Otherworld Adventure 181 The Thorn And Blessing

The students that she and her friends had saved for some reason were...a little weakened.

The liquid secreted by the illusion plants hadn't only induced illusions, but also had weakening properties. If the third trial required them to fight monsters then many of the students present would fail or maybe even die.

As the academy groups were making their way over to the 2nd plaza, suddenly a large explosion sounded off not too far from them and then, a large golden beam of mana flew up from the foliage just a distance away, destroying everything in its path.

It continued to rise up and smash right into the ceiling of the trial grounds.

"AAAHHHH!!!"

Everyone who had pa.s.sed the second trial and were currently recuperating while trudging forwards couldn't help but scream in panic.

"Wh-what's that?!"

Everyone was bewildered seeing the powerful golden beam that rose into the air. It originated from a place not far from where they were.

"No way!" Fina exclaimed when she saw the golden beam.

"Fina? What is it?" Lucia asked.

"Lulu! Quickly! Check your bracelet!"

At her words, Lucia quickly checked her bracelet and her face paled. The green gemstone quickly began turning into a deep orange color. It was about to enter the red.

"C-Cel!"

"I knew it!"

"Huh?"

"Cecil...he used Over Flas.h.!.+"

"Over Flash?"

"It's the technique that he used to obliterate those Frost Mammoths...you still remember that video right?"

"Y-yeah...but why could he have used that skill for?"

"..."

Everyone was still in a panic, but the Little Kings were a little relieved. Cecil was still in the trials. He just wasn't with them.

Lucia turned her eyes to the bracelet. The bad thing was that ever since she entered the trial grounds, the mana connection the bracelet had with Cecil was severed. She couldn't use the bracelet to sense Cecil's position at all.

At least now she knew that he was still in the trials, but the gem had turned a deep orange...Cecil might be in trouble.

"Should we go take a look at the place where that beam came from?" Serilla came over and asked. It seems that she had already deduced the source of the mana beam from earlier. There was only one person that everyone knew used golden beams to attack and that was Cecil Silvaria.

Lucia whispered, "Its Cecil no doubt...that's his Over Flash skill..."

"..."

Serilla turned her attention to the other academy's students. The leaders or representatives had already gathered everyone together and they looked like they too were about to go to the source of the golden beam, despite many of them being in a weakened state.

"We should make haste. We don't want Cecil to be alone when he confronts all those people."

Zephyr, Lance and all the Faction leaders had come over already. They each nodded in reply and they gathered the remaining students and quickly made their way over to the location of where Cecil was supposedly at.

*****

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

A pale looking Cecil was currently sitting down on the ground in exhaustion.

"Ugh...that disgusting piece of s.h.i.+t...good thing it died after being incinerated by Over Flash..."

Cecil was circulating his mana and quickly trying to speed up his recovery. He could feel the pangs of madness eating away at his consciousness.

"Tsk...I should have gathered even more mana...this sword better be worth all that trouble..."

Cecil turned his eyes towards the sword in his hand.

When Cecil used Over Flash he had successfully obliterated the Corrupted Dark Wood Elf King, down to the last vine and tentacle. The core of the monster was actually high up in the ceiling, totally covered up by the huge, monstrous body of the Corrupted Elf King.

His Over Flash blasted through the large body and struck the core of the monster, killing it altogether. The blast smashed through the ceiling and kept flying upwards. Eventually, the dark underground was illuminated by the light s.h.i.+ning down through the ma.s.sive hole Cecil's Over Flash had created.

The core of the monster dropped down and Cecil picked up the final wooden piece. It was actually in the shape of a sword hilt. Cecil had a thought and he quickly brought out the rest of the wooden slabs and they immediately resonated with each other.

They gathered together and began to connect with each other, forming the wooden, black colored sword in his hands.

When the Sword was formed, the Trial ended and the administrator announced the reward.

[Thank you for liberating the soul of the Dark Wood Elf King. The reward is in your hands. The World Tree's 1st Thorn, Corruption.]

Cecil took a look at the ancient, rune-engraved black wooden sword. It had golden runes decorating the blade. It looked dull, but when he waved the sword to slice a vine, it surprisingly sliced through it cleanly.

"Hmm...It's actually pretty cool looking. It even conducts mana better than the Adamantium Sword...the natural mana array inside the blade is also a plus..."

Cecil waved the black wooden sword around. He didn't try activating the mana array since he would need to inject mana into the array.

Cecil stored the sword into his white ring and checked his other reward.

He gained the Dark Wood Blessing of the World Tree. The blessing allowed him to manipulate vine-like plants just like the Dark Wood Elves.

Cecil waved his hand, branches, vines, and roots rose from the earth. He had to use some mana so he quickly fas.h.i.+oned a chair and sat down on it to recuperate his mana.

He leaned into the chair and closed his eyes. Cecil was exhausted from the battle, his mana levels were dangerously low so he didn't sense the presences that arrived at the top of the hole that he had created.

*****

"What caused this?" an elf wondered.

The first group of students that arrived was the elves. They wondered what could have made the large hole.

The hole emanated an absurd amount of mana, but they understood that this was only the leftover mana that originated from the previous golden beam.

"Maybe a natural treasure was formed?"

"...that might be possible..."

Not long after, the Beastkin group arrived. Lucia looked at the elven group and turned her attention back to the hole. The mana that was radiating from the hole was very familiar to her.

"It really is Cel!" Lucia exclaimed happily.

She looked at her bracelet and saw that the deep orange color had lightened a little and faint traces of yellow were replacing the red.

"Good!"

Lucia looked around and the other academy groups arrived one by one.

"Guys, I'm pretty sure Cel is down there. He's probably recuperating right now. The gemstone began to change color to yellow already."

The girl looked around once more, every student present was hesitant on going down the hole or not.

No matter what, the hole emanated a monstrous amount of mana, whatever it was that was down there was a total monster.

Lucia nodded towards her friend and she quickly jumped down into the hole with Yuna following after her. The other members of Little Kings followed suit. Eli opened up her wings and carried Velicia down with her.

Fina deployed a mana armament. She jumped on and floated down. Ainz walked over and simply dropped. Midway a tornado formed around his lower body and he slowly lowered down into the hole.

Serilla shrugged and just told everyone to wait up here. Everyone was still exhausted from the weakening liquid that the plants from the second trial. It was the same with the other academy students.

The only reason why Lucia and the Little Kings weren't weakened was because they had woken up relatively faster than the rest. The weakening effects didn't affect them for too long so they quickly recovered after a brief moment of recuperation.

The other academy's had reluctant looks, but some of them decided to follow suit and jump down into the hole while others just stayed in place.

When Lucia got to the bottom of the hole she quickly sent an Ascending Blade onto the floor and caused a shockwave that pushed her up into the air once again. She flipped and landed onto the dried up ground.

Yuna landed not long after. As a dragon, she had the ability to fly naturally through the air regardless of whatever form she was in.

Ainz, Eli, Velicia and Fina arrived not long after. They frowned when they saw the darkness around them.

The hole was pretty deep, so the light from the rocks in the trial grounds' ceiling was a little dim at the bottom.

"Fina?"

At Lucia's call, Fina walked forward and began conjuring light orbs. She created 20 orbs and sent them into the surroundings, quickly illuminating the area.

The other students who had decided to follow after Lucia's group landed on the ground not long after. One of the students had consumed all their mana during the descent and they plummeted into the floor.

It was a gruesome scene and Fina immediately paled from fright. The unfortunate student was a Gigantes student. He was pretty arrogant when he jumped down, saying he didn't need mana to help with his landing.

The hole was a little bit too deep for his body to handle the fall. The result was him meeting his end when he arrived at the bottom despite him activating multiple strengthening skills.

Lucia only frowned when she saw the student kill himself. It wasn't long that the group saw a 'throne' fas.h.i.+oned from vines and roots.

"Hey! What's that? It looks like a throne!" A were-cat said.

Fina had spread out her light orbs in all directions and the were-cat who had a better vision in the dark was able to immediately make out the throne that Cecil had fas.h.i.+oned.

He didn't deliberately make a throne, but he only remembered the previous tree throne he sat on when he was dragged into the trial. He was exhausted and had subconsciously made his chair in the shape of that throne.

Everyone turned their attention onto the throne and Fina directed all her light orbs over.

The students immediately noticed the pale person sleeping on top of the throne.

"CEL!" Lucia exclaimed.

Cecil's consciousness was a little hazy, but he still heard Lucia call out to him. He struggled to open his eyes.

'H-how come...I feel so exhausted?'

Through the gaps of his eyes, Cecil was able to make out his friends. Lucia saw Cecil twitch his eyes open, but was too exhausted to completely open them. The other students around them turned their attention onto Lucia's group after she exclaimed.

One of the students immediately dashed towards Cecil, he a.s.sumed that whatever reward or treasure that had formed was naturally in the hands of the pale looking foxkin that was sitting on the throne.

Lucia saw this and grew furious. She was just about to rush forward, but then Yuna immediately pulled her back.

"STOP!"

"Let go Yuna!" She roared back.

"Look!" Yuna quickly pointed ahead.

When the student arrived 10 meters away from Cecil, the ground burst and vines immediately popped out and wrapped themselves around him and pulled the student into the ground.

His screams were immediately cut off once the ground closed. This caused everyone present to pale and rethink their actions.
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Just getting close to Cecil was dangerous, but then a change occurred on the throne. The vines and branches that the throne was made of began to wriggle around and wrap themselves around Cecil.

"WHAT?! NO!!!"

The vines wrapped around Cecil and pulled him underground. Lucia was just about to rush forward, but Cecil was already gone.

She arrived at the spot where Cecil disappeared into and began blasting the ground with Lava Bolts.

But no matter what she did, the ground was as pristine as it always was. No amount of lava bolts had even broken through the earth.

"CEL!"