IT WAS ANOTHER SUNNY day at Elania. Wrik opened the door of his room, rubbing his eyes. He was about to look for Kathrin to recall that he had left her at aunts'. He shook his head, then look around to notice Anton was not there as well. It's about seven on the clock, so it's reasonable for him to not be here. Morning walk was one of Anton's daily habits out of all the other good-or-bad habits.
They came back to their apartment at night, yesterday. After all that journey, Wrik didn't bother with anything productive—went straight to bed. Anton did the same as well, thinking tomorrow would be a big day of their life.
Having nothing to do, Wrik went straight to the washroom. Yesterday he was too tired, even for a bath. So now was better than ever to finish what's due.
Even after wasting too much time in the washroom, it didn't take him more than half an hour to clean himself. Anton still hadn't arrived yet. He went over to the couch and found that he was too excited to sit around, it's only a few hours away from the Trial. Yes, it's the day. He didn't have much problem sleeping yesterday, but he felt restless after waking up. He hadn't felt this much anxiety in years.
He stood up from the couch. After browsing for a bit, he brought out the box that held the tickets. After putting in the password, he opened the box, and two tickets and a tiny red ruby greeted him. He hadn't inspected the ruby much, thinking that he had started examining it. But it's a lost cause, Lucas mentioned it needed a Mahasayer to read it. So he had to wait longer to see what Lucas left in it.
Shaking his head, he put it down to lift the ticket—the one with the sword symbol. Apparently, the tickets were not that tricky as the red ruby. It was easy to use it. All you had to do was to bind the ticket with blood, then rip it apart. He didn't know what would happen after that, though. Calming his heart down, he waited for Anton to arrive.
And the person in question arrived when the clock hit ten. He entered holding large bags, which gave an idea why he was late. Wrik helped him in unloading the bags and confirmed—it was the necessary tool for the Trial. Apart from the tools, Anton didn't forget to bring the breakfast, it's the same old bread and butter from Alpstone.
"I'm wasted." Anton exhaled a deep breath, resting his back on the couch. It wasn't easy to carry so much load on oneself—moreover, it seemed he didn't find any wagon to carry it either.
"Well, you could've woken me."
"Well, it doesn't matter anymore," Anton washed away his fatigue instantly and continued with enthusiasm. "Let's eat, time is running out."
"We still got about two full hours." Wrik checked the clock. "I'll arrange the food, while you unpacked the gears." Saying that, he went over to the stove with the food. It didn't take him more than a few minutes for it. While he looked over to see, Anton had unpacked over half the contents. There were two leather suits with legwear and arm guards, belts, straps, and over two dozen knives of distinct lengths.
Wrik started his fast, as Anton joined in a bit later. Wrik gobbled the bread in seconds, looking at the stuff on the couch. It's too late to calm his nerves, and he did nothing to calm it either. All the expectation, anticipation, anxiety that he stacked over the years blotted out.
"Let's get dressed," Anton yelled out, finishing his plate. He almost lunged at the equipment while Wrik left both of the plates at the sink without washing them. He was too excited to wash those dirty dishes now. After making sure the locks and other kinds of stuff, he joined in with Anton.
"There's no firearm?" Wrik asked, looking at the weapons in front of him.
"Apparently, we're not allowed to bring any firearm or large weapons with us," Anton said, putting on the leather armour. "Red said that it's one of their ways to make it fair."
Wrik nodded and started to put on his suit. He found out that it was relatively comfortable than it looked, though heavy he didn't have much problem moving around. After that, the legwear and armguards. He was not used to these though it's not the first time wearing them. It still felt rather foreign and uneasy. It would take a few days to get used to it. Now the things that left were knives. There are about a dozen short ones—the ones used for throwing. While another dozen with medium to large size.
He left Anton the stage for the knives, as Anton was quite good with the knives.
"You should at least take two of each length," Saying that, Anton wore them all over his body. Wrik followed the instructions from his good brother. It's not as if he knew nothing of playing with knives. Wrik may be not as good at it as Anton, still, it's quite handy.
He put two each on both sides of his thigh while the other two lower in the legs. He stretched out around a bit and tried equipping the knives from his thighs as fast as he could. After trying a few times, he gave a satisfactory nod.
"Now, the only thing left is—" Anton said, spinning a knife in his palm.
"The tickets," Wrik completed his sentence, bringing out the tickets from the box while keeping the box with him.
"By the way, how does it work?" Anton asked a rather meaningful question. They know how to use the tickets but how the tickets work was still unknown to them.
"Maybe it would teleport us straight to the trials."
"Well then," Anton brought a short knife with a swagger from his legs and cut a little on his index finger. Wrik did the same, dropping a few drops of blood on the ticket.
"Now." Both of them exchanged glances before nodding.
They tore the ticket apart, yet nothing happened. Wrik looked at Anton again to notice blue lights coming from his hand. Then he saw something in front of him in blue as well. The first that came was some weird scripts before turning into something he understands.
[Triggering of Invitation ticket detected.]
"Ton?" There's no reply. His heart raced, reading the next words.
[ Initiating transportation of the User to the Trial in 10...9.. ]
"Ton?" Wrik looked around to find there's no one.
[2...1...0]
[Transmission successful.]
[Welcome User Wrik Everknight to the Trial of the Maha Tower.]
[You will be granted onetime entry to Sword abode with the Sword command.]
[May the Maha be with you.]
. . .
[Welcome, Wrik Everknight to the summoning room.]
The moment Wrik opened his eyes he found he was in some unknown location—it looked like some kind of weird white room to him. The thing that relieved him was that he was not alone. There are about a few dozen figures around him, sitting in their seats. The room was still. No one was causing any disturbance or anything.
He looked around to see if Anton was there or not. After browsing for a bit he shook his head. It appeared that there's over one summoning site. He took a seat in the middle section of the room and noticed a timer in front—32.54. It was projected in the very air, like when he had seen when he tore off the ticket.
Without much to do, he examined the place he was in. This place was air sealed, but the atmosphere here was rather fresh. No, fresh was not enough to describe it, it's more like the very air was ethereal. He felt like a fish in water. Apart from that, there were a few dozen folks dressed in distinctive types of dresses and weapons. Few of them looked dangerous, few looked rather calm, while some looked over-excited. Nobody took the care to greet him, and he didn't try to talk to anyone either.
A few more people arrived over time. There were fifty seats present on the site, above forty were already filled, so all the fellas should arrive before the timer ran out.
"Buahh . . ." the sound of someone vomiting came to his ear. Wrik looked around to notice a young man of his age, though looked a bit on the delicate side. He looked rather pale, dressed in neat black clothes. He apologised to the crowds to take a seat quite close to him. Then another person came. Wrik glanced again to notice a slender silhouette of a young woman, a few metres away from him. The moment he saw that girl, the last words she said to him—rang in his mind: 'I'll be at that bench beneath the willow tree in the afternoon, tomorrow.'
It's the emerald-eyed girl he encountered a couple of times in the last two days.
'Crap!' Wrik cursed inwardly. He totally forgot about her. With all the other things, and even if he didn't forget it, he wouldn't be able to visit her yesterday. At that time he was on the train—returning from his Pantia.
She dressed in black all over her body. The gown looked rather bland, yet expensive. Other than that, she had a cap on her head. As Wrik was checking on her, she noticed his gaze.
Wrik was just about to greet her when he heard someones' voice. A loud voice at that.
"Alright, everyone should be here, let's get started then."
As Wrik was drawn to the voice, glanced towards where it was coming from. A man over two metres tall with broad shoulders, he was brown-skinned with black hair, dressed in some unique uniform. There's nothing to note of his exterior apart from being a bit stiff. There was a small symbol of a tower on the left chest of the man. But the most astonishing part to Wrik was when or how the huge man arrived here.
"First, let me introduce myself. I am your guide for the Trial," the broad-shouldered man laughed out, seeing the astonished gaze from the fellows. He seemed to enjoy the attention he was getting. "We're allocated two hours for the rest of the process. It should be more than enough time for the explanation."
The last statement was like the man was assessing it himself.
Wrik peeked at the corner of his eyes towards the emerald-eyed girl. He noticed she had taken a seat near the last guy who just vomited. They were quite close by, without much thinking he returned to what the large man was speaking of.
"When the time is up, you all will be dropped to an unknown place," the man who proclaimed himself as the guide laughed while saying that, but then continued in a slow and stern tone. "I'll only explain this once, so listen carefully, cause your life may depend on it."
The words made everyone silent. They looked at the guide with anxiety in their eyes, waiting for him to continue.
"First let me tell you, what types of advantages will be given before the trial, food and water and basic emergency tools—medicine, first-aid will be given to everyone. There is no partiality in this."As he said this, the broad-shouldered man waved his hand in the air a few times and dozens of bags were flown towards everyone present here. "The sustenance and water would last about two days, while the medicine—it depends on how beat up you will be."
Wrik checked the bag and found four bottles of water, each holding a little over a litre—it's barely enough for two days. Apart from that, there's a good amount of dry rations—bread, meat and dry veggies. Apart from that, there were antiseptics, aspirin, a few other creams with gauze, bandages, and other necessary tools in the medicine section.
"As for weapons, you can choose yourself; you can choose only one, so choose wisely." The voice of the guide came to his ears.
A blue transulent screen appeared in front of Wrik. He looked at the screen. There were many weapons of different kinds and lengths present there. He browsed all to the end of the scroll; there's everything from the one-handed swords to a bow, spear, hammer, halberd, pike or a rather magical weapon—wand, staff, shaft; there were even firearms. Wrik looked at the section of the firearms, pondering for a good minute to shake his head. The firearms were limited with low numbers of bullets and ammunition. After scrolling a bit he chose a long sword with a length over 1.2meters and a width of 5cm. Playing with your strength was in his mind. Though the last time he practised swords was months ago, Anton did most of the fieldwork before this. But Wrik should have a few of his reflexes in his muscle memory.
A sheathed sword of the same length and design appeared in the same way the emergency kit arrived before. Wrik found it had good weight in his hand, it had been months since he had picked up a sword, but it didn't feel foreign in his arm. He only felt an excitement, a pure thrill he felt when he first picked up a sword.
He peeked towards the fair girl while wearing the strap and stealth in his back; she chose a small staff about half a metre in length, while the vomiting guy next to her chose a sword similar to him.
"Everyone should have selected their weapon by now, then let's talk about the purpose of this trial." The guide stopped for a bit after saying that. Looking at everyone's complexions, he continued, "There is only one purpose for you all: STAYING ALIVE. Everything comes after you're alive. Am I clear?"
It was like the very air became still after that. Everyone, including Wrik, nodded. Some of the exteriors of the fellows became solemn hearing that. And yet, the Guide laughed, he was enjoying this pretty well.
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END OF CHAPTER SIX: THE SUMMONNING ROOM.
NEXT CHAPTER THE AWAKENING.
The uploads will be regular from now on at 12.01 A.M (+8 GMT) Beijing time. Or Not.
Cheer me up, drop a few Power stones below.
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