I showed a rare true smile as I heard the words. Considering that I already knew about the existence of magic in this world and that they had been summoned from their world that part didn't surprise me as much as it would have if I hadn't known, however, I also noticed that the man had specified that those who couldn't walk would be left behind by "The mages" which meant that they could help people walk that couldn't walk on their own. 'It is likely that the more people we have the better it will be for the next trial… even if they end up just being cannon fodder for the rest of us.' I thought coldly.
The room had burst into chaos the moment the man had left the room and people were screaming questions, and many people completely forgot to try to stand and get used to walking which irritated me as that was the one part that was actually important to their survival at the moment, considering that none of them had eaten in at least one full day and they had spent hours walking in the bloodacid fields so they had exhausted nutrients and energy.
Standing up I gathered the attention of everyone near me as they hadn't seen me do anything and quickly people started to quiet down, not quite being silent, but quiet enough that those close could hear me if I talked normally, and if I talked loudly some farther away would hear me so I decided to speak loudly, but I didn't shout, "Listen, I understand the implications of him calling the staff here mages, but he also said that if we can't walk they would leave us here so we should have as many people as possible start getting used to walking while we can. He specifically said that those who can't walk will be left behind "by the mages." None of us are mages, so we can help each other walk if need be. So those that aren't too exhausted and have been awake for a while should start standing, those who have already stood up, help others stand, then in groups of two start walking around until you can walk on your own. We only have 10 minutes, and less now that I have had to explain this. We can't learn if he was telling the truth about being mages if we die of starvation, also he said there would be a hard trial coming up so the more people we have the more we can help each other out in the future." Having spoken more than I was usually comfortable doing in front of a large group of people I immediately moved to start helping people up into a standing position.
What I had said quickly spread among all of the trial takers and they recognized the truth in my words, although a couple people complained they did eventually do their best to stand up and walk as much as they could, although some of the people who had just woken up could barely sit up, and couldn't stand at all. By the time the ten minutes were up, out of six thousand people, only about one thousand of them needed help walking and when the man saw that people were helping each other his cold demeanor faded for a moment and he gave everyone a genuine smile before turning and walking towards the door only telling them to follow him.
The looks of shock on peoples' faces when they suddenly heard sound after leaving the room almost made me laugh, but I didn't feel like admitting that I had extra information. The reason I did so is because I knew that there were some people that would think that I was working for the mages and I didn't want to be an outsider quite yet, not unless I had to.
I was thinking about what the second trial might be, just minding my own business, when all of the sudden he heard the man's voice inside his mind, "So, Cyrus met you, huh? I guess when you wake up after only three hours of sleep after the bloodacid trial, even they will find you interesting. Ha, good luck boy." I was completely shocked, and for the first time I was genuinely happy about my usually unreadable facial expressions.
Now I was even more confused and had even more questions. 'This mage speaks as if Cyrus isn't in the same group as him, why is that? Also he said, "they." Is Cyrus part of some other group? Or is it possible that Cyrus is non-binary? I guess I never asked. Also, why did he say good luck after mentioning that Cyrus had taken interest in me?' I was even deeper in thought now, and nobody noticed except for the mage leading them who smirked then ignored me and the others until they reached the dining area.
Once they arrived they were left alone while they ate, yet somehow I felt like there were eyes on them. Every fifteen seconds or so it felt like it was switching back and forth between two people looking in my general direction. I also noticed that the moment the last person finished eating the doors opened and they ushered us outside. Outside it was early afternoon again, and there was a small field before a forest on one side, and fields of grains and other farmland on the other side with a dirt road leading up to the training camp. Once all six thousand of them were gathered outside the man stood on a wooden stage but this time he held something to his mouth that amplified his voice so everyone could hear him.
"Usually the second test would just be a test of strength. You would fight a beast from the forest and if you were physically strong enough, or smart enough, you could beat the beast and you would survive. However, a larger than usual amount of you have survived until now, which leads me to believe that you are stronger than the average untrained non-mage or knight. Now, since you are stronger than an average untrained human, you will each be fighting either, two beasts alone, six beasts with one other person, or nine beasts with two others. The way we have done this is there is two if you fight alone or three per person if you fight together as you have the potential to work together, however to make sure that we can easily take care of the situation we are restricting you to teams of three, otherwise you might all five thousand nine hundred ninety eight decided to work together and that would be enough beasts to overwhelm our entire military camp."
A couple people glared at me because I had said that they would be able to work together, and technically they could, but only in groups of three. I, on the other hand, was shocked at the difficulty. Even animals back on Earth would be difficult for a human to fight, especially without a weapon so I decided to ask, "Sir, are there any tools or weapons we can use to help us combat these beasts that you wish for us to fight? I'm not sure it would be possible to fight one, much less two beasts without some sort of equipment."
The mage smiled, at first it seemed cruel, like he wanted to deny us any weapons, then he sighed and said, "Yes, there are weapons you can use, but they are only the most basic grade weapons. There are swords, axes, daggers, bows, and basic wands of "sagitta ignis" or "arrow of fire."" Everyone was excited about the wands but none of them truly believed that magic existed so they all chose weapons they thought would work easily for them. Some people had taken archery classes on Earth so they used bows, others had never held a weapon so they chose swords or axes, a couple of the bullies chose daggers, but I chose the wand. I figured that if there were mages then magic should be able to be used, and Cyrus had called Earth a "low magic" world, not a "magicless" world so that probably meant that Earth had magic on it somewhere which meant that humans had been exposed to magic at some point in history.
As soon as I picked up a wand two things happened at the same time, One, everybody nearby snickered at me and were starting to assume that I wasn't as smart as they had thought I was. The second was that I immediately understood how to use the wand and knew that it was by far the most powerful weapon that had been offered. Just to make sure I picked up a sword, it felt like the difference between holding a chunk of iron and holding a pure diamond of the same size in worth back on Earth. I put the sword back down and stood off to the side with the wand I had chosen.
The mage had noticed that only Arratus had even bothered to pick up a wand and he snickered at the others gathered around but they were all focused on their weapons and surroundings and didn't notice. "Very well, now that you have weapons we will move to where the beasts are held and you will form into whatever teams you want to be in. Follow me." The mage started walking around towards the back of the building without waiting to see if the gathered trial takers would follow.
Everyone was nervous as they followed the mage to the back of the training camp, so they were eerily silent as they walked. Once they reached the back there were a couple scared screams, plenty of surprised gasps, and a general sense of shock. The beasts that were in the cages weren't like the animals on Earth, although you could roughly tell what they had once been for some of them. There were giant cats that had wings and the tail of a scorpion, wolves that were twice the size of me that seemingly faded in and out of the shadows, and then there were many giant reptilian creatures, some were seemingly fantasy salamanders, red skinned reptiles that shot out bursts of fire from their lips, and in the very back there was a reptilian creature with two legs and a pair of wings. I stared at this creature, I was both excited and shocked to see a wyvern in person, but nobody else seemed to have noticed it yet.
Finally everyone arrived and the mage that had been leading us had us fight one group at a time. A lot of people were still frustrated that I had been wrong about being able to work in large groups, and the rest of the people didn't want to work with me because I chose a wand and they thought he would be useless in a fight which would just mean the rest had to fight more creatures, so I ended up in a group by himself. The two beasts that I was assigned were one of the wolves and one of the smaller large cats, but this one, unlike the rest, didn't have wings but was much faster than the other cats.
Although I had my beasts assigned to me fairly quickly the mages had them fight one group at a time and because I was going to fight alone they had him last so that if things went wrong the easiest for them to take care of would be at the end when they were the most tired.
The first fight was a group of two men who had both chosen swords. There were three cat beasts, a wolf beast, and a salamander. The group actually fought really well for having no training or experience fighting monsters. One of the men was a dark skinned, tall man, and the other was a shorter, pale man. The wolf pounced at the dark skinned man and almost instinctively he lifted his sword so the wolf impaled itself upon his sword but the weight brought the man to the ground. The pale man was fending off the cats by poking at them whenever they approached the downed man until he was able to get back up. When the dark skinned man was standing again the both swung at the same cat who dodged the dark skinned man's attack but was still hit by the pale man's swing, although it did minimal damage.
They fought like this and eventually killed two of the cats, the third cat was nervous and had backed off a bit so they turned towards the salamander which had just been watching until now. Each time they attacked the salamander they couldn't even put enough force behind each blow to do more than just scratch it, some very thin lines of blood started appearing, but it was more of an annoyance to the salamander who decided it was done and breathed out flames that coated both men as they were preparing to attack again. The flames were so bright that we couldn't see either man, but when the flames died down, All that was left of the men were two skeletons with melted flesh and two red hot swords with the leather grips burned off.
Everyone watched in shock and horror, and the people who were assigned to face off against the salamanders were terrified, although I figured that if they used an ax instead of a sword they would be able to put more force behind the blade due to a heavier bladed part, they would probably be able to cut through the tough scales. Some people were crying, and many were puking up the food they had just eaten. The smell and sight even made me want to puke but I was able to get a hold of myself before I could.
The mage gave us about two minutes before he sent the next team in, this time it was a team of three and they had nine wolves. Although they were excited that there wasn't a salamander, they eventually also ended up dying because they got surrounded by the giant wolves. Team after team went in, but only a handful survived. Every team of three died except for one, about half of the teams of two died, and even those that some survived, sometimes it was just one of the two that survived. One person discovered that the ax was indeed easier to use to kill the salamanders so that increased the survivability a lot. There were only five people besides me who decided to fight alone, and of those five 3 of them died due to them focusing too much on one beast and not noticing the second.
The last fight before me was the same woman from when he had first woken up in the fields of bloodacid. I was intrigued because she was the only solo fighter who had chosen a bow, and her two enemies were a salamander and a cat beast. The woman seemed nervous because she had seen how tough the salamander scales were, but she still walked into the arena and prepared herself. Each quiver had twenty arrows in it, and each person was only allowed one quiver so she couldn't waste arrows. Although she was a good archer, she wasn't perfect, and the stress of actual combat also affected her accuracy. She took care of the cat beast quite easily, it was almost comical how quickly she shot two arrows. One arrow hit the beast in the throat, the other struck the soft spot underneath its ear and the beast fell to the ground choking on it's own blood for a few seconds before fading away to whatever afterlife awaited it.
The fight with the salamander took a bit longer. At first she tried to shoot at the eyes of the salamander but either due to stress or just plain imperfection, she hit the scales around its eyes and the arrow reflected off at an angle. However, due to something coming so close to its eye, the salamander got angry and blew fire at the woman. The woman dove to the side and just barely avoided the blast of fire, although it was obviously still uncomfortably hot. She seemed to have an idea and shot at the eye again, but this time she prepared for the miss and had knocked another arrow, waiting for the salamander to use its fire attack again. As soon as the Salamander opened its mouth an arrow struck the inside of its throat and it made a weird coughing noise before the flames still came out. The woman had already started moving just in case, and more easily avoided the blast of fire this time. When the fire stopped pouring out, the salamander started coughing up blood before it seemed confused then collapsed, dead.
I assumed that the inside of the Salamander's mouth was fireproof, so when it spewed fire it incinerated the arrow allowing the blood to flow freely from the wound left by the arrow, but I wasn't certain of this so I didn't say anything. After the woman left the arena I nodded at her and she smiled grimly, and she sat down, exhausted. By this time, the mage wasn't giving breaks for people to talk or calm themselves between matches, and he immediately called me down to the arena.
I walked down to the arena with the wand in my hand, and watched as the beast cages opened slowly. Only now, seeing the wolf beast up close, did I notice that it wasn't just the cat beast that was different from the normal ones. This wolf's fur was rigid and hard, it seemed to be like a grill brush. Seeing that the wolf had a higher defense than he was expecting he decided to use the same idea that the woman before him had used. The wolf stalked out of its cage, made eye contact with me , and then let out a loud, deep, howl… which was cut off as an arrow of fire slammed into the inside of the wolf's mouth and exploded, leaving bits of skull, brain, and fur everywhere.
While I was shocked at how effective the "arrow of fire" spell was, my eyes locked onto the cat beast that moved in a strange way, almost as if the cat was shifting with the wind. I fired two arrows from the wand, one where the beast was, and one where I thought the beast would dodge, but to my surprise the beast moved much faster than I had expected, almost twice as fast as the normal cat beasts. Me and this cat stared at each other while circling each other. 'This cat beast wouldn't have bothered dodging if the arrow wouldn't have harmed it, so the good news is that I can at least hurt it if I can hit it, the bad news is that it's extremely fast and will be hard to hit' I was thinking to myself when the cat made a stupid move, expecting its speed to be enough. Apparently the cat misjudged the distance and leaped towards me, although the cat DID make it to where I was, it had slowed down just enough by the time it got there for me to just barely move out of the way, the beast's claws ripping open my shirt. As I fell, I fired a fire arrow into the stomach of the beast, and the explosion propelled me away from the cat as well as burned and tore open the stomach of the cat beast.
I stood at the ready for a couple of seconds before realizing that the cat was dead, as I saw the blood pooling under it. After climbing out of the arena I couldn't help but think about the fact that he had two beasts that were much stronger versions of the beasts that the others had faced, and that if I hadn't picked the wand, there is no way I would have survived this encounter. Everyone who had had enough energy to stand up and watch the fight were shocked, the fact that I had used the wand proved the existence of magic.
They focused on me, how could I use magic if I came from Earth with the rest of them? They were curious, but nobody wanted to be on my bad side now. After a moment of silence, it was the woman who was leaning on the wooden railing over the arena who voiced her curiosity, "How did you do that? How did you use the wand?" It was a simple enough question, but it also would have seemed accusatory if it had come from someone who hadn't been working with me this whole time.
"I'm not exactly sure how it works, but the moment I picked up the wand I was able to understand how to make it work. It's simple for this wand, you just point the wand and focus your will to make the wand work. I guess in my head I say the word, "fire" like the order to shoot a bow or gun and the wand understands my will." I spoke honestly as I looked at the wand in my hand.
The woman looked curiously at the pile of wands on the table and cautiously picked one up and she froze for a second before she nodded and said, "I see. By the way, my name is Sylva."
I nodded and said, "Arratus. Nice to officially meet you."
She gave a small smile and was about to say something when the mage said, "Alright, those of you that are still alive, let's go. We have already done both of the two dangerous trials, this last trial is just to determine the level of your magical talent, and what affinities you have. Of course, anyone can use any type of magic, even without an affinity, however affinities will make your magic stronger and/or take less energy to use. The mages in charge of this final trial will give a more in depth explanation, then after that you will all hear from different groups as they will try to recruit you, however if none of them are fitting for you, I suggest joining the adventurers guild since they don't have as many rules or restrictions."
We were led forward and, almost subconsciously, everyone lined up behind me and Sylva, so we just looked at each other, nodded, then followed the mage who hadn't even waited to see if we were following him. When we got to the building that the mage stopped in front of, it didn't appear to be big enough for all of us to fit in, however if the mage said we could all fit, then I would assume some sort of magic made it work. I opened the door for Sylva since it wasn't big enough for both of us to go through at the same time, then followed her in afterwards.
When I entered the building I felt the now familiar feeling of a barrier in the doorway, and I noticed that the entire building was so large that even before anyone had died, all six thousand of us could fit comfortably in this building. We walked for nearly a full minute before we saw a group of robed men who gestured for us to stand to the side. A couple moments later, all of the surviving humans were in the building, and we were split into five groups since there were five of these robed figures with five sets of orbs.