Trialtakers rushed through the entrance gate of the giant theater. Thalion sat in a small sort of restaurant fifty ters above the entrance, enjoying so kind of grilled at stick while sipping a delicious, sweet alcoholic drink out of what looked like a monkey skull. There was still a bit of ti left, and from up here he had a good overview of the whole scene.
Every other Trialtaker went straight for the theater with full tunnel vision. They paid no attention to the shops and certainly not to soone like Thalion. The citizens sitting at the tables around him kept glancing his way. Thalion had learned that they could see his leaderboard position as well, and none of them seed able to believe that first place was wearing their colors and casually sitting there, sipping a drink in the middle of such an important trial. For everyone watching him, it was clear that Thalion was nearing the end of his lifespan and needed to perform well. The consequences of failure were not good at all—and for most, it would simply an death.
Thalion, on the other hand, was far more interested in the Trialtakers entering the theater. Since you were constantly bombarded people with Identifies, he could use the skill freely without drawing attention.
Most of the Trialtakers were around level one hundred twenty, with so of the Chosen sitting at one hundred forty. One hundred forty was the highest level Thalion had seen so far. Most of those entering the theater were in the top thousand of the leaderboard. Eric was looking good, holding steady at level one hundred thirty seven. His armor was still damaged in a way that prevented it from repairing itself, but Eric carried himself as if it didn’t matter at all.
Thalion was close to throwing sothing at the man to get his attention, but then he spotted another Chosen behind Eric. He wore so kind of mage robe and ranked very high on the leaderboard as well. Since Thalion didn’t know how widespread the hatred toward him was—especially given his absurd leaderboard points—he decided not to alert anyone to his presence.
There were also many Chosen elves entering the theater. At so point, Thalion had stopped rembering their nas. There were simply too many of them. The elves had a Chosen for nearly every affinity. There was Kaelir with fiery hair, the elven woman with silver hair who commanded wind, a relatively young-looking elven woman with blue hair—which Thalion assud ant water—and many more.
Far more interesting were the First and Second Daughter, as well as several orcs. The orcs were massive, packed with so much muscle that they almost looked comical. They were also the only ones who didn’t bother restraining their aura. Instead, they proudly displayed their brutal nature. From their aura alone, Thalion knew that even the non-Chosen orcs could be problematic for him. At the mont, he was over fifty levels behind, and it showed. On top of that, they were ahead in E-grade levels and evolution, which made an even bigger difference.
The two daughters looked nothing like termites from Earth. Both were completely sealing their aura, but Thalion knew exactly how dangerous they were. He clearly rembered the fight between the Second Daughter and Ethan, the Chosen of Aeta, and he intended to avoid the termites for now. After his evolution, things might look different—but that was then.
A massive power-up awaited him in the future, but until then, he simply had to hold on.
The theater itself was a massive structure, yet it wasn’t large enough to accommodate all Trialtakers. Thalion guessed that not everyone had even managed to enter the city, simply due to the size of the stage. They would likely receive their missions elsewhere in the kingdom. The territory was probably far larger than just the tropolis built on this floating rock.
The more people Thalion watched entering, the more he noticed that they were all high on the leaderboard. Kaelir and the other elves had already entered as well—and those should have been far away from Thalion after he had used his escape token. That the treasure hunt had gathered all the big shots here in the capital of the kingdom couldn’t be a coincidence.
On one hand, it was good for the weaker participants, who wouldn’t need to fear the truly powerful as much. On the other hand, Thalion’s situation looked far less appealing—especially considering the missions he would soon have to complete if he didn’t want to be kicked out of the treasure hunt early.
One thought dominated his mind.
Even if killing was forbidden, there was nothing in the rules against torture. The elves wanted the na of his nonexistent patron, and no law or regulation would save him. They were strong enough, and he no longer had any good escape tokens left. With the weaker ones, he had no real hope unless he activated them beforehand without anyone noticing.
Ti was running out.
Thalion finished his drink, grabbed four more at sticks, and made his way down.
Having sothing to eat in such a hectic ti was always a good thing. All the others rushing into the theater were making big eyes when they spotted Thalion lazily walking through the gate. It was hard for him to hide his smile, and without a mask he had to focus on keeping a proper poker face. Maybe this way the others would think he had already decided to exit this stage, taking the best possible reward for leaving early.
The chamber Thalion entered was absolutely massive. It could easily fit ten tis the capacity of the largest football stadium. The difference was that almost everyone had their own balcony from which they could watch the stage below. Golden chandeliers hung from the ceiling, multiple statues and portraits adorned the walls, and the floor was so clean it almost acted like a mirror. Light ca from elegant torches mounted along the walls, their flas burning with a pure white glow. Good thing Thalion had his passive skill under control—otherwise the scenery in this theater would change quite drastically.
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Before him stretched an almost endless labyrinth of floors leading to the upper balconies. It seed there was no strict seating order, and most people simply took the first seat they found, which left the higher balconies mostly empty. So far, only one group had gathered together in a single large cluster—the elves. They occupied the upper balconies to the left, which was why Thalion decided to try his luck on the right side.
While he observed the inside of the magnificent theater, multiple Trialtakers hurried past him. Thalion almost felt like a rock in a raging current.
Seriously, what was wrong with those people? There were still three minutes left, Thalion thought with amusent.
If they were already stressing themselves out now, what would happen after the king finished his speech and the missions were announced? Maybe all this hurry and chaos wasn’t such a bad thing. If Thalion played his cards right, he might be able to leave the city without anyone noticing. It was still unlikely, but at least it was a possibility—because so far, he had no better ideas on how to complete the two missions without sothing going terribly wrong.
He sped up a bit as he climbed the stairs. He didn’t want to walk for too long, and the king’s speech would start soon anyway. Thalion settled into one of the empty balconies roughly in the middle on the right side. Since it was empty, he claid one of the elegant armchairs and moved another to prop his feet up on. While eating another at stick, Thalion decided he was ready for whatever the king had to say.
The curtains behind him were closed, signaling to others that the balcony was already occupied. So far, no one had entered, which Thalion appreciated very much. It took three more bites of the delicious at before a loud gong echoed through the theater, and everyone fell mostly silent.
The gigantic black curtain was pulled aside, revealing a mountain of a king. The man almost matched the orcs in sheer build. He wore a militaristic uniform that didn’t quite fit the noble atmosphere of the theater. Like the others, the king had purple eyes, but Thalion had trouble noticing anything else—mostly because he was distracted by the king’s face. His entire head looked almost swallowed by itself. A real water head. The funny part wasn’t the bloated skull but the ears. They were probably normal-sized, but paired with the massive head they stuck out like tiny hippo ears, and Thalion couldn’t stop himself from smiling once he noticed.
“Welco to my kingdom. I am King Gor, and you will listen carefully to what I have to say. And I swear, if I hear one of you stupid elves chatting for another second, I will rip your ears off and feed them to you.”
The king’s voice was far from gentle or lodic and reminded Thalion more of an angry drill sergeant. It didn’t help that the king began shouting halfway through his announcent. All in all, Thalion thought it was a solid start. With the king already disliking the elves, there might actually be a real chance for Thalion to earn his two million points.
The king didn’t stop there and continued to roar at the audience.
“I know you’re Trialtakers and don’t care about us in the slightest. You have no idea how furious that makes . If I could, I would press every button on that stupid tablet and kill every SINGLE ONE OF YOU!”
And there goes my advantage, Thalion thought as he listened to the king grow more aggressive by the second.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to reach E-grade in integrated space? What we have to sacrifice just to be allowed into this trial? No—of course you don’t, because you’re pampered, newly integrated IDIOTS! HMPF.
The king took a deep breath before continuing. At this point, the entire theater was silent, likely because so of the king’s aura and killing intent had leaked out.
“You probably think this will be a good opportunity to kill each other and gain new points—but no, no, no. That is not how this will go. YOU WILL DIE FOR THE KINGDOM AND NOTHING ELSE.”
It took a mont before the king brought himself under control enough to speak again.
“We have suffered great losses, but so have the others here. You will be put into groups, and you will complete the assigned missions. If you fail, you will be executed and don’t even think about running. We have Ratgul’s tablet, and it is impossible for you to escape judgnt. Just so you know, I am very conflicted here. On one hand, I truly need you to gain an edge over my adversaries, but ON THE OTHER HAND, I JUST WANT TO HAMR IN YOUR STUPID FACES!”
“My father DIED, and you think this is a good ti to farm more points for a better payout at the end?!”
The more Thalion listened, the less certain he beca about what to make of the king. On one hand, it seed that Thalion might actually benefit from everyone being terrified of him. On the other, there was a creeping suspicion that the tablet might not actually be capable of killing anyone.
Normally, Thalion could trust his title—and the guard and the king hadn’t lied about the tablet. Yet there were ways to subvert his title. One of the bloodslaves had already managed that, and the king himself was D-grade. He was likely a practiced liar, like most rulers, soone who knew exactly how to lie without being detected.
The guard’s opinion didn’t matter much either. He was only following orders, and Thalion highly doubted anyone had ever shown him the tablet. The king needed willing Trialtakers to do his dirty work, and what better motivation was there than death? Anyone with lie-detection abilities had already heard about the tablet from the guard, and if the king possessed sothing that blocked such skills, it was likely no one noticed anything off.
There was also the inexperience of nearly everyone in the theater. They all ca from planets outside the system, and none of them knew what was normal here and what wasn’t. In short, they were perfect targets for such a trick. Even soone as suspicious as Thalion would hesitate to test it—fear alone would be enough.
And was it really worth the risk? They had to complete their tasks regardless. This stage was their opportunity to catch up to Thalion and claim first place.
“This is how it will go. There are many locations that need to be conquered and many treasures that must be recovered. Ratgul demanded that I assign at least two missions—one worth five hundred thousand points, and one worth a million. What you didn’t know until now is that none of these missions are ant for a single person. They are group missions.”
Thalion’s heart stopped.
Please, no group exercises. I always hated those.
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