The next day, Raikou and all the other students were woken up by an alarm. It sounded like a foghorn and continuously rang for 5 minutes.
Raikou came running out in his underwear. "Hey, turn that shit off!" He was dreary eyed and annoyed at the method of being woken up.
One of the teachers rushed up to him to grab him for his disrespectful words. "You need to have some manners instilled in you."
Using observation, Raikou saw that he was a peak rank 5 cultivator. He quickly rushed back into his room and closed the door.
"I need to take a piss, so I'll be out soon!" He shouted through the door and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
Putting all his clothes on, he came back out and pretended like nothing had happened previously. Everyone was lined up in and stood straight, as if it was a military situation. Raikou was the only one in the line slouching lazily.
The teacher glared at him and spoke, "I will be taking you to the trial location. This is your one shot to be granted entry into the Albion Royal Academy, so make sure you make the most of this opportunity. Now follow me." He turned around and walked away with all the students in tow.
Upon reaching the trial location, Raikou saw many teachers stationed outside. They were all surrounding a portal. It was of superior quality to the one Igantius had conjured, as Raikou was getting an powerful sensation from it and his affinity towards space heightened this sensation.
He inspected the portal.
'A portal that leads to another dimension. Beasts and demons swarm within, up to the peak of rank 5.' The system voiced out a response in a robotic manner, which was different from the usual method of inspection.
He had never heard any mentions of demons on Epsilon before this, but as seen in the novels, there would usually be some sort of entity like devils or demons in these worlds. It's probably a fact not known by people lower down in the global hierarchy.
"They're sending us in to die. I don't know what their agenda is, but it's not going to pan out good for the students going in." Raikou was worried for the students, but raising his concerns wouldn't affect anything, and would only paint a bullseye on his back.
Severed Rikman came out of the main building and walked towards the portal. With his hands clasped behind his back, he turned around and addressed the students. "You will all be entering this portal, which will transport you to another location. Your task is to collect dark motes of light, which are within creatures in the trial location. Whoever comes back with atleast 5 motes of light will be given true entry into the academy. Please note that not all the creatures will have these motes, so you may have to kill many creatures before you chance upon one." He said what he had to say and then the teachers surrounding the portal split through the middle to make way for all the students.
"Now enter through the portal. Remember, you have 7 days to return or you will be unable to access the portal."
Some students looked uneasy and some were filled with excitement. They all walked towards the portal and entered it.
Raikou was last in line and had a huge frown on his face. He stepped through the portal and experienced an amplified version of what the last portal had done.
Ding! Spatial affinity has upgraded to highest!
He smiled and laughed and laughed, which slowly turned it a cackle. "Give me more portals! This shit is amazing. Every single one had upgraded meeeeee!"
"Getting to highest isn't as difficult as getting to perfect affinity. Don't expect your affinity to increase with so much ease again." The system interjected, putting a dampener on his mood.
"Killjoy." Raikou muttered and took a look around, "This trial looks weird..."
The surroundings he was met by upon stepping through the portal were horrifying. Everything was near pitch black, but using his observation, he could see trees as far as his eye permitted him. Every tree was withered and the branches were twisted in an almost villainous manner.
The air felt thick and the ground was swampy.
"Ok, no. I want out! This place is fucking creepy." Raikou turned around to exit, only to see the portal slowly closing up.
"Well... That's my ticket home gone." He sighed and started walking to find some place in this dimension that looked humane.
--
Ghost's running stride came to a halt with a loud screech!
"He's disappeared once again." He was extremely annoyed to be led on a cat and mouse chase.
However, this time, he could feel Raikou's presence was still in the same place, but was extremely peculiar.
He shrugged his shoulders and continued to run.
"It doesn't matter how weak the connection is. If I know where you are, then I'm going to come!" Ghost licked his lips in a manner that could be mistaken as lascivious. Of course, that was just the difficulty of expression that Ghost had with his human-like face.
"Raikou, I hope you're waiting for me. My constant running has increased my agility, making the speed of my foot going up your ass to have heightened.
--
Raikou sneezed.
"Even in creepazoid land, I am being bombared with praise. What can I do to lessen my popularity?" He sighed and continued on his exploration.