Even with threats to their lives, all of the ten candidates stood their ground and shook off the possibility of giving up. they declared their intentions to the old manager and waited for their next instructions.

"Excellent!" He said cheerfully, "It's so great to meet courageous magus such as yourselves!"

"Since you have decided, we shall proceed to the second trial."

"Each of you will choose a hazard dimension starting from the first to clear the first trial to the last, then, after declaring out loud your intention you will step into the trial and proceed to challenge your hazard dimension of choice."

"To guarantee some degree of fairness between the candidates, after someone steps into the portal, the next person to go has to wait five minutes before they can go into a portal."

"This test will last for seven days and each of you will receive a tracking device so that you can find your way back to the entrance portal."

"Any questions?"

None of the ten spoke, seeing that he nodded in satisfaction. The old magus did not wish to bother himself with further questions as he thought he had explained thoroughly, so when he saw that no one had questions for him, he was quite happy.

"Now, I will say the contestant's name, you will reply and speak which dimension you choose before going into it."

"Igni Strong!" He called.

A young man stepped out of the group. He stood at 1.85 meters tall and had a strong and burly body, his skin was strongly tanned as if he had worked countless hours near a forge, he had tattoos that resembled a Chinese dragon on each of his arms. His hair was short with a black coloration and his eyes were dark-brown in color. He wore a worn out sleeveless brown shirt, leathery black pants and black leather boots with metallic tips on them.

"Yes sir!" he replied loudly, "I choose Doom Fireland!"

"Good choice!" replied the old magus, "You may go."

Igni dashed and stepped into the scarlet portal, it fluctuated and sucked him in and gone was the young man. After five minutes the manager called once more.

"Suzanne Lionesse!"

A rich looking girl stepped out of the group. She wore a fancy purple silk dress and simple purple sneakers, Her hair was tied into a ponytail and was deep scarlet in coloration, her eyes were icy blue and she had a fair white skin. She had an especially arrogant air to her as she stepped and heaved her chest and held her breasts with her arms crossed underneath her, her eyes displayed her annoyance at having to wait her turn.

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"I'm here!" she replied, "I choose Heaven's Peak!"

"Interesting!" the manager spoke, "Good luck!"

Suzanne moved and stepped into the Azure portal, instants later she was gone. Five minutes later the manager continued.

"Marcus Nightfall!"

A figure fully dressed in dark robes and wearing a dark mask that covered his face up to his nose, revealing only his eyes, ears and hair stepped out of the group. He had pale white skin as if he had some kind of disease or lacked vitamins in him, His eyes were scarlet and his hair was shaved making him look like an assassin monk when combined with his dressing choices.

"Yes..." he replied with a hoarse voice, "I choose Death's Ruins."

"Grim!" The manager laughed, "Proceed!"

Marcus nodded and dashed off into the Black portal, in seconds he was gone. At this point, Ventus finally stopped paying attention and only slightly remembered the order of the contestants and their choices, not exactly paying attention to their appearances anymore.

"Lucio Pendragon!"

"I choose Eternal Peace Forest!"

"John Finnegan!"

"I choose Heaven's Peak!"

"Tidus Acqua!"

"I choose Eternal Peace Forest!"

"Anthony Tempesta!"

"I choose Doom Fireland!"

"Mara Fiore!"

"I choose Death's Ruins!"

"Luna Ziegler!"

"I choose Golden Wind Desert!"

As the figure of the young girl somewhat acquainted with his master disappeared into the golden portal Ventus prepared himself. He concluded after much deliberation that the best choice for him was to face the Eternal Peace Forest dimension as he would have abundant ground to use and could use the forest's environment to manoeuvre and strike at the Ironhide bear with a relative ease, guaranteeing him a somewhat easy victory. After five minutes his name was called.

"I Choose E...."

He was about to speak when he heard a voice in his ear.

"Kid, go to the Golden Wind Desert!" Richard transmitted his voice.

Ventus turned to face Richard with an inquisitive look as if he was saying "Why the f*ck would I do that?" and awaited further instructions.

"Because.." He continued, "Building up relations with someone that is so closely related to a grandmaster can prove to be quite useful, plus, if you end up protecting the young lady, her father will view you in good light and maybe even owe you a favor."

"Ugh, fine" Ventus grumbled.

"Your choice young Ventus?" The old magus questioned.

"I choose Golden Wind Desert..." he spoke in a sigh.

"Nice choice kid, good luck!" The manager chuckled.

Ventus begrudgingly dragged himself to the golden portal and stepped on it. The portal fluctuated and he was sucked into it. His vision grew blurry and dark for a few instants before a yellow light shone on his eyes.

When his vision finally cleared up he saw an incredible sight. As far as his view could reach there were only massive dunes of golden sand, above that there was only a cloudless azure sky with a shining flaming golden sun above that ruled unopposed in the endless blue dome of the heavens.

Before he could settle in and prepare to proceed he heard a scream from a familiar sounding voice not far from him across a dune.

"Really!? barely five minutes have passed and you already managed to screw up?" He shouted annoyed.

He dashed towards the direction of the scream and quickly traversed the slippery golden sand to reach the other side of the dune only to find a distressed young lady being held hostage by a massive twenty meters long silver colored viper.

He immediately clapped his hands and formed several mana threads between them, he slapped the ground with his hands.

"Hey king cobra! why don't you fight someone your own size!"