Reivan had learned many things in the two years after he made a show of himself in the royal arena, one of them was that Inaria hated being stared at and had an uncanny intuition for when someone was. That was why he quickly averted his gaze, feeling no need to provoke her ire by looking at her for too long.
Instead, he quietly returned to his meal while examining the surrounding people in secret. Not even ten minutes after he arrived, Reivan finished his meal and the task of checking everyone's status screens. More people trickled into the Mess Hall as time passed, but he'd already seen them before.
'I kind of expected a special ability or two, but there really isn't a single one, huh?'
It truly spoke of just how rare people with special abilities were. The fact that he'd met so many of them was an anomaly — the good kind, of course.
Just when he was starting to get bored again, Reivan looked at the cheap pocket watch he'd bought on the way to the Tower, noting how the thirty-minute deadline was almost up.
"I made it!" exclaimed a familiar female voice in the distance.
Maya leaned against the wall, winded from running. Her hair was still a little damp as she bounced off the wall and strolled deeper into the Mess Hall, garnering the attention of many — particularly of the male variety.
Reivan's eyes met with hers, but she harrumphed and turned her gaze away, opting to sit with some other young women instead. He shrugged, noting how she was clearly still upset because he'd kicked her out of his room.
'Works for me.'
The main cause for distraction had chosen to distance herself from him. Who was he to complain? There was a tiny part of him that was disappointed though, since even if she was an unwanted distraction sometimes, she did help him fight off his boredom.
Just before the thirty minutes was up, a flash of light erupted from the middle of the teleportation pad.
An elderly man with pale skin and an expression as cold as stone appeared in the middle of the Mess Hall, gazing at a pocket watch in his left hand. His flowing dark purple combat robes contrasted the bright purple platform he stood on. But more noticeable than anything were the extravagant trimmings of his attire.
'Silver... So he's an Ascendant.'
"Right." The elder closed the pocket watch shut and it vanished, probably into a spatial storage artifact. "I believe that time is—"
"I'm not late!"
Interrupting the only person in the room who could eradicate an entire house with just a thought, Aldimir burst into the Mess Hall and rushed toward the nearest empty seat, not even noticing the battlemage he'd just slighted. His breathing was rough from the run and his brown hair, damn with sweat and what was probably bath water, clung to his face.
Reivan looked at the young man with mild exasperation.
'There's always that one guy...'
It seemed the old battlemage thought the same as him, sighing with an expression that betrayed just how fed up he was. "I believe the time I have given is up. And I'm glad to see that all ninety-nine of this year's recruits are present... although one of them was almost late."
Aldimir smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head at this, though he made no excuses.
'Ninety-nine...? Doesn't he mean one hundred?'
Reivan's brows rose for a moment, wondering if it was even possible for an Ascendant to make such a mistake. But once he thought about it, he remembered a key fact about this year's batch.
'Oh, right. There was that one imperial prince entering this year... Forgot Alphon or something.'
Now that he thought about it, the Argonian prince wasn't present at the moment.
“It doesn't matter now.” The elder cleared his throat, demanding everyone’s attention as he pulled things back into business. “In any case, I am Ozran Esteros, the one chosen to proctor this exam.”
Understandably, the majority of people stirred at the battlemage’s words. They had all thought today’s event would just be an inauguration ceremony of some kind — certainly not an examination. After all, everybody in this room except Reivan experienced the Tower’s hellish entrance exam.
Nobody wanted to go through that one more time.
It was like barely completing a marathon, only to be told you had to do another one right after finishing it.
‘Ozran Esteros…’
Reivan, on the other hand, was more focused on the proctor’s name.
It was one of the names included in a list of the most dangerous battlemages known to man, after all. Ozran Esteros was most active in the border with the empire though, so Aizen had little information about him. But from the sheer amount of enemy Ascendants slain, the man was worthy of their caution.
The elder in front of him was a bogeyman for the Argonian people — and yet here he was, doing the mundane job of heading a ceremony.
“Silence.” Ozran snarled slowly scanning the room for anyone who dared disobey. None did, however, since just about everyone was inflicted with muteness just from the intensity of his gaze alone. “Good. Now, if you could all act like proper adults for the next thirty minutes, perhaps we could actually get somewhere.”
“You’re too stiff, Ozzy. Stop scaring our new comrades.”
A moment later, another silver-cloaked battlemage appeared next to Ozran. This time, it was a middle-aged woman with her dirty blonde hair braided into a bun behind her head, a warm motherly expression on her face.
She narrowed her eyes as she smiled at the others in the room. “Good morning to you all. I am Bernadine Sentel, the assistant proctor for today.”
There was a bit more of a reaction this time, not because the battlemage herself was famous, but rather, because of her last name.
Sentel.
One of the Four High Magus clans of Arkhan.
It was said that about thirty percent of all battlemages actually belonged to one of the Four High Magus clans, cementing just how integral their existence was to the republic.
‘They’re like House Mercer… except there’s four of them.’
Reivan unconsciously remembered his fiancee and his best friend, but managed to shake off his loneliness by refocusing on the current situation.
‘I knew where I was from the start, but having all these big names shoved into my face really drives it in.’
He was in the absolute middle of enemy territory. Any random person he bumped into could have a history of greatness so he had to tread with extreme caution.
“Hmph. Bernadine.” Ozran stared at the other battlemage coldly but didn’t bicker or argue, taking out his wand and pointing it at the floor instead. “Let us get this over with.”
Bernadine nodded, taking out her own wand and following the other’s lead. “Very well. I’m ready.”
A moment later, a blast of blue light erupted from the tips of their wands, blinding everyone around them for a second.
Reivan, on the other hand, kept his eyes peeled. He managed to catch how the two elders performed a twenty-pulse spell in but a fraction of a second, completely in sync with each other. It was an amazing display of skill that even Reivan would be unable to replicate unless he focused all his efforts on sorcery.
‘The teleportation pad…’
It used to be made of some kind of purple stone, but now, it was pure white and softly radiating a gentle light.
“Now, all of you.” Ozran sighed, seemingly a bit winded from whatever spell he’d just cast. “Follow along. Do not worry about where you are going, for this teleportation pad only goes one way now. All you need to do is to step on it.”
“Chop chop, young ones.” Bernadine wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and beckoned everyone onto the platform. “The faster you all get there, the more time we’ll have to explain.”
With urging from both proctors, everyone quietly filed into the teleportation pad, disappearing into it one by one. Reivan chose to hang back a little, intent on observing how things go.
“Hey, Clover. You going or what?” Aldimir came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go together, yeah?”
“Sure.” Reivan nodded, thinking that delaying it anymore would make him seem overly suspicious of the Spirit Tower. “You were cutting it close earlier.”
“Yeah… I did wake up when the voice asked us to and even checked the time, but then I accidentally closed my eyes a little.”
“Let me guess. It only seemed like a little. But actually, it wasn’t.”
“Yeah…” Aldimir scratched his head as they walked toward the pad. “When I checked again, about fifteen minutes passed.”
Reivan sighed in exasperation, but truthfully, he could somewhat relate.
“Anyway, we better hurry. I think that old man over there keeps looking over to me from time to time...” Aldimir jogged forward a little, jumping on top of the pad and disappearing immediately.
‘Here goes nothing…’
Reivan stopped just before the pad and took a moment to steel himself for anything before he stepped into it as well.
The moment the sole of his shoe made contact with the white stone, his vision turned pure white.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
----------------------------------------
When Reivan opened his eyes, he was surprised to find that he wasn’t on a platform in the middle of a room — instead, he was at the border of a big circular hall with an incredibly high ceiling.
Unlike the previous hall’s simplicity, this hall was generously adorned with statues of birds, snakes, and all manner of animals housed in their own niches along the high wall. The floor was made of white stone, decorated with veins seemingly made of luminescent gold and silver that served as the room’s only source of light.
Aside from the gigantic purple sun in the middle of the room.
‘Holy shit, what is that…’
Reivan found himself gawking at it, unconsciously examining it with [Supreme Insight].
[Modified Fragment of the Spirit World]
A small part of the Spirit World, modified by a Transcendent to birth a semi-independent world with its own set of natural laws.
Special conditions have been placed to stabilize its existence and a vast amount of energy is needed to open an entrance.
As long as it is within the confines of the semi-independent world, core conditions cannot be resisted by any entity below the Archon-ream.
Core Conditions:
- Any entities above the mortal realm will be automatically kicked out of the world.
- Any entities above the mortal realm cannot influence the world in any way, other than to destroy it completely.
- Any entity cannot re-enter after leaving once.
- Entities of the “Human” species will automatically be expelled 24 hours after entry or if the portal closes prematurely.
- Entities of the “Human” species cannot be harmed by other species.
- Entities of the “Human” species will regenerate “Magic Power” ten times faster.
- Entities of the “Human” species cannot use other forms of energy aside from “Magic Power”. This condition does not include stamina and other vital resources.
Reivan licked his lips and tried to digest all the information as quickly as he could.
‘The Sage King made another world…’
Even if the Sword Star made all sorts of improvements all around Aizen, the old man never outright made a world. The discovery that the Sage King did, however, made Reivan think that perhaps the latter was stronger than the former.
But then, he quickly realized his folly.
The Sword Star was a warrior who had spent most of his mortal life on battlefields all over the continent. He was born and raised in battle, obtained immortality in battle, and even became a Transcendent in battle.
Combat was in the old man’s blood.
Perhaps the Sage King surpassed the Sword Star in creating worlds, but in a fight with their lives on the line, Reivan would undoubtedly bet on the Sword Star.
‘Ideally, they don’t ever fight.’
Reivan looked around and found that the other battlemage recruits were in similar positions, evenly spread out along the walls of the circular chamber. As for the two proctors, the male one was gone while only the female one remained.
“Listen up, everyone.” The proctor clapped her hands to gather everyone’s attention. “I’ll try to explain this as quickly as I can because keeping the entrance open costs energy, and we don’t want it to run out before it spits you out — that’d be too much of a waste!”
‘That checks out…’
Reivan leaned against the wall as he perked up his ears, discovering that the other proctor was on the other side of the massive glowing ball of fire, giving a similar briefing to the newbies on the other side of the hall.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you all about this sooner.” Bernadine made a troubled smile as she tapped her cheek. “But you see, we had to make sure that the people who know of this thing behind me are… trustworthy. At the very least, we must make sure that revealing it has consequences.”
‘That checks out…’
Given the timing of the ceremony, the one-month period for the fragment of the watcher to mature would have already elapsed, ensuring that each tower entrant had a monstrous bomb on their arm that could go off the moment they considered betrayal.
The Tower’s caution was well warranted though, seeing as the secret of controlling an entirely different world was definitely not something you’d want other nations to know.
‘Inaria didn’t tell me about this… So either her father didn’t tell her, or the president of Arkhan doesn’t know.’
Honestly, given how bad the relationship between father and daughter was, both could be correct.
“First of all, let us quickly discuss what this is.” Bernadine cleared her throat. “Simply put. This big ball of fire — that isn't hot, by the way — is actually a portal to an entirely different world we call The Sanctuary… Well, that may be hard to understand. So just think of it like a different continent, except the Spirit Tower is the only one who can access it.”
This announcement brought a wave of shock to the entrants, but the elder calmed them all down gently before continuing.
"I would tell you more about it, but there’s not enough time. Just figure it out for yourselves while you’re there. This is also a test to temper your adaptability to sudden situations, so do your best! Anyway, let’s get on with it.”
Bernadine held out what appeared to be a piece of amethyst, carved into the shape of a sphere. “Let us now discuss your purpose in going. This thing is a special artifact that we simply call an orb. Its purpose is to temporarily capture a spirit beast, enabling you to bring it to the material world. You use it by having it touch them for about a minute.”
This statement brought another wave of shock to all who heard it, including Reivan.
‘By the Sun God… it’s like pokemon!’
“Save your shock for later, brothers and sisters. Focus!” the female proctor called out with urgency. “I say temporarily because the forced contract only lasts for a year. After that, it is up to the spirit beast to decide if they want to form a more permanent bond.”
‘Oh. So it’s not like Pokemon… Bummer.’
“You will be on probationary status until you form a permanent bond with them, so do treat them nicely. And I mean really nicely. They have all the power to decide your fate here. If you can’t make them form a permanent bond by the end of the year, you’re going to be fired!”
After catching her breath, Bernadine continued. “Don’t worry though. The tower offers plenty of benefits to spirit beasts, so they will likely choose to stay even if they don’t like you as a person.”
“Ah!” Bernadine’s eyes widened, suddenly remembering something. “Regarding the use of force, don’t worry because all of you are safe inside. You can one-sidedly harm the spirits to force them into a contract, but they can’t do anything to you. You likely can’t do much to them with the spells you know though — which works for us because we don’t want you accidentally killing a bunch of spirits there. It’s enough for you to restrain them for a minute while you touch them with the orb! Don’t be too violent, okay? They won’t like you afterward.”
“Excuse me, I have a question.” Suddenly, a young man raised his hand and called out.
Bernadine quickly took out a pocket watch to check the time before looking back at the young man with a kind but troubled smile. “I would prefer if there were no questions given how little time we have to make the most of this, but sure, go ahead.”
“Is a contract through the orb the only way to take a spirit beast out, Elder?”
‘Good question, random dude!’
Reivan was actually wondering about that exact same thing as well. Someone else asking it in his stead really saved him a lot of trouble.
“No, there is another way.” Bernadine tapped her chin and seemed to like the question, giving it more thought. “It involves the spirit beast initiating a permanent bond themselves. They’re all quite comfortable where they are, so this is incredibly unlikely though. I suppose it’s similar to people who naturally gain a spirit bond in their early childhood, like The Gold Cloak and the four High Magus Clan leaders.”
“I see…” The young man who asked the question mused for a moment before asking. “Then what if someone with a natural spirit beast bond enters? Can they still use the orb? What happens then, does the first spirit beast they contracted with disappear...?”
‘Another good question. Damn, dude! Thank you so much!’
Reivan memorized the young man’s face and noted it for later.
"No, no." Bernadine giggled as if she found the question amusing. “What happens is they get a second spirit bond, simple. There was a similar case just last year, one of the entrants already had a spirit bond before entering the tower. A few months later, she formed a permanent bond with the one she brought from the sanctuary.”
“That’s amazing…” The young man gasped. “Then doesn’t that mean we can just bring a lot of those orbs with us and capture as many spirit beasts as we can?”
“Oh, if only we could.” The female proctor chuckled. “Unfortunately, we can only produce a limited number of these orbs yearly. In fact, their number dictates how many recruits we hire in that particular year.”
‘Oh. So that’s why they increased the recruitment.’
Reivan released a subtle sigh at having one of his questions answered. It seemed Arkhan wasn’t planning to bump up recruitment in preparation for a war with Aizen — they just managed to obtain a much larger amount of the contract spheres this year.
‘That’s good… But I guess I shouldn’t rule the possibility out yet.’
Complacency was an enemy, after all.
“Any more questions?” Bernadine patiently asked though it was clear that she was feeling a bit rushed.
The young man, however, shook his head. “My apologies for interrupting, Elder Sentel. I no longer have any questions.”
“Not at all. They were all very good questions. Don’t lose that curiosity of yours.”
“Yes, Elder. Thank you.”
“Moving on, then! Goodness! The time!” Bernadine checked her pocket watch again. “What else… Well, you’ll be there for up to 24 hours if everything works out well. Again, don’t worry. Nothing inside there can hurt you. Do be careful of accidents though, like hitting your head or slipping on the edge of a cliff.”
With that, it seemed the explanations were over. Bernadine waved her wand, causing a small amethyst sphere to float toward each tower entrant.
“We’ll be providing you with a travel satchel. Inside, there is a water canteen and some rations to tide you over. It would have been better if you ate at the Mess Hall earlier, but most of you probably didn’t have the time to. A lesson for next time — wake up early when something important is happening. Here you are.”
Reivan snatched the orb from the air and looked down at it, quickly stuffing it into his pocket. Then he took the tiny bag that floated toward him right after, opening it and peeking inside. Mixed with wrapped biscuits and a canteen was a thin book though, and if his memory wasn't failing him, the proctor hadn't said anything about that yet.
‘What’s this…?’
The female proctor quickly offered an answer to the question in a few entrants’ minds. “There is a book included inside detailing as many of the spirit beast types inside the sanctuary as possible. We only have witness reports to go off of, referencing them with past records of similar spirit beasts, so you may find spirit beast species that aren’t there. Ascendants and even the Sage King himself can’t go inside there anymore, so we can’t exactly create a complete encyclopedia.”
‘Interesting…’
Reivan took the book out and popped it open with one hand, landing on a page about some kind of blob-type spirit beast.
“Don’t spend too much time reading that when you’re inside though,” Bernadine warned. “We’ve actually had cases of that… people who spend so much time reading that they didn’t have enough time to catch a spirit beast. They were held back for a year. Don’t be like that. Understood, everyone?”
Voices of confirmation followed, seemingly satisfying Bernadine.
“Very good. Off you go then.”
Suddenly, Reivan found his feet parted from the ground as he was sent flying head-first into the giant ball of fire.