Cloud Thinking

"You want to trick me? Trick me into surrendering? Do you take me for an idiot?" Helia's first reaction was disbelief, and she mercilessly gave her a middle finger.

"I surrender." Avril suddenly looked at Helia and said, she even raised her hands, firmly indicating that she wanted to withdraw from the competition, "I want to withdraw."

But after nearly a minute, Avril was still standing there, three steps in front of Helia, and her movements hadn't changed. Helia's expression gradually became serious. She looked up at the sky, looking for something. If she remembered correctly, there should be a video stone to broadcast the situation in their field in real time.

"Don't look at it. We have been unable to contact the outside world this morning. I suspect we are trapped here." Avril said seriously.

"So what's going on?" Gena was a little confused. Everything was fine yesterday, why did it change so drastically today?

Avril shook her head, "I don't know. Today is the fourth day. My teammates and I went down to the ruins to look for treasures the next day. Although we gained something, we were attacked on the third night. It was also at that time that we found that we could not teleport away. Others found a way to let Dalli and I escape, and asked us to find someone to come back to help, but..." She glanced at Dalli, with an indescribable pain on her face.

"I suspect that others are also in danger..."

"What ruins?" Seeing that she was shivering with cold, Helia took off her wolfskin vest and threw it to her.

If the situation is as serious as Avril said, then there is no need for them to fight among themselves. The best thing to do now is to preserve their strength and leave here together. From the moment they lose contact with the outside world, winning or losing the game is meaningless.

"It was Crazy Connie who took us there. It seems that his team had known for a long time that there was such a large and well-preserved relic here in the snowfield. Based on what we saw inside, it should be a temple dedicated to the ancient gods." Avril wrapped herself in the clothes thrown by Helia and couldn't help but move closer, but Helia took two steps back and looked at her warily.

Seeing her move, Avril just pulled the corners of her mouth and revealed a smile that was not quite a smile, "You suspect that I will become like Darlie, right?"

"Who knows what you brought out of the ruins? It's always better to be cautious." Helia said honestly. To be honest, ever since she came into contact with magic, the word "ancient gods" would make her feel uneasy every time she talked about them, as if she had a grudge with them before. But how could a tiny human like her possibly provoke a god?

"Let's take these two back first. Since the ruins are so dangerous, let's not go there." Britney advised. She also sensed a strange and powerful aura coming from the direction Avril pointed to. Something seemed to have gone wrong in this game. For safety's sake, it was better to stay put.

"I'd like to go take a look..." Helia muttered, stroking her chin.

It’s not that she is greedy, but according to what Avril said, last year’s champion team that they worked with seemed to know the location of the ruins very well. Does that mean that this group of people knew that they would be drawn to this venue long before the game started... ?

But the problem is that even the team themselves cannot control this matter, so how can they predict the future? Is the inability to teleport away related to them? What is in the ruins? Will it escape?

Regardless of whether it is the people or the things they are looking for, they are all in the ruins at this moment. All the clues point there, and if you don’t take a look, you will always regret it for the rest of your life.

"Hey! If you two leave, Alco and I won't be able to keep an eye on these two women." Gena said, his eyes fixed on Dalli. The strange power that this guy just erupted was not something that the two of them could suppress.

And now we can't teleport away. If we encounter danger, we might really die here. The 85% survival rate in this shitty place is no joke. They still value their lives very much.

"Okay, okay, I'll listen to you and go back first." Helia spread her hands helplessly, took out a piece of rope from her backpack, forcibly tied up Dalli's hands, stuffed a ball of cloth into her mouth, made sure she wouldn't bite, and let Gena carry her on his back.

"Ah? Can't you just break the spell and let her walk by herself?" Gena said unhappily. Magic swordsmen are all tall and strong. Even if Dalli is a woman, she must be heavy. Moreover, this person may attack him. He doesn't want to carry her on his back.

"What if she runs away? Even though she's unconscious, she might still be saved." Helia ignored her protests and handed the other end of the rope that bound Dalli's hands to Alturamon, saying, "Pull the rope tight. If there's any movement, call me immediately."

"Okay, actually, I can take turns carrying him with Gena," said Alturamon.

"No, save your energy. It would be terrible if we get attacked by something else on the way and both of us magic swordsmen are out of strength." Helia had her own considerations. Before going back, she had to find a way to see if she could "accidentally encounter" some cute little animals. After all, with Avril, the walking blood incense, she wouldn't be afraid of not attracting those carnivores.

But I’m worried that there may not be any animals nearby. Not only will I not be able to find food, but I’ll also have two more mouths to feed!

So is this luck or bad luck?

Genna tried to carry her on his back, but Dalli was so heavy, heavier than a rock, that he couldn't even stand straight and was shaking all the time. He had no choice but to put her down. "By the way, Bailey, don't you know the magic that can seal living things? Why don't you seal her?"

As a result, he received four glances that seemed to say "What kind of idiot are you?" Even his teammate Arturamon thought that Gena was mentally ill, otherwise how could he say such a thing.

"Where do you want to seal such a big person? On your body? Or is there something wrong with your eyes that you think she is about the same size as a crow?" Helia pursed her lips and said speechlessly.

Being called stupid, Gena felt wronged and muttered quietly, "I just provided everyone with a new idea... I should have known not to tell everyone that I knew her..."

"Even if you don't know her, you're the one carrying her. Hurry up, carry her and let's go." Helia waved her hand, signaling him to move quickly.

Helia walked in front and led the way. They marked the way they came, after all, they had to return the same way before nightfall; Gena carried Darlie and Arturamon on his back and walked in the middle; Britney and Avril brought up the rear, and monitored Avril for any unusual behavior.

"Do you remember which ancient god is enshrined in the ruins?" Britney asked. She was very interested in ancient magic, and if the authority held by the ancient god enshrined in the temple overlapped with the magic she was interested in, then she wouldn't mind going in and exploring with Helia.

Avril shook her head and recalled, "There was no written record inside, and we couldn't get into the main hall that enshrined the ancient god's statue. The door was locked and we couldn't force our way in, so we just wandered around the side halls a few times and found some sacrificial supplies."

"There are signs of human sacrifice. There are a lot of skeletons in the side hall, even some of them are from children. I don't think it's some ancient god from the lawful side."

Britney seemed to have some guesses in her mind, and she immediately asked, "How were you attacked? Was it something that was already inside the ruins that attacked you, or did the attacker come in from outside like you?"

"Aren't we the only contestants coming from outside? Our two teams are very strong when combined. Ordinary students can't hurt us so much. It must be something inside the ruins." Avril affirmed.

"The next night we entered the temple and went down to the first floor. After discussing, we quickly separated and went to search for useful things. Convis was the first to get into trouble. When we found him, his arm was already broken. He was unconscious in a pile of bones as high as a hill, bleeding profusely."

"The next person to be killed was Phoenix, whose eye was gouged out. According to him, he was holding a pottery jar and looking at it, and something suddenly jumped out of it, gouged out his eye and ran away. He didn't see clearly what it was."

"Because there is a healing magician who can use advanced healing magic, we don't plan to send them out yet. Let them continue exploring with us."

"Because two people had already been in trouble, everyone decided to act together, but something went wrong. A team of ten people lost two people halfway through a corridor. They were Convis and Phoenix. They disappeared silently. People who were close to them didn't hear anything at all, and they didn't leave any traces."

"We were planning to go look for them, but some people didn't want to. They said what if we went back to look for them because we would be two people short? The team argued about this and finally split into two groups. Dahlli, Donaldson, and Dweck, the four of us went back to look for them, while the other four continued forward."

"The corridor was about 20 meters long, and we returned to the entrance not long after we walked. However, we didn't see any place to go in the middle of the corridor. We walked all the way back and didn't see anyone. If they weren't at the entrance, could it be that they walked faster than the other team and had already reached the other side?"

"We felt something was wrong and prepared to retreat. We planned to inform others that we had magic props that could be used for communication. However, we couldn't contact them. No one on the other side answered the call."

"It was only at this time that we realized we could no longer contact the outside world. All communications from magic items were cut off. Donaldson tried to surrender, but found he could not be teleported away. We began to panic."

"It's very likely that something has happened over there, and we can't protect ourselves right now. If we rashly go in to look for it, it will only cost us all our lives, so we decided to retreat."

Avril seemed to have thought of something extremely terrifying. She was trembling all over and hugged herself tightly. "But on the way, we met a creature that could hardly be called a human. It was only as tall as a six-year-old child, had no facial features, no skin, and was covered in blood. The flesh and blood was melting like snow, revealing its white bones."

"It seemed to have heard our movements. It raised its hands and ran towards us. The sound of flesh and blood falling could be heard behind us, leaving a trail of blood along the way. It must have been very happy and laughing, but because it had no mouth, it could only make loud noises."

"Our first reaction when we saw the monster was to run. As a magic swordsman, Dalli drew her sword to stop it and chopped it in half without saying a word. But what's more frightening is that even though it turned into two pieces of bloody flesh and blood lying on the ground, it was still alive and was squirming to crawl towards us."

"It is very likely that Dalli was infected by the monster at that time. She was the only one closest to the monster at the time, and her body was splashed with blood."

"Wait, you said at the beginning that you were attacked on the third night, but from what you just said, it seems that you were attacked by the things inside as soon as you went down to the temple." Britney interrupted Avril and asked.

"To be precise, we were attacked by strange creatures inside the temple when we entered it on the second night, but the attack on the third night I mentioned was from humans." Avril explained, "The creatures that attacked us before were all unknown creatures, but the one who intercepted us from leaving on the third night, I'm sure, was a human."

"It's definitely not a student, something else has sneaked in." Britney said firmly. Although this place is used as a competition venue by the competition organizers, it is a no-man's land when there is no competition. Even with the defensive magic set up by the competition organizers, it is not completely impenetrable.

Those who sneaked in were either here before the game started, or broke through the magic barrier set up by the competition organizers after the game started.

On the third night of the trip, the connection with the outside world was suddenly cut off, and the teleportation magic could not be used. It is very likely that at that time, something terrible entered here and isolated it from the outside world. The reason why these people came here should be for this relic.

"You said it was Crazy Connie who brought you here. How did he know there was such a well-preserved relic here?" Britney asked, although she felt that Avril probably didn't know the reason behind it.

"Mad Connie is called a madman because he can predict the future. He is a member of the Tanasa family." Alturamon, who was walking in front, replied, "He should have known it through predictive magic."

"You do understand." Helia said casually.

"After all, he is the champion of the last team competition and is also the favorite for this year's team competition. I have asked him about it before the competition." Alturamon replied, "And Crazy Connie is very famous in school. Don't you know that?"

Helia: Sorry, I don't care about what's happening outside. I only read books of sages.

"Didn't he foresee that you would be wiped out?" Britney asked.

The Tanasha family is the best at predictive magic on the continent. In a broader sense, it can be said that they have a monopoly on predictive magic. They are similar to the Turafa family. They are a magic family. Only the children of the family can learn and inherit the family tradition, which is predictive magic. Compared with predictive magicians outside their family, their predictions are more accurate and have a wider range. They can even clearly see the future, which is something that other magicians cannot compare to.

But this comes at a price. Almost all members of the Tanasha family have short lives. Every time they use predictive magic, they will overdraw their lives. The more important and detailed the matter to be predicted is, and the longer the time span is, the more life will be consumed.

If we talk about which magic families in the whole continent are the most untouchable, the Tanasha family is definitely among them. Just based on their ability to predict the future, Claude has to give them three faces. After all, who can guarantee that he won't need to ask for help in the future?

Because there were many people who wanted to predict the future, they offered wealth and power that the Tanasha family could not refuse. However, human lifespan was limited, and they would die after using up their lifespan. However, human greed was infinite. In order to maintain the glory of the family and ensure successors, they had to find ways to expand their family. As long as they had enough children, they would not be afraid of too many deaths. Anyway, their bloodlines could inherit the family's profound knowledge, but their talents were different. However, a small amount of meat was still meat. As long as they could use predictive magic, they could make money.

In this way, the Tanasha family was gradually divided into a powerful direct line and several side branches. Without sufficient money and power as rewards, you cannot ask the direct line members to predict the future for you.

So, is this crazy Connie a member of the main lineage or a side branch?

"Even if he knew, he wouldn't tell anyone else." Helia answered for Avril, "He must have a purpose for entering the ruins. As for the others, they were just used as human shields. Even if he knew that this trip was very dangerous, he had a way to save his life. He would just run away after getting the things."

"Yes, he didn't tell us what happened next. He only said that there was an ancient god's treasure hidden inside. If we could get it, we would have money, power and fame. Why should we care about this little team competition?" Avril sneered. She had long guessed that this man was up to no good. He kept talking nonsense all day long. It turned out that he wanted to use them and then throw them away. Only Donaldson really believed it.

"Go on, tell me what happened next and who you met," Britney said.

Avril pursed her bloodless and chapped lips and continued, "They were wearing black robes, wrapped tightly, and it was impossible to tell what they were. In addition, the underground environment was dim, and they suddenly attacked us when we were climbing up the stairs. Donaldson and Darlie fought back, and Dweck and I assisted them. In the end, we found that we could not defeat them at all. The opponent was at least a third-level magician."

"And the magic they used was something I had never seen before. It was very strange, and I felt scared the closer I got. There were only two men in black robes fighting us, but we didn't know how many more were hiding in the dark. We were defeated, so Donaldson and Dweck had to lead them to the place where we had encountered the monster before, buying time for Darlie and I to escape."

"I have a bad feeling." When Helia heard the three words "man in black robe", she vaguely guessed the other party's true identity. Even though she was unwilling to believe it, it seemed that the worst thing had happened.

"I suspect you and I have the same idea." Britney's face also looked unhappy. It seemed that she had heard the news from Drummond.

A black magician.