Area

Hearing the shower go off, mixed with his humming is setting the mood in our room. Tranquil, and for once I feel that I'm calm. Sitting down on my bed as Nessa does as well, to probably take yet another nap. Grabbing the book, I've read before, opening the pages, scanning where I've left off, eventually finding the page I folded the corner from where I last ended. Laying down, and onto my side, starts reading the boon in my head.

'Section 5, Areas.'

'This is interesting, the history of the four Areas,' begins to read from top to bottom, word for word, trying to gain some knowledge from the book of history.

'The Areas are split into 4 categories, and everyone must go on all of these or the Shifter will not complete his or her mission. Each Area is dedicated to a specific task that every shifter must learn, and to use properly.

Area I: Crafts, is the starting point of every shifter, this is where the beginners, the freshmen, the juveniles start their training into becoming future shifters. In Crafts, the Area is specifically designed to have a bigger landmass than any other, Forestry is a big part and serves a big role in the Area. Here, trainees must learn how to craft weapons, defenses, and shelters. These three are major missions that everyone must excel in before moving up into the next Area.

The first trial is Shelters; each trainee will exactly have an hour to properly create a shelter made from the materials that are provided by nature. Rocks, branches, leaves, and other natural materials could be used. The usage of unsolicited materials will automatically be disqualified and will serve in court to be further turned into punishment for breaking of the Area rules. A shifter must know how to seek, and use shelter in desperate times and be able to provide itself with a sustainable solution that would put less effort to make but steady enough for the next part of the Trial.

After an hour of creating, automatically, the trainee must stay inside its shelter and stay there for 30 whole minutes. The Areas, advanced geo system will simulate, thunderstorms, floods, a forest fire, a tornado, and an earthquake. If ever the shelter will not withstand all of these Natural disasters, the mission is failed and must start over again in a week, enough for a trainee to learn and master the art.

After Shelters, is Defense. Trainees will have a specialized suit that they need to wear. This suit is designed to record every hit and touch of a foreign body. Shifters will be provided with a shield and a piece of cloth. Hunters will be released and would attack the trainee's insight. The trainee could go two ways, camouflage and be stealthy or be seen and shield back. Either way is accountable, and the only factor is, if a hunter touches the suit, the task would be failed and would try again in a week.

The final Trial in Area I is Weapons. 10 minutes of crafting will be provided to make a powerful tool to fight against random predators being set out by the system. Using natural sources, a shifter must be able to provide offense and fought back at an enemy. Once the enemy is defeated or forfeited, the mission will be successful and would immediately be up ranked into Area II.

Area II: Body, is the second Area a trainee must go thru. Body is considered the easiest Area in all of them. Here you will be only put into simulations of pain and would need to endure certain amounts of pain before completion. Body scans would be often an activity trainee would participate in. Health reports and body results would be given to trainees after a week of a body scan, after which would need to train and work in aspects they are lacking or failing at.

Some form of this is endurance, shifters would need to run up to 10 miles a day to increase their endurance and would pass the body scans. Pain tolerance is considered the hardest one, training would be strapped in a chair and it would spin in a few miles per hour in 3 minutes, this would simulate going into a wormhole at light speeds. Some fail to stay awoke and conscious, some succeeded and would automatically be transferred to Area III.

After passing all the body scans, trainees will head to Area III: Fight, in this Area, trainees will need to train in combat with AI or co trainees. There are battlegrounds, dedicated to every possible scenario in the Universe. Some become unconscious due to dehydration in the Dessert Dunes Arena, some succeed in the underwater Arena and some fail in the Blizzard Arena. Every possible terrain is being used in this Area. Shifters need to be able to withstand any forms of land, might be anti-gravity or zero oxygen, everyone must be prepared and come back alive after. After successfully fighting and defeating other players in 7 different Arenas. They will proceed into the last and most important Area.

Area IV: Simulation, in this Area, shifters will be placed in a simulation, a virtual reality of the wormhole passing and shifting into other dimensions. They would have missions, to retrieve certain artifacts from these planets and successfully return to Earth. They call this the Dry-Run because this serves as the test run for the shifters before the actual Shift ports would be opened and they would head into different dimensions or universes. This stage of the Area will have a Final Trial; everybody will altogether go in a simulation that is directly connected to their nerve cells in the brain. Whenever they would feel pain in the simulation will respond in reality and will simulate the same pain they've felt in the VR. If ever they would die in Virtual Reality. They would experience traumatic amounts of pain and would need to start all over again the Final Trial all by themselves, without teammates to help them.

After completing every task, every mission, and every Area, they would be given recognition by the end of the month and would be officially called Shifters.

In some instances, trainees would skip a trial in an Area if ever they would be injured or is not in a stable mindset to pass the trial. Those who skipped would be given a grace period and skip just once and would need to return to the Area and finish the task or else, will not receive the completion ceremony.

To our future Shifter, Good luck and always 'Trust in Us.'

Closing the book, placing it down on my stomach, staring at the bottom of Theos' bed frame. Imagining myself in those situations, 'why am I here? How did they get me here? I don't even remember going into these Areas and doing any tasks.'

Not feeling well, closed my eyes, and blank. Finding my mother in the infinite darkness my eyes could see, a spec of light, a beam of hope, anything to guide me in the darkness, to follow the radiance and into a succession of my suffering. I beg my mother in heaven, oh please give me an answer to my confused little mind, to which by now is tired of hearing, receiving the news I do not want to hear, I do not want to know.

"Oh please, Talia my mother, answer my longing to your soul."