Assimilate All Talents

Sol, along with the mass of applicants, were taken outside the tent and towards the royal palace.

"Woah…"

A few applicants expressed their awe as the huge gates of the royal palace opened. The scene could only be described as beautiful. Everything from the perfectly trimmed and maintained garden to the polished stone floor and even the large gate that was elegantly decorated with decorations and the emblem of the royal family.

Sol could only think of one word, ’Fancy.’

While they were led inside the royal palace, they didn’t actually enter the castle. Instead, the group of applicants were led to a large dirt area almost five times as big as the Crestal Plaza they were at before.

’An army could fit in here…’

Sol was correct; that entire area was mainly used for army training. Soldiers would go there and train or work on their skills, but it was also used to practice military formations and strategies. But today the royal knights had booked the entire area to utilize it for this year’s knight selection.

There was already a large group of applicants waiting there which Sol’s group was led into joining. Although there were hundreds of people there, because of how big the space was, it didn’t feel cramped.

Since they were left waiting, some applicants began to mingle, trying to get to know others and maybe even form alliances. No one knew what kind of test it would be, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some allies. Sol was approached by some who had those kinds of intentions, but he politely declined. He didn’t think he needed others to pass this test, and he also couldn’t easily trust them to help each other in passing the test; who knew if they would end up betraying each other to remove competition.

An hour later, all the applicants had arrived, totaling almost two thousand. It was then that the ground suddenly began to shake. Sol turned to see a large cluster of mana from a spell gathered as a large podium was raised. It was high enough so that everyone could see, but those at the far back had trouble clearly seeing the figure without any sight enhancing skills.

A man dressed in a gold and white royal knights uniform walked up to the podium.

"Welcome, applicants. My name is Zaman Secondhand, Commander of the royal knights."

Zaman could be heard clearly by all who were there, even though he didn’t appear to have any tool that amplified his voice in any way.

"I’m proud to see so many men and women willing to join our order of knights to defend and protect our kingdom, our home. I know many of you have been waiting out here on this sunny day to prove you have what it takes to join us, so I won’t take much of your time. The second test will begin now."

At his cue, a wave of energy coursed through the area, hitting all the contestants.

’What is this feeling?’

Sol’s mind became cloudy for a moment, and he instinctively fought back against the feeling, easily breaking free. Two of his skills, [Invincible Body] and [True Sight], worked in conjunction identifying and resisting the invasive magic.

"An illusion?"

He looked around to see that everyone around him was now laying on the ground asleep. It appeared he wasn’t the only one to resist the spell, as from the two thousand applicants, 50 were left standing, resisting the effects.

Zaman nodded approvingly at those still standing before speaking.

"I commend you all for staying awake, but I must ask you to allow the spell to take you. The second test will take place in a world of illusions, and instructions will be given once inside. If you are innately fully immune to illusions, come forward, and we will commence an alternative test. Though I must warn you, it will be much harder than the original test."

Sol thought to himself, ’I don’t need to make it harder for myself, I just need to perform well enough to be in the tournament.’

Nobody walked up to the stone podium; Zaman took it as a sign of everyone accepting to be pulled into the illusion and gave the signal to one of the illusionists near him.

"Take them under."

Another wave of energy coursed through the area similar to the previous one. Sol didn’t fight back this time and allowed it to take him away.

When Sol blinked, he appeared in a completely new place. He looked around and was awed by the sight before his eyes. He was standing alone at the top of a tall 30-meter-wide tower. He looked over the edge and could see it was at least 50 stories tall. In addition to that, he noticed his tower wasn’t the only one there; he could see thousands of towers in the distance, each having someone equally confused on top of them.

"Welcome, everyone, to my wondrous challenge!"

A voice boomed from the heavens with a jovial tone.

"I spent months painfully and carefully crafting the best trial ever conceived! It would have been one for the ages, something you would tell to your children and pass it through generations! But that is not this test! Because too many of you applied, we had to switch things up a bit!"

Though nobody was able to see the speaker, from the tone, everyone could tell he wasn’t happy with this change.

"Your test is to get to the bottom of the tower! Now don’t try to be a smartass and jump off the side! That’s instant disqualification! You all must travel down floor by floor until you reach the bottom. At each floor, there will be enemies you must defeat to progress, each floor progressively harder. The difficulty is based on your level, so don’t complain if you lose on the 5th floor; it will scale to match your strength!"

’So to pass, we need to get to the bottom most floor?’

Many had this question on their mind, and as if able to hear their thoughts, the voice answered.

"You don’t have to get to the first floor! You will pass if you reach the 25th floor. On that floor, there will be the option to leave the illusion or continue. Those who continue will then be competing for a spot in the final test, the tournament! Oh, and one final rule, the time limit is 5 hours! Good luck!"