Demonic Skeleton God-Chapter 90: Phase Number Two

What surprised Flain about her, and the reason he noticed her even among the rest of the crowd, was her clothing. She wasn’t wearing a uniform but a bronze bra and short tight shorts, with a black cloak behind her.

"Daughter of Marquis, Naomi Swet," said Flor.

But before she could reach Flain, the old man stopped her. "May I ask why you are not wearing a uniform?" he asked.

"He allowed it, heh," said Naomi, to which the old man just nodded.

She came up to Flain and leaned in close to him, smiling, her eyes gleaming with a crazed shine. "Don’t think you’re going to beat me," she said.

A few seconds later, another person stepped out of the line. It was a tall hunched young man with dark brown messy hair and a short beard. He was the son of Marquis, Cru Enirt. He looked rather angry.

Then, one by one, other students also began breaking the seal of the orb, and within 20 minutes, everyone had completed it.

"Excellent, now we move on to the next phase," said the old man, and the students were once again teleported away.

This time, Flain and the others appeared in an underground room made of black stone. In front of them was a large entrance leading further in, where Flain saw only darkness.

"Phase number two is the Living Labyrinth. Each player enters the labyrinth alone, which automatically changes depending on your mood. The worse your mood, the harder the labyrinth. It’s not a classic physical labyrinth, but a semi-real construct made of magic and rune fields. Each participant has a different labyrinth. You must find and activate the central core (a golden spark), which is located somewhere within the labyrinth. Activation is done by touching it with a gentle pulse of your own mana."

"Every 90 seconds, the corridors, walls, and rooms rearrange themselves. These changes are influenced by your mood signature – if your mood is negative, the labyrinth becomes more complex. You’re evaluated based on time – the faster you find and activate the core, the more points you get. It’s also evaluated by the difficulty of your labyrinth – the harder it is, the more points you receive for completing it. Another factor is precision – if you hit the core on the first try, you get a bonus. Any questions?" the old man concluded.

To Flain, this already seemed a bit over the top – they were just competing for a room. Flain felt like he was competing for some ultra-rare artifact.

"What gives more points, speed or difficulty?" Rey asked from the crowd.

"It depends on what you prefer. Alright, line up and everyone will go in one by one," said the old man.

Everyone lined up and slowly began entering the entrance. Flain’s turn came, he stepped forward, was engulfed in darkness, and entered inside. He appeared in a narrow underground corridor made of the same black stone.

Flain tried a fast and hard tactic. So he would have to focus on negative thoughts to make the labyrinth hard, and at the same time try to do it as quickly as possible. Of course, that was just his plan – it might not work, and the labyrinth could end up being so difficult that he wouldn’t be able to complete it quickly.

Flain chose a direction at random and started walking down the corridor. He had a huge advantage, and that was Ghosty. Ghosty could fly through walls within a one-kilometer radius around Flain. So in theory, this should be quite easy for Flain. Flain deactivated his Transparent Wings, thus releasing Ghosty.

Ghosty flew away from Flain and pretended not to see him. "Hey, I need something from you," said Flain.

Ghosty kept staring at the wall and ignored Flain. "Alright, tell me what you want so you’ll act normal again," said Flain.

"You’ll never turn me into those wings again," said Ghosty.

"The wings are necessary. Let’s make a deal—I won’t silence you anymore," said Flain.

"No," said Ghosty, shaking his head.

"Look, I’m being merciful by even giving you a bonus. Because once you stop being useful to me, I’ll leave you in wing form forever," said Flain with a smirk.

A dissatisfied grumble came out of Ghosty. "Fine, what do you want?" he asked.

Flain knew that from now on, Ghosty wouldn’t be as trustworthy because he had ruined their relationship, so to get back at him, Ghosty might give him false information. Flain now realized that the way he had treated him wasn’t beneficial, so it was foolish—and Flain learns from his foolishness.

"You’ll fly through the labyrinth and look for something that looks like a golden core. Look, I’m sorry for how I treated you. As a reward, you’ll get some fun. The academy sounds like fun, right?" said Flain as if taming a dog.

Flain knew that if he didn’t have a good relationship with his ’subordinates’ and ruled through fear, they wouldn’t be trustworthy at all. Right now, he only had one subordinate, which was Ghosty—even if unwillingly, practically he was.

Itai could also be classified as a half-subordinate because when Flain tells him to do something, he usually does it, but Flain wouldn’t fully count him as a subordinate. Aran and Ivy are his slaves, who practically can’t betray him, so they don’t count as subordinates—because a subordinate can betray you.

"Alright, but don’t expect me to forgive you," said Ghosty and flew off to search for the core.

Flain smirked—Ghosty was actually quite easy to manipulate. He continued walking; all around were different corridors and rooms. Ninety seconds passed, Flain blinked, and it looked like he was somewhere completely different—the walls were taller and made of lighter stone, and on the ceiling were chandeliers emitting a blue light.

Flain expected it to change, but not to this extent. Once he tested it, he could go all in. He began imagining things that lowered his mood: his slavers, weakness, death, and similar things.

The labyrinth around him changed dramatically...

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