The matches continued to progress one after the other, and before long, the top three had been quickly decided. Unsurprisingly, Ela and Jake had made it to the top three, and Damien had expected either Ruby or Adam to take the last spot, but surprisingly, Alina took 3rd place.

She had fought against Adam and Ruby both and bested them through well-thought-out attacks, whether it was striking at the perfect time or using her mysterious abilities, the woman earned the third spot with ease. Naturally, Ruby and Adam were both bummed out by this but accepted that it was their loss.

Jake ended second after barely losing a close match against Ela, who only won because of her spirit cloak. Had it not been for that keeping Jake’s powerful attacks at bay, she would have been forced to hide inside her spirit form to try and whittle him down slowly.

Currently, the top three were with Sokai picking out the rewards they desired from the vault Damien had previously picked his from. Since Ela got first, she was allowed to choose four items, Jake had been allowed to choose three since he got second, and Alina was allowed to choose two. As for the other people who achieved the top eight, they were allowed one item selection.

While they had been choosing, Damien had been glancing around at everyone present and was surprised to see that Zack and the old man were nowhere to be seen. Damien remembered him being one of the groups that were outside the temple, so considering the man was not here he must have failed the first three trials, if Damien had to guess which one it could honestly be any of them… his opinion of Zack was not very high nor was his impression of his strength.

As for the old man, that was a different story... him not being here came as quite a surprise to Damien since the impression he had given off from afar felt powerful but then again, the trials were not based just on strength but had other factors among them as well, so Damien could only assume he fell to one those which kind of sucked… Damien had been looking forward to meeting him and potentially fighting.

After waiting for around thirty minutes or so, Damien saw a group of people appear, which was naturally the top eight out of the corner of his eye. Behind them, Sokai could be seen floating in the air with a calm expression.

Scanning over the group of people he saw Ela looking at him with a big smile, showing that she was very happy with the rewards she had selected. Returning the smile, he made his way over to his group, who all also appeared just as happy as Ela did.

As Damien was about to ask what Ela had chosen, Soaki spoke out, “Now that everyone has been rewarded and all the trials are finished, it’s time for you all to leave, once you reach C grade in strength, feel free to make your way back to the temple if you are interested in learning its history and the history of the planet.” Sokai smiled lightly while pausing his words.

“I hope we meet again.” With that, the old spirit seemed to fizzle out of existence before disappearing completely.” Damien, seeing this, adopted an odd expression, when they had first laid eyes on the old man, he was sure that something bad would happen, but thankfully, his worries were unfounded, and Sokai seemed to be a genuinely good guy who Damien hoped he would meet again one day.

Suddenly, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder, turning his head towards the person. Damien’s expression became a bit intrigued. Surprisingly, it had not been someone from his group, but rather, it was Alina who had approached him.

Seeing Damien look at her with a questioning expression, Alina smiled and said, “I just wanted to congratulate you on being chosen by the spirit but I also wanted to ask you something…” Alina paused her expression looked like she was unsure if she should continue her words or not.

“You can ask me whatever you want, no need to hesitate,” Damien said, and upon hearing his words, Alina felt reassured and let out a sigh.

“Alright then, I wanted to ask why you have a… primordials aura.” Immediately after the words left her mouth, Alina tensed up, her reason for being so on edge made sense. Asking about things related to primordials would make almost anyone in the universe react similarly to her.

A puzzled look appeared on Damien’s face, hearing her question, ‘How does she know about that?” he thought before he quickly realized how she knew about the aura. When Damien had been outside the temple he had briefly used the ability to warn the man Alina had been traveling with.

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Now, knowing this, Damien’s expression eased, and he gathered his thoughts, “How did you know it was the aura of a primordial? Our world is extremely new to the system, and it's not something someone as young as yourself would recognize.” Damien stated with a curious look.

Noticing the look of curiosity on Damien’s face, Alina felt extremely relieved, she had thought Damien would have been extremely angry or upset at her question, but thankfully he seemed relatively unbothered by it. “Normally, you would be right that no one would recognize the aura, but my case is a bit special… Remember what the old spirit said when he first told us about the trails?

Damien quickly nodded his head, prompting her to continue, “In that case, you know Earth has had the system “arrive” twice. What you most likely don’t know, however, is that some of the people with special races were able to survive and live after the system left the planet, among those who survived were some of my ancestors who passed down knowledge along with the bloodline of my race throughout the many generations after the system left.”

A look of realization appeared in Damien’s eyes. “So I’m assuming that you were taught that knowledge by your parents or other relatives of your family, and among that knowledge are things related to primordials?”

“Mmm, that’s not quite the case, It has more to do with my race being the reason I was able to tell you had the aura of a primordial. For every race in the universe, there was something called a “progenitor,” which basically means the earliest being to exist of a bloodline or race. The race I am from is called “Laima,” which is an offshoot of something you're probably familiar with, being vampires.”

“I think I understand where you are going with this.” Damien said before pausing briefly, “I’d assume it has something to do with you being related to vampires, and since my race is what vampires came from, I have the aura of a primordial to you, right?”

Alina smiled while also having a hint of surprise on her face at how easily he was able to guess what she was trying to get at. “Yes, that is basically what I was trying to say, However, I had thought you were a vampire, and that’s why the aura was showing up. While I know more than the average person on the planet because of my elders passing down that knowledge, I have no idea what a primordial truly entails and how one attains the aura you give off… all I know is my instincts scream at me when I look at you.” Alina stated with cold sweat running down her brow, having been so close to him for this long.

‘That’s a bit troublesome,’ he thought after hearing her words. Hopefully, he could find a way to hide his aura. Damien did not want trouble to come his way because of it… while dealing with someone like Alina was no issue if someone stronger than himself sensed it, there was no telling how they might react.

Turning his attention back to the woman in front of him, Damien was about to say something but suddenly felt a chill crawl down his back, glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ela staring at him with an almost creepy smile.

Swallowing hard, she quickly turned back to Alina and said, “It was nice talking to you, so if you need anything else, I’m going to head back over to my group.” Without giving Alina the chance to respond, he flashed away using a flicker.

Alina was left stunned at Damien’s actions before turning her head towards the man’s group. However, she quickly noticed why he left so quickly and looked extremely frightened as currently Damien could be seen trying to placate Ela, who was giving him the cold shoulder.

Alina adopted a beautiful smile while laughing lightly after seeing such a scene, and who wouldn’t? Seeing a primordial look so nervous was truly entertaining and was something Alina was sure she would never see again. Shaking her head, the woman turned around and walked back over to her group after spending a bit of time watching the scene. While Alina sure thought it was funny, Damien most certainly did not the last time he had been this scared was before he had gotten kidnapped. At the time, Ela was also acting just like this, and she had refused to talk to him for three weeks, after that incident, Damien swore he would never make her angry again.

Fortunately for him, though, Ela started laughing after seeing the nervous look on his face, making him let out a massive sigh of relief.

“No need to be so nervous, Damien, I am not an immature little girl anymore who would get jealous just because you are speaking to another woman. Besides, I saw her approach you first.” Ela stated with a lovely smile before locking arms with him.

Smiling at her words, Damien turned to the rest of their group, who were all laughing at the nervous looks Damien had displayed before, causing Damien’s eye to twitch in annoyance. Turning his head to Adam, who was laughing the loudest.

“Alright, since you think it’s so funny, Adam, how about I tell everyone the events of THAT night?” Adam’s expression quickly changed to that of horror, looking around at the others, who all became curious at Damien’s words, Adam gulped.

“Guys, how about we get out of here? I’m not sure about you guys, but I am quite tired and could use some much-needed sleep.” Seeing his pleading expression, Damien laughed out loud but decided to spare him for now.

“Adam’s right, let’s start heading back It's been a long couple of days, and I would like to relax a bit myself.”