, she couldn't trust what she saw, but her intuition—also known as the sixth sense.
The left path, although longer, is the only one that isn't swarmed by mutant beasts.
Thanks to her speed, she didn't have to worry about being late compared to the others.
However, the traps she would have to avoid seemed endless.
Just after traveling what seemed to be a distance of half a mile, difficulties appeared on her path.
Arrows soaked in paralyzing venoms coming out of the walls, deadly holes under her feet, and other basic traps tried to slow her down.
But even though these traps were unpredictable and fast, she avoided them all without much difficulty.
And as she went deeper, the traps became faster and more cunning.
'With a little hindsight, maybe it wasn't a bad idea. Although the traps are fast, I can keep up with them.'
Just like that, she continued her frantic run until she reached the end of the long corridor.
At the end of the tunnel, two choices presented themselves to her due to the intersection.
It was only now that the map she had received from the examiner showed its usefulness.
After a glance at the map, she frowned.
'No matter which path, there will always be enemies that I will meet.'
She didn't have to waste any more time thinking about something so obvious.
However, something that made her put the situation in suspense, was the number and color of the dots she saw on each of these paths.
'Although... there are five intermediate-ranked mutant beasts and three advanced-ranked beasts; is this on purpose? A ploy... perhaps?'
Normally, the decision wouldn't deserve to be considered with such importance.
Each dot on her map represented an enemy that she must either face or deflect.
'The best decision would be to go the path that has fewer enemies, but with these two advanced beasts, not to mention their powers as such, their natures could also be a disruptive factor.'
She was momentarily puzzled, as if the fear of coming last didn't scare her.
However, her face darkened when she saw the map showing the trajectory of another beast.
In addition to the monsters she saw on both paths, another spot was approaching her from behind based on her map.
The most problematic thing is that this dot was colored green!
In other words, king-tier mutant beast!
She clicked her tongue in frustration and ran to the right.
'Engaging in a fight against king-tier beast will take a lot of time for me. I better hurry up before it catches up with me along the way.'
After a while, the so-called beast that forced her to hurry turned out to be the man who had shown a skill similar to Devon's.
Unlike Mystic and the other participants, he was wandering around the hallway, not even bothering to avoid the traps that passed through his body.
This skill of making his body intangible is not part of Devon's skills.