BXBX NOVEL Chapter 331: Forest of Chaotic Illusions! Part-6.
Chapter 331: Forest of Chaotic Illusions! Part-6.
Ayla started to explain everything in great detail from the start.
"For the normal folk, the dragon festival is just a meeting of dragons that represent their respective clans, but that's not the case for all..."
"For the lower race, the 'Dragon Men' this is a rare festival where they organize various events... they decorate their houses and spend happy times with their families, etc..."
"For the adult dragons, this is the day when they get to see the representatives of their clan talk and debate with each other..."
At that moment, Ayla glanced at Selain and said,
"And the third thing that happens in this festival is an evaluation conducted for the young talents..."
Ayla sighed a bit before continuing.
"It's been a while since we saw a really talented kid; most are just plain disappointments nowadays..."
"Nonetheless, all talented kids get teleported to various evaluation sites during this festival... All kids that have the potential to reach rank SS are supposed to take this exam..."
Ayla glanced at Selain and said,
"As the heir of the Dragon Empire, I have great expectations from you..."
"Moreover, the humans that you invited are also talented people, so we are including them in the evaluation project to give proper competition to the children of the dragon race..."
Ayla sighed and said,
"My race was saved by the dragons, so I now work as a benefactor of the dragons..."
"I will devote myself to the work thoroughly, and you can rest assured that my judgments will be impartial..."
She waved her hand, and the scenery changed even further.
The dark cave walls disappeared, and the whole place turned into a giant arena.
Lia and Selain found themselves standing in front of each other.
"My evaluation includes mainly the dragons that are good at swords and have exceptionally unique powers... I rely on illusions to test the students to see if they are worthy or not..."
"You two passed three of my trails, first making it out of the outer area of the forest..."
In the outer area where Selain and Lia were initially teleported, a very strong chimera-type monster roams around, and if you encounter it, you will likely get eliminated if you aren't strong.
Lia and Selain successfully used their mana detection to avoid getting into a confrontation with that strong monster.
The second trial was making their way through the hordes of monsters in the forest while also avoiding falling into illusion traps within the time limit of a week.
Lia and Selain cooperated to make their way through the whole forest, and as they were flying high in the sky, they easily avoided a lot of traps with the help of Kai's mana detection.
Ayla glanced at the two and said,
"Only twenty participants made it to the third trial out of the original thousands of them..." "Nearly all fell victim to the illusion traps and got eliminated..."
Lia and Selain were both shocked to hear those words; they didn't particularly face anything that was so difficult that they got eliminated.
Thus, it's surprising to hear that nearly all participants were eliminated in these two trials.
However, Ayla didn't stop and continued to speak.
"Out of the last twenty, only four made it through the third trail, which was to face your inner weakness through a strong illusion..."
Lia's inner weakness and most sensitive spot are obviously the memories of Rio.
Thus, she ended up facing him in the third trial.
"Only four of the last twenty made it through the third trial; this is already quite a below- average result when compared to the evaluations I conducted before..."
"Out of the last four, two have already been eliminated; now the only participants that are left in this whole evaluation conducted by me are you two..."
"I am quite impressed by you two, actually, so I have prepared this arena made from illusion, just for you two..."
"Show me your talents to your heart's content... If you are worthy enough, then you will certainly receive appropriate rewards; otherwise, it would be just another failure..."
Hearing all that, Lia suddenly asked in confusion.
"What happens to the participants who get eliminated or are deemed failures?"
Ayla glanced at Lia and said,
"No need to be concerned about it... As I said, I am the benefactor of the dragon race; I won't do anything bad to the future pillars of support of the dragon race..."
"Once eliminated, they get teleported back to the place from which they originally came from..."
"It's just that the ones who are deemed too weak and unworthy end up losing the favor of the higher-ups and receiving less support from here onwards..."
If a dragon were to be considered a failure in this festival, it would leave a dark mark on their career forever.
Other dragons will respect them less, and respect, pride, ego, Etc. are the main things that dragons care about the most.
If you lose that, you lose everything.
Although the result of this evaluation seems peaceful, it's a bane for those who ended up getting evaluated as failures.
Moreover, the biggest problem is that not a single person from the younger generation is ever told about this evaluation beforehand.
When the time comes, they just get teleported to the evaluation area at random, just like how Selain and Lia ended up here.
This means no one has the time to prepare properly, and if you are caught off guard, you will get eliminated quite quickly.
...
"By the way, you two don't need to worry; you made it to the final stage of this evaluation, which has already secured an above-average evaluation for you two..."
"Now you just need to try and show your talent to make me improve my evaluation of you..."
This seems peaceful enough, but Ayla is literally telling Lia and Selain to have an all-out battle with each other.
Both of them are extremely strong when compared to their peers, and if they fight, it will
cause massive injuries for both of them.
And they have to do this just to improve their evaluation, which is quite a weird thing in itself.
"Why did Father not tell me about all this beforehand?"
At Selain's question, Ayla just shook her head and said,
"The whole younger generation is equal in the eyes of the dragon king; he obviously won't do anything that will give you an unfair advantage over others..."
"All the participants are supposed to never know about it until the very day of the
evaluation..."
"Once you are done with this evaluation, we will ask you to sign a 'Mana Contract' to not reveal the information related to this evaluation to the next generation..."
"This is also the main reason why no parent tells their children about it; they are all bound by
the contract that they signed in their time..."
"It's a mechanic to make the evaluation fair and square for everyone... Of course, this rule doesn't apply to the few 'Extremely Talented' that are favored by the Dragon King himself..."
Ayla sighed and said,
"That kid... Link Rex, he's not even a dragon, and yet he was favored by the dragon king
himself; in other words, he doesn't even need to give this evaluation test as he has already
won from the start..."
"That is the type of talent that we evaluators are looking for... We want to find a hidden gem and give them proper honor... while also condemning the ones that are untalented..."
"That is our duty..."
Ayla's face remained stern from the start to the end.
She showed no emotions, and she took no one's side; she remained impartial in her judgment
even when the heir of the dragon race appeared in front of her.
"Now that I have explained everything, you two can start now..." When Ayla stopped talking, the atmosphere between Selain and Lia turned serious.
Both of them were uncertain, and everything happened too fast. The explanations that Ayla
gave were quite lacking in terms of the overall goal of this whole event.
At that moment, when the whole arena was ready and they were unconsciously being urged to fight, Lia and Selain both glanced at each other and nodded their heads.
Then they looked at Ayla and said, at the same time,
"No, we refuse to fight..." Hearing their words, Ayla's eyes narrowed, and s asked a cold tone.
"I already prepared this arena; why don't you show me your talents by fighting each other?
That's the best option, right?"
Selain dismissed the question with a shake of her head.
"You yourself said that you are an illusion user, and this arena and all is just an illusion..."
Lia also nodded her head and said,
"In other words, all this is just an illusion to make us both think that the only way to pass this
evaluation is to have a fight among ourselves!"
Selain smiled at Lia's words and continued.
"But we both went through enough of your illusions; we know that all this is just a fake setup;
you are just using it to sow discord between us!"
"We won't fall for this illusion of yours!"
Lia and Selain both stretched out their left hands and held each other's hand tightly while
aiming their swords at Ayla at the same time.
They were both ready to fight for each other.
Although the two started as enemies, after spending several days helping each other, the two
of them already have a bond, and they won't let this bond get broken so easily.
*Clap* *clap!*
At that moment, the illusion disappeared; even Ayla, who was sitting on the high throne,
disappeared, and the environment returned to the previous dark cave.
"Excellent!!"
An old lady with several scars on her face and wearing a dress resembling the Ayla in the
illusion walked out of the dark corner of the cave.
An impressed smile hung over her face as she clapped her hands while looking at Lia and
Selain.
"Impressive! Ah, it's been so long! Excellent choice!!"
...
Author's Note.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! I was late in uploading today as I had a headache, so cut me
some slack if the chapter seems boring to you.
Question of the day:
Did you expect that final part to be an illusion?
1. No (I thought Lia and Selain were really going to fight...)
2. Yes (I have been blessed by the sword god Rio's indifference, I don't for such cheap illusions
anymore...)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.