Chapter 246: 246. SNOWY
Noah felt able to smell the worry in the environment. The man’s words managed to bring people to their mental knees, but once again he felt unbothered by the event, he had met the requirements without missing it once.
Their race would happen on a mountain, a snowy one at that. And they were tasked to gather stones that could be anywhere, a task that would be hard even if all of them were asked to start at once.
The one-day head-start that he and whoever managed to meet the requirements would allow them to empty the starting portions of the mountains of its stones, forcing the others to have to climb further before any hope of gathering stones could exist.
“You will all be teleported to the location together, only that does who failed to meet the requirement will have to sit back and wait until the barrier set, is open,” Elder Adonis continued, his face revealing a slight but excited smile.
Waving his hand at them, the aspirants and audience on the seats watched as the grassy ground beneath the aspirants lit up with radiant inscriptions of golden colors. After which bracelets and rings appeared in front of each person signified as an aspirant.
Noah’s emotionless mind watched as a black bracelet and a red ring appeared before him, slowly grabbing it, he glanced at Lady Sophie’s figure. She noticed his gaze and turned to look at him.
Nodding her head at the sight of the items, Noah immediately wore them and felt a series of information flow into his mind.
An illusory leaderboard of sorts appeared on the bracelet at Noah’s, and he felt unfazed to find that his name and face were at the top of the list. He had an outstanding one-hundred percent on the success rate in hitting the required damage points.
The second on that list was a female whose name was hidden. Actually, the names of the other aspirants were hidden apart from his, but their faces were revealed. The lady raked an astonishing ninety-five percent, while the percent of the third plunged to eighty-four. The fourth eighty-one.
They all could recognize each other, and soon their gazes locked. Ariana being the eight had seventy-four, a very close call. While many others had the same scores above the mark of 70 or on 70 itself.
Checking the ring, Noah found his consciousness within a room no less 3sq meters, and in it was a crystal-like stone, shimmering with different colored inscriptions and even a tiny magical circle.
He could immediately identify it as the exit stone, an object he felt sure he wouldn’t be needing.
Elder Adonis gave them a few moments to check the items and make peace with their fate, and after what he considered the adequate moment had passed, he opened his mouth to draw their attention back to him.
“That is all there is to say, the rest will be up to you,” he declared, when three portals shining with incredibly dense mana abruptly opened on the grassy field, a few hundred meters in front of the aspirants, and spaced out from the other.
“Tier one aspirants are to take the portal on the right, tier two’s on the middle, and the tier three’s are to take the portal on the left,” Elder Adonis explained.
“Note that all who passed the seventy percent mark are to immediately begin,” he explained while the three categories immediately started to enter the portals after forming single files.
The process was quick as in less than a minute more than half of the required aspirants had walked through the portal.
Noah found himself about to enter the portal but suddenly sensed someone’s gaze land on him. His head rose to find that both floating experts actually had their eyes on him, but no one would notice their actions due to the process happening on the ground.
“He’s also an ice affinity wielder,” the lady conveyed to Elder Adonis through her consciousness, and he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that information.
Of course, being an important identity in the Divine lightning guild, he had been amongst the higher-ups who found interest in Noah or rather the man named Aiden.
“Who exactly is he to hold two rare affinities,” the lady conveyed, her eyes never leaving Noah’s figure.
“His identity remains unknown even to us, but even if it wasn’t; I carry an oath to never release the identities of my our members unless it’s very important or required of me,” Elder Adonis replied momentarily glancing at her expressionless face.
“But he’s not a member of your guild yet. And besides, we both know that the oath isn’t capable of stopping you,” the lady said returning his gaze. Needless to say, Elder Adonis’s eyes sharpened at those words.
He had known her long enough to understand the meaning behind her words.
“He’s not likely to fail. He’s the best amongst them after all,” he replied to her, keeping a smirk off his face.
“Notwithstanding, if, by some unfortunate happening, he does fail; I want him for my guild,” the lady calmly declared, watching Noah step into the portal and disappear.
She, being a wielder of the ice affinity understood that the environment the aspirants were sent to, would be nothing of a bother to the young man. She could sense his above-average comprehension even if he worked so hard to hide it.
They had chosen that environment due to how rare an ice affinity holder was, but his existence remained unfair nonetheless. But she cared not about that detail. Both of them didn’t.
“He has a third affinity,” Elder Adonis eventually conveyed after a few moments of silence.
“I know,” the lady calmly replied and the duo immediately fell into deep thought.
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A weird pressure applied itself to Noah’s consciousness immediately after he stepped into the portal. Soon enough he felt his environment change.
A cold breeze slammed into his figure, but he casually shrugged it. That environment would be unable to bother him even if it wanted to.
Noah had already figured out why a cold environment was the site for the trial. Not many had an affinity for ice since if they did, they wouldn’t be aspiring the join the Divine Lightning guild.
A series of red lights shone on Noah’s face and the faces of the others that had already arrived there.
Taking a moment to inspect the mountain, Noah’s calm mind could vaguely calculate how difficult the task ahead of him would be.
The mountain was as immense and majestic as one would expect a white landmass of such grandeur to be.
Because they were teleported to its base, the aspirants couldn’t see its peak from that height, but everyone could see how thick the snow was; moving around it would be a hassle.
From his position, Noah could notice thick formations of trees and jagged edges. However, the silent nature of that environment contradicted the reality that magical beasts were present in it.
The environment for miles around the mountain proved to also be snowy and Noah couldn’t help but wonder where they were. However, he quickly pushed that topic to the back of his mind since there was a barrier blocking their passage to the outside regions.
Those who were unable to meet the requirements found that they could not walk past the red barrier where everyone was initially teleported into. So when Noah’s white-haired figure burst forward with crackling waves of power, sadness and helplessness quickly set in.
The trial had started, but they would be unable to partake in it for one whole day, and with monsters like Noah already in, their chances of succeeding took a deep dive.
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