Dig Up the Sun Emperor's Legacy: I Build an Invincible Undead Legion Chapter 68: Helmet Hell

Carlos’s business always ca first with Iris, and her arrangents were lightning-fast.

That afternoon, several ordinary carriages quickly left Ember City, heading toward the Withered Lands...

...

In his room, Carlos’s vision showed Guard #1’s perspective, looking through windows at roadside scenery.

"Traveling around the clock, skeleton soldiers don’t need grub or water. With relay stations constantly switching, roughly over a week to reach the Withered Lands."

He did the math in his head.

Over a week of travel, then about 10 days for Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to lead 10 ordinary skeleton soldiers to ’level up’ until hitting the requirents.

By this calculation, when he arrived at the eting point in three weeks, the timing would be spot-on!

"Ti to hit the hay!"

Carlos closed his eyes, finally able to rest easy.

...

Three days after the individual competition wrapped up, Ember Colosseum buzzed with fresh activity.

"Look, teams are filing out!"

"Strange, why aren’t the hotshots on the sa team?"

"What’s strange about that? Who would take orders from whom on the sa team?

They usually form teams with themselves as the star, looking for teammates who’ll play ball."

"Look, why is little Carlos all by himself?

Are those five upgraded skeleton soldiers next to him?

Where are his teammates?"

"Huh? Right! Could... could those five skeleton soldiers be his teammates?"

"...This kind of setup is allowed?"

"..."

In the arena, Carlos ford a team with five skeleton soldiers.

Plus being the individual champion at only 15 years old, practically every team had their eyes glued to him.

"What nerve! Does he think he can single-handedly take on our whole team?"

"No matter how much of a hotshot you are, can you really beat a bunch of us?

We’ll show you what’s what during competition!"

"...Is it possible little Carlos awakened too recently and hasn’t found the right teammates yet?"

"..."

The announcer’s fired-up voice echoed throughout the venue.

"...The First Ember Tournant team competition officially kicks off!

The first challenge will be the ’Stone Chair Competition,’ which tests how well team mbers work together!"

As the words rang out, rows of stone chairs rose in the colosseum—seven per row.

Each stone chair had a completely enclosed tal helt.

On the right armrest of each chair were twenty cylinders with lightning, frost, flas, stench, etc., all mixed up in different orders!

"Please take your seats and put on helts within 5 minutes.

Teams going over the ti limit will get the boot!"

Competing teams imdiately quit their chatter and walked to corresponding stone chairs in predetermined order.

No surprise, Carlos was assigned to Row 1. He first directed five Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to sit and put on helts.

Then he sat down himself. The helt adjusted to the right size as everything went pitch black.

"In this teamwork competition, I seem to have another ace up my sleeve."

Carlos thought to himself. Could human-to-human coordination hold a candle to his soul link with skeleton soldiers?

...

After competing teams were seated with helts on, the announcer smiled like the cat that ate the canary:

"This challenge’s rules are pretty straightforward. On your stone chair’s right armrest are twenty cylinders.

Every five minutes, you’ll get the chance to press one cylinder.

If all team mbers press the sa cylinder, you’ll successfully move on!

If you’re not in sync, you’ll get hit with attacks matching the cylinders until you get it right!

When team mbers can’t take the heat or pass out, the team fails and gets eliminated!

During competition, any talking is off-limits! Once caught, the whole team gets the axe imdiately!

First round starts now!"

After laying out the rules, competing contestants felt like a herd of buffalo was stampeding through their heads, ntally screaming:

"What the heck is this? Shouldn’t team competitions usually be ’friendly’ sparring matches?

What kind of screwy coordination test is this!"

"Oh boy! Which cylinder to press? First? Second?..."

"The order’s all scrambled too?"

"What were those cylinder attacks again?"

"..."

Contestants looked grim and completely torn.

Of course, this didn’t include Carlos and his Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards.

"I have absolutely no intention of cheating, but..."

Carlos didn’t hesitate to press the lightning-symbol cylinder, then ordered five Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to press lightning cylinders too.

Right away, white stone chairs flashed crimson light as helts automatically vanished.

The announcer’s pumped-up voice rang out:

"There it is! In less than 1 minute, our first advancing team showed up!"

"???"

Contestants found this absolutely mind-boggling. So sharp cookies cursed, already figuring out who it was.

"Congratulations to our Carlos and his five skeleton buddies for successfully advancing!"

Contestants again felt like a herd of buffalo was trampling through their brains:

"It’s you! You again!"

"I knew it was you again!"

"Cheating! This is flat-out cheating!"

"Summoned creatures! Ha! I get it! I see what’s happening!"

"..."

Carlos stood up, leading five skeletons to the prep area.

Pulling out red tea for a sip, he mostly sunk his consciousness into Guard #1’s vision, taking it easy while waiting for results.

...

Five minutes passed without any team making the grade. Helt attacks kicked in!

Right away, contestants’ screams filled the arena.

Those getting zapped by lightning shook like leaves.

Those getting hit by flas had the sll of cooking at drifting from their helts.

...

In the arena, dics stood at the ready, prepared to haul people away at the drop of a hat.

Next to the dics stood a group wearing brain-printed clothing.

They were ’ntal Research Institute’ mbers.

Currently staring at alchemical instrunts, picking up various info from the helts.

Occasionally swapping notes:

"Lightning #5’s brain stimulation on Psionics users is pretty darn good."

"#7’s spiritual activity shows clear improvent."

"#13’s knockout gas effect is lousy."

"#8’s frost shows slight internal invasion reactions."

"..."

dics got the shivers, looking at contestants with eyes full of pity.

In front of this group, three garrison battalion commanders seeing this scene looked like thunder, couldn’t help but ask:

"Won’t such attacks ss up the kids?"

"Can you swear on your mother’s grave there are absolutely no problems?"

"These are all future rising stars. If anything happens to them, none of you people can run far enough!"

"..."

ntal Research Institute mbers heard this. Their leader, an old codger, slowly raised his head with a serious expression:

"Please don’t worry your heads, these experints strictly stay within Psionics users’ limits—absolutely safe.

At the sa ti, these attacks provide incredible benefits for their willpower training, helping them understand spiritual energy essence and improve spiritual perception.

Otherwise, the leadership wouldn’t have given our challenge the green light."

The three commanders’ faces loosened up a bit.

Just then, a contestant’s helt suddenly let out sharp red warning sounds.

A ntal Research Institute mber imdiately worked the alchemical instrunts.

The helt detached and floated up.

The contestant inside was foaming at the mouth with singed yellow hair, shaking all over.

dics yelled in horror:

"Quick! Quick, save him!"

Two dics hustled to carry away the convulsing contestant...

This scene made the three commanders’ faces change like night and day:

"This... this is what you call no problems?"

High-tier spiritual energy erupted all around as the air got thick as molasses.

The old man’s expression stayed rock-steady, pointing to various data on instrunts, calmly explaining:

"Don’t let how beat-up this kid looks fool you.

You can sense his life aura—no danger whatsoever.

His spiritual energy is even more lively."

"That’s true."

The three commanders admitted the old man had a point but remained sowhat on edge.

...

In the prep area, Carlos’s eye twitched.

He never expected the ’ntal Research Institute’ would openly run brain-zapping experints under the tournant’s cover!!!

"Keep your shirt on. Since leadership signed off, there shouldn’t be major problems."

"I rember in later years, these stone chairs made it into academies as pain tolerance training equipnt, much ’beloved’ by kids."

Thinking this, Carlos felt better and went back to watching Guard #1’s vision.

...

On the high viewing platform, leadership seed caught completely off guard by current circumstances...