The eighth test was before them, and Karni was, simply put, miserable. His eyelids were heavy, and his mind was working on reserve energy. These ten minutes of waiting didn't do him any good. The fact he had time for a short rest actually made him more sleepy.
It worried him. What if he can't keep it together? In fact, he didn't really want to keep it together. What if he just… fell… asleep…
No matter the training he'd gone through so far, he always had a bed waiting for him at the end. His own body was never so overworked. He trained his body and bloodline, but he was never overworking it. Right now, except for the profession trial, he'd always used his bloodline in some supportive manner.
Especially with the eating trial. Or more exactly, what followed after it. It exhausted him to no end. It wasn't that he was actively using his bloodline at any point, but that his bloodline was automatically absorbing the nutrients, and this, in turn, made him sleepy. He always did get sleepy after lunch.
He somewhat absently noticed ten people in the arena. He stopped at the second person and got startled. A lean youth that wasn't especially tall but neither were they short.
The elder overseeing the trial explained. "In this trial you are to choose your opponent. One of these ten students. Once you choose, you cannot change your mind. You will have to fight them. Now then, you have ten minutes to choose."
Karni turned towards the others and whispered. "Don't choose the second from left to right. They're dangerous."
Li Tai raised his eyebrows, eyeing the student number two. "That one?"
Karni sighed. "Just trust me on this one. None of us can beat them. Well, Siduo might be able to." He eyed her.
Siduo got curious. Karni sent her a private message with his Sound Control. He manipulated it so the sound waves would only go to her. "She's one of the future Shrek Seven Devils. One of her Martial Souls is the Titan Giant Ape. I know you have a good chance of beating her, but you don't have your fusion anymore, and we want to save our power for the next trial. Be honest. Are you sure you can beat a Titan Giant Ape without exhausting all of your power? She's more tyrannical in strength than the guy we met in Eastsea City at the moment."
This only made Siduo more curious, but she had to hold back. Karni was right. She would have to use her powers at full throttle to defeat a Titan Giant Ape Martial Soul.
"Wait, did you say one of-"
"Shhhh." Karni put a finger on her mouth.
She sighed to herself. She really couldn't risk it. Shrek Seven Devils and Twin Martial Souls. She really would exhaust herself.
"This trial likely tests our judgement as well as the actual battle." Karni spoke to the other two. "Remember to not judge a book by its cover, and use your instincts. This is Shrek for fucks sake. Our opponents got through these trials three years before us."
Li Tai and Yu Tian gulped when they heard that. It was easy to forget this when their progress was smooth. Karni had one last request. "Now then, I'll go first. I want to get as much rest as possible after this."
The others didn't really mind it. Karni turned around and looked at the opponents. Number six seemed robust. A strength type? But… Something just didn't feel right about that one. He looked through them once more.
This time he paused on the third one, next to the future Shrek Seven Devils member, Yuanen Yehui. The student had a well built body. A bit overbuilt. Karni made an educated guess. This one was definitely a pure strength or attack type. He might even focus on defence. Either were fine.
He stepped forward. "Can I choose already?" It's only been about a minute.
"By all means." The elder smiled with a raised eyebrow. "But the others have to as well."
Karni looked behind. Siduo smiled. "I choose number five." It was a tall, but lean girl.
Li Tai also smiled. "I choose number ten." Another girl, who didn't seem that strong. Karni looked at her. She might be a solid match up for Li Tai, but he had a feeling that she would be a bad matchup for himself.
"And I choose number eight." Yu Tian finally sounded. He chose the tallest guy in the room. He chose someone he hoped would enable him to showcase his defensive quality.
Karni stepped forward. "I choose number three."
The student nodded and stepped forward. He eyed Karni up and down with a smile that gave Karni the shivers. This guy was definitely trying to pretend to be a 'nice guy'. His instincts were working more than his brain right now, and they were screaming at him to be careful.
Of course he trusted his instincts. He had Mo Qing for a teacher. His brain remembered well the 'kind' smiles.
The match began. Student three instantly transformed into a giant eagle. A bit too huge to be an agility type. A flying strength type maybe?
The eagle flapped his wings as the first Soul Ring lit up and a giant tornado was sent Karni's way. Karni waited for the raging wind to close in, before disappearing.
Student three was distracted for a second. The guy didn't dodge? No, he vanished! He barely noticed an indistinct song above him. The head looked up, and Karni hit his head. The eagle immediately fell. He just lay there on the ground and Karni was barely keeping his mind together. He was TIRED!
The other Shrek students looked at Karni in amusement. Then they waited. The eagle didn't stand up. Was that a one hit KO?
Yes it was. Karni was mainly looking for an opponent that wasn't strong spiritually, and that was something he was capable of sensing to a degree. That combined with the man's build made it easy to choose. His Sound disturbed the senses, and someone who cannot defend against that was easily defeated.
He turned back and walked back to his group, pulling out clothes from his storage ring and arranging them in a stack, before laying down. Time to take a power nap.
The students and the elders all looked at Karni. A mixture of shock and amusement. Some of the students even felt offended, but really, Karni didn't feel that. He was already asleep. When some of the offended students saw this, they were shut silent. They realised… this guy was really fucking tired, eh? Was that why he went first?
… … …
Karni was woken up. He struggled to focus and saw Siduo looking at him. "We're finished. We need to continue."
Karni turned around. "Five more minutes."
Siduo slapped him, this properly woke him up. He looked at Siduo. "Shit! We're still at the exam."
"Yes you damn panda sloth. Get your ass up!"
He quickly put his clothes back into the storage ring and looked around embarrassed. He got strange looks, some of which were laughing.
They quickly moved forward to the next exam. Karni looked at his group. "How'd everyone do?"
Siduo said smilingly. "I won with quite some ease. The girl was a controlled spiritual type, so I had experience dealing with it." She winked at Karni.
Yu Tian also smiled. "I had something similar. I faced an agility type, and because of Wu Siduo, I was used to facing against speed. Except the person didn't have strength with that, so I managed to tire him out."
Li Tai was the last. He sounded a bit exhausted like Karni. "I faced a Snow Leopard. We were sort of an equal matchup, but I managed to win with invisible blades at the end. And with some use of the thing that the elder suggested. That being said, I'm still feeling cold."
"Did they tell us the scores?" Karni asked, to which he received a unanimous shake of heads. Well that's not good. Now they weren't sure anymore how well they were doing.
Karni turned towards Siduo. "How much time do we have?"
"They gave us ten minutes again. They probably don't want us to rest at the end as part of the overall test."
Karni nodded and they paused before the next test. They were actually the first ones here. Some people were already at the battle against students in the eighth trial, specifically a few Karni recognised. An incredibly muscular teen Karni knew as the Dusk Bear on the genius youth ranking; the Immortal, also on the board, a high rank of 20, a single space behind Siduo. In fact, in the original story, he was rank 19, not Siduo.
Lastly he saw Luo Guixing who was rank 17 on the ranking. The guy who they've bumped into before in this place. They'll likely catch up soon as well.
"Li Tai, come here, let me see if I can help with the cold problem." Karni urged the guy in front of him.
Li Tai obliged and Karni lazily put his hands onto Li Tai. Despite knowing that using his bloodline right now would make him even more tired, he still helped Li Tai stabilise the cold a little bit. The sleep did help a teeny, very weeny bit.
It wasn't that he could easily get rid of the cold, but he could urge his body to get used to it. That was his Bloodline's characteristics afterall. Adaptability to a foreign environment, relaxation in and around everything. It should work in this way as well.
After ten minutes, Li Tai blinked with surprise. He could still feel the cold, but it didn't bother him anymore, it was like he was used to it now. Also, why was he feeling a bit too friendly towards Karni? In the first test, he thought he was imagining it, but now he was clearly feeling it. Just what was Karni's ability?
But he couldn't ask him. They had to enter the next trial. They opened the doors and saw capsules. Oddly familiar capsules.
A familiar elder entered the room. A youthful green haired beauty. The one that interviewed them before. "In the ninth trial, you must survive. It's like the Spirit Ascension Platform, based on your Soul Rings, I'm guessing you've visited it before."
She then made a peculiar smile. "But ours is a little different compared to the normal Spirit Ascension Platform. If you kill Soul Beasts in here, and are at a bottleneck, you can gain their Soul Ring as well."
The children's eyes went wide. Li Tai seemed excited. He's just broken through rank 40 this week of rest. This was the perfect opportunity!
They entered the capsules and with it a different world. Just as the capsules activated, another person entered the room. "So that blond boy is the one you mentioned, dear?"
"Yes. He's performed exceedingly well. He has full marks so far. Though interestingly, the boy fell asleep on the last trial. His friend, the red-haired girl, is also excellent. The only trial she didn't get the full points on is the fifth one, with eating. Though it felt like she could get them if she had more time, she was quite the slow eater. Her will power was more than strong enough."
"Hoho, an interesting bunch. What about the other two?"
"Above average."
The sharp man nodded and turned around. "You gave them the advanced challenge right?"
She nodded. "Yun Ming, are you going to join the Three Hall Review trial?"
The man shook his head gently and hugged Ya Li. "I'll just watch from the side, you're better at these things."
The woman smiled bashfully. "Very well."
… … …
Karni rubbed his eyes as the scenery changed. This was the final trial. Though it wasn't what they said, he remembered this. This was a test of moral character first and foremost.
But even if he knew, he couldn't say it. He didn't even dare to say it with his powers. He didn't know how much they could observe here. If they knew he knew, this wouldn't turn out well even with the 'had a vision' excuse.
Even more, it wasn't possible to get the fourth soul ring for Li Tai. He felt sorry for the guy, he could see how giddy he was.
Karni focused and activated his first and second Soul Rings. "Everyone, look at me." He shared his vision with everyone. They were around him.
Li Tai and Yu Tian were used to this. There were some moments when the four of them teamed up in Spirit Ascension Platform, even if they usually didn't do so. They were somewhat used to working together. With Karni's Vision Bestowal it became easier to coordinate with one another.
He just finished sharing his vision before they heard a loud roar nearby. Siduo was the first to speak up. "We have to survive, but we can get a soul ring for Li Tai along with making a good impression. Let's go."
Even if Karni was the control system in the team who made the tactics, Siduo was the one with the overbearing character and steadiness. She had the qualities of a leader, and was also the one who led her friends into a fight.
Besides that, at this moment, Karni just wasn't reliable for plans, his brain wasn't particularly useful. While running to their destination, he had to regularly do small slaps on his cheeks, to keep his focus. Just running on autopilot wouldn't work at this stage.
They came to look at the scene of the disturbance. What they saw left their mouths agape. Three giant wolves, pitch black in colour, were terrorising a bear. But it wasn't just any bear. It was the Duskgold Dreadclaw Bear. The strongest species of bears on the whole of Douluo!
"It's losing?" Yu Tian voiced his concerns.
Karni turned to look at the wolves and felt a shiver of fear. "They're ten thousand years old."
They looked at him and understood. That bear was not a ten thousand year old beast. Even if it could normally kill a ten thousand year old beast, right now there were three of them.
"There are cubs." Yu Tian commented.
Karni only now noticed them. Damn. Just how much was this tiredness getting to him for him to miss this. Now it all made perfect sense. The mother bear was trying to protect the cubs from the wolves. She couldn't actively attack without the danger of one of the wolves grabbing the cubs.
"Should we help?" Yu Tian asked.
"Are you crazy? Do you want us to die?" Siduo complained.
"Well, this doesn't really feel fair-" He was interrupted. The wolves attacked the mother Duskgold Dreadclaw Bear again, but one of them died in an instant. Golden Claws extended from the right hand from the bear tore the head of one of the wolves apart.
Unfortunately, the other two wolves made deep wounds in the bear. Even with impeccable defence, the Duskgold Dreadclaw Bear's innards were now visible. This looked like a fatal wound, and the mother bear knew it as well.
The bear charged at the two wolves for the first time, two terrifyingly sharp golden streaks were released onto one of the wolves, while the other attacked the same spot again.
One of the wolves died, while the other was suddenly pinned under the Duskgold Dreadclaw's Bear front leg.
The wolf bit down more, worsening the already fatal wound, but the eyes soon lost its light. The wolf was dead.
In the next moment, the mother bear collapsed as well, no longer breathing. The two cubs approached their mother and started to cry out.
Siduo nudged Li Tai. "They'll be perfect soul rings."
"I… I don't know." Li Tai didn't feel right.
"Come on. They're just soul beasts, not even real ones likely."
"Sisi." Karni looked at her with sharp yet tired eyes. "No. This isn't right."
"Kiki. They're just our imagina-"
"Are they? They give real soul rings. Are you sure they're just a product? Look at them. Even artificial Spirit Souls have life."
Siduo felt a little irritated. "Then what do we do? Just waste this opportunity, they're soul bea-" She stopped herself, realising what she was saying for a second. She herself had a Soul Beast turned Spirit Soul within her. A sense of guilt came over her. "I-"
They heard howls of wolves not so far away.
"Shit." Karni was frustrated. He swung his staff and teleported behind the cubs, quickly making them unconscious with his third Soul Ring. Then he teleported the two unconscious cubs far into the forest. He spat out some blood. This was incredibly straining for him when he wasn't even in his right state of mind.
He then teleported into the forest, next to the cubs. Not long after he saw wolves coming to eat the body of both their own brethren as well as the mother bear. Wu Siduo and the other two came to him soon.
Siduo was there staring at Karni. "I still think we should use this opportunity."
Yu Tian looked at Li Tai. "They're cubs. Children."
Li Tai looked at his friend and nodded with a bit of hesitation. "I don't know if I'd be able to live with myself."
Siduo sighed. "Fine." She sat down next to Karni and leaned on him. She whispered so only he could hear. "I guess… Even with a whole other lifeti-'' A slow, soft hand covered her mouth and her face was flushed red. Then she understood why he did it. The elders of the academy were likely watching.
She coughed. "It seems I have a bit of growing to do. In my mindset. I'll need to adapt like you." She used to live in an era when killing Soul Beasts, even these, was normal. This was a different time. Soul Beasts were almost extinct. She needed to adapt with the times, just like Karni had to adapt with the world.
Soon after, they heard the squeals of the wolves. They all died in an instant. A giant shadow appeared above them, it looked at the cubs behind them. Their faces turned pale. Papa bear appeared. And it was furious.
"Kiki!" Siduo looked at Karni for help. They could teleport!
Karni just whispered. "Sorry." He couldn't. His mind was barely working. Even when he covered her mouth he did it subconsciously. He couldn't even lock onto any space to teleport himself right now. All he felt was a hug. It was Siduo.
The other two released a unanimous: "Shit."
… … …
The capsules opened. They died in a single instant. Ya Li, the beautiful elder, was waiting for them outside. She turned to look at them with some kindness and a bit of a strange look at Siduo.
It wasn't because of the hug at the end, but the words she said about the cubs. Her way of thinking was very… old fashioned. Though she did seem to change her mind at the end.
The woman sighed a bit, unsure about the result of the girl. She waved them towards the door. "Follow me. The final trial awaits."