Warlock of Oceans: My Poseidon System

Chapter 124 Entrance Scaling Exams (6)

"I swear, on everything. I did no such thing. I'm the youngest of my family, so I have no younger siblings than myself. It's your choice whether to believe me or not, but I hope you can trust that I'm telling the truth."

"No, I believe you," She quietly responded before hugging Mari once more, and as all the children began to settle down, the elf began to explain the rules and objective of this practical exam.

"Alright! QUIET! QUIET! Okay, good… now, this practical exam consists of two separate objectives, but you only need one to pass. Take a tracker from another participant, but you may collect more. The more you collect, the higher evaluation you will receive. This school reserves tenacity over strength, so make sure you remember to use your brain. And then the second way to pass is by keeping the flag at the very top of the palace towers to yourself until the end of the exam. The more time you keep it, the higher your evaluation, and a bonus will be given to the holder of the flag at the end of the time. Now, you have the entire day. Twenty-four hours. Killing is forbidden, and severely injuring somebody intentionally is also forbidden… NOW… START!"

Immediately, everybody was caught off guard as we weren't separated from the beginning. If we wanted to take out the entire class, then it would be now… but I had more important things to worry about.

As my siblings and I dashed into the forest, I felt a presence follow us. It was dark and had malicious intent… so I couldn't help but test out my new skills.

Instantly, I activated the tarot power I had been meaning to use but never got to utilize to its fullest extent. And that, of course, was [World of Flesh]. When I activated it previously, my visions definitely changed a bit, with everything suddenly getting brighter, but I don't know if that was its intended effect.

"[World of Flesh]," I muttered before whipping my head around. Just like last time, everything went bright, almost completely blinding me, forcing me to stop in place. The presence following me and my siblings who were beside me all stopped, watching me rub my eyes as they adjusted to this skill.

"Seal… your eyes are bloodshot," Asger muttered, but he didn't need to tell me that for me to find out. My eyes were throbbing, and the blinding light only grew brighter before suddenly, in an instant, the world around me shifted.

A wave of nausea strangely overcame me as my vision altered to a point where all I could see was the muscles and organs and skeletons of everything around me. Trees, grass, dirt, and of course, people. I could see the interworkings of everything.

The twitch of a swaying blade of grass was signaled through its roots and to the very tip, allowing it to reach towards the artificial sunlight only a few centimeters away from it. The trees swayed away from me, almost bashfully, as if I was staring at their naked bodies. Enjoy new chapters from empire

And then, finally, as the leaves, for some reason, disappeared from the trees, despite the interworkings of the grass below me being revealed, I noticed a mound of flesh. They were stalking me and my siblings from the treetops.

I stared at the being, causing him to slowly inch away on the branch he was perched on. And that branch wasn't necessarily thick, meaning he must be well-versed in assassination, otherwise, it would have snapped by now.

"Hey, just come down here. I don't feel like wasting my energy trying to chop you down," I smirked at the mound of flesh. From the brain, a signal travels down the spine, into several nerves, and then into the muscles. It began to move him forward, dashing and then jumping off the branch towards me.

Clearly, the mound of flesh had fallen for my taunt, and with two glistening blades being tightly held within the center of its palms, I took a step back. The swing was silent and just barely missed my throat, meaning this thing wasn't going in for the knockout or my tracker, but instead the kill.

The mound of flesh tried to follow up with another attack, but as it tried to move forward, its entire body froze in place. Hundreds of thin strings of water infused with aetheric properties blended in with the patch of sunlight shining from above. They instantly captured its movement, and from its brain once again, the mound of flesh sent a signal to its spine, but this time the main portion of nerves carried a signal to its jaw.

A small smoke bomb was hidden within its teeth so quickly I grabbed its jaw and stopped its muscles from moving any further. And just by digging my fingers into the muscles that allow the jaw to open, the mound of flesh screamed with pain.

"Hmmmm…" I snaked my eyes up and down the boy who I managed to see as soon as I deactivated [World of Flesh]. "I knew it would be you…"

BAM

I smashed his face into the ground, causing the smoke bomb to slip out from his teeth. He coughed up a massive amount of blood as his internal organs literally folded into themselves. And as his brain rattled in its soup of juices, his eyes rolled back into his head.

"Tsk… fucking dumbass…" I clicked my tongue before grabbing his tracker. It was different from mine as it had an eagle on it… making this some kind of badge. "Hey, are your trackers also different from mine?"

Asger, Mari, and Petra all revealed their badges, displaying different animals. Asger was a puppy, Mari was a crow, and Petra was an owl. They were all pretty synonyms with their personalities and appearances, so when I connected the dots and looked down at my own badge, I couldn't help but deadpan.

"What's wrong?" Petra asked, giving me a worried expression as I stared down at the fish, which was my current badge.

"Pffft… it's nothing, don't worry about this asshole," Mari smirked at me while petting Petra's head. The innocent girl didn't know any better and just moved her face further into Mari's hand, all while Asger looked at me with confusion. Clearly, it was only Mari who understood.

Soon, we were on our way deeper into the forest, and as the previous use of [World of Flesh] sapped more mana than I would have liked, I kept it deactivated. We ran and ran and ran and ran until we came to a clearing approximately an hour later.

"It's even bigger up close," Asger smiled, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

We all looked up at the massive fantasy-like palace sitting atop a city which ever so slightly raised up the further you went it. It was like an upside-down funnel, wanting to draw you further and further into the center where the main action happened.

As we walked into the fantasy capital, we felt the sensation of real stone brick streets against our feet. We saw the medieval architecture of fantasy stories appear around us, their guts actually filled with furniture and occasionally scraps of slow-spoiling food like beef jerky and canned soup. In addition, there were some large jugs of water scattered inside each house, meaning nobody could die from any natural necessities.

Once we had our fill with the empty fantasy houses, we made our way further and further to the palace. Nobody besides us could be heard or seen, causing an eerie silence to envelop us. It was as if we were in a completely different world, and the only people present were us.

But, that was only for the buildings surrounding the palace as once we reached the very front of the palace, we were greeted by a large crowd of kids. There had to be at least twenty out of the hundred in our class present here, attending what seemed to be a meeting… and well, the person who was leading the meeting was pretty obvious.

It was everyones favorite lier, number two, and fish lips… Evelyn Cresplitter. She looked natural as she led the crowd into talking about how they were going to capture me. And for some reason, as she started to discuss more extreme things, nobody dared to question her rule… as if she was manipulating their minds.

"She's controlling them, and I assume she's going to use them against me… so that means she's not only proficient in fighting but also mental control. I assume it's weaker than her fighting capabilities, but if she's able to sway the minds of the twenty or so kids present, then it must be pretty strong…." I muttered to myself, with Mari immediately overhearing.

"She's probably going to get them to search and hunt you down while she collects badges from others she's already bribed. I assume she'll take the king of the hill spot as well… so what do you want to do?"