Chapter 107: Disc

Eren didn’t say anything to Celeste’s words. He wasn’t going to give a reason as to how he knew the recipe for the Physique Accelerant Paste.

It was better to have her own imagination run. That way, he wouldn’t have to make excuses.

"So? What are we going to do today?" Celeste asked him.

Eren then took out the map he got from Pang Cai and looked at it more closely.

It had shown the general location of the tunnel where the two groups were fighting over. But that wasn’t the useful part. It was actually the description of the obstacles itself that was way more useful than anything.

According to Pang Cai’s informants, the main puzzle that was in that Territory was a series of controllable disc platforms that would appear or disappear whether or not a person was touching a certain glyph or not.

Basically, the way to solve this puzzle was to know which glyph to touch, so that they would be able to traverse the chasm through the disc platforms that would arise upon activation.

Now, if it was only that problem, then the Academic Sector would have been able to easily pass this test and get the Flag. After all, it was merely a test of their mental acuity and their smarts.

However, according to Pang Cai, sometimes, there would be platforms that would summon along with it some powerful constructs that would attack the examinees as well. Not only that, but there were cases in which the platforms seemed to be malfunctioning, or the glyphs wouldn’t work as they properly intended.

This was why both the Hunter Sector and the Academic Sector had to work together in order to conquer this Territory.

"Gather everyone," he said to Celeste. "We’ll intrude on that little rivalry of theirs."

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It wasn’t long before their 9-man group continued onwards, through the Pitted Caverns and into the tunnel that led to the Glyph Territory.

Following the map was easy enough. Not only that, but there was a very noticeable increased trail of sunspores in the tunnels, as if there were two large groups that had just recently made their way here.

So, Eren and his group were easily able to get to their destination in about half an hour or so.

The tunnels grew louder with whispers and conversations. At this point, Eren knew that they were getting closer.

Celeste seemed to have noticed it as well, as she signalled for everyone to slow their walks and keep quiet.

But not Eren. As soon as he got close to the Territory, he ran into a sprint, surprising Celeste and the others.

Eren ran at full speed, quickly blitzing the two guards of examinees watching the entrance of the Territory.

They tried to catch up to him, but he seemed to have an eye on the back of his hand as he slipped past their lunging hands.

Soon, Eren found himself inside a massive cavern,

In front of him was a very dark chasm, with no signs of anything underneath.

On his left side, he saw a makeshift camp of about twenty people. They were kindling with a fire as they kept themselves cozy.

On his right side, there was another group of examinees, also kindling a campfire.

They all looked up in shock as they watched Eren speed past the entrance.

Shouts erupted. Warnings were thrown towards his way. But Eren kept on pushing his legs to the limit, pumping his best speed as he looked in front of him where a small disc platform floating in the chasm was docked near the ledge.

Hearing their warnings ignored, they began attacking Eren.

One of the examinees empowered his fist, before he punched the ground. It sank down, before it unearthed itself tens of meters away from the original punch, right in front of Eren.

It attempted to grab at his ankles and trip him. But Eren jumped over it, using his Primal Step to increase his height as he did so, performing a slight double jump.

Vaulting over the hand, he kept on running, not before something red activated in the ground he stood on.

It flashed with a crude drawing of R?zoň symbols. Eren’s eyes glistened, immediately recognizing the formula.

With prescient moves, he quickly ducked down, nearly touching his chin on the ground, just as two L-shaped stone beams emerged from beside him and clapped on top of him. If he had not ducked, it would have crushed his head.

Eren found himself stumbling a little bit forwards. He had ducked far too low. But thankfully, his Negative Reinforcement held its anchor to the ground, allowing him to regain his posture as he landed on the platform.

Once inside the disc, the ground underneath his feet glowed with incandescent R?zoň symbols.

Eren ducked down, moving some of the symbols into an arc. Then, the disc started to move, undocking from the ledge itself just as a hand was about to grab at Eren.

Now, the disc floated above the chasm, ten meters away from the nearest ledge. Eren was at the thick of it.

"Don’t be rash now. Return the platform, or else you’ll ruin it for the rest of us."

Leaning on a ledge was a burly man with a scar running down from his eyebrows to his chin.

He seemed to be the leader of the Hunter Sector group that was here. Next to him was a woman. He recognized her. She was the group leader who had interrupted Ms. Calliope when he was talking with her.

They were both leaders of their own group. They had been arguing against each other about the privilege of getting the flag at the end of this puzzle.

But Eren took advantage of their indecision and quickly took the platform for himself.

"That disc is the only way through," the woman said to Eren. "Unless you return of your own volition, or you die, then that platform will remain there."