Nadran waited patiently as the shadows closed the distance between them, waiting until he was almost in their range. Then, he jumped up into the air and kicked off the walls, leaping in a large arc over the shadows' heads and escaping the corner. As he passed overhead, he slashed his claws, destroying one of the shadows at the same time.
Having gotten past all of the melee shadows, he ran straight toward the more dangerous ranged shadows. One of them finished casting a sigil and sent a spear of fire in his direction. Nadran did not stop running, but instead, ducked down, sliding under the attack and reaching the shadow who had cast it. He pierced his claws through the shadow, then whirled around, carrying them with him. He flung the shade through the air, causing them to collide with the group of pursuing enemies before dissipating.
The melee shadows were bowled over by their companion, causing almost all of them to fall to the ground due to how densely packed they were. Nadran made sure not to miss out on this opportunity as he charged toward the other ranged attackers.
[This challenge really shows the areas that I need to work on,] Nadran thought as he dodged two different ranged attacks before decapitating a shadow. [While the wyvern claws technique is very useful, it is insufficient by itself. I need a defensive sigil pretty badly, and the barrier sigil is unable to block much damage. In addition, a movement sigil could help me avoid attacks and approach enemies more easily, allowing me to land more of my own attacks. A sigil with a wide area of effect could also be helpful against many foes… though that would lower the strength of the attack due to how spread out the energy would need to be. The wyvern claws can do so much damage because all of the energy is focused in one location. Oh, and of course being a higher sigil realm could give me more stamina and allow me to last longer and hit harder.]
Nadran managed to kill off 4 of the 7 ranged shadows before the melee shadows recovered and caught up to him. Then, he needed to run once more. He could feel his lungs burning from the continuous exertion, and he felt like his body weighed twice as much as normal due to fatigue. His body wanted him to close his eyes and give up, but he kept going anyways. [Let's just keep going for another 15 seconds… alright, now another 15 seconds…]
He pushed his protesting body to the limits, evading, striking, retreating, and mentally pumping himself up to maintain consciousness. It would be so much easier to stop fighting and let the challenge end, but the best gains were always when one was pushed to their limits. Nadran knew that he lacked strength in this cruel world, and he would never be able to live a safe and happy life if he took the easy road out.
The timer hit 13 minutes, and the number of enemies became overwhelming. Nadran was unable to get any more hits in, and instead had to spend all of his time dodging and running. He could not keep this up forever, however. An icy bolt struck him in his shoulder, causing his footsteps to stagger and halt for half a second. Instantly, he found himself being launched through the air as a barrage of attacks landed on his back. He landed heavily on the ground, gasping in pain.
Nadran lifted his head and turned to look at the shadows approaching, ready to crush him into the ground. He gritted his teeth and stood up with great effort, hand clutching his side. As he watched the shadows come forward to land the killing blow, his eyes looked around for anything that could help him last even a second longer.
Suddenly, a gleam appeared in his eyes, and Nadran leaped high up into the air, pushing his leg muscles past their limits. He reached out for the clock that sat overhead, grasping its edges and suspending himself in the air, causing the shadows' attacks to miss. His arms trembled, knuckles whitening as he held on.
The ranged shadows launched several attacks toward Nadran, and spears and bolts of all colors flew toward his suspended form. At this point, Nadran let go of the clock, leaping into the middle of the crowd of melee shadows. He spun as he fell, arms outstretched, slicing his claws across multiple shadows and launching them outwards. He landed heavily on all fours in an area now cleared of shadows, his wyvern claws fading as the last of his internal energy was depleted.
The clock hit 14 minutes, and the number of shadows increased once more. Dozens of attacks flew toward him, and Nadran could no longer dodge.
The world went black.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Nadran opened his eyes to find himself in an empty room. A time of 14:06 was flashing on the timer. Nadran pushed himself up to his feet with a great amount of effort, looking around. [That really is a rather unpleasant experience,] he thought, smiling wryly. At that time, he almost felt as though he had really died, and it slightly unnerved him.
Nadran walked out of the room, stretching his tired muscles. Once outside, he turned and looked at the slate leaderboard. He found his name sitting in 6th place and smiled. [Not bad, considering my extremely limited pool of sigils and lack of extensive combat experience.]
He then turned back to see the girl who had talked to him earlier, who now sported a faintly excited smile on her face. Next to her was a group of boys, the frontmost one looking like the world was collapsing around him.
"Thanks," the girl said with a smile. "You won me a nice bet, so I appreciate that."
Nadran blinked and tilted his head. [Was she… betting on how long I would last in that challenge? But… why though?]
"You seem pretty relaxed about getting 6th on the slate leaderboard," she commented. "You won even more points than I did in my bet."
"Oh, I did?" Nadran asked, surprised. [Oh yeah, weren't there rewards for setting records?]
"Yes, getting 6th place on this room gets you a full 4,000 points. Were you not aware of this?" Lilia chuckled, amused by this young man who didn't even seem aware of how impressive his record was.
"I… was not," Nadran replied in a careful manner. [Why is she still being so friendly? Is she just happy because I won her a bet? If the bet's already over, why is she still interacting with me? What is she hoping to gain?]
"Hm, interesting," she replied. "You probably don't even know how impressive getting 6th place is. This academy has existed for hundreds of years, and almost everyone who ranked highly on these leaderboards went on to become a powerful figure. Well, if they didn't die before they could accomplish that. It's been seventy years since someone placed in the top ten on this leaderboard."
[Oh, I guess what I did was pretty impressive, then,] Nadran thought with faint surprise. "Cool," he responded calmly. Even if it was something difficult to accomplish, he knew that he was just at the beginning of his journey. No matter how striking his performance was in a nonlethal challenge, it was meaningless if he was killed by someone stronger. Potential was just that; potential. In this cruel world, countless geniuses were crushed before they could truly shine. To Nadran, this challenge was just a method to improve his strength. If he were to truly compare himself to others, it would only distract and discourage him. After all, there were countless cultivators that were far stronger than him, and simultaneously several years younger. Even if he progressed twice as fast as others, it would still be nearly a decade before he could catch up with the real geniuses.
Nadran suddenly felt his stomach rumble. [It seems like all that exercise made me hungry.] "I'm going to go eat," Nadran mentioned, then turned and walked away. [That girl didn't ask anything of me. Maybe she really didn't have an ulterior motive… no, impossible. I must just not be able to understand it right now.]
In about ten minutes, Nadran had reached the academy's dining hall. This large building was filled with row after row of tables, with food available at one end, displayed buffet-style. Of course, this was just the basic level food that did not cost any points. Students could also use their points to acquire higher quality fare. These foods had nourishing effects and could strengthen the body simply by consuming it. Some of the more valuable foods had incredible effects, such raising the consumer's sigil realm.
Nadran hesitated as he looked at the prices for the higher quality food. He knew that this food could be valuable to him. After all, he had never been able to eat this food due to his family's financial situation. While he was quite athletic and dexterous from his work in maneuvering across vertical cliffs, he was rather lacking compared to other cultivators in the fields of pure strength and speed. While he didn't want to waste his points before he knew the costs of everything, he had just earned 4,000 points, and these prices didn't seem that expensive.
Nadran spent 10 points to purchase a meal made from Iron-tusk Boar meat. The smell alone caused Nadran to salivate, having never had the chance to eat such high-quality meat before. He found an empty table and sat down, beginning to eat the delicious food.
After a few minutes, he noticed someone sitting down at his table. Nadran glanced up from his food to see Firen, the boy who had talked to him at the entrance ceremony. [Oh no, it's that loud guy. I just wanted to eat in peace, and I can't deal with his ridiculous logical leaps and nonsensical questions.]
"Hey there, Nadran," Firen said happily, seemingly unaware of Nadran's annoyance. "How have you been doing? Enjoying your first day here? Do you like sunny or cloudy days more?"
Completely ignoring Firen's final question, Nadran quietly replied, "I've been fine, I guess."
"Oh, that's good, that's good," Firen mumbled around a bite of fish, then swallowed the food. "Oh yeah, I heard some nobles found a hidden treasure trove just a few dozen miles away from the city. It's pretty crazy that there can still be hidden treasures so close by that are only now being discovered!"
"Hm, good for them, I guess," Nadran replied, uninterested, as he took a sip of water. [Wow, even the water here is so pure and nourishing…]
"Yeah, the person who found the room is still pretty young. He's rather impressive, having such accomplishments at that age. I think I heard his name is Exion."
Firen jumped in surprise at the sudden sound of breaking glass, and looked at Nadran's clenched hand. Glass shards fell down onto the table, which was now covered in the water from Nadran's cup. His hands were trembling as he stared at his hand, an intense look in his eyes. Slowly, blood began seeping out from his tightly clenched fist, and with an apparent struggle, he opened his hand and lightly shook it, shaking the worst of the embedded glass shards out of his hand, while several streams of blood began to drip on the table.
Firen's eyes widened at the unexpected scene. "A-are you alright?" he asked hesitantly, looking clearly worried.
"I'm fine," Nadran replied through gritted teeth, then pushed his chair back and stood up, walking out of the dining hall.
"You sure you're not going to finish this meat? It's not cheap," Firen called out, but Nadran completely ignored him and continued walking away, soon disappearing from his view.
Firen, looking confused and uncertain, asked no one in particular, "Was it something I said?"