A loud voice sounded in the district on the morning of the entrance test.
"Gather toward the ingress and await further instructions."
Noah was cultivating and opened his eyes after hearing the voice.
Meditation was refres.h.i.+ng for the body of a cultivator and if it was paired with enough sleep it helped maintaining someone"s peak form.
Noah, of course, didn"t train his mental energy the day before the test, so he felt rested and full of energy.
He exited the room and saw that all the other contestants did the same.
They moved silently outside the manor and toward the appointed spot, a tense air surrounded the young men and women and no one was friendly to each other like on the day of Noah"s arrival.
After all, depending on the test, they could all be enemies in a few hours.
Only the girl with red hair seemed somewhat at ease as if uncaring of the incoming trial.
She even waved her hand toward Noah that limited himself to nod before ignoring her.
When they reached the ingress of the district, six beautiful women appeared in their line of sight.
They were holding large buckets and their eyes were closed as they stood motionlessly in place.
The voice then sounded again.
"Leave your keys in the buckets, once everyone has done it, we will move."
The process took ten minutes as more than one hundred youths had to drop their wooden cards.
When the last card was dropped, a figure appeared in the air above them.
He had a green full-body armor and he floated staring at the group below him.
"Follow me and remember that an envoy from the Elbas dynasty will be overseeing your behavior."
The group moved in silence along the streets of Ebonrest city while the man walked in the air leading them.
Noah felt a stare full of hatred coming from behind him that belonged to the n.o.ble that tried to prevent his ingress in the manor back when he arrived in the district.
"Please, mighty Royals, let the test be a fight to the death."
He dreamed of that unlikely chance.
The Royal family couldn"t put so many lives at risk, the cultivators present there were the best of the best of the new generations of n.o.bles after all.
After another ten minutes of walk, they arrived at a large square that had a big diagram at its center.
On the sides of the diagram, there were stands full of the family members of the partic.i.p.ants.
Meals and beverages of any kind were put in front of them as they stared at their descendants below them.
"No chances of laying low with this much audience."
Noah thought.
The guard in the air signaled to the youths to gather in front of the diagram and then a bright light shone from the highest place in the audience spots.
A man donned in a golden robe appeared on the throne placed on the opposite side of the partic.i.p.ants who raised his hand to silence the crowd in the square.
"I am Thaddeus Elbas, the administrator sent from the Royal Academy for this test. I will now explain the rules and the theme of the trial so pay attention."
He moved one of his blonde curls away from his forehead and resumed his explanation.
"The formation that you see in front of you is a teleportation matrix, it will send you all near the peak of Shelfan Mountain. As you know, that area is full of dangerous magical beasts, mainly Ice-born Yetis, most of them in their rank 3 version. Once you are teleported there, a rune will appear in your sea of consciousness that will keep count of the number of magical beasts that you manage to kill and of their rank. That number will be also shown here. The five of you that will kill more beasts will pa.s.s the test."
He stopped for a few moments to make sure that everyone understood the first part.
Noah was already cheering internally after hearing Thaddeus" words.
"Now the rules. You must go back to the edges of the teleportation area for that number to be valid. Its borders cover all the mountain area so you just need to descend and at some point, you will reach it. If you break the rune, you will be immediately teleported back here but all your kills will be invalid. If you harm another partic.i.p.ant, we will know and we will disqualify you. It is allowed to steal someone else"s kill however, so be careful. The rune will also gather information about your other qualities since we have reserved ten spots for those of you that don"t excel in battle prowess. The time limit of the test is three days and you must return to the teleportation area before that time or your kills will be invalid."
Thaddeus stood up and spread his arms wide.
"This will be all for the explanation. Remember to not be reckless and to preserve your life. Good luck and may the test begin!"
The formation at the center of the square began to s.h.i.+ne and the guard from the Voydol family in the air yelled loudly.
"Everyone inside the formation!"
The group of youths moved immediately in the borders of the diagram which shone more brightly as the last of the partic.i.p.ants entered its range.
In a few seconds, all the men and women at the center of the square disappeared and, in their place, four big blue screens appeared in the air.
The screens had the names of the partic.i.p.ants written on them with a "zero" next to each name.
At the same time.
Noah resisted the pressure of the teleportation with ease and when he opened his eyes, he found himself in a snowy environment.
The area was so cold that he had to circulate the "Breath" in his body to fight back the a.s.sault of the frigid temperature to his skin.
"This cold is unnatural, it can even damage a rank 3 body!"
Some other people were around him who were slowly opening their eyes.
"It seems that we were all sent to different locations."
He looked around and saw right behind his back that a vivid red line was drawn on the terrain.
"That should be the border of the teleportation area so the test is on its opposite side."
He smiled a little, his cold aura fused with the one of the surroundings, scaring the partic.i.p.ants near him.
"Let"s see if there is really someone that can surpa.s.s me!"
Echo began to scan the area as Noah charged directly toward the peak.