Chapter 97: Chickens, Mana, and Mischief

  Day after day, oasis after oasis, the participants in this decennial challenge forged ahead through the endless dunes.

  They encountered a multitude of different monsters and mined ore to power their weapons with Emilia’s formations. Twice, they reached major oases where they regained access to their storage rings.

  Every one of them was forced to develop new skills and learn the harsh lessons of discipline, desert survival, and, most importantly, teamwork. Perhaps that was the true purpose of these challenges. After all, they were designed to forge the new generation.

  Emilia, Elion, and Rumi successfully mastered the skill of layering three thin veils of mana over their faces. Elion developed his mercantile talents, while Rumi fought relentlessly against various beasts. But this time, for the first time outside of specific rare training sessions, every participant was learning how to conserve every strike and every drop of mana.

  Emilia’s formations recharged the weapons quite slowly—anywhere from ten seconds for lighter magical strikes to thirty seconds for stronger ones, and sometimes even a minute or two for the most powerful attacks.

  Participants who relied on their physical bodies, such as Karpos, did not need special weapons. They used this challenge to temper their forms in the ceaseless battles between oases.

  Emilia painted countless talismans. Every night, while the others slept, she dedicated six to eight hours to her talismans and formations. She had to work with various types of raw energies, even learning to utilize parts from the different animals they defeated in battle. She also collected numerous cores from the stronger beasts and over three liters of scorpion venom.

  Gradually, the participants refined their strategies and learned to work in unison. Almost without noticing, they reached the final Great Oasis. There, they were forced to battle three enormous cyclopes who could shoot flames from their eyes and wielded massive, heavy weapons.

  Emilia, who had not been pressured to participate actively in the fighting due to the importance of her formations, was the first to scout the cyclopes' oasis. In doing so, she gathered several precious herbs and stumbled upon the cyclopes' chickens!

  These chickens were quite large, the size of pigs, and their mana was exceptionally pure. Emilia used her magic to dispatch the birds quickly, then drew on her experience with the hunters to butcher them correctly and store the meat in her ring.

  After the cyclopes were defeated, the strongest participants spent a long time arguing over how to divide the valuable parts and cores.

  Emilia meanwhile used this time to roast some of the chicken meat.

  In this oasis, everyone had access to their rings, but the food supplies within them had begun to dwindle after the long weeks of the desert trek.

  Once the last cyclops fell, a massive rock rose from the ground. It bore a map of the desert with two strange oases marked with an X. However, they were located far back, almost at the very beginning of the desert.

  After half an hour of discussion, everyone agreed that there was no point in turning back to explore them. Nevertheless, a strange boy, who somehow managed to hide within the sand itself using his magic, decided to head back.

  No one was entirely sure what mysterious items he carried in his ring, nor how he planned to cope with the animals constantly warring amongst themselves in the desert. He possessed a map and the experience gained so far, however, so he likely knew what he was doing.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "Maybe he is one of those mysterious heroes we often read about in the sacred books," Elion suggested. "He probably has a unique advantage in this desert and is about to acquire two legendary treasures all by himself."

  Emilia thought back to the mountain and her encounter with the short Mountain Guardian. She had acquired three unique opportunities there: the ant, the upgrade to her already exceptional ring, and the book of glyphs, the true value of which she could not even guess.

  "Perhaps it contains many unique glyphs, but I have no way of knowing which are well-known and which are ancient and precious," Emilia mused. She lacked a master to train her, and because of that, she was missing a great deal of knowledge in this field.

  Then she considered her gains from this trial. She had performed numerous favors for everyone, and since both Elion and Alexander from the Evander family were representing her, she would receive her rewards only after they left the pocket dimension.

  However, she had already gathered a significant amount: nearly a full cubic meter of mana-rich rock, as well as about 160 mana crystals and 120 monster cores. To that, one could add the chicken meat from earlier and three liters of scorpion venom.

  During the following days, as they traveled toward the desert exit, she sold a large portion of the delicious chicken meat. She would receive the payment through the Evander family once they exited the space.

  Everyone was quite famished from the long struggles in the desert, and the chicken meat should have been their reward after the harsh ordeal, yet no one ever realized that Emilia had snatched those chickens from right under the cyclopes' noses.

  Rumi adored the tender chicken meat, and even Elion, who usually avoided eating meat, had been tempted. He had brought out various spices and oils in which to fry the meat.

  The final evenings were a true luxury after the grueling trials.

  The three friends grew quite close, playing various games in the tent between the three cooling formations, snacking on different treats, talking freely about all sorts of topics, and laughing loudly late into the night.

  Emilia wanted this time to last for years. She was progressing with her skills, gaining priceless combat experience during the day, and practicing her other abilities in the evening.

  The strangest thing was that everyone had different memories of how many days they had spent in the desert! Time in this world was a quite elastic concept, and if there truly was a massive natural illusion formation surrounding the desert, anything was possible.

  Emilia suspected that part of their experiences had been an illusion, but that did not diminish their value in any way.

  Instead of reflecting like Zhuangzi—wondering if she was a person dreaming she was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming she was a person—she was simply grateful for the experience.

  And so, after crossing three rivers of sand, the group finally reached the edge of the desert, where a golem made of baked clay, as tall as a ten-story building, awaited them.

  He was like a small mountain, and when his eyes opened and he spoke with his thundering voice, Emilia was terrified, while Rumi even retreated five meters with her spear drawn.

  Only Elion remained calm and even smiled meaningfully at the two girls.

  The golem briefly congratulated the participants on overcoming the challenge, and suddenly, many smaller clay golems emerged from his body. Each one approached a participant and rewarded them with different prizes, based on their merits during the journey.

  Emilia received two of the magic seals and fifty stalks of the herbs native to the dimension, which were required to pay for entry. Thus, along with the herbs she had gathered before, she would now fully meet her quota.

  Emilia sighed and tried to see what Rumi and Elion had received, but Rumi, who had been the first to see Emilia's reward, looked at her with a triumphant smile.

  "Ha-ha, I have three whole seals! And I have this giant ruby too."

  Rumi showed off the ruby, which was as large as a fist; inside, a bolt of trapped lightning was visible! This was likely some valuable reward meant for either enhancing Rumi’s weapon or directly empowering her body and her talent for the lightning arts.

  Elion did not show what he had received, but he lacked the unique weapon and combat experience of the brave Rumi, nor did he possess Emilia’s formations. Because of that, his rewards were perhaps more modest.

  "I wonder what the boy who went back to explore the two mysterious oases will receive?" Emilia wondered. "Maybe this giant golem will personally hand him a precious reward with its own two hands, instead of sending the little golems?"

  Then Emilia shook her head and stopped thinking about someone else's fortune; after all, what mage didn't have their own little secrets. Not a single participant in this decennial challenge was an ordinary person.