Sage Lufthansa's words stopped the verbal brawl between participants.
"The test is simple.
You have to find me. The one who finds the real me first wins my legacy. Easy isn't it?"
Participants stared at each other when they heard how Sage Lufthansa wanted to conduct a test. They all couldn't help having light smiles on their faces when they realized how simple it was.
"So we… Sage Lufthansa… we are supposed to take random paths for ourselves and find you, right? But…"
One of the participants gathered the courage to speak.
"Pardon me if I didn't understand this clearly. But would it be fair to all of us if we did that? These caves… What if some of them happen to be dead ends? Should we be punished for having bad luck by selecting the wrong choice?"
'Logical question. But he shouldn't have asked this here.'
Eren thought in his head as he heard a participant standing not too far away from him raise his question. He appreciated the guy's efforts. But he would never put himself in his crosshairs just to satiate his curiosity.
***
From Eren's experiences so far, Sages were eccentric creatures. Not necessarily because they wanted to or made conscious efforts in that direction. But their individualities would not only power their spells but also their actions.
These individualities would make them highly vindictive or extremely honest. The Sages wouldn't be able to change who they were even if they wanted to after these individualities had become a part of their ranking path.
The high-ranking entities would find out that their individualities had been compromised if they started behaving opposite to them. This lack of synchronicity between individuality and act might also pose a bottleneck since these individualities were correlated with their ranking paths.
Of course, there are always exceptions. And individuality was just a vague concept that became tangible only for high-ranking entities. And as such, there were a myriad of individualities as well as ways to cultivate them.
A Sage's individuality would mold their behavior in an in-depth manner, making them see things in a different light than normal people. This was also the reason the S-rankers were called Sages. Their views about the world started to differ from their old mindsets.
Eren would never willingly serve as a litmus test to gauge Sage's individuality. Especially someone like Sage Lufthansa who was an assassin. Thankfully, there were some rankers present around him who happily took on that role.
***
Surprisingly, Yuffie Loxley didn't get angry at a participant who expressed doubts about his test to the point of calling it unfair. He chuckled before responding.
"Who said caves had dead ends?
They all lead somewhere, don't they?
It's up to you to figure out where you want to go. In theory, you can find me no matter which path you choose for yourself.
Of course, there are easier paths that you can use to find me without suffering much. Then there are difficult paths that will become headaches for you.
However, easy paths wouldn't necessarily mean that you would come across me. And difficult paths don't raise your chances of finding me. The paths you choose can only make your journey easier or more challenging. But they all have the same destination. It all depends on how far you are willing to go to find me and claim my legacy.
So you can say that the test is fair by making it potentially unfair for all of you.
Are we on the same page in this matter? Or do any of you want to question the fairness of the test I created for you one more time?"
Eren narrowed his eyes when he heard Sage's explanation. It looked like two or more participants could take the same path. However, their difficulties would increase according to the number of participants entering one of the caves.
So everyone came to a tacit understanding that each participant would select a single cave entrance to enter and see where it leads. No two people could trust each other after all. It was better to try their luck alone. They were relieved by the fact that they did not have to fight each other.
Youffie didn't take much time explaining the rules of the game. The rankers were immediately forced to act as a result of his voice disappearing.
The one who had raised a question for the first time chose a cave entrance for himself and entered. A bunch of other participants started entering the cave entrances one by one.
The butcher chose to wait after selecting his cave entrance. He decided to pay attention to the results of other participants as well.
"Aaaaaargh!"
"Wh…"
"Somebody is trying to sneak…."
"Aaaaaaaah! Hel…"
Eren had a stoic expression as he heard the screams of participants who had entered the cave entrances that looked like the face of a beehive. He had a feeling that someone like a Sage assassin wouldn't give the rankers a full picture of the test. At least not right away.
Eren also realized that the participants who had asked about the fairness of the test were the first to scream before his presence completely vanished from the scene. It seemed that Sage Yuffie had subtly silenced his critique by cranking up the unfairness for him specifically. Just like an assassin should--without making a fuss about it.
A chuckle was heard before Sage Lufthansa spoke again.
"And oh yes… did I tell you that you'd have to face assassination while you are trying to find me? My shadows are personally executing this assassination. So you'd be dealing with nerfed versions of me.
Of course, you'd be sent to the Life and Death Altar after you die here. And if you can clear that, you'd have to start looking for me all over again. By selecting a different cave entrance.
I can tell you that each one of you is going to die at least once in this test.
This test is not really about finding me. It's about your mental fortitude.
How many of you have the guts to come back and keep on dying until you can find me? Hehe… I guess we'll soon find that out."
