Trial World (Part 1)

After everyone was lined up, the principal appeared before everyone while standing in the sky and cleared his throat. "I would like to start by saying welcome to all of you that have come here today. Passing this exam is paramount to joining the ranks of our prestigious school, but more important than that are the opportunities that the doors behind me represent. In the world that exists behind this trial door, there are countless opportunities that even demigods can make use of. Now, while it is hard to die within the trial world, your badge will take you out upon sensing fatal danger, but also it can be crushed to exit the trial world immediately.There are things in the trial world that can kill you faster than even the badge can respond, so I hope you will all remain vigilant. Anyone ejected from the trial world will drop their badge as they depart. A person eliminated will lose half their points and the badge that remains will house the remaining half to be consumed by anyone who finds the badge."

At the end of the trial, the participants will be entered into the school rankings for their class based on the amount of points acquired. This is not the total school rankings which can only be ascended by defeating the opponent that currently holds the rank. Now, without further ado, I wish you all the best of luck and happy hunting." The massive doors that stood behind him began to swing open as they revealed a swirling portal of light as people began to go in one by one. [The portal will separate you and Feng. I suggest you give him a way to stay in contact.] Feng was in front of Rowan and about to walk through the portal, so with little time Rowan flung a storm point, sticking it to his back before it faded from sight.

"That was a real late notification, Empry. I almost missed that." Empry bristled for a moment and then answered [It is because I was inspecting the portal in front of you. I have never seen this trial world before and was rather interested, but in turn I realized what this actually is. This world does indeed have trials in it, but the biggest trial may actually be the people in it. If I am not incorrect, somewhere behind those doors should exist your master's prison. A cage meant to hold beings that have created heinous crimes in the Ark or before it existed. The world is so bountiful because it is also the home of a group of people that sought to usurp your master, the atlanteans. They are the wardens of his prison.]

Rowan froze as he was walking through the portal as the information shocked even him while at the same time the portal exerted a pulling force that was pulling him through just as his head whipped around to the vice principal who flashed Rowan a radiant smile right as the portal pulled him in.

Rowan had gone through a teleporter not long ago and the feeling was similar, though the nausea this time was nonexistent and he was able to move the instant he landed. Rowan took stock of where he was and noticed that he was in a lush, green jungle. His mana burst from him as a cloud that sunk low and spread out, feeding him information and building a map in his mind as it spread. Not even a second after, an arrow came out of the trees silently and packed with enough force to bury Rowan in this jungle if he allowed it. This jungle was the perfect spot for an ambush. The trees here were some type of mana plant that blocked foreign mana. It made it so that he had to go around each tree, building them in his mental map based on the space that they took up and not their actual figures. The arrow, on the other hand, was timed perfectly and was no doubt shot with a spell which taught Rowan something else important. The space here was stable enough for Demigods to do battle without worrying about shattering this world. This was the entrance to a prison meant to contain even gods. Rowan's sword of the storms appeared before him and he snatched it up with his left hand and slashed downwards at the arrow at the same time.

The force of the arrow meeting blade caused an explosion of force that blasted through the trees on either side of Rowan, uprooting the trees with pure pressure. Rowan smiled and looked in the direction that the arrow came from. He vanished at the same time and appeared before the shooter. He was a student, not a native of this world, and with his surprise attack being foiled, he was shaken. Rowan's sword slashed down while carrying with it platinum lighting [Bolt Cleave] slashed down and aimed to bisect the archer before he could even react. The moment that his sword reached the top of his skull, the badge reacted and poofed the archer into nothing as he was ejected and his badge dropped on the ground.

Rowan made sure to watch the whole process as it happened so he could work out how powerful and fast an attack would have to be to kill another participant here. He nodded as it finished and pickup up the badge and touched it to his own before it flashed and turned into motes of light that drained into his own. He was able to hold his badge and realize that it now said 200 points. The archer had only the base amount that each participant was given, but it brought Rowan's total up to 200 and put him in first place on the leaderboards."

Rowan looked around as he began to make his way through the jungle. First things first, he needed to find someone to gain information and a map. He needed to know where to find the opportunities people spoke of before his journey continued.

On the outside of the doors, which had now closed, and in front of them stood a massive screen that showed each participant so everyone had just seen the elimination of the archer and as he vanished, he appeared in front of everyone as the first person eliminated. He began to stalk away from the portal and off into the distance when someone stopped him. "Young man, the Union would reward you heavily for information on the young man you fought while in the trial world. Trust that it will be worth your time, young sir." The young archer looked around to see if everyone was looking and then nodded his head yes and vanished far into the distance as they talked and left the scene.

At the same time, in the most lavish ship that had come, was sitting Steven Slate, and the man referred to as Sir Vitesse, the head of the Vitesse family. Sir Vitesse was no longer wearing the mask and revealed a face that was badly burned on one side but fine on the other for one second before his skin recovered and half of his face was flaming and half wasn't. He had been badly burned by the corpse flame of a necromancer and had never recovered fully. It was said that whenever he took the mask off, the flames would relight and burn at his face. He was a demigod and had several accessories made from materials rich in life mana that constantly healed his body when the mask was off giving him the look of his face slowly burning but not being burnt at all so a gray flame constantly was lit on the left side of his face as he sat there.

Steven slate poured him a drink and handed it to him as he took a sip from the glass and was surprised when it didn't melt. "They are cups fashioned out of the sands of time and bound in runes related to holding their current state. They are nearly indestructible. Enjoy yourself and drink, old friend." Sir Vitesse paused for a second and took a large swig and savored the flavor. "What is it that you would need from me, old friend? You never pull out the good stuff unless you are about to ask for something serious." Steven slate nodded his head, this time his face turning solemn. "I need you to find out about everything you can about this boy. I need you to dig out everything and find what he cared about. If he was given the lone wolf badge and named the disciple of the heavenly wolf, then he can not be underestimated. Jason will not be able to beat him, but if we can grab hold of his weakness before he comes out of the trial world, then we will be able to control him while he is in the academy.

Sir vitesse hesitated for a moment. "Are you sure that you would like to take this route? The heavenly wolf has stated that to go after a cultivator's family is a great taboo punishable by being put into his darkest prison, the cage." Steven slate grew red in the face and yelled back, "The heavenly wolf is nothing! He exacts this tax from our entire layer and we pay it for what when was the last time he showed his strength here? I hear rumors that his strength wanes and stagnates. His son founded this school, and he has been here once to impart this trial world and in turn we have to submit the best things we get to him?" No, I refuse. I will not live under this king. I have already made the steps to resist him and one boy will not stand in my way. Go and find what you can Vitesse, I will make Rowan Raid kneel and my plan to usurp this Ark will continue and in the end you will stand by my side. At the same time, we will eliminate the zombie scourge once and for all, earning everything that should be rightfully mine as the new King.

Vitesse did not say much, but he bowed to the man before him and walked out of the room. He was headed to find what he could because he knew one important fact and that was that the man before him held a great secret he was the second in command of the necromantic association and had used vile means to make his children as special as they were. He was a necromancer wanted by all and had hidden in plain sight for so long that he would not allow a single person to interrupt those plans.Vitesse had learned of the secret and ever since had been rendering the man his aid in an effort to remove the corpse flame from his face. A great change was coming to the Ark, and he planned to be at the forefront of it while also removing this flame from himself once and for all.