He climbed up on the wardless hill and the platform had been torn apart. It caught him a bit off-guard. They are a bunch of teenagers with chains, flame-balls and whips at their disposal.

He didn’t intend to make a fuss, there were about five minutes left before this test was over. Except, the second he placed his foot on the platform, a rune appeared on top of the hill. Tranquil was staring at him. People were starting to focus on him.

He was, at the moment, having an internal breakdown. He came to a conclusion right away. The first ten minutes meant that the wards were up, the second ten minutes meant the wards were down. He was in the second half of that period at the moment. He would be lying if he hadn’t expected the wards to just appear and kick everyone out.

Tranquil started walking over to him, the connection was instantaneous for the other people. Treasure formed a giant flame ball and chucked it at him. This girl’s got no restraint.

The chains burst out of the ground and restrained him. I should’ve just waited until time was up. What was I thinking!?

There was no point in thinking of different ways to handle this situation. I just need to hold out for five minutes.

He conjured an illusion of the ring and pulled it out of his pocket. He chucked it away. “There! You can have it!”

Tiger was the first one to get it and it fizzled apart in her hands. She looked back at him but that was enough time. Most of these disciples were exhausted without a lot of essence. A few of the chains started breaking apart. They were too distracted by the key he’d thrown out.

He took out his staff and poked it into the closest disciple’s eye. He wailed but Musnuf wasn’t done. The next strike was his nether regions. That resulted in him crumpling down to the ground.

A giant fireball was heading for his face, so he ducked. It was a close call. He could feel his hair on fire.

There were still a few chains restraining him and he felt a hand on his left pocket. He used his staff to smack the person behind him. It was Dragon. She yelped but he wasn’t done. He tried to turn around but the chains were still restraining him. A fireball blasted into his left arm and he tumbled to the ground.

It was Tranquil. She had a wide smile on her face. “Not to be crazy or anything. I need that key.” She smiled. It was odd. She reminded him of a stray dog that wandered around his house. It used to yawn like a cat, sun-bathe and even walk like one.

Two more minutes. He coughed, the pain was unbearable. It was driving itself like a steak into his mind blowing through any semblance of logic but he held on. “I don’t have it.” He wheezed out.

“Sure, you don’t.” Her hands started wandering around his body rooting through his pockets. She even got her hands on his webnovel. She flicked through it and turned it upside down but there was nothing in there.

This time she punched him, “Where is it honey bear? I don’t like doing this.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Sure.” She formed a giant flame-ball. “I really don’t want to melt your face off.”

“Ok, you can have it.” She dispersed the ball of flame. Musnuf got up off his back and sat down. He reached into his pocket and smiled. “Time’s up.”

Green chains rolled down from the ground and started restraining people. Treasure formed another green flame ball but Musnuf was ready. He blasted her chin with his staff and stabbed his dagger straight down into her foot. She screamed and that was that.

He fell back down on his back, the rune’s were coming back up. His heart was pouncing out of his chest. This was the crucial moment that would determine everything.

Him or me?

Him or me?

He waited for a tremor but it was the other mountain that collapsed onto itself. He jumped and shouted in joy. He was too exhausted for it and collapsed back down.The adrenaline was tapering off, the rush was gone and he felt amazing.

Can’t relax at the finish line. He got back up and patted his stomach. He’d swallowed the ring. It turned out to be a brilliant choice.

He’d obtained 2 rings from that other disciple. A gold ring and a silver ring. That gave him two minutes in total. That left him with an eight minute gap. He couldn’t deal with all of those disciples if they came back up.

He started thinking and thinking. There had to be a way out of this. He didn’t know what would happen if it devolved into a fight at the end but he was sure of one thing: he wouldn’t be in first place.

The long series of disciples came back up the mountain. They knew they had hope. It wasn’t out of the question to win, even now.

Musnuf saw the fat disciple he’d made a deal with and caught his eye. “Sorry about that, man.” He nodded. “It worked out how it was going to. I still have a horse in the race though.”

Musnuf smiled. “Do you have any more rings?”

“I’m going to want a bigger cut.”

“There won’t be a cut for you, if you drag this out any longer.” Musnuf smiled and pursed his lips.

He knew and before anything could happen, he threw in a bunch of rings. It was a beautiful cascade. There were shouts and screams of protest.

Musnuf got down to count them out. Everybody’s gaze was trained on him. It wasn’t enough, he knew right away.

There were 4 silver and 12 bronze rings. That gave him a total of six minutes. He needed another four minutes.

He started laughing.