Alex and 4 other young folks walked past the curtain onto the other side. 5 men stood there, who swiftly handed them an empty storage bag.
"You will be using this to gather the ingredients," they told them.
Alex looked in front of him and all he saw was a black barrier blocking his view from what was in front of him. He looked to the side and saw the other 4 quite nervous about the various things.
The host was to the side and without wasting a single moment he told them to go. Alex activated Focus Mode.
Time slowed down as all of his senses amplified to another level. Alex walked in with all of the rest, waiting to see what was in there that made everyone so worried.
The moment he entered, 2 things became clearly visible for him. The first was the list that was hanging in the air, and the second was the ingredients laid out in front of him.
The list had exactly 10 groups inside of them, each group consisting of 10 ingredients. The groups were separated into points where the first group of ingredients won them 10 points, the second 9 points, all the way down to the last which earned them 1 point.
This was a little overwhelming to remember at just 5 seconds, but not as much as what the others were.
On a large surface in front of them were nearly 1000 different ingredients, all laid down randomly. The entire front of him lit up as thousands of names started popping up. The number was so much that even he was easily overwhelmed.
'I could use my spiritual sense to easily check through it all individually, but it seems I will have to wait until my next turn to do so,' he thought.
The 5 seconds were over.
All 5 of them walked back to the end of the queue. The other 4 were currently frowning as they didn't even know where to begin with finding the ingredients, while only Alex was the first person without a single negative emotion.
He was overwhelmed when he saw so many names for sure, but now that he had time, he could slowly digest it and see where everything was.
'I am sure I can actually afford to waste next turn too,' Alex thought. His first course of action was remembering all the 10 ingredients that would earn him 10 points.
He recollected all of his memory from the few seconds worth of massive information that was in his head. He first remembered the list of 10 ingredients.
[Solar Tree's Apricot]
[Midnight Fox's Blood Essence]
[Crying Deer's Tears]
[Earth Chrysanthemum's Bud]
These were the 10 ingredients that in total got a person 100 points. If the other participants were anything but bad, they would definitely go for these ingredients.
They would do their best to remember the names from this list and look for it on every turn they got.
Alex thankfully was all done with remembering the names, he was now looking for the ingredients among the 1000 ingredients that were laid there.
It took him a while to remember where exactly the ingredients were and which ones were the easiest to find. He would target the easy ones first.
'I will focus on those 10 for now and then move on to 9 points and 8 points and so on,' he thought. He didn't know if he could get all 10 turns to gather the 10 ingredients or not, but he planned on making the best of what he would be given.
Soon, it was his turn to gather again.
He walked into the curtain and stood in front of the dark barrier once more. 'I wonder if I could see what is beyond here if I used my spiritual sense,' he wondered.
He wasn't stupid enough to use it here however though. Considering how many different people were in the audience, having a single powerhouse who took interest in a self tempering realm brat that could use Spiritual sense could end up being a dangerous situation.
"GO," the host gave them the signal to enter. Alex removed all sorts of thoughts from his mind as he entered the barrier and immediately ran to the group of ingredients and grabbed an ingredient directly without hesitation and put it in his storage bag.
He had got the Solar Tree's Apricot. 'That's 10 points for me,' he thought and looked at the list of ingredients above him once more before returning.
Alex returned back to the queue with no worry on his face while the 4 other people besides him were still frowning. This was especially increased when they saw Alex actually choosing an ingredient on his 2nd try alone.
He looked upon the list of ingredients that were in this mind from the recent most viewing and smiled as he realized not a single one of the ingredients were taken yet.
He wasn't sure how long it would last, but he would wish for it to last as long as it could. The queue was so long that it would take him another 3 minutes before it was his turn again.
During this time, he made sure to revise this plan again. He had taken the apricot, so he planned on taking another one of the easy to get ingredients.
'I should try and get the Tear Bearing plant. It's one of the biggest ingredients in there and quite easy to recognize in a single glance,' Alex thought.
He planned on how to get some of the other ingredients as well. All in all, he now knew exactly where all the 9 remaining ingredients were and exactly how he could get them.
Soon, it was his turn to go in again. He walked up to the curtain and entered it, standing in front of the barrier. The other seemed troubled, but not him.
Alex simply waited for the host to give him the go-to enter.