In a flash, the 14 students disappeared from the room.
Meanwhile, a transparent-like screen had also appeared in the air where every single person in the arena city could see it. The only difference between this one and the one in the room was the size.
This one was much bigger, which was why everyone in the arena city could see it.
Now, the screen was divided in a way that all 14 participants could be seen on it. And now, the 14 participants have all appeared in a... forest.
Immediately Arin appeared, he looked around, observing the tall trees.
His eyes instantly darted to his left side, and on the ground, different weapons were present, ranging from swords to spears, and even bows and arrows.
Arin furrowed his brows, but then, a voice was suddenly heard. It was the announcer's voice.
"I know you all are confused!" he said.
Arin looked around, trying to figure out how he could hear the man's voice.
'Except this forest is somewhere in the arena city,' Arin thought. 'That's the only possible reason I can think of as to why I can hear his voice so clearly.'
But the next set of words the man said instantly crushed that idea.
"14 of you are currently in different forests in the Kingdom! And you have just one simple task!"
Arin's eyes instantly widened. 'Different forests...?'
This meant that they were actually in different cities.
"There is a flag in the forest. Look for it, and return to this same spot with it!" the announcer said with a small laugh. "Isn't that simple?"
Arin could hear the crowd cheering from whatever source the sound was coming from.
Though, he couldn't help but wonder why it was so simple.
'If we're all in different forests, then each person is free to look for the flag without any disturbance,' Arin thought.
"You have only fifteen minutes to search for the flag and return back," the announcer continued. "You are allowed to pick ONLY one weapon from all the weapons present beside you! They are all of the same Rank!"
Arin instantly bent down and picked one of the swords. All the weapons looked very ordinary, suggesting that they were Common Rank Weapons.
'The weapons on the ground here will be a sort of confirmation that this is the spot I began,' Arin thought as he waited for the next set of instructions.
It was also the same for the other 13 participants. They had all picked their weapon of choice and were waiting for the announcer's next instruction.
"Alright! Your time starts... NOW!!"
Arin didn't rush. He gripped the sword and looked around, still analyzing the situation.
'At most, the only threat each participant will face are beasts,' Arin thought, still looking around.
He squinted his eyes as he began analyzing the situation. 'The announcer didn't tell us which location to go in order to acquire the flag. He didn't specify if it was left, right, or forward.'
Arin knew that it would've even been easier if they had mentioned that, so he understood why it wasn't mentioned. But still...
'I don't believe that they didn't leave some sort of clue as to which direction to follow,' Arin thought as his eyes darted from left to right.
This first stage was something that wasn't done in the novel, but he knew that something caused this change.
'If that's the case, then the King is trying to test us on something. If the other stages of this tournament will be fights which will be a test of strength, then I have a slight reason to believe that this first stage which doesn't have much to do with fights is a test of observation and smartness.'
And the moment Arin had this thought, his eyes which had been darting from left to right for a while now suddenly locked in on something.
"The hell? Why is he just standing?" Ron muttered.
Alex sighed. "I don't know... This first stage has started for about two minutes now, and he's still standing in the same spot while the others have already moved."
"Maybe he's thinking of something..." Tessa said as she stared at Ron. "Remember, you said he was quite good at tricks, right?"
"Hmm, that's true," Ron whispered.
"Let's just see what he'll do," Alex said, folding his arms.
Apart from the three of them in the room, the other students of Greenfield Academy were also grumbling, and some were even shouting insults at Arin while staring at him through the screen.
"What the hell?! That guy wants our Academy to fail in the first stage?!"
"I know, right? Alex should've been the one to participate in this first stage!"
"Ugh... Someone should tell this dude to just move already! Other Academies are already laughing at us!!"
Lina and Hector were also staring at the screen, wondering what Arin was doing.
"Arin... What is the issue?" Lina muttered under her breath.
Hector squinted his eyes. "Don't worry, Lina. Arin won't just be standing for no reason. I believe he's planning something."
Lina nodded her head, hoping that Arin was indeed planning something.
Back in the forest, Arin had already noticed something, and without wasting any more time, he began dashing to the right.
Before he began dashing, while he was still having those thoughts, and his eyes were darting around, he noticed that the tree in front of him had some sort of marking. It was just a single line that seemed to be drawn by a stone.
The line wasn't too long, and since it was just like someone made a single stroke on the tree with a stone, it didn't have a different color that made it stand out.
Because Arin's eyes were darting around, and he had enhanced eyesight, he was able to spot this same marking on the tree next to the first tree.
The pattern continued like that with all the trees to the right, and he realized that there was a very high chance that this was the clue.
'Though, since this is a normal forest in another city, there's also a possibility that these markings were just made by an adventurer who was hunting beasts here, but there's still a high chance that this is a clue,' Arin thought.
With that thought, he gripped his weapon as he increased his speed slightly. He had to get to that flag and bring it back before the time elapses.
But there was something that both Arin and the other 13 participants in different forests were yet to realize...