Guiding the group through the school area the group finally arrive to a hall containing various black obelisks of 1.25 meters in height, guiding the group the staff member finally stopped beside an obelisk.
"I´ll first explain in what consists the first half of the trial for the Mana Academy." said the staff member as he turned around facing the students.
"This obelisk is a dungeon owned by the academy, each of you will enter one by one and hunt 50 mana wolves in the dungeon. You have six hours inside the dungeon to achieve this goal." The staff member said with a solemn look.
"Take out the jade token you all received before the trial." instructed the staff member as he also took another similar token.
"This jade token is a tool used for the trial, once bound to you, it will glow white meaning you´re ready for the trial start. Once you kill the required number of wolves the jade token would change its color to green and give you the ability to exit the dungeon instance signaling you have passed the first half of the trial. Now before continuing, I´ll show you how to bound the jade token" stated the staff member as he stretched his right hand holding the jade token and gesturing the group to come closer with his free hand.
"Gather your mana and envelope the jade token until you see it start glowing white and the system will prompt you if you want to bound the item to you, after that check its description and you should see that its bounded to you, giving you the number of wolves you missing before the dungeon escape skill is usable" instructed the staff member until his jade token started giving off a white glow.
"Please bound the Jade token and equip them." signaled the staff member.
Xol took his jade token and started gathering mana as the staff member instructed, seeing the white glow, Xol saw the System prompt.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Want to bound Initial trial Jade Token to you?
Yes No
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Clicking yes Xol proceeded to examine the changes in the jade token.
[Initial trial Jade Token (Necklace, Cyan)
Bound to Xol.
Mana wolves killed (0/50)
A Jade Token made by the Professor Izuriel for the initial trial of Mana Academy.]
Smiling as his success he proceeded to equip the Jade token.
Waiting for everyone in finishing equipping the jade tokens, the staff member walked around the group and gave tips to those struggling with the bounding. Once he verified everyone finished bounding and equipping the jade tokens he returned beside the obelisk.
"Okay, following up the explanation, you can use weapons in the dungeon, but most of the damage dealt must be a mana-based skill for the kill to count toward the 50 quota. If your health gets below the 25% percent of your total health, the mana jade would automatically eject you of the dungeon, switching to a red glow meaning you failed. Those with a red jade token, or white one, will not be allowed to continue to the last part of the trial and have to try again next year." Continued the staff member as he finished his explanation. "Any questions?"
"Can we use pills or potions in the dungeon?" an aspirant asked
"Nope, you must depend on your current maximum mana and your passive regeneration, if the jade token detects a sudden outburst in your mana pool it would also eject you turning red" answered the staff member.
"Once we clear the quota, do we need to wait the six hours for the other members" asked another aspirant.
"The time inside and outside of the dungeon flows differently, though you have 6 hours inside, outside would only have passed 15 minutes." Answered again the staff member.
"Any other question?" asked the staff member as he glanced over the group. "Good, to enter the dungeon just place your hand in the obelisk and insert some mana."
Gesturing to the aspirants, some dashed for being the first one to enter, other waited and finally a queue was formed as each entered the dungeon in quick succession.
Taking a breath of air Xol placed his hand on the obelisk and was transported to a plain area next to a forest.
'This feeling never gets old' Xol thought as he smiled excitedly and scanned the area ´Wolves should be in the forest, seems like there a mountain a little further inside the forest´
Moving to the forest Xol took 1 of the 2 spears in his inventory and used Mana Sonar when he was a few meters near the forest.
[MP: 1400/1500]
Mana Sonar was 1 of the 3 skills Xol has learned while working in a tavern in his old city. The other 2 being Mana Bullet and Mana Bomb.
[Mana Sonar
Allows user to detect any organism with a mana signal in a 50-meter radius
Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 3 minutes]
[Mana Bullet
User shoots a small burst of mana with a maximum range of 20 meter from user.
Cost: 20 mana]
[Mana bomb
User shoots a medium burst of mana with a maximum range of 5 meter from user. Mana explodes upon contact causing a burst of damage in a 50 cm radius.
Cost: 75 mana
Cooldown: 30 seconds]
Sensing various signals Xol moved to the smallest group, approaching as silently as he could he saw 2 mana wolves.
[Mana wolf LVL 7]
HP: 2,100/2,100
MP: 2,800/2,800
[Mana wolf LVL 8]
HP: 2,400/2,400
MP: 3,200/3,200
'Well since you both are close together don't mind me´ Xol thought raising his left hand and casting a mana bomb right between them.
*BOOM
Both wolves were blasted some meters away and received damage of the initial explosion plus smaller amount upon the impact with the ground. Taking the opportunity before they recover, Xol shot a mana bullet toward each wolf. Two mana circles appeared in front of Xol and pellet size mana burst shot from them toward the wolves.
Quickly recovering onto their feet both scanned the area and soon located Xol, the LVL 7 quickly pounced toward Xol while the other one prepared to howl.
Xol instantly shot another mana bullet to the wolf that tried to howl not wanting more wolves coming as reinforcements. Fending off the incoming wolf with his spear, Xol took some steps back maintaining both wolves in his field vision.
Both wolves opened their maws and shot a fist sized mana ball at Xol, sidestepping he got grazed in his left shoulder by the first one and fully dodged the second one.
Firing two mana bullets to the closest wolf as he advanced toward it, Xol stabbed it on the chest finishing him off.
Glancing toward the other wolf he quickly shot 2 mana bullets toward it, sadly both missed as the wolf started circling toward him.
'Clever one' Xol mused as he pointed his weapon toward the wolf preparing to fend it off, or dodging if it used another ranged attack.
As the wolf closed in, it shot another mana burst toward Xol who dodged toward his left.Seeing this the wolf pounced toward him. Sidestepping to his right to recover his balance point, Xol slashed the wolf over it left side.
Rotating on his left foot, Xol quickly shot a mana bullet toward the wolf. Taking another chunk of its HP, Xol continued with another mana bullet but the wolf ran away as it started circling him again.
Seeing it previous attack as a failure, the wolf shot another mana ball at Xol and quickly relocated as it shot another one at him. Dodging both Xol scanned his opponent new pattern of shooting.
Dodging the continuous attack of his enemy, Xol waited for the cooldown of mana bomb to finish. Once the cooldown was up, Xol feinted a misstep as he dodged a mana ball, seeing his opponent going to fall, the wolf pounced toward his opponent. Xol immediately commanded to store his spear in his inventory, exerting force in his supporting leg, he rolled toward the opposite side dodging the wolf claws, he quickly turned around and shot mana bomb toward the wolf finishing it off.
Taking a breath of air, Xol glanced at the description of the Jade Token.
[Initial trial Jade Token (Necklace, Cyan)
Bound to Xol.
Mana wolves killed (2/50)
Remaining time: 05:57:33
Clear time: --:--:--
A Jade Token made by the Professor Izuriel for the initial trial of Mana Academy.]
Seeing both wolves tallied and the additional information, Xol smiled on his successful hunt, afterward Xol checked his status.
[Xol LVL 10 Apprentice
HP: 981/1000
MP: 1121/1500]
'I may be in trouble if I don´t increase my mana effiency, 2 wolves took almost a third of my mana´ Xol sighed upon his consumption.
´Should I not be too concerned with dealing most of the damage with mana skills at first and try to finish them off with a mana damage?' Xol reflected upon his battle. 'Let's try it, onto the next group'