Chapter 175 - Entering the Trial Grounds

Zephyr and Lance had just noticed the situation and they quickly rushed over to Eli's side.

"Elizabeth! Are you okay?!" Lance worriedly asked.

Eli was a little pale, but she forcefully smiled and nodded her head.

"Y-yeah...Cecil and Lucia quickly came to help..."

"Tsk, that damned bastard...how dare he!"

Zephyr kept his silence and only stared at Eli. Once he made sure that she was perfectly okay, he turned around and left.

"What's with him? He could at least say something!" Lucia said.

"Oh, don't worry. Despite him being cold and callous, he's probably the one who was most worried!" Serilla said as she came up to Cecil's side.

"Hm?"

Serilla leaned in to the group and whispered, "Despite his uncaring look, he's actually been battling it out with that stupid Empire prince! The kidnap attempts at Elizabeth have numbered way more than just 10!"

Serilla smiled meaningfully as she eyed the pale Eli. Eli who heard this blushed a bit and smiled.

"Hehe~ good for you Princess, you're really loved by all your siblings!" Ainz teasingly said.

"Shut it Ainz, I don't wanna hear that from you!" Eli scowled.

"Hmph!"

Over at the Beastman Academy's group, Cecil and co. could see that the Prince was causing a ruckus. He was yelling and berating everyone around him, telling them to go get revenge for him.

Which of course, not many of them cared, not everyone in the Beastman Empire was a brainless fool like the Prince. Many in the Academy even detested this particular prince because of how dirty and underhanded he was.

Other than his underlings, most of the other Beastman students out rightly ignored him. However, a small group of beastmen detached from the group and made their way over.

Zephyr alongside Alex and the rest of the student council came forward to meet with them. Serilla was still next to Cecil however.

"Shouldn't you be with them over there?" He asked.

"Hm? Nah~, I don't want to~"

"...you are the student council's secretary, no?"

"I won't do what I don't want to do~"

"..."

Cecil enhanced his senses and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation. To his surprise, the Beastmen that came forward were actually apologizing for the Prince's rude behavior. Cecil was a little disappointed though, if a fight broke out, he was totally eager to come forth and participate.

It wasn't like he was trying to find an excuse to run away from Serilla and Lucia, no, of course not! He purely wanted to help out with any conflicts that arose.

"You're thinking about running away aren't you?" Lucia poked at him from the side.

"Huh?"

"That stupid, disappointed look on your face tells me everything, Cel. You wanna run away again," she said and began pinching his sides.

"Ouch!"

*****

The group had to wait another hour or so before the Elven King finally brought them over to the Urrugdrasil Trial Grounds' entrance.

At first glance the entrance was only...a platform? At least, that was what Cecil thought it looked like. There was no majestic gate or entrance or whatever. It was just a large, circular platform that looked like a cut-off part of the World Tree's roots.

"Everyone! Step onto the platform!" The King exclaimed.

Around the large platform were 12 smaller platforms that had a squadron of 7 Elven Mages on each of them.

When Cecil got on top of the platform, he finally noticed the faint traces of what seemed to be a super-sized magic formation that encompassed the entirety of the platform he was standing on.

He looked at it curiously with his Mana Eyes and noticed that it had a similarity with the teleportation gates that the group used to arrive at the trunk of the World Tree.

"It's a teleportation formation! Woah! It's huge!" Cecil exclaimed in shock.

Everyone who heard his words turned to him and they too were astonished.

"So, that's why we're here...we're all going to be teleported straight into the trial grounds!" Ainz said.

"Hey...doesn't this mean we're going to be separated now?" Fina worriedly asked.

"Remember everyone! Once you get inside! Make sure to quickly activate the crests! If you find anyone around you, quickly make your way to them and stick together!"

From the middle of the group, Zephyr had risen into the air and reminded everyone. The group immediately became solemn and waited for the formation to activate.

Once every academy's group was standing on the platform, the Elven Mages in the smaller platforms began chanting.

Magic formations on the smaller platforms began to glow with a green light. The mages poured in more mana into the formations and it began to link up with the larger magic formation on the platform where the students were on.

It took another 20 seconds before the teleportation formation began to activate and the Elven King chanted an ancient cryptic line.

"Et inven tor ish kat fili en dur kha!"

After his chant, the formation activated in full and it brightly illuminated the surroundings. The piercing light from the formation caused everyone to tightly close their eyes and in the next moment, they all felt a strong, pulling sensation on their bodies.

"!!!"

FWWWWWIIIIIIIPPPPPP

The light died down on the platform and the 500 students on it were no longer there.

"With this, the Urrugdrasil Trials has officially begun!"

The King loudly declared.

******

When Cecil came to, he was lying down on top of a tree stump. The boy shook his head and felt a little dizzy.

"Man, I thought I already got used to teleportation!" Cecil felt like he was about to throw up. The teleportation formation that he went through was super-sized and it felt like he was tossed into a washing machine before being spat back out.

"Urgh..." Cecil calmed himself down and quickly adjusted his condition. He took a look around the area before he quickly activated his academy's tracking crest.

"...no response. I guess I'm alone here," Cecil frowned. "Now...where am I?"

He quickly activated Mana Sense and spread his awareness into the area 500 meters around him.

"Uwah!"

He was surprised at what he was sensing. Monsters, monsters everywhere!

"I thought this was supposed to be INSIDE the World Tree? How come there are corrupted ents, Maruboros, and Vinazes?"

All the monsters around his area were corrupted or tainted beings. This was supposed to be the sacred World Tree, right? Cecil was expecting monsters with normal attributes.

"Well, whatever...for all I know, this might not even be inside Urrugdrasil at all..." Cecil cast his eyes to the tree tops.

His Mana Eyes pierced through the foliage and finally saw what was hidden above all that. "We're underground?"

The light that was seeping through the tree tops were coming from a mineral that was embedded into the ceiling of where he was. It looked like it was sunlight, but it actually wasn't.

When he took a cursory glance at the tops of the trees, he couldn't help but notice the bloodterpillars and gloom fungai living on top of those large leaves.

"Hah! There really IS danger everywhere! My type of place! Huhuhuhu~" Cecil began grinning and he unsheathed his Adamantium Sword.

"First, let's make our way out of this place. The King said that we should listen to the World Tree's administrator, but where is it?"

Cecil began dashing through the forest. He cut down every single monster that stood in his way with his sword. He was a little disgruntled however since the monsters he killed didn't leave behind any harvestable materials.

Once they were killed, they disintegrated into particles of light that seeped into the ground. He also found out that the A+ and S ranked creatures weren't strong at all as well. Their power only ranged about B+ or A.

"I thought they were supposed to be stronger?" Cecil skeptically said as he cut down a Maruboros. A Maruboros was an S ranked creature. It was a vine-type monster that had a nucleus that acted as its eye.

This nucleus would also act as the main body and multiple corrosive vines grew out of it. One of the reasons why this monster was categorized as S rank was because the main body could burrow deep underground and use only its vines to attack unsuspecting travelers that came into its range of activity.

The Maruboroses that Cecil encountered did exactly the same. Cecil's countermeasure was to first sense it and then send a large mana bolt at it to force the main body out of the ground. Then he would Blink to its side and immediately cut it down.

The problem was...it should have taken a little more effort. Once out of the ground, the Maruboros would attack with its tentacle vines in frenzy. It would rampage around until it could reenter the ground.

The Maruboros that Cecil encountered didn't do so. It only dumbly stayed in place and sent its vines at Cecil. There was also no corrosive liquid being secreted from the vines and this greatly reduced the monster's danger level.

The other monsters were also like this. The normal behavior that Cecil had read up or personally experienced didn't apply to these monsters. There were also some unique characteristics of the monsters that weren't present in the ones that he fought inside the trial grounds.

"...this is boring."

When Cecil cut down his 20th corrupted Ent, Cecil suddenly heard a voice inside his head.

[Kill 20 degraded Maruboros, 20 degraded Ents, 20 degraded Scorpion Beetles, 20 degraded Vinaz, and 20 degraded corrupt fairies, completed. Please follow the trees to the Beginning Plaza!]

"Eh?"

He looked around and couldn't find the origin of the voice, but he did notice some of the trees lighting up ahead of him. Cecil tilted his head and decided to follow after the trees that were lighting up.

"I guess, I'll just listen to the voice...I'm guessing that's the administrator? So the first trial is to kill those degraded monsters...degraded, no wonder they were so weak."

Cecil followed the trail of brightly lit trees, as he passed one tree after another he couldn't help but notice that the light they emitted would immediately die down.

"It looks like this is the only way forward," Cecil also noticed that after the voice sounded in his mind, he no longer encountered any monsters as he made his way towards the 'Beginning Plaza'.

When Cecil arrived at this plaza, he couldn't help but find himself once again alone.

"Uhh...I'm the first?"

[Congratulations, you are the first to arrive at the Beginning Plaza. Please collect your reward!]

The ground in the middle of the plaza began to overturn and out popped a chest that was wrapped up in some roots and vines.

"...Okay? This is like a game I see. Alright, at least the rewards are pretty straight forward. Complete the task, be first and you get the reward. Awesome," Cecil said as he made his way over to the chest.

He quickly opened it and found a piece of parchment inside.

"...the heck is this?"