The one hundred examinees arrived before the huge maze. The entire maze was a massive object with a length and width of over one kilometer and a height of three meters. It made everyone who saw the maze for the first time feel as if they were looking at a miracle.
This was clearly not something that could be achieved with the engineering skills of this era. It must have been done by a powerful character with his own powers.
As expected, Governor Devitt said, "This maze is known as the Perplexed Palace. It was created by the Great Western Region Regional Academy's first Headmaster, the Divine level expert — the Melancholic Monarch. It is a place of seclusion that he personally created. After 200 years, it has not been damaged at all. Right now, we've placed all sorts of powerful ferocious beasts in the maze, ranging from level 1 to level 21. Of course, there's only one level 21 ferocious beast, but you guys still have to be careful."
Hearing the Governor's words, everyone looked at the extremely huge maze and exclaimed at the power of a Divine level expert. How powerful had the Melancholic Monarch been back then?
Then, under Governor Devitt's guidance, everyone looked toward a stone tablet in front of the maze's entrance. A map of the entire maze was engraved on it, and there were a hundred red dots on it.
Governor Devitt said, "There are a total of 100 gathering points. Each of you will be in one of them, and you are not allowed to be more than ten meters away from the gathering point.
"After all of you arrive at the gathering points, beast luring incense will be released from all the gathering points. The dormant ferocious beasts will gradually awaken and then start to attack you.
"The last 50 examinees will be qualified to enter the third stage. "However, you can't be passive in the competition. Those who fail to kill a ferocious beast every ten minutes will be eliminated directly.
"The examinees are not allowed to attack each other directly. Of course, if you have a way to create trouble for the other examinees and eliminate them as soon as possible, then please do your best.
"It's because other than survival, this stage also depends on how you compete and fight against each other."
Hearing about beast luring incense, most of the Knights present were perplexed. They had no idea what this thing was.
Only those Knights who had participated in hunts and hunted ferocious beasts together with ordinary soldiers in the mountains, plains, or forests would have heard of this beast luring incense.
This was something that came from the Sand Country. It was said that a single drop of beast luring incense would be able to lure all the ferocious beasts within a range of 300 meters. It was something that the Sand Country had specially developed for the purpose of hunting due to their lack of natural resources. However, as the ingredients were too valuable and the quantity was too little, ordinary people did not know of its existence.
Beast-luring incense was already very rare in the Empire, and the Knights present were all geniuses. What were geniuses? They were people who could focus on their cultivation and not care about trivial matters. Their ferocious beasts had all been bought, so how could they possibly follow the soldiers and poor people to hunt for their own food? Needless to say, they didn't know about the Sand Country's beast-luring incense.
Even if they were to undergo combat practice every year, they would only be dealing with bandits, ferocious beasts that wreaked havoc, or wars like Garcia's. It was unlikely that they would spend too much time on hunting. That was because the most important part of hunting wasn't fighting. What they spent the most time on was waiting.
But David had a confident look on his face. He obviously knew what it was.
On the other side, Governor Devitt continued, "Right now, each of you will have to be searched. You're forbidden from bringing in poison, beast luring incense, fuel, kerosene …"
Governor Devitt listed out a series of names and finally said, "All of the above are forbidden. Although I said that you'll be looking for trouble and competing with each other, the use of these things has nothing to do with one's abilities or intelligence. It's purely based on external items. You'd better bring them out yourselves."
Devitt pointed to an empty space and said, "This will save you the trouble of being disqualified if I find out about it later."
Many of the people present immediately revealed disappointed expressions. It was true that many of them had brought kerosene, poison, and the like, hoping to use these to protect themselves or to fend off the monsters, luring the ferocious beasts to other places. After all, it was much faster and safer to set fires and release poison than to kill the beasts themselves.
However, this was not done based on intelligence or their own abilities, but purely based on external items. Therefore, it was naturally forbidden by Governor Devitt.
There were even some people who knew about the existence of beast luring incense and wanted to bring it in to strengthen the strength of the monsters in other places, so as to reduce the pressure on themselves. However, all of them revealed disappointed expressions.
Within a short five minutes, many people walked out, piling up the empty space. No one would try to be lucky before a Conferred Knight's Heaven's Perception.
After the inspection was completed, Devitt pointed to the 100 red dots on the stone monument and said, "Based on your ranking in the first stage, Slashing the Heavenly Pillar, you'll be able to choose your spots. Fang Xingjian, you're in first place. You can go first."
Hearing that, Fang Xingjian walked up, thinking about his understanding of this stage.
The main point of this stage was to see how long one could last, but at the same time, one could not be passive in the competition. It was because if one did not kill a ferocious beast after ten minutes, one would be eliminated.
However, one could not just go on a killing spree. It was because there were ferocious beasts that had reached level 21. Although they were not as strong as a real Conferred Knight, they still far surpassed the abilities of a first transition Knight.
Therefore, in this competition, one had to have strong battle prowess and be able to kill ferocious beasts. At the same time, one had to pay attention to the rhythm of the competition, not causing too much of a commotion and attracting level 20 or 21 ferocious beasts. Or, one had to have strong concealment or defensive abilities to be able to fend off level 20 or even level 21 ferocious beasts.
At the same time, one had to guard against other people trying to trip them up, using special abilities or schemes to deal with them.
In short, this was a three-tiered test of one's battle prowess, endurance, and intelligence. However, this was only for ordinary people.
Fang Xingjian was naturally different from ordinary people. What he wanted to do in the Regional Selection was to crush everyone with absolute power and talent, naturally becoming the Regional Champion. Then, he would receive the Regional Academy's full support and become a second transition level 29 Conferred Knight within a year's time. Then, he would be able to participate in the National Selection next year.
Therefore, he did not choose the corners that were easy to defend against. Instead, he pointed to a red dot in the middle of the maze and said, "I'll take this place."
Everyone revealed astonished gazes. Devitt smiled, nodded, and said, "Haha, I'm looking forward to your performance even more now."
However, Anderson clicked his tongue and mumbled to himself, "He snatched the place I wanted to choose." He felt that Fang Xingjian had once again snatched his limelight.
Next was Hoult, who had chosen a corner according to the rules.
Then it was Anderson's turn. He pointed to a spot around Fang Xingjian and said, "I'll take this place." After saying that, he wrinkled his delicate nose and threw a glance at Fang Xingjian.
Wei Leng, who was at the back, also chose a corner.
Just like that, everyone chose different bases one by one. Rota chose the northwest, while Manny chose the northeast.
David was also in the northwest. Contrary to everyone's expectations, the two Knights who had been following behind him chose the two spots next to Fang Xingjian.
In the entire maze, the closer one was to the center, the easier it would be for them to be surrounded and attacked from all directions. Therefore, other than Fang Xingjian and Anderson, no one else chose the center spot. Most of the time, they would choose the spots in the periphery first. After the periphery had been chosen, they would then slowly choose the spots in the center.
However, the two Knights did not hesitate to choose the spots in the middle.
David looked at Fang Xingjian and laughed coldly inwardly, 'Fang Xingjian, just you wait. I'll give you a big surprise.'
After everyone had made their choices, Governor Devitt said calmly, "Then let's go."
At the next moment, Governor Devitt clenched his fist, and a huge ice pillar rose up from under everyone's feet. The moisture in the air continued to freeze, turning into an ice dragon that cut across the sky, sending everyone up into the air above the maze.
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