Chapter 474: Entering the Secret Realm

The first stage had been completed, and the people who would be competing in the second stage had already been decided. All of his friends had made it to the second stage, and everyone from Goldencrest, except for two people Julius didn’t know, had made it as well. Liam and Irene had both displayed impressive showings. Liam had especially demonstrated that he had gotten much more powerful since the last time that Julius fought him. Showing that he had been training very hard in the past several months in preparation for this tournament. Julius didn’t even know who would come out on top if Liam and Derek fought each other.

He wasn’t able to watch every match of the first stage, but he still was able to catch some good battles. He examined many interesting abilities, some of which were outright weird. One person must have been a chef or something, because they ended up creating constructs that resembled a variety of cooking utensils.

Large chef knives were shot toward the group of monsters, giant pans were used as shields, and he even spotted something resembling a pair of tongs, throwing a monster across the arena. It's safe to say that this person was one of the first to reach the required hundred points and was very strong.

Julius suspected that their choice of shape for their constructs actually helped with their visualization and intent better than most people realized.

With the first stage complete, there would be a short period during which participants could relax and prepare for the second stage. Almost everyone knew that they would be entering the secret realm for the second stage. The only issue was that nobody truly knew what would occur in this realm.

Even in past years, when people entered the secret realm, there was a lack of information available to the public. They were able to watch some fights between the competitors that the Empire specially curated to avoid giving away too much information about the realm. Still, no map provided details of valuable locations.

Additionally, this realm is likely to change at any given moment. Thus, the only thing the participants could do was to continue training their skills.

Julius and his friends all trained together during this period. There was only so much to be done in this small window, but everything counted.

They were currently standing alongside many of the other people they would be fighting against in the second stage. It was similar to how they were introduced to the first stage, but now, over half of them were gone, eliminated from the competition.

He did his best not to stare at the people around him, but it was challenging for him to do so. It seemed that since he had completed the first stage, people had taken notice of him.

Previously, they hadn’t spared him a second glance. But now, he felt like a good chunk of the people around him were looking at him like he was some shiny treasure or a tasty morsel. He didn't like it and did his best to hide behind Edgar’s broad back. It was why he had hidden inside House Zenith’s estate for the past couple of days. He didn’t want to be beset by any curious organizations.

He listened to the tournament staff explain the rules for the second stage. Apparently, there were some specific requirements one needed in order to pass to the final stage. Firstly, you need to acquire five of these so-called tokens.

These tokens had various appearances, but they all had the Empire’s insignia on their surface. Collect five of these tokens, and you will be transported to a trial. This trial varied, but from what Julius understood, it would be a simple test, and if you passed, you would exit the secret realm and move on to the final stage.

Some conditions made this more difficult. These tokens weren’t just placed in easy places to find, but they were spread all across the secret realm, forcing the participants to enter dangerous and unpredictable locations.

Sometimes they would be protected by a guardian, sometimes even more than one guardian. Additionally, there was no longer a no-fighting rule for the participants. You were able to fight against other contestants. In fact, you were practically incentivized to.

If you beat another participant in a fight, you would be able to steal their tokens to add to your own collection.

Tokens weren’t the only thing that the guardians and monsters protected, either. There were unique treasures and other special opportunities hidden in the secret realm. This was what most people actually wanted in the first place. Many people knew they wouldn’t be able to win the entire thing, but they thought they had a much better chance of finding a unique treasure that would help them improve instead.

Furthermore, specific safety protocols were in place, much like those in the previous stage. However, unlike the previous stage, you wouldn’t be transported when the armband detected a fatal strike.

No, one of the interesting functions of the secret realm was that if you were killed, you would experience the actual sensation of death, such as the pain and trauma that went along with it.

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Only upon death would the secret realm's magic bring you back. You would be alive, but sometimes there are occasions when people have been traumatized by their experiences, especially if their death was particularly brutal.

He heard some people worried about this aspect, but Julius didn’t see the reason for it. While you could “die” in this realm, it wasn’t like you would experience actual death. He couldn’t understand why some people were scared with that assurance in place.

He also suspected that this protection was in place for several reasons other than prioritizing the lives of the participants. One of them was certainly to entertain the spectators. If death wasn’t a factor, he expected a lot of people would fight with everything they had. There was no reason to hesitate if death was no longer possible.

He was predicting a lot of violent battles in the future.

The most intriguing thing that caught his attention was the mention of time displacement inside the secret realm. According to the organizers, time moved faster inside the secret realm, meaning that a day in there wasn’t even half a day in the outside world. During this time, the spectators would be entertained by other exhibitions or magical displays. They wouldn’t be able to see everything going on in the secret realm.

Time dilation wasn’t new to Julius; he had already experienced something similar in other rifts, but it was pretty interesting to see how that would affect the second stage, considering that they would have a week to explore the secret realm, and when that time was up, they would be transported outside.

Those who hadn’t already passed the trial would be eliminated.

He felt himself get poked in the back by Aubrey. She had an excited look on her face, and he returned her grin.

“Ready?” He asked.

She scoffed. “Of course. And don’t worry, if we come across one another in there, I promise I will take it easy on you,” she said with a smirk.

He rolled his eyes. “Thank you for your magnanimity," he said, not bothering to hide his sarcasm.

“It is only natural for someone stronger to be gracious to those weaker,” she said with a twitch of her lips.

He didn’t answer and shoved her forward. The organizers had finished their explanation and were in the midst of activating an array of enchantments. There was an isolation barrier in front of their work, but there was so much mana being used that it was impossible not to notice.

Suddenly, a heavy pressure emanated from the stage, and a glowing white portal appeared. It was huge, probably around ten feet in diameter, and had a bright ring around it that illuminated the entire arena.

Julius felt Aubrey stop and push him in front of her. “You can go first,” she muttered.

He chuckled and shook his head. “No, no, ladies first,” he insisted.

Edgar and Derek both laughed as they watched Julius push Aubrey forward. Her feet were dragging across the stone as she tried to fight back. Eventually, they all approached the glowing portal. People were already rushing inside, desperate to get a head start. Julius didn’t really care about that.

They would have plenty of time; a few seconds wouldn’t make that much of a difference. He glanced at his friends.

“See you guys inside?” He asked.

Derek shrugged. “Maybe, if we even come across each other. I heard the realm is absolutely massive, the odds might be low.”

Julius nodded. They were already told that they would be spawned in random locations. This was for many reasons, one of which was to prevent people from teaming up easily.

“Well, in any case, good luck.” He turned to Aubrey. “Please take it easy on me if you find me,” he said with a teasing grin, and before she could hit him, he had already moved past her and walked up to the portal.

He touched the portal with his right hand, and he felt the familiar sensation of spatial energy wrap around him. Then, with a tight squeeze, the portal sucked him in, and his senses were scrambled for a few brief moments.

What was different from his usual portal experiences was that he felt some kind of energy probe his soul. It was very subtle, and without his prior experiences with his soul, he wouldn’t have likely sensed it.

This probe rifled through his soul, and he felt it take a weirdly long amount of time as it inspected it. For a moment, he thought it was going to deny his entrance. Thankfully, it didn’t, and he felt it had finished its examination, allowing him to complete the transportation.

He suspected that this was how the secret realm ensured only Tier 3s entered, and he couldn’t help but be curious about what would have happened if he hadn’t been Tier 3. He had a feeling that it would not have gone well if that had been the case.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of an open plain. A sharp breeze washed over him, and the tall grass tickled his legs. He took a deep breath, smiling as he felt the dense amount of mana in the air fill his lungs.

He stretched his senses outward. His sphere of perception had expanded significantly as the skill leveled up, and as he slowly acclimated to the exponential increase in information he perceived. Still, the plain was so large that his sphere was only able to sense a relatively small portion of it.

He didn’t sense anything right away, but he would have been surprised if he had the moment he spawned in.

He was tempted to start flying around, and as much as he wanted to, it would probably be best to keep that part of his skillset hidden for the time being. He didn’t know if it was possible to monitor him in this secret realm.

He had already proven that he was strong, but flying was a rare skill, especially for a Tier 3. He doubted many people would be able to.

Additionally, it might be a bad idea anyway. Flying so high in the sky would only make him easier to spot. It wasn’t like he had some kind of stealth or illusion skill that would hide him from view.

Thus, he decided to use the trusty old method of walking. It was a lovely day out, and he didn’t think he needed to rush things quite yet.

However, he did end up spotting a tall pillar of light very, very far off in the distance. He strained his eyes, but it was impossible to tell how far away it truly was. However, he didn’t think it would be a bad place to start. So without further ado, he began to make his way to this pillar of light, and hopefully would find some lovely little treasures along the way.