Chapter 246 (1): The Judges Are My People—How Can You Possibly Compete with Me?

April second.

After twenty days of rest, the second round of the Holy Maiden selection commenced.

The team of magic engineering busied about for ages, constructing a teleportation portal around the mansions. After several test runs, they teleported the mansion and the candidates together.

***

The forest shrouded in thick mist seemed to sit at the edge of the world. An eerie atmosphere pervaded the wilderness, and because it was far from the center of the world, the dim, washed-out sunlight was especially weak, unable to dispel the cold air.

A cutting wind swept past, accompanied by the rustling of leaves. Unknown beasts let out piercing cries like dead souls reenacting their bleak deaths over and over after coming alive.

Wayne circled the mansion. The tall trees surrounding him were half hidden in dense fog. They extended their ghostly branches like twisted hands, beckoning to the living.

The dead branches and fallen leaves beneath his feet crunched and crackled with his every step. He sniffed the air and smelled decay, reminded of Darkness and Death.

So creepy!

It was hard to imagine that this was where the Church of Nature was going to assess the Holy Maiden candidates. It seemed better suited for the Church of Darkness or Church of Death.

According to the cheat sheet Senna had given him, the second round of assessment used a point system; the candidates were to go on a dungeon raid, and they would be ranked based on the order of their clears. Additionally, the higher-ups would monitor the candidates; the scores they gave would affect the ranking.

This dungeon, for example, was named the Misty Forest, a cursed land of Darkness and Death that greatly weakened the faith magic of the Church of Nature. The candidates were to collect four teleportation magic stones to activate the portal and enter the next dungeon, using their respective mansions as bases.

There were enough magic stones for all candidates to enter the next dungeon. In theory, each mansion was allocated four. Candidates weren’t allowed to collect more than four, nor were they allowed to destroy the stones...

There was an unspoken rule, of course. Those who knew would know.

What was allowed in theory wasn’t allowed; what was permitted in theory could be done in practice. It was understandable for rules to adapt to special circumstances, just like how dreams mutated in the real world.

Anyway, Wayne had circled the mansion, extending his thoughts to merge with nature. Chilling whispers hit his eardrums like curses, speaking of the horrors of the forest of death.

To other mages, the whispers might be maddening, but to Wayne, it was just noisy.

While he could merge with nature here, the lifeless Misty Forest could hardly provide him any support. Quite the contrary, he would have to compensate for the lack of balance with his own vitality.

No thanks. I don’t have poor relatives like you.

Ending the dialogue prematurely, Wayne suddenly grew curious about the forest. The

Book of Greed

perked up, indicating that there were treats of Darkness and Death in the woods, good enough to snack on. Due to the small portion, though, the book wasn’t even motivated enough to extend its tentacles.

“Look how spoiled you are. You’ve eaten too many good things...”

“What are you mumbling about? Talking behind my back again?” Veronica walked out of the mansion with her pack and punched Wayne.

“Yeah, I feel like you’ve gained weight recently.”

“No way! Which part?”

Veronica was shocked. She had been exercising less lately, while she had been consuming too many sweet words. She also felt her weight getting out of control.

Wayne glanced at her chest. As expected of him, he recognized Veronica’s potential way back. She only needed a helping hand, and look how far she had come with his helping hand.

Wham!

What are you looking at?

Veronica pulled her fist back and scoffed. “This place makes me uncomfortable. Let’s hurry and find the teleportation stones. Since we’re competing, we must take first place.”

“Friendship first, competition second. Winning isn’t important. It’s about the process...” Wayne shrugged. Crouching down, he placed both hands on the ground and unleashed his mana to activate the tree roots below.

Amid rumbling tremors, tendrils of vines churned the soil and wrapped around the mansion, pulling it deep underground. To protect their home base from infiltration, he had buried it extremely deep. He was confident that outside of himself, no other candidates would have enough mana to dig it up even if they found this spot.

Now we’re good!

Veronica nodded approvingly. She never doubted the scumbag’s talent in magic. Everyone who had seen him in action had praised his talent; there had never been a bad review.

“I just realized something. I didn’t have to bury the house so deep. The rules only say that we have to collect magic stones and teleport to the next dungeon, not that we must use our own mansion.”

Wayne rubbed his chin. “I could blow up our house and steal someone else’s, or blow up others’ houses to leave them with nowhere to go...”

“Brilliant! I just came up with many new tactics. We can test them all.”

Veronica shook her fist. “That’s too slow. This is faster.”

True enough. When you can let your fists do the talking, you don’t need brains.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Wayne wholeheartedly agreed with her suggestion, using violence as the primary tactic. Extending his thoughts, he explored the surroundings and determined their position on the map. Five minutes later, he barely managed to locate himself.

The mist interfered with his thoughts, and every inch he advanced, the difficulty level tripled. Any other candidates would’ve been no better than blind.

During the process, the

Book of Greed

alerted him to quite a few wraiths in the forest, several of which could be contracted and converted to vengeful spirits.

Forget it. Why would I need that many vengeful spirits?

Wayne hadn’t recruited new employees for quite a while. The last time it happened was the last time. Up until now, the book had actually alerted him to several promising candidates in Londan, but he had ignored all of them.

Admittedly, vengeful spirits could bring Wayne new talents, like Do’s super smell and supernatural senses, or Bo’s super vision—all highly practical. Moreover, Do and Bo were specialized in different areas. One controlled fog, while the other manipulated water. As Wayne became stronger, the

Book of Greed

continued to grow, and both vengeful spirits’ abilities were enhanced as well.

However, Wayne’s own growth rate was so high that his vengeful spirits could hardly keep up, and the skills they granted weren’t as useful as what Wayne could develop by tapping into his own potential.

Moreover, both of his veteran employees were tethered to a specific location. Having died in Londan, they were tied down to the city. Even if Wayne wanted new vengeful spirits, he wouldn’t recruit them in the Misty Forest. It existed in an unclear location, most likely some alternative dimension controlled by the Church of Nature’s headquarters.

It wouldn’t be worth it to recruit spirits here. Londan locals would be better options. His new employees should be on call whenever needed, never taking long leaves of absence.

Still, since he was here already, he decided to check out the kind of merchandise available. He sank his mind into the

Book of Greed

, flipping through the pages and browsing the contractable spirits one by one.

His expression turned strange. These vengeful spirits... were all girls.

They were around Veronica’s age. Their corpses had rotted into sludge, their thoughts and souls restrained by Darkness and Death. They thus turned into a special type of spirit. They were translucent and incorporeal like ghosts, some headless and some missing limbs. All of them had met an ugly death, their appearances so macabre that anyone would shudder at the sight.

Receiving an invitation from the

Book of Greed

for a chance to live again, the spirits responded eagerly. Their translucent bodies flickered, becoming pure and clear. They shed their horror film getup and dressed themselves like the lead of

The Princess Diaries

.

The competition was on!

Wayne made a headcount. All twelve vengeful spirits appeared to be real beauties in life, like...

Holy Maiden candidates.

“The selection killed people? That can’t be right. Master never mentioned it...”

Wayne muttered to himself and closed the

Book of Greed

without contracting anyone. Receiving no response, the spirits’ resentment intensified once more, transforming back into their midnight horrors’ look.

Wayne was feeling terrible not long after stepping into the Misty Forest. The Holy Maiden candidates who had met miserable deaths proved that the church’s headquarters was corrupt to the core. Judging by the heavy resentment, their deaths had to be far from peaceful.

For a moment, he couldn’t help but feel pity. He almost signed all twelve employees at once.

He couldn’t, though. This was too far from Londan. He was just about to put aside the matter despite his regretful feelings when he caught Veronica from his peripheral vision.

She was a Holy Maiden candidate, too, but the difference between her and these spirits was night and day. Veronica had him, her wonderful big brother. She wouldn’t end up dead in a foreign land.

Because of her, he felt deeper sympathy for the twelve spirits. After pondering for a moment, he gave in to his conscience and decided to ask Senna about it after clearing this round. If possible, he would like to add Misty Forest to their partnership agreement.

“I’m too kind-hearted...” Wayne sighed, quickening his pace forward.

There he goes again!

Veronica tilted her head and followed him. She suspected that the scumbag was under too much pressure from his deal with that bad woman, which was why he had been muttering to himself constantly these past few days.

Maybe I should reward him a bit more?