Black Bourne

Key Stroke sighed quietly in relief. If Steele Wake had actually failed, it would have weakened the others resolve considerably. Thankfully, Steele Wake had a firm goal he wanted to achieve. Now all they could do was wait on the outcome.

Waiting, Key Stroke watched as the light in the sky changed into night. Before long, a whole day passed by with no signs of Steele Wake exiting the Divine Door. The time during the wait, they could only gather food and water while camping near the Divine Door.

"Tribe Leader is it safe to stay above ground like this for long periods of time?" Key Stroke asked as they waited on their second day. "No creatures are willing to disturb this holy place." The old man answered.

"Why not live by the Divine Door then?" He questioned more. "You!" The old man exclaimed in shock and anger. Was there something wrong, with what he had said? Furthermore, why didn't their ancestors try this method for better survival?

"Young Tribe Leader, don't speak any more of these things. Or we can not continue to be friends." The old man said in a neutral tone. Key Stroke could tell he had truly struck a cord in the old man. Not wanting to break their fragile bond as he still had much to learn from the old man, he chose to remain silent while waiting on Steele Wake.

After two more days, they saw him walking out of the Divine Door. His body was slightly bent over as if there was a massive weight on his shoulders and the look in his eyes showed, whatever happened, had exhausted him immensely.

Looking at the tired expression and heavy breathing state he was in, Key Stroke decided that sending the others who didn't have complete confidence in their ambitions would be detrimental to their objective.

Wanting to explain the situation to them while they were together, Key Stroke spoke up before anyone move forward to the Divine Door. "Let's not lose sight of why we all came to this place. I think we should switch the order of who goes inside. Those with complete confidence should attempt it, from here on out. For the others, it won't be too late after being tempered from the world's environment."

The others looked confused for a second before it dawned on them what he meant. But who would be willing to let themselves experience a world with giant bugs while being weak and powerless? The group of students quickly voiced their disagreement.

Watching their expressions gain more resolve to it, Key Stroke was surprised. He didn't think his words would have that great of an effect on their determination to succeed. With the group's chances now being higher, he kept silent on the matter, as to not weaken their resolve.

Not too surprising, each student began taking and passing the test set by the Divine Door after great struggling. The fastest time besides Donn Kell's one hour was two days and achieved by Skyla Betts, while the longest ended up being the boy who asked questions, named Shaw Caine. His time took a whole week.

Soon, the only ones left and still needed to take the test was Black Bourne and Key Stroke. Key Stroke didn't prepare any speech or words for his best friend. He merely nodded to him in acknowledgment, before waiting for his turn to be next.

He was confident that Black Bourne would have no problems becoming an Adapter. His goals and will didn't lose out to Donn Kell in any way. In fact, if he had to describe the two, they were opposites.

Donn Kell was a natural born killer. And it was his strong will that kept him from releasing himself and becoming a criminal. As for Black Bourne, he was a natural born protector. His very ambition was to protect everything with great strength, regardless of the dangers he might face.

Key Stroke quietly closed his eyes so he could better prepare his ambition as the footsteps of Black Bourne making his way to the Divine Door entry reached his ears. The student group, on the other hand, didn't share Key Stroke's same belief in Black Bourne.

They had all experienced the might of the Divine Door. None of them had been able to do what Donn Kell had done. Some had even stayed on their knees for hours to build up enough resolve. As for the tribesmen, they had long since become speechless.

When the old man had brought them to the Divine Door, he only hoped for one to pass the Adapter test. Instead, he saw every member of the student group become an Adapter. Didn't this mean that his people had been living in vain all these years?

Walking with steps of confidence, Black Bourne reached the three meters mark without pause. Every footstep was steady as if he truly didn't feel the pressure that had almost caused a few students to fail. Within seconds, he was able to enter the Divine Door without any problems or delays.

"What do you think? Do you think he will take longer than Shaw Caine?" Steele Wake asked. The one who was to respond was Donn Kell as he snorted. "This is why I said you been raised in a greenhouse. He won't take more than two hours." He said.

Since when did Donn Kell have so much faith in Black Bourne, was the thought running through the group of students. As far as they knew, Donn Kell hated everyone, especially Key Stroke and Black Bourne.

In no time, an hour passed and at that moment, Black Bourne could be seen walking out with no change, just like how Donn Kell did earlier. For others, it was another miracle happening, but for Key Stroke who knew Black Bourne, it was as expected.

"you took to long returning Black. You almost fell behind Donn Kell's record." Key Stroke informed his friend. Black Bourne shot a look at Donn Kell before giving his own opinion. "It's impossible to lose to someone like that. Before us two, he can only stay third best." Black Bourne said.

He was extremely confident nobody could or would be able to, outdo him or Key Stroke. This wasn't just arrogance talking, for as long as he could remember, involving anything, Key Stroke had always been number one and himself number two.

He still didn't see anything changing now either.