Gondolin's capital Mvarian was the richest city in the entire world. This was where the Empress of Awor Nithroel Grimfield resided. The city brought shame to the starry sky with its lit-up streets, houses with golden chandeliers, and various lights. From a distance, the city looked like a gem mine filled with various colors of glistening stones. The city reeked of richness. Skyscrapers littered the skyline. The golden wheat field blanketed the land outside the city walls like a golden blanket. Farmer villagers were built within the wheat fields, and these villages made some cities in Elon look like villages. Stress connecting each village and avenues inside the city walls were paved with glistening white stones, giving the pavement a look of a diamond.

The city was extremely clean. One would fail to see a single piece of trash on the street. Even the alleyways between two buildings had glowing street lights to prevent unwanted crimes. Anyone who hadn't visited Mvarian would immediately feel like they stepped onto a fairyland because of its surroundings. The north, west, east, and south had a snowy mountain, a lake surrounded by lush forest, waterfalls, and flower fields, respectively. Elves had the majority in Mvarian, but that didn't mean the city had fewer other races of people. On the contrary, the entire Gondolin thrived because of its multi-ethnicity culture. Especially in Mvarian, where one could see almost every race walking down the streets peacefully. Even the dark elves and the elves lived in harmony in Gondolin, thanks to the empress's firm yet fair rule.

The city was littered with architectural marvels. There was a grand structural marvel every two avenues. For instance, the empress built a lotus-shaped building that stood two hundred meters tall just for the farmers to sell their produce without needing a middleman. This building would open two times a month for the farmers. The empress charged no tax whatsoever for the farmers who sold their produce in the farmers' market.

Another example of an architectural marvel was a building built in the shape of a longsword. This building was one of the tallest buildings in the entire world. The building was three hundred meters tall from the hilt to the pointy end. But all these buildings were nowhere close to the majestic castle at the city's edge. The castle was built overlooking the entire city atop a man-made hill. Countless broad, round towers dwarfed everything below them. Walls made of slightly glistening white stones and these walls connected every tower. These walls contained neatly scattered windows and holes for archers and artillery. Even the tallest buildings in the city looked tiny in front of the castle. Granted, there were a few grand big castles in Awor, but this castle would still be bigger and grander than all of them combined. The castle contained several portals to travel from one place to another in the castle because it was too damn big.

Without a magically enhanced map and a special rune, a newcomer to the castle would surely lose their way. On top of its majestic architecture, no one had besieged the castle since it was built almost five thousand years ago. More accurately, no one had tried and lived to tell tales.

Every day people would just line up to meet the empress. Despite her busy schedule, the empress allocated three hours to meet her subjects to hear their hardships if they had any. She was the most beloved empress of all time. People just adored and worshiped her as a goddess. Unfortunately, the people had to wait for a few days as the empress left the kingdom to meet with the Supreme Guardian in a secret location. Because of her visit, she missed the annual Alchemy competition that's happening in the capital. The last alchemy competition ended up with no winner. Instead, they were attacked by the vampires. It was a black day in the alchemy world. Almost half the alchemists were wiped out by the vampires that day. Only a few survived, thanks to Noah Winston, the current Supreme Guardian. After Ghost revealed himself as the Dark Lord, many theorized that he orchestrated the attack on the alchemist competition from the beginning.

The world turned everything Ghost did into an evil messed-up story. The worst thing was that the world believed everything because the guardian guild before Noah took over ensured the people believed everything. However, Noah put a full stop to false stories. The alchemy competition was held in a building made of jade glass. The building resembled a lotus. Each petal had shops, homes for the rich, and halls. Since the alchemy competition attracted thousands of people, the committee decided to hold the event in the center where even a hundred thousand people could comfortably sit and enjoy the event.

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Today was the second day of the competition. The rules and format of the competition did not change, but the judges did. Last time, they invited Ghost, Ativan, Gabriel, and Hendrix Gardner as the judges. Obviously, they couldn't invite Ghost this time. So in his stead, they invited the current youngest five-star alchemist in Elon continent, Olivia Palmer. Hendrix Gardner and Atian accompanied Olivia Palmer on the stage.

Hundreds of fledgling alchemists occupied the stage below them. Since they weren't as experienced as the alchemist who died last year, the competition committee decided to give relatively easier formulas. The front runners of the competition were Leilan Icarus, Gabriel's disciple, Jennifer Voldiguard, and Elmer Genric, an elf from the prestigious Genric family in Gondolin.

After a year of rigorous practice, Leilan and Jennifer had almost reached the four-star level. Everyone in the arena was focused on Jennifer and Leilan. Although Elmer performed well enough to reach third place, his technique and purity level did not earn him people's confidence. The elves cheered for Elmer since he was their kind, but they did not have any hopes for him to win the competition.

"This time, I'll honor my teacher by winning this competition," said Leilan, standing on the field next to Jennifer.

"Last time, the competition was rigged. I was robbed of my first place," Leilan complained. The hall had an array to prevent the cheers and outside noise from the spectators from reaching the competitors. However, if the crowd was silent, they could hear any sound from the field. Unfortunately, they were still buzzing as they failed to hear Leilan's words. Jennifer tried to remain calm. Even though she was a clone of the Skyhall, she had her own thoughts and feelings. Hence, she felt annoyed by Leilan's constant nagging.

"We both knew Noah was winning last year," said Jennifer. She glanced at Elmer for his thoughts, but the elf was busy cleaning his jade table.

"Sorry, I didn't know that. But hey, I also knew your sister was working for the Dark Lord," snickered Leilan. Eve Voldiguard was one of the people who followed Ghost to the southern continent despite what the world said about him. Because of Eve's decision to follow the Dark Lord, the Voldiguards were forced to disown Eve. As far as the guardians were concerned, she was a criminal for following Michael.

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Noah did not punish the Voldiguards for Eve's choice. However, they were secretly monitoring the Voldiguard family.

"Don't talk about my sister," Jennifer gritted her teeth. Not that Leilan's words angered Jennifer, but if the real Jennifer was here, she would have gotten angry. Thus, the clone did the same to play her role correctly.

"What was the committee thinking when they decided to allow you to compete?" Leilan growled.

"Why do you care since you are so sure about winning the competition?" Jennifer replied.

"Humpth," Leilan snickered. On the other hand, Elmer remained silent without putting his nose into their conversation. Instead, he cleaned the jade table spotless as though he hated dust on his table more than anything. The jade table reflected his clean-shaven face with blue eyes, a square jaw, and striking golden hair.

Elmer was not a talkative type. Since the competition had started, he barely spoke. Finally, the crowd became silent when the bell rang. Everyone quickly shut their mouths as the alchemists' bodies tensed. They all looked at the judges. Atian rose from his chair and made his way to the edge. He glanced over the field with the alchemists.

"It's my honor to welcome you all to the second day of the competition. Once again, I have to thank Her Imperial Majesty for providing us with such an exquisite venue and protection. We couldn't have done this without Her Imperial Majesty's aid, especially what happened last year. As before, please mourn for the lost ones for a minute in silence, please," The crowd rose from their chairs to pay their respect to the alchemists and people who lost their lives at the competition last year. Silence swept across the arena. The people closed their eyes, lowering their heads.

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"Thank you," Atian's words broke the silence.

"Without a further due, let us begin the second stage of the competition. To start it, I'd like to welcome the youngster five star alchemist in the Elon continent and the head of alchemy in Aragoth, Miss Olivia Palmer," as soon as Atian united Olivia to the front, an awkward silence occupied the arena. Few mumbled something under their breath. Everyone stared at Olivia with different looks. Some admired Olivia for not following the Dark Lord, while some had hostile looks as they thought she supported the Dark Lord in the shadows.

Olivia was used to their gazes. She took a deep breath and walked to Atian's side.

"Thank you for your good words, Lord Atian. But I must remind the world that I am not the youngest five-star alchemist. We all know who the youngest is," People gasped in shock. They couldn't believe the guts of Olivia to speak such words. Even Atian and Hendrix were startled by her words.

"All I wanted to say is, do not let the past and one person's actions pollute the beautiful world of alchemy," Olivia calmly said.

"Your challenge for the second round is you have to brew the Lucid dreams potion in under two hours. To help you brew it, you will receive the recipe and three batches of ingredients,"

As the competition began, several people were on their way to kidnap someone important. These figures were using the forest outside the city as their cover. With their black armor, they perfectly blended with the environment. The competition was really cursed as it attracted the wrong crowd for the second time.

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