Chapter 80: A Doll Race!
Sometime later...
Levi was dropped in his room by Instructor Seraphis, and he went straight to put his Neuralens device on its charging station.
The device’s battery usually lasted for two days if it was used minimally. But if holograms were being used multiple times a day, the duration would be halved.
In the case of Levi, it lasted him half a day or less, depending on how much he abused its scanning capabilities.
Unfortunately, the device needed to be charged with a port using either a connected outlet or a power bank.
Its batteries couldn’t be replaced since the device was sealed shut and protected with a tough silicon layer to ensure it survived the Daywalkers’ tough battles.
Next, Levi removed his clothes and went to take a quick shower...Then, he took a short nap, and when he woke up, there was only half an hour left before the start of the next trial.
Levi retrieved the device and placed it on his ear, hiding it under his messy black hair.
"Astra, how’s the battery?"
"About 27%, Sir."
"Umm, a bit lower than ideal, but it will be enough until the trial ends."
After Levi left his room, he went to knock on his brother’s door. The room placement remained the same until the rankings were finalized at the end of the day.
In other words, Arthur had to perform much better than his previous performance if he didn’t want to get kicked out of the suite side.
When the Larson brothers grouped up, they went to the first floor together, finding that most candidates were already gathered there.
The atmosphere was quite solemn as many candidates weren’t performing as well as they had anticipated.
If we considered the assembly to be a popularity contest and the judges were the nightcrawlers, then no one was drawing as much attention as Levi, Nurah, Demetris, and the rest of the top ten.
While the others were still in the assembly, it didn’t mean that they would get signed at the end.
After waiting for a few minutes here, Instructor Seraphis called for everyone to gather outside the apartment complex.
When they got out, their eyes were graced by the sight of fifty wooden dolls standing one next to the other, forming ten lines...Each line had more than five dolls situated behind it.
The dolls were about three feet tall, and their faces were just plain brown with a simple painted smile. Their eyes were empty glass holes that didn’t match the happy expression, making them appear fake and creepy.
Their bodies were covered in inscriptions, while their backs had four major runic symbols surrounded by the inscriptions.
They were standing on a ten-way racing track with the finish line situated two kilometers away.
Everyone was taken aback a bit as they didn’t expect such a sight in the Trial of Spirituality. They anticipated the same trial from the previous years, as many instructors rarely changed the standardized method.
"I know all of you were anticipating a Spiritual Orb to test your spiritual potential. But, its results were always missing the mark by a little. So, I have decided to spice things up with a new challenge..." Instructor Seraphis announced sternly, "A Doll Race!"
"..."
This time, Instructor Seraphis had left even the viewers and the nightcrawlers speechless as they had never seen or heard of such a way of spiritual testing.
They were used to the Spiritual Orb, which gave a decent reading of one’s spiritual potential by showing a color corresponding to their potential.
However, this method had given some false readings before, as a few Daywalkers had managed to find that their spiritual potential was much higher than what was tested...It just needed some awakening. But by the time they realized it, they had already committed to a different specialization.
The Psych specialization was considered the best of them all and the hardest to get into since it didn’t use just solar energy, but also spiritual energy...Not everyone can support mental-based abilities.
"Don’t worry, I know that all of you have yet to weaponize your Spiritual Leywell. The dolls can connect to your dormant Spiritual Leywell and will start moving automatically. The distance traveled, their speed, their mobility, their balance, everything will consume your spiritual energy, which means..."
"The more we have, the better our results will turn out." Nurah completed it for him, leaving him to nod in approval.
Levi and the rest of the candidates realized that this approach was indeed much better than using the Spiritual Orb. That’s because the desperation to win might drive some candidates to go beyond their limits and awaken their true spiritual potential.
"Also, there are only three rules in this trial...Don’t interfere with the dolls physically, don’t aim for the head, and don’t form groups larger than six." Instructor Seraphis added calmly.
When the candidates heard this, their shoulders tensed up immediately as they started putting some distance from each other.
Some even reached out to their weapons, understanding that Instructor Seraphis was allowing them to fight and hinder their competitors.
’A lucky break at last, I don’t even have to wait until the trial of combat.’
Demetris loved this development to no end...His frigid eyes were affixed on Levi, hiding a miasma of bad thoughts. It showed when his palm reached out to his sheathed sword, pulling just a bit of it, exposing a dangerous gleam.
He wasn’t the only one, as many candidates seemed to eye Levi, Jojo, Melissa, and the rest of the top twenty candidates.
Those candidates knew that their spiritual presence was a lost cause, which meant their next best move was to show their combat capabilities by taking down the top twenty candidates.
In this assembly, every chance one gets to demonstrate their talents must be taken seriously. Who knew, maybe it would be the sole reason a nightcrawler would take interest in them.
"This doesn’t look promising..." Melissa murmured as she hurdled up with Jojo, Rayan, and the Larson brothers.
"We have to protect each other’s backs."
Jojo said solemnly as she removed her monk robe, leaving only a skin-tight black and orange combat suit.
Unlike many candidates, she had no weapons in hand besides her smooth mirror-like bald head that could be used to blind others.
"I wish we get jumped." Rayan rubbed his knees excitedly, "I still need to pop off like you guys."
"I feel the same."
Arthur grinned deviously as he cracked his knuckles, the noise alone causing some candidates to take a step back and reflect on their decision.
-What an interesting trial, it tests their spirituality amidst a chaotic environment. Maybe, we will finally get some decent psych specialists.-
-Truly, hitting two birds with one stone.-
The nightcrawlers clamored in the skies above as everyone was thrilled with the new trial setup. In their eyes, any chance to witness the candidates fight was appreciated.
After all, none of the trials really mattered if the candidates had feet for hands when it came to battles.
"The dolls are positioned based on your rankings. The front row is for the top ten candidates, and the second row is for the top twenty, and it goes down until the last one.
Now, utter the incantation I have sent you. The doll will be linked to your Spiritual Leywell, and once I start the race, it will start consuming spiritual energy from it." Instructor Seraphis said.
Spiritual Leywell was referring to the human’s consciousness space, where their soul was believed to reside...For normal citizens, the Spiritual Leywell was closed shut and quite useless.
But once they signed a contract and obtained their Shadowlife seed, it helped them unlock it. The moment this happened, the Daywalkers were able to utilize their spiritual energy freely, depending on their potential.
The Spiritual Leywell wasn’t the same for everyone, which was the main reason it required a special talent to become a Psych Specialist.
After Levi received the incantation, he murmured it like the others. In no time, he felt a sudden connection with one of the dolls.
When he focused his mind on it, a spiritual string emerged from his forehead and traveled across the darkness. Then, it stopped, and the spiritual aura of a doll emerged in his line of sight...Yet, the shocking part, he felt like he could control it with his thoughts!
Levi didn’t dare try to test out if he could truly move the doll or not. He understood that it might draw unnecessary attention to him since he was still believed to be a normal citizen.
He had already asked Ash’Kral about his spiritual prowess, and he told him that his Spiritual Leywell might have gotten unlocked the instant his eyes were ripped out.
It was the only viable explanation for Levi’s ludicrous spiritual vision, as it was a known fact that Spiritual Leywell needed training through constant utilization to grow. It also explained how Levi managed to see the two nightcrawlers from that cursed night when his eyes were gone.
Of course, Ash’Kral’s theory of his stolen eyes being unique also played a heavy role.
In simpler terms, Levi had been growing his Spiritual Leywell for the past decade through his spiritual vision, which set his level on a different stratosphere than everyone here.
Just as Levi was about to ponder how he should play this, Instructor Seraphis announced, "Choose your positions within the two-kilometer arena radius. If you get out of the range, the spiritual link will be severed and your doll will fall flat-faced on the ground."
"Any doll that doesn’t reach the finish line in less than thirty minutes will cause its owner to be eliminated."
Most candidates’ expressions turned ugly at such a damning piece of news.
"Is this really the right call?" Lord Idriss frowned at his old friend’s merciless elimination process.