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Chapter 557 Challenges Marlene’s version (part 2)

?557 Challenges Marlene’s version (part 2)

Besides not wanting to interfere unless others were trying to pull on some nasty tricks, Daimon also wanted to use this time to try and focus mana on his eyes to see if maybe he could decipher some of the functions of the array that was engraved on the ceiling of this castle.

His Black Sea Emblem which also helped him through Daphne's challenge, brought him here after all, so there must something he can gain from this challenge, besides helping a teammate if the need arises, just like it happened with the Valas princess.

Speaking of which, the moment Daimon entered the room his instincts urged him to try something, but he kept himself from doing so, because if he did, he will for sure be discovered by the guy that is observing this whole charade with disdain from above, inside of that skybox.

'Oh well, it's good to know that the Netheral in charge of this place in particular, wasn't as strong as Ophelia, or at the very least his senses aren't as good as hers', thought Daimon before he started slowly but surely injecting mana into his infinity eyes while stealing some glances at the ceiling, without ignoring what was happening at the giant table.

Back at the game, the guy from Skyfire's sect saw the supervising Nethereal being amused at the fact that he lost two fingers and gritted his teeth.

'Just wait you bastard, the Lord will get back at you for this!', he swore in his heart before he took a bandage from a compartment in front of his seat, to cover his wound, the castle actually provided bandages and similar things to let the players tidy themselves up.

Though as the supervisor stated, as long as they continue playing, they won't die even if they were to lose their heads, the pain isn't nullified and for sure it will be hard to focus on the game if one is bleeding like crazy, of course there is no way that this wasn't done on purpose, but that's beside the point.

As for the human who lost one of his two intestines, he wasn't bleeding externally at least, but the pained expression on his face as well as the slight trembling of his body, made the Nethereals on the grades laugh and shout.

"Since there is no one retiring, let's start the next round…", the supervisor's words stuck in his throat when a cold voice interrupted him.

"It's not everyday that we get so many living "guests" here, so then why am I stuck watching such a boring game, Malak?".

"…", all the Nethereals that were laughing, shouting and making fun of the participants, immediately shut up, Daimon whose eyes behind his mask didn't stop looking at the ceiling, wondered what was that guy wanting to pull off this time.

"Y-Your highness, I'm following the rules stablished by your honorable self…".

"And you are failing, look at our "guests", some look as if they are about to cry and runaway, so let's speed things up and make it even more interesting, from now and onwards, the rewards will potentially double and the risks will diminish as well", said the voice that came from the skybox.

"Y-You can't do that, the rules were already set!", exclaimed the human who lost his intestine not too long ago, he was already regretting having insisted in coming to the magic ruin, back at his planet he was a respected genius and the young master of a noble family, but here, he was at the lowest echelon of the food chain.

The other participants also frowned, the rules being not completely explained to them earlier already made them feel anger, but now they were being changed as well and though it sounded as if it was to their benefit, they didn't trust the owner of the castle at all.

"Now dear guests, I'm doing this to favor those who want to leave the game as fast as possible, since this way you'll need less rounds to gather the forty points needed to recover and leave, it also benefits those that need to ask something from me, I bet you have a time limit"

"My suggestion is this, you'll be split in pairs and your scores will no longer be compared to each other, instead of that you'll only lose something if you end up choosing the respective card, in fact I'll even increase the range of the numbered cards from 0-5 to 0-10, all I ask from you is a little modification to the forty and the seventy-five milestone rewards, a compensation so to speak", said the guy inside the skybox with a tempting voice.

The participants stared at each other, out of the ten that they used to be, two died already, in the last round someone lost an organ and the one with the highest score still needed at least four more wins with a score of at least five to be able to leave.

The changes suggested, will make it easier for the participants to gather points for whatever they wanted, also it diminished the risk indeed, since without their scores being compared, they only needed to worry about pulling the wrong card, however even the greediest or the stupidest didn't directly fall for it, instead, the human that lost his intestine asked.

"And what would that change be?".

Daimon could almost see the bastard inside the skybox smiling as his voice came out of it.

"Well, first of all, the one who reaches the forty-point mark second in each pair will be out immediately, the winner on the other hand will have to continue playing, don't worry the winners will still get a free pass to recover everything you lost and you can use it if you fail to reach the seventy-five mark before your next opponent".

"The one who reaches the seventy-five mark first in the next round will get its points doubled, the other will be out but with the free pass there is nothing to fret, I'll tell you what the last round will consist off once we reach that part, but don't worry it will be completely optional and you'll be allowed to leave without losing anything I give you my word".

The magic beast guy, the guy from Skyfire's sect, Walford and the zombie-like subordinate of Ereth all raised their hands in agreement, they needed to reach a hundred points or they will fail their assigned missions and that would most likely mean death at the hands of their respective leaders.

On the other hand, now they could safely recover everything for free and also continue playing, it was too much of a great offer to pass on it, also they didn't care about what happened to the ones who lost at the forty point mark which would be the only ones to get nothing from the game.

The problem now, is that since there were eight participants remaining, they needed at least five to agree to the change, but Marlene solved it by also raising her hand the next second.

"It's settled, those who aren't convinced don't worry, the points you earn during the game will be enough to buy back what you lost, as long as you aren't too "unlucky", Malak, arrange the changes now", said the guy inside the skybox with an amused voice.

"Yes!", the supervising Nethereal placed his hand on the crystal plate in front of him and the table, seats and cards were rearranged, so that the giant table was divided into four medium sized ones with two seats facing each other.

"You may continue now", with the green light of the owner of the castle, the Nethereals on the grades started cheering, insulting and shouting once again.

Daimon smirked behind his mask, he stopped looking at the ceiling and focused his attention on the game, not without thinking.

'And here I was squeezing my brain to decipher what those arrays do, to think that guy was going to "kindly" show me with an easy-to-understand example'.

That's right, a second ago, Daimon got a living demonstration of how the array worked, earlier when the bets paid off or when the participants lost their body parts, those particles of energy left their bodies and were dragged towards the ceiling.

Daimon originally thought that the key point was the "game", those who played and those who watched were the target of that array, but that wasn't the case, the key was much simpler and it also aligned with what he understood about Nethereals in other words, the key was "Emotions".

Those artificial Nethereals that he enslaved, explained him that the bizarre form that they adopted past a certain point, where the result of what drove them to the Nethereal's side were emotions such as thirst for power and hatred, and now Daimon was able to confirm that the array on the ceiling somehow gathered said emotions.

Daimon also noticed something interesting, the ones who generated more of those particles of energy which the array gathered, were in first place the ones participating in the current game, in second place there were the Nethereals who had at least half a physical body and lastly, the Nethereals who were gambling.

'Heh, so that's why they trade using body parts', thought Daimon.

There was a huge gap between how much of that energy was produced between the three groups mentioned before, if Daimon had to put it in numbers, the participants were each producing one thousand units of energy, the Nethereals with at least half a body were producing one unit and the gamblers were merely producing 0.01 of a unit.

'There were no gambles or games back at the castle managed by the Black Night clan, they didn't encourage greed but conflict, that means the owner of this place is not related to those women' concluded Daimon.

There were still many questions to be solved, but that could wait for the time being, the participants had ultimately no choice but to accept the changes suggested by the owner of the castle also known as Agrak.

"As a sign of "goodwill", I will leave the pairing up to yourselves, of course those who don't reach an agreement fast will be randomly matched, you can start", said Agrak to then remain silent.

Marlene immediately glared at Walford, she didn't like any of the participants included those came in the case of the humans from the Blue Sky galaxy or those vampires from the Immortal galaxy, which she didn't know, however she for some reason felt specifically displeased by Walford's presence.

But as she was about to point her finger towards him, she stopped in cold, her pretty eyes sparkled for a second, and she ultimately changed her target to Ereth's undead-like subordinate, who coincidentally was also aiming at her with his finger, meaning they both wanted to face each other now.

Seeing Walford visibly frowning, Daimon inwardly chuckled with an amused expression behind his mask.

'To think you guys would be keeping more gifts for me besides the three-colored lake', he thought before focusing his attention on the game again.

"That's it, those who haven't formed a pair yet will be randomly sorted!", declared the supervisor, besides Marlene who paired herself with Ereth's subordinate and Walford who was chosen by the guy who lost his intestine since Walford had the worst score in the past round, the other two humans were pale they didn't want to continue but they also didn't agree to play against each other, which ended in one each being assigned to the magic beast guy from Marcus's faction and one to the guy from Skyfire's sect, to be honest from Daimon's point of view they were just unlucky cannon fodder.

With the pairs being formed, all the participants sat with their respective opponent on the newly arranged tables and the game continued, the difference is that now each pair only had to compete with their opponent when it came to card choosing.

"The next round starts now!", with those words, the supervisor gave way to the participants.

"You are from the Maelstrom Sea right, why don't you join us, my master also wishes to destroy the Clear Water Kingdom", said Ereth's subordinate to Marlene who softly snorted in response.

"I'm not planning to become a slave anytime soon, so screw off", Marlene might look quite young as of current, but she used to be a Stellar realm powerhouse, so of course she wouldn't be easily tricked by Ereth's lackeys, especially since she knows that Ereth is "similar" to the guy that cursed her family according to Daimon.

"Don't come crying later when you are out of options", said Ereth's subordinate with a menacing voice, to then look at the table only to see that Marlene had already chosen four of the ten cards that were placed for them to pick from.

'This bitch!', he inwardly swore, unfortunately he couldn't complain so instead he gazed at the bone ring on his right hand to then select three cards.

"Time's up, prepare your bets everyone!", shouted the supervisor, Daimon stayed out of it this time, because he wasn't producing particles of light and he didn't want to draw the attention of the guy in the skybox, maybe his senses weren't as good as Ophelia's to see through the physical concealing property of the Hollow Suit combined with the bracelet of the God of Mischief, right of the bat, but he did notice a gaze that looked through the grades as if looking for something, which is probably why the game setting was changed so suddenly.

"The bets are closed, reveal your cards", ordered the supervisor, one by one the different pairs showed their results to the spectators, the only one that mattered for Daimon was Marlene's which resulted in her getting 0-3-2-1, in other words a total of six points and more importantly she didn't lose anything.

As for Ereth's subordinate, he got an incredibly good result of 5-2-5, in other words a total of ten points, with that Ereth's subordinate went from having a total score of 12 to 24, while Marlene who had 15 points before ended with a 21 score, meaning that she was now three points behind compared to her opponent.

Ereth's subordinate snarked at Marlene but she didn't pay him any attention, the other results were as expected, the three humans either got less points than their opponents or lost something, pretty much to the amusement of the spectators.

"The next round starts… now!", declared the supervisor, as he made the cards shuffle back into the decks and then drew a set of ten for each table once again.

This time Ereth's subordinate whose face somehow had gotten paler than before, took the initiative, he immediately selected four cards as a way to mock Marlene.

The angelfish princess calmly observed the remaining face down cards and then calmly selected five of them, which earned her some mocks and insults from the spectators.

"What the hell, I bet for you, don't lose on purpose you crazy woman!".

"I tell you, humans are too greedy, luckily that is of benefit for us kekeke".

Said two particular Nethereals who had more than half of their bodies, meaning they were regular gamblers, or more probably they were related to the owner of the castle.

"Shut up and bet", said the supervisor, which made the spectators return to their usual behavior, after a minute the time was up.

"Reveal", with the announcement from the supervisor, the participants revealed their cards, Ereth's subordinate didn't even wait for the supervisor to finish to turn his cards up, the result caused a ruckus throughout the whole place.

"No way, he chose three cards of five points!".

"Nice, with this my bet is practically secured!".

That's right, that guy actually got a set of 5-5-5, for a total of fifteen points, meaning he now had 39 points of score, he was only one point away from reaching the forty-point mark and eliminating Marlene.

Marlene on the other hand turned her cards face up and got a set of 1-1-1-0, she took the risk of choosing four cards and actually only got 3 points, which added to her previous score resulted in a total of 24 points.

The other pairs were also clearly having one with better luck, but all the attention was drawn towards Marlene and Ereth's subordinate, because they were for sure going to be the first ones to have a member eliminated.

"Last chance, join us, I can buy back what you'll lose when you are eliminated, our boss has a taste for beauties so he wouldn't want you to be butchered anyway", said Ereth's subordinate, but he was met with a disdainful cold gaze from Marlene.

'Humph, you think too much of yourself, you should be honored that I considered you decent enough to exchange for merits with the boss, whatever I have to get "that" anyway', thought the guy before he gazed at the bone ring in his hand.

"The next round starts now!", shouted the supervisor, giving way to the participants to choose their cards.

Ereth's subordinate trembled for a second but he still picked his cards, two this time since he didn't want to take too many risks, Marlene limited to select four once again and then she waited for the supervisor to ask them to reveal their choices.

"Place your bets", with the words of the supervisor, the Nethereals all betted as if their lives depended on it, of course all of them placed their bets on Ereth's subordinate, since it was a free win, naturally the house couldn't lose so the amount accepted per person was limited.

"Show your cards", said the supervisor, the attention of all the spectators focused on Ereth's subordinate who had a triumphant cocky smile on his face, something that didn't last long as he saw the result.

"M-Magic core and head!", exclaimed the guy, only for his eyes to widen even more when Marlene turned her cards up, this time she got a set of 0-10-10-10, in other words she earned 30 points meaning that she now had a total of 54 points, so she was the winner.

"…", a sepulchral silence fell on the room, but it only lasted a second, before Ereth's subordinate grabbed his chest as he fell from his chair.

"Aghhhhhhh!", an ear-piercing scream echoed through the room, as the poor bastard retorted on the ground, raising his voice more and more in a try to ease the pain he was feeling, unfortunately besides hurting his vocal cords as the blood that was coming out of his mouth suggested, he achieved nothing else, then the next second not his head exploded and yet his pained screams could still be heard somehow.

The other participants, particularly the humans paled as they witnessed what probably was the worst possible result available in two cards, losing the head wouldn't kill you as long as you were participating in the game, the pain wouldn't be that bad either, what was making that guy scream was that he lost his magic core.

Unlike knights whose most important part is their Life Spark despite also having a magic core, for mages, the magic core is the most treasured part of a mage as at least one mana circuit connected it to every organ of the body, what that guy was feeling was as if all his organs were being ripped off his body at the same time and the worse part is that he couldn't even faint due to the array.

It took the supervisor a few seconds to process what just happened, he came out of his daze and then approached the guy who was still screaming with a cunning smile to then say.

"Dear participant, with the points you have gathered, there is enough to recover your head and also get a potion to suppress the pain of losing your magic core, do you accept the deal?".

Naturally, the supervisor didn't hesitate to kick someone who is down at the time, on the other hand it is true that his points weren't enough to buy back his own magic core, according to the table of prices, so it was a "fair" deal.

"Ygahrhsh!", an impossible to understand growl was the answer, which made the supervisor nod.

"I'll take that as a yes", with a snap of his fingers, the head of the guy regenerated and he was given a red potion which he drank on the spot, only then the screams stopped.

"Tsk, what a shame, it was fun to hear him scream like an idiot".

"Why are you interrupting the fun Sr. Malak, he deserves it for being an idiot who loses when being one point away!".

And other similar comments could be heard all over the grades, they all betted for Ereth's subordinate and they all lost so they of course were pissed, still, they all stopped when the supervisor casually said.

"His highness didn't want to listen to the screams of a loser anymore".

Ereth's subordinate who was sweating at the still lingering sensation of pain he experienced a moment ago, poisonously glared at Marlene who gave not only him but also the spectators a mocking gaze, which of course earned her some curses and insults.

Only one person got a different message from her gaze, a silver haired youth who was softly laughing behind his mask.

'What a vengeful princess', he thought.