Chapter 145: Truly Terrifying
At that exact moment, the hall where the Elders were watching became completely silent.
"This is the mature and intelligent youth the old Elder described? I’m sorry, but I need to express my doubts," an Elder laughed.
The words of that old Elder in the meeting room, after seeing a little of his past and giving an evaluation, implied that Priam was a youth who had gone through countless hardships and matured amid chaos.
But Priam’s current conduct was quite different.
"Hehe, he’s almost twenty, but he’s still like a child. Having a little childishness doesn’t hurt. Those are the same words the Leader Elder uses for her son... the two are quite similar in that regard." The leader of that group gave a bitter smile and said.
"Very well, go back to focusing on the disciple candidates. This time was a little disappointing. But we should be happy, because an extra faction with a leader... peculiar, but definitely talented, has appeared in our branch."
"Yes," everyone said.
...
Priam healed the woman Baels had captured, using the power of nature. Then, he left her unconscious on a rock.
He continued forward.
If she woke up in time, she could still pass this test. If a beast found her unconscious, Priam was sure the Elders would act and save her. So, he had already done more than he needed to by giving her a little help.
In little time, he saw several people along the way, and many of them had easily escaped the illusory inscription and continued onward. They had all kinds of methods to escape.
The youths born in the Divine Plane, even those from the southern region, were still many times more knowledgeable and skilled than those from the Mortal Plane.
The journey ahead was not calm at all. It should be described as extremely lively, because he witnessed several battles between the disciple candidates.
Those battles were also at a very high level compared to what Priam had seen in the Mortal Plane.
This opened his eyes. He couldn’t be too arrogant, and should always be careful when picking a fight...
...the moment he thought of that, he sighed lightly. Who was he trying to fool?
If he was going to fight someone, he would do it without thinking twice. So, fuck caution.
He just wouldn’t deliberately go looking for trouble.
After continuing for more than two hours, a sea of mist appeared before him. It wasn’t an illusion, but real mist created with the water element. But obviously, the level of the element was extremely high.
Water was a very versatile element, and a high-level mist created from it completely oppressed the mind and senses, preventing him from investigating what was happening inside.
When Priam entered the mist for the first time, he couldn’t see anything. He could only vaguely sense the direction he was going.
This mist seemed infinite, and it was impossible to see the end. But he could keep moving forward in a straight line, without deviations, still sensing a few meters around himself with ease. This relaxed Priam a little; there was no way anything could catch him by surprise under these conditions.
Until...
After advancing a little more, his senses went off.
A huge hand whistled toward him from behind, coming completely by surprise. The immense power behind it made Priam widen his eyes.
*BANG*
Priam’s fist struck a huge hand. However, he discovered that it wasn’t a hand of flesh and bone, but a hand of stone.
As soon as he blocked the blow, another whistle came toward the back of his neck.
Quickly, he extended his other hand, using his fingers like claws to grab it.
His reaction was obviously anomalous and immediate. When he held that hand, he realized its owner was a type of puppet made of earth and ores, extremely refined.
Although it was a puppet similar to an earth golem, it was as hard as metal, and when Priam grabbed its fist, it quickly retreated.
Suddenly, it delivered a descending kick toward Priam’s shoulder.
Priam snorted and also kicked it, striking its leg.
*BANG*
Now that the blow wasn’t a surprise, Priam managed to explode the creature’s leg. But he also felt a stab of pain in his foot.
His current physical body was extremely powerful; however, kicking that puppet caused him a sharp pain. That was extraordinary.
The puppet quickly retreated after its other leg kicked.
Priam was surprised because that made no sense. With both legs off the ground, how was it retreating?
Priam moved with the winds. He crushed its other foot, and then realized what it was.
There was a rod supporting the puppet’s body under its rear. There had to be some mechanism below controlling its attacks. Even while Priam crushed the puppet and grabbed the rod, it continued moving quickly around him.
"So, the mechanism activates when you enter a certain range, at which point the puppet attacks from all different directions."
Priam had read a little about this kind of thing, and knew it had been built to move with a program. The person who had set this up had calculated the opponent’s escape route. If someone blocked the first frontal attack, they would assume the enemy was in front, and then it would be easy to fall into the next attack.
Another frightening factor... was that, since it was an inanimate puppet, it escaped the instinctive senses that every minimally experienced Mage possessed. Much less did it emit fluctuations.
That was why Priam had only sensed it when he was already very close.
Everything had been designed to be lethal, forcing the candidates to react by reflex and, like that, show their true capabilities.
"The Divine Plane is truly terrifying... There are all kinds of strange things everywhere."
Priam murmured, then moved again.
After spending so much time in the mist, he had gotten used to it, and now he could see more and more meters into the distance. Priam had already been certain of this before: the Nexus Seed in his body gave him the ability to sense everything much more easily than others.
After learning a little from Flaris about sensing fluctuations, he was already better than her at it.
And in places like this, his senses easily adapted. If he stayed more than a day inside there, he would possibly sense everything around him as if there were no mist at all.
Possibly, he was already the only disciple candidate who could sense so far in that place. He could sense things several meters ahead, while the others couldn’t even see him.
"Ahhh!"
A few seconds later, a piercing scream echoed, and a figure flew past Priam.
He saw a man with his shoulder destroyed. When the man shot past him, it was clear he probably hadn’t understood what was happening before being thrown by one of those puppets.
That wound on his shoulder was exactly where the puppet had tried to hit Priam the first time. This guy had probably been hit without even realizing it.
A little farther ahead, Priam finally saw some others advancing without hesitation. These were the elite, and they also had no fear of activating the mechanisms.
"Wow, there are some really smart guys here."
Priam saw something strange in their hands. It seemed to be a roughly made pill.
Sometimes, those people suddenly stopped and took a slow detour before continuing to run.
Surprised, Priam tested the method by entering those places.
As expected, he was attacked by a puppet. This made him a little depressed. Where had they gotten those pills from?
The answer didn’t take long to appear.
"Don’t miss this opportunity! The divine pill capable of sensing the puppet attacks is here! With this divine pill, you’ll be able to pass this test easily, safely, quickly, and without pain! Only five Red Prisms! Hurry, come take a look! They’re almost sold out!"
Priam heard very faint shouts. He only managed to notice them because his senses were expanded to the maximum. Almost at the same time, he spotted the owner of the voice, still very, very far away.
His eyes shone as he watched Dandara near a rock, trying to make easy money.