Chapter 246 (1): The Judges Are My People—How Can You Possibly Compete with Me?
April second.
After twenty days of rest, the second round of the Holy Maiden selection commenced.
The team of magic engineering busied about for ages, constructing a teleportation portal around the mansions. After several test runs, they teleported the mansion and the candidates together.
***
The forest shrouded in thick mist seemed to sit at the edge of the world. An eerie atmosphere pervaded the wilderness, and because it was far from the center of the world, the dim, washed-out sunlight was especially weak, unable to dispel the cold air.
A cutting wind swept past, accompanied by the rustling of leaves. Unknown beasts let out piercing cries like dead souls reenacting their bleak deaths over and over after coming alive.
Wayne circled the mansion. The tall trees surrounding him were half hidden in dense fog. They extended their ghostly branches like twisted hands, beckoning to the living.
The dead branches and fallen leaves beneath his feet crunched and crackled with his every step. He sniffed the air and smelled decay, reminded of Darkness and Death.
So creepy!
It was hard to imagine that this was where the Church of Nature was going to assess the Holy Maiden candidates. It seemed better suited for the Church of Darkness or Church of Death.
According to the cheat sheet Senna had given him, the second round of assessment used a point system; the candidates were to go on a dungeon raid, and they would be ranked based on the order of their clears. Additionally, the higher-ups would monitor the candidates; the scores they gave would affect the ranking.
This dungeon, for example, was named the Misty Forest, a cursed land of Darkness and Death that greatly weakened the faith magic of the Church of Nature. The candidates were to collect four teleportation magic stones to activate the portal and enter the next dungeon, using their respective mansions as bases.