Grinding my teeth in pain, I emptied my strings once again before I left the soul plane, and returned to the physical world. Previously sitting in a lotus flower position, my body gave out, and I laid back, gasping for breath.

Completely and utterly exhausted, I had spent all of last night refining my channels. I knew the importance of rest, having seen on more than one occasion how exhaustion would make corpses out of the toughest of men, but even after turning on the Lightstone Aurelia gifted me, I just physically couldn’t fall asleep.

So reasoning that if I was going to be exhausted the next day no matter what, I trained, making quite a bit of progress in the process. Having given the metal orb back to Thalric, I had no way to measure my mana conductivity, but as I circulated mana throughout my body, I could instinctively feel that the amount of mana I was able to control relative to the overall absorbed amount had increased, with the percent leaking back into the atmosphere less than yesterday.

I clenched my fist, the veins in my wrist straining against my skin.

Breathing in heavily and judging that I was sufficiently recovered, I forced myself back up, and continued.

Closing my eyes, I reentered the soul plane, and began to absorb mana from the atmosphere once again. My strings swelling with mana, I began to circulate it through my channels.

As I continued to do so, the amount of mana inside my strings began to slowly decrease, my impure channels unable to properly contain all of the mana, with the majority getting dispersed back into the atmosphere, until in all, a little under 20% was left.

Continually circulating what little mana I had left, I narrowed my eyebrows, a drop of sweat running down my forehead, and into my eyelid, but I ignored it, excitement growing at the feeling of my channels very slowly increasing in size.

My body radiating with pain, I felt as if thousands of maggots were crawling inside of me, chewing up and pushing out against the walls of my blood vessels to cleanse them of impurities and to make them wider, until finally, the pain grew to be too intense, and I was forced to stop, dumping all of the mana I had left in my strings into my central nub.

Still in the soul plane, I fell into the transparent sphere, and peered into the mana stone.

After the countless sleepless nights I had trained for, it was about 30% full.

Smile stretching across my face, I got off of the bed, shut off my Lightstone, and peered through the window outside.

With the sun beginning to rise over the floating island, I stretched my body, raising my arms into the air, when suddenly, a high pitched, ear-piercing noise blared outside the room door.

The previous night, after everyone had been inspected by the figures in leather, bird head shaped masks, we were led to a mess hall, where the red haired one eyed woman promptly relayed that the next morning, we would all be forcefully woken up, and to immediately leave our rooms afterwards.

I just didn’t expect the way in which they would rouse us from our slumber to be so painful.

Pressing down on my ears with one hand and my shoulder, I quickly put on my boots, and exited the room, swearing that blood was beginning to pool in my ears.

As I closed the room door behind me, 50 other boys exited their rooms at the same time around me, and I noticed a figure standing at the entrance to the staircase, holding a wooden board and paper. Briefly jotting down something, the man raised his bespectacled face, and the ear-piercing noise stopped.

Robe colored sky blue, with white floral imprints covering the surface, it perfectly matched his azure colored hair. He gave off the impression of once having been of the sky itself, but had fallen down to the world, and been given life.

He opened his mouth,

“After you have washed up, you will gather outside, where your next set of instructions will be relayed.”

Finished speaking, he redirected his focus back to writing on the piece of paper.

My eyes strained, I dragged my feet across the hardwood floor towards the blue robed man, and entered the floor’s communal washroom, emerging minutes later in a freshly procured set of clothes, and having gargled my mouth out with water.

Feeling refreshed, I entered the building’s staircase and joined a proverbial flood of people, finally setting foot on the ground floor after descending 3 flights of stairs

Seeing how the others were gathering outside in front of the one eyed woman, I exited the building, though electing to stay on the outskirts of the rapidly growing crowd.

As I struggled to stay awake, it quickly became apparent that the number of students that would attend Celestia with me was much greater than the 1000 people I had been led to believe, with the crowd around me already greater by a factor of 3

Suddenly feeling someone poke me in the back, I turned.

“Goddess,” Lunia immediately exclaimed, “You look terrible. Did you not sleep?”

“Eh,” I shrugged, “Kind of, but I feel fine.”

“If you say s-”

“Listen up,” the red haired woman began, walking backwards and motioning us to follow her, “Each and every one of you today are going to fight duels with individuals of our choosing, all while using whatever method at your disposal to win. Depending on how well we think you have done, we will assign you a ranking and a grade, S, A, B, C, and D, highest to lowest. The better the grade, the better the corresponding benefits. While you are waiting, you will train by yourselves in our facilities.”

Finished speaking, she turned back around, walking straight forward into the wall of a gargantuan building, it’s only distinguishing feature a painted image of a gray colored, thin bar connected to 2 darker gray weights.

Only a foot away from hitting her face, the wall in front of her suddenly swung in, akin to the way a pair of double doors opened, revealing the inside of the building it was a part of.

Filled to the brim with a variety of different machines, the building was illuminated by harsh, white lights in the ceiling, and smelled of metal.

At the very back of the room, 20 featureless, humanoid constructions stood completely still.

Light reflecting off of the surface of their black, sleek metallic bodies, they each stood at exactly 6 feet tall, with hundreds of light blue, slightly glowing engravings running across their bodies. Figures unnaturally slender and lithe, an arcane, spiral-like design was engraved where their face should’ve been, making for an overall inhuman impression.

“There are 3 other identical floors that can be accessed through the underground passageway,” she continued, her voice echoing and bouncing around the facility, “Even so, there might not be enough equipment for each of you to use at the same time, but I expect each and every one of you to resolve any and all disputes that may arise independently. If you have any questions related to your physique, direct them towards any of the dozen training personnel stationed.”

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3000 heads collectively turned at her words, taking note of a dozen physically fit, plainly dressed men and women bowing at the side.

“Let’s begin,” she ordered, walking past the black metal figures, “If you hear your name, follow the golem that recited it.”

The golem farthest to the left stepped forward, it’s steps light, but it’s voice resonant, “Laeud Aithon…“

Speaking the honest truth, I felt that I would be graded quite highly. I may not have learned any fancy swordplay or magic, and I may have only just started cultivating barely a week ago, but I had survived for 3 years in the freezing cold, as a soldier in Baron Elef’s army. Even those who were stronger, smarter, better with weapons, or of higher rank than me, they had all died, while I survived.

So of course, I slightly puffed my chest out, stood a bit taller, feelings of pride and excitement washing over me for the duel to come.

“Sol, Auxis.”

Hearing my name being called, I walked up to the golem, a noticeable pep in my step.

As each of the 20 golems finished, and 40 of us in all had stepped forward, the red haired woman waved her hand, a side wall opening just as the front, outer wall did.

Following the golems, who trailed behind the tall one-eyed woman, we walked down a staircase, and made our way into a brightly lit, white hallway below the ground.

The golems quickly spread out, going down different, smaller corridors, and I had to push my way through the crowd to make sure I didn’t lose sight of where I needed to go, a hall marked 1A.

Finally pushing my way through,

“Help,” a strained voice suddenly called out to me, a hand shooting out to me.

Turning back, I quickly grabbed, and pulled the figure out of the moving crowd, but I had overestimated the force required.

The figure toppling onto me, we both fell down on the floor.

Getting up first, I offered a hand to the boy, to which he accepted.

“Thanks,” the boy smiled, “Sol, right?”

Auxis’s face was incredibly delicate, bordering on effeminate. Even taking into account his short brown hair, if I hadn’t heard his voice, which although slightly high pitched, still unmistakably belonged to a boy, I’d have assumed he was of the opposite sex.

“No problem.”

“Please hurry,” the golem’s coldly voiced, mechanically walking up to the two of us, “We are on a tight schedule.”

Hurriedly nodding in response, the two of us followed the golem.

“How’d you get scouted to Celestia?” I asked Auxis as we walked.

“Oh,” he looked up at me, smiling, “A mage, Alkai she said her name was. Anyway, she was passing through my village for a night, and since I’d never met someone who could actually do magic, I asked her all the questions I could think of! I was so excited, I kept her up for the entire night,” Auxis laughed.

“Anyways, she had me put my hand on this orb thing, said something about stars, and before I knew it, I’m at Celestia.”

“In here,” the golem came to a stop, having reached a dead end with two doors opposite each other, “Walk directly forward, and prepare as quickly as possible.”

“Good luck,” Auxis opened one of the doors, revealing yet another long, white hallway, before looking back at me, and smiling.

Taking the other door, as I walked forward, I formulated a strategy to deal with Auxis.

From what he had told me, his generally cheerful nature, and the way he was immediately trusting of me, Auxis’s village was likely small, and peaceful. That meant most likely, his experience in combat wouldn’t extend beyond play fighting with others his age.

Still, that didn’t mean I would go easy on him.

Finally reaching the end of the hallway, I opened yet another door, but this time, I wasn’t met with another hallway, but rather, a room.

At the center was an ordinary stone table and bench, but that was unimportant.

I hadn’t brought the sword Thalric had bought me, having left it in the room I had “slept” in, but I didn’t need it.

A myriad of different types of cold steel were lined up against the wall. From spears, swords, spears, axes, and maces, every weapon type, and correlative preference, was accounted for.

Running up, I briefly contemplated what exactly I should bring into the duel, before eventually deciding on a long spear, a short sword, and a mace.

There weren’t any rules stating that I was limited to only bringing in 1 weapon.

A bow, crossbow, and a quiver of arrows and bolts were available, and I’d even have chosen them, if I knew how to operate them.

Finding a decently fitting leather chest piece that lowered down to my groin, I put it on, and tightened the straps as best I could, before putting on a masked helmet, also made out of leather.

With the only other exit to the room besides the entrance I had used a white, stone door, I opened it, quickly being met with an incredibly large and flat, rectangular prism shaped room. The floor being just ordinary dirt and illuminated by the same harsh white lights as the training area, the room wasn’t exactly box shaped, as at the top, the sides of the walls became mirrors that slanted and went inwards, such that the ceiling of the rectangular box was in the shape of a smaller rectangle.

As I inspected the flat room, a black robed veiled man watched me. Not being acknowledged, I ignored him, and attempted to calm my nerves. Balling my free hand into a fist, I felt my leather glove strain and warp, before finally the door on the other side opened, Auxis walking out moments later.

Wearing an ill fitting leather breastplate, he had chosen a short, steel sword, and a round, wooden shield, the border of which was also steel.

The black robed figure suddenly stepped forward,

“I will stop the duel at my own discretion. Until I do so, any and all methods are allowed.”

Finished speaking, he stepped back, and stood still.

Opening his mouth, Auxis began to speak, only to stop, as I rushed at him.

Abandoning my sword and spear, I immediately ran at Auxis, hoping to gain the element of surprise, and it had worked, Auxis fumbling to unsheathe his strapped short sword.

Not able to ready his sword even in the time it had taken me to run across the room, Auxis hurriedly raised his shield above his head, as I raised my mace, preparing to smash it down, only for the impact to never come.

Confused, he tentatively lowered his shield, only for my leg to kick out, striking him directly in the chest, and causing him to fall to the floor, spit escaping his mouth as he attempted to regain his breath.

I looked back to the masked figure, waiting for him to stop the fight, only to be met with silence.

I watched as Auxis forced his way back up, but it was useless.

Still leaning over, his legs were shaking. It was a miracle that he was still standing.

But I wouldn’t call it that. Curse seemed a more fitting word to describe it.

Gritting my teeth, I struck him again, this time with my fist and right in the nose.

He fell again, yet still, the robed man didn’t stop the fight.

Dropping the mace, I mounted Auxis, and continually punched him, feeling his bones breaking under the impact of my fists. Yet even as Auxis began to bleed, his arms lay flat against the ground, the fight wasn't stopped.

Raising my fist one last time, I prepared to deliver one last punch, intending to use all of my strength to finally end the fight, when I felt my arm being held in place.

“Thank you,” the masked man stated, “That’ll be enough. Please go back to your armory, and deposit the equipment on the table.”

Letting go of me, he went back to the middle of the arena, calmly standing in place.

My arms fell to my side, and I stood back up.

I looked down in horror at what I had done.

His face bloody and bruised, I had felt a crunch from one of my punches, and it had very visibly resulted in Auxis’s nose being broken, one of his eyes even nearly popping out of it's socket. He was completely unrecognizable, his lips having completely split open, and his cheeks already turning an ugly, purple color.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, though the boy had already lost consciousness.

***

3 blocky golems surrounded the bloody boy, 1 lifting him up onto a stretcher the other 2 carried, the victorious boy long already having left the arena.

“Why didn’t he use the mace?” a blonde, inhumanly beautiful woman lazily asked, leaning over and apathetically watching the 3 golems continue, “Not like the other one could’ve properly defended with his shield.”

“Who knows?” her companion, an equally handsome man answered, before turning to a 3rd figure, “Mark the winner for another duel. We’ll need more information on that one to grade him.”

“Yes sir,” the 3rd man bowed.