Dev gazed in awe as his group was brought to the flying island. Warren’s group had been split up after breakfast, when flying ships arrived to take them, and he had been selected to go to the mountainous island. The islands were even larger than he’d been told, easily clearing thirty miles across, and this entire island was covered in a mountain range while floating almost ten thousand feet in the air, illuminated by the partially eclipsed sun high above. He could see over two dozen more ships bringing their own groups to various locations.

Once on the ship, they were each handed a pack of supplies and given a number, and were being dropped off individually based on that number.

Dev flashed his essence vision and gaped at the incredible amount of essence on the island. The mountain was suffused with deep brown earth, and the peak was illuminated with brilliant light. Cold blue wafted down frozen upper slopes, brilliant green filled the lower slopes, and the entire island sat on a bed of purple. It was beautiful, and Dev kept activating the ability, trying to soak it all in.

Dev was placed near the base of the largest mountain shortly before midday. He had seen from the ship that there was a temple on top of it, that looked far older than he had been told. His essence sight showed the temple to be filled with gold colored essence, unlike the silver of the other peaks.

He took a look around. The local area was filled with greenery, but he could see that the upper parts of the slopes were barren. Dev hesitated, before deciding to move upwards to find a place to set up initially. He was interested in finding a way to the top of the mountain. He wasn’t sure where he would find anima-attuned techniques, but a temple seemed like an excellent start.

Dev started walking up the slope, pausing every once in a while to take a breather. He used what looked like game trails, winding up the sides. The mountain looked to be around twelve thousand feet high, so it would be a fairly long trek. It was at the third such stop that something unexpected happened.

“Hello?” He heard someone call. Dev had almost forgotten that there were other people in the trials, but with some quick math, he realized that there would likely be several people per square mile. It was surprising he hadn’t seen anyone before.

Looking around, he saw someone around twenty feet down the slope.

“Hi,” he said warily. “What do you need?”

“I’m Thad. Have you seen anyone else?”

“Dev.” he introduced himself. “And no, I haven’t. They're probably mostly going down the mountain. I imagine that there’s considerably more resources down below.”

“That makes sense. But why are you going up?”

Dev hesitated before replying, before realizing that worrying about information security was rather absurd at this stage of the trial.

“I’ve got an Anima affinity. I’m hoping that the temple has something useful for me.”

“Anima?”

“Souls and spirits.”

“Ah. Well have fun, then. I need something fire related.”

Dev returned to his climb. After around a half mile of walking, he came across a path that seemed to spiral around the mountain and started following it. He passed several more participants by the time he decided to make camp, having gone around five miles and half way around the mountain. Each time he passed someone coming down, they’d both watch each other warily, barely exchanging pleasantries.

He thought about setting up camp next to the trail, then reconsidered it. How much did he really trust the empire’s guarantees? Not enough to sleep in the open.

He instead went around two hundred feet into the forest, hoping it would hide his camp. He set up camp and started going through his bag. He knew he should have gone through it earlier, but he had been too nervous, and Warren had told them what they were geting anyway.

Nine meal rations, a self filling water bottle, a knife, a lightweight tent, a small bowl, and a flashlight, he thought as he went through the pack. Plus a sturdy backpack and the clothes on my back.

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He had been surprised initially when Warren told him that they would be receiving unlimited water, until Warren had pointed out that the trials were meant to be explored, and that the constant need for a source of clean water would restrict most trial takers to a few locations and encourage factionalism as water spots were claimed. The water would only refill at a rate dependant on the surroundings, but it allowed for a level of exploration otherwise unattainable.

It was still a couple hours before night time, so Dev decided to watch the road and see if he saw anyone. He carefully picked his way back down the mountain, relying on the greenery to remain hidden.

He stayed around a hundred feet up slope and commenced his vigil. There were a surprising number of people still moving, including, to his surprise, several groups. Dev had figured that it was still too early for people to be grouping up when everyone had sufficient resources and needed to travel to their own locations.

Oddly, he didn’t see very many people climbing like he was. Only two people passed his location going up, a red-haired boy and a blond girl who was looking around like she was paranoid someone would attack her. After she left, he only saw one other person heading down before sunset.

His people-watching completed, he went back up the slope, stopping a couple of times along thee way to pick wild vegetables. They were much more common around the slopes than they had been in the training camp. He suspected that was another thing done to assist in exploration.

After he made it back to camp, he washed the vegetables off and ate them alongside a ration bar. If things continue like today, these rations could be enough for a week.

Dev heard the sounds of insects waking up and quickly escaped to his tent. He did not want to be eaten alive his first night.

Dev had a drink of water and went to sleep.

------

Ow.

Dev’s back was not happy with him sleeping on such an uncomfortable surface. The tent didn’t come with a bedroll, so he’d been stuck sleeping on the lumpy ground. Definitely going to need to clear the ground next time before setting up a tent.

He climbed out of the tent, Rolling it up as quickly as possible. It was probably an hour after sunrise, and the tent was somewhat damp with mist, but Dev didn’t want to waste time getting to the top. With some luck, I might reach the top today.

He opened up a ration bar and ate half of it, saving the rest for later.

Packing up, he went back down the mountain to rejoin the trail. After around half a mile and meeting a couple of people sporting large numbers of wild herbs, he had a realization. The people coming down probably stripped the sides of the path of food. I should probably walk outside the path if I want to find anything.

Dev looked left and right, before deciding that the right side of the path, which led uphill, was probably better, as it would give him a view of anyone who was on the path.

He went around thirty feet uphill before stopping, not wanting to lose the path. As he continued his loop, he found that there truly were a lot of easily prepared foods just lying on the ground. By noon, he had already assembled an extra meal’s worth, and he went ahead and ate while he walked. Twice, he stumbled onto old campsites, leading him to think he might have been a bit paranoid when he camped so far off the path. He even stumbled upon a strange stone pillar, which he suspected was some sort of earth heritage that he didn’t qualify for.

As he got higher, he was shocked to realize that he must be over 15000 feet in elevation, but the air still felt like back home. Is it the environmental bubbles?

He continued up the mountain. By this point, he wasn’t seeing anyone else, just trees and the occasional animal that bounded away through the brush.

Dev decided to camp shortly after reaching the tree line. He was around a thousand feet below the summit, so he would be able to finish early in the morning tomorrow and be decently refreshed. Plus, once he left the trees, he wouldn’t have access to easy food unless the temple kept a well-stocked larder.

He set up camp in the shade of a rock outcropping, right before the trees ended, before climbing the outcropping for a better view. Once he was up there, he was treated to an incredible sight. Previously, the mountains and trees had blocked his line of sight off the island, but now, he was already above the other mountains, and the trees were all below his rock. He could see straight from the mountain down a great valley, to the ocean thousands of feet below, illuminated in shades of red as the sun came down. He could see that the island was moving east at an incredible pace.

“Wow,” he said to himself, stupidly. He looked the other direction and saw a clear sky filled with a dozen moons. As he watched, switching directions periodically, he saw a shape in the east. Coming from between the two smallest moons was a smudge. As he watched, it transitioned from a blurred shape into a great mass of white gold, soaring above the ocean. The details resolved, and Dev was able to see a great desert filled with rolling dunes and dotted with oases, approaching the mountains.

He watched, enraptured as they seemed to get close enough to touch, and a brilliant bridge appeared between the two islands. Ropes of pure energy snapped towards each other, and Dev saw as the entire bordering area of the islands became connected with rainbow light. He even fancied he could see some people crossing the bridge, but that was probably just his imagination.

The whole event only lasted a bit over ten minutes, leaving Dev lost for words when it was over. The desert sailed off into the east, disappearing into the lingering sunglow just a few minutes later.

He laid down on top of the rock, and fell asleep there.