The Master Battleground

When White opened his eyes again, he realized he was already in a different environment.

The lands and terrain had shifted; what used to be filled with people and ancient houses was replaced by a stone ground of massive size and in front of it, in an elevated region was an enormous black palace-like ancient structure where its end couldn't be seen and connected to it were similar structure but smaller.

Immediately, like everyone, White attention was on the black structure that gave off an intimidating and dangerous aura that threatened anyone who approached it. He looks in surprise at the structure and at the entrance is a plaque with Master Battleground written on it.

Everyone was silent for some time looking at such a scene and at the next moment they noticed in front were ten people standing with some space between each other.

"So, this is the Master Battleground," White said with a slight awe in his tone, when he turned at the back he could see the overview of the city as if he was on a small mountain now.

"Right." Golden; the person ever-present by his side, nodded and replied. "But in the end, it's just a small branch in a corner of nowhere, the real thing is much more majestic."

'Branch.' White feels he had a slight understanding of this force.

Suddenly, at this time, White could feel numerous glaze from all directions and knew they had attracted some unknown attention.

"Such beauty…" 

"I wonder where she came from?"

"Goddess..?!"

White could hear some clear audible voice and he could immediately deduce that they were talking of Golden beside him. Turning, he could see some lovestruck youth who didn't dare meet her glaze upfront and some brazen glaze. He could only smile slightly and shook his head at such a scene, 'She is dangerously beautiful but, too dangerous for such beauty.'

"Miss Golden, shall I go and teach some sense into those brazen bunch?" exceeding one's eyes, Greenblade who had been behind obediently in the group along with Frez and others walked up to Golden and asked.

"No, you don't need to bother." She dismissively replies.

Greenblade hiding his neck, obediently returned to the group in embressement.

Frez and Greenleaf glanced at him and jeered at his attempt at bootlicking, which had failed.

Grandmaster Xia's small frame stepped at the front and her young yet dignified face turned to a specific place in the huge confused crowd for an instant.

White eyes didn't miss an instant in which the girl's eyes fell into the trajectory of their group before changing to everyone. He didn't know if it was at him or Golden.

"Welcome to the main ground of Master Battlefield at the northernmost part of the city. The giant palace you see in front of you is the entrance of the institute."

"The 10 masters in front of you will now record your name and information, and give you your trainee-level Master Battleground token and will be shown to your dormitory and training ground where you will all be before the official selection." finishing saying, she walked up the large stairs leading to the entrance and sat down at the last step; overlooking the newbie.

Seeing the exalted Grandmaster Xia finish, a middle-aged man from the 10 masters announced: "Alright, all of you form into ten lines; one line for each master here, and tell us your name and other information since you cannot conjure your one's token now."

'One's token?!' White hearing such a term thought about the vital participants token from the trial.

As if confirming his guess, the master explained seeing some confused people, "If you don't know, the participant token you received in the first trial is called one's token and is very important. Don't worry if you don't have it physically, it's inside you and you can bring it out in the future."

With the explanation, all the confused people caught a slight gist of the concept and moved to form lines of ten.

White, Golden, and Frez, along with the other three, also joined on the same line; Greenleaf was an energetic girl as she hurriedly walked up to White's figure to stand at his back. She tried her hardest to talk to him and get closer to him.

The process was an audacious one. Each line consists of about a hundred or so people and the master upfront took the people's names, their information of their place of origin, and lastly their Mysterious Space rank.

Normally, the Mysterious Space was divided into four ranks; the low rank, mid rank, high rank, and perfect rank. Each rank divides each stage and the gap that exists between them, and the higher the stage the more gap it exists. 

Aside from some special circumstances, masters of low rank cannot compared to those of mid rank either in terms of combat power or the speed of energy regiment or even capacity, because of the stage that separates them; although it may only be a small stage, the gap that existed between them was vast.

Master possessing higher ranked Mysterious Space always trumped over those with low ranked Mysterious Space, although there was a way to increase the rank of one Mysterious Space it was an extremely troublesome task even the two faction leaders who fought with Golden for the Seed Hole on the second trial thought so.

After waiting, Golden turn had arrived.

The master taking her information was a young woman with a pretty face wearing a familiar black robe like the other master with a more feminist twist and easy for battle. 

Upon seeing Golden her usual countenance seemed to change and she spoke somewhat humbly: "Please tell me your name and the Mysterious Space rank."

"Golden. Perfect rank." She said in a nonchalant voice.

Although Golden didn't think anything of it when people who heard the rank of her Mysterious Space, couldn't help but open their mouths wide in shock. One has to know that till now no one of the perfect rank Mysterious Space has appeared yet, so it was only natural to be shocked.

The female master in front didn't seem to be shocked and instead seemed to expect it, but the 9 masters' actions had slowed down, looking at them mutely with slightly wide eyes.

The pretty master didn't give them much attention, although she was shocked too Grandmaster Xia had already told her about something like this happening. She lifts her hand slightly with light shining on it and at the next moment, a small white palace-shaped token appears, along with Golden's name and rank of her space.

The master gently gave the token to Golden, signaled to the right, and said with a smile, "We will show you to your training grounds and dormitory after the tokens are given out." 

"Ok," to her respectful gesture, Golden only nodded and replied with one word. Giving a side glance at White's figure she proceeds to the waiting area.

'Next." the pretty master announced. 

"Tell me your name, where are you from, and your Mysterious Space rank." Seeing the figure of White in rag robes the pretty master's tone changes; different from before. 

"White, the Desolate Plane, and as for my Mysterious Space, it should be at least High rank," he wasn't sure of what rank of space he received, although he suspected it to be of the same rank as Golden but he wasn't sure so he didn't say it.

"High rank? A person from the Desolate Plane?" the pretty master didn't obviously believe his words, although people knew what type of Mysterious Space they had some people lied about it to get fame. So, frowning slightly, she said: "Show me your hand I'll check it."

Greenleaf perks her head and looks in worry, the other also do the same including some gloating people who thought that person from the Desolate Plane was a fool.

"Didn't that fool know that one's Mysterious Space could be inspected?"

"Except for the people who failed their trial and without a Mysterious Space, there is really no use in lying here, besides the real selection is in one month."

People murmur here and there but White didn't give any heed and extended his hands toward the pretty master. He had no idea what rank his space was so White was somehow looking forward to her result.

"Hmph," snorting inaudibly, the master touched the top of his rough hand and sent her sense within his body to check.

Currently, her face was normal with a slight tinge of annoyance that wasn't clearly visible but as some time passed, her face started to change and showed a ting of horror on her pretty face.

Without much thought, she murmurs out strangely: "Perfect rank…"

Although her voice was small, most people who heard it were shocked and flabbergasted.

The second perfect rank Mysterious Space in a row? This was a truly rare event.

Perfect rank Mysterious Space was something only the extremely talented and gifted people with great backgrounds could awaken, but now, a person from the Desolated Plane actually had it?