Clutching my throbbing head, I opened my eyes to find myself in a wasteland.
The ground was cracked, the trees were far and few between, all withered, and the sky was a palish red color, reminiscent of the never ending storm on Jupiter.
Propping my upper half off the ground with my hands, I proceeded to put a full gas mask on my face, to protect my eyes and circulatory system from the dust flying around with every updraft of wind.
Fully standing up now, I started wrapping my hair into a turban, as my scalp was already getting scratched by the infernal swaths of dust that would pass by me with every second.
Taking out a jacket with a collar that was slightly big, and a pair of rain pants out of my watch, I quickly put them on, before cleaning out the insides with a simple spell.
After this, I checked everything, to make sure that I was prepared, before finding my direction by looking around for an "ominous mountain range", as described in the novel, and starting to walk towards it.
In the distance, as I got closer and closer, the mountains started looming over me more, creating twisted shadows and looking like a mouth wanting to swallow me whole.
It was only after 30 more minutes of walking that I started noticing an incline.
Walking up to a scrawly arch, I passed though the deformed space under it and then descended, proceeding to, this time, climb up the next mountain.
You see, this "mountain range" wasn't really composed of mountains, but instead, of individual rock formations like the hoodoos and arches in Utah. (A/N: Pictures in the paragraph comments.)
Climbing to the top of one such "hoodoo" I used it as a starting point for my "leapfrogging".
Usually, in this situation, I would have pulled out my kusarigama, as they would have been much more practical in traversing the twisting canyons around the hoodoos using the "Spiderman" technique.
But, due to the fact that I couldn't risk exposing myself to any other students that might have made it into this portal, as a figure flying through the sky with chains was pretty obvious to see, I chose to use an old fashioned "leaping" method instead, using the hoodoos to my advantage and jumping from one to the next.
So, I started.
...
After another hour of traversing the hoodoos, I finally arrived at my destination, a granite peak that had been pushed out of the ground by whatever tectonic activity that had happened in this other dimension.
Well, it actually looked more like just a big hump in the ground, but that was due to the weathering of all the dust here molding the granite formation into a circular shape.
Without a pause, I started climbing up the formation.
Sure, the climb was steep, but the incline was at the point where you could still walk on it, but it made you want to use your hands for sure.
Finally, after another 30 minutes, I arrived at my destination, the peak of the mountain.
Well, you really couldn't figure out which was the tallest part, as the peak was so weathered the the "circular" peak was almost a "flat" peak.
Sitting down, I proceeded to wait for the rest of my team.
I collapsed on the soft forest soil, finally satisfied with the fact that I had lost my pursuers.
Breathing heavily, I couldn't help but just lay there for a few minutes, recovering both my physical strength and my mental strength.
With nothing else to do, I thought about what had happened.
A Few Hours Earlier:
I was in my makeshift camp bordered by a cliff on one side, and a river on the other.
It had just been another normal day. I was going through the actions that I had repeated day after day of staying on the island, and had gotten used to the schedule that I had set out for myself.
So, after finishing the morning necessities, I picked up my scythe, and went to go grind.
But, as I picked up my scythe, I noticed a notification icon on the message section of my smartwatch.
Clicking on it, something unbelievable popped up to my eyes.
[Student 3 Class 3 - Individual Task: Find Arvil
Time Limit: Until the end of the test.
Reward: 50 RP (A/N: Rank Points)
Penalty for Failure: 230 RP
Good Luck!]
I stared at this message for a few minutes, every moment or so wiping my eyes or blinking hard, just to make sure that what I was seeing was real and that it wasn't some sort of hopeful hallucination created by my own mind.
'Arvil... he's still alive?'
I sank to my knees, as I looked up to the sky.
"You're actually still alive! I always held a hope in you, even though you disappeared, that you were still out there, and now, I know for certain, you are still alive!"
I shouted these words out to the sun, hoping that it would pass my message onto Arvil, wherever he was.
'I swear, I will find you.' I thought, making a vow in my heart, one that only I would ever know about.
And that was when, I felt a sudden, sharp pain in my shoulder.
The Present:
Dragging myself up to the stump of a tree, I laid my back against it as I placed my hand on my wound.
'That was so dumb of me, yelling that out. Revealing my position to all those nearby, fuck!'
Using what little spiritual energy I had left, I closed the wound, which had been from a spear going straight through my shoulder.
During the run, I had closed it many times hurriedly, only for it to slowly open again with every jostle of my body.
But, now that I had time, I was able to precisely use the rest of my spiritual energy to heal the wound in a way that it would naturally heal in about half a day, as my body was still that of a superhuman's after all, making my healing much better than that of a normal person's.
Content with my work, I dropped my hand into my lap, where the other one was, before starting to circle my spiritual energy around my body, putting as much energy as I could back into my reserves before I lost all my power, and my head dropped, my consciousness drowning in the black sea of my subconsciousness.
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1. The Discord server is up!!!! The link will now be here, in the paragraph comments, in the chapter comments, in the synopsis, and on my profile. Join if you want to get chapter updates quickly, and if you want to be privy to any new information regarding the two series as soon as possible.
New Discord Link (This one will work.): https://discord.gg/8ePQESSSHT
2. I would like to shout out a book that I'm editing. Check out "World Online" by "jdbeue" a top 30 author on Webnovel. I'll assure you that the series is good, which is kinda obvious due to the author's quality, and that it's worth checking out.
3. My final announcement. I'm gonna shamelessly announce this, so be prepared. I will now only be writing extra chapters as we reach powerstone goals!
So, here they are:
75 PS - 1 extra chapter
100 PS - Another extra chapter
150 PS - Another extra chapter
200 - ??? (I'll go there if we even get there, although I seriously doubt it.)