The participants entered the forest in groups of three to ten people. Very few of them entered alone, but they didn't seem interested in the hunt but to do other things.
Seth chose to enter alone and just after he entered, his body vanished from everyone's sight not attracting the attention of anyone.
The first thing he would be doing, was to observe. He didn't come here just to pass some time, but he was actually interested in the operation he and Elyra were conducting. Seth felt that what Elyon was trying to do was intertwined with the current event he was participating. It couldn't be just a coincidence for him to choose this time to act.
He was about to release his Soul Sense to investigate the area, when suddenly he saw a group of three elves going to a place far away from the others.
"Hey, did you bring that?"
"Heh... Of course! Do you think I would lose this chance? My father specially bought this for me, just so I could use it here."
"Let me see if this is going to work."
"Quick! Show us."
A male elf took a round object from his spatial ring. It was a black sphere that contained a lot of Qi.
Seth felt the energy of a Qi Transformation beast coming from that object and realized what they were trying to do.
The elf grabbed his green token and approached both items, putting them together. There was a very small reaction from the token, as it quickly absorbed the energy and changing colors a bit after. The Qi energy inside the sphere was thoroughly spent, turning it into a useless object.
"Ahaha, it works!"
"Those losers will have to work their ass off in order to kill a Qi Transformation beast, while I won't, hehe."
"Did you bring more with you?"
"Yeah man... Don't you have another one of those cores?"
"No. Father only gave me one."
"Come on... We know your father is a big shot and you're rich as fuck. Why don't you support your buddies here?"
"I can't I just have one, man..."
Seth was looking at what they were doing and realized that there was a way to cheat in these Wild Games. However, he knew that a core like that was an expensive thing, that would cost a lot. The poor elves would need to do the hard work, while the rich ones could buy their way up the ladder.
'As I thought. There isn't a pure and honest race in this world. If someone of something has a heart, it is prone to be corrupted. Very well, this way I won't feel bad for doing this.'
Seth disappeared and appeared before those three elves.
"Hello there, brothers. Mind if I take a closer look on that?" He asked while pointing to the blue token.
When the elf holding the blue token looked towards it, he saw that instead of a blue toke he was already holding a green token, while the initial one was inside Seth's palm.
"It is really impressive of you, my friend. You were able to acquire a blue token in less than thirty minutes the preliminaries started. Since you're that good and that fast, you won't mind if I take this one with me, right?"
"W-Who? Who are you?"
"Give it back!"
While the old owner of the blue token was shocked, his friends were the ones that were asking questions.
"Ahaha, I hope you have a good time hunting. Bye." Seth vanished from that place, leaving three shocked elves behind.
"Cheater! He stole the token."
"It can't be true right?"
"..."
Seth was already far away from there, searching for other things.
'With this I won't have to bother hunting, let's see if I can find anything interesting.'
He climbed on top of a tree and started to spread his Soul Sense in the area. Seth could see that many elves were doing the same thing. Cheating. Those who entered alone, were doing the same thing as that elf from before.
There were many others that didn't have the money to cheat like that, or didn't want to cheat like that, just like the elves from the Allakiir family. They were hunting in group, killing a Qi transformation beast together.
However, as Seth's Soul Sense went further inside the forest, he finally saw something that intrigued him.
There was a Mana Perception instructor wandering inside the forest, searching for something. He passed through many places, until he reached a place that seemed to be the territory for a pack of wolves.
Those wolves were all Qi Transformation Realm beasts and didn't notice him approaching, since his strength was greater. They seemed to be resting there, waiting for the night to come, the time for their hunt. However, that man approached them, disturbing their peaceful time.
The wolves noticed him, since he wasn't trying to hide his presence and prepared to attack the intruder.
The man laughed at them, because none of those wolves would be able to injury him. The difference between their strength was immense. He took a bottle with a red liquid from his spatial ring and quickly used his Mana to suppress the wolves.
Howl!
The wolves felt that they couldn't move and started to howl, but it changed nothing. The man walked towards them and threw a bit of that liquid on those wolves' bodies.
Seth recognized that as being the same red liquid that the humans traded with Elyon. Corrupted blood. He creased his eyebrows, trying to think of a reason for him to be doing that, but he could think of none.
But soon he witnessed some changes appearing on those wolves.
HOWL! HOWL! HOWL!
Their eyes turned blood-shot and their bodies grew in size, since their muscles expanded with the corrupted blood feeding them energy. A lot of saliva started to drip from their open mouths as they tried to break free from the pressure the instructor was doing on them.
Fine red lines started to shine in the surface of their skin, but Seth realized that it was their veins. The blood inside their veins were getting corrupted, making the animals lose their basic instinct, getting super aggressive.
The instructor then opened a cut in one of those wolves and collected more corrupted blood from it. He made sure to not get in contact with the blood as he refilled the bottle with it.
When he finished that, he left quickly, releasing the pressure from those beast bodies.
Howl!
They started to sprint to different directions, searching for a prey. Some of them even started to fight with each other, killing themselves in the process.
Seth was no punisher, but he decided to act this time. He didn't know what was the main purpose behind that man's actions, but he was about to discover it with certain means.
His body flashed past many areas of the forest and each step he took seemed to cover at least a hundred meters. He didn't sense any eyes on him and released his Shadow Walk in order to reach that place faster.
Very quickly he was already in front of one of those Qi Transformation wolves.
Seth didn't even use his Mana to kill it. He simple kicked the wolf's head, giving it no chance to even see what happened. Less than ten seconds after, he saw the second wolf approaching. Seth did the same thing with those uncontrollable beasts, killing them with a single blow.
After dealing with the ones that came towards his direction, what didn't take even five minutes for him, Seth dashed towards the instructor that had used the corrupted blood on them. All this time, he had been observing where he has gone to, so in a matter of seconds, he was already standing in front of that person.
The instructor abruptly stopped after realizing someone was blocking his path.
"Who are you?" He asked with suspicion. There was absolutely no reason for someone to stop him inside the forest other than for the things he just did. But inwardly, he was thinking that even if he had to fight, he would never reveal what he knew.
On the other side, Seth didn't want to have a conversation like this in the middle of the forest, or else some people or beast might get attracted. This person in front of him would be a good target for his enhanced Hades abilities.
Seth's eyes lit up with a blue light and his soul energy attacked the instructor's mind, tearing his defenses like they were a piece of paper.
The instructor's eyes went totally dull and he was experiencing a nightmare, where many corrupted wolves were feasting over his flesh over and over.
While that was happening, Seth had found the way to his soul essence and started extracting the information he wanted.
He saw what happened two days ago, when Elyon gave him orders to contaminate the beasts inside the forest when the preliminaries started.
…...
"I want you to create a huge chaos for me on that day. If you're able to do it, then you can expect to have a great reward at the end of everything."
…...
'So, it was him, huh? What is he trying to accomplish with this?'
Seth decided to leave the forest after discovering that. The instructor that was working under Elyon was left behind in the middle of the forest with many beasts surrounding him. His consciousness didn't return even after Seth left and he was having the same nightmare all this while.. He just didn't know, that in reality, he would suffer the same fate.
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