Laying on the ground, with his arms and legs outstretched, Alnea was sucking in as much air as he could, trying to regain his breath. In vain, of course. He had been tired before, like the time when he had fought with Oren Beasts with just a few units of Spirit Power left. Or the time when he had to fight against dozens of Oren Beast at the same time. Back then, in the pursuit of feeling the breath of death, he had tried to make himself feel more tired than he had ever been.
Yet, in all his life, Alnea had never felt as tired as he was feeling at the moment. The Trial itself was not too difficult. But breaking city wide records… He was so exhausted that even thinking was beginning to tire him out. And if he could, he would have long closed his eyes to slip into the land of his dreams. Unfortunately, he could not sleep. He did not know what minutes, and seconds meant, but counting the time from the previous trials, he should have spent more than an hour and a half in the Trial Space.
Cecilia, on the other hand, had completed her Trial in just a little over a quarter of an hour, most of which was spent waiting for her Trials to begin. And after she was done with her Trials, she had to wait even longer for him and Yuri outside of the large doors of the Trial Space. Afraid that she might begin panicking, and rush to Tia, Yuri decided to end her Trials earlier than him. Of course, the fact that his Trials were more than ten times longer than hers might have also helped her make that decision…
In any case, both Yuri and Cecilia were waiting for him. So, even when he was exhausted, and sweating buckets, he forced himself to sit up, and look at the curtain of light hanging in front of him once again.
“Congratulations, Blood Soldier N 06 08499, for passing the tenth level of the Initial Stage Martial Style Trial.”
“You have cleared the Trial perfectly.”
“Time taken to defeat your opponent: 1069 seconds.”
“Moves made to defeat your opponent: 4.”
“Martial Styles used: 1.”
“Records broken: 1.”
“Perfect clearance of Trials: 10.”
“Blood Soldier N 06 08499, you have been rewarded with 700 Blood Coins, and 2 Martial Style Medal.”
“Reminder: Martial Style Medals can be claimed at only the reception of the Martial Hall.”
“Do you wish to continue with the Trials, or do you wish to leave the Trial Space?”
“Reminder: You have completed all the Initial Stage Trials. If you wish to challenge Trials of a higher difficulty, you must exit the Initial Stage Trial Space and get the permission to challenge the Intermediate Stage Trials, before you can continue with the Trials.”
“…Finally,” Alnea mumbled to himself, and pushed himself off the ground, before picking up his sword, and placing it back inside of its sheath. Turning back towards the curtain of light in front of him, he pressed the symbols that read, ‘Leave the Trial Space’. In the next moment, the symbols on the curtain of light scrambled, and disappeared once again, making space for new symbols, and a small box, about the same size as his Blood Card.
“Please place your Blood Card on the space provided below to collect your rewards.”
Place his Blood Card on a curtain of light? Then again, the curtain did feel a little tangible. Or else, he would not have been to touch the symbols. Shaking his head, Alnea took out his Blood Card, and placed it the box on the curtain of light. Moments later, the symbols on the fifth and eighth row of his Blood Card began changing, stopping only when the symbols on the curtain of light itself began changing.
“All rewards have been distributed.”
“You can remove your Blood Card.”
“The Trial Space’s exit has been opened for you.”
“If you do not leave in 10 second, you will be evicted from the Trial Space.”
“10.”
“9.”
“8…”
After reading the warning given by the Trial Space, let alone check his rank, Alnea did not even have time to think about what was happening. Stuffing his Blood Card back into his robe, he began rushing towards the pillar of red light that manifested the moment that the curtain of the light began its countdown. After all, he had no intention of being ‘evicted’ out of the Trial Space.
Fortunately, the pillar of light was not too far from him. Even tired and exhausted as he was, he still managed to reach the light in time. When he walked into the light though, he did not expect Cecilia to be waiting for him right in front of the exit. And Cecilia did not expect him to keep running after coming out of the Trial Space. Coupled with the small distance between them, by the time either of them could react, both of them went tumbling down to the ground.
“What are you doing?” Cecilia grumbled in a high pitched voice, glaring at him, with a slight blush on her cheeks. Normally, he would have laughed at her when seeing her in an embarrassing position. But with her face being just a couple of inches away from his, he could not stop his blood from rushing to his face. And he was too exhausted to even consider using his Aspects to hide his embarrassment. He did not even mind the dumb cat jumping on his back, and snarling at his neck.
“…How would I have known that you would be standing right at the exit?”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“…So, is it my fault that I was waiting for you?”
Looking at the dangerous glint in Cecilia’s eyes, Alnea let out an awkward smile, and said, “I am sorry for worrying you.”
“Who was worrying about you?” Cecilia said with a snort.
“…You two, if you want to show your affection to each other, you can do it back in your rooms. Right now, we are in the Blood Hall. Can you not feel all the Wanderers staring at you?”
“…Why are you still not getting off?” Cecili said, almost screaming in embarrassment, just as she pushed him away, before quickly getting back to her feet. Even the dumb cat quickly jumped off his back, and resumed its position besides Cecilia’s legs. Alnea, however, kept lying on the ground, and smiling awkwardly.
“…Are you alright?”
“…I am fine. Just a little exhausted.”
“…What were you doing in there all this time?”
“Didn’t Yuri tell you?”
“You were also breaking the records?”
“Why else would I have to spend so much time in there?”
“…Both of you are freaks.”
“Why are you dragging me into your spat?”
“…Because you broke the records too.”
“You could have broken them too if you knew how to do it.”
“And that is why you two are freaks,” Cecilia said, pouting in dissatisfaction. “Those records were already ridiculous enough to begin with, but you were even more ridiculous. Abandoning your performance in two fields to focus on just one… How can you think of such a radical method the first time you take the Trials?”
“If you had paid more attention to gathering information, rather than just completing the Trials, then you would have also figured out the trick to break the records,” Yuri said, before squatting down beside Alnea, and offering him her hand. “Let’s leave this place first. We can discuss other things later.”
“Alright,” Alnea said, grabbing on to her hand, and pulling himself up with her help. Before doing anything else though, there was one thing that he still had to check.
“Did our gamble work?”
“…Why not find it for yourself?” Yuri said to him with a smile, before adding, “You broke so many records… The Warrior Hall must have rewarded you handsomely. Even your rank should have seen a drastic jump.”
“Right, I haven’t asked yet. What is your rank in the Warrior Hall?”
“…I haven’t checked yet,” Alnea said, avoiding the eager eyes of the girls, before hesitantly taking out his Blood Card, and checking out his rank in the Warrior Hall.
N 06 08499
F I 5
000000
09135
000000
09135
005570
07527
0000075
139547
0000000
148972
00000001717
“…Seven thousand five hundred and twenty seven.”
“What?” Cecilia said, staring at Alnea with wide eyes.
“…Is it bad?”
“…Do you have misunderstanding about what the word bad means?”
“…I broke around nine records, and set eight new records for the entire city. Jumping a little over a thousand ranks should not be too much, right?”
“…Are we sure that we are talking about the same ranks?”
“…Don’t tell me you did not even go through all the Trials.”
“…Only a fool would pay ten Blood Coins again to enter the Trial Space again.”
“They why are you so surprised?”
“…I don’t want to talk about it.”
“…Is your—
“I am not talking about it!”
“…What about you, Yuri? What is your rank?”
“Seven thousand five hundred and sixty two.” Yuri said. “Just a little worse than yours.”
“…Poros’ fangs!” Cecilia cursed, with a pout on her face. “You two are cheating!”
“…What is your rank?”
“…I am not saying!”
“This is important. We need to know your rank in the Warrior Hall to discuss our plans.”
“You will make fun of me.”
“I will never do such a thing.”
“Do you take me as a kid?”
“I can take an Oath.”
“…Forget it,” Cecilia said, changing her face the moment she heard him talk about taking Oaths. “It was fine when I did not know about it, but do you think I will let you take an Oath now?”
“…My Oaths are not so dangerous.”
“…Are you so addicted to taking Oaths that you forgot what big sis Nyssa said?” Yuri said, glaring at him with dissatisfaction. Just to be on the safer side, she said the rest of her words directly in his head.
“You resonated with your Roots just a week ago. You have refrain from taking Oaths until its effect wears off.”
“…How long do I have wait?”
“As long as it takes. Or have you forgotten about what happened a week ago? Do want me, and maybe even Cecilia to risk our lives to save you once again?”
“…Forget it. I can wait.”
“…I know that your Oaths are important to you, but nothing is more important than your life.”
“You are.”
“…Pervert,” Yuri said, tearing her eyes away from his cheeky smile, just as her blood rushed to her face. Thankfully for her, she had an excuse ready to shift the topic away from herself. Looking at Cecilia with a solemn face, she added, “We really do need to know about your Trials, and how you cleared your Trials to decide how we should deal with the other Trials. But we can discuss those things back in our room. For now, let us return to the Blood Hall, and get our rewards.”