Is That A Wisp?

Calveb carefully picked up a stick, inspecting it as he arrived before a section of the ship's deck, crouching as he made a small diagram, sensing a cool sensation immediately, smirking. "Alright, it works perfectly."

"The effect is greater than the Talisman Pastel the Clan gave me." He then snorted as he complained inwardly, "Of course, not only did they only give me half a Talisman Pastel, the quality was also subpar. The talismans I had created during the other trials only functioned at a quarter of their usual efficiency."

"They simply want me to die a dog's death here...but I won't go down that easily." He let out a snort yet again, carefully storing all ten Talisman Pastels as he grinned. "In every trial, I'll help as many people as I can. This way, if one of them do end up getting a Spiritual Mark, they would be indebted to me. Only the Clan Leader has the Spiritual Mark. So, this would give me the greatest say of things. I would be able to give my family a greater standing."

Talisman Pastel!

It was something used to draw Talismans. It was the signature product of the Dotrite Clan, one that allowed them to create Talismans with greater quality than using brushes. After all, the quality of the ink used by the brushes was vastly inferior.

After all, a Talisman Pastel had absorbed a barrel's worth of ink into it, raising the quality of the inscriptions created using it. That was why the Dotrite Clan's Talismans were greatly popular. Of course, that wasn't all. 

Unlike using the traditional mode of ink, they wouldn't be able to create talismans on the fly. After all, ink would spill and brush strokes would vary in depth when one was on the run or was hiding in uneven terrain. 

But with a Pastel, it was different. Its only disadvantage was the fact that complex Talismans couldn't be created using it. Nevertheless, its advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Just the sheer quality of the Talismans produced using it far surpassed any traditional techniques. 

"Just in case, I'll prepare some Talismans." Calveb laughed before pulling out a couple of his tools as he took out some of the extra planks stored in the ship. He had intended to use them for his use. However, making it seem like he was preparing it for emergencies, he made the others do all the necessary work. 

With that, he now gazed at a plank that spanned 15 centimeters in length and five centimeters in width, being only a centimeter thick. Now, Calveb used the Talisman Pastel he had created to draw an inscription on it. 

He then spent a couple of hours to finish creating twenty Talismans, muttering as he sighed, noticing he had expended more than half a Talisman Pastel, "Hopefully, they last long enough for me to reach the end."

He then noticed the ship was faintly trembling, peeking from the edge to see the Kaleptopuses beginning to attack it. They seemed like they were slowly entering a state of frenzy. "Right, using this method causes them to turn vicious and attack with no concern for their lives for at least a day."

"Otherwise, I could have made some more Talisman Pastels." He then shook his head, descending down the ship as he arrived on land. "I shouldn't be greedy."

His figure vanished right after when a blue entity streaked towards his spot, vanishing right after. Suddenly, a mysterious energy arrived at the place to vaporize the ship while calming all the Kaleptopus. 

Moreover, the Petlopca trees that had been felled by the group of people mysteriously grew back to their full size, eradicating all traces of human-induced damage. Soon, the place looked like it hadn't been visited by humans.

Soon after, another group of 500 people arrived as the same trial repeated. 

...

Now that it was the fourth time, Krune had prepared himself, calmly waking up after being teleported as he looked around, inspecting his surroundings. 'This is…damn!'

He was currently situated atop a rock pillar, one whose base couldn't even be seen. He looked around, judging that the top of the rock pillar was a circle with a radius of 10 meters. A hundred people stood in this area, making it feel cramped. 

The mechanical voice resounded at the same time sometime later. "Fourth Mission: Reach the ground before night."

"Oh shit!" Krune and many others muttered simultaneously, noticing the surroundings darken bit by bit. So, it was apparent that they didn't have too much time. 

'The difficulty level spiked all of a sudden,' Krune thought, peeking from the edge of the rock pillar to see that its sides were filled with numerous rock protrusions. As long as one was careful, they would be able to use them to descend quickly. 

As for Krune, it was even simpler. He waited patiently at the start, watching a man quickly grab the rock protrusions to descend quickly. Upon noticing that there wasn't any other danger in the trial, Krune flew over, quickly descending through the rock pillar as he reached the ground, feeling tired. "There's a kilometer?"

"How will the others even reach the end on time unless they were expert climbers?" Right as he thought of this, his figure vanished. 

As the ambient light continued to darken, some of the people managed to reach the end. 

One of them, a middle-aged man with a robust body grunted as he tried to accelerate as much as he could, finally noticing that there were still twenty more meters to reach the ground, noticing that it had darkened now. "It's a do-or-die situation now!"

He let go of his hold, dropping to the ground as he braced himself for impact before rolling on the ground the moment he touched down. Although he had suffered a couple of fractures, he shouted immediately, "I'm alive!"

But after he shouted, his face paled as he gazed at those unfortunate to still remain on the rock pillar as the moment it darkened, numerous serpent-sized worms jutted out of the sides of the rock pillar and clamped on the people, biting and shredding them apart. 

Unwilling to die like that, some let go of their holds just like the middle-aged man had done.. But unlike him, they were caught by the worms mid-air and feasted on them, causing a stream of blood to fall on the ground when the middle-aged man's figure vanished.