CHAPTER 68: [ TENT #3 ]

Watching his personal belongings get locked in a box and wheeled away felt wrong.

He could’ve left his things at home, saving them from their fate. Most seasoned dungeon runners that participated in the Dungeon Setters most likely knew about this. Just one of the downsides of having no allies.

"How does it work?" asked Alexander.

"Follow the lines on the floor."

Too annoyed to bother arguing about the man’s tone, he followed the lines leaving through the right.

"When phase two starts you’ll get access to everything you’ve left in that box. It’s a sort of incentive to not cheat the system. Those who kept their weapons at home would simply not have access to them later. Truthfully, this doesn’t work so well. People have been known to smuggle things in, so much so that this time they apparently doubled their staff for that purpose."

Alexander nodded, surprised that Silver seemingly read his mind.

"Good to know."

"It’s not only items people are smuggling, but a lot of drugs too."

Alexander stopped walking right outside the tent, Silver coming out right beside him.

"Is it that big of a problem?" asked Alexander.

"You have no idea. You watched the last edition of Dungeon Setters?" asked Silver.

"Ah, the potion controversy," recalled Alexander.

"Yeah. One of the worst guilds in the S-tier suddenly making it to semi-finals? It made it everywhere on the news, so this year they’ve changed everything, they don’t want any more bad press, so they’re trying to keep us on a tighter leash now, while giving us a looser one later."

Alexander remembered that edition well, while the way they cheated was smart, their timing couldn’t have been worse.

They had found a clever way to stitch bottomless bags where their pockets would be, they kept using spells reducing visibility to get healing potions out while nobody could see.

Clever, until one of them was caught by one of the cameras as the cloud of smoke hiding him was dispersed by a wind spell. A truly stupid way to get caught.

Still, the potion controversy was quickly overshadowed. Gilded Order stole the spotlight in a way that nobody anticipated.

They had gone through the entire event with a perfect score. Not one of their members had been injured, a first in the tournament’s history.

It was breathtaking.

Everyone knew they would win, but everyone remained on the edge of their seat, anxiously watching every spell cast while wondering ’is this the one that will end their perfect streak?"

Everyone was glued to their television, wondering if they would be able to do it.

The commentators were going wild. The line-up reveal was something that left everyone confused, it was the first time an S-tier guild had gone through the tournament without a single healer in their squad.

When the potion controversy happened nobody really cared about it, although it did raise a lot of questions.

Alexander looked down, and followed the line that lead to the next tent. This one was fully closed, the doors zipped shut.

"I’ll wait outside," said Silver.

"Alright."

Why are you even following me?

Alexander went in, the layout was similar to the previous one.

There was a single table in the middle, behind it a female staff member that looked a lot more pleasant than the previous guy.

Behind her was more tables with boxes similar to the previous ones.

"I have taken everything off already," said Alexander.

The woman was pretty, her long brown hair reached her shoulders, framing her rosy cheeks perfectly.

Yet, despite how cute she looked, the way she spoke felt cold and distant. Her cuteness hidden behind a wall of professionalism.

"Not everything."

She smiled, tilting her head.

He wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not, the both of them stood while staring at each other.

After a minute of silence, he started taking off his shirt.

"Why are we doing this?... Stella?" said Alexander, narrowing his eyes to read her name-tag.

"I will be inspecting you, so hurry up and take your clothes off."

He sighed, taking off everything but his underwear and leaving it on the table.

He took a few steps back, while Stella remained behind the table.

She closed her left eye, and raised her fingers in front of her right eye, creating a frame with both hands.

Alexander could see lightning running around her fingers, tiny sparks that ran from one finger to the other.

Inside the frame a light-blue membrane appeared. She looked through it, inspecting his body from where she stood.

"What do you see?" asked Alexander.

She lowered her hands and walked around the table.

He held his breath as she took several steps toward him, only stopping inches away from him.

She held both his cheeks, bringing his face closer to hers.

For a moment that felt like an eternity, she gazed into his eyes.

She was so close he could feel her breath, smell her perfume.

Her hazelnut eyes were staring in a way that reminded him of Fae—a pure look that had no judgment or weight behind it.

"It’s strange," she said.

She let go, taking a single step back while still staring.

"What is?" he asked.

"Well, firstly, you’re quite good at holding eye contact. Most people would’ve looked away."

Alexander remembered a time this would’ve been him.

"I don’t look away, anymore."

"I see that," she said, with a slight smile.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"No, that was just an observation. There’s something with your eyes, something unnatural. I’m looking for odd mana patterns... are they real?" she suddenly asked.

Alexander jerked his head back, narrowly escaping Stella’s finger trying to poke his eye.

"They are. Please don’t poke my eyes?"

"Hm," she responded, not even listening.

She walked around him slowly, inspecting his body up and down only to end before him once more.

She then raised her index finger and rested the tip of it on his chest. He felt her cold skin as it touched him, then a sudden current when she closed her eyes.

A weak shock that came out of her finger, he could feel it branching out, reaching all the way down to his toes.

And she stood there, eyes closed.