Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System
chapter-382-1

Now that the minister has come from his seat, the noise coming from the spectators stopped, so that the second round of the tournament could start.

"Welcome to all the honored guests and spectators of our Clear Water kingdom, today we will be witnessing the debut of the future scholars that will influence our seas".

"And for that, our family has prepared this lake, like in any knowledge competition, questions will be made and the designated "scholar" of each team must answer them, but if it was just like that it wouldn't be one of the most important events in our kingdom".

"A scholar is often responsible of the lives or deaths in a team, while the decision might not be made by him, one wrong advice can lead to a tragedy, and because of that you should realize the weight of such responsibility".

With a wave of the Minister's hand, two different sections appeared on each platform, just like yesterday two platforms joined to form a larger stage, meaning that the teams will be once again facing each other.

Unlike yesterday were mana and talent had a big impact, the round of today was oriented to give hope to those who dedicated to learn, and while education might be better on the noble families, by law everyone had access to it in the kingdom, and if anyone outstood, regardless of origin or status, it would be nurtured by the kingdom.

"Future scholars please take your positions, other team members you too", ordered the Minister.

The teams then divided, the scholars were given a seat and a table, while the others had to stand there, in an specific order, starting from the captain, then the vice-captain, strategist and then the strategist, and lastly the regular members of the team.

Of course, there were more position in one team, especially in army units like the team of the young spear, but for the sake of the tournament, each team designated one for those three positions only, and the others were treated as regular members.

Once everyone was in their respective positions, the Minister continued with the explanation.

"There is no time limit to solve the problems and questions that will appear in each other's tables, but while the scholar faces the problems in black and white, the rest of the team will be exposed to the lake".

"The captain has the facility to relegate the exposition to the lake, to the vice-captain and the vice-captain can pass it onto the strategy and so on, if the three authority positions don't do it, the penalty will be automatically passed after five minutes on the captain, three minutes on the vice-captain and one minute on the strategist, as for the regular team members, they can at most endure the penalty for thirty seconds, additionally the captain can carry the whole team if he so wishes to".

"If the team member in charge of the penalty faints or shows signs of being in critical danger, the team automatically fails the current question and will have to skip it, if the captain is the one who succumbs then the team will be disqualified so manage your "time", efficiently".

"There are a total of 11 problems to solve for each scholar and they are all different and are sent randomly, the difficulty also varies but not for that much, as I said the time isn't what matters the most in this round, but once one of the two teams facing each other finishes, the output of the exposition to the lake will double".

Listening to the words of the Minister the spectator's interest was picked, this round combined both knowledge and "spirit", or the will to endure the penalty by those with authority.

The Minister then smirked as he pointed at the lake to explain what the penalty was.

"When drank mixed with the water of the other two lakes, the Spirit Enhancing lake has the ability to improve one's ability to reason, making thoughts more fluid and temporarily enhancing ones comprehension of its affinity, but in its raw state it will forcefully put pressure in one's head as it affects the brain".

"You saw the fate of the stone I threw directly at the lake, such is the result of those fools who had tried to sneak some of the water of the Spirit Enhancing lake before, naturally for the tournament we have limited the exposition to a 5%, but the effect increases the more time one is exposed to it, regardless of output and that is as of current since the second day is when the lake in the middle "weakens" the most".

Everyone could imagine the head of a person, suddenly exploding like a watermelon struck by a hammer and they felt chills running down their spines.

The teams from the Elemental Sea were particularly displeased by the harshness of the penalty, but they noticed that the teams from the kingdom were equally surprised, which made sense, since the previous years they didn't have to go through this, there used to be a formation which applied pressure over the scholar to urge him to solve the question and that was it.

But this time, the roles were inversed, making those who chose a "sturdy" but less knowledgeable scholar, inwardly curse, while those who didn't try to be smart and exploit a flaw looked at them with disdain.

"As for the factors taken into account to decide the winner, the first and most important will be the number of correct answers, the number of surviving team members and "spirit" showed by the captain of each team, to all the heroes of the young generation, I will leave you with our special guest of today and good luck".

Having said everything he needed to, the Minister returned to his seat among the judges, this time Carlos's seat was occupied by a different person, a slim old man with glasses and a long white beard.

Despite his looks, based on the aura that he exuded, the old man was actually a Stellar ranked, and from a renowned family on top of that, because he was Triten's royal advisor, and the clan head of the Sail family conformed by the sea turtle race.

With the Minister's greenlight, the second round started, from within his skybox Daimon saw the arrays on the platforms illuminate, the scholar was protected by a dome, while on the other side, a red circle surrounded the one who was being exposed to the lake.

As soon as it started, the tables in front of each schola also illuminated and an envelope appeared on them, at the same time the captains of the 40 teams who were participating right now, had different reactions.

The four favorites had little to not reaction at all, the rest of the top twenty slightly frowned, those in the positions 21 to 40 flinch a bit, though some were just taken by surprise, there was exception though.

"Ahhh!", the captain of the 33th ranked team screamed not even thirty seconds later, he immediately passed the penalty to the vice-captain, unfortunately that meant his team automatically failed that problem, so the scholar had no option but to leave it on the table next to him and, in the area designated for the completed problems, only then the next envelope appeared in front of her.

"Uwaah, that was pathetic, what captain can't even endure as much as the regular team members".

"Well, the captain isn't always the strongest, that guy probably got his position since he is the son of the clan head of his family".

And similar comments could be heard coming from the spectators.

"What do you think senior Enzio, you who personally experienced the exposition to the lake have an advice for the members of the young generation?", asked the Minister to the glassed old man sitting next to him.

The old man scratched his beard a couple of times before saying.

"The phenomenon caused by the Spirit Enhancing Lake of the Minister's family is still beyond the comprehension of our kingdom, but according to the data we gathered with your cooperation, what each person feels when under the influence of the lake is different, but the intensity is the same".

"Let's use a simple example to describe our results, it's like eating spicy food, the same amount of spiciness has different impacts on each person, ones will burn while others find it tolerable or even bland".

"When we talk about magic resources the amount and the capacity of one to absorb and refine is what defines the result, but this lake is different, besides being exposed to it, nothing else matters, we saw a ten years old child on the early stage of the low mortal level, endure a whole minute without any problems and a royal guard on the early stag of the late Mortal level scream after a few seconds of it".

"An scholar doesn't make assumptions, this is my advice for the members of the young generation, don't blindly believe in anything, unless you have personally experienced it".

The words of the old man changed the perspective of the spectators, most of them no longer mocked the guy who screamed a moment ago, especially because the vice-captain endured it even less than him, in exchange the strategist was perfectly fine even at the minute mark.

But if we are talking about those who were excelling right now, the first one would be the team of the Arcarius family, whether it was for convenience, part of a plan or mere coincidence, the young spear, the son of the Blackfin Duke and even the crowned prince had already changed with their respective vice-captains.

The one who lasted the most was the crowned prince, having reached the three minute mark, next was the young spear with 2 minutes and 55 seconds, and lastly Ezequiel who lasted 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

Meanwhile Walford lasted 3 minutes and 20 seconds in total, making the spectators that supported the Minister cheer up and clap, making Raymond smile from ear to ear.

'While I don't know if the Bryan the "mind" of the twin princes is as good as the royal concubine assured, in terms of points acquired by the captain's spirit, Walford who has refined the three-colored water of the lake, twice in his lifetime will naturally perform better', thought the Minister.

Little by little the penalty made the regular team members pale and sweat, but they endured it and then recovered while their comrades took over, and when the penalty was about to start the second cycle for the average teams, and had affected half of the team for the top ten while for the four favorites the penalty was about to leave the strategist to start with the regular team members, the first scholar to properly finish solving a problem appeared.

One of the twin Keran princes, Bryan left the paper in the designated area, and to everyone's surprise, the red circle which symbolized the one who was being exposed to the lake, suddenly returned to Walford.

It was then when the voice of the Minister made its way to the ears of all the people present in the area.

"The first surprise I prepared for you, is that when the scholar willingly places a result in the designated area, the cycle for that team will start over again, but the captain wont' be able to pass it until at least 45 seconds had passed, that or give up on the next problem, for the chance to place the penalty on the vice-captain".

The voice of the Minister was a nightmare for those captains who barely endured a whole minute, they started praying that their scholars didn't answer as fast as possible but that was also problem, because if the opponent finished first, the output of the penalty for them will increase.

In other words, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and endure, there was also another factor, which the Minister didn't mention but which some were considering right now.

Which is purposedly screwing over their opponent, how do you ask, by answering whatever to finish early and then increasing the difficulty for the opponent, naturally by doing so they will be giving up on this round, but that was still fine as long as they dragged their opponents down.

It was a "flaw" left on purpose by the Minister, for a future situation, though right now no one was taking it that seriously.

Even the opponents of the four favorites were fairing way better than in the first round... for now.