"Uuh Keir? What is this place?"
Jin confusedly asked. Jin and Mira both felt a sense of trouble around them might not be wrong. So many things happened to the two of them in a short period. They first rushed from the guild to look for Keir and suddenly they were fighting small dragons and had lost a new friend. It would definitely be a bit too much for a teenager but Keir however understood the situation very well and had already engaged with his emotions, anger, and grief.
"Calm down both of you, eh? Try to understand the situation you are in and what had happened to you that brought you here."
He said in a troubled voice. His voice seemed shaky and sweat ran down his forehead to neck. It was not a surprise to see Keir so disturbed after the voice threatened him to be fed to a dragon if he did not obey.
And Keir hardly doubted the voice as he had seen the dragon land in front of him, with the ground shaking with its weight.
He turned behind and looked at Jin and Mira. Jin had a calm expression, but he was scared inside, while Mira was visibly terrified with her wide-open eyes.
"I don't yet want to die."
Jin said as he shook his head with his gleaming eyes filled with fear.
Keir's had no choice other than to enter to keep going on with the trial, he stiffened his heart and said.
"We will continue with your trials."
He said as he had to swallow the bitter pill of continuing the outrageous trial with his new friends.
"Alright before that, I need to evaluate you for your previous trials before you move to the last one.
First Mira, the moment you saw the dragon, you fainted so you barely any points for you there and in the second trial you fought off a good amount of dragons with your unique spear techniques therefore with the number of dragons you killed plus the result of the first trial you got 45 points.
Now Jin, in the first trial it was smart of you to hide even before the dragon even arrived, you hid the moment you heard the bussing sound so very well done, and in the second trial, because of your techniques and style, the number of dragons you killed were very low so your overall score is 75 points and last, Keir.
In the first trial, you were not too dumb either, you just sat there for days until you fainted, and then in the second trial. You were a beast. Not only did you kill so many of the lesser dragons, you even came up with a plan, but at a cost. But we don't mind sacrificing one for three, do we? No. But we have to deduct points because you could have used the summoned army better. So your overall score is 89. And yes, congratulation on the highest, and now time for the third trial."
The voice concluded with a cheerful tone.
No one's emotions got better with that instead got more bitter and sad as it reminded them of Raj.
The darkness got slowly lifted, and the team found themselves in the middle of a dark forest. It was around midnight and owls were hooting.n front of the team was a small wooden cabin. Small bushes and trees were visible with the orange shade of light coming out through the windows, which were lit with an orange shade of fire and a seemingly bright smoke was coming out of the chimney on the top of the roof.
The stars were visible, and the air was cold and dense. As the team exhaled, the warm air got visible as warm steam.
Keir and his team looked at each other and walked toward the cabin.
Keir lead the team towards the cabin and knocked on the hard wooden door.
Keir and his team heard a creaking sound, followed by heavy steps on the wooden floor from inside the cabin.
The footsteps stopped, and the person inside opened the creaky door.
The open door revealed a short figure. It was an old woman with an arched back. She had yellow-ish white hair and had her hands behind her. The old woman had wrinkled and timeworn skin. She stood aside, gesturing that they could come in.
Keir and his team nervously stepped inside the cabin. The old woman closed the door behind the three people and unstably walked towards a desk in the front.
It was a bright cabin with a wide desk and piles of paper kept tidy and clean on it.
Keir looked around and saw a tall shelf of books and on the opposite side of the bookshelf, there was a fireplace visibly made of red bricks where white and yellow tongues of fire roared along with an acrid smell of charred wood filling the air.
"Ms, Mira? Please come forward."
The old woman formally said with a dry and shaky voice,
Mira was already evidently nervous by the quick steps she made toward the old woman and stood in front of the desk.
The woman had a leather pouch in her hand. She opened it and pulled out a stone, a colorless, translucent stone with a white glow shining within it. The old lady put the crystal-like stone on the desk and said.
"Cover it with your fist and press it with all your strength."
The woman said in a plain tone of voice.
Mira grabbed the crystal-like stone as she guided and pressed it with all her strength she could gather in her fist. Moments later, an epic light shone out of her fist. She opened her fist and saw the white translucent stone now had a bright shine in it, a shining golden-yellow light, and in the center of the stone, a dark, blood-like substance was present.
As Mira held the stone, she felt a sense of power and pride. A burning sensation in her chest made her rise and widened her shoulders as a gesture of pride and honor.
"Very well, personality is pride and cowardice and attribute is Divinity, too common. Next Jin."
The woman said as she wrote it in her papers.
As Mira put down the stone and went back, confused. The turned back into a translucent stone with a dim white light in it.
Jin hesitantly covered the stone in his fist and before he could press it with all his strength, a bright white light shined out of his fist. He unfolded his fist and a bright white light with an emerald-green light from the center shined out from the stone.
"Hmm, this is rare. Your personality is Cold and calm while your attribute is elemental. Next Keir"
The woman said as she continued to write words on her paper.
Keir timidly walked forwards and stopped in front of the old woman and the instant he was about to grab it, a blinding warm blue light emerged from the stone. The old woman looked at the stone with wide-open eyes, while Keir could barely turn his head at the stone. Keir tried to look at the warm blue light and he saw the stone was bright red and had a deep black spot in the scarlet stone.
Keir removed his hands from the stone, and it stopped shining. The lady continued to stare at the stone until she went back to writing her words on the paper.
"Personality is curious and cold and attribute is.....demonic...... A-Alright, you may leave. A man waiting for you at the door. He will take you where you need to go."
The woman said with her eyes still wide open and trembling as she looked at Keir who had already started walking towards the door without noticing her gaze.