Otherworld Adventure 177 Difference In Rewards

There were rings that had absolutely no mana being emitted while one of those rings had an absurdly large mana emission.

"Jackpot!"

Lucia immediately grabbed onto the ring that emitted the largest amount of mana. After grabbing onto the ring, the box closed and the roots pulled it into the ground. The earth that was turned over immediately moved back into place and it closed the hole.

"Did you guys see it?"

"Yeah!"

"Awesome!"

"Shhhh, be quiet! I don't want the other academy students to know!"

Lucia immediately hushed Ainz and signaled to her other friends. They moved about and went over to their fellow students who still hadn't picked up a ring yet. For the ones who already did, they could only blame themselves for being too hasty.

Lucia went next to Serilla. The girl was about to grab a ring from the box, but Lucia quickly grabbed a hold of her hand.

"Lulu? What's wrong?"

"Wait, let me pick for you..." Lucia whispered.

She turned her eyes into the contents of the box and helped Serilla to pick the one with the highest mana density.

"Choose the top left one...no not that one, the other one!"
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"This?"

"Yup, pick that one!"

"Okay~"

Serilla immediately picked up the ring that Lucia pointed out. Then she turned her eyes towards the girl to inquire.

"What's up Lulu? Did you find something?"

Lucia leaned in and whispered, "Yeah! It's a skill Cecil and Eli recently created. We're able to see the density of mana using our eyes now. I had you pick the one with the highest mana density. Hopefully, the reward is better!"

"Oh? Can I learn it too?"

"Ask Eli! She'll teach you the Aura Manifestation technique...I'm sure Cecil won't mind if you learned it." She winked.

"Hihihi~ thanks Lulu~"

Lucia separated from Serilla and began helping out the other students. It wasn't long before she began hearing cheers and curses from the other academy groups.

When she turned an eye to them, she smirked happily when she found that the ones who cheered were the people who had luckily chosen a ring with a higher mana density. The ones who were cursing were the students who picked rings that had low mana density or none at all.

"Hmhmhm~ good thing!"

She couldn't see what their rewards were, but from her observations she could now guarantee that their academy's rewards were bound to be the most bountiful!

Lucia quickly finished her rounds. She also explained to Zephyr what she and the Little Kings were doing. It was a good thing that Zephyr wasn't hasty, while he was deliberating on which ring to choose, his sister came over and picked it out for him.

Zephyr immediately ordered the student council members to hush everyone and make sure that they didn't exclaim or do anything that might leak out their bountiful harvest.

Jealousy, envy, and greed were bad things, especially when they were directed at you. Zephyr didn't want their academy to become a public enemy just because they had a better harvest than the other academies.

Thankfully everyone was willing to comply and despite having opened up the rings and widening their eyes in astonishment, no one cheered out loud or anything. Instead some had even begun to curse and frown.

The ones who were too hasty all had bitter faces however. This caused the other academy groups who had turned their attention at Arks Academy to smirk in ridicule. They had seen the inconspicuous acts of Lucia and the Little Kings helping their friends pick out a ring.

They didn't understand the meaning behind it, were these individuals just lucky or what? But after seeing the lack of response from the students who had their rewards picked for them, they scoffed and turned their attention back to their own groups.

"Good, we didn't arouse any suspicion...I'm guessing many of us have good rewards?" Zephyr lightly asked.

"Yes, President...I actually got a replica of the World Tree's 11th thorn..." A student council member replied in a hushed tone.

"What?"

"Yeah, take a look President." The member immediately handed over his ring and Zephyr took a quick peek inside.

Inside the ring was a metallic, purple colored, 3-foot long wooden sword. It had silver runes engraved on its blade and grooves on both sides of the 4 inch wide blade.

"It really is the World Tree's Thorn! The 11th Thorn, Purity!"

"It's only a replica, President. When I unlocked the ring, the administrator's voice sounded in my head and gave me a notification."

"I see...let me see what's inside mine."

Zephyr took a look inside his ring and his eyes flashed with surprise, but it disappeared immediately.

"...I just got a World Tree sapling..."

"Oh my gosh!"

"A gold mine!"

World Tree Saplings were offshoots of the World Tree, Urrugdrasil. It could be grown outside of the World Tree's area of influence and it could provide the World Tree's blessing onto a small area once it grew over 10 meters tall.

The leaves of the World Tree's Sapling could also be used to brew tea or medicine that would help with Mana Cultivation.

The Headmaster of Arks Academy had a sapling himself and it was the source of all his tea leaves.

The roots of the sapling were used to create the Wine that the Headmaster once gifted to Lucia's mother, Anna, as compensation for almost exposing her foster son's power.

Just the World Tree sapling alone made this trip into the World Tree's Trial Grounds worthwhile. The Anglaria Prince no longer needed any other rewards since just this sapling was enough.

"I must thank the Little Kings for this."

"Y-yeah...if it wasn't for them...we probably would have picked out the wrong rings!"

"Make sure to tell everyone to keep a tight lid on this. The rewards are theirs and theirs alone. No one can take them away...but if the other academies find out..."

"Yes, we understand!"

Zephyr's subordinates immediately went around and began warning everyone once again. The President himself went over to the Little Kings' gathering spot.

"I have to thank you all...we made such a bountiful harvest from only the first trial thanks to you 6," He said with a smile.

"Hey, don't sweat it Crown Prince Zephyr! We're only doing all we can to help the kingdom and our fellow students!" Ainz replied righteously.

Zephyr once more expressed his thanks and went over to the middle of the plaza when he saw the other Academy Presidents and representatives gather together.

"This is great and all...but I can't help worry about Cel...there's just no way he'd fail the first trial! And what was it that the stupid trash was talking about? Corrupted Field?"

"Corrupted Area...I heard from the headmaster that it's a dead zone that's full of corrupted monsters. They're much harder than those C and B ranked monsters that we encountered, but I'm not sure just how strong," Eli said.

"Hmph! Even if the monsters were A or S ranked, Cecil wouldn't have any troubles!" Velicia quipped.

"Yes...but I heard that the trial on that particular area requires one person to destroy 100 or so monsters by themselves...I think that the other partic.i.p.ants who couldn't make it past the first trial had most likely landed in the Corrupted Area."

"Arrgghh!!! It still doesn't make any sense!"

Ainz had a thoughtful look and then it was as if a light bulb had lit up in his head, he opened his mouth.

"What happens if he's already cleared the trial long before any of us did?"

"Eh?"

"...?"

"That...could be possible...I mean...It IS Cecil you know?" Fina said, subtly agreeing with Ainz's opinion.

"Yeah...yeah! That must be the case! Cecil might have already pa.s.sed the first trial long before any of us!"

Velicia's voice wasn't loud, but the ears of the Elves were pretty sharp. The elves that had first arrived at the plaza couldn't help but over hear this.

"...Did you hear that?"

"Yeah...this Cecil kid...they make it sound like he's very strong or something."

"If he is as strong as what they're saying...then he might have pa.s.sed the trial long before us...if that was the case. Then the map is obviously with him!"

"Yeah...but how are we supposed to s.n.a.t.c.h it from him? His restrictions have been released, so he's probably gone off to the next trial ahead of us!"

"Yeah, he'll probably monopolize all the first clear rewards!"

"d.a.m.n!"

Although the elves did have some insider information, what they didn't know was the additional locations of the extra rewards being separated in this trial. In the past trials, the extra rewards were given to the people who had cleared the trials first, but in this time's trials. The extra rewards were all separated from the first clear rewards.

Cecil, who was far ahead from the rest of the group, had slashed and hacked his way through monsters and shrubbery to reach the extra trials' location.

"Phew...took me some time to get here...Can't believe this forest actually has some sentience...those trees' vines and roots are really annoying!"

On his way over to the first extra trial, the trees on his path had obstructed him from moving forwards. They wound their roots and branches to form barricades or walls that blocked Cecil's path, or they began leading the monsters in the area over to Cecil and some had even directly tried to tie up Cecil using their vines or roots.

Cecil couldn't cut the trees down because no matter what kind of skill or attack he used on the trees, they would just quickly restore themselves. They weren't an ent or any kind of plant-type monster, but the forest had its own sentience and apparently, their main objective was to obstruct anyone from going over to the extra trials' location.

He was a little troubled, but then just decided to straightforwardly smash his way though. If the student in the plaza had been paying attention and weren't so boisterous in their reward claiming, then they might have felt or heard the subtle vibrations and explosions deep from within the forest.

Cecil used every wide area combat skill that he knew of and blasted his way through the forest and quickly arrived at the first extra trials' location.

Once he arrived at the small clearing, the trees in the area no longer tried to obstruct or bother him.

"Now...what do I do?"

He took a look around the clearing, but only found a small...chair made of branches and vines in the middle of the clearing.

The chair looked like an old throne...Cecil wondered if he should go and sit on it.

[Welcome, challenger! This is the first trials' extra trial! Would you like to proceed?]

"Yeah...sure."

[Please sit down on the throne!]

Cecil shrugged and sheathed his sword. Then he went forward and sat down on the wooden throne.

Then...nothing happened.

"Oka~ay...?"

After a moment the branches that made up the wooden throne began to wriggle around and then they entangled themselves onto Cecil's appendages.

"W-woah! Hey!"

Cecil tried to struggle, but to no avail. The branches began to curl around his body and eventually he was wrapped up in a bundle of branches and pulled underground.

"W-WOAAAAAHHH!!!"

[Extra Trial, Underground h.e.l.l. Partic.i.p.ant: 1]