Chapter 171: A Trapped Boy

Chapter 171: Chapter 171: A Trapped Boy

The private viewing chamber inside the Winterfang capital was quiet except for the low hum of the projection arrays where the Proving was being displayed for every person in the room to watch it live.

There were multiple projected screens floating in the air in front of everyone watching, and each and every one of the screens was showing a different feed from the Proving grounds different biomes, different scenes.

King Alessio Von Winterfang sat at the center of the seating area.

Queen Vespera Abyss occupied the seat to his right.

Queen Valeriana Bloodworth sat a measured distance away with an anticipating look on her face.

Velen Abyss and Ella Winterfang were present along with the rest of the ranking household heads and higher-ups who had remained after the Hawkilies departure.

"So it’s finally starting, I was dying out of boredom." Velen muttered and his voice suggested that he was clearly anticipating his nephew’s first public debut, he really wanted to see what new surprise that boy would give him next.

"Velen, are you betting money on someone this time?" one of the Winterfang higher ups asked with a small smile on his face.

"Haha! Velen is watching an event and you are asking if he is gambling with his money or not? Of course he is gambling all of his money!" someone from the Abyss section called out while laughing lightly.

"Of course my money is all on the Third Prince!" Velen said proudly as he leaned forward.

Ella’s mouth twitched but she controlled herself.

She wanted to focus on the Proving right now.

Across the screens the first wave of teleportation lights flared brightly, and then one by one all the participants started to be teleported.

Participants from every corner of the kingdom began to appear in their assigned biomes.

***

One feed showed a dense jungle.

A group of youths materialized in a tangled clearing.

Half of them immediately panicked, and then they were shouting and drawing weapons at every shadow they saw.

One of the boys tripped over a root and fell face first into a nest of venomous insects.

"AHHH! HEL—!" 🦟

His screams were cut off within seconds, but before he could die, a CBI official swiftly drew him out of the arena, and his speed was so fast that even if a mastery ranked cultivator was watching it right now in the live feed, it would have been almost impossible for them to notice that someone had saved that boy’s life before he could die.

And then there was another group of participants who had decided to form a very small and tight circle, and they arranged themselves in a way so that they would not be caught off guard by any surprise attack while still being able to help the participants beside them, and then they began moving with practiced coordination and started marking the directions and assigning scouts, it was a full team coordination which showed that they were a competent group.

***

A second screen displayed a swamp, where thick green water lapped at the edges of moss covered trees.

"The world calls for me—!" One participant stepped forward confidently...

SPLASH!💦

"*Glub*—NOOO—*gurgle*—MFFFF!" ...only to sink waist deep into a hidden sinkhole.

That participant’s worst mistake was that he created a large disturbance with his panic, and his flailing attracted a pack of long jawed reptiles, and the rest was history...

The feed cut to a different participant and the CBI observer marked him as eliminated and another CBI official removed him to safety before he could die.

Nearby, a quiet girl with a water affinity simply walked across the surface of the water as if it were solid ground and then she disappeared into the mist without a sound.

***

On a third screen a broken ancient city sprawled in ruins.

Its collapsed towers and cracked stone streets filled the view.

A pair of participants started arguing about which direction they should take moving forward.

"Why don’t you listen to me? This map that we have found literally says that we should be heading towards the north, then why are you going toward the creepy skull doorway? Are you out of your mind?"

"Because north is giving trap energy, okay? The skull archway is low key an aesthetic."

"It’s not an aesthetic! It’s a guaranteed cursed side quest! We’re gonna get eaten by some ancient demons."

"Haha! Relax, it’s fine, if we get jumped, I’m literally just gonna clock out, you just have to follow me."

While they shouted at each other like a bunch of idiots, a stone construct the size of a carriage rose from the rubble silently, and then it crushed both of them flat.

But before they could actually be flattened into a paste and die, they were removed.

In contrast, a lone youth with earth affinity pressed his hand to the ground, mapped the stable paths in seconds, and moved deeper into the ruins with calm efficiency.

***

A maze like biome appeared next.

High walls of living thorns shifted constantly.

One participant tried to cut through and was immediately impaled by a dozen spikes.

Another simply climbed the walls and began navigating from above, already far ahead of the rest.

***

The chamber watched in relative silence as the early chaos played out across dozens of feeds.

"Hmm... where is that boy?" Velen muttered as his eyes scanned the sea of projections for any sign of Alex.

Suddenly one screen expanded and rose to the top of the array of projections in front of them.

There was white smoke which filled most of the screen in this projection.

The smoke itself gave a feeling of wrongness and repulsion to whoever watched it.

But that wasn’t what caught their attention, what caught their attention was the setup inside the smoke that was soon revealed to everyone.

A spider web net the size of a football field stretched between massive trees.

Cocoons of thick silk hung at irregular intervals, each one trapping animals and bird type mana beasts.

Some of the trapped creatures still twitched.

A humongous spider with violet chitin and bright pink compound eyes moved slowly across the web.

Strange runes glowed faintly on its back as it methodically drained one cocoon after another.

A boy with deep black hair materialized above the center of the web.

He dropped on it.

His body hit the sticky strands and stuck fast.

The surrounding mist immediately poured into his mouth and nose.

The runes on the spider’s back flared brighter.

Its multiple eyes locked onto the new arrival for a long moment, then it returned to feeding as if the boy were already secured.

The boy was Alexander Abyss.

He hung motionless, his eyes were closed and he was under the same illusion that held every other creature trapped in the web.

An unnatural silence spread through the chamber.

Then—

"Huh?! T—This can’t be real!"

"WHAT?! What is this madness?!"

"VENOMAA! I WILL KILL THAT BITC—!" Velen started and he had already half risen from his seat.

Ella’s hand clamped onto his shoulder and forced him back down with strength. "Velen, Sit Down, Now."

The faces of everyone who supported the Third Prince darkened.

Several auras flared before their owners forced them back under control.

"The audacity..." one Abyss higher up muttered in a cold voice.

"This is insane! The CBI is not even giving the Third Prince a chance! How is he supposed to fight back like this?!" a Winterfang elder demanded.

Many faces in the Winterfang section showed open displeasure.

They had expected the Proving to be difficult for an early entrant, but this went beyond anything previous early participants had faced.

The spider was clearly higher to peak Awaken rank with a specialized mental and illusion attack.

Its physical stats might not match its rank, yet its illusion or mental technique, whatever its technique was, that technique had already trapped other peak Awaken creatures.

A 12 year old had no realistic way to break free before the spider finished its current meal and turned its attention to him.

A few Bloodworth higher ups kept carefully neutral expressions, though their eyes betrayed satisfaction.

Valeriana’s gaze shone with quiet amusement.

’Hahaha! All that preparation I did for you, and you couldn’t even cross the CBI’s arranged spawn.’

’Oh poor boy...’

’You are done.’

Vespera’s expression remained mostly calm, but a small frown settled between her brows.

She knew Alex possessed unnatural willpower and a sharper mind than any child his age should have.

Still, fighting a creature like this inside its own domain, saturated with tainted fog, made the task almost impossible.

Almost.

That single word was the only reason her expression had not hardened further.

Alessio’s face stayed neutral, yet his right hand clenched tightly on the armrest.

If Alex were eliminated in the first minutes like this, it would look as though the CBI had used his son as an example to reinforce their reputation while discarding him.

The chamber remained locked on the single screen showing the motionless black haired boy hanging in the center of the web.

🌿 ─ ❦ ─ 🌿

End of Chapter 171: A Trapped Boy

🌿 ── ❦ ── 🌿