...

The sunlight shined through the small spaces and illuminated the rather dark cave.

"Yawn.... I had a good sleep.. "

Dante stood up from the ground and stretched his body.

Lucius also got up from the ground and stretched his body.

"I am going out to take some fresh air. "

Dante remarked at Lucius, who nodded and came with him.

They both carefully unsealed the cave together and left the cave.

"It's day 2...We just have to survive one more day to pass the exam. We have to be careful. "

Lucius nodded at Dante's suggestions as they arrive at a small pond.

Both of them then washed their face and freshened up completely.

After refreshing themselves, they got back to the cave and ate the fruits that Lucius had plucked from the trees.

Those fruits were oval shaped and looked like mangoes but with dark orangish colour. Lucius then took a small rat in his hand and fed him the fruit.

After confirming that the fruit wasn't poisonous, he let the rat go and enjoyed the fruits with Dante.

"This exam... Isn't it a bit easy? We just have to find a cave and hide in it. Is there anything that I am missing, Lucius? "

Lucius thought deeply before nodding in affirmation.

"I think that the headmasters and others might be hiding something. If it was this easy, then it wouldn't make sense. I think this is a calm before the storm... Tonight or maybe tomorrow, something major might happen. "

Dante agreed at Lucius' suggestions.

After finishing the fruits, both of them rested upon the walls and talked to each other.

"So Dante, why do you want to enter the Solarius Sanctum? "

Lucius asked with a voice that contained hints of curiosity.

"It's nothing special. I just want to become strong and search for my family. What about you, Lucius?"

Lucius eyes flickered for a second, before he continued in a tone that seemed to contain hints of strong emotions.

"I-it seems our circumstances are quite similar but also different. My family was killed by a group of bandits when I was 8 year old. "

"It had happened during the time, when we were travelling towards the Solarionis Kingdom from the kingdom of Pyrona. "

"We especially booked a carriage and hired some bodyguards to ensure our safety. But on our journey, we were attacked by the 'Bloody Wraith' bandit group. "

"They were extremely strong and vicious. They had a Rank 1 Nodesmith with them. All of their faces are embedded deep in my mind till now. "

"There were a total of 8 people along with that Nodesmith. My family was not that rich, so our bodyguards were all Neophytes. "

"They all died at the hands of the bandits. The bandits killed them very viciously. They completely cut off their heads and played with their hearts. This was an extremely terrifying sight for me. "

"My father and mother... They sacrificed themselves to save me.. I still remember their screams that was filled with pain while I was running through the forest. "

"Thankfully, the bandits didn't chase after me. They left me alone and so I managed to escape. "

"After a few days when I was dying of thirst and hunger, I was fortunately found by a Nodesmith that was on a patrol. "

"He helped me enter the Solarionis kingdom and I explained everything to him. He then helped me enter an Orphanage. "

"It was due to him that I was able to become a Neophyte and was able to purify the Ecliptic Zephyr Node. "

"...Sigh. Forget it. I got carried away and said too much. "

"Don't think much of it. "

Lucius then closed his eyes and rested upon the walls of the cave.

Dante gazed at Lucius before shaking his head lightly.

What a pitful person... In this world, you can only rely on yourself, Lucius. Rose in power and take revenge on those person.

I wish you the best.

Lucius and Dante then spent the whole day, sleeping and eating.

During the night, they talked about some silly stuff and laughed at each other's silly jokes before they both drifted into sleep.

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....

"Yawn... End of day 2.. One more to go. "

Dante remarked as he got up and stretched hia body.

Lucius also did the same.

...Hmm?

Dante gazed outside through the small spaces between the rocks and saw a rather peculiar sight.

The surrounding was not illuminated by the sunlight by rather a crimson red light!

What?... Is something happening?

Dante thought for a moment before he and Lucius unsealed the entrance and saw the full sight.

They saw a crimson blood moon in the sky that was radiating a pure red light on the surrounding.

The surroundings of the forest have changed drastically from before! The trees had became ginormous than before and the ground had a reddish blue soil now!

Dante slowly gazed at Lucius, before he said,

"Is it finally begun? The test of survival? "

Lucius nodded heavily and replied in a split second,

"It seems so. Today is the day that will decide the winners of this test. "

Lucius then manipulated the winds and reached the top of the tree with Dante.

Dante and Lucius squinted his eyes and saw a rather terrifying sight.

In the middle of a Forest was now a giant tower of pure black colour that had a giant hourglass.

The hourglass was filled with a large amount of sand and a small amount of it was getting released.

On the corners of their eyes, Dante and Lucius saw a large black wave that seemed to come closer.

Upon straining their eyes, they finally saw what it was. It was a Beast Wave!! A wave of different Beasts was rushing towards them!

Lucius who was near Dante sweated a little at this sight.

"W-we are screwed a little. It's a Beast wave... It would be very hard to survive them in this surrounding... "

Lucius gazed at his surrounding to see humongous trees and an unfamiliar surrounding from before.

On top of another tree on his right, he spotted Cedric gazing at the Beast wave.

Upon sensing the gaze of Lucius, he turned around and looked at Lucius.

He scoffed from a distance before increasing the distance between them.

"_" Lucius and Dante were left speechless by the actions of this noble.

Dante shook his head.

"Leave him alone. "

"Dante, The beast wave will reach here in a matter of few minutes. What should we do? We would be in great trouble if we were to get caught by them. "

Dante touched his chin slightly.

"We should run in the opposite direction. If it comes down to worst, we will burn the whole forest at the side of the Wave...."

Lucius shook his head in disapproval.

"Look around. The beasts are there in every direction. We can't run anywhere. We have to resist the beast wave... "

Lucius gazed at the hourglass before saying,

"For at least 14 hours! These 14 hours would determine our Life & Death! We have to make sure we survive. "

Dante took out the pocket watch to check the time but the pocket watch wasn't working properly in this direction! It's needles were flickering all over.

"Tch. Stop watches also doesn't work here. "

Dante clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Dante then looked around to see a swarm of people above the trees. All of the people that were in the forest, climbed the trees to observe the beast wave.

"Lucius... Are you thinkin the same as me? "

Dante gazed at Lucius with a small smile.

"I am. But that would be difficult. Some of them might be Nobles and they might even refuse to cooperate. "

But at this moment, Suddenly, A shout was heard that reverberates the whole Forest.

"EVERYONE! PLEASE GATHER AT THE SOURCE OF THIS SOUND! WE CAN ONLY SURVIVE THIS WAVE IF WE WORK TOGETHER! I HOPE FOR COOPERATION IN THIS EXAM! "

Lucius and Dante gazed at the source of the sound which seemed to come from the right of them.

"It seems someone understood the situation."

Lucius remarked with a wry chuckle.

"We should go. "

Lucius nodded at Dante's suggestions and they ran towards the source of the sound.

Upon reaching the source of the sound, they saw a group of 3 people around which almost 100 people were standing.

Some of them rested upon the barks, while some of them rested upon the Branches.

Out of the 3, One of them was a girl and the other two were men.

The girl wore a greenish robe that a mixture of white colour. She had a slim body, with a beautiful face. She carried a huge bow with her with a basket filled with arrows.

The other two people wore a white robe with a hint of black colour. One of them had black hair while the other had silver hair. They carried a spear and a sword with them respectivey.

After a few moments of waiting, the man with a sword started to talk.

"My name is Eldric Ashenheart. "

"As you can see everyone, the true test has been started. This is the test of survival! "

"The beast wave is not a wave that can be faced by a single person! So to pass this exam, cooperation is necessary. "

"If we cooperate with each other, we have a chance of resisting the wave. "

"I hope that you all are ready to cooperate together. Are you ready to cooperate together?! "

"YES! "

People shouted in affirmation and stood up from their before leisure position.

"Now, Alistair Ashenheart will tell you about the plan. "

Eldric Ashenheart backed down and Alistair moved forward.

"Greetings Everyone. So, the formation that I am thinking about requires help from all of you. "

"Our formation would consist of 3 Layers. The outermost would consist of the people who have purified the Aqua Maelstrom Node. "

"The second layer would consist of People who have purified the Ignifef Nexus Node. "

"The Third layer would consist of people who have purified the Ecliptic Zephyr Node. "

"The plan is that, The Aqua team would would wet the ground and fill the surrounding with water. This would effect the mobility of the Beasts. You are also expected to attack the Beasts in the meantime."

"The second, Ignifer team would blast their flames at the beasts. The water will vaporize and would deal addition damage to the Beasts. "

"The third, Zephyr Team would strengthen the flames of the Ignifer Team and would attack also at the same time. "

"This formation would be circular in shape as the beast are coming from different directions."

"Since there is still time for the wave to reach us, we would obviously prepare some traps beforehand. "

"Are there any objections? "

Alistair became silent for a few seconds. Suddenly, a voice rang out,

"What about those who have purified more than one Node? "

Everyone looked at the source of the sound. It was Cedric Thorne.

Alistair explained clearly,

"People who have opened more than a single node would be the main fighting force apart from the Ignifer Team. They would be situated in the middle of the formation or the outermost— depending upon their power. "

Cedric Nodded slightly. Even though he was full of pride, he wasn't retarded enough to charge at the Wave directly or refuse to cooperate in this situation.

Another voice rang out,

"What if you run out of Vitralis Essence? "

Alistair calmly replied,

"People would work in shifts. Looking around, there are approximately a 100 people. In first shift, 50 of them would participate. If they run out of Essence, then the other 50 people would take their place. "

Another voice rang out,

"But still there is a problem with this system. There might be less number of people who have purified the Ignifer Nexus' Node. If they were to work in shifts, wouldn't the combat potency of the formation go down significantly? "

Alistair smiled wryly,

"That is a problem that we can't do much about that. We will just hope to recover the combat potency with people who have opened more than a single Node like me, Eldric, Isabella Darrow and Cedric Thorne. "

"Besides this, there's not much we can do. I hope that all of you can trust me and cooperate together. "

With that, Alistair became quiet.