In the kingdom of the elves,

The time for the tournament had arrived.

The elders were discussing the trails to be placed, and the participants for this year.

“This year would be special as even most of our grandsons are participating, it would be interesting to see who comes out on top,” said one of the elders with a prideful look on his face.

The other elders were the same, each had a proudful face like it was already decided that the one who would win would come from their family.

The king of the elves did not have a pleasant expression, “Enough all of you, the discussion has already been over, you may all leave now,” said the king of the elves with a scowling face.

One of the king’s advisors noticed the king’s anger, he feared to confront the king, but he thought it was his duty to handle the situation as his advisor. He gently stood up and politely asked while bowing, “What happened, my king, that caused you to be so displeased?”

“What happened? 100 million of the elves soldiers just disappeared along with the three high elves, yet nothing was found on how it happened? How am I supposed to remain calm?”

“Don’t worry about it, my lord; they are just elves. For high elves like us, it should not matter how many of them disappear as for the three high elves, it was unfortunate.”

“It not just about that, even their corpse disappeared, there is a high chance they might have been turned into undead, we just gave an entire army to our enemies, it must be those undead sorcerers, they are beginning to rise again.”

“There is no need to worry about it my king the situation would be handled soon for now just enjoy the tournament.”

It was the day of the tournament.

Thousands of elves who were younger than 100 years had gathered.

“Now, Welcome everyone.”

“The 21st Elves Succession Tournament has officially begun.”

“The winner of this tournament would receive various prices.”

“But beware even your life can be lost during this tournament.”

“The once who get to participate in this tournament would have to first complete various trails and survive through them.”

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“Now, without wasting any time, the first trail is right in front of you, those who can climb up the stairs and enter the shrine would pass the first trail.”

The stairs that the people were about to climb looked like it was made up of stone. They looked old, and even some grasses were growing on them. It was about 10 meters long and had a total of 1000 stairs on the count, or at least it looked like that.

The elves began to climb the stairs. With every stair, it looked like there was a trial. But It was just an illusion. The stairs had two kinds of Magic placed on it. One was illusion magic, and next was spatial Magic. The illusion of Magic would make people see their environment change. The environment could be hot, cold, or could even show monsters or your deepest fear. After taking a step, one would face extreme temperature if he/she was able to maintain steady mana flow and an unwavering heart, then they would move to the next illusion. If they weren’t able to do that, they would merely be keeping climbing under the same illusion. There was a total of 10 illusions, and if one was not affected by any illusions, they would be able to reach the shrine in just 10 steps. However, the recorded was 12 steps to reach the shrine set by the current elf king, but there was an ancient elf king who was able to climb in just a single step; however, that is known by few, and how it was done was also not revealed.

The participants began the climb. Most of them were simply climbing but not moving onto the next illusion. However, few had started to reach the final illusion.

In the first place was a woman with bright white hair, golden eyes, and a slender body.

“Hoho seems like the princess would be able to break her father’s record.”

She was the current elf king's daughter and now was on her 10th step and her final illusion. The last illusion showed her, her deepest fear that if she was able to take another step and break the illusion, she would have broken the record and cleared it in 11 steps.

She began to sweat. She took a calm breath and took the step, the illusion had broken she was able to break the record, was what she was thinking but her final step rather than being on the shrine it was on the ground, Infront of her was the stairs she was at the very bottom.

“What? What happened? How am I here?”

She then looked up and saw another man standing in the place where she was meant to be like they had switched places.

The crowd became silent.

The participants became confused about how the man who was in the last suddenly came in the first. The princess who was supposed to finish the climb was now on the bottom of the stairs.

The participants began to complain. “He cheated,” “He utilized someone else effort.”

The man ignored that and moved forward.

One of the elders who were in the shrine stopped him and asked, “If you had such great spatial magic, then why did you not simply teleport up here but rather switched your place with someone else.”

The man gently smiled and replied, “The hard workers guide the people, the smart rule the people, and the strong they crush the people below them. It’s simple as that. They used their own ability to climb, I used mine, the only difference being mine was superior.”

“Hoho, such an interesting fellow you are, you are gifted with both strong spatial magic and mentality, what’s your name young one?”, the elder asked

“It’s Azrael, Aamon Azrael”

The participants behind me still complained, but the judges in front kept silent and rather than a look of hostility they had the look of praise as once people live long enough, they realize,

The methods never really matter in the real world, In the end, it was the result that was everything.