Chapter 869: Trial
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The bone prison was the highest level priest spell for controlling an enemy. It was also the most draining in regards to death qi.
The priest did not keep attacking. The bone spears he threw landed perfectly on the invisible monster, and it almost did nothing.
After he decisively threw out the bone prison, he sped towards the entrance. He no longer had the excitement he had when his aging curse first affected the invisible monster.
The solid bone prison trapped the invisible monster in a cage, and the priest did not look back as he ran. He then heard a familiar bone-cracking sound.
His bone prison had broken. It did not even last for a second.
Half-elf Leon had arrived at the center of the lake. He did not hesitate and directly jumped in the center. That place did not look too special, but a big whirlpool suddenly emerged in the water, and he was sucked in.
“Wizard Abel, make sure you jump on this exact spot!’ Barbarian Ruin yelled as he roared and jumped in as well.
Abel was a little hesitant, but he soon decided to jump as well. Both half-elf Leon and Barbarian Ruin had jumped, so it should be safe.
He couldn’t wait for the priest, and he was still a little worried. He couldn’t trust a priest.
In a flash of white light, he appeared in the center of the lake. The whirlpool emerged again below him, and he sensed a suction force below.
He couldn’t help but sigh as he entered. The owner of this ancient sight must have immense knowledge in magic circles to set up such a strange entrance.
By the time he reappeared again, he had realized he had entered a giant s.p.a.ce.
It was like a giant oval battleground. He landed right in the center next to half-elf Leon and Barbarian Ruin.
Above him was some kind of magic circle reflecting a star map with countless little stars.
Although the individual stars were not s.h.i.+ning too brightly, they were enough to light up the s.p.a.ce.
The ground of this battleground was flat and st.u.r.dy. There were not any objects, and Abel sensed it was made out of the hardest rocks.
There were some seats on a platform around this oval. It was meant for an audience.
There was no one on those seats. Abel was in the spotlight, and he didn’t know what could happen next.
His sharp eyes soon spotted a staircase towards the seats above. It was the only staircase to the platform and the structure above.
That structure was made out of rocks as well, but it did not look as rough as the other ones. Instead, it was etched with patterns.
“Wizard Abel, we still have one minute before a training beast appears. We will only be rewarded if we win against the training beast. If you can’t win, pay attention to this!” Half-elf Leon said, pointing at a rock below his feet.
Abel could see it was a little magic circle, but it was extremely complex. For a person who didn’t know much about magic circles, there was no way Abel could figure out what it does.
“It’s a retreat circle. All you need to do is to ignite it with your power of the will, and you’ll be thrown out of the ancient sight!” Half-elf Leon explained.
“According to my speculation, this is a colosseum, and we had just entered from a pa.s.sage where people used to throw the beasts in here!” Barbarian Ruin added.
“Why is the priest so late?” Abel asked in a strange tone.
The priest was not far from the entrance when they jumped in.
However, a second after Abel asked this question, a beat-up looking priest appeared beside them.
His mood was awful. The invisible beast targeted him suddenly before he jumped in. He was almost attacked. If it wasn’t because of the iron monster on him, he might not even make it.
His iron monster was not only blasted into pieces, but the priest was hurt as well.
Mud monsters and skeletons could be killed, and it wouldn’t bother the priest much, but not an iron monster. Those things were treasures.
Every priest needed to purchase large amounts of iron weapons to ensure the power of their iron monster.
And the one by this bighorn priest cost him more than 1000 intermediate gems.
Getting his iron monster destroyed was like getting 1000 intermediate gems destroyed. His heart was aching, but he also realized how powerful that invisible monster was.
If he knew how powerful that thing was earlier, he might not even go on this adventure.
“Wizard Abel, last time we had 7 members in our team. In the end, only us 3 could escape. Be careful,” Barbarian Ruin lowered his voice.
He wanted to warn Abel long ago, but he had signed a contract with the priest promising he would not say anything about the entrance or anything that happened in the ancient sight before they arrived.
This was why the priest never replied, even though Abel had asked along the way.
Abel’s face looked gloomy. Only 3 of them had survived. How dangerous was this place?
The priest never told him the dangers of this adventure when he invited him. It seemed like the priest tricked him. He could also see that Barbarian Ruin and half-elf Leon had their reasons for not warning him earlier.
Abel didn’t know since he was a new adventurer, but in the Central Continent, all adventure team members needed to sign a contract agreeing to how they would act during an adventure.
Abel worried the most about his team’s backstabbing him, but it would never happen if he had signed a contract.
“Wizard Abel, this is not where the danger was. Last time we knew we couldn’t win, so we retreated. But as we were leaving, we were attacked by some unknown creature, and 4 of our teammates were lost. It was most likely the invisible monster!” Half-elf Leon quickly explained as he saw Abel’s expression.
They learned their lesson from last time, so they brought along a lot of move in a flash scrolls with them. This could increase their retreating speed. Then they wouldn’t be attacked.
“Are you sure that invisible monster won’t come into the ancient sight?” Abel lowered his voice a well. Abel’s words made the other’s heart drop. They looked around. There was nothing, but the atmosphere grew tense.
“Can we go to the audience area?” Abel asked again.
“No, we have to go through the examination. There is a protection s.h.i.+eld there. It is very hard. We tried to strike it last time it did nothing.” Half-elf Leon lowered his voice as well and replied.
“Commander spirit, do you know the spirit here?” Abel did not care. Instead, he focused his power of the will on his headmaster ident.i.ty card and asked the commander spirit.
“Headmaster, this is a colosseum. The spirit here is not too intelligent. Just a normal spirit!” The commander spirit replied.
Abel’s eyes began to sparkle. He was not expecting the commander spirit to know about this place. He quickly followed, “what are the dangers is in this colosseum?”
“Headmaster, colosseums are for resolving conflicts. When 2 powerful men have to fight, they need a large open s.p.a.ce that they can do so without damaging the environment. The audience can also bet on who they think will win, and that’s how the colosseum makes a profit!” The commander spirit explained.
Abel shook his head. Gambling had been a thing since ancient times.
“The danger of this place mostly comes from the guardian creature. It made sure that this place was not invaded.
“Commander spirit. Since we are at the center of the colosseum, what will happen to us?” Abel asked again.
“Win against an examination beast. It is the only way you can get rewarded and retreat. If not, you will be hunted down by the guardian beast!” The commander spirit replied.
Abel realized why the priest was hunted down last time. They had failed the examination.
He felt his heart lifted. His worry for the unknown was defused.
There must be a problem with this guardian beast, so maybe its power had declined after not fighting for so long. With the power of an ancient guardian beast, no way it could let the priest escape.
Up to this point, an ear-piercing grinding sound emerged.
“Wizard Abel, get ready. Summon Johnson!” The priest yelled.
The reason he had taken Abel along was because he saw Johnson’s power.
Abel nodded and padded his chest. A giant black hole emerged, and Johnson stepped out to bow in front of Abel.
“Johnson. Get ready to fight!” Abel lowered his voice.
Johnson quickly changed its body and put up a fighting pose.
The sound from the ground intensified, and the rocks began to move. Finally, 4 holes emerged from each corner of the colosseum.
A giant puppet monster emerged from one of them. Only a thing like that could still fight after all the years.
Abel calculated for a moment. There were 20 six meters tall puppets in total, and they were all entirely made out of iron—no wonder the priests couldn’t win last time.
Those things were much more powerful than the ones from the dwarfs, and their body was filled with countless patterns, not for decoration, of course, they were magic patterns.
“Let’s fight!” The priest yelled and took some dead corpses of beasts. He then summoned 8 skeletons from them, and then he summoned a mud monster from the ground.
Half-elf Leon also summed the oak sage and a mad wolf. The mad wolf was not for fighting, but it was his mount.
“Wizard Abel, my spell can only support you. They couldn’t do much to those monsters. I’m counting on Johnson!” The priest lowered his voice.
Abel was starting to get irritated by the priest. Along the way, he had already counted on him for safety, but he had not told him anything about the ancient sight’s detail until moments ago.
He began to regret going on this adventure with the priest. Although they agreed that the rewards would be distributed according to the contribution, the commander spirit said this was only a colosseum with some puppet monsters. What good stuff could there be anyway?
The 20 puppets fixed their gaze on Abel and the team. They began to slowly move forward but soon accelerated. In the end, they were even faster than a normal spiritual beast.
“Take care!” Abel said coldly and vanished from the spot. He then reappeared on the shoulder of Johnson.
“Bighorn, you should have told Wizard Abel about this place earlier. We might lose him as a teammate!” Half-elf Leon lowered his voice.
Barbarian Ruin did not make a sound. He had decided to leave this team after this adventure was finished. The priest was too manipulative.
“If I told him earlier, do you think he would come and help us?” The priest coldly laugh.
He did not tell his team that he did not sign a contract with Abel…. because he had more in the works.