Trial End

Time continued to pass in a never-ending way. It wasn't only their group who was trying their hardest but the others were also doing everything in their power to take advantage of the remaining time.

Somewhere not far from White's group was a group settled within a place with numerous primal seeds, a sliver-armored youth led the group and had a dashing look.

"Lenju, can you increase your Unity anymore?" the voice of Ruu resounded looking at her token.

"No, It's stuck at 34% I don't know why," Lenju replied with an annoyance on his face. He had been trying to absorb more primal seeds that were allocated to him but his token wouldn't absorb it anymore and his Unity remained unmoving. This made him frustrated.

It was not only him, the majority of the friends he made friends from Desolate Plane, along with the villagers were facing the same problems when there was little time to the end of the trial. If there was anyone they knew who hadn't faced this problem, it was the Little Chief; the son of the village chief.

"Friends, it seems our talents have reached their limit," at this time, someone they befriended from this trial approached them and spoke.

"What do you mean?" Lenju asked feeling confused.

"I heard it yesterday and don't know whether it's true or not but," the man paused for a moment before saying, "Apparently, people who can't absorb any more of the primal seeds have already reached the limit of their talent and no matter what you tried you can't absorbed anymore of it."

"Limit of our talent?" Ruu repeated, slightly unsure what it meant.

The man thought for a moment saying, "I don't know much about it, but everybody is born with a talent and is said to be a very important thing in a master."

"The person you called Little Chief is also quite talented, I heard he already reached 40% Unity!" the man said in an envious tone and added, "The more one absorbs the primal seeds, the more benefits they are said to achieve."

The man sighed looking at the people who were still absorbing the seeds and walked toward them, leaving his last words, "Well at least we all can pass the second trial with our Unity above 30%."

Leiju clenched his fists and also left toward the primal seeds he was allocated. If he couldn't absorb them they would be given to the others, that was how things worked in the group, so he wanted to try and do everything to see if he could absorb them, even if it's only a little.

Ruu only watched them go, she had also tried but only wasted her time, instead she looked at her sister who had greatly changed from before. 

"Luu, are you hungry?" 

Luu was sitting on a boulder silently, and upon hearing Ruu, she slightly shook her head and felt silent again, closing her eyes.

'Sigh,' 

Ruu worriedly looked at her; she was growing worried about Luu. Ever since they joined this group and went around fighting, they have suffered and lost many friends. Not only that, It also changes those who survive, but the person who changes the most is Luu. 

All her previous cheerfulness and naiveness had all been hidden away by the cruelness she faced and her eyes now were somewhat cold; different from her previous self.

"I hope all though who've separated would come back and reform to the original village group," Ruu wishfully said, she had regretted not stopping them and regretted leaving Airi and Young Ju in that place. Now she didn't know if they could meet them again.

Luu slightly nods her head looking at the desolate sky, "Ruu I miss the Moss village and the orphanage… and Mother."

She missed her life in the village, she wanted to go back to the village to continue the humble and carefree life they had.

Ruu body was slightly shaken knowing her sister was suffering, she approached her and hugged her, "Don't worry Luu, we will return there again, surely!" she assured with determination in her voice.

This was what White had talked to himself about. Although becoming a master sounds fun and exciting, when one actually steps a foot on its path, all they will face is pain and suffering they had never faced. The path of power has the same main ingredient for every world no matter how different they were fundamentally. The suffering, loneliness, and pain are inevitable.

…

As time continued to pass, the sky darkened yet again as night arrived, in no time, there were only 60 minutes from the completion of the trial.

The people were trying their hardest to make use of their remaining time to absorb as much as they could and gain the most benefits. Although most people found it to be hopeless they still tried.

On White's camp, some of the people like Greenleaf, Greenblade, and Aizu had already given up, while Jade and Frez were still trying to raise their Unity even by little. But overall, all of them had reached 90% Unity; achieving High-level Unity, if any outsider were to know of this, then from this alone they would guess that none of these people were normal.

'What the frick?' Frez with with wide eyes looked at himself and at the beautiful Jade who was struggling. Seeing her persist even though she had already reached her limit like himself made him snort, but miraculously, although the primal seeds were slower, they were still weakly approaching her, which left him flabbergasted and cursed out in his mind.

Who was he? Only he himself knew. Not to mention that mysterious unknown man, a woman other than her sister has exceeded him! This was an event that would shock anyone. Now, if they were to compete, he would surely lose because at this point he couldn't absorb even one primal seed!

But what was even more scarier was that, at this point, only three people in this group including Jade, could still make the primal seeds move.

Leaving Jade aside, his sister was the second person. The primal seeds still entered her token; letting her absorb them freely, but her speed was greatly reduced, taking about a minute to absorb one of them.

The last however was different, and was still continuously absorbing the primal seeds as he did when he started, his speed didn't increase nor decrease a bit! This phenomenon shocked him and all the rest, they had been thinking before that it would be over sooner or later, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. Is it?

They could only watch him and count the time.

On the other hand, White wasn't as calm anymore and was stretching on how he could reach 99% of the Unity.

'What is actually happening?' White thought desperately, he had been endlessly absorbing numerous primal seeds for almost twelve hours straight, but his Unity hadn't moved an inch toward the 99% mark. 

He had absorbed several hundreds of primal seeds and there were still no changes in the token.

'Could it be that it needs some special conditions to jump to the 99%?' uncertain, he looked at Golden.

She was still absorbing, albeit slowly and there was also a slight frown on her face.

'Before, she said something about some minor achievements but it seems she is also having some problems now.' From the frown on her, he could tell she wasn't pleased with how things were turning out.

Seeing her troubled expression, all his thoughts about inquiring her about his situation vanished. And he will thank himself that he didn't ask in the future.

There was also one thing different between the both of them, that was.

Although she was making slow progress in her absorption, her problem seemed to be the speed of absorption and not reaching the required amount of primal seed to reach the 99% threshold before the time was up.

White, on the other hand, was different because he hadn't made any progress. He was even thinking of the possibility that he may require thousands of primal seeds to reach 99%.

This made him shake his head and sigh. The trial will end soon, there was no possible time to absorb another thousands of primal seeds. It was the same for Golden; both were bound to not make it to the Major Changes in this phase.

Somewhat depressed, White still continued absorbing the primal seeds but in a short moment, the token changed a little; indicating the times were reaching the end.

White got up, he had done everything in his power and had taken in as many primal seeds as he could. Now he could only go to the next phase and complete the process. 

Next, Jade and Frez followed.

The last to stand up was Golden with a slight frown on her face, but it disappeared soon after, and walked up to White.

"How is your progress?" White was curious, so he asked.

"It seems both of us will not be able to reach the Major Changes here," she seems to know of White's progress too, continuing, "My guess was right, It seems no one could reach the Major Changes normally, at the first phase."

"You know from the beginning?" It was the first time White heard of this, so he turned to ask her with a slight frown.

"Don't get it wrong, although we failed to barge into 99% Unity, all those primal seeds we absorbed are still very useful." Golden clarified, she glanced at his visage in interest. She witnessed everything that happened during their last hour of absorbing, she couldn't help but wonder who he was and his origin.

But she didn't have time to think anymore as she felt a strange force covering her and it was not only her, White, along with the rest of them felt the same. But they didn't struggle and knew it had something to do with the trial's end.

At the next moment, their body entered a strange state and before they knew it, they were already in a dark space!

The initial phase of the second trial was finally over!