"Good Morning, contestants! We have a few surprising announcents for everyone. It seems soone of our staff has jumped the gun on releasing materials that weren't supposed to be released until this current challenge was completed, so there are so secret challenges now available for completion, but of course, we can't say what those are. Nor will we say anything about what the next challenge might be or what materials we're referring to right now.
"Next, in response to what so contestants have discussed during the day when our viewers could hear, it has been decided by the challenge committee that an individual will win the competition if they complete ten challenges. However, just because soone accomplishes that, doesn't an the challenges will end. If they survive until the final set challenge is completed, then they will win. However, if they reach ten and decide to rest on their laurels, another challenger can complete more challenges than they had, and so take the win from them. Plus, if more than one contestant has the sa number of completed challenges and are in the lead, after having completed at least ten, then all of those contestants will receive the sa prize as they would have received had they been the only winnder.
"Aside from that, we now have another concern to address. In order to complete the challenges, the contestants can not receive help in completing the challenge directly from the locals of this world. Any such help will either disqualify the contestant from being considered to have completed the challenge or it will rely lessen any completed challenges awarded.
"With all that said, we hope each contestant luck in completing more challenges."
When the announcent was done, Elmo wasn't sure how to react to it. While parts of it were rather clear, other parts weren't quite as clear. Such as, they didn't exactly say what would qualify as 'help' from the 'locals' and what wouldn't.
Such as, the army that Kim had acquired. Would that hurt them or would they need to stand by while they fought the fire dragon, for example. Would them helping Jonas, Kim, Elin, and himself to get to the fire dragon without wearing themselves out fighting other dragons count, or would that not be considered 'help' in the way the announcer was referring to it?
Elmo sighed as he got up from the bedroll that he'd slept in. Kim's army had laid one out for each of their group, but Elmo wasn't sure if that was going to count against them or not.
One thing he always hated about warnings in competitions like this, was the unclear rules that were typically put in place by those warnings. It felt like they were made intentionally unclear so that those who made the rules could manipulate them in any way that they wanted to, even if it created contradictions with what decisions they'd made previously.
One great example he could think of from his world was 'trial by dia.' In those cases, typically the dia controlled what was shown and in so cases, it was later learned that the dia intentionally omitted things that didn't help condemn the person they were going after. While that was annoying enough, there were then other cases that they wouldn't even ntions briefly because they didn't want to get involved themselves, though Elmo was never sure of what their actual reasons were.
To Elmo, it largely felt rather one sided and unfair. Yet, it wasn't like he had any influence about the dia, nor would anyone in the dia care what he thought about it, since he was such a small fry to them, that they probably would notice cockroaches before they noticed him.
"You alright, Elmo?" a voice asked, startling Elmo out of his thoughts.
"Huh?" he couldn't help but ask as he looked around to see who spoke. Even though he felt he should know whose voice it was, his mind just wouldn't connect it to anyone.
As he looked around, he heard laughter start up from the sa voice, though it didn't feel like it was mocking him. It felt more genuinely amused.
Eventually he found the source of the voice, and laughter, as the laughter was dying down. A little distance away, was a small cooking fire with Jonas sitting by it, looing in his direction.
"Didn't an to startle you," Jonas said, and Elmo had a feeling that was all the apology he was going to get. "You just looked like you were going down a bad road in your thoughts."
Elmo shook his head. "I'm alright. I was just a little annoyed at the warning on that announcent," he replied, wondering if he should sit down by Jonas or if he should go elsewhere. Right then he wasn't sure.
"Join ," Jonas invited. "I'm cooking so stew for breakfast. Might not be much, but it'll at least keep you from going hungry."
Elmo sighed and walked over to the fire to sit next to Jonas. Stew wasn't an item he normally associated with breakfast, but it wasn't like they had anything he was used to being breakfast food available. He'd tried getting so when they were in the king's palace, and the best he got was blank stares.
"What's wrong now?" Jonas asked, as he stirred the stew in the small pot in front of him.
Elmo shook his head gently. "Just wishing that we had sothing like pancakes, oatal, or even just toast and jam that we could have for breakfast," he rely said, as his stomach started grumbling.
Jonas nodded. "Yeah, it would be nice, but as they say, when in Ro," he replied.
"Maybe, but typically if you end up in Ro, it's because you chose to be there. So, it's not quite the sa."
"True, it's not the sa, but at the sa ti, we shouldn't try to offend those in this world by trying to introduce too many things into their culture. Doing so could make things difficult for us down the road."
Elmo sighed. "Whatever. I couldn't care less about that. I an, I even suggested at the king's palace that they could cook oats with just water to make oatal and they looked at like I was crazy," Elmo said, then paused for a mont. "Well, at least once I explained what oats were."
Jonas nodded. "Ah, yes. A misunderstanding in relation to sothing they don't have on this world. Though, I have to admit that they should have oats sowhere. I an, from what I understand, that's the best grain for horses, and I've seen a number of horses here already," Jonas replied as he started ladling so stew out into a wooden bowl. When he was done, he started chuckling. "Yet, if they don't, it's not like we can do anything about it. Though, who knows if there was a way to get so from another world if that's the case. I an, they did bring us here, so I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to get so oat seeds, if nothing else."
Elmo picked up a bowl that was sitting near where Jonas was sitting. He wasn't sure if they'd been properly washed from when they'd had dinner the night before. He hoped they were, but it wasn't like he had much options. Not if he wanted to have sothing to eat at this ti.
"Can't you use your magic to clean those?" Kim asked, coming up from behind Elmo.
"What're you talking about?" Elmo asked, not sure if she was thinking about the sa thing that he was.
"The bowls," Kim answered as if that should have been obvious. "You were staring at them and looked like you were hesitating taking one."
Elmo sighed. "Fine, I was thinking about that," he admitted, "but I don't think my magic would be able to clean them without destroying them in the process."
Kim picked up a bowl, scowled at the inside of the bowl, rubbing at sothing in it, before bending over to ladle so soup into the bowl.
"True, probably better this way," Kim said, though her tone indicated to Elmo that she really wasn't happy about the situation in the first place.
"Maybe if I used my Water Burst spell," Elmo muttered to himself, trying to think if it was possible to use it without destroying the bowl, although he had a feeling that it still wouldn't work so well.
"Forget I said anything," Kim said as she sat down and started to eat the stew. "You'll probably do sothing stupid if you keep thinking about it." Kim paused as she drank so of the thick broth of the stew, which Elmo thought of as gravy more than anything else, before she made a disgusted face. "I an, you are a guy after all. Being stupid is kind of the think guys do."
Elmo rolled his eyes. While he was male, he hadn't ever been a 'guy' in the sense that he'd do typical 'guy' things. As such, he'd never had the opportunity to really get stupid from getting drunk at the bar with friends or any of that. Mostly he'd done stupid things when he was playing video gas.
Maybe it's kind of the sa thing, but he certainly thought of it as different. Especially since being dumb in video gas didn't have the sa chance of hurting soone in the real world as getting drunk at a bar did.
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