While floating in the middle of the area where the three lakes would converge if not for a natural rock separation, the Minister proceeded to explain the rules.
"This forest was discovered by my ancestors, who saw the potential in the three colored lake that forms once every year for a few seconds".
"From right to left, we have the Mind Cleansing lake, the Spirit Enhancing lake and lastly the Body Tempering lake!", said the Minister as he pointed at the three different lakes in front of him.
Daimon whose who had taken the seat right in the middle of the room, observed the lakes, each one had a different shade of blue painting its waters, sky blue, sapphire blue and lastly cobalt blue, respectively.
Needless to say those were colors not that easy to find in water bodies, and if his eyes weren't wrong, it's because they originate from the minerals that lay deep down at the bottom of the lakes.
'Damn, even with my infinity eyes I can't see the bottom… how deep are those things', wondered Daimon.
Noticing Daimon's curiosity, Mellie's eyes sparkled, she who is an avid reader, as her innate ability basically makes her a living encyclopedia, proceeded to explain.
"It is said that the origin of the colors of the lakes are underwater deposits of precious minerals, the fact that this event is hold yearly is because it takes a year for small pieces of those minerals to surface, that is how deep the bottom is".
"Also, the price for the winner of the tournament is the three-colored water that is only created after that natural phenomenon, but the minerals belong to the Arcarius family and besides the yearly tribute they pay to the royal family, they never sell or trade them since it's said they use it to reinforce their ice attribute".
"Oh?", now Daimon's interest was picked, he has gotten a nice souvenir for Liz, but nothing for Elaine, so this is a good chance, also that three-colored water sounded like a natural treasure of some kind.
Returning to the Minister, he proceeded to tell some of the history of the lakes, before continuing with the information related to the tournament.
"The reason as to why this tournament is only hold yearly, is because only when the three waters converge, their waters are beneficial for living beings, which only happens for a fraction of a second, the rest of the years, if someone where to try and dive into the waters, the result would be… an horrible death", said the Minister, he then threw a stone into each of the lakes, to show everyone the result.
For the first lake, the stone froze and then shattered, the second lake caused the stone to explode at the spot, as for the third one, as soon as it touched the water it sank and disappeared, the water of the third lake was the darker meaning light was absorbed by it.
"This is just a friendly reminder, but if you or your mana or battle aura were to touch the water of the lakes, for the first ones the result would be what you saw, as for the third one, your body would be turned into minced meat immediately, as for those who think spatial type abilities or treasures can help you, forget it, the water of the lakes makes it so the space below are chaotic enough to shred even me, so please bear it in mind".
Daimon heard the "friendly" reminder of the Minister and he snorted, it was clearly just a threat, he was basically telling everyone to not covet the resources of his family.
"That being said, let's start with the first lake, the Mind Cleansing lake, in which the strategy matches will be upheld, naturally it won't be a simple exam to see how skilled are the participants in the art of war, but a real challenge".
"Because besides the few seconds in which the lakes converge, those standing at a certain distance from the waters of the first lake, will have their minds clouded, the platform will turn into a maze and you and your team will have to face both real and imaginary threats, the winner can be decided two ways, first if the whole team besides the strategist first leaves the maze, or if the strategist alone leaves the maze, whatever happens first".
From the skybox Daimon raised an eyebrow, he didn't see anything coming from the lake with his infinity eyes, which meant it was probably an emission of some kind, one which is invisible, odorless and colorless.
'Now that is some scary stuff, luckily it can't be manipulated by anyone, could it be…", Daimon then practically injected 80% of his mana into his eyes, and only then he was able to catch a glimpse of them.
'Laws', he thought before he forcefully deactivated his infinity eyes, back then when he was falling in the ice tunnel where Dimas's cave was located, there were laws sealing movement, he was somewhat able to discern them, because they weren't at the Stellar rank.
Now he has learned to more or less calculate the prowess of an Stellar ranked, by the amount of laws that unconscious to them, swirl around their bodies, in other words, those are laws that don't belong to them, otherwise he would suffer if he wanted to see them, just like it happened when he learned Blink, but a thousand times worse, just like it was happening right now.
Aisha immediately leaned Daimon against her shoulder and helped him calm down, the pain he was suffering wasn't physical so the cure wasn't physical, though he felt as if his head was about to split.
Still Daimon's face didn't show it, Aisha noticed it because as his mother she can read him like an open book, and also because of the connection she has with him as a soulmate.
So in the eyes of most of the other people they were just playing around like normal, though there were two who noticed something was weird, Thea and Yvonne, since as magic eyes owners, they could notice Daimon did something with his eyes, even if they didn't see it, they could notice the sensation of a magic eye being used, of course they didn't know what he did.
Daimon has noticed it, but only those who understand a law should be able to see it, in other words, even if there are Stellar ranked people present here, unless they understand the specific law that dwells in the water of the lakes, they can't see it and so they don't know the true origin of the effects of the water.
"Phew", after a couple of seconds, Daimon let out a sigh of relief, he successfully suppressed the head-splitting sensation, using the aura of Overlord's pride.
'You shouldn't spy on strong laws that are active at your level, back then when I suggested you to seek insight in the dimensional tunnel, was because the laws of space that filled that specific tunnel were quite soft and tame, what you did right now was like smashing your head against a rock', said Evangeline with an sleepy voice.
'Be careful, I can't interfere if you aren't dying, but the pain can be excruciating…", she added before she became silent again.
Daimon inwardly smiled.
'Thanks for worrying, 3,2,1…", once Daimon's countdown reached zero, he got an unmistakable sound to ring in his ears.
[Ding]
[A new independent skill has been created due to a specific action]
[Mind Barrier Lv1: Diminishes the recoil of observing things out of the comprehension of the host by 20% (Derived from Infinity eyes and Overlord's Pride)]
Evangeline laughed from within the space she lives.
'You are quite a madman sometimes you know, you forced the skill to adapt to fit your needs, as expected of my host~', she proudly said, to which Daimon sighed.
'Well, it would be easier if the damn good skills were easy to trigger'.
'That is your fault Mr. "The one who overcame destiny", you set the bar too high from the beginning, so only outstanding actions will give you decent skills, in any case even the smaller ones can be of use later on'.
Since Evangeline didn't continue, Daimon knew it was due to a restriction or something, so he didn't push, he already got what he wanted, you might wonder why he didn't ask Erin, Aura or even Calvin's grandfather whose laws surpass even the ones around the Trident Marshal, to lend him a hand to get this skill.
And the answer is easy, those laws that are active due to a mage or a living being in general, can't be used by the system to trigger the creation of a skill, Daimon doesn't know the exact reason, but at least for him, he has to see or feel them from nature itself, also they have to be quite strong for it to work.
The previous might have taken some time to be explained but it happened in a matter of seconds, in which the Minister of Development enjoyed the surprised reactions of the people from the Elemental Sea, after listening to the incredible properties of the legacy land of his family, he even glared at the skybox where Vincent was and gave him a triumphant gaze, before saying.
"That being said, don't worry, there is a safety net over the surface of the lakes, created by an array, so that the participants can give their all without having to worry about falling of the platforms".
The minister let his own body fall on the water to demonstrate what would happen, and just as he stated, once he was about one meter away from touching the surface of the lake, a dim blue barrier prevented him from doing so.
He then walked all over the place, around the three lakes for everyone to see it was safe.
"Due to the recent events, this year there is only 41 teams participating, out of them the team of the champion of the beast hunt is exempt from participating until we reach the penultimate round, where the fifth team that manages to reach that far will be separated to join the other four".
"For now, that will be all I will say, today the forty teams will engage in pairs for the first round, don't worry for those who lose, since the result of the first three rounds is decided depending on the number of victories, the finishing time, how easy was the round for the team and the number of members of the team that are still standing at the end, so give it your all!".
After saying that, the Minister snapped his fingers and more platforms appeared on the surface of the lakes, which now everyone knew was actually the surface of the safety net to be precise, a total of forty platforms, of about the size of two football stadiums each, that's how massive each lake was, they weren't insanely deep for nothing after all.
"Now, heroes of the young generation please come down for the sort, to see who will be your opponent, the number each team was assigned is the same one of the positions in which you finished on the beast hunt, as for the spectators, enjoy the event".
As the Minister finished speaking a large mirror plate appeared floating on the sky next to him, the names of each of the captains of the teams were next to the number they were assigned.
"20 teams were selected from the ones that won the beast hunt, makes since, since a lot of teams were dissolved, since their members died, are in shock or injured after what happened, as for those who remained strong, they joined the top 20", mumbled Leslie.
There were other adjustments, made due to Daimon basically, since he had three captains joining his team, Daphne, Jasmin and Tessa, so the ranks were changed and other people took their numbers.
"Humph, that old man looked for a way to make the idiot king's son enter the top three anyway, how shameless", said Thea as she snorted.
Daimon and the girls laughed at Thea's comment, but it was true, though the Minister did it in the name of adjusting the rules for the current situation, since the other 21 teams consisted in the people from the families subordinated to him exclusively, he could have put his own men there, since those ranks represented nothing for the second event, besides Daimon's as he was the champion of course, but he didn't.
He was giving face to the favorite three.
"Well, it doesn't matter, since we won't be doing anything until the four winning teams are decided, so I guess we can start by making our contract", said Daimon as he took out one of the contracts prepared for him by Erin.
While he needed the help of an outside mean to tie people to certain levels, the contract itself will be tied to the system, so that it can't be broken unless someone with the power to go against the system breaks it.
In other words, a contract prepared by Erin can tie up to a high ranked Half Emperor, but once signed, even if the other party someday surpasses that level, it can't break free from the contract unless it also surpasses the current capacity of the system, meaning once they enter in a contract with Daimon, it's essentially a lifetime thing.
'Poor girls they don't know they are selling their souls to a pervert demon~', jokingly said Evangeline.
