“…You three sure have a great understanding amongst yourselves,” Tia said, smiling at them, with a hint of nostalgia in her voice. “Treasure the bond you have. The trust you have… It is the hardest thing to earn in the city. Even harder than a place in the inner city. Unfortunately, I understood my lesson a bit too late. But you are new to the city. You must always trust each other. Especially since you are much younger than rest of the Wanderers in the city. Only when you are together will you have a chance to enter the inner city.”
“Worry not,” Alnea said, grinning at Tia. In essence, what she was saying was the same as what Martha had said. Yet, the way she was conveying her message, without any shred of hostility, or wariness against any of them, made her look much more reliable than the stinky woman who kept glaring at him.
“We are planning to go all the way to the core city. How can just the outer city stop our steps?”
“…Then I will congratulate you in advance,” Tia said, losing her nostalgia for her usual bright smile. “As for your questions, you should already know that there are three Halls within the Blood Hall. Namely, the Warrior Hall, the Arcanist Hall, and the Scholar Hall. Each of the three Halls have three different types of trials. There are trials which test your comprehension of the source of the power of the path, trials which test your application of the source, and comprehensive trials which test your overall fit with the path.
“In the Warrior Hall, these trials are called as Aspect Trials, Martial Style Trials, and Warrior Trials. Similarly, in the Arcanist Hall, the three types of trials are Mystery Trials, Arcana Trials, and Arcanist Trials, while in the Scholar Hall, they are Glyph Trials, Inscription Trials, and Scholar Trials. Additionally, there are some hidden trials in each Hall. Only if you meet certain conditions will these hidden trials be triggered. As for what these conditions are… After all, these trials are known as hidden trials for a reason.
“In any case, those are the types of trials in the three halls. As for the trials themselves… There are ten trials for each type, and for each Stage of the False Rank. Counting the hidden trials, each Hall has a hundred and twenty nine trials. I cannot share the specific details of the trials with you, so you will have to explore them on your own, but I can tell you that just completing all the trials is not enough to earn a place in the inner city.
“After all, just the Northern district has around a hundred and fifty thousand False Wanderers at any given time. Counting the other districts, there are roughly five to six hundred thousand Wanderers in the outer city. And from these hundreds of thousands of Wanderers, only a hundred or so can get the qualification to enter the inner city every month. And that is just a qualification. To actually be considered as a part of the inner city, they will have to face even more trials…”
Trailing off towards the end, Tia paused for a few moments, before shaking her head, and looking at them with a wry smile.
“Forgive me. I was distracted for a moment. As I was saying, to enter the inner city, you will have to pass through many trials. But those are things that you will have to consider later on. For now, your priority should be getting the qualification to enter the inner city. And to even qualify to enter the battle for earning this qualification, you will have to enter the top hundred ranks in all three Halls in our Blood Hall. But raising your ranks in the Halls would not be easy.
“Once again, I cannot go into specific details. Still, I can tell you that as of now, there are nearly nine thousand Wanderers registered in our Blood Hall. And out of those nine thousand Wanderers, four to five thousand are at the Intermediate Stage, while around three thousand Wanderers are at the Advanced Stage. Leaving aside a few outliers… the rest of the Wanderers are all the Peak Stage. And they will be your true rivals.
“Do not seek to complete the trials as soon as you can. Go through every trial, even the ones you can easily complete, with the mindset of competing against Peak Stage Wanderers, and always give your best. Only then, will you have a chance of breaking into the top hundred ranks of the three Halls. Or else, even if you complete all the trials, including the hidden ones, you will not be able to enter the inner city.”
“…We understand,” Alnea, Yuri, and Cecilia said in unison, nodding solemnly at the woman. “Thank you for your guidance, Wanderer Tia.”
“…There is no need to be so stiff,” Tia said, shaking her head. “I was just doing my duty.”
“Still, we are grateful for all the information that you have given us, Wanderer Tia. Feel free to come to us if there is anything we can do to help you in the future. We will try to help you to the best of our abilities.”
“…I will take you up on that offer when the time comes then,” Tia said, with her smile growing even more brilliant than before. “Have you decided which trial you want to take?”
“…Can you give us a recommendation, Wanderer Tia?”
“Since you are new to the Lost City, your first trials will be at the level of Initial Stage, so it would not matter what trials you choose. Still, I would recommend choosing between the Aspect and the Martial Style trial, and to take the Warrior trial after you have familiarised yourself with how trials work. It will help you achieve better results in the Warrior trials.”
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Glancing at each other, they gave each other a nod, before turning towards Tia in unison.
“We will take Martial Style Trials then, Wanderer Tia.”
“You look quite confident in your Martial Styles,” Tia said with a smile, before pointing to the other Wanderers standing behind the counter. “The one with the long moustache, he is Wanderer Raes. He looks over the Aspect Trials. The one towards the end, with his beard tied up in a braid, is Wanderer Ias. When you wish to take the Warrior Trials, you can go to him. And the one in middle, with his hair tied up in a bun, is Wanderer Naman. Go to him, and he will tell you what to do next.”
“Thank you, Wanderer Tia,” Alnea said in unison with Cecilia and Yuri, before walking towards the man that Tia had pointed to. And while they were at it, they did not forget to greet the other two Wanderers. After all, they would be coming to these Wanderers quite often in the next few months.
“You sure took your time learning about the trials,” Naman said, glancing lazily at Alnea and the girls. “Are you sure you want to take the Martial Style trial?”
“We are sure, Wanderer Naman.”
“Alright then,” Naman said, tapping the black box in front of him. “Scan your Blood Cards.”
Alnea nodded to the man and reached into the inner folds of his robe to take out his Blood Card, before pressing it on top of the black box in front of him. Almost immediately, the box began making some strange noises, and let out a few rays of red light. Unlike the box at his room though, the lights faded away after a few moments, just as the box stopped making those strange noises.
Withdrawing his Blood Card, Alnea moved aside, making space for Yuri, and Cecilia to scan their Blood Cards, before checking his own Blood Card.
N 06 08499
F I 5
000000
08794
000000
08794
000000
08794
0000075
139349
0000000
148953
00000000127
His ranks… Other ranks aside, even his rank in the Arena had fallen by quite a bit. The Lost City… it was quite competitive. Getting into the top few ranks in the trials and the Arena was not going to be easy. But… Would that not make the trials even more fun? And the Arena… Forget it, Alnea thought. He would just go brush up his rank in the Arena after completing the trials.
Thinking of the trials, Alnea glanced at the lowest row on his Blood Card. A hundred twenty seven… Ten Blood Coins? Was that the fee of initiating the Trials? Or was it just a deposit, like the one in the Arena? The chances of the latter being true were small… He remembered the guard saying that completing the Trials was going to be his only source of Blood Coins for a while… Forget it, Alnea thought once again. He would know the answer soon enough.
“You are all ready to go through Martial Style Trials,” Naman said after Cecilia and Yuri scanned their Blood Cards on the black box.
“…Where exactly are the trials held?”
“Except for the Black Desert Trials, all the other trials are held within the Blood Hall itself,” Naman said, before pointing to a door a little towards their left. “When you go through that door, you will enter the main staircase of the Blood Hall. Climb up the stairs to the second floor, and you will find a pair of doors blocking your way, with a scanner placed next to the doors.
“Normally, you will not be able to access the space behind the doors, but your information has already been updated in the Warrior Hall. You just need to scan your Blood Cards to enter the Trial Space. Details of the Trials will be provided to you within the Trial Space itself. You just need to follow the instructions and complete the trials. The Trial Space will do the rest of the work. Including updating your information in the Blood Cards.”
“Thank you, Wanderer Naman,” they said in unison, nodding at the man, before walking towards the door, and entering the staircase that the Wanderer had mentioned. The one they had used to go to the canteen the day before. He was not hungry though, and clearly not in the mood to do some useless exploration.
Tia had explained quite a few things about the Trials, and had even given them some information about entering the inner city, but they still had to explore the trials on their own. And they could not afford to be careless. Whether or not they would be able to live up to the expectations of his master would depend on how well they performed in the trials. And they had no intention of clearing the trials with anything but the best results.