September 2nd, Year 297 of the Imperial Calendar.
North-Western border of the Sildoret Empire; at the edge of the Abyssal Frontlines.
The line where borders between nations blurred, where the Beastmen, the Elves, the Dwarves, the Spirits...
Where every Race, every hatred and every millennia-long grudge melted into one amalgamation of filth.
The war here never ended; the mutant existences spewing out of the Abyss were endless.
It was here that the nations did something that was never once considered possible.
They created a ceasefire.
All forces were to concentrate only on the Abyss; on the Rifts that would rupture into existences; on the Dungeons bleached with Corruption; on the Corrupteds pulling the strings of conflict.
But the enemy forces were seemingly infinite, the forces of the Continent weren't enough to keep up with the enemy output.
So, to combat this, three facilities were created.
Three Military Academies for Three Alliances.
Imperial Alliance.
Symbollia Alliance.
And the Forges Alliance.
But the term 'Academy' here was loose. It was closer to a training camp, a forge spewing with hellfire; a crucible for the next generation.
The acceptance age was 15 starting from September 1st every year.
[Throes of Fortune]
Days before the start of the Main Scenario.
The First Act.
-The Drowned-
Imperial Alliance's Military Academy.
Commoner trial field.
Everyone on the field recognised the flowing, long hair; the grim eyes; the pressure squeezing out of her limbs.
It was an odd sight.
The person everyone here was wary of, was also the smallest.
Her stature was small, her body was underdeveloped, closer to a 13-year-old's; but her posture was tall.
Standing at the front, she was also the first to arrive on the field.
A small, empty circle surrounded her.
No one approached, no one breathed, no one mentioned it.
They only watched.
Suddenly, the person in question turned her head backwards.
Her swirling, abyssal eyes carved a path to the entrance of the testing field.
The emotions on her face were hard to decipher.
But what she was looking at was obvious.
It was the person newly entering the field.
'...they finally start making their entrance.'
Aranea spent years imagining this scene, the very moment she was experiencing.
She recognised her in a heartbeat.
Looking around the testing field, the last girl entering the field noticed the odd atmosphere in the testing field.
Savana, Savana Price; with bright, crimson hair and wine-red eyes, she was short, 5 foot exactly, but her body more than made up for it.
Aranea burned the girl into her eyes and then turned her head away; any more than that was suspicious.
When she turned her head away;
Her wine-red eyes zoned in on the one with the densest pressure.
'What is that girl?'
Interestingly enough, as famous as Aranea was, this girl didn't know who she was.
'...she's off.'
Furrowing her brows, Savana stopped at the back of the crowd.
But now everyone was looking between her and that girl, this only confused Savana more.
The large clearing around that girl was noticeable; everyone was clearly wary of her. But why was she somehow also the centre of attention now?
Did they know her?
That wasn't likely...
But that was because, unlike the people around her, she didn't notice Aranea gazing at her.
Those around, on the other hand, knew the meaning of that.
Knowing what Aranea was; what her gaze meant;
They prayed for her safety with pity in their eyes.
Savana sensed the pity in their eyes, 'What's going on...?'
"Attention!"
A powerful voice rattled everyone's ears; looking up at the sky, three powerful men stood mid-air.
Their militant uniforms were replicas of each other.
Pushing their voices down to the field, one said, "Trials shall begin shortly!"
The next continued, "Beneath your feet is a Transportation Array."
And the last completed it, "You will be moved to a field."
Finally, all at once:
"Survive."
A devastating pressure exploded from their bodies.
"Or die."
The applicants were given no chance to turn their backs, a Mana Barrier encircled the field in a dome instantaneously.
No complaints were allowed nor forfeits.
You may not turn your back if you willingly step into the crucible.
Observing the Transportation Array beneath her feet, Aranea broke out with a smile, 'It's simpler than I made it out to be.'
'And this situation, it's more fun than I thought. More fun than the game for sure.'
She'd been grinding in safe Dungeons for many years, this was going to be the first time she'd been thrown into the unknown.
Ah, that's if you didn't count being thrown into this world as Aranea.
That was more of a mystery than everything else.
Unlike our mutant Aranea, those around her were a mixture of nervous, scared, and regretful.
Regret wasn't going to help them though.
FLASH-!
---
Mayhem.
Only one word was required to describe their situation.
The open field they arrived on was drowning beneath hundreds of Corrupteds on all sides; it was an entrapment.
It felt like a losing battle even with over a thousand commoner applicants fighting it out.
Those who had come out of blind belief in their skill were eliminated by the second, being teleported out in the final moments before their death.
Some lost limbs, some their sanity; others collapsed from the fear.
This was the meaning of a crucible.
The glinting edge of her daggers pierced through the light, plunging into the skulls of a Corrupted; the vibrations of broken bones jumped through her nerves as spewing blood drowned her from head to toe.
Spinning her body, the daggers ripped off the rest of the wolf-like Corrupted's skull.
Thud!
Another hound-like Corrupted slammed into the first one, failing at an attempt to catch her in its grasp.
Escaping its bloodied claws, she weaved through the wind, wrapping around its arm as her daggers thrust at its eyes.
Squelch-
Exploding eyeballs and mushed brain matter coated her two, curved, serrated daggers.
Sizzle!
Then, flames exploded outwardly from them, burning it from the inside out; cleansing her daggers.
Backing off-
Rumble...
-the two corpses tumbled atop each other, their rotten flesh slapping and bouncing then burning up from the fires.
The stench joined in with the rest of the smells encompassing the battlefield.
A sickening feeling rose through her throat, forcing the girl to gulp it back down.
Savana wiped the sweat off her forehead, that was the 37th Corrupted she had killed.
'I'm running out of stamina, how are the others-?'
Not good.
CRASH!
A shield shattered on the man's arm, breaking the limb into a mess of leaking flesh and bones; a grim sight.
His screams died away instantly as a flashing light took him away, he was one of the lucky ones.
Over 50 people had already died from the Transportation Array not picking them up in time.
Savana focused up, lowering her stance while crossing her arms over in a readied stance.
In a situation like this, it was better to go on the offensive, no matter how tired you became or how sick you felt; even when your mind begged for rest, you had to force your way through.
---
Blood covered her eyes; her vision dropped to mere metres.
A mountain of corpses surrounded them.
Exhaustion ached their bones from the inside out; the difference between sweat and tears grew blurry.
Her hair was scorched at its ends, her clothing ripped and torn; the mud and grime, flesh and blood helped cover her skin.
Her head felt numb.
The daggers in her hand felt numb.
Or maybe it was her hands.
Maybe her forearms.
It was all the same.
She felt sick to her stomach.
She wanted to curl into a ball and wretch her innards out.
These nightmares would follow her for months to come.
The same could be said for everyone around her, everyone-
She wished she could say that.
A monster roamed the battlefield.
Her black and white hair. Untainted.
Her endlessly spinning abyssal eyes. Unflinching.
The surface of her skin. Unblemished.
The clothing on her body. Untouched.
Everything that dared approach her lost its life within seconds.
The battlefield was frozen solid.
Squeaking noises of ice compressing and pulling apart echoed across the entire field.
Pillars of ice carried dozens of trophy heads, and the rivers of blood froze over.
Lifting her hand, icicles exploded out; shooting out at speeds that the normal human eye could never keep up with.
Splat!
Splat!
Splat!
...
Each spear of ice skewered multiple Corrupteds at once, it was a massacre.
Everyone watching in silence, whilst they recovered, unanimously agreed at that moment.
This thing was a monster.
The contradiction between her pure, innocent looks and the horrors painting the ground juxtaposed.
Such a small person who was their age was capable of this.
Savana almost questioned reality for a moment, she wondered if she was still dreaming; even after this long, arduous battle that proved it otherwise.
But, instead of holding the fear in her heart, her curiosity rose higher.
Who was this girl?
What was she?
-----
Pulled back to the field, only 200 people remained.
The rest were either sent away, in a medical centre, or a morgue.
Still hovering in the air, the three militant men's voices echoed once more.
"You've passed the basic test."
"The commoner leaderboards will be released."
"The combined leaderboards will be released."
Waving their hands, the commoner leaderboard was released first.
[Commoner Ranking]
[Rank 1 - Aranea]
[Rank 2 - Savana]
[Rank 3 - Lucas]
[Rank 4 - Michael]
[Rank 5 - Yun]
...
All eyes focused on first place.
However, this interest was temporary because the combined leaderboards with the nobility/recommendations-based test were released right after.
[Overall Ranking]
[Rank 1 - Silvia Le Imulla]
[Rank 2 - Aranea]
[Rank 3 - Charles Von Sildoret]
[Rank 4 - Moglit]
[Rank 5 - Aria Le Rissen]
[Rank 6 - Savana]
...
Their expectations were subverted.
Aranea wasn't ranked first.
There was an even bigger monster amongst them.
'Silvia, Moglit, Aria, Charles... There you all are.'
Silvia Le Imulla, a Swordmaster who made use of Aura Swirls.
Charles Von Sildoret, a Multi-Elemental Mage.
Moglit, a Berserker.
Aria Le Rissen, the Pugilist.
Finally, Savana, an Aura user of type Assassin with Fire Magic.
The five from the Imperial Military Academy who would change the future of this Continent, of this world, of the Realms.
But, even among the five, Silvia was unreachable.
There was a reason why you couldn't use her as a playable character in the game even though she was the Main Character; it was even easier than setting the game's difficulty on Safe Mode and playing as Charles.
Aranea looked at her Status Window.
[Aranea]
[Age 15]
[Level 61]
[Strength: 1]
[Agility: 80]
[Endurance: 1]
[Mana: 74]
Could she handle Silvia?
...maybe.
It would be a difficult fight.
Silvia countered her too much, she would be heavily disadvantaged. In truth, the deciding factor would be the start of the fight.
If she could survive the first few seconds, then her chances would grow drastically.
But, thinking about what would happen in the future...
'This game is fucked.'
...she wasn't bothered to ponder on something so useless.
---
"Follow the guide to your dormitories."
"Squadrons will be automatically allocated based on your capabilities."
"Well then."
"Kill until death."
Leaving those words behind, the militant men disappeared. Replacing them on the ground were ten guides.
These guides looked at the new students, then stood there and-
Did nothing.
They simply waited.
The reason for it came quickly.
Now that the adrenaline had died down and the storm had subsided:
"Blurgh!"
"AGH!"
"Cough-!"
The 200 dropped like flies; vomit, bile and coughs of blood stained the ground as the reality of the battle just now dawned on them.
Savana struggled to hold back the contents of her stomach, she clenched her mouth tight.
But inevitably...
Splat-
Her stomach emptied itself on the floor.
Aranea was the only one who stood still like it was nothing.
Sparing Savana a glance, a Spell silently cast itself from her hands.
A warm light bathed Savana's innards, it calmed her mind and soothed her upset stomach. Feeling the pain and trauma swiftly leaving her body, Savana sensed the traces of Mana in her body.
'...Who?'
Spitting out the remnant contents of her stomach, she looked up at the crowd.
Only one person was standing tall.
And that same person looked at her with a deep, contemplative face.
Savana didn't know what to think.
Who? Why?
What?
The scroll of questions unfolded endlessly.
Yet not a single one was going to be answered.