When they had arrived at the mountain side, Most of everyone was gone except for a few stragglers here and there. Of course, Laedireil was waiting patiently while Aelinor and Nathan were waiting anxiously.
"There you are, where were you all?!" Nathan shouted
"Well don't just stand there! We got 10 minutes until we gotta get into our cell!" Aelinor followed up with
Realizing now, that the time had indeed been past 9 and was almost 10. They needed to hurry or else they would be in some serious trouble. The 8 of them started to run to their cells only to make it in the nick of time. The guards had been starting to lock up the cells by the time they had arrived at their cells. All 8 entered their cells without anyone suspecting a thing.
Once the guards had past, Eurien asked 22,
"What was that blue light... and why did you jump in front of me?"
The 4 beady pairs of red eyes facing 22.
"As long as we keep it a secret. We can tell Aelinor, Nathan and Laedireil tomorrow agreed?"
The others looked at each other and nodded their heads.
"Ok, let's start with what happened after the explosion..." After a brief amount of explaining, 22 started to shyly slump in embarrassment.
"..."
"So, basically, you have these trials. And if you do these trials, you get a certain power... Am I right?" Baraor said breaking the silence
22 nodded his head before Moryen asked,"Why are you doing these trials if they are dangerous?"
22 thought about it for a moment before replying, "It's not that I want to do these trials. Bad things just happen around me which forces me to finish the trial."
"You mean like the Margok incident." confirmed Siltral.
22 shook his head.
"Ok, and what do you see now?" asked Eurien
22 looked down at his menu to read aloud,"Trial 3, Trial of persistence"
The others just waited for a moment before 22 continued, "Reward, usage of skills."
"WOAH NO WAY!" blurted out baraor following up with an attack of shushes
"Sorry but skills are very rare!" baraor now whispering explained
"I agree. Very few people have SKILLS. As SKILLS are not classified as magic nor do they need to rely on the amount of magic to strengthen the skill. As long as you have the minimum amount of magic required, you can repeat the skill more than once without it giving into account someone's injuries or exhaustion." Replied Siltral
"Wow, how do you guys know so much?" replied 22
"Because Eurien here is a tier 2, 4 star. A prodigy amongst even ourselves." Moryen responded
Siltral looked up as if to gloat.
"Well, usually by 18 we should be able to reach the third star however, most of us have already almost reached the third star or the second. Of course, Big sis however, got to the 7th white star and is waiting for the compaction process. Then, she will be a silver star! As for me, I have 4 stars Tier 1" Replied Eurien
"What is the compaction process?" 22 Asked
"That is when your stars come together to create a brand new star. This star will boost your strength, speed and magic even further." Replied Siltral
"Ahem" Baraor getting the room back towards 22 said, "Never reveal this to anyone but us and the other 3 alright?"
22 nodded his head before heading off to bed.
The next morning during breakfast, Eurien sat with Laedireil, Aelinor and Nathan to start relaying everything that had happened. Laedireil was the first one to come out of shock before replying, "I see, this boy is very lucky and unlucky at the same time."
"What are you thinking?" asked Aelinor
"You're thinking of turning 22 into a warrior am I right?" Nathan very disapprovingly said.
"Well, if bad things keep happening to him then he needs to know how to defend himself." Eurien responded
"No way! I won't allow 22 to experience the fierceness of the battlefield!" Nathan stated further.
"Lets see what 22 says first." Laedireil further replied.
"Yeah! If 22 agrees to our proposal then it's settled!" Aelinor annoyingly said
With a sigh, Nathan added, "Alright, but on one condition."
"What is it?" Eurien asked.
"Me and Laedireil train him and you 5!" Nathan declared
"Can you even fight?!" Aelinor so rudely questioned
With a smirk, Nathan said, "With the spear. I used to be the captain. 1 gold star, tier 3"
The others looked towards Nathan in shock.
"How were you even captured to begin with, old man?!" replied Aelinor
"Hey! I'm not old! I'm 25! and besides, It's a long story that I would rather not tell." Nathan replied.
"Alright, then let's ask him during free time in district 17!" Eurien said still in awe
"I doubt he will even say yes." Nathan mumbled
[Fast forward to 12 a.m.]
22 is looking at Nathan with awe and hands together as if to plead while the others behind Nathan are high fiving.
"Please teach me!" 22 repeats with puppy eyes
"Fine, HOWEVER! Your training is going to be very strict and harsh so don't complain!" Nathan reminded 22
"YES SIR!!" 22 said with a smile. The others chuckling behind Nathan
Nathan simply sighs with his hand still on his forehead before commanding, "Alright, your first task is to hunt the biggest animal you can find and bring proof that you killed it back to me by the end of free-time."
"YES SIR!" 22 childly said while running to the forest.
"Yeesh, I can't believe I agreed to this." Nathan said now rubbing his forehead.
"Well, better believe that you did!" Eurien replied while smiling
The five start to laugh before Aelinor loomed over the 4 kids before stating, " Why are you laughing? This means you're stuck with me!"
"Uhhh... I thought this was only for 22?" Moryen replied scaredly
"It was." Aelnor said
The four let out their breaths as if they had dodged an arrow
Although, it is rude to have only 22 trains, am I correct? Besides, I thought you wanted to be a 7 star like me." Aelinor said with a sinister smile on her face
"..." The four realized now their mistake
"Better get running or else you will be spending the next hour doing push-ups!" Aelinor commanded
The four started to run out into the forest before Aeling shouted out, "Whoever can find me the best berry won't have to do push-ups!"
Nathan and Laedireil chuckled softly before the three of them sat down on the hill.
"Why did you ask 22 to hunt an animal?" Laedireil questioned
"Yeah, isn't that a bit too harsh?" Aelinor asked
"No, I want to see how determined 22 truly is. If he can even bring me any animal then I'll be impressed." Nathan claimed
"Oh, this has to do with that kids trial right?" Laedireil returned
"Yep, the trial of perseverance. I hope that this task will help him unlock it early before something much worse happens." Nathan inquired
"But it's very risky. What happens if he dies out there?" Aelinor intoned
"That's something he is going to have to figure out on his own... After all, we should know how unforgiving the battlefield is." Nathan crowed
Aelinor and Laedireil nodded their heads. Meanwhile...
"Gonna grab myself a nice big juicy animal!" 22 resounded
22 was walking towards the moon pond first because of the amount of animals there. He would also be able to check out his new "MAIL" that he got. He was so focused on trying to find a way to explain, that he didn't realize that the "Level up" system also unlocked other features. Not only the mail was unlocked but also the inventory and crafting/ learning system. After 20 minutes of walking, he came to the pond to see a deer. He knew he couldn't hunt it since he had no weapon so he decided to ignore the deer for now.
"I would just be wasting time." Thought 22 as he sat down against a tree
He decided to take a look at the system instead. He checked the "Mail" to see what he got.
UNREAD
Greetings @#$@!%! for completing trials 1 and 2, you have been gifted 6 free unlocks in the learning system and 2 random rare boxes!
Do you wish to claim these?
"Claim!" 22 said while pressing the claim button. A green aura surrounded him before 2 gift boxes suddenly appeared in his lap. They were quite small so 22 didn't think much of them.
"Hmmmm, should I open it now or later..." 22 pondered for a moment before deciding to open it up. When he opened up the first one, he was surprised to see a huge amount of meat came out on his right.
"Rare meat used to tame beasts. Use it to tame or level up rare beasts."
"Huh, that wasn't very helpful."
He decided to open up the second one to find something even more exotic.
"A Bracelet?"
When he checked its details it responded with,
[Soul bracelet.
Description,
A Bracelet used to copy a beast's spirit and use it as one's guard.]
"Well... I guess I could set a trap for the deer... But what do I do about this lump of meat?" 22 thought to himself
Chomp!
The Margok that was in the lake came out and devoured the meat with a content look on his face.
"... Well, that's one use for it I suppose."
Margok slithered back into the lake as it watched 22 use a stick to dig the dirt near the deer. As 22 shoveled the dirt away bit by bit with the stick, he noticed a message after 3 feet into the ground.
"Successfully dug a 3 feet by 2 feet hole. Gained 20 exp towards Excavator."
22 stopped, got out of the hole and opened up his inventory to see weird images on the side of his avatar that showed him. It was like looking into a mirror except that the avatar in his inventory didn't have dirt all on him. He clicked an arrow pointing upwards next to his avatar to see a huge table of labels.
"Fighting, Scout, Magician, Survivalist, Builder"
Under each category were a set of greyed out things except for the first item in Excavator under the Builder category. 22 clicked onto the description of Excavator
"Excavator. Can be leveled up seperate from the Builder tab. Level 2 1 point to use."
"Well, I might as well use the point as the only thing I can... Digging speed." 22 thought while thinking how silly it was to gain points just to use it to increase the speed of his digging.
"DIGGER, Level 1. Increase in digging speeds by 5 percent!"
After 22 had spent the point, he started digging with the stick to see how much fast it was. It surprised him to see more dirt being shoveled out despite putting the same amount of energy as before. It only took an hour to get a hole around 6 feet deep and 5 feet wide. by that time he had leveled up the "DIGGER" Section 2 more times before putting it into digging speed to increase the efficiency by 15%.
However, as 22 was getting out of the hole, a large shadow appeared over him. He stopped to see a huge paw in front of him.
"..." 22 slowly looked up to see a giant Red 12 foot wolf staring down at him.
"GROWL"
"Well..." 22 scratched his head before hauling ass towards the lake. The wolf started to chase 22 leaping and smashing 22 up into the air.
"SPLASH!"
22 landed in the shallow end of the lake.
"Thump! Thump! THUMP!!"
The huge wolf wolf running towards 22. 22, sat up first and braced himself, expecting the worst when...
"SPLASH!"
"SLAM!"
The Margok came out of its lake and slammed the wolf with its tail, allowing 22 the time to get up and run. 22 ran towards the tree line while the Margok slipped back into the lake. The wolf now getting back onto its feet noticed 22 running and out of animal instinct it charged towards 22. 22 ran over to the hole he had dug and jumped over it. As the wolf charged through the trees slamming into many trees didn't see the hole and stepped into the hole. It stumbled and tripped.
"Bang"
It slammed into a huge sequoia tree head first. With the force and speed at which the wolf was going, it smashed its skull into the tree and died upon impact.
"Huff, Huff..." 22 breathed out a sigh of relief before going to the lake.
"Thanks for the help." 22 said as if it could hear him while under the water.
"Now, all I gotta do is show it to--"
"Splash!"
"Chomp!"
"..."
The Margok came out of the lake and was dragging it into the lake.
"You spit that out RIGHT NOW!!" Panicked 22
But it was too late for the Margok had already dragged it into the lake.
"You successfully killed a silver ranked red wolf. Gained 100,000 points towards the Trap section."
"Trap is now level 20"
"You have gained 40 points towards Trap"
"Open up Trap section" 22 said. A Picture of a spring trap popped up in front of him.
"huh, I need to know where I am gonna put my points in..."
[Trap lvl 13
Trap efficiency: 20
Even an experienced hunter could be fooled
Trap setting: 20
You can set a trap up 200% faster.
Learned Pitfall trap
Pitfall trap lvl up
Your pitfall trap has advanced to a spike fall trap.]
"Awesome, but... I don't think I have enough time to get an animal now..."
"Splash"
"Thud"
The Margok laid down a huge skull in front of 22. It was the wolf's skull.
"SHINE"
22's Bracelet started to shine. At first 22 didn't understand why but then he remembered the description of the soul bracelet. The Bracelet started to shine even brighter and started to emit a red glow. Suddenly, that glow turned green and what happened next shocked 22. The Margok simply nodded and went back into the lake.
[20 minutes later]
"There you are! It's almost time to go to the next district! Sheesh kid if you keep doing this to me then I will have... to...." Nathan who was yelling now looked in front of him in pure shock. Everyone that was around 22 including other random slaves were all shocked. 22 had been carrying a now hollowed out skull that was at least 6 feet tall.
"You... Killed that?!" Aelinor said with an astonished look.
"No way he killed it, the skull is completely hollowed out!" Eurien jumped in
"Well... actually... I did kill it... but the Margok ate it so..." 22 said shyly
"..."
They all were in shock
"How did you kill it?" Laedireil asked
"Well... You're not gonna believe me unless you go and see where the battle took place..." 22 again sheepishly replied.
"uh, huh... Guess we will see once it is 8p.m if you're lying or not." Nathan exclaimed
Still not quite able to grasp the situation Nathan added,
"For now, hide the skull so no guard sees what you've brought."
"Ok!" 22 said with a huge gleeful smile on his face as he stored it into his inventory.
"... How-How did you-" Moryen was about to ask before 22 reminded them of his "inventory"
"Alright, let's go back before a guard sees us or worse." Said Laedireil
While they were on their way to District 2, 22 noticed a message pop up.
[bloodlust detected]
"?"
22 looked around to not see anyone staring at him. He shrugged it off and continued on.
[Meanwhile Helewise POV]
SMACK!
CLING!
CLANK!
The sound of swords hitting against metal and fists pounding into others skulls. For Helewise, it was boring. All the military figures that were in the columseam watching the fight between slaves. Judging them to see if they were a good fit for their squad.
"Bored aren't you?"
The voice behind her was coarse and rough like gravel. That voice was her partner and one of the blood clans finest in the 1st diamond star. He is well-known for his cruelty with the sword and was even assigned as a Paladin class at the age of 20. A paladin is an advanced class of swordsmen and is rare to achieve. One must be at least a silver star to achieve a basic rank but since he was a Gold rank at 20, he got his rank. Now he is 32 yet he looks at least 27
[After the 7th gold star is a steel star. Then after 7 steel stars is a diamond star]
"Do you have to sneak up on me, Guillment?" Replied Helewise
"You must always be weary of your surroundings. I am quite disappointed." Replied Guillment in a stern voice
"Meh, it was way more fun watching you embarrass yourself in front of those rich girls instead."
"... well I guess I can't hide from a prodigy like you. You sense nearly everything in a 100 mile radius" Guillment said.
Helewise, who was 26 and at the 3rd steel star. Despite this, she was born to have an extra sensitive magic sense that could compare with that of a diamond star.
"I heard you released a slave that exploded a mine." Guillment asked
"How did you??"
"As your partner it is my job to know everything that you do. Besides, what if the master found out?" Guillment whispered
"That old geezer? No way. I made sure" Helewise reassured
"Anyways, what was the reason?" again, Guillment asked
"He was numbered."
"Well, that has never stopped you from killing them anyway."
Helewise stood up from her chair and looked Guillment in the eyes before saying,
"He was number 22... Even with my rank I wouldn't have gotten off easy."
"Oh, I see. Isn't he the one who is gonna be testing experiment black liquid?" asked Guillment
"Yeah, but he's not ready yet. Not unless something else were to say otherwise." replied Helewise
She walked over to a door to exit the VIP room before Guillment asked where she was going.
"The restroom. What? You wanna hold my hand while I go?" Helewise jokes.
Guillment merely scoffed at this joke before waving her off and sitting in the chair that was next to hers. His Green eyes as he peered through the magic infused glass barrier watching the other slaves fight for dominance to gain military freedom.
"?"
Helewise was in front of the women's bathroom before she had stopped.
"Weird, I could have sworn that I felt a strong magical presence in District 17. And it's the same as yesterday...hmmm..." Helewise thought for a bit before deciding to walk to where the magic had been released. As far as she had known, the spell in the block was enough to restrict any magic of slaves other than combat slaves. As she walked towards the magic presence, she felt it move. Now she was certain that a powerful presence was here. At least at the Steel rank no gold rank now... She stood for a brief second in confusion as the presence dropped to a white star rank and was now faint. "Something is going on here.."
She walked for about an hour before stopping to see the person with the presence.
"22... If this is the case then..."
She stared at him before smiling. At that point 22 looked around before continuing to mine. Her smile, now viosious...
"He's ready..."