Chapter 62: Chapter 58 – Commence the second Challenge!

“”Wait, it’s already over?!””, me and Gray shouted in surprise, but I think I shouted loudest because my plan actually worked.

A magic circle appeared below our foots, and the same nauseating feeling came over me again. “Are you alright, Shiro?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”, I reassured him, we’ve been together the whole way through, what I was surprised about was that no one came in our way (mostly because we ran away from those situations.)

Cracks appeared on the sky, and the very world was decimating. The trees started to fade away like dust and the sky lost its color, leaving behind a pure white canvas.

“Wow, this is scary?!”, shrieked Gray, who was trembling in fear, the thought of losing yourself in here was present before his eyes, however I on the other end.

Am quite intrigued. ‘What would happen if someone was stuck in here? Would they disappear? Or maybe they would just be teleported back? Or on the other end they might even just be stuck here.’

A pillar of light appeared where Gray was standing, and he disappeared right after. He was teleported back to the stadium save and sound.

A pillar of light surges beneath me, and the last thing I saw was this beautiful being destroyed and reduce to nothing but memories in our minds.

This place generated no life, not even a single soul was to found in that possibly vast world. In the small period of time I spent in there, I had not seen a single spirit.

 

 

 

“Here are our remaining contestants! Please a round of applause!”, the commenter/announcer spoke, and the crowd cheered in response to our presence within the stadium.

They had seen every fight within the ‘Reality Marble’ through a projection spell to which the attribute used for it is unknown to me.

“The contestants who have been injured please head to the infirmary where you’ll be healed by our mages.”, he said, no wonder the number of adventurers have decreased, those who gave up were teleported back, and the ones who were knocked out were sent back as well.

“From the information of our mages, there were no cooperations among the adventurers, thus no one was disqualified.”

“The next challenge will be revealed later today, as of right now we’ll do a small break so that our dear contestants are able to rest…”, he continued on, but I was once again being carried by the crowd of adventurers, before I could listen to his explanation.

‘Thank you for carrying me, I understand that my body structure is quite petite, almost the size of a child yet at the same time the ones of a average sized woman and that’s why I’m sort of being squished between all of you. However, I would very much appreciate it, if you could please let my feet at the very least feel the sweet and hard floor?’

I sighed, in the end I was able to ‘survive’, but my plan went a little bit too well. Or rather… I was bored the whole time all I did was hide and move from place to place.

The fact that they didn’t find out that I was sort of teaming up with Gray is impressive, but how did they not find out? If they were able to sense everything within the marble, that means they could’ve sensed me together with Gray. But, maybe I’m just assuming things, I’ll just be grateful that nobody found out.

I caught a glimpse towards the mages who created the reality marble, they were all breathing heavily and some of them were even knocked out. They overused their mana to the point of exhaustion, had it been me, my ‘Materialization’ could’ve turned itself off.

I couldn’t find Gray anywhere, obviously due to the large crowd it was like searching a needle in a haystack.

“Ugh…”, I groaned as I was carried over to the exit.

 

 

 

“And that’s how the challenge went.”, I told Willow who was drinking his usual beverage, Azure who was eating gleefully and Alice who was sipping her tea whilst listening to my short explanation.

“Cutting the story short, you didn’t do anything?”

“Correct.”, I answered truthfully, together with a triumphant voice, which sounded monotone to those who heard it.

“And you’re proud about that?”, Alice asked. “Yes, one hundred precent.”, I answered sort of sarcastically.

“Hey, Master! Try this out, it’s really delicious!”, she held a spoon in front of my mouth, as if saying that she wanted me to have a taste.

‘Shouldn’t this type of development be backwards?’, I took in the spoon anyway like a child, and mesmerized in wonder.

‘This tastes so good, I wasn’t expecting it to taste thish good?~’, the flavor and texture weren’t too bad and the taste was marvelous!

“Azure, what is this?!”, my curiosity was at its peak, it was just too good to be true. “It’s chocolate cake with something called ‘whipped cream’.”

‘Have to ask the chefs for the recipe.’, I notes that down to myself, and asked the waitress to bring me the same dessert as Azure. “By the way, where is Athena?”

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“I don’t know.”, Alice was the first one to respond as she calmly took a sip of her tea. “Eh, do you at the very least know where she could be?”

She didn’t respond, so I moved onto Willow. “Do you know where she is?”, I asked him in my usual monotone voice. “I know as much as you do.”

“Don’t worry, master. I’m sure she’s fine, after it’s Athena.”, Azure reassured me and I gave up further inspection.

It wasn’t that I didn’t care, it’s more of a way of showing my trust and respect. If she didn’t want to see me, I would understand that and respect her wishes, but…

‘… it still bugs me.’

“Here is your food, sir.”, the waitress came over with a plate full of chocolate cake and whipped cream.

‘For now I’ll indulge myself, I need to regain some of my strength (even though I didn’t do anything special)’

 

 

 

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome back, I hope all of you are revitalized after this short brake because get ready for the announcement of the next CHALLENGE!!!”

The crowd cheered as loudly as possible, the last round rose the people’s expectations to the top, there was no way they couldn’t be.

“The next challenge is a personal favorite, I used to play it with my friends back in my village—“, he had a nostalgic look in his face, but someone jumped in and interrupted him. “Nobody cares, just announce the challenge already.”

The second announcer with the most tired looking eyes in the stadium said. “But, the story will add up to the—“

His microphone was taken away by the tired knight. “Your story would add up to nothing, now shush.”

“Anyway, our next challenge will be ‘Treasure Hunt’.”, he announced the challenge instead of the person who should have originally done that.

“For this challenge, all of you will be formed in teams of four, and the teams will be chosen at random that means you can’t join a friend or a party member that might be present, but if you’re lucky you might be teamed up.”, he explained as the previous announcer was desperately trying to get the microphone back.

“The challenge will work like this, all of the teams will be once again teleported into a reality marble, and you’ll have to find five treasures across the small world you’ll be brought to.”

“The five treasures are the following: A golden spear, a golden sword, a golden bow, a golden shield and a golden chalice.”, his voice was grumpy and tired, all of his explanation felt forced. “Those object will be placed at certain parts of the marble, and I have a warning. If you are thinking of bringing them back home, then I’ll have to warn you that they are only projections. That means that they are not real in the first place.”

Some of the adventurers showed clear signs of disappointment in their expressions, it was as if they were really hoping for them to be real.

“A team must at the very least hold one of the treasures to be qualified for the finals. Any questions?”, he asked and several adventurers spoke. “What happens if you have two of the treasures?”

“If your team holds onto more than one of the treasures, the treasure will be used on a team at random to qualify them. Yeah! You heard me, you better just hold onto one, no more no less.”

Some of the adventurers started speaking with each other, talking about the ‘Treasure Hunt’ and about its rules. Some of them were even displeased with the rules.

“Hey… psst, Shiro.”, I heard Grays voice in a short distance away from me, he had a confused expression on him. “What’s wrong?”

What are we gonna do?”, I was dumbfounded by his question. “‘We’?”, Grays expression turned into a troubled one.

“Eh? Aren’t we a team?”, he asked worriedly. “We were for like twenty minutes, but that doesn’t mean we’re still going to be one.”

“You’re betraying me?!”

“I’m not betraying, we aren’t even a team to begin with, unless we get teamed up by the devils luck.”, I calmly said.

“The rules are the same ones as before, that means that teaming up with another team is still prohibited.”, the moment he finished his explanation, mages began appearing once again.

They looked as if they didn’t even use a single bit of mana, as if they had been resupplied.

A magic circle appeared again below our feet, and the nauseating feeling took over again, sometimes I’d wish I was alive.

And thus the ‘Treasure Hunt’ began.