Chapter 520: Rules

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 20 -> lvl 21]

[Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 13 -> lvl 14]

[Spirit Fortification lvl 8 -> lvl 9]

Julius was quite happy to see that he had gained a good number of levels in his skills. It was just proof that his fight with Riven had been a good idea. Three levels wasn’t the most he had gotten from a fight, but considering it was from a Tier 3, it might have been even more impressive.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to admire his skills at the moment. As he and his friends recovered some stamina, he looked over at the entrance of the temple.

Julius didn’t like what he saw. Now that the monsters had been taken care of, there was a significant drop in the number of people. He had seen a large number of them get overwhelmed and run off somewhere. Another good number of them were dead on the ground.

This meant that Garrett and his group were suddenly the dominant force. Julius believed that this had been part of Garrett’s plan. He didn’t know how the Greyson Scion knew that this kind of situation might happen, but before the large number of random groups had prevented Garrett from making any drastic moves. However, there was much less resistance now.

Julius would also have to take into account that Garrett’s group was working together, while the other groups were a collection of random people with no shared purpose.

“Was this part of his plan?” Julius asked Riven.

“Yes, Garrett seemed pretty confident that something would happen that would reduce the number of competitors and give us the advantage afterwards,” Riven answered.

Julius nodded and pulled his attention from Garrett to look at the mysterious figure still floating in the sky, doing absolutely nothing. He wasn’t the only person, either. Most of the crowd that was still around was staring at this figure to see what they would say or do.

Some were visibly nervous. They were probably just hoping that the figure wouldn’t send out another horde of monsters. Julius wouldn’t have minded that, though. He felt like he missed some of the excitement because of his fight with Riven.

He noticed that many people were tired. The ones who looked pretty lively were the ones from Garrett’s group.

Almost five minutes passed with the floating man doing nothing. However, to Julius’s relief as well as to the relief of many others, the man finally moved.

They all watched with bated breath when the figure stopped in front of the open doors. The iridescent light spilling out of the doorway has a shimmering beauty. People were already inching forward, impatiently wanting to get in.

However, they didn’t do that. They all remembered how the figure had vaporized the people who had touched him previously. They didn’t want to experience the same thing by making a similar mistake.

The robed angelic man slowly floated back down to the ground and examined the group of people with his rainbow colored eyes. There was a subtle but intense pressure being exuded, and Julius could feel the mounting tension.

“Okay, this seems like a better number,” the man called, his voice just as melodic and bored as before.

“Those who have five tokens may proceed inside. Those who don’t and still want to try to get inside can enter at their own risk. You will probably be ripped apart before you can take a step inside,” the man said with a shrug before turning around and walking inside.

It was like a starting signal had been released, and Julius watched as everyone sprinted toward the entrance.

However, much to his expectations, Julius watched as Garrett’s little group interfered before they could get close. Large coordinated attacks rained down on the incoming people. Large barriers and shields were deployed right in time, blocking the attacks.

“What in the hell do you think you are doing!?” One of the people attacked shouted out.

“Yeah! What is your problem?!” Another girl yelled.

“Are you guys surprised? House Greyson has always been full of little dishonorable shits. This is right up their alley. Cowardly Garrett gathered a bunch of shitty little minions to control who can enter the trial and ultimately to try and control who passes on through the third stage,” a rugged-looking guy with a massive sledgehammer slung over his shoulder said with a scoff. His voice rang out across the entire field, as if he were speaking through a microphone.

Julius looked over at Riven, who looked a little peeved at that comment. Julius didn’t blame him for being upset either; technically speaking, Riven was still part of Garrett’s group and grouped with the other “shitty little minions”.

A chorus of upset voices blasted across the field. Then a boisterous laugh cut through the noise like a razor-sharp sword.

“Why are you guys complaining? This is amazing! We get to fight even more!”

Everyone simultaneously turned to look at the voice; even Garrett’s group turned their attention to the voice. Julius, on the other hand, felt a chill run up his spine. He felt like he had heard this voice before.

He slowly turned his head and grimaced when he saw exactly who he was thinking of. A massive form loomed over everyone else. Isaac, the person who had confronted Julius in the hallway, was the person who had laughed.

How this guy was around the same age as everyone else was a total mystery to Julius. The guy looked like he was thirty years old, and this was taking into account that people aged slowly and thirty-year-olds could have been a hundred years old.

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It would appear he wasn’t the only person who had recognized Isaac. He heard murmurs from the crowd and even some anxious whispers from Garrett’s group. It didn’t sound like they were thrilled about fighting Isaac.

More than a few people recognized Isaac by the sounds of it and weren’t afraid to yell at the boisterous guy.

“Shut up, you battle maniac. Not all of us can fight for a week straight like you!”

“Yeah, keep out of this, you big brute! You are going to make things worse.” A girl yelled out aggressively.

Julius, on the other hand, was very interested to see how it would unfold. He was already preparing his mana for the incoming confrontation.

He made sure his friends were doing okay. He had Drasil heal them beforehand, and their mana pools had mostly recovered. They had done a good job on conserving mana. It was a stark difference from their fight in the Endless Forest.