The Alchemy God explained the rules of the competitions and how it would go.
Everyone in the competition was to make pills at the sa ti. They would be given one of the 10 random sets of ingredients, which they would have to turn into a pill above a certain threshold of Harmony.
Everyone believed the threshold to be higher this ti around, but in actuality, they had decided to lower it instead. The threshold was now 75%, aning for the pill to count as being successfully made, one had to reach that Harmony.
One didn't imdiately fail upon making a bad pill, only instead of getting another set of ingredients for another pill, you would receive two instead.
The sets of ingredients would co every 20 minutes, each of which had to be turned into a pill. While each pill had to be above 75%, there was also the requirent that at least one of the pills in every five pills must be above 90% in Harmony.
With such requirents, there were three criteria for where one's ti in the competition might be cut short.
If they failed to make at least three pills with 75% or higher.
If they failed to make at least one 90% pill every five pills.
If they ended up gathering a stack of five sets of ingredients without having turned it into pills.
Once the rules and criteria for the Endurance Test were passed along, everyone began formulating their own ways to survive in the competition for as long as they could.
Alex too was in a similar state of thought, wondering about how he could make pills for as long as he could.
As he had co to understand, he only needed to make a single pill every 20 minutes. That made things much easier, but at the sa ti, there had to be so sort of reason why it was so easy.
Sothing wasn't right. Or at least, sothing was being hidden from them.
Alex couldn't guess what it was, and asking the others didn't help much at all. He was only continuing to propose more ideas when suddenly he heard his na being called.
"Young Dawnblade, please show yourself," the Alchemy God said.
Alex turned around, surprised at first, but then he realized what this was most likely. He slowly got up and walked toward the Alchemy God.
"Ah, right. It's you," the man said.
Alex walked up to the man and bowed slightly in greeting.
The Alchemy God pulled out the pin from his soul space, the one that had his emblem stamped onto it, and handed it over to Alex.
"Here you go, the Immunity Pin," he said, placing it in Alex's palm. "Make sure not to lose it. It will co in very handy for the final tournant. It will also stop you from getting disqualified, but then… I do not believe you will be needing it at all."
Alex nodded and bowed in thanks before walking away.
"Alright, the competition will begin at noon tomorrow, and it will be all of you going up at once. So, prepare yourself until then. Do not hold anything back," the Alchemy God said and then disappeared.
The participants remained quiet in the hall after the Alchemy God left, and as he suggested, they began cultivating one last ti to get ready for the competition.
Many hours later, a large group of staff entered the hall and began visiting every single one of the participants. One by one, they began preparing them for the competition — making sure they only had their cauldron and nothing else before they went up there.
All other storage artifacts were to be put aside, just like last ti.
As the staff got the participants ready to go onto the stage, the Alchemy God welcod the audience and announced to them what the competition this ti was going to be.
After a brief introduction, the contestants were brought out.
Alex walked alongside others in a file, having his way shown by the staff, until he arrived toward the middle of the platform where a large space was set only for himself.
He was surprised for a mont how large the space was — a square region with about 10 ters on all sides, at the center of which were a few formations to help the alchemists.
Alex looked at the formations and recognized fla control formation, energy suppression formation, and temperature manipulation formation.
Alex wondered if he would have to use them this ti around. The more help he could get, the longer he would last in the competition. That was the case, wasn't it?
He looked away from his seat and saw the vast stadium that encircled the secret realm. He searched around for a brief mont, trying to locate Pearl and the rest.
He couldn't use the connection with his bond to find them as everything surrounding outside communication was completely obstructed. He couldn't relay information or get any back.
All he could do was manually search for them.
Thankfully, Pearl's greenish-blonde hair stood out enough in the crowd that Alex noticed it. He could see them all watching toward him, giving him looks of motivation.
Alex smiled back and sat down. He brought out mory, placing the cauldron before him. He took a deep breath and waited for the competition to begin. He was as ready as he could ever be.
He looked around him, seeing the people that were adjacent to him. He didn't recognize anyone. They weren't placed there in a proper order. If not, Aethersage might have been next to him.
Instead, his friends were sowhere far away.
A staff mber arrived and stood at the cross-section between four of the alchemists.
"I shall be the one to hand you the ingredients," the man said. "We will start as soon as His Majesty gives the command."
Everyone nodded.
Alex looked forward to when the tournant would begin. And just then, sothing incredible happened that changed how he viewed the entire tournant.
A single fundantal change that imdiately shot the difficulty through the roof.
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