627 The Challenge [1]
Sia, along with the crowd, exhaled as the old man wearing a black dress disappeared.
In front of them were three giant doors.
Strength.
Wit.
Strength and Wit.
'I'm strong, but if they count all my paths to gauge my strength, I'll lose without a doubt.' Sia felt a headache.
If she was like a normal triple awakener, she'd have picked the path of strength without a doubt.
Problem was that despite awakening in three paths, she couldn't exert her complete strength.
She could only use her mind and gravity path.
'Thanks to Enigma.' She bit her lip and recalled her last interaction with Enigma.
'…Charles will be there, and so will Varian. Varian will try to kill Charles. You can't stop Charles' team yourself, I'll be there when the time comes.'
Unlike her, Enigma could use the three paths perfectly.
Even if Sia was unwilling to admit defeat, she couldn't deny the obvious.
Enigma was the better choice if a fight erupted in the Ruler's, no, the Prince's Abode.
'To think it's not even the Ruler's Abode…' Sia's eyes flashed as she observed the strange carvings on the doors.
She didn't know why, but she was able to understand some of the words.
For instance, on the door of strength:
[Those that fight with strength will be treated with honor by the prince. They will be soldiers. They will hold no political authority.]
On the door of wit:
[Those that fight with wit will be respected. They will be strategists and think tanks. They will have political authority but no power.]
Finally, the door of wit and strength:
[You are the favorite subject of the prince. You can even become a general and hold both political and power!]
As Sia stood silently, the nineteen level 8s started to move.
Fourteen picked strength, one picked wit and only four picked wit & strength.
Charles' team went the strength route.
The great four—the strongest level 8s picked the wit & strength door.
Sia's eyes shone with a black light and she walked into the wit door.
Presented in front of her was a jigsaw puzzle garden with multiple routes.
Sia had been to several of these with Varian and was familiar with them.
But the familiarity ended there.
The plants on either side were psychics and continuously exuded their mental power to trap Sia in an illusion.
At the same time, a voice sounded in her mind.
[This is a test of wit using your mind path. If you don't find the right path in thirty minutes, the monsters held in all paths but one shall be released.]
"Roar!"
Following the voice, a roar reverberated shook the world and a terrifying pressure descended on Sia.
Sia frowned at the pressure and clenched her fists.
'Focus. Focus…'
She spread out her psychic sense and checked the traces of aura along each path.
According to the announcement, except for one path, she'd encounter monsters on all paths.
So, she used her sense to find which path had monsters and which didn't.
Originally, it'd have been an easy issue.
But with the addition of psychic plants, the entire garden was interfering with Sia's psychic sense.
Beads of sweat rolled down Sia's forehead as her chest heaved up and down.
However, with eyes full of conviction, she picked a particular path.
The path didn't end.
Right when she picked this path, two terrifying auras rose in the two paths she didn't pick.
'Phew.' Sia sighed in relief but felt a headache looking at the three paths this path had split into.
'Again…'
*** *** ***
[The test of the battle of wits is simple. Your strength is perfectly measured. All you need to do is take the right step and kill the monster in one step.]
Standing on a pile of rocks mysteriously floating in lava, Varian smiled rather nonchalantly.
"Sounds easy."
As if responding to his words, the voice continued.
[Your task is to kill this creature in one shot.]
Following the voice, the world began to shake and the air blasted.
"Roaar!"
A ferocious roar sounded, followed by a blast of aura.
The smile on Varian's face disappeared and his jaw dropped. "What the fuck?"
A giant ice dragon floated above him. Compared to the creatures he saw before, it was considerably small. But even then, it was the size of two buses.
More importantly, the aura it emitted…
"Level 8!" Varian's eyes glittered with golden light and he channeled his space power.
Boom!
The moment Varian teleported, the place he was at froze. It was so cold that even lava failed to melt it. Instead, ice started to cool down the lava.
"…"
Sweat trickled down Varian's forehead and his heart pounded like crazy. His space sense locked onto the creature and observed its body thoroughly.
Despite how well it looked, this level 8 dragon was emitting an orange light from its blue body.
The orange light was…fire mana.
'It swallowed some fire treasure?' Varian wasn't sure and he couldn't think as—
Boom!
A giant ice spear appeared in front of him and he dodged it by a hair's width before teleporting.
"Fu…Fuck!" Varian gasped as he felt a literal chill down his spine. Even though the spear almost touched him, it didn't touch him after all. Yet, a scary iciness spread in his body.
'How! How do I even kill this creature in one shot?' As he wondered, he noticed the area the ice spear passed through.
With his previous position as the center, it was frozen for a few meters.
'It's such a powerful attack that I felt chills even without being hit, how come lava is so resistant to it?'
Even though lava's temperature is damn high, a level 8's ice mana was much more powerful.
In fact, Varian even remembered some water awakeners going to volcanos on earth and other planets when they erupted as a vacation.
Since they could play with lava as they wished, it only meant…
'This lava isn't normal.' Varian held his breath and his space sense extended into the lava.
It was a mix of orange, red, and a mix of brown.
The deeper he went, the more the temperature rose.
At some point, Varian found to his utter surprise that his space sense couldn't progress any further.
'But how? It's barely three hundred meters!'
He didn't have the time to ponder as a torrent of ice lotuses reached him.
Boom!
Under the onslaught of ice lotuses, lava splashed into the air and a burnt smell filled the place.
The area ice lotuses settled turned the lava into igneous rocks.
"Haa. Haa." Varian panted as he felt a mix of cold and heat assaulting his body. On one hand, he was sweating like crazy, on the other, he was shivering from the cold.
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
