After two tiring weeks of training Maxwell was ready to dominate the test the next day. He went to bed early, excited to fight in the test. He had already registered himself 3 days ago but nothing had been told about the test yet. He woke up confident and changed into his most comfortable set of clothing, a yellow shirt made with high quality cotton that was durable and cyan trackpants. He wore a pair of black combat boots since it would be extremely useful in hilly terrain or forests.
At the gathering area there were thousands of people who had signed up. It was immensely crowded and noisy. Everyone was facing a small stage where various members of the three sects sat. After 30 minutes of waiting one of the representatives stood up and announced the rules of the first trial.
"The first trial will be held in the mountains behind the palace. Everyone will get a token that will count the beasts they kill. Any treasures found there will be kept by the finder. Only the top 100 will pass to the next trial."
"If the token detects that someone has left the range of the trial they will be disqualified and teleported back here. The trial will last 3 days, and everyone will be monitored. There are no other rules, and we are not responsible for any deaths that occur during the trial. Anyone who wants to withdraw can leave now."
After those words around 200 people left. The announcer then distributed tokens to everyone that remained.
"Everyone has to now gather in front of the mountain range."
Maxwell rode Arion to the mountain range and was the first participant to reach there.
Orphelia was one of the few representatives waiting at the foot of the mountains for the participants. Everyone there saw Maxwell on Arion and were amazed that he had such a strong mount.
"Woah Maxwell, that's a strong Spiritual Beast, is that Arion? Remember, you are not allowed to take him inside. He is too powerful." Orphelia spoke before anyone else could tell anything.
"Yes, this is Arion. I figured as much."
"Who is this beautiful lady?" Arion said while neighing.
"That's my fiancé, Orphelia."
"So, she's off limits? What a pity."
"Huh, your Lightning Pegasus can speak already?" Orphelia looked at them confused.
"Wait, you understood that?" Maxwell was just as perplexed.
"What! Both of you are heaven's children. What a coincidence." Arion was as surprised as the two.
"Heaven's children are those that can communicate with Spiritual Beasts and Herbs that have become intelligent. They have a great affinity to qi and it's easier for them to form bonds with Spiritual Beasts."
"Cool, why did you not realise I was one earlier?" Maxwell questioned.
"I had forgotten about the term. I heard about it long ago and I only remembered it now."
"Oh."
"Now, Arion about those comments earlier." Orphelia glared at Arion who felt fear from her. Arion gulped nervously.
"Uh, well, umm." Arion was confused why he felt fear and could not find any excuse for his words.
As Maxwell spoke to Orphelia he felt glares from Bruce Rogers who was staring daggers at him.
'He's probably going to try to pull something in the tests.'
Orphelia noticed he had drawn Maxwell's attention and comforted him.
"I'll make sure he doesn't pull anything as much as I can."
"Alright, I'll trust you."
'I have to be wary of others too.'
Soon everyone arrived at the foot of the mountain. Everyone was let to enter at the same time and some people had already formed teams. Maxwell remained alone and went deep into the largest mountain that contained the strongest enemies and the most tunnels. It was a feared area since you could be ambushed from the many tunnels that snaked through the mountain and you could also get back into a corner if you were unlucky.
Maxwell quickly stumbled upon two Level 2 Steel Clawed Moles. They could easily dig through the hard mountain and their claws were very dangerous. They immediately noticed Maxwell with their sharp noses and charged towards him.
Maxwell brought out his spear whose abilities were constrained because of the small tunnels. Maxwell held it at the middle for the best use in these tunnels and stabbed.
*Clang*
The mole at the front blocked his spear with his sharp claws.
*Squeak*
The mole squeaked at him angrily and clawed at Maxwell. Maxwell stepped back, dodging it and then infused lightning qi into his spear. He went forward to pierce through one and released the Lightning Dragon.
*Roar*
The small dragon roared and tore through both the moles leaving a gaping hole in their corpses. His token lit up twice before returning to normal. He then picked up their beast cores and headed deeper into the mountains. He remained vigilant since the moles had a superior sense of smell. As he delved deeper the number of moles reduced to almost 0 as if they had all retreated to their home.
'I'll go a bit deeper before changing mountains. I can't handle Level 3 Beasts in such close quarters.'
Maxwell stumbled upon a small open area guarded by 2 moles. They squealed signalling their comrades inside. Maxwell sliced their heads off quickly before entering a hole. It led to a large cavern that sparkled with different ores.
'Is this a motherlode?'
Maxwell couldn't look around much since he was surrounded by 6 moles that were mad and squealed and squeaked with fury. Maxwell had a lot of room to move and could use his spears range fully. He attacked forward with his spear.
'Shit, it's shallow.'
The mole then grabbed Maxwell's spear with its claws and held on. The mole was drained of all his blood suddenly and was left as a shrivelled corpse.
'Did the spear do that? I haven't used it in combat properly. It is indeed blood thirsty.'
4 moles chittered in fear but the strongest who was in the middle of Level 2 was not scared, instead fuelled by rage. He jumped at Maxwell clawing him. Maxwell blocked the attack with his spear shaft. The mole then tried to hold onto the shaft as best as he could while squeaking at his comrades. His comrades ran and tried to dig themselves into the earth. Maxwell managed to get the moles grip off the shaft and killed it with lightning qi. He then dashed after the remaining moles. He managed to get three but the last was too far gone.
'I should leave quickly before more arrive.'
Maxwell then cut out the ores from the ground with his spear before storing them whole.
'What a waste, some were about to advance to Rank 6 but Rank 5 peak is still very valuable.'
He then left using the tunnels that directed him upwards. He suddenly stopped and hid in a crevice.
'Voices. I have to be careful, or I'll be outnumbered.'
A group of cultivators around the age of 16 walked through the tunnel.
"These mountains are said to have the strongest monsters. We can get more points in here and we all will advance then."
Suddenly the ground shook and rocks fell from the ceilings.
"Is there a treasure?"
"Let's hurry, we can't let other teams get it."
'This is probably the leader of the moles who is enraged because of me. I better get out of here.'
Outside the mountain range, among the representatives of the three sects.
"The Mole Monarch has awoken! All the cultivators who go there will die miserably due to his anger."
"We have to stop them."
"We can't. The mountains were chosen as the test grounds to see if they can survive all the horrors." One said while sighing.
"Nobody can survive if he attacks. He is Level 6 already."
"As long as they can survive 2 more days, they will be fine."
Meanwhile Maxwell had left the mountain after travelling through tunnels for 5 hours. He entered a smaller mountain that had mainly Level 1 Beasts and found a crevice to set up a protective and concealment formation before taking a short rest. Maxwell woke up invigorated and ready to wipe out nests of Lizards that inhabited this particular mountain.
'These Lizards are too easy to kill, they are all Level 1. Even their leaders are at most the middle of Level 2. At this rate I won't get much.'
Maxwell wiped out 10 nests and only got 200 Beast Cores. In total he had 360 Level 1 cores and 30 Level 2 Cores.
'Hmm, there's an aura of 2 Level 3 Peak Stage Spiritual Beasts. I should watch, maybe I can take advantage of the fight.'
Maxwell use his space qi to blend in with the space around him, making it seem like he didn't exist. It required a lot of concentration and qi to pull this off so Maxwell was already sweating profusely.
The fighting Beasts was a giant yellow and black snake and an equally large green lizard. They both were equally matched and were fighting over a herb, a Rank 5 Blue Aster. They were covered in various wounds, bite marks. The Lizard had been poisoned by the snakes venom but the Lizard had almost killed the Snake too. The lizard made his final attack and bit down on the snakes neck, dying in the process. The snake squirmed in its jaws but Maxwell quickly finished it.
'That lizard gave me such a good opportunity. With this I should easily win the round. This Blue Aster should help my sister with her ice cultivation. '
Maxwell cut up their corpses and stored the valuable parts like the snakes fangs. Both had valuable parts. Maxwell then plucked out the Level 3 Beast Cores and his token glowed only once since he had not killed the lizard.
The remaining day and a half was not eventful with Maxwell clearing out many Spiritual Beasts and occasionally finding some ores. Nothing equalled his earlier harvest but he still collected a lot of kills. At the end of the 3 days Maxwell was teleported to the gathering area. There were only 80 people alive, contrary to everyone's expectations.
"Now that you all are back you have to line up and hand over your tokens. 1 point will be given for every Level 1 Spiritual Beast hunted, 5 for every Beginner Level 2 Spiritual Beast, 10 for Middle Level 2 and 15 for Peak. As for Level 3 it is 50 for beginner, 100 for middle and 200 for Peak."
The remaining contestants lined up. Slowly people begin to stand out for their score and the current highest was 648 points. As Maxwell waited in the line a familiar figure walked out. It was Richard Weaver who had tried to cripple Maxwell numerous times, unsuccessfully.
"Oh, a familiar face. Isn't this the loser who kept running from me for the past 10 years."
"You call me a loser when you couldn't beat me when I had no cultivation with Qi Condensation Stage 8."
"You probably got very less Beast cores seeing as you have only one Spatial Ring, maybe if you beg you would be accepted as a handyman in a sect."
"Let's see who is a loser. You only got 400 points."
"Everyone will see you humiliate yourself, even your fiancé over there." With that he turned around and walked away.
Finally it was Maxwell's turn. He gave in his token and the person counting the points froze for a second in shock.
"One tho-thousand and thirty seven points." He announced nervously, rather shocked.
Everyone was amazed at his score but felt equally threatened by his presence.
After the score was all counted the winner was announced.
"Everyone who got above 100 points have qualified for the next round and the winner is Maxwell Windsor with 1037 points. He will get 1000 Earth Grade Spirit Stones as a reward."
"The next round will be held tomorrow and it will be a bracket based tournament with the top 30 getting into a sect. The top 10 can choose the sect they wish to join and they will receive a prize also. Further details will be announced tomorrow, good luck to everyone."