Chapter 1355: Beginning(23)
After Laney accepted the trial, she was graced with the claps of the people on the street.
There was also a bird in the air, looking at the happening scenes. Its eyes were calm since its status in the city was higher than others.
When the creator constructed the city, she assigned a guardian for every city, and the bird was the guardian of the Fring City.
The guardian would be an observer of the trial and was also the only being that wouldn't become a follower of whoever completed the tests and became the city lord.
The bird flapped its wings and soared into the sky, disappearing in no time. After the claps came to an end, the behavior of the citizens changed toward Lany. It was no longer welcoming or angry but pure indifference as if Laney's existence didn't matter to them.
Only Rimiru was an exception to that and asked Laney to follow him. She simply nodded in response and followed the boy. She found the sudden change in emotions surprising but didn't take it to heart. Her challenge was to pass the trial and win over the ruling position of the city. What the citizens had in their hearts for her was a useless fact to ponder over.
After following Rimiru for a while, Laney came across a gigantic vacant field. Rimiru kept walking, and after his seventh step, he suddenly disappeared.
Laney followed the same steps as Rimiru and also disappeared from the scene after her seventh step. The next moment, an enormous structure that looked like a fortress but was destroyed appeared in front of her.
The ruined fortress had no end in Laney's sight. She felt surprised by the extent of destruction the fortress had seen. There was not even a single spot of one meter without even a small crack. Anywhere Laney focused, she noticed the damage.
What was even more surprising was that despite the fortress being so damaged, it gave her a feeling of majesty similar to a new one.
Rimiru, who was only a step ahead of her, knelt down, paying obeisance to the fortress. The next moment, a phenomenon played out as light particles began to gather.
Their location was where Rimiru's head would be if he were standing. After a wait of three minutes, the light particles stopped gathering, and a heptagon crystal appeared.
Laney felt an intense urge to grab the crystal, but she controlled herself and stood her ground.
Rimiru kept kneeling for eight more minutes, during which it took every ounce of Laney's strength to make her stop from rushing to the crystal and grab it.
When Rimiru stood up, he couldn't help but nod in appreciation at Laney's self-control. He then walked to the heptagon crystal and respectfully took it.
Rimiru then turned around and walked to Laney with the crystal in his mind. Laney's eyes turned red as she suddenly extended her hands to snatch the crystal from Rimiru.
When her right hand was about to reach Rimiru, she suddenly bit her tongue, creating a spurt of blood, and forcefully grabbed her right hand using her left hand.
Rimiru noticed Laney's intense struggle. The more he saw, the more astonished he felt toward her. At the same time, a sense of excitement began to grow in his heart.
The two participants that came before Laney were also able to control themselves for a while, but as soon as Rimiru went to them with the crystal, they tried to snatch it from him.
After a long struggle, Laney finally succeeded in defeating her urge. When she let go of her right hand, blood could be seen on the outside of the skin. The strength Laney had used to restrain herself resulted in her blood veins exploding and dense cracks in her bones.
Since the injury didn't contain any negative elements, it began to heal right away. In only a few seconds, the veins were restored, and the bone cracks disappeared.
Rimiru then passed the crystal to Laney. Laney struggled for a moment but then decided to take it.
What Laney thought didn't happen after she accepted the crystal. Since the urge to take the crystal was so strong, she believed there would be some changes after she held it in her own hands.
Rimiru didn't even have to explain what the crystal was since a new wave of memory appeared in her head. She felt a slight headache, but it was an instant phenomenon, and things returned to normal right away.
The heptagon crystal was the key to the ruined fortress ahead of her. She only needed to feed the crystal blood, and it would be bound to her.
Since Laney had accepted the trial, there was no going back. She also didn't have to fear any kind of negative influence on her in reality since what happened in Panagea didn't affect reality unless exchanged.
The next moment, she bit the tip of her finger, and her blood spilled onto the transparent heptagon crystal. As the red blood appeared, the crystal's color began to change to match the blood.
The blood absorption process only stopped when the crystal had devoured a few liters of her blood. And once the process had ended, the crystal had completely changed.
Earlier, it was transparent, but after the process, it had turned into an opaque blood crystal. It looked as if it was dried blood.
At the same time, Laney's connection with the crystal had also reached the same state as it was with the Yellow King.
On the front of the crystal, the name of the city was written, and below it Laney's minor details.
[City: Fring City
Rank: 35,
City Guardian: Chidi
City Lord: None,
Trial number: 3
Participant: Laney
Race: Gurotus
Gender: Female
Number of quests completed: 0
Remaining quests: 10
Bonus: None
Weapon: None
Companion: None…]
The crystal contained many details about her. When Laney saw no weapon, she was confused since she was a knife user and she had several of them for her use.
Laney asked Rimiru about it and found that no outside weapon or skill could be used during the trial. Everything usable needed to be earned during the trial.
Laney nodded and returned her focus to the crystal.
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