Every day brings a new form of misery to me, I've come to realize. It wasn't bad enough that I got my ass shot last night; now I'm currently falling from the sky at astonishing speed.
Pretty high up, too. The sky doesn't look sky-blue up here anymore; it's a very pretty dark blue where I'm at right now. Haven't seen this sort of blue since the time I almost drowned at sea when I fell off of boss' boat a couple of years ago.
I can see the world up here! Mountain ranges, the wide blue sea, glittering cities in the distance, all kinds of interesting places.
Well, I guess the pretty boy scammed me in the end. One hell of a way to kill someone, though. A creative way to get rid of people.
The wind hitting my face feels as if I'm being smothered into a goddamned brick wall. It's hard to even breathe and I can't see much because of the light surrounding me. Do all magicians travel like this? Perhaps all magicians are masochists that like falling from the sky...
Shit, the ground's getting closer by the second. Not slowing down, can't move, can't breathe too well. Might as well close my eyes and count to ten...
Ten...Nine...Eight...Six...Four...
....Oh? Shouldn't I be dead already? Shockingly, I didn't die.
Floating no more than a foot above the ground, Reed let a couple of tears of relief. He found himself in front of a massive building that resembled a giant spear that pierced the sky. He discovered that he wasn't alone either; other people just like him were stuck suspended mid-air by a glowing light that enveloped them.
Most of them seemed roughly his age, if not a little older than him. One glaring detail he noticed was that not a single one of them seemed impressed or even interested in the building in front of them. None of them looked shocked about their descent from the sky either and most had bored expressions as they waited for something. Some even started chatting amongst themselves...
It was likely that he wasn't the only person that got thrown in by the gentleman, right? What had he gotten him into?
The gentleman explained that he'd be sent to 'Mulia', but he didn't even know what Mulia was in the first place. It was such a nonchalant explanation, almost as if he just expected me to understand everything he told off the bat.
Was Mulia a city? A distant country? A different continent or perhaps a completely different world? The gentleman told advised that it would be best for me to return to the 'mortal world', but what constitutes a mortal world?
There are too many damn questions I need answers for, but I don't know who to ask...
All of a sudden, the light that covered everyone suddenly disappeared and everyone was finally released from confinement. Reed quickly became reacquainted with gravity and fell on his ass because he was unprepared unlike the rest of the group. He caught the attention of his peers for a moment until a loud, booming voice drew everyone's attention away from his blunder.
"Welcome to the proving grounds, kids! You should be proud that you've passed the preliminary trial and have formally become contenders, but know that this is only the beginning of your journey."
"Don't think for a second any of you have what it takes to survive in Mulia as you are right now, though. You're all lower than fleas right now. Anything outside of this tutorial area could kill you with a single thought. That's how weak you are right now."
Many faces hardened as soon they heard the man's warning, but a couple of people scoffed and acted as if they were above the rest. They had a self-inflated air of superiority around them that made them look like they would rather die than accept the man's words as truth.
A deep sigh came out as the man finally revealed himself and formally presented himself to the group.
The threatening, authoritative voice that had rung across the plaza in front of the spear building came from this guy? If he could only describe the man with a single word, Reed would have chosen "scrawny".
The man had a sickly, pale complexion that gave the impression that he had never seen the sun in his life. Sunk-in cheekbones and piercing blue eyes that shimmered like a neon sign. He wore a sharp, black uniform emblazoned with a golden crown with a moon behind it. It gave him a strange air of class, in a certain way.
"Getting full of yourself because of your backgrounds? Hm? It doesn't mean jack shit who your sponsor is or which clan, family, or organization you hail from. If you think you'll have an advantage over others because of that bullshit, you're going die even faster than the people you're looking down on right now."
"I've seen plenty of kids from the 5 noble families and grand guilds die retarded deaths over the years I've been in Mulia. Not even the royal family is exempt from this fate. Over the last 300 years, I have witnessed 6 princes and 3 princesses die because they let their hubris get the best of them."
"Allow me to reiterate the truth the kids with big egos in here - you are nothing and you be nothing until you climb the stairway and make it to the top. Until that day, you're nothing more than 'contenders'; little kids in the eyes of people who have completed the climb, 'conquerors'."
"My name is Axtorius and I will be one of your instructors here in the tutorial zone, a bona fide conqueror who completed the climb over 500 years ago, long before your great-grandmothers were even born. It's my job to grind out your weaknesses and work you lot into shape so you don't immediately die."
"This a free service that is given to you, courtesy of the Moon King of the North. In the past, the tutorial zone didn't even exist and new contenders were just thrown out into the open world. Guess what the mortality rate was back then?"
"Over 90%. Only the strongest, smartest, and most tenacious survived and stood a chance to climb the staircase. But after the four empires formed, every side needed more men - wars needed to waged. Therefore you kids now get treated like precious commodities, haha...."
The man lifted his arm and then made a grasping motion like he wanted to grab a handful of air, a simple motion that had devasting effects. At the same moment that he grasped the air, a large gust of compressed air hit everyone in the plaza simultaneously.
Reed felt an enormous strike hit him on his back and was almost immediately tossed forward like a human bullet. It felt like he had been by a solid brick wall without warning and a result ended up with a severe injury that left him completely immobilized. He couldn't even move out of sheer pain from the blow.
The others did not fare any better from the blast, most of them were incapacitated from the attack but a few still were standing, albeit barely.
In particular, a beautiful girl with long, flowing ebony hair held her ground with great difficulty after the blast hit her. It was an odd sight because although her face showed no expression like she never even registered the pain, her body was left shaking violently the attack.
Her brilliant, golden eyes had a sort of determination within them that told the instructor that she wouldn't bend over until she died. She was a tough cookie with great potential.
A tall, young man with elegant features also survived the attack and had not fallen. His long, crimson hair swayed back and forth as he struggled to keep himself steady. It seemed he suffered more from the blast than others because was on the verge of passing out despite his tremendous efforts to stay awake. He didn't possess the strong body that the former girl had, but instead had a ridiculous amount of willpower and endurance than his peers.
These two fellows certainly got everyone's attention with their little stunt. Reed inwardly pitied them as he balled up in pain on the plaza floor. The instructor would assuredly make a note of the boy and the girl now.
Getting on the bad side of that man was a dumbass thing to do. Who would willingly attract attention in front of a predator like an instructor who was a conqueror? Only idiots without proper screws in their head.
Axtorius sneered as he stared at the few people who remained standing and slowly said, "What you were all hit by wasn't even a proper move or skill. I just called a cool breeze to blow over you. I didn't even use any Anima to perform that little trick. Just making a grasping motion is enough to do what I did when you become a conqueror."
"Let this be your final wake up call now that you've decided to enter Mulia - you're at the bottom of the food chain right now, no matter what kind of background you have. Follow the orders of your instructors and you'll live to see another day; don't and you'll end up dead before you know it."
What cemented the instructor's words in the minds of everyone present was after what he did after he finished his sermon.
All he did was wave his hand across the plaza. A bright flash of blue light passed through the entire plaza and quickly struck everyone that had been hurt.
Right after that hand wave, Reed felt that all his pain had disappeared as if it never happened. He even felt somewhat refreshed and energized after the blue wave had hit him. Everyone else around him also came around after they were struck by the blue wave as well; everyone had been healed in the blink of an eye.
That was the kind of power a conqueror possessed, they could determine the life and death of mere mortals with a single hand and a simple thought.
It was a type of power that separated them from the masses; these were people that had the qualifications to endure and grow in the harshest environments.
These were people that earned the right to live like gods and were worshipped as such by mortals. They were conquerors in the fullest sense of the word; they conquered over adversity to fulfill their dreams in Mulia of all places...