The second round was still underway and by one most of the participants had already figured out what they needed to do to clear the current round of eliminations.
Now the focus of the various participants is to hunt for various Direbeast nests so that they could gather the tokens that are distributed in the mountain.
Even if nobody knew exactly how many tokens were needed to clear the current round but still the participants had already figured out a pattern to how the tokens were distributed in the mountain. This pattern was one that was actually very obvious that anybody with a little bit of deduction could figure out.
As this mountain was one of the special mountain terrains that were completely occupied by Direbeasts, it had formed its own ecological system where different species of Direbeasts coexisted with each other forming its own food chain and basic hierarchy.
In this mountain, there was an innumerable number of Direbeasts nests roughly distrib
"Who is the person of interest?" Councilman Killian asked.There was a pause as silence fell in the room.All the council members who had been present on the day when the plans for the chosen ceremony had been discussed... all of them looked at each other in silence.Seeing the odd behavior of their fellow council members, the other three were very puzzled and Councilman Killian asked."Why are you all behaving so oddly? Does this have anything to do with this person of interest that you mentioned?""Tell us, is there anything that we don't know about, or is there something special about this person's identity that would elicit such behavior from you guys?"With the odd way the other council members were behaving, the curiosity of the other three council members increased, and although they did not say anything the expressions of Councilmen Zain and Councilwoman Rema made it clear that they too were very interested in knowing this person.
A long time later.The second elimination round had been going on for almost five hours now and in these five hours, a lot of things had happened.In these past five hours, the intensity of the second round had increased so high that at almost every moment, a tremor could be felt shaking the mountain like a small-scale earthquake. These tremors were a sign that somewhere, someplace, there was a battle going in the mountain as the participants clashed either against the resident Direbeasts of the mountain or against themselves as they sought the tokens that would allow them to clear this elimination round.There was seemingly no moment of peace and nobody knew when they would be swept inside another battle at any moment.During these five hours, all sought of things had happened.The people who were watching the live broadcast were too occupied with watching the different battles that the participants were involved in.At one moment they woul
Arran left.After that very close battle, the way Arran was now, it was like he was a completely new person. There were subtle changes that were made to him in a peculiar way. It was not possible to see just how Arran had changed and in what way exactly but it was clear to the people who knew him even a little that something was different about him.Something good...Eris was able to notice this change as well as Charmy.The two people who could be said to be the closest to Arran apart from his parents in the whole universe, it was a given that the two would notice such minute changes to Arran no matter how small they were.If the two of them could not even notice this small detail then there would likely be no one who would notice it ever.Seeing the change in Arran, Charmy whispered to Eris softly."Hey Eris, is it just me, or is there something different about Arran right now?""You're correct Charmy. You're not seeing thing
The competition was still ongoing and everything seemed to have settled into a certain kind of rhythm.Every participant hunted for the tokens so that they could clear the current elimination round. in doing so they not only hunted the various Direbeast nests in the mountain but they also hunted each other.This flow that the participants followed seemed like it would last for a very long time with no major disruptions to be had... at least this is how it seemed on the surface... but if one were to look beneath the surface, they would find that there was a sense of urgency that was growing in the minds and hearts of the participants.This sense of urgency could not be described with words as it was more like a feeling than anything else that something major... something that would turn the entire stable rhythm of the competition on its head was about to happen.Nobody knew what was about to happen but they knew that it would be soon.As if the heav
"Shit, are they referring to me!"Arran exclaimed as he listened to the sudden and unexpected announcement and he was in a state of utmost shock and surprise.Listening to the words of the woman listing out the content of the announcement, Arran was pretty sure that they were talking about him.The person who the announcement was referring to was most like him and Arran was 80% sure that he was correct. The reason why it was not 100% was that Arran was giving himself a way out... leaving some room for him to doubt himself. But it did not matter how much Arran wanted to believe that he was probably mistaken, Arran could just not bring himself to believe that.This was because the whole incident was too coincidental to be wrong.Just as Arran had finally fused the tokens for the fourth time and he had deduced that he was likely to complete the markings on the token after one last fusion... meaning that he would finally be able to clear the current el
Sometime later.Of the one hour that was given before Arran's location was broadcasted to every participant in the mountain, there was only a little more than twenty minutes left. That means that Arran had spent a little over thirty minutes avoiding the other participants, preventing them from finding him.In those thirty minutes, Arran had not been idle. He had gone over all of his various abilities which could be of use as well as the different items in his possession which he had carried along with him before the ceremony began.Like it was mentioned before, the participants were allowed to make use of any tools and artifacts that they had in their possession provided that these tools and artifacts did not pose a danger to the lives of the participants in the ceremony.Arran had taken inventory of his various possessions and he had roughly gone over his plans time and time again before settling on a rough course of action. With what Arran had in mind,
Arran had finally arrived.After making his way through the endless winding tunnels and painstakingly avoiding any contact with other participants... and even until he stumbled upon a lucky encounter... Arran had finally arrived at his destination, and with a little bit of time from the original hour to spare too.This place was a dark and silent cave that was devoid of any signs of life whatsoever.The cave was quite large and inside one could find the residual corpses of its original inhabitants who had fallen victim to the unrestrained plundering of the participants.Large fleshy leaf-like appendages was strewn haphazardly everywhere and longs stems that were covered in tree barks lay prone on the ground.In this cave, unlike most other caves in the mountain that was usually illuminated with sparse luminous rocks and plants or which lacked any form of lighting at all, this cave had a large hole in the ceiling through which a single ray of sunlig
"Attention all participants, this is an announcement.""The one-hour period of grace has passed and during this time, the participant who is close to fulfilling the requirements to advance to the next round has not been found nor has he been able to advance onto the next round. Since an hour is already over, the location of this participant will be broadcasted to all participants starting from now. The location of the participant will also be refreshed every fifteen minutes to all participants. Everybody is welcome to engage in this hunting event. We wish all participants luck in their hunt.""Happy hunting..."This announcement played three times on a loop in the minds of all the participants located in the mountain.After the third time, finally, the location of Arran was made known to all participants."Finally, it's here!""I've waited long enough for this. Now I can finally start my hunt.""Whoever you are, prepare yourself and w