Chapter 187 - The Start Of The Test... Entering Into A Pocket World
"Gather up now, I will open a door to a pocket world recently discovered by the academy. This pocket world is a mystery to us, and so part of your mission inside, and part of the analysis of your performance, will be to gather intel about the world there.
This door isn't stable, yet, so the places you will all appear at will be random. Any mages outside the circle of one hundred meters won't appear at the same place as those inside it, so a word of advice to all, regroup, and make each group not exceeding one hundred and fifty mages.
When you enter the world, your main task is to stay alive for a whole month. As the world is recently discovered, it's tasked for you to build outposts and camps to be used later by the academy.
You are also tasked to expand the area of your influence against the indigenous inhabitants of this world. These will be part of your final assessment, with the higher marks determining the team's ranking, and all the living teams will enter the academy.
All the resources gathered inside is yours to take, and they won't help in the final assessment.
Beware, once you enter there you will be on your own, with communication with the outside world, this world being cut until the door would be opened again.
Now, you have ten minutes to prepare, and any team ready to enter the test, step forward here and pass through the portal."
His words were much detailed, explaining everything related to this competition. Arthur felt surprise, as he thought the test would be about killing some monsters.
"May I ask if the number of killed monsters inside would be used as a way to assess our performance inside?" one of the mages, apparently not related to any big clan or guild, asked.
"It was a classic pattern of our annual competition, however this year the rules were slightly changed, in regard to the…"
He was in the middle of his speech when a voice, a very familiar voice now to Arthur, spoke out loud, addressing everyone here.
"Changes in rules, the number, the quality, and the diversity of monsters killed during the period you are inside is now returned as part of the rules of the competition."
Everyone exchanged glances, while many whispers erupted, asking about the identity of this female mage. Arthur kept his tongue, despite knowing whom this person was.
He silently exchanged silent glances with Noura, who just shook her head, helplessly, as she realized Arthur's knowledge of Amanda's identity.
"I will go on ahead, and wait for your return after one month, safely I hope."
She said her farewells with them, with Arthur, before she vanished in the middle of the crowd. Tony was feeling extremely enraged right now, but he didn't show any speck of that on his face.
He already followed the old scheme put by Rolaf, and all the mages belonging to the big clans and guilds here were already prepared. Every team had many resources that was enough to build a decent village in this span of time.
Despite losing this advantage, Tony knew Rolaf must have done his homework, investigated this world before, and delivered a detailed report about the state of it to the big clans and guilds.
Even if Amanda had cut down one advantage, they already had much more to rely on!
"Let's go," Arthur said to his team, starting to walk directly towards the portal. Amelia started organizing everyone, making them standing close to each other, so no one would be sent into a different area than the rest.
The sudden move of Arthur attracted everyone's attention, as the whole place suddenly ushered under complete silence. Everyone glanced at Arthur and his team, like they were eyeing the ranked one team already.
However, this was only the vision of the individual mages, or mages coming from regular clans and guilds. As for those hailing from the biggest twenty five clan and guild, they were already smirking inwardly on Arthur and his team.
What if he was currently a prodigy? They were much more prepared, had much more people than him, and they were confident he wouldn't even score in the top ten!
As for their darkest plans, they all decided to search out for him and gather together to kill him. a killed prodigy wouldn't threaten them anymore, and inside this world, anything was allowed, with no punishment at all!
Arthur stood in front of the portal, that was only a sphere in the middle of the air. "Step under it, make sure everyone on your team is inside the one hundred radius of the portal in the centre."
Tony calmly stated the laws, with extreme care not to deviate for a single word, as he was pretty sure Amanda was now watching.
His mind was now thinking about the bird's wing he sent for mages to kill Arthur, and the one he sent for the dark mage to interfere. He just prayed she didn't see him, or else his fate might be much worse than Rolaf.
He reminded himself again to be more cautious, not to be controlled by his impulses, and not to commit silly crimes like Rolaf.
Arthur just nodded, as he stood in the centre, and every single one of his team moved to gather around him. "We are ready, send us in," he shouted, with extreme pride, as the next moment that ball hanging in the air shone brightly, and the next moment they were surrounded by a bright white light for a few seconds, before they all vanished from the sight of everyone.
Just like this, the competition started, successfully, by the participation of Arthur and his team of mages in it.
The moment the light dissipated on Arthur's vision, he found himself standing in an empty area, with grasses stretching to the end of sight. Many trees were there, and huge five mountains stood in the back of him.