CH 10 Survival Test-Part 1

After torturing Rudra with whole day of shopping, Shiva allowed him to rest finally and booked two rooms in a hotel. The next day, Shiva took him to the exam location, which was a big arena like stadium in the center of the city. There were hundreds of Inhumans of all kinds taking part in it. All the participants looked similar to Rudra's apparent physical age.

"Alright kid, listen closely. They medium of test changes every five years. Hence, I don't know how it will be. But all tests are guaranteed to be a group test. SO, when interacting with others, be very careful. Even though you look like this, you are still someone who has been in this world for barely a month."

"Don't worry sis, despite being just a baby chronologically, you can guarantee I am more mature than most of those kids in front of me. You can rest assured I will take care of myself."

"I hope so kid. By the way, I have permission to observe you while you take the test. If I see you do something stupid while in it, you will face a training of nightmare level difficulty when you return."

After bidding farewell to Shiva, Rudra went to the center of the arena where all the participants were assembling. The guardians had to wait and observe from the stands; hence Shiva made her way to one of the VIP cabins in the stands. As soon as she took her seat, an ancient looking old man suddenly emerged in the seat next to her soundlessly, as if he had been sitting there the entire time.

"Tell your so-called nobles to pay heed old man" Shiva said without being fazed "the moment they try to apply their politics to that kid I will rip them apart to the last descendent. If they think they fear me now, I am sure they wouldn't want to know what it means to be terrified of me with every breath they take. No one will be able to stop me then, not even you. I have grown much stronger than the last time."

"Words of the Nanotech Goddess are too precious to be wasted on those wretches" the old man replied calmly while looking at various participants as if seeing right through them "the moment you stepped in my city, I already warned those wretched clans to keep their intentions away from anything concerned with you unless they wanted to make me against them. You can rest assured if any of them tried something against the wishes of that boy then I will personally accompany you in the slaughter."

"It is so old man" Shiva said while relaxing "So, any favourites?"

"Your boy is definitely one of my favourites in this test" The old man said "other than that I see only a few more choice seeds amongst the 'humans'. Among the others, I have eye on a Naga girl, A Cat Sage boy, a Divine Lion girl, a Preta girl, an Elemental girl, and probably the favourite for the top position this time- a boy of the lost Monkey Sage Clan."

"What?! A Monkey Sage has been spotted? And the nobles left him alone?" Shiva asked, shock clearly visible in her voice. Monkey Sages were a special race, just like Asura and Ishwara. That was why she was shocked as those noble clans generally tended to poach all such talents that are rogue and without a backing. This was also why she was afraid for Rudra as he was also a rogue Inhuman and also new to this world.

"Of course, they won't touch him, I have already put my mark on him. Once he passes the assessment, I plan to make him a personal student of mine. He specialises in techniques similar to mine, I also saw him having decent temperament up until now." The old man said arrogantly.

"Well who would have thought the Blood Rain of Rakshasa Clan would end up picking a Monkey Sage descendent as his student. Seems like a joke of Fate" Shiva said teasingly

"Hah, as if I care which race, he is of. All I care about is talent and nature. I don't need some blood thirsty slaughterer. I just need a level headed kid with enough talent and comprehension. Strength can always be obtained; character is not so easy." The old man said while closing his eyes

"Well said old man" Shiva said as he copied his actions and closed her eyes too. They were not sleeping, instead they were using their mind senses to observe the test with more details than their physical senses would allow.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

In the meantime,

Rudra had reached the central stage along with rest of the students, as they had been instructed before coming to the arena. Once they were all assembled, murmurs and grumbling started as to why nothing was happening. A few moments later, a mechanical beep sounded from seemingly all directions, silencing the participants assembled there.

"10,296 participants detected!" a mechanical voice announced "All representatives from the 12 Major academies are in attendance. Test venue being sealed from any outside influence! Test can now begin!"

Before they could understand anything, another announcement was issued from the mechanical voice "Test theme is being randomized! Test theme decided – Survival Theme! All participants are advised to do their best and showcase all their skills to survive in the test location they will be sent to. Total duration of test: 3 Months or 90 Days."

"Participants will be assigned points based on their actions, talent, judgement and the duration of time they survive. Each category has points out of hundred, making the total points Four Hundred. Participants who can manage to survive for the entirety of 90 days will be assigned 20 bonus points. Participants will be transported to the test location in 5 minutes. Please prepare yourselves."

All students started to check and prepare various things. Some polished their weapons, some started to do some last moment energy manipulation practice, while others observed the gathered participants to pick out the rankings of the strong.

Rudra decided to not hold back, after all he didn't know the strength level he had amongst these people. After two nights of cultivation, he already had a few hundred thousand skill points. He invested most of them to raise all the lower levelled skills to C- rank.

Immediately a rush of current like energy flowed through his body and mind. He felt refreshed and invigorated, his body was almost singing with refreshed feeling. Just as he was revelling in the changes he experienced, a water surface like ripple emerged in the surrounding.

"Participants will be sent to the test location! Good luck!"

Next moment, Rudra felt strong drowsiness as he, along with the other participants, fell unconscious on the ground.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A loud chirping sound woke Rudra up. He found he was in the middle of a forest of trees. He couldn't see any of the participants, but he saw many colourful birds flitting about amongst the trees. The trees were all pretty large, larger than the tallest trees in his previous world. Getting up, he patted himself to remove dirt and a few insects who had stuck onto him.

He decided not to rush into anything. He was calm enough to know that the test had already started. He opened his status panel and looked through all his skills to determine those that he could use currently. He was pretty sure he was being monitored even if he couldn't determine how.

Ultimately, he chose Force Manipulation for movement, Prana Manipulation for sensory technique, Virtual Mind Interface and Parallel Thought Mastery for planning and judgement. He decided to not show the rest of his skills until he is forced to under circumstances.

Reducing his gravity with force manipulation, Rudra easily climbed the nearest tree. Climbing to the top, he scanned his surroundings. At first, he didn't find anything, but after calming his mind and senses with Basic meditation, he was able to hear sounds of metal clashing in a certain direction. Focusing in the same, he saw a few birds flitting away from that direction, confirming his deduction.

Rudra quickly jumped from tree top to tree top in high speed, using purely his physique without any empowerment. He soon reached the place where he heard the clashing from. He saw a girl wounded with blood flowing from her wounds rapidly.

However, the girl didn't care about the wounds at all as she bravely faced five participants of Wild race, while wielding a thick arm length wooden stick with runic markings. After observing their characteristics for a few moments, he determined the chances of them being of Were-Hyena clan the highest.

They were all boys and used a sort of hooked claw weapon that they wore like a glove. However, after further observation he determined that they weren't wearing clawed weapons, their hands had instead transformed to a weird human-animal hybrid that allowed them to have individual fingers with long sharp claws and fur.

Just as he was debating whether to enter the fight or not, he saw that a sixth member of the were-hyenas had appeared suddenly and was going to sneak attack the girl. The next moment, Rudra found himself on top of the sixth were-hyena, his hand on the back of his head and his knee pressing the were-hyena to the ground.

Rudra realised that he had moved instinctively before he realized it. That was one of the downsides of parallel thought mastery. If not controlled consciously, then it often made decisions based on subconscious desires, before you even realize it consciously.

Deciding not to worry about it since it was already done, Rudra started helping the girl. He flung three of the Were-hyena attackers against the trees with repelling force of gravity manipulation. Before the remaining two could understand what was happening, Rudra had already sprinted up to them while crouching low.

He had two small balls of prana compressed on his hands that were rotating swiftly. The moment he came withing striking distance, Rudra delivered a palm strike to each of them. An energy blast emerged from the pointed of contact, breaking the rib cages of both were-hyena boys and sending them far away because of the blast.

Having determined that all the were-hyenas were incapacitated, Rudra turned to the girl, only to find her on the ground unconscious. Sighing in annoyance, Rudra grabbed her wooden stick and tied it to his thigh with a piece of cloth that he had brought for any emergency.

Picking up the bleeding girl in a princess carry, Rudra sprinted back in the direction he had come from. He took care to again travel from the tree tops and not leave any tracks on the ground.

After reaching his initial spot, Rudra carefully deposited the girl against a tree, taking care not to further hurt her wounds. He swiftly opened his shirt and hoodie jacket and tore them up to form long strips of cloth. With his medical knowledge he gained through the one week of non-stop studies, he was very proficient on all kinds of first aid and basic medicine knowledge.

He slowly peeled off the outer layer of the girls clothing, which was in tatters from the claw attacks, and cleaned the wounds with a few strips of the cloth he had made from tearing up his shirt. His jacket had been more elastic and absorbent, hence he had decided to save its cloth strips to bandage the girl.

Once Rudra was done with his treatment, the girl looked like a petite mummy wrapped up in make-shift bandages. Only her head was uncovered and Rudra cleaned the dirt and blood that were stuck on her face.

After he was done, he observed the girl while sending Prana into her by holding her hand. He was doing this to ensure her wounds didn't get infected or anything and gets healed without a scar. He knew how sensitive girls are to scars from his previous life.

Luckily all Inhumans have a high recovery attribute. As long as they are not dead and given enough time, they can usually recover from most severe injuries too. He was sure the girl would recover too and his action of supplying Prana to her was only to make her recover faster.

After some colour came back to her cheeks, Rudra observed her features. She was a petite girl of around the same physical age as him. She had long hip-length hair, that was unfortunately damaged during her fight. Many clumps of her hair had got shredded, leaving behind shoulder length remains.

She had a fair oval face with big cute eyes, small nose and blood red lips. She had no physical feature that called her out to be of Wild, Mythical or Primal race, but for some reason Rudra felt sure she was not 'Human'.

Soon the girl twitched, the action sending pain through her body and also awakening her. As she opened her eyes, memories flooded in and she swiftly looked around her in panic. She couldn't find her weapon that flustered her even more, before she saw Rudra holding it out to her.

Slightly confused at his actions, she slowly grabbed it while keeping a watch for any trickery. After she had the weapon in her hand, she felt some of her confidence returning to her. It was only then that she saw she had been bandaged and it was pretty apparent who had done it.

She blushed at the fact that Rudra had most probably touched her all over, but she was also not a fool to not realize that he only helping her and had no untoward intentions. The fact that he was still looking at her with concern made her trust him more and rose her impression of him in her heart.

"Thank you!" the girl said while bowing slightly and winced. Rudra immediately supported her and gently made her lean against the tree.

"Don't make my work go in vain" Rudra lightly scolded her "Just rest and heal, movement will open up your wounds beneath the bandages."

The girl just gave an understanding nod and did as he said. Seeing her obey him without objection, he decided to introduce himself to her.

"Okay, I think introductions are in order." Rudra said "I am Rudra, Rogue Inhuman of Human Race. What is your name?"

"Mukti. Preta Clan" the girl said with short precise words.

"Hello Mukti, very nice to meet you. Hope we had met under ordinary circumstances. Why you were fighting those were-hyenas single-handedly? If I hadn't been there then you would most likely have died you know." Rudra lectured her, not realizing that he himself had done the exact same thing he was lecturing her of.

"Unfortunate coincidence. Not Intentional fight. Was ambushed by them." Mukti replied with short phrases.

"I guess it's not your fault then. Also, you don't like to speak, much do you?" Rudra asked and seeing her nod he continued "Anyway, we will stay the night here and wait for you to heal. I will arrange for food and shelter shortly don't worry. Tomorrow we can go our separate ways if you like."

"Okay" Mukti said as she closed her eyes to rest and heal faster.

"(Sigh) This is going to be a very long night!" Rudra muttered as he went to arrange shelter and food for them.