After leaving the Center Spawn, I made my way straight to the apartment complex. Once I was in front of the front door, I calmed my breathing and entered.
'I already know my fate.' I thought before opening the door with my spare key that I always store inside of my inventory.
This thought was entirely based on prior experience. Because when I was first late to a meeting with Ka'dar, well, he tried to kill me. And he increased the training difficulty.
'Starting to wish he never gave me this key in the first place.' I sighed and entered the building, only to discover Ka'dar sitting in the lotus position and meditating a little ways away from the front door.
"So you've finally made it? Marcel, do you know how long I've been waiting?" He said and then began a long pause indicating that he wanted an answer.
"Around an hour extra? I wouldn't know because I don't normally carry a watch around with me."
"Still as smart-mouthed as ever, well anyways, I'm glad you finally showed up. Though you won't have much time to rest now that you're this late." He finished and halted his meditation to stand up and then I followed him back to the table in the kitchen.
"Alright, it's time to get down to business. Although, I can't tell you what the exams are because one, I don't know and two it would be cheating. So I can only tell you about a mistake many individuals make when undergoing the exams."
"They put too much trust in their allies if they make or have or any at all. I want you to go into all exams not trusting anyone, after all, they can lead to your failure." Ka'dar said with a cold-hearted tone of voice to indicate how serious the matter was, even though he was still dressed in all-black star-covered pajamas.
"I understand," I said before taking my leave. There was something I wanted to work on and it was obvious that Ka'dar couldn't notify me of anything else.
Also, it was weird to hear his voice in such a tone.
'Alright, the thing I want to work on most is learning how to balance using both a sword and a nunchuck.'
'I learned that I couldn't penetrate the skin of most beasts with just my nunchucks unless my strength was significantly higher than theirs. So by practicing sportsmanship, rather than always increasing my strength I'll be able to penetrate any beast with my sword.'
That night, I was up for two hours just constantly swinging my sword. And trying to combine different slashes.
My main combo is a horizontal slash followed by a side step to the left, another slash, and a short dodge back to the right, and ending it off with a swift vertical stab above. This was my only technique without any stiff motions, one that I believe is a great move for a beginner like myself.
I also noticed that when pouring Ki into the sword the blade would heat up on the outer edge of the blade. Depending on how much Ki was poured into the blade, the stronger the blade heated or even produced fire.
Though I could wield the sword for very long when I made it produce fire or even when it heated up to a certain degree.
Suddenly I felt a wave of fatigue wash over my body, this was when I ended the night.
Then when dawn came and I awoke, Ka'dar led me to the entrance exam area. Though it was in the same area as before, somehow he knew that I wouldn't know the way there.
Once we arrived, I saw an enormous group of people, and one man stood before them all. He was dressed up in a black suit with a yellow tie, along with the signature golden fist imprinted on his shirt.
"Mix into the crowd, he's about to give a short speech, or at least I hope so," Ka'dar said while facing me and pointing towards the crowd of different aged individuals.
I gave Ka'dar a slight nod and eased into the crowd and by using a bit of my strength, I made it to the front of the group directly across from the man preparing himself for his speech.
"Welcome men and women from low and high status, before I begin I would like to inform you that no matter your status and background you will not be treated higher or lower than anyone else." The unknown white-skin-toned man said while enhancing his voice with Ki, before taking a slight pause.
"...Because within the Golden Faction and Academy, we are all family!" He stated while puffing his chest out and with his hand balled into a fist and held over his heart.
"And trust among family is the best you'll get. Now that I've established our connection I'll finally introduce myself. Forgive me for my rudeness but my name is Klaus A. Jones, and I welcome you all to the golden entrance exams."
"Now take over now won't you Janice?" Klaus said while pulling dark-skinned women from the side.
"Alright, my name is Janice and I will be your lead instructor for your entrance exams followed by Klaus as my little helper."
"Now, it's time for the first exam!" Janice announced while three men began pulling out a large bucket filled with little yellow capsules.
"Each of you will pull out one capsule, search it, and whatever number you receive will be those of your teammates. We will be taking this exam to the center spawn where all exams will be held." Janice said while motioning towards the large bucket with a hole in its front.
"The goal of the first exam is to survive! And well to also remain hidden from numerous dispatch Lecturers and active Golden members. If you are found once, you fail this exam, and only those who hold a perfect score will make it into the Golden Academy where they will work their way into the Golden Faction!"
"Now begin and once you have regrouped with your team, stand in pairs of three. This will make our next preparation phase go far smoother." Janice said before leaning on Klaus, it was now obvious from how causal they were that they were in a relationship.
Also that he didn't outright brush her off his shoulder.
After that, we all slowly began making our way toward the big bucket. Once it was my turn, I drew the number three from the bucket.
Thus I began my search for my teammates, and when I finally found them, my first impression of them was…lame. Normally you would have fun in groups or teams but this one seemed like it was going to be a bit on the dryer side.
"I guess we should at least introduce ourselves, I'm Marcel," I said while giving a half-baked smile. I wasn't a fan of groups, especially if I was stuck with a bunch of dry characters.
"My name is Patricia, and I haven't learned Ki yet so, I'm in your care." She said while bowing her head it was either from embarrassment or niceties.
'Then she's useless!' I thought while analyzing the white-skin-toned petite girl.
'Just around five foot three, yellow striped shirt, and white sweatpants. Also, I won't believe something until I see it, so for all I know, she might be able to use Ki. I should be weary of her friendly nature as well because those who are too friendly to strangers naturally must carry other motives.'
'Inspect!'
[Patricia Vanessa Williams]
[Life Force: 15/15]
[Maximum Ki: 4 (No Ki Control)
[Strength: 14]
[Agility: 12]
[Stamina: 19]
[Endurance: 2]
[Inspect Cooldown Timer: 20Mins]
'She's fairly strong, if she could use Ki then she might have become a problem if she needed to be dealt with…I can't just kill people because they inconvenience me, now, I'll rarely leave it up to chance.'
"Well my name is Autumn, and I'm from the richer part of town. Can't you tell?" A white-skinned woman dressed up in black with purple accessories and practically covered in piercings from head to toe said with a smirk on her face.
'Yeah right,' I thought inwardly.
My gaze then went across their weapons.