It takes a few minutes before she feels well enough to climb on her feet. Cyan's already up, wringing the scorpion's blood off his scarf. Most of it is stained blue, along with his clothes and hair. The crinkle of his nose tells her he's unable to stand the stench.

Truthfully, it's starting to make her feel slightly nauseous too. The smell reminds her of the half decade old cheese Killian's forgotten about in the freezer. She examines the dismembered carcass of the scorpion. There are chunks of flesh within the shells of its legs. Like a crab, almost, and she wonders if they cooked it, would it taste the same.

Then something sparkly sticks out to her in the pile of guts near its abdomen. Reflecting the blazing sunlight like a diamond. Curious, she approaches to pick it up. Cleaning the pieces of innards off its surface with her hoodie's arm sleeve that's still dangling off her waist.

She realizes it's a transparent piece of palmed sized, glass like device. It's displaying three green dots in the top left corner, just overlayed by the little compass pointing north. And atop the compass, there's a grey number, 1-3, carved on the glass itself.

Absently, she calls out,

"Hey Cyan! What do you think this is?" but she isn't lifting to address him. Instead, she continues examining the strange device. Near the bottom right, there's an opaque white shape of what looks like a child's drawing of a house. Except half of it is cut off because the glass device isn't big enough to encompass.

Intrigued, he joins by her side to stare at it for a moment. Before taking it out of her hands to raise it above his head. Examining it under sunlight. Then he takes a few steps, walking back and forth in a circle.

Skeptically, he analyzes,

"It like... a tracker of some sort?" then gives her a quick glance that's requesting her to come closer. He points to the green dots,

"I think this is us." he demonstrates, giving the device back to her before running a short distance away. On the screen, one of the green dots nudged slightly further from the others as he did. Then returns to its original position just as Cyan comes back, proving his point.

He continues, pointing to the 1-3 numerals,

"This looks like position coordinates, 1 is the x axis and 3 is the y axis on a flat plane." she's getting confused, so she tilts her head at him.

He sighs, simplifying his sentences,

"If I'm right, this is one piece of a bigger map."

Excitedly, she exclaims,

"Ohhh! That's epic!"

He asks,

"Where did you find it?"

"It's in the scorpion's guts." at that, he approaches to kneel atop the pile and sinks his hands in to dig through it.

She's raising a brow at his odd gestures, wondering if he's getting that hungry.

Then it strikes her,

"Wait, if the green dots are us, then who's the third green dot?" just as he retrieves a small name tag from underneath,

"That'll be," he pauses to read off it,

"Mich Franklin."

It takes her a moment to realize that it's the same name tag she's received at the check in. When she did, her eyes glister,

"Wait, does this mean-" and he nods in agreement,

"Yep. I think this is the place of the second test site."

Excitedly, she leaps up and down, trying to hurry him,

"Then what are we waiting for! Let's go to the house symbol!"

With that, they set off, leaving the carcass behind them.

The journey's taking them towards the direction of the sandstone valley in the distance. The sun's moved a little since they've arrived, now the shadows are stretching further eastwards. But an inkling feeling tells her that this zone does not obey the 24 hours rule. Either that or the perpetual summer keeps the days longer. Holding the map in her hands, she notices little triangle markings appearing as they get closer. But from the slugging pace they're heading, she reckons it'd still take a good afternoon before they reach their destination.

Upon entering the valley, she tries again,

"So, what exactly is a Bellator?" gazing upwards at the tall red rocks, sandwiching them in on both sides. Following the smooth trail of lighter orange spirals marbling up the surface until it reaches the plateau peak. Between it, the skies are clear blue.

He comments noncommittedly,

"I already told you, it's you."

She drops her head back down to puff a cheek at him,

"That doesn't explain anything."

But he's not looking. Instead, he's focused on the path beneath them. There's green shrubbery here. A refreshing change of colors from the everlasting gold sand surrounding them. Then every short distance, there are forks in the path and caves in the rocks that they decide against exploring.

He finally says, five minutes after her question,

"Have you played video games?"

She raises a brow at him, wondering how is that relevant to what she's asked. But she replies regardless,

"Killian won't buy me a gaming device. But I've heard of some!" pouting as she does.

For that, she gets a twitch in his ear,

"Killian's your family?" she realizes that he does that when he's confused or something picks his interest, so she laughs,

"Well... I guess so. He caught me stealing from his shop when I was younger." then she pauses to ponder for a minute, realizing that statement makes her sound bad, so she quickly justifies,

"I was really young, and really hungry. And there was a freshly baked cherry pie on the counter so I couldn't help myself. And since I didn't have money to pay it back. He made me do chores and wash dishes." she sticks her tongue out at that thought before finally concluding,

"I've been living with him since."

Cyan's making a face at her,

"What?" he seems surprised,

"Are you an idiot? What about your family? That sounds like kidnapping and child labor."

She quickly defends, waving a hand,

"No, no. It's not like that!" before instinctually rubbing into her elbow. She's reluctant to elaborate the following part. But she forces herself to laugh,

"You see... I don't really remember my birth family." she remembers their deaths though. And the woman that's killed them. But she consciously omits that portion. It always makes the mood awkward when she tells someone, so she's learnt to stop.

Cyan gives a soft, "oh." as though he's empathizing with her. Before she lets the silence brew, she quickly returns,

"What about you? How's your family like?"

At that, he scratches the back of his nape, before glancing into the distance. The melancholic look in his eyes is saying more than his words convey,

"They're okay... I guess." she understands he doesn't want to talk about them either when he redirects his statement back to the initial topic,

"Well, I was about to say. The Bellator most closely resembles a warrior in a video game."

Hearing that makes her forget the tension,

"Wait! So, you were complimenting me the whole time when you called me a Bellator? Why didn't you just say so!"

"I wasn't. I'm just making an analogy."

"But warriors are so cool! They're all like-" she lifts her arms and mimics herself holding a sword,

"Bam! Whoosh! Pow!"

It draws a chuckle out of him,

"You're an idiot." and before she's able to retaliate he quickly adds,

"You know about Vita, right? And how it turns to Magia when externalized." it distracts her enough to reply,

"Yeah! The glass and orange juice!"

It confuses him to raise a brow at her, but he chooses to not address it and instead elaborate,

"Well, there are five attributes Vita can be specialized in, Vi, Agilitas, Sollertia, Sapientia and Intelligentia."

Ah, those were the moon runes she's seen during the first test!

"In other words, you can think of them as, strength, agility, dexterity, wisdom and intelligence. In a video game, you can add your stats to different attributes and it'll determine your fighting style. It works in vice versa. You can tell someone's attributes by their fighting style, and you can guess their fighting style by their attributes. For example, you pumped all your stats into strength and agility so you'll be of the warrior class." he shrugs,

"It's just that, in real life, we call warriors, Bellators."

Slapping her fist against a palm, she declares after realizing,

"Oh! Killian's made me chop a bunch of logs and run errands for him frequently! Is that why all my stats went into strength and agility?" then quickly points out,

"But your fighting style is different from mine. What stats do you have?"

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"You were pretty close in your assumption when you called me a wind mage earlier. Wisdom gives you elemental manipulation, and intelligence gives you versatility in your spells. So, I'm a Veneficius class."

Veneficius. She remembers that word. That's the question she's gotten wrong! She wonders,

"Wait, so does that mean if I read a bunch of books, I can learn to use wind Magia like you?"

He scoffs,

"You wish!" and explains,

"Everyone's born with different alignments. Like, you for example, you're born with the Vi alignment, aren't you?"

It confuses her so she tilts her head,

"Vi?"

He reminds her,

"Strength."

"How would you know that?"

"Well, what color did you change the crystal ball to? At the check in counter."

In recollection, she gives an audible hum,

"Green then red!"

"So, red is the dominant color?"

"Yep!"

"That's actually the initiation test. If you don't have enough Vita to change the color of the crystal ball. You get disqualified on the spot." then he retrieves a hand from his pants pocket and unfurls his palm. Channeling his Magia to compress the wind into a pentagon,

"Imagine strength is top most point of the pentagon. The other points connected to you are intelligence, on the left, and agility on the right. Red is strength, Green is agility and blue is intelligence. But, to use elemental magic, wisdom is all the way at the bottom, beneath intelligence. If your alignment is strength focused, diverting to agility. You wouldn't be able to reach the wisdom attribute."

She takes a moment to examine the shape, before widening her eyes to agree,

"Ohh! You're right! They're in opposite corners!" then it makes her curious, "So what color's your crystal?"

"Gold. Wisdom takes priority over intelligence, so my crystal went from blue to gold." then he adds before she could ask,

"And dexterity is purple." instead, she cues the next question,

"What's the difference between agility and dexterity?"

Dispelling his Magia, he shoves his hand back into his pocket. Pausing for a moment and swishing his tails as though he's thinking,

"I guess, an easy way to put it is, agility is how fast you draw a bow, and dexterity is how accurate your arrow shoots." then he warns,

"That's why, people with dexterity alignments are the most dangerous."

She tilts her head at him,

"Why's that? Can't you just dodge the arrow?"

"Realistically, it just means that they specialize in an one hit ko, type ability"

Hearing that makes her eyes sparkle,

"Like an ultimate skill? That's crazy cool!"

He gives a short breathy exhale,

"Idiot, it's not cool when you're on the receiving end of it." before breaking eye contact to meander them onto the right forked path.

"But, they usually have to fulfil some sort of a condition to activate it. So, if we do encounter one. Be cautious."

"What are the conditions?"

At that, he shrugs,

"Who knows. Everyone's Magia's different. It depends on the individual on how they wish to shape their abilities." then his ears flick again. Leaning closer to get a better look on the map that she's still absently holding. She has stopped checking it since the conversation started, but according to it, they should be out of the canyon soon.

"Wait, when did the red dot get here?" she lowers to follow where he's looking.

He's right. There's half a red dot right at the base on the house shape symbol. Optimistically, she guesses,

"Could it be another test taker? Maybe we can join forces!"

He reminds her,

"Test takers are green."

Then a throttling sound diverts their attention from the map to glance behind. There's a camel cart approaching rapidly. Seemingly to have emerged from one of the forked paths. Atop of it, sits a tanned man in loose desert robes, ferrying a cargo of outlandish looking blue and purple fruits and vegetations. They stick to the canyon walls to let him pass by them in a rush to turn the next corner.

Cyan points out after he's gone,

"He didn't show up on the map."

But she's more interested in the notion,

"We're actually near civilization! Come on! Let's go! Maybe we can finally get something to eat! And have a change of clothes!"

She isn't waiting for him to respond before she drags him on the wrist to follow where the merchant went in a hasty jog. Turning the corner. They emerge out of the valley. And she's elated to see something other than endless stretches of sand.

It makes her realize; the house symbol actually represents a town. There are massive stone walls in its direction. Stretching far and wide to the horizons, further than their eyes could follow. Behind it, buildings with rounded roofs spiral upwards a plateau to what looks like a, Persian style palace at the very top. Surrounded in luscious green palms all around.

In the skies, there are a few airships she recognizes, rustic with cogs and copper and flying the Felmane banner that she sees frequently in Gildamore, amongst other simpler looking white blimps that aren't facing her. The camel cart has already reached the entrance at this point. Joining the queue of merchants that have formed at it.

It looks guarded by guild members in the same style of loose flowy robes. Then the merchant disappears behind it, beyond where her eyes could no longer follow.

Her attention's drawn to Cyan when she hears him give an audible,

"Oh!" to indicate that he's figured something out,

"We're in the red barrens! That must be the town of Kusma." he says, pointing to the palace,

"And that's the headquarters of the Sandy Niles' guild. They act as the local government." and she gives him a committal gaze as they approach it to encourage him to elaborate further,

"But the entire region is under the Golden Eagles' guild territory." she's heard of that name. It's one of the Elite Ten that makes up the council of rounds. According to Killian, they're basically a collection of the ten most powerful guilds that makes all the rules. Then Cyan pulls his hands out of his pockets to interlock them behind his head,

"This would mean, right now, we're at the south-western regions."

"Woah! We're that far away?" she's only seen these areas on the old map decoration at Killian's tavern. But the realization of actually being here, makes her excited,

"That's so cool!"

He agrees,

"Yeah, it's actually my first time here too. The red barrens is usually fifteen hours away from my area."

Curiously, she asks as they line behind the merchants to enter Kusma,

"Which territory are you from?" but her eyes are attracted to the wagon in front of her. There're large chunks of cured meat and ham beneath the tarp in one crate, and poultry livestock in the other. Hearing their boks make her hungry. She can already feel her stomach growl. But she decides to shake her head to focus on Cyan's seemingly absent response.

"Niwagumo. What about you?"

Looking at him makes her realize, he must've been starving too. Because he's staring at the chicken with a pinpointed gaze. The dagger light in his eyes reminds her of an artic fox, ready to pounce with swishing tails.

Seeing the resemblance makes her snicker. Considering he's probably the type that wouldn't admit, he's hungry.

Then, she reaffirms, continuing the conversation,

"Niwagumo, that's the main city of Raven's Death's territory, right?"

The mentioning of Raven's Death makes him tense up for a split second. For a moment, she thinks, he appears bothered by it.

Except he just gives her simple shrug,

"Yeh." when he matches her gaze again.

She answers his question,

"I'm from Gildamore." and adds enthusiastically,

"I'm so glad I came for the exams this year!"

He's giving her his full attention now, raising a brow at her,

"Why's that?"

And she says, as if it's obvious,

"I wouldn't have met you otherwise if I had waited! I mean, I'm all the way in the west, and you're in the east!" at that, he breaks eye contact, staring in the opposite direction and mutters again,

"Idiot."

She argues,

"Stop calling me an idiot!" and admits coltishly, "I'm just happy because you're the first friend I've made!"

He snaps his head back,

"That's not something to be proud of, idiot."

It confuses her so she asks,

"Why not? Are you an outlaw?"

"No, I meant the part about you having no friends. Who just admits something like that so brazenly." then he laughs, as if he's teasing her,

"I can sor'ta see why. You're really eccentric."

"eccentri-c?" she tries to imitate his vocabulary, not understanding what it means.

"That just means, you're weird."

At that, she sticks her tongue out and makes a face. He's just about to retort when their attentions are demanded by a rowdy female voice,

"Alright, what's your order of business little brats!" it's from the young woman seated behind the customs counter. A mythical, Lupus subclass. Lilith can tell from her wolf ears. It's white at the tips that gradually fades grey to merge with her unruly hair, cascading over her sheer white halter dress. It doesn't conceal her sun kissed skin beneath. But the bulky, bronze neck piece falls just beneath her cleavage to cover her breasts. She's tapping her sharp nails impatiently against the table, like she's waiting for them to reply. Lilith is drawn to the ring on her middle finger. It has the same design as the one Killian wears. Except hers is engraved with an eagle. She's an adventurer.

Then Lilith checks their location against the glass map in her hands. They're stacked right on top of the red dot that has emerged.

Cyan says it before she could, figuring it out too,

"You're an exam official." the fact that she's been ignoring the wagon merchants behind them that simply goes past after a simple spot check by the security reassures that.

The Lupus woman laughs,

"Yup. That'll be me! I got pretty sick of waiting for you batch of slow pokes to figure things out, so I've moved front and center to greet you guys. Aren't you flattered?" then she stumps her elbow on the table, offering her right hand as though she's inviting to arm wrestle.

When both of them shoots her a confused glance, she encourages,

"Come on, we haven't got all day!" before eyeing the awkwardly place stool opposite her that Lilith hasn't even noticed,

"Just one of you brats would do."

Giving Cyan a look, Lilith takes a seat after he says,

"Well, I'm a Veneficius class, so this one's on you."

The moment she does, she's struck by an intimidating aura. It's the feeling of the Lupus's Vita, emitting from her like a black shroud that quietens all noises outside. It makes her heartbeats involuntarily pick up. Leaping to her throat almost, despite the amiable smile the woman has on.

Lilith takes her hand. Her grip is firm. Clutching down on her. She takes a deep breath, then she focuses her own Vita onto her hand. Mustering all her strength but the Lupus hardly budges. It almost feels like she's helplessly trying to push a mountain. Unrelenting and unmoving.

In fact, the Lupus is commenting nonchalantly,

"I'm afraid, at this rate, the two of you wouldn't be able to pass." before she overpowers her in one swift motion. Pushing her hand down and making her knuckles hit the table before Lilith's even able to react.

But it's strange, even as she's defeated, it stirs a foreign excitement in her chest. It's that same feeling she gets, whenever she fails a task, or loses a game. She doesn't quite understand it, but it makes her demand, as if entitled,

"Again!" before switching to her left hand,

"I'm stronger on this side." and plopping it on the table.

The Lupus gives a whole hearted laugh,

"Alright kiddo. Last chance." and takes it.

She squeezes her fingers, and this time, Lilith closes her eyes to an image. It's the same thing she told to imagine when Killian's taught her how to channel her Vita.

She's a container with a wash of red liquid, and she's able to command where it goes. So, she focuses it in her arm. Pouring, pouring, like juice into glass, and when she feels the force of the Lupus's backlash, she pours more, until everything's red. Red. Red. Red. And the same as last time. The more liquid she pours into the glass, the more distinctly it forms a silhouette. Until she's able to tell the shape is of a woman's back. She's in a red dress, clinging tight onto her like a sand dial. She's standing by an opened door frame. It's thundering outside. But she's turning around. There are shadows casted over her eyes from the big circular red hat she has on her head, so Lilith's only able to see her red lips with a mole beneath. She's saying something that she's unable to hear. Around her, there're sounds of dripping. It's red too, oozing in puddles on the ground beneath her feet, and raising in volume.

The higher this liquid gets, the more she's able to pour.

Then an amused,

"Oh?" makes her bat her eyes open to witness the Lupus studying her intensely, and saying under her breath as though she doesn't want others to hear,

"That's quite a dark aura you have."

Strange.

That's exactly what Killian's told her when he had interrupted her too. Except, the Lupus has a riled-up smile on her face. Bearing fangs through the corners of her lips. Her shoulders are hunched forward now, eyes glowing a deep navy blue. Muscles, in the Lupus's left arm, straining so tautly, that veins are popping from her biceps. It's tripled in size of her unflexed arm. Despite so, Lilith still hasn't gotten an upper hand but she can feel she's putting pressure on the Lupus. Right now, she's seeming much less like a mountain and more like a boulder Lilith's perhaps able to push.

Behind her, she's able to hear Cyan's voice, encouraging her, but she's choosing instead, to focus on the Lupus. Her own arm is beginning to hurt too, she's starting to tremble. So, she tries, forcing hard one last time.

But the boulder turns to steel.

That's when Lilith realizes, she's unable to defeat her. She's leagues from defeating her. She's able to feel it distinctively now, if she hadn't felt it earlier. The intensity of the Lupus's Vita. It's so overwhelming, as though an ocean, submerging her. An anvil crushing her. A landslide, burying her. She's in the face of a tsunami, and there's no way she's able to overcome that. But the Lupus smiles,

"Not bad, kiddo." before she retracts all of it, and lets her push her knuckles onto the table. The Lupus withdraws her arm. Reaching for the drawer beneath the table for a brown pouch. Pushing it forward,

"Alright, you pass!" she laughs.

Cyan's eager to scoop it up. Before gripping onto her shoulders, and celebrating,

"What the heck, that's amazing, Lilith! You just beat a Golden Eagle's guild member at arm wrestling."

No.

That's not quite it.

Lilith isn't certain what's gotten into her when she gets up, slamming both palms against the table and declaring,

"That's unfair!" and she demands,

"Rematch!"

That makes the Lupus throw her head back in laughter. When she's able to compose herself, she sits up, wiping a tear from her eye,

"Listen girly. I'm just here to gauge if I think you're deserving of passing my trial. And you earned it. Fair and square."

She argues,

"But you let me win. I didn't beat you."

"That makes you frustrated, doesn't it?"

"Of course, it does!"

The Lupus laughs again,

"You have the right spirit for an adventurer, girly." then she says,

"If you pass the entrance exams, come look for me at Golden Eagles. Ask for Satys Neith, I'll face you with the entirety of my strength."

At that, Lilith offers her pinky,

"Promise?" and she's surprised that she doesn't get the estranged look she usually receives as though it's something unorthodox whenever she does this. Instead, Satys takes her finger firmly,

"I promise." she says with a toothy smile.