The story of the black silk female knight

In Pawn Chess, the key to victory is who can upgrade their first chariot piece first, and then quickly capture two pieces to upgrade their queen, thus dominating the entire game.

Of course, the side that plays the queen first will have a great advantage, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will win... Valensa experienced this many times when she was a child, losing to Tia even though she played the queen first.

Valensa has memories of two lifetimes, yet she couldn't beat a little girl at chess, which only shows that Tia is indeed exceptionally talented in this area.

So Valensa wasn't joking. After learning that the trial in this room was just a war game, she was really prepared to lie back and wait for Tia to carry her.

The two quickly arrived at the mechanism in the middle of the chessboard, but found nothing operable and no written instructions.

"……how so?"

Valensa frowned, thought for a moment, and then took out the assessment scroll issued by the War Academy:

"Will we need to use this?"

"Will not."

Tia shook her head firmly:

"The control center of this trial maze and the academy's central magic array are not in the same system, and the two may even interfere with each other. Therefore, from the moment we entered the trial maze, the communication and synchronous text recording functions of this scroll have been disabled, leaving only its defense and distress call functions in times of crisis."

"Huh? Has the scroll lost its most important ability?"

Valensa winked:

"So... the teachers can't see our text-based live updates anymore? What if someone cheats during the exam?"

"Cheating won't work."

Tia snorted:

"Although the scroll has temporarily lost its effect, this trial maze itself has an image recording function, and our scores will be reviewed by the teachers afterward based on the records."

Oh, right... these are all military secrets, you're not allowed to tell anyone, okay? Otherwise, we might both end up in the dungeon.

"Don't worry, I've always kept my mouth shut."

Valensa smiled and nodded, but with a hint of helplessness:

"If the scrolls aren't working, how are we supposed to start this trial? There aren't any hidden buttons on this mechanism, and they're solid!"

"So you're just a stupid, pretty-boy knight, huh?"

Tia seemed to have discovered something, giving Valensa a rather smug look before reaching out towards the double-cylinder mechanism:

"Who says you have to press a button to activate a mechanism? Haven't you ever thought about turning it... uh?"

The double-cylinder mechanism did start to rotate, but not in the way Tia had expected—it rotated up but not down. Instead, the entire mechanism spun twice as she applied a little force.

The surroundings quickly began to tremble, and a gradually condensing grayish-white mist rose up.

"This is... the mysterious fog from the Four Islands Alliance?"

The well-read Tia quickly recognized the mist, and her expression changed slightly:

"Looks like I activated the mechanism wrong. This must be the punishment for misactivation... Get ready for battle, you idiot, the Mist Demon is coming."

As soon as the words were spoken, the grayish-white mist condensed and transformed into six large, smoky gray dogs, floating in the air without touching the ground, their eyes fierce.

"Be careful."

Tia held a purple card in each hand, assuming a battle stance:

"You stupid female knight who has only ever been an adventurer in the countryside, do you even know how to fight the Mist Demon? These things are quite rare in our Fran."

"Of course I know, Fog Demon. Isn't it a specialty of the Four Islands Alliance? I saw it when I was a kid and secretly read your book."

Valensa also took out her sword and shield, and stood back-to-back with Tia:

"This monster has no physical form in its normal state, and most physical damage is ineffective against it. You have to destroy its core when it attacks."

"Hmm, looks like you're not so clueless after all~~"

Tia nodded with a smile:

"Since you know how to fight... how about you have four and I'll have two? I'm a support, you know, as a knight you should protect me, right?"

"Hmph, don't even mention four, I'll take all six!"

Since I've already failed to slack off, I might as well show off in front of Tia.

As Valensa was thinking this, she noticed that the six smoky gray floating dogs were merely surrounding her without attacking, seemingly waiting for her to reveal a weakness first.

She looked around again and carefully recalled Tia's actions just now, and a thought struck her.

These six large, dog-like fog demons are clearly also controlled by the dungeon's central system, so...

Whoosh!

Valensa suddenly threw her round shield, which slammed hard into the mechanism in the center of the chessboard.

Ouch~~

This action indeed enraged the mist demons, or rather, triggered their attack patterns... They didn't even glance at Tia, and all pounced on Valensa.

Isn't Chapter 139 a bit too easy?

The scene of being surrounded by six large dogs seemed dangerous, but Valensa remained calm at all.

After all, this was just a punitive battle for the failed activation of the mechanism, not the main trial inside the room. The six giant fog dogs only looked scary; in reality, they weren't very strong.

If it weren't for the strange nature of the Mist Demons themselves, they wouldn't even be as powerful as Candlelight-level monsters.

This kind of enemy no longer poses any threat to Valensa.

The first fog demon dog quickly bit Valensa's shoulder, but in doing so, it also exposed the core beneath its tongue.

Valensa flicked her left wrist, and her longsword struck first, shattering the core of the Mist Demon Dog before it could bite her, causing it to dissipate back into mist.

The second and third fog demon dogs attacked simultaneously, biting Valensa's legs respectively.

This time, Valensa didn't rush to kill them. Instead, she jumped back to avoid them and threw her round shield to the ground.

The two Mist Demon Hounds, whose first attack missed, showed no sign of stopping. They quickly pounced again in the direction Valensa had jumped back, taking a second bite.

The gaping maw with its long, sharp teeth looks terrifying, but it also exposes the only weakness beneath the Mist Demon Dog's tongue.

The round shield that Valensa had just thrown to the ground bounced up at that moment, easily piercing the jaw and shattering the core of one of the Mist Demon Hounds.

Just as the other Mist Demon Hound was about to bite Valenza, it was deflected by the round shield that killed its companion and suffered an invisible, sharp cutting attack, its core splitting in two.

This method of using the metal wire inside the assassination ring to tie to a round shield and throw it is so dangerous that even a beacon-level powerhouse like Belloc would be caught off guard, let alone these mist demons.

The successive disappearances of their companions prompted the remaining three Mist Demon Hounds to launch a coordinated attack, but this could not change the fact that Valensa would destroy their cores one by one.

"Phew, all done~~"

After defeating all six giant fog demon dogs, Valensa ran to Tia's side, puffing out her chest with a smug look on her face, as if to say, "Praise me!"

"How about it? Aren't I pretty awesome now?"

"Six low-level mist demons with only the strength of a candlelight level, look how smug you are..."

But Tia wasn't about to indulge Valensa forever. She showed no intention of praising her, instead pointing to the mechanism in the center of the chessboard, her eyebrows raised:

"If you really want me to praise you, then activate this mechanism correctly, okay?"

"What's so difficult about that? Watch me..."

Tia thought Valensa would pretend to be stupid and lazy again, but to her surprise, Valensa was still very confident and walked directly to the mechanism and stretched out her hand.

"you……"

Tia was about to call Valensa back to stop her from doing anything reckless when a thought struck her.

Tia knows Valensa very well. She knows that Valensa may seem stupid, but she is actually very cautious, even to the point of being cautious to the point of being obsessive.

Valensa's confident and direct action now suggests she has discovered some clues... most likely during her battle with the Mist Demon Dog.

Let's see what she does.

Under Tia's curious gaze, Valensa first hugged the upper part of the mechanism with both hands, but instead of immediately rotating it like Tia did, she stretched out her two long legs in black stockings and clamped the lower part of the mechanism as well.

Finally, Valensa used both hands and feet to rotate the two cylinders in opposite directions simultaneously.

Crunch, crunch...

This time, the activation method was clearly correct. After a series of gear turning sounds, the mechanism disappeared completely beneath the chessboard, leaving only a phantom-like text floating in mid-air.

"This is... the instructions for the trial in this room?"

Valensa and Tia huddled together to watch.

The text content was nothing special; it simply told the trial participants that the theme of this room's trial was to win a game of Pawn Chess, and provided a brief introduction to the rules for those who might not have played Pawn Chess before.

The only odd thing is that at the end of this text, there is a line of text that is completely different in color and size from the rest:

The chessboard is like a battlefield. This trial is a strategy game, but it's not entirely a strategy game. The specific content will require the participants to experience it for themselves during the trial.

"...It's a wargame, but it's not entirely a wargame?"

Valensa and Tia exchanged a glance, wanting to ponder the meaning of the sentence, but they found that the text also disappeared quickly, and the chessboard changed again.

The squares beneath the two women's feet quickly rose up and flew to one side of the chessboard, directly above the position of the King piece.

In the same location directly opposite, there was also a square platform flying in mid-air, on which was a black figure with the curves of a woman's body but whose face could not be seen.

With the King already played, the next move is naturally the Pawns for both sides.

According to the rules of the game, the squares where the [soldier] was initially positioned on both sides of the board also rose up, but instead of flying into the air, they opened like wooden boxes, and puppet soldiers wearing armor and holding spears walked out.

The puppet soldiers on both sides look exactly the same, except for their color.

Valensa and Tia's puppet soldiers are white, while the opposing side's are black.

Once both sides' kings and pawns were in position, the area in front of Tia lit up again, and a chessboard projection the size of a washbasin condensed and took shape in front of her.

"Oh ho... it seems the game is about to begin. I'll make the first move!"

Tia was clearly familiar with this phenomenon. She immediately declared that she would attack first, picked up a pawn from the phantom of the chessboard in front of her, and moved it forward.

Almost simultaneously, the white puppet soldiers in the corresponding positions on the large chessboard also moved, advancing one square with imposing spears.

"So this is the control panel..."

Valensa then realized what was going on and asked Tia with great curiosity:

"Why are you so skilled at this? Did you play it before? Why don't you let me try it too?"

"Because you were a village girl in the countryside at that time."

Tia rolled her eyes at Valensa, annoyed.

"And even if you were still in the capital, you probably wouldn't be able to play it... because I only saw a similar chess set when I was training with my teacher in the Sage's Tower."

I heard that the Sage Council helped in transforming the monster dungeon into a trial labyrinth... or perhaps this chess set was designed by the Sage Council; it looks a lot like the one I saw in the Sage's Tower.

"Then you've got this run pretty solid..."

Valensa laughed easily:

"Chess is the kind of war game you're most familiar with, and the chess pieces are the same ones you saw in the Sage's Tower... This trial is a piece of cake for you."

"maybe……"

Tia was indeed quite relaxed; she could even chat with Valensa while playing chess.

But as the rain continued, Tia suddenly frowned:

"Something seems off..."

"...What? Are you going to lose?"

Valensa was somewhat worried, thinking that many chess masters in her past life had been unable to beat high-performance AI, and that this trial was likely to be similar.

"...No, quite the opposite."

But Tia shook her head:

"If I keep going like this, I'll win for sure, but it feels too easy..."

Chapter 140 The chess player got into a fight!

"Isn't it good that the opponent is weak?"