Throughout the area of the Scavenger Hunt, there were multiple small, floating spheres of rock with glowing, purple symbols of eyes on them. These were known as oculus orbs and they were magical devices that would act as surveillance for the entire area, capturing all the events happening within the trial and broadcast them onto a multitude of large magical screens in front of the spectators for them to watch.

  Already, people were cheering loudly on their seats as they watched the events of the Scavenger Hunt unfold. Each screen would focus on a random individual contestant for just a brief moment before switching to another one. However, whichever contestant was currently engaged in heated combat were generally given more priority on the screens.

  Occasionally accompanying those screens were a pair of commentators commentating on what’s happening while sitting nearby, their voices magically amplified by special runes equipped at their booth. The two commentators were a man and a woman. The man had short, neatly cut, turquoise hair and wore a pair of glasses. The woman had shoulder-length reddish-orange hair, dark-brown skin, and wore a pair of gold earrings in the shape of pentacles.

  “Welcome to the Pentacle Trials of the Year 334,” the man with the turquoise hair announced with a presentable smile. “Let’s hope the trials for this year will be just as exciting as the year before. I am your commentator, Merlin.”

  “And I am your commentator, Agnes,” the woman with the reddish-orange hair announced, also with a well-practiced smile. “Now, Merlin, based on what you’ve gathered so far, which contestants amongst this year’s group do you think has the best chance of winning?”

  “Well, one cannot talk about having the greatest chances of winning without mentioning the trialrunners of this year,” Merlin said. “And there is perhaps no trialrunner more reputable than Blair Frosthart.”

  “Ahh, yes. Blair Frosthart. I remember her,” Agnes said. “Champion of the Pentacle Trials in the Year 329. Daughter of the legendary trial veteran, Delilah Frosthart. A member of the Arctic Aurora Guild, one of the most renowned self-made private guilds in the city. This woman pretty much has every qualification under the sun to win this.”

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  “Yes, she is truly a stellar candidate when it comes to winning the Pentacle Trials, not to mention that she is relatively young for being a previous champion and is reported to not have any pre-planned team tagging along with her. Truly a rarity among trialrunners. She didn’t need it back when she won her first trial five years ago and she doesn’t seem to need it now either.”

  “Perhaps it is a testament to her skill that she’s confident enough to not need any additional help. Although there have been rumors circulating around that Blair Frosthart is actually quite difficult to work with in a team, with some people who have previously trained with her claiming that she has exceedingly high standards and is way too much of a perfectionist. While she herself trains under a grueling schedule, she expects others to do the same—leading to many conflicts between her and her past teammates. This may explain her preference to running solo.”

  “That may be so, but in a competition like the Pentacle Trials, working in a team is bound to happen regardless—especially in the third and fourth trial,” Merlin said. “It’s practically inevitable. Since she was able to manage that in her last trial, she might not be all that terrible in cooperating with others. But only time would tell if that sense of cooperation would change in the past five years since then. Speaking of which, how about we talk about some of the other possible candidates who might have a good chance in winning this year’s trials.”

  “Well, as for contestants who can go toe-to-toe with the Pentacle Trial prodigy, there are not many, though there are several contenders who might come close,” Agnes said. “Off the top of my head, there is Jack Maelstrom from the Brimstone Inferno Guild, Grayson Sterling from the Silver Wolf Guild, and Phoebe Thistlebloom from the Faerie Foxglove Guild. All of them are trialrunners who have learned from well-known veterans and are members of exceptionally reputable guilds. Each has their own unique style of fighting, so if any one of them were to face off against Blair Frosthart, it's certainly going to be a spectacular fight to watch.”

  “Indeed! Hopefully, we’ll get to see such a fight happen. Just the thought of that possibility fills me with a tremendous amount of anticipation, one that I’m sure the audience is feeling just as much as I am.”