“I wonder how things are progressing?” Kiva, high god of feuding, thought to himself as he entered the great viewing hall.

The massive circular room was hundreds of metres in diameter. The peripheries of the room comprised of row upon row of elevated seating platforms, reminiscent of a colosseum. Impeccably intricate silver, gold, platinum and jewelled engravings, symbols and artworks encompassed every centimetre of the floors, walls, ceilings, and seats within the astonishingly extravagant space. In the centre of the massive room there was a one-hundred-metre-wide circular area that displayed views of swirling stars and shining galaxies, more vivid than the clearest night sky. Thousands of gods of all shapes and sizes were spread out around the spectacular room, all staring down at this central space. The integration of a set of new worlds and the commencement of the training grounds was one of the few events that brought all the Methyst universe gods together and it was truly a sight to behold. It also brought about the congregation of millions of demons, who acted as servants and staff for the gods, tending to the deities needs and ensuring the training grounds went off without a hitch. Most of these demons were currently buzzing about the room frantically, completing all manner of tasks and chores to appease their demanding gods.

Kiva had many orcish traits mixed in with unique and mysterious characteristics. He had the green skin, red eyes, and a toothy tusked mouth like that of the orcs. However, he did not possess a muscular chest or arms that orcs are normally renowned for. Instead, his upper body was thin, lean and defined. He had four legs that spread out evenly around him as opposed to the standard two. As he walked his torso spun around on top of his lower half, as if the two sections of his body functioned independently of one another. He had a pair of long thin blades, like fencing swords, strapped to his back in the shape of an x. His movements were speedy and effortless. Behind him an exhausted and flustered demon servant struggled to keep up with him as he scuttled down the many steps, towards the front section of the room closest to the mysterious central space.

Being a high god Kiva was permitted to sit up to a few rows from the front, behind the greater gods, supreme gods and the four ruling gods, but in front of all lesser divinity. Kiva had once been proud of his progress making it to the level of high god, but he had since grown irritated with his inability to advance further. Unfortunately, the gods ahead of him were just too powerful, their skills, stats and abilities made it seem impossible that they could be surpassed. It would take eons to reach their level, and by then it is likely they will have advanced further, potentially widening the gap in power even further. As he took his seat, he turned his attention to the god on his right.

“Walus, how goes the progress? Any interesting prospects?” Kiva asked.

Walus, the high god of the fortress turned to face Kiva. Walus was over ten metres tall when seated, and over three metres wide. His body was comprised entirely of some sort of dark grey stone that gave off an impenetrable aura. He had bulging rocky shoulders, two long arms, and enormous fists that would have been as wide as one of Kiva’s legs were long. The huge being must have been blocking the view of those seated as far back as three rows behind him. However, not a single lesser god dared complain for fear of angering the monstrous entity. Between his huge shoulders sat a square shaped head with round blue eyes and a small box shaped mouth. Walus’s eyes narrowed in on Kiva before the god finally spoke.

“Some,” Walus boomed in reply.

“Some? Some what? Some progress? Some interesting prospects?” Kiva snapped back.

“Both,” Walus announced.

“Well, would you care to elaborate you big oaf?” asked Kiva, with growing irritation.

A long pause followed these comments as Kiva sat impatiently, his four legs rapidly tapping the floor.

“No,” the fortress god finally answered after much thought.

By now Kiva had lost his temper completely. Not only was he stuck, unable to progress past the level of high god, but he had been forced to sit next to this near mute oaf for over a century now. After a brief internal tantrum, Kiva regained his composure as a smile spread across his face.

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“Well, I heard that an initiate has obtained a pair of your old vitality gloves, and within only a day of the training grounds commencing,” Kiva snickered.

Walus maintained his unwavering stare as he expressionlessly answered. “True.”

“Pretty embarrassing that a level two mortal was deemed worthy to access the gloves of a higher god isn’t it?” Kiva chuckled, searching the massive deity over for any signs of frustration or change in aura.

After another long pause Walus finally provided his answer, “No.”

Kiva’s irritation was building as he clenched his fists in frustration.

“Stupid stone idiot. He’s about as insightful as a pebble. I might as well be talking to the walls. Well, if he won’t give me any updates then I’ll just have to check for myself,” Kiva thought, disappointed he was unable to get under the skin of the fortress god.

The next moment he turned his attention to the circular empty space in front of him. To the demons this space was nothing but a window into space, but for the gods it was a customisable viewing screen of the training grounds. Kiva allowed a fraction of his magic to seep into the space before him. As he did so the stars and clouds responded, parting way and moving outwards, until they were but a thin shining border around the perimeter of the circular space. In the centre of the space Kiva was now able to see an observation screen of sorts. A map of the vast training grounds lay out before him, with thousands of large circles representing the many training ground locations, and millions of dots representing individual initiates were scattered about. White dots represented initiates that were currently inactive, green for those who were crafting or training, red for those battling beasts, blue for those who were clashing with other initiates, and black for those that were deceased. With his mental controls Kiva could customise the view in front of him to see one or multiple initiates and their current activities. He could also go backwards in time to watch the mortal who had been granted Walus’s gloves who was on training ground seventy.

“Hmm not bad I suppose,” thought Kiva as he located the correct training grounds and watched the human with the odd chain weapon defeating the ratbear beast. “Sloppy and unorthodox, but effective,” he muttered to himself.

He had to admit, a level two mortal with fairly useless magical abilities and almost no offensive stats defeating a tanky level four beast like the ratbear was no mean feat.

“It’s no wonder he received some of Walus’s gear, fifty percent of the human’s stat points were in vitality after all,” he thought. “However, it is still early days.” Kiva then turned his attention towards some of the other notable frontrunners of the training grounds.

Kiva had to admit that he was impressed with what he was seeing of the initiates this year. Skilled and tactically blessed budding warriors were emerging, as too were talented and inventive craftsmen. The fact that only a day or so had passed made this all the more impressive. There were of course, as many, if not more failures than there were success stories. Many initiates were clearly struggling to survive, every encounter a challenge they were barely able to overcome. It would only be a matter of time before they succumbed to the repeated trials. Death was a common occurrence, within the challenging forest. Many to beasts, some to other initiates, a few to dungeon challenges, and a number due to sheer stupidity. Regardless of the individual’s outcome, so far Kiva had to admit, things were overwhelmingly entertaining.

There was just one thing that was baffling Kiva as he watched the progress of the mortals below. A theme that differed from his memories of previous training grounds. Listening in on the conversations of some of the gods behind him it soon became clear he was not the only one with the same observation. Eventually, he decided to spin his torso one hundred and eighty degrees to face them before joining the conversation. As he spoke the other gods immediately silenced themselves in respect to their senior.

“Is it just me, or are there a lot more unique soul items this year?” Kiva asked. A brief pause followed before a nervous looking mermaid god finally spoke.

“We were just discussing that very thing,” Esma, middle god of streams answered.

“It is quite peculiar; it seems that around ten percent of initiates have a soul item with an effect. A much greater rate than is typically seen.” Ferkas, middle god of dreams chimed in.

“Quite peculiar indeed,” muttered Kiva before rotating his trunk back to the front once more.

“Just what exactly are they planning,” Kiva thought as he glanced across to the empty front row seats of the ruling gods. “These item rates are far too high. There cannot possibly be that many prodigies in this generation can there? Those wily ruling gods are up to something,” he thought. Getting nowhere, Kiva shook his head and refocused on the training grounds. “Perhaps I will find a follower or protégé of my own,” he thought as he focused on the many clashes between initiates and beasts, his bad mood fading as he enjoyed the entertainment that only battle could provide.

“Hey! Hey Bupa!” Gupa hollered as he passed the demon in the gods kitchen.

“What is it Gupa, I’m a little busy as you can see,” Bupa grumbled as he paused from his task of carrying hors d’oeuvres out to the waiting gods.

Gupa sniggered, “I’m just wondering if you’d heard the news?” he asked.

“No, I haven’t heard the news Gupa. I’ve been busy working, a concept you may not be familiar with. That’s probably why I’m over here serving the superior gods, and you are back here bumbling about,” Bupa snapped back.

“Oh well, just that I had a rather promising initiate this year. He obtained a soul item with an effect right from the start. Pretty impressive hey?,” Gupa beamed, waiting for the other imp to look down and deflated.

Instead, Bupa just rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Gupa obviously it’s you who hasn’t heard the news. Thousands of initiates received high rarity items this year. Many unique, and most with built in effects. In fact, my initiate received a choice of two soul items that both had effects. Getting one is not that impressive,” Bupa said as he exited the kitchen and headed towards the waiting gods with a plate of snacks.

Gupa stood stunned before he clenched his fists in rage and smashed them down on a nearby golden table in frustration.

“That damn smart-arse Bupa always finds a way to get on my nerves,” he thought as he returned to his work sweeping the kitchen whilst he seethed internally. “You just wait Bupa, there is something special about my initiate. Sooner or later, I’ll show you,” he thought as a devilish sneer appeared across his face.