Taking a seat away from the group, Jack darts his eyes around the room before pausing on the girl standing centre of the stage, drawing all attention to her with her actions. His eyes start from the bottom and work their way up as his mind works, considering all the variables of this situation before giving up as he doesn't have enough information to even begin with.

'Princess' as all the attendants call her, she most likely is the person who forced Jack to the dungeon previously but now she has bunny ears?

His eyes pause on her tall bunny ears as he thinks back to the scene not too long ago, the girl appeared to be getting out of the bath and had a towel wrapped around her head therefore it is likely that it's the same girl yet nothing is certain. Jack's spirits feel raised after 'Princess' acts normal on the stage with barely even a glance being directed at Jack but he still feels uneasy like he's being watched by something just sitting here.

The rest of the crowd take their seats but footsteps approaching from his side force Jack to turn away from looking at the 'Princess'.

The small young man who was following the older Asian man named 'Mr. Lee' has approaches Jack's location with a raised hand while quietly whispering, "Sir, Sir please listen" as he reaches whispering distance.

"What do you want? I'm not interested in joining anyone and I won't give up what I acquired"

"Sir no, it's not that I just wanted to tell you that I am not actually with those people... Mr. Lee is rich business person from the North who promised lots of help if I help him through this event. I only come here to tell you that if you need information to help you"

"Why do I need information on this event when it's nearly over? No, if you want to help me it wont be now. If you are a member of the forums, then send me a message there. I will need helpers soon and I'll give you a chance, a single opportunity"

The young Asian man that approached Jack has a smile on his face as he listens to Jack mention his username on the forums trying to memorise it but unknown to both of them, their conversation is being listened to by many others in the room. This exchange only takes a few moments while everyone also slowly takes their seats, the young asian man walks away leaving Jack alone again.

'Princess' in the middle of the stage has turned around looking away from the crowd as the attendants walk around the now seated participants, the large wooden circular stage raised above the ground develops a layer of mist as they are waiting while a silver glow steadily grows along the back wall.

"Please don't touch the contents of the tray, they are related to the upcoming ceremony" An attendant places a tray down before Jack before walking away without waiting for a response from Jack, looking at the tray it's filled with several piles of seeds that look incredibly similar to the seeds he was taking handfuls of from everywhere.

Jack uses his divine sense to inspect the seeds but isn't able to see anything special about them as they look like grains of rice dipped in a golden coating which is also protecting the interior of the seed not permitting Jack to peer further into the seed itself. This piques his curiosity because it seems that these might not be simple seeds after all.

The group of annoying people are still glaring at Jack now and then while they quietly talk between themselves like they're making plans for later on to screw him over yet again but everyone's attention turns toward the stage where a loud pounding sound is heard again.

*BOOOOM*

His gaze returns to the stage where the mist has gathered in larger amounts while a quiet drumming softly beats in a quick rhythm. The large object floating behind the bunny girl, 'Princess', comes into clearer view as it's raised up again from the ground, it looks just like the artwork hanging around the wall of a mortar and pestle in a strange silver glow.

The room is almost entirely silent apart from the quiet drumming that is speeding up in tempo as the glowing still see through pestle is raised up higher and higher when the 'Princess' suddenly turns around and smiles at everyone but has an uneasy expression on when she meets Jacks gaze but she still raises her hand up high.

"Everyone, congratulations on passing through the first event of 'The Secret World Online'," the drumming suddenly stops as she finishes this line, she continues to speak "this event was an introductory event to encourage people to explore the wider world and you 12 were chosen as random for your actions in... humility and caring"

Jack chuckles to himself after hearing her slight pause while speaking as she continues to speak, "We hope that the gifts you receive from this event provide you will countless benefits and assist you through your life now and into the future, I will now perform the 'Ceremony of 1000 Years', an ancient ceremony of my family.... very few will ever experience"

Her expression dims slightly upon speaking of her family but she raises her hand holding the folded up fan high above her head, "We shall now begin the ceremony" she announces as the pestle comes slamming into the ground creating another booming sound causing an almost deafening sound yet strange things happen as the drumming starts up again.

The mist beneath her feet glow with the similar silver glow of the pestle, the drumming starts up as the bunny girl dances in an elaborate dance moving her feet in timing with the drumming, her body sways back and forth as her feet step deliberately in patterns while her hand remains lowered.

The silver glow spreads throughout the mist on the stage creating a stunning sight with the soft sunlight coming in from the outside, the bunny girls body has a layer of perspiration on it already but that's offset by the silver glow that has developed on her body as she stops her dance and raises her hand yet again causing the illusory pestle behind her to also raise as the drumming stops.

Her breathing is slightly laboured as she lowers her hand again causing another booming to resound through the area but a strange thing happens.

The silver glow in the mist spreads from the stage and covers the rest of the ceremonial hall, the seeds on the tray before each participant adopts the silver glow as they start to shift about on the metal tray.

The sounds of thousands of tiny little items shifting about against one another is heard in the mist of the hall but is covered up by the resuming drumming, a fresh herb smell fills the hall.

The bunny girl continues her elaborate dance and steps, she takes big steps left and right while keeping her hand lowered as the silver glow concentrates where she is pointing as the hall fills with more and more fresh herb smells coming from seemingly everywhere.

The drumming suddenly stops as she brings her feet together and raises her hand far above her head causing the pestle to grow stronger in silver colour and appear almost solid while the rest of the room dims, the seeds on the tray stop moving around but using his divine sense, Jack can tell that the energy hasn't disappeared but gone inside making him incredibly curious as to what's going on.

The girl on the stage takes a deep breath and then suddenly slams the fan in her hand against the ground causing a loud cracking sound to spread throughout the entire realm, it almost sounds like the entire barrier surrounding the realm has shattered from the explosiveness and loudness of it yet that's not all that has happened as all the seeds on the trays have suddenly split apart revealing many plants, herbs and flowers growing from nothing on the tray and peeking out from below the mist on the stage.

The tiny plants look like they have been growing for weeks yet they're all different as Jack can see many of the low level types he picked up in the field but there are also many that he hasn't seen before, feeling some movement on his shoulder Jack is surprised at the sudden actions of Xueli who has appeared in her snake body peeking her head outside of his robe.

Jack tries to push her head back inside the robe while looking at her with an angry expression but she explains herself, 'The stuff in the air is very helpful for me, I won't expose myself' so he just fixes up his robe instead of trying to push her back inside.

He takes a few breaths of the aroma himself as he continues to watch the performance on the stage, the rest of the crowd is enraptured by the herbs growing before them but he has seen this many times before with Mai.

Her body is now noticeably glowing with the silver energy as strange looking geometric patterns appear on her skin, her breathing is incredibly laboured as sweat visibly drips from her face but she doesn't miss a single step as she goes back and forth while fluttering with her robes between each movement.

She raises her hand yet again and lowers it, this time the silver glow resonates in the area that even Jack can feel inside him while all the herbs strangely grow even larger, becoming mature plants and visibly aging before everyone.

The drumming shifts in temp again, a slow but deep drumming fills the area as her steps become slower but another silver glow develops on the wall, beneath the pestle that has been slamming into the stage floor.

The silver-haired bunny girl dances again but this time slow and deliberate steps as she turns around many times, each spin results in her body adopting a new strange pattern on her skin but always shifting.

She suddenly stops as the drums do, raising both her hands high in the air, the almost real pestle raises high in the air while a strong silver glow develops on the rounded bottom.

Jack's attention quickly shifts from the pestle raised in the air to the plants sitting before all the participants, as they grow again and visibly age, but something weird happens with them; they visibly wither as pools of liquid develop floating above them.

Above each plant before each person and on the stage are countless little pools of liquid just floating there, this lasts several moments in the quiet hall with no one moving, everyone is sitting in eerie silence watching the show before them.

The almost panting bunny girl breaks the silence by bringing her hands together above her hand, causing all the liquids to go from floating into flying toward the glowing pestle in the air in a rainbow of colours offsetting the dull grey yet still beautiful glow that fills the hall.

The colourful liquid disappears into the glow of the pestle yet a stronger herbal smell fills the air causing each breath to feel almost uplifting and invigorating, even Jack feels younger just from smelling it while Xueli is greedily trying to absorb all she can.

The geometric patterns on the bunny girl's body glow brightly as if in response to the glowing pestle in the air while the remaining silver glow on the ground develops into a bowl shape below the hovering pestle, she lowers her hands down to the ground suddenly like she's pounding on it.

Another booming resounds throughout the realm causing almost everyone to block their ears, Jack grits his teeth to ignore his instinct and watch what's going on within the bowl as the liquids emit a rainbow of light as they twist and combine yet he cannot view anything else as the silver-grey light becomes too bright.

The geometric patterns on the bunny girl's skin twist and shift as if in response to what is going on within the bowl but this too quickly becomes too hard to look at as it gets brighter forcing Jack to look away from everything going on the stage but a weird smell fills the hall different from the previous smell.

A herbal yet medical smell fills the room giving everyone an uplifted feeling yet again but much stronger than before, Jack can even feel parts of his body that have felt sore or tired suddenly become much better while Xueli is slowly crawling outside of Jack robe bringing him out of these feelings forced to deal with the naughty snake that seems to be in a sort of trance.

The silver glow lasts several moments blocking the entire stage from view but no one cares as they're absorbing the aroma permeating the hall when it just suddenly disappears completely, the silver glow the illusory mortar and pestle and the mist surrounding the stage revealing countless dead plants laying lifelessly on the ground.

The bunny girl's chest heaves up and down while sweat almost drips from her face but she has a smile as she's holding out a small tray filled with various small bottles and pills including a large pill in the middle that even from a distance Jack can tell is much higher quality than all the others with visible veins going through the interior, she's standing in the middle of the stage and looking out at the crowd.

"That was the 'Ceremony of 1000 Years', an ancient ceremony used through the ages by my family to produce countless medicines from small golden seeds that you had seen previously, thank you for attending the event and on behalf of the Niellath family and myself, I hope you enjoy my ceremony"

She looks over each group of people with a calm smile before stopping on Jack for a moment and blushing, he frowns at this reaction before glancing around the room looking for an exit. The attendants come forward and collect up the dead lifeless plants still on the trays before everyone but one of the younger men stands up clapping.

"Wonderful performance Princess, truly wonderful I cannot believe that I got to see such marvelous sights, and it's truly worth my time to come here just to see that performance alone" he says while most of the crowd frowns at him but the bunny girl keeps her smile adorned on her face.

"I am sure that we are all thankful to have seen that performance but I have one problem that I wish to address" the young man with patches on his jacket bows toward the Princess before turning and pointing toward Jack causing several audible groans.

"I do not wish to cause anymore problem with that... person but he was not here for the entire event, we believe that he should not receive as many rewards as he did not take part in the earlier competitions of finding Easter eggs and I believe that no-one can argue with dividing his partial rewards between the rest of us allowing him to keep the reward from the final event which he ruined for us"

The bunny girl looks like she's about to respond but she is interrupted by a small person appearing before her, she bows before him and shows the tray to this child that suddenly appears, the large pill on the tray suddenly disappears when the child turns around giving everyone in the ceremonial hall a clearer view of him, a black-haired boy that looks to be around 9 years old of no particular race but his eyes are strange and piercing.

"Umm little boy, I was talking to someone when you rudely interrupted..."

"Shut up, we have been watching your performance so far. It has been... let's say boring. You ants would rather bicker amongst yourselves than put in any effort to get ahead. We will give you one chance to entertain us, if you succeed you can make a single request of us"

A sword strangely floats before the man with patches over his clothing but he doesn't move, "What do I need to do?"

"You say that none of the people here can put up a fight against you then we will allow you to challenge one person here"

"Ok I challenge him" he points directly at Jack while grabbing the sword, Jack sighs while Xueli slithers back to the tattoo and re-enters it.

"Bo... Sir, can I help Peter?" the British young man steps forward awkwardly, lowering his head toward the stage.

"Ooh, surprise me then!"

Two more swords appear, one before Jack and another before the British young man.

Jack looks at the sword without moving, "Will I be able to make a request if I beat them?"

The black-haired boy just laughs at Jack causing him to furrow his brows and glare at the newcomer, but the two annoying young men are already rushing toward Jack who has grabbed the sword hovering before him.

The two annoying men aren't trained and have little skill with swords as they clumsily make their way toward Jack, almost tripping over the cushions on the floor but they still arrive within a split moment and launch two awkward sword strikes, one slash and one jab at Jack.

Jack doesn't feel any pressure from these strikes that are coming toward him, he simply takes a step backward while using his sword to parry the one slashing down at him, he reaches into his robe and feels the black dagger tucked in but the ring makes a weird tinking noise as it makes contact causing the men to launch into another round of strikes.

The British man redirects his jab into a slash trying to catch Jack unprepared but he's met by Jack's sword and a swift kick to the gut as he topples over onto the ground.

The American man has retreated a few steps trying to get into Jack's blind spot before launching another slash which is met by another parry by Jack turning around.

The parry is short lived though as behind him he can see the British man has almost crawled along the ground to behind Jack holding his sword out in a stabbing motion.

Smiling to himself, Jack can see this easily with his divine sense so he stops blocking the parry and uses 'Bunny Dash' to move out of the way as the two men make connect with each other and fall over on top of each other.

"Ow you fucking stabbed me!" the British man yells out suddenly.

"Get off of me!" the American man yells from beneath the British man.

Jack reappears near them but holds his sword under the British man's throat forcing him to look up at him but he doesn't make any other move looking at the young boy.

"How boring, do what you will with them, this seat is bored and will take our leave" the young boy disappears from the spot but Jack feels like he hasn't gone far away and is still closely watching.

Jack moves the sword away and turns around but the British guy doesn't let up as he pulls out a dagger from somewhere and makes a really quick movement toward Jack, much quicker than the sword strikes not giving Jack much time to react.

Jack reaches into his robe and pulls out 'Fang of the Night-Demon', not missing the target as he stabs into the British Man's shoulder.

The dagger feels different as he pulls it out of the man's shoulder as he screams in pain rolling on the floor, Jack looks at the dagger but it seems clean and without a speck of dirt or blood.

An attendant walks forward and delivers him a bottle and a small ring, "Thank you for attending the event, the overseer has decided you have failed and must be kicked out, goodbye"

The British man isn't given any time to respond as he disappears in a shimmer of rainbow light.

"You better watch out, Epsilon isn't someone you can make an enemy out of" the American man threatens Jack before he too disappears in a shimmer of rainbow light with the pill bottle and storage ring.

The crowd is silent after watching these events, Jack looks over the other participants and the person with the bandages is glaring at Jack with a battle intent while the older Asian man is smirking at him.

*Clap Clap*

Sound comes from the stage as the bunny girl is standing there with her usual modest smile, "Now let's continue on with the reward ceremony"