Chapter 77: The Wyvern’s Puzzle. II
The viewers and the nightcrawlers were left speechless at the sight of Levi using his staff as a way to measure Demetris’ keyhole height from the ground.
While they had no clue why he needed it, they knew he was being a disrespectful asshole by doing it... since he could have easily relied on Astra Ai for an accurate answer.
"Haha, Demetris is pissed!" Sergio laughed.
"I would be too... he is being taunted in his face." Shia grinned. "Good one, Levi. I didn’t know he had it in him to be an asshole."
"I doubt he is doing it just to be one." Jamal smiled. "Levi is trying to get in his head to increase his chances of winning the bet."
While Shia’s gang was relishing in Demetris’ protruding forehead veins, Mantis and his people reacted differently.
"The f*cker is cheating! He is disturbing my little brother while taking the trial!" Mantis banged the table furiously. "How is this shit fair?"
"Well..." Masia coughed. "The rules aren’t enforcing it."
"The f*ck you mean?!" Mantis glared at him. "How is it fair to aggravate the candidates during a trial of intelligence... doesn’t it defeat the purpose?!"
"That’s Seraphis for you... He likes being hands-on in his decisions."
One of the Daywalkers sighed, recalling some painful memories of his time under Seraphis’ tutelage.
He understood that if Seraphis had added more rules to the trial, it would rob him of the freedom to make amends. Instead, he removed only the serious issues with the rules... the rest he judged on his own.
For example, if a candidate was screaming in the trial for no reason or doing it willingly to ruin the chances of his competitors, he would be punished. It was all based on the shown intention.
In Levi’s case, he left the moment he got what he needed, and Instructor Seraphis knew of his condition... making him understand his reason for using a staff instead of Astra.
’He must be trying to save up on battery to last him until the end of the day.’
He also knew that each scan devoured an incredible amount of energy.
Since Levi had plenty of time and a ’ruler’ in hand, he might as well use it instead of wasting precious energy... especially when another trial awaited them on the same day.
’If only he weren’t visually impaired... the nightcrawlers would have flooded on him.’
Instructor Seraphis sighed as he watched Levi place the ruler in front of the Wyvern’s chest area, using it as a measuring stick.
The Wyvern was bigger than two meters, but it was sealed in an aggressive crouching position, making its chest area match the height of Demetris’ door.
Levi knew that it was purposefully sealed like this for the sake of the puzzle.
’This should be it.’
When Levi lined up the measured height of the staff with the chest area of the Wyvern, he reached out with his finger and touched the spotlighted inscribed sentence, which matched the exact measurement.
Then, he traced his finger on the incantation quite rapidly while murmuring under his breath.
A moment later, Levi walked away from the sealed Wyvern and uttered softly, "Stormborn slumber, break and rise... AeroWyvern, claim your skies."
A heavenly divine light fell from the skies and illuminated the giant totem under the stunned eyes of the viewers and the candidates, who were gathering in front of Levi’s wide-open hall to see what was going on.
Before they could react, the wooden totem shattered into tiny fragments, and the Wyvern was fully exposed in all of its glory!
Kree-aaaah!
It roared with its head raised to the heavens, exposing a full set of horrifying, sharp teeth. It spread out its leathery, thin-armed wings, which were carved with thousands of visible blood veins, and stood on its clawed feet, towering over Levi.
With its white leathery skin and spikes traveling from its long, rugged tail to its head, it appeared as fearsome as a fossil unearthed from the dawn of time... still screaming, still deadly.
When it saw Levi in front of it, its piercing golden slits narrowed on him, seemingly staring at a delicious meal.
Its Shadowlife seed sent an electrifying pulse across its system to devour Levi and the light trapped within him.
The Wyvern didn’t hesitate to respond, lunging at Levi with its mouth wide open and a gaze filled with nothing but gluttonous thoughts!
Kreeeee!!
Yet, Levi didn’t even flinch, maintaining the same unprovocative smile. He wasn’t faking bravery to look cool, as he knew that the Wyvern would never touch him.
As expected, a golden chain manifested on the Wyvern’s neck and forced it to lie on the ground the moment its mouth was a mere meter away from Levi.
Kreee!!
Although it was put in a crippling pain, leaving it seizing on the ground, it was still growling ferociously in the direction of Levi.
"What do you think?" Instructor Seraphis asked with a faint, playful smirk as he held onto the golden chain of the beast.
"It’s a feisty one." Levi chuckled.
"Can you handle her? You know that once it registers under your name, she will be your responsibility." Instructor Seraphis warned coldly. "If she were to harm a civilian or such, you will be punished according to the laws."
"Yes."
"Well then... she is your problem now."
Instructor Seraphis threw a small wooden sphere in Levi’s direction, and Levi caught it without bothering to lift his head.
"You know how to use it?"
"Who doesn’t?"
Levi smiled and threw the wooden sphere in the direction of the Wyvern while murmuring the same incantation.
The moment the wooden sphere touched the Wyvern, it shone brightly for a split second... and then it melted on its skin.
Just like she received Pinocchio’s curse, the Wyvern started turning into wood against her roars and futile resistance.
In a few seconds at most, the Wyvern turned into a wooden statue in the same position she was sealed. But this wasn’t all.
The wooden totem started to shrink bit by bit until it turned into a ten-centimeter Wyvern figurine.
Levi walked to the wooden totem and collected it with a satisfied smile. Then, he lifted his head and asked casually, "I still have fifteen minutes to kill... what do you want me to do?"
Instructor Seraphis’ eyelids twitched, not anticipating this situation. He added the gift for candidates to kill time if they finished the trial early... but neither the fourth section nor the Wyvern took Levi more than five minutes.
Now, he still had fifteen minutes, and he couldn’t send him back to the candidates since he could give clues on the puzzles.
"Sit on the Wyvern’s platform and wait until the others are done... in silence," Instructor Seraphis ordered.
"Okay."
Under everyone’s speechless looks, Levi sat with one leg above the other on the Wyvern’s platform and started fiddling with his new toy in silence.
Meanwhile, Demetris, Nurah, and the rest of the candidates heard everything and felt a burning sensation on their cheeks.
The thought of Levi finishing the trial and the bonus puzzle in less than fifteen minutes didn’t sit right with all of them... especially Nurah and Demetris.
The embarrassment of struggling this hard when one of them had flown through the trial was eating them away.
They knew that the viewers had no clue about the difficulty of the last puzzle... but after seeing how Levi finished it off, they were bound to think that he was either much smarter than them or they were too stupid to find the solution as fast.
Unfortunately, both scenarios painted them in a bad light.
While Nurah was trained as an assassin to keep such emotions contained to avoid tainting her focus, the same couldn’t be said about Demetris.
It showed at the end after Nurah solved the puzzle with five minutes remaining, while Demetris had struck out three times.
Beeeb!
"Time has run out, get out and check your results." Instructor Seraphis announced.
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