NOVPUB
Chapter 9 - 8: The Trial Begins!
Standing at the top of a hill above the trial grounds, the elders, commanders, and the Chief's band watched as the 1,000 kids organized themselves, took their places, and formed groups.
While the audience in the stands around the massive area turned into a stadium over generations of work, they watched the same, curiously waiting to see what these kids had to offer, the captains, especially, already looking for a target to sponsor until they officially finished their training 4 years from now.
There it was, a forest zone isolated for this, with acidic trees and blood all over and around, carrying the ominous feeling it always had. Even though I had contained it, the Blood Forest was still the Blood Forest.
Yet the first part of the trial was coming, and while things could change from past years, the basic gist of it stayed the same.
Rising from his seat, there was a young elder with flames coming out of his mouth. He stood before everyone, and some people started covering their ears immediately, the moment they saw him.
"Huh?... Why are people covering their ears... Elara, you too?... Boss?" Toro looked around in confusion, only to find the golden-eyed boy wasn't doing it.
However, before an answer ever came, something much more urgent came.
Pain.
"WELCOME! TODAY THE 457th TRAINEE PASSAGE TRIAL!" The elder's voice was so potent it could be heard throughout the entire village, and even the whole trial arena, and as his words left his mouth, an explosion occurred, as flames burst from his mouth, before making way for the smoke.
The sound was so powerful that most of the kids, even those covering their ears, could not help but fall to the ground and whimper in pain; none of them had their ears ruptured. But they felt acute pain in their heads.
"Aaaaahhhhh!!!!" Rolling on the ground, Toro let out tears together with multiple others.
Even though Elara covered her ears and protected herself by changing the flow of the wind around her, it changed very little. Even though she didn't fall to the ground, the pain was still so great that it did hit her.
Meanwhile, next to them, smiling was Kriantis, who was almost laughing as words escaped his mouth. "This is perfect for training my pain and sound tolerance, I might even get a resistance if I'm exposed to enough! Beautiful!"
While most others were busy experiencing pain, there he was... being himself.
At the same time, Borin covered his ears with a pissed expression on his face somewhere among the crowd.
Liatine was crouching with an imminent headache, holding her head.
Morio was hitting his ears as if he had been attacked by annoying insects, and Eima just stood there unfazed, with a serious expression, and pure determination in her eyes.
"I AM ELDER JINO! HUNTER CAPTAIN! HERE TO ANNOUNCE THE BEGINNING AND THE RULES!" Just like before, his voice was a rumbling menace echoing through and easily reaching everyone, only for his mouth to let out another explosion.
"Aaahhhh..."
"This is unfair!..."
"So much pain."
"My head!"
Multiple of them were doing their best to stand, but they were unable to get back up.
"THE FIRST PHASE IS A TEST OF SURVIVAL, TO DEFEAT MONSTERS OR MAGICAL BEASTS. TO COLLECT MATERIALS, AND TO HEAL OR PRODUCE MEDICINE. ALL OF THESE ARE VALID WAYS TO WIN POINTS!
"OF COURSE, THE HIGHER THE RANK, THE MORE POINTS GAINED. 1 POINT FOR THE ER: I OR BASIC LEVEL, 5 POINTS FOR ER: H OR INTERMEDIATE, AND SO ON.
"FINALLY! YOU CAN TAKE THE POINTS OF ANOTHER BY DEFEATING THEM, AND KILLING IS PERMITTED. MAY THE BEST COME ON TOP. YOU HAVE 10 DAYS!" The words came out raging through the air, assaulting the ears of all those close enough to dare hear them.
Just like that, most of the kids fell unconscious, leaving only 376 of 1000 standing.
"I see things will get messy." Kriantis grabbed Toro with one arm and Elara with the other, before making some distance, and faster than the normal human eye can see, he moved into the forest around them.
Immediately, it began, the massacre began.
Left and right, the ones who felt the voice of the Elder, Captain Jino, were taken out by those closest to them. Some were pulling away, but most could not be saved, and those who tried to face the same fate.
Heads rolled over as more blood stained the grass than usual, how pitiful it was, that despite that, one could not tell the difference between the before and the after.
In the end, it was always the same bloody damn place. After all, one drop could not change the ocean alone.
Borin, who had a club on him, stayed seated right where he was before the announcement, and it changed nothing for him.
The moment the commotion started, a few who did not know better came to attack him. Three groups flanked him; at least one of them would have to hit.
That was the thought, however, in this world, numbers alone did not make up for power. In Primoria, where one singular individual could grow to wield the power of entire armies, mere numbers could not change the outcome.
Without giving them time to even get close, three kids were turned into blood paste, smashed with ease, leaving only their spattered corpses and some blood to cling to the club.
"Level 9 scrubs!! If you trash, think you can come up to me, you'd better be level 20! Otherwise, cry about it and die!!" Borin smirked as he projected his voice, and Mana focused on his throat to make sure they could all hear him.
Amidst this, Eima looked at him through the crowd of kids falling left and right, before her katana quickly cut in half 5 of those people trying to catch her off guard, not even bothering to look in their direction.
For a few seconds, they looked eyes, and there it was, a small spark, one that could ignite at the smallest sparkles, and yet, she turned to the forest and ran in, moving faster than the normal human eyes can see.
"Hmph! Of course, she thinks he's a bigger fish, that bastard keeps being the star of the show, so annoying. At least it means she can't beat me so easily that she'd try to take me out just in case." His arms crossed as the club rested on his shoulder, the black-eyed boy could only sigh before getting and walking to the forest as well.
Nobody tried to attack him anymore after his bold declaration.
"Hehehe! This is more fun than I thought it would be. Once I'm done here, I'll go in for real." Morio, with needles in his hands, made out of copper, was covered in blood as the bodies piled up next to him.
"Urgh... You're so creepy. Let's go into the trial forest, I want to make that zero-chest cow eat her words!" Liatine, using her rope-like whip, occasionally took out those who used to be her classmates as if it were just another day.
Very soon, the number of participants in the trial dropped to only 309, remaining alive.
"No more bodies here, it looks like everyone else already went into the forest. So impatient, ok. At this point, we should follow suit." Morio shrugged and finally started walking towards the forest, leaving behind a battlefield of corpses.
"What, even was the point? These guys were so weak they barely gave us anything, 1 point each. That means you have 345, and I have 97. How are they even keeping track of this?" Liatine questioned as she walked behind him.
"Caption Jino, that guy has to be an elder, so young because of his skills. ER: H+, level 39, and already a sonic dasher, something most only achieve at ER: G, at least level 40. Yet he's only in his late 20s. Red hair, purple eyes... Not bad.
"He's the one keeping track of things. I heard his particularity is sensory, and that's why his voice is so powerful, but I don't know the specifics," Morio responded with a thoughtful expression.
Meanwhile, deeper into the forest, a trio was tracking through, a girl, and 2 boys, all together through a unified goal.
"We need to show those 7 that they aren't really special!" The girl yelled with her arms crossed as she paced in front of the other two.
Behind her, was a short and thin boy, as well as a tall and big one.
"Nelka... I don't know if that's worth it. Me, you, and Marrow could do good if we don't mess with those monsters..." The tall and big boy responded with a conflicted expression.
"Yeah! Narrow is right! We have what it takes to make it through the 10 days with a good point score. No need to go crazy..." Marrow added, looking down, making his small stature seem even smaller.
"Are you two stupid?! Do you have no pride? How can you call yourselves men?... Because of these damn 7 monsters, we become nothing! Nothing! Everyone only cares about that golden-eyed freak, and anyone who looks past him stops at the other freaks right behind him... We're a part of the top 10, too! We're supposed to be such, yet nobody even looks at our way!" Nelka yelled at them with a serious expression.
"..." Marrow said nothing in response.
"That's not... We'd still... L-" Narrow's face became conflicted with a wrinkled crossing.
"LOSE? Don't even start, that attitude is exactly why we get nowhere! Now get going and make do." Nelka yelled at them.
From there, they might move together like a unit, advancing towards the deeper areas of the forest arena.
At the same time, up ahead, another group of three, one led by the golden-eyed boy, found themselves deep into the forest.
Standing there, amid the trees, they observed what was going on around them, and they had found targets up ahead.
"There's goblins there, rank initial monster(ER: I), they would give us a point each, there's a whole village of them, only around 25, but they decently will have some good materials, and that will pump up the numbers. Since we didn't partake in killing right up, we're highly behind. It's my fault." Kriantis yawned as he talked about the goblin settlement right ahead.
"... Even though you don't seem sorry or beat up about it, really, I still have to say that I wouldn't have done it either way. I don't want to kill others just because of a competition, much less when we have 10 days." Elara shook her head as she responded.
"It's ok, Boss. I knight slay monsters and bad people, not whoever. We don't need to do that." Toro nodded as he spoke.
"That settles it, then, Elara, scout it out, and Toro, get ready to face them head-on with me. I'll be ready to keep you two going and make the medicine out of the ingredients she and I find." The golden-eyed boy gave her the go-signal.
This resulted in her nodding, and Elara started moving after her mama flared up, she was at the second stage: Mana bonding, so it was not hard for her to even use magic at the intermediate level.
Having a wind coat around her, she moved in, every step silent as could be, before she jumped in, bypassing the wooden walls of the settlement, and immediately standing against the walls of the first house structure in sight, the wood and mud walls working as cover for her.
The bloody grass, as always present, and that sour smell that was so natural they didn't even notice it was just there, intense, something she would only see when using her wind magic.
She moved through the place, observing everything unseen, and the activity was not right at this time, it was 28 hours, 4 hours past Highray, and into Midray. And 20 hours before lowray.
It was Neutral day, the second of the week after Elemental day, the last day of the rest days, and the first weekday out of workdays.
In the small village, she found that things were very simple.
There she found a few goblins moving around and doing some basic tasks like carrying items or materials from one place to another and bringing water, and then they would pass by a big shed, every single time, and come out minutes later, but they never took anything in there.
The goblins all had a distinctive look, small, green, hairless, and fully red eyes, not just a red iris but all of the eyes, nothing but red. A characteristic of all wild monsters, and wild magical beasts.
"28 breathing sources, but as Kriantis deduced, only 25 goblins. All of them are male from the looks of it... So, these must be MU goblins... The fully red eyes, the lack of hair, and that shed... Disgusting... We need to exterminate them all." Elara frowned deeply, then sighed and, shaking her head, turned around and left the same way she came, undetected.
Outside, where she found Toro swinging his sword while using his shield to block in quick succession, and Kriantis mediating, she came in with a rather somber expression.
The disgust on her face was not small by any means of the word.
"We must exterminate them all. Like you said, 25 goblins, but there are 28 different breaths on there. We have to do something, it's only been 4 hours since this started, but it's already this way..." Elara said hurriedly, not stopping to breathe once until she was done speaking.
"28, but only 25... How?" Toro raised an eyebrow, not getting all the fuss.
"I see. Ok, we'll take them down. I didn't expect someone to be in such a situation this quickly." Kriantis nodded his head.
"Oh! Someone's trying to attack before us! Got it." Toro concluded.
"Nope, it's a rescue, be ready, it won't be pretty." The golden-eyed boy put his hand on his shoulder.'
"... Got it" Toro nodded putting on a serious expression.
After that, they moved, guided by Elara they entered the perimeter of the village by jumping over the 3 meters of wooden wall.
Then the moment they stepped foot on the ground of this village, Kriantis moved, and before the other two even got a full grip on what to do next, he already had one dead goblin in his right hand, choked out, and another on the ground in front of him, looking at the golden-eyed boy in shock.
That however did not last, as he used his scythe to decapitate it, and moved on to the next targets. He didn't believe bother hiding or trying to be silent, it was merciless and quick.
"We... we have to help the Boss!" Toro was the first to snap out of it and joined slamming the closest goblin into a wall, then finishing with his sword.
"... Yeah... He's sex- I mean, scary when he wants to be." Elara shook her head and immediately started shooting arrows at whatever was further away from the other two.
The goblins didn't stand much of a chance if any at all, the moment they came out due to a call for help, they would be caught by Kriantis before they could react, pushed in by Toro with little to fight back, or taken down by one of Elara's arrows.
Nothing went out of the expected, in quick progression, they took down the whole place, and the green corpses piled up.
Fighting was not something that the goblins could do, they were exterminated by something far above them.
In no time, 20 of 25 were down, and there was only one place left for them to check.
The ched, this big spot at the end of the village, next to the walls, and they walked up to it.
"Kriantis... I can it... even the disgusting scent... Just be careful because of them." Elara once again became serious as she grabbed his shoulder.
"I know. Elara, be ready to shoot. Toro, you're going in with me and the only targets are the wild monsters, no hesitation." Kriantis said with an expression of pure focus.
This brought memories to the surface, of the first time they had encountered MU goblins.
Back then only 3 years ago, they found a camp of only 12 goblins.
It should have been simple, they are the lowest rank of monster, or magic beast, creatures that rely on numbers and trickery, yet that day it was not.
Once they had entered the goblin camp they all retreated into their cave, using the tight and small tunnels in tandem with their small figure, and getting away through the cracks.
"Urrghh! I can't hit them... my sword is too long... and they are quick..." Toro complained as he almost threw his weapon away, only to be splattered with blood, as Kriantis used his bare hands to press the goblin on the wall, stole its dagger, and then used said dagger to cut the throat of the goblin that was going to use that chance to sneak him.
"Pay attention. I told you it brings smaller weapons, here, have it." He gave the same dagger he had just used.
".... They look so.... Ewww.... Can't we leave? I don't think I can do this." Elara contained her urge to vomit.
"Me neither, Bos-.... Blerfgh!" Toro covered in red viscous goblin blood, could not handle it and vomited.
"I'll handle it, but in the end, you two will have to finish it. I still remember the 'Boss, we can do it, it's just goblins' and the 'I believe that's not beyond what we can do, it's not like they have any special abilities like the Wind Boar, they are just monsters, not magic beasts.'... I guess monsters aren't that easy. Let's go." Kriantis said copying them down to doing poor impressions of their voices.
This caused them both to look at the ground refusing to make eye contact, so they all just proceeded and went deeper into the cave.
The killing of the goblins and disarming of them was left to Kriantis who killed the next goblin with his bare hands, smashing its head on the wall into a paste, and then he got its dagger and moved on.
Throughout the excursion, there were a few stops where he would have to deal with a trap or the goblins, and he took every weapon he got of every one of them, so 4 more daggers.
Once they got to the end of the cave, they found the last 6 goblins, and it was not a pretty scene.
"This... I... Beeu-" Toro stopped himself from vomiting a second time, his expression contorted into a deep frown.
"Burn it! Burn them all!" Elara could not stop herself from yelling with a mix of disgust and fury in her face.
"Focus, I can't throw more than 4 daggers all at once. You two need to focus and aim for the farthest two out, you take the one on the left, Toro, and you the one on the right, Elara." Kriantis tells them, gripping their shoulders to pull them into the present.
"Yes! Boss!" A trembling Toro just nods.
"Of course!" Elara looks fully focused.
Each one of the goblins standing at the end of its cave was prepared, each was holding a person hostage, and they were all females reduced to rags and looking dead, their bodies heavily weakened and their eyes far gone, there was nothing to be found there.
Just husks of what used to be women, however, it was not the end, not like this, at least none of the three kids witnessing this atrocity would allow it, not now.
Moving in, all three of them got into place ready to shoot.
(I have to do it! I can't allow such a vile disgusting act to ever go unpunished! Not now! Not ever! I will free you!... I.... I... I will do it... I... If I miss, it's over... No! I WON'T... But what if...) Elara's thoughts slowly but surely fed into the chaos in her mind, and before she knew it, her vision was blurring out.
(You can do it! You can save them! A knight has to do this! A knight has to! I'm Boss' knight!... I... can't... He should be handling something this important... Why?! Why can't I focus? Please! Please! Let me do it!!!) No matter how much he yelled in his mind, nothing worked, he could not move, not at all. He froze.
(This is not great... I didn't expect them to be this cunning and deplorable, using their victims as hostages... Happily, they don't seem to be smart enough to understand that their bodies are small enough to be used as meat shields as well...
(I truly have a disturbing mind... Whatever, focus, these shoots need to be precise!... Wait, these two... they aren't moving... Damn it! I'll do it!) Kriantis threw the four daggers at the heads of the four innermost goblins, and he didn't stop there, immediately getting the other dagger with him, and pulling the one he gave Toro from him, before throwing them out to their targets.
Mana flaring and wind around him, he could only pray they land the moment they left his hands.
4 down!
5... Down!
6...
The 6th goblin was missed and he shanked his hostage, cutting her throat, and quickly jumped off to try and grab one of the new free other hostages.
However, he was slammed into the caveʼs wall as Kriantis breathed heavily mana flaring and wind around him.
"No... You... Don't!" He then smashed its head in multiple times more after it was dead.
(I missed!!! I dared to miss! To fail in any way! At such a crucial moment! And I want to act like I know better! I'm trash! As I thought! I'm not greedy enough! I'm not hungry enough! I never trained enough! I'm completely useless crap... I need to double... my training... I wish I could triple it, be able that's impossible... Damn! It!!! I deserve to die! Die! DIE!!! How could I let her DIE?! I AM WORTHLE-) Kriantis let go of the goblin to bang his head on the cave's wall.
"*...K... Kill... Me...*" Until he felt a hand pull on his leg, and his mind was pulled back to the present moment.
Letting out a sigh, Kriantis then turned to the surviving victims, one of them calling to him, crawling her body to do so, too weak to move much more than that.
"... I don't know what you are saying, but it's probably a cry for help or... Let me try to help you all, what do you do after is up to you... Well, you'll understand my actions better than my words. Luckily as the master of roles, nurturing is not beyond me." He focuses on them, pulling herbs and medicines from his bag, as well as rations and water.
While he was busy treating them, Elara, and Toro were still processing what just happened.
(I did this... If I didn't fail! That lady... She would still be... and Kriantis... His frustration... I knew it.., He cares... and I let him down... I failed... I was not enough... I have to become enough! For us... For them... for me...) Elara strengthened her drip so hard that her hands began bleeding before she got up and walked to Kriantis to help him.
(I'm not a knight... I'm a fraud... Why would Boss choose me?! Why?!... I should have stayed at the bottom of the rankings where I belong... I let a woman die... After whatever horrible things happened to her here. I LET HER DIE!... I have to quit! I have to stop now before I let anyone else die... I don't belong here...) Toro had tears roll down his face, as he looked at the other two with a made mind.
"Get over here! You don't see, Elara helping? How much longer are you going to waste? Cry all you want, but do it while you help, we need you, so you better get over it, and be a better knight from here on. It's not over until I dismiss you. There are more important things than us, so we can't stop just because we feel weak." Kriantis called to him.
"Boss... I... You're the best! I swear I'm going to do better next time!" Toro immediately ran up to them and began doing what he could to help.
After that, they managed to safely take the 5 survivors back. 1 was from their village but the other 4 were from other places.
Back in the present, there they were, in front of the shed, listening to Kriantis.
"Toro, you take the left, Elara, you take the right, and whatever happens we push forward until it's done! No time for anything else right now, understood?!" He asked.
"A knight never backs down on a taken quest!" Toro took his battle stance, his mana flaring the earth steady and ready under him.
"Nothing will make me stop. I'm ready." Elara also took her stance the wind around her picking up as her mana flared.
At that time, Kriantis opened the door with a kick, and similar to the last time, the MU goblins inside had victims who were in the middle of being used, but the disgusting act did not last.
Immediately they took action, Kriantis used daggers he had once again collected from the bodies to hit 3 of the goblins, leaving the two others to his companions and focusing, reducing the risk of missing.
Toro dashed in his mana flaring and the earth beneath him rising to push him forward, and took this chance to swing at his target. 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
While on the other side, wind danced around her, as her mana flared and her focus pushed to its limit for one single shot, not because it was hard, but because it was important.
All the 5 goblins lost vision of the world and what was going on, far before they could even react, much less understand what had happened.
Their blood splattered around, even on the victims, as they fell lifeless.
Quickly Kriantis moved to get the bodies of the victims now that the goblins were dead.
"Let me apply medicine before you try to do anything." He commented to them.
"Yes! I did!-... Let me help..." Toro was celebrating a job well done, but that quickly died as his eyes turned to the victims, and he moved to help.
Following right behind was a still-serious Elara, who soon moved to help even faster than he did.
After that matter was resolved, they sat down around a table in one of the houses, the victims were now medicated, and slowly recovering from the initial shock of it all among other things.
"You girls, really don't need anything else?" Elara was the one to ask breaking the current silence.
"No... Thanks, you guys did more than enough. Others might've just killed us with the goblins for extra points..." One of the victims replied shaking her head.
"We would never do that! Completely against the honor of a knight!" Toro responded with vigor.
"Calm down, they don't need your yelling right now, be more considerate. I recommend you girls pray to Vireya, she is a benevolent Goddess who actually listens. I am sure her light was what guided us to you." Despite his initial words, he immediately began spouting his divine propaganda.
"You two!..." Elara was not one bit happy about their behavior.
"Hehehehe! Don't be mad at them, it's good. I'm happy a Goddess cared enough to send such kind people our way.... Actually, we wanted to reward you all... Soon after the phase 1 of the trial started we hid P-cores for emergencies, so please let us take you there..." The same girl spoke shaking her head, before she continued.
This caused the group to look at each other before Kriantis said.
"You can take us there."
Elara frowned before sighing and just staying silent, while Toro just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
(If they want to feel like they can at least do this much, I can't cut it down, it would just demoralize them further... Plus, I would be stupid to reject free resources... Also, I need to make sure I'm not seeing things.) The golden-eyed boy thought to himself.
Once that was settled, they got on moving with the three girls, and a few hours and some monster and magical beast encounters later, they reached the place.
Toro was made to dig out the spot they pointed out. While Elara kept side eyeing him with a conflicted expression.
(... It's still there... Not goo-!) Kriantis sighed internally, and reached forward.
"This is it!" The girl who had just got the bag containing the P-cores from Toro extended it towards the golden-eyed boy in front of her.
Before Kriantis could receive it, however, the bag was snatched from the girl's hand very quickly.
"Hehehehe! Narrow to the get!" A fat boy stood a considerable distance from them with the Bag in hand. "Thanks for the free stuff! Never underestimate number 9 again!"
He yelled before disappearing into a blur.
"Catch him! Elara! You're with me! Toro you protect the girls!" Kriantis yelled and immediately began chasing.
"Huh?! What... Ok! I'm on!" Elara was confused as it happened very quickly, but went right after him.
"Boss?!?!... Ehhhh?!" Toro was left on the dust with the girls.
The trial was still in its first day and yet the parties involved were moving fast, as from 1000, only 296 remained alive 8 hours in out of 10 days, one whole week.
Would it get to the end? Only time will tell.
