109 The Black Book (1/2)
As the commencement of the tournament echoed throughout the coliseum; one of the gems carried by each participant glowed and floated up, then it crashed towards the wall and a stone arch emerged from the wall.
The gem's position was on the topmost part of the arch. The glow then began to disappear and reappear in a pattern, as if it's a pulsating heart.
Symbols surfaced from the stone arch as the pulsating glow travelled from top to bottom like blood flowing out of a heart, circulating towards the different parts of the body.
A spark appeared and the part of the wall within the stone arch liquified and turned into a portal.
”Whoa.” James couldn't help but express his amazement by the sight, ”Mr. Allen, you will go through that to enter the first round?”
”Yes.” Allen nodded.
”I wonder what is inside that portal.” The kid murmured.
Without replying, Allen then dropped his satchel beside the portal. It was unallowed to bring in any kinds of object, aside from clothes of course. If anybody tried to do so, the portal would repel them back.
As Allen entered, the portal dispersed into nothingness.
***
The first round would be mainly for elimination.
In this round, each of the contestants would be presented 101 books. Each book has 1,000 images of countless varieties of plants, making a total of 100,000 images of plants to be filled up of their description.
The requirement to pass this round is to obtain a total of 40,000 points. How were they to be calculated?
There were 101 books, however, each of them also has different kinds of difficulties which could be determined through their covers.
The easiest to fill up were the 35 white books. Each of the images filled up with the right description would be 1 point. Making it a total of 35,000 points.
Next would be the 45 purple books. It would be 3 points per each image successfully answered. Making it a total of 135,000 points.
The third type of book would be the red ones. There were 20 of them and each of the plant rightfully solved would give one 20 points. Which was a total of 400,000 points.
Lastly, there was the single black book, with each of the plants drawn within it would be worth 40 points if correctly answered. Making it a perfect total of 40,000 points.
It was also the most difficult book.
All of the participants were teleported to another separate single tall chambers. Allen looked at the towers of stocked books, then he glanced at a single desk and chair with a working lamp on top of it.
He also noticed that his strength was suppressed to the point he could be considered as a normal human after he entered the room.
Although his strength was generally clamped down to a nil; his senses weren't fully suppressed and noticed that his speed was much faster, or rather, the time was slower in the room. The slowness of time was a familiar sensation to Allen, he had encountered it before in the Mount Watchtower and inside his consciousness where the Erchian Dagger resided.
Allen walked around the room first. He searched all around before picking up a book.
It was the black book.
He proceeded to the desk, sat down, and opened the book.
***
Meanwhile, in the other rooms Dorothy, Gavin, and a few others also picked up the black book and opened its first page.
As it was a single black book. A lot of them thought that it was best to answer it first because it would also provide the most points.
On its first page, they all saw a drawing of a blue lotus flower, it was so realistic as if they could feel the coldness that the real flower would emanate just from the drawing.
”Blizzard Crown Lotus?” All of them recognized the said plant.
***
”This is so easy!”
***
”Isn't this supposed to be in the white books?” Said a baffled old man.
***
”Talk about free 40 points.” Another contestant clicked his tongue in surprise.
***
They all wrote the Blizzard Crown Lotus' description, from its petals towards its stems, its possible origin, even minor information such as its other variant names, etc.
As soon as they finished writing each and every one of its definition, the page glowed, signifying they successfully obtained 40 points.
Majority of the people who initially tried the black book was taken aback by the ease of the first image.
As they were about to turn to the next page, the scene before them changed to a dark frozen snowing wasteland.
***