Chapter 143: Cruel and Fantastic
Back to the recruitment. After the questionnaire, Priam slowly stepped back, with all eyes focused on him.
Shione, Lumiere, and Flaris felt invigorated because the leader of their future faction had already earned everyone’s respect/fear.
As for Dandara... she watched Priam fixedly, not really knowing what to think or feel.
Everything had happened too fast, and she had been taken in by a Super Genius without much explanation. The strange part... was that he seemed to be far beyond a Super Genius.
When Priam stopped away from the line, his eyes fixed in front of his face. There, there was a satisfying green window.
[High increase in ’Morale’ with a relevant audience identified]
[+ 4,000GP]
’Now this is living!’
After immersing himself in existential emptiness and self-blame, Priam now felt alive again. The feeling of noticing everyone’s gazes, and their mixture of fear and respect, made his desire to live bloom even more completely.
He watched from afar as Flaris was evaluated.
All eyes turned to her with expectation. After all, these people came from the same place as Priam. But...
Normal.
Compared to the other people in that line, Flaris seemed average. It was like a bucket of cold water for the people watching.
Fortunately, Priam saw Flaris’s eyes burning, full of will. Instead of feeling frustrated, she was excited to train and become stronger, and thus shut everyone’s mouths.
Priam smiled lightly.
His cousin was exactly this kind of competitive person. She had started seeing Priam as her rival, and the peak she should reach. He was certain that the higher he climbed, the more obsessed and focused Flaris would become in trying to catch up to him.
After Flaris came Shione.
She was considered only slightly above average because she possessed an extra core in her body, rare for humanoids. Even so, it wasn’t a big deal.
But... Priam was surprised because Shione reacted positively. She clenched her fists, and her gaze became sharp and motivated.
’Looks like, after spending so much time with us, this girl grew up a little. She absorbed some of Flaris’s good parts.’ Priam thought, satisfied.
The spoiled and almost unbearable Shione he had met in the past no longer existed in any way.
Lumiere was evaluated, and his score and reaction were not very different from his younger sister’s. He was serene on the surface, but internally, he was also excited.
Finally...
Low.
Extremely low.
Average.
These three evaluations defined Dandara perfectly. The Bloodline of a Common Beast in her really anchored all her capabilities as a Mage downward. The few good things she had were, at most, average.
But on her face, there was only calm and indifference.
There wasn’t a single person... including herself... who thought she could become someone great in the future.
Fortunately, her goal was only to enter the outer sect. After that, even if she was never approved for the inner sect, after many years of work and service, she could earn a position as an external Elder.
That would already give her enough power to move the pieces, and thus better protect her race.
After finishing her evaluation and registration... at that moment, Dandara felt a subtle unease.
She turned, and her gaze was drawn to a pair of blue and violet eyes. Priam was watching her carefully, transmitting a sense of safety and calm she had never felt in her life.
Her heart sped up slightly.
’Why do I feel that my plans... my pathetic and realistic plans from before... now... have become something completely meaningless?’
...
Hours later, when the last youth, in theory, moved to the stone for registration...
"Tough son of a bitch." Shione spat dryly.
That was because a dying figure dragged himself, staggering, to the line, now becoming the last one.
It was precisely Baels. He woke up in time and managed to swallow several pills in desperation to get up, dragging himself to the inscription.
Minutes later, the last two were registered.
At that instant, Uswyn rose into the air, attracting everyone’s gaze.
"I’m sure all of you are aware of the dangers inside the trials, so I won’t drag this out too much. To be approved as outer disciples, you must pass three major tests."
"Each test evaluates you in a very different way. In this first one, you will be taken to a special place inside the sect. The objective is very simple: follow ’forward,’ guided by your instincts and abilities, until you reach the region of the second test. In exactly 24 hours, everyone who has arrived will be approved."
"Very well, I won’t say anything more. The test to become a disciple of the outer sect begins now. Junior brothers and sisters, I wish you good luck."
She waved her hands softly, then an intense white light appeared in the sky, right above everyone.
It covered them, blinding them for a few seconds, gradually disappearing.
...
When Priam managed to see around him, he realized he was alone.
He was in a sunny field, with a river passing nearby.
"There are fish swimming in the water and birds flying in the sky," Priam murmured, feeling surprised.
That place was inside the walls and had been created by a powerful inscription. It was like a training field that existed in the Ylisse clan, only millions of times larger and better.
He proceeded forward randomly.
After walking a few dozen meters, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
He narrowed his eyes and thought of the system.
[Dominate?] [Yes / No]
Priam snorted. Only now did he notice that everything around him was secretly being influenced by a strange energy.
"Dominate."
After his domination activated, he waved his hands forward. It was as if the space in front of him was torn apart.
After taking steps forward, the landscape changed. He was no longer walking over sunny, lush green grass, but over a small stream at night. The water flowed at his feet.
"Dominate!"
Priam used the same thing again. Everything repeated itself, then he appeared in a desert under a scorching sun.
"How interesting..."
Priam repeated that again and again.
Now he was certain. All the candidates had been thrown inside an illusory inscription. It had several layers, making it impossible to distinguish illusion from reality.
If someone got lost in the illusory inscription, they would wander aimlessly, never managing to reach the place.
The greatest trump card of this inscription was its ability to overlap reality and illusion. After walking a little, the illusion could disappear, and after walking a little more, it could reappear without you noticing.
But... that wasn’t all.
*ROAR!*
Suddenly, a roar echoed from behind Priam.
He turned around, seeing a monstrosity that looked like an elephant and a camel at the same time. Yes, it was bizarre and strange.
"A Common Beast? No..."
Priam widened his eyes. That looked like a Common Beast, but there was something different about it. In its eyes, there were pulsing purple runes, emanating a peculiar power.
The power coming from those runes was very similar to what existed around them.
"Worthy of being an inscription from the Divine Plane. This place is special, capable of nurturing Common Beasts to make them stronger. This nurturing makes them generate different materials... possibly, they can’t leave this place, or they could be used as battle weapons... that would be too good to be true. But even limited inside here, besides creating resources, they still serve to train the weaker disciples."
Priam, who had read a lot about all the information the Ylisse clan possessed regarding the Divine Plane, managed to create a believable theory about that place.
At that moment, that monstrosity attacked fiercely.
*BANG!*
Priam dodged and punched with a fluid movement.
His blow broke many of that beast’s bones at once.
Unfortunately for these beasts, the base of their power was the energy of the environment. That made them strong enough to bring danger to the youths, but Priam could easily dominate all that energy, because it wasn’t under the beasts’ complete control.
Thus, his casual blow could break through all defenses and end everything in an instant.
...
Priam continued his path solemnly for almost three hours. Every few minutes, a beast attacked him, and he casually knocked it down.
Until...
’Oh?! Destiny really is cruel and fantastic!’ Priam thought, excited.