The next morning Cal was led to an odd stone platform. There was an odd intricate circle drawn on it and Cal was directed to stand in it. The circle reminded Cal of the circle that had appeared when he had drunk the teleportation potion. There were a few major differences though. For starters, the circle he was standing in was linked to three other circles.

Kaze was standing in one of the other circles. When he had first been placed there he had tried to run back over to Cal but was stopped by one of the instructors. Kaze kept trying to get over to where Cal was until Cal used the bond to ask him to do whatever the other people wanted him to. Mr. talon was standing in one of the other circles talking with Natalie and the rest of her group who was standing not too far away. In the last circle was spencer who was still lying down on a stretcher.

At this point, one of the instructors who had been adding a few finishing touches to the circles stood up and ushered Natalie’s group away. They then called over a few more instructors and directed them to place their hands at certain points along with the circles. Then the instructor who had been working on the circles started chanting. Light began to spread along with the circles as she continued to chant until all of the four circles were fully lit.

Once all the circles were lit the instructor took her hands off of the circle and took a step backward the other instructors also backed away as the light from the circles grew brighter and brighter. Suddenly Cal's circle started to turn a vibrant neon green and the green light slowly started to spread along the pathways to the other circles.

In confusion, Cal looked over to the instructor who had been managing the circles. Some fear crept into his heart as he saw her pale face. The instructor then pulled a knife from a sheath at her hip and ran towards him. Once she was close enough she lunged forward and scratched at the pathway connecting Cal's circle to Mr. talons. Before the teacher could get across to where Cal's circle connected to Kaze's the green light flashed and sucked up all the light from the other circles. Then without any preamble, the green light disappeared and where it had been there was nothing, not even cal.

Kaze sat there staring at where his friend and master had just been. He desperately at the odd bond that had appeared the day that the two of them had first met. To Kaze's relief, the bond was still there but nothing was being transmitted over it. Kaze let out a low whimper and looked around. He was now surrounded by a bunch of unfamiliar people.

kaze would have run away and tried to find his mother but he remembered his master’s final instructions to do what these strange people told him to. With great reluctance, Kaze decided to follow Cal's instructions and waited for the people around him to show any sign of something that they wanted him to do. He decided that as soon as he felt anything from his bond he would go find cal.

After the green light faded Cal stood in an odd place. Above him was an endless blue sky with a few clouds there was no sun yet he could see as if it was midday. Beneath his feet was about a millimeter of water that also stretched off endlessly. Cal bent down and felt what was beneath the water it was a glass-like substance that turned the water above it into a mirror that perfectly reflected the sky above him.

Cal looked around and saw two men. One was a man with long blonde hair and golden armor in his hands there was a spear and shield however the most distinctive thing about this man was the massive flaming wings that spread from his back. The other man wore a dark wine-colored suit with a wide-brimmed hat. He held a wine glass in one hand and his other arm seemed to be missing and his sleeve just flapped in the wind there was an odd aura about him that Cal hadn’t seen or felt before.

“Alright, first things first this is not the afterlife you are not dead” the man in the golden armor started talking in common. “You were a participant in a failed teleportation circle and have been transported here.” the man waited for Cal to answer but Cal just stared at him blankly.

“I’m sorry I don’t speak common,” said Cal after a moment of hesitation.

the two men looked at each other then the one in the suit sighed. “Doesn’t speak common alright ill give him the skill [babel’s tongue]” Cal looked in confusion at the man in the suit. Even though Cal couldn’t understand the man he could tell that he had spoken like Brock had when they met it was as if he was speaking for the system. Suddenly the man in the suit gasped and seemed to fall backward.

“What is it Alucard.” the man in the golden armor said laugh he enjoyed seeing Alucard make a fool of himself.

“Look at his status Gabriel he has a skill named after him.” Gabriel opened the boy’s status and was also shocked upon seeing the skill. While the two were both in shock Cal had started reading through the prompt he had gotten. [you have received the ability babels tongue] after reading its description Cal was pleased. It allowed him to understand and communicate in any language as long as he has heard or in the case of nonverbal languages seen a minimum of two people use it.

“How do you have that ability,” asked Gabriel a mix of fear and awe in his voice.

Cal looked over in both delight and confusion “this is great I can finally understand you and for the skill, I don’t know but just now I got a prompt saying I received an ability called babels tongue.”

Alucard shook his head and spoke, “not that one the one called” he seemed fearful and looked around before whispering “the ability called Brock”

“Brock” Cal started at a normal volume “I received that ability from an ability stone it summons this rather unpleasant person named Brock.” The two men stared mouths agape at Cal when Cal suddenly realized something. “Wait how do you know I have that skill you shouldn’t be able to see my status.”

“We are trial monitors we can see anyone’s status if they enter our trial,” Gabriel answered after seeing that Alucard wouldn’t. This caused Cal to panic and it took a lot of convincing from the two for him to calm down. “So you’re saying that you will never be able to affect me after I beat this trial,” Cal asked after he had calmed down a little.

Gabriel nodded and answered, “yes after you finish both of our trials you will be sent to where the teleportation was intended to send you.”

cal nodded at his answer “then let’s start the trials.”

“Alright let me look through your status to decide how difficult your trial should be,” Alucard said and had a far-off look in his eyes.

For the sake of conversation, Gabriel started asking Cal some questions “so four familiar slots huh you know that is nearly a one in a billion chance right.”

cal looked confused at his words and asked “no it should be roughly one in 300 right”

Gabriel seemed shocked and replied “no only about one in ten people have a single familiar slot then every about 100 of those have 2 and of every person with 2 100 of them will have three and then for every person that has 3 about 100 will have 4”

cal shook his head at that and said, “no my grandpa’s book said 1 in four people have 1, and in four of the people that have one have two and that ratio continues.”

Gabriel just shook his head. “That’s not true do you happen to have that book with you.”

“no it’s in my necklace” Cal answered he quickly shut his mouth. he had decided that it wouldn’t be smart to tell people about his necklace and he wanted to keep it a secret. But of course, as soon as he could talk to someone the first thing he did was blab about his necklace. While Cal was silently berating himself.

Gabriel held out his hand and Cal's book appeared in it. He scanned through the book at a speed that was impossible for an ordinary person. After he finished reading he had a furious look on his face. Cal watched as Gabriel made each of his books appear in his hands one by one and read through them then put each of them into two piles.

“These books,” Gabriel said as he pointed at one of the piles “are full of almost complete crap the one about statuses, in general, is bad enough to ruin your foundation the one describing how a child should be trained until they are about ten describes a training regimen that is so inefficient it makes my head hurt and the one that has a list of skills that it says you can learn is full of skills that don’t even exist.” a fire appeared on the end of Gabriel’s finger and he lit the stack on fire.

“No stop,” Cal shouted but it was too late. The books burnt down to a pile of ash and Cal sat there staring at what used to be one of the few remaining things he had from his grandpa. Gabriel handed Cal the remaining three books. “I’m going to give you the ability [speed reading] and you need to quickly read through these books do it now.”

cal saw the prompt appear that said he got speed reading and he read the description. It was a fairly interesting skill it allowed him to absorb all of the information on a single page at once so instead of reading individual words he could read entire pages. Before he started reading the books however he glared at Gabriel and said “I’m not going to do that until you explain to me who exactly you are.”

Gabriel nodded his head and tapped on Alucard’s shoulder “wait for a second the boy needs to know some things before we send him off.” Alucard was about to protest but after seeing Gabriel’s expression agreed and stopped setting up Cal's trial. Gabriel then started to explain the situation “you were part of a failed teleportation spell and was sent to a randomly selected location the location selected happened to be here one of the few trial locations in your world so now that you’re here we are going to give you a trial.” Gabriel finished his explanation. And waited for Cal to say something.

However, before Cal could start talking Alucard cut in, “that was a crappy explanation, so calaeris what he forgot to mention was who we are we are the trial advisors we design a trial to be as beneficial as possible for someone of your level and to do this we are allowed to make small changes to your status and what equipment you have normally we wouldn’t be ‘burning your stuff’ but you are a special case seeing as you are affiliated with him.” Alucard glared at Gabriel as he said ‘burning your stuff’ and Gabriel had enough grace to look ashamed.

After seeing that Gabriel recognized his mistake Alucard started talking again. “Normally we would just send you straight into the trial after telling you it was about to happen but because you know him we are going to give you some guidance first.” Gabriel nodded in agreement. Alucard glared at his partner and started talking again. “We would have more time to explain things to you if Gabriel had told me that something was wrong sooner but as it is we have about 2 minutes before your first trial starts.”

after hearing Alucard’s words Gabriel’s face went pale and he grabbed Cal's shoulders then started talking loudly and quickly. “Remember you can summon your two swords by saying either one’s name than in manibus and it should appear in your hand. What else” Gabriel said looking over to Alucard.

“Your mana regenerates over time so just stay somewhere safe if you’re almost out you can use roughly 90% before getting a mana headache your stamina will regenerate by resting or sleeping and if you eat something it will take longer to run out. Your health will regenerate by 1% every 30 minutes for the cost of 2% of your stamina.” Alucard put in and Gabriel started talking again.

“Yes yes, it’s good that you know that also try to be conservative with mana and be careful of any food that you find.” with those last words something seemed to happen to Gabriel and his body seemed to lock up and he fell over.

“Idiot” muttered Alucard. He then turned back to cal. “What your going into is called a trial it will be some sort of challenge that should be difficult for someone at your level Be careful in there if you make it out we will have roughly a year to teach you what you need to know so consider this as a trial.” with those final words Alucard smiled and then Cal was enveloped by darkness.

The darkness seemed to fade and Cal was now standing in a small cabin on one side of him there was a small bed with a mattress and on the other side of him, there was a table with one chair. Suddenly one of the longest prompts he has ever seen appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to the twilight fields a scenario has been decided for you:]

[your long time friend Arisu fay has been kidnapped by a group of vampires]

[possible ways to clear the trial]

[save your friend: easy clear]

[slay the vampire prince: hard clear]

[exterminate all the vampires (0/150): perfect clear]

[warning leaving the woods will constitute the end of the trial if one of the conditions has not been met you will fail]

[trial has been scaled for a level 1 awakened]

Cal read through the conditions then let out a groan and sat on the bed. He had already known that the challenge would be hard but he hadn’t expected it to be this difficult. After he sat there thinking for a while he decided that waiting wasn’t doing him any good so he stood up and walked to the door. He was about to leave when he remembered what Gabriel had said about his swords.

Cal was about to summon tana with a normal voice but stopped himself. He didn’t know if there were any enemies nearby and he didn’t want to alert them that he was there“In manibus tana.” Cal whispered as quietly as he could manage. Just like it had previously a swirl of embers appeared around Cal's hand and after once they started dying out and falling to the ground tana had appeared in his hand.

This was his first chance to get a good look at it now that tana had a blade and Cal quickly started studying it. The hilt was the same as it had been before it was made out of a black wood-like material with red veins running through it. The blade itself was straight and about 3 feet long it was made out of black slightly transparent material that reminded Cal of smoke. In the middle of the blade, there was a glowing red line that was barely visible.

Cal took a few practice swings with his sword it was similar to the sword he had trained with as a kid and Cal was comforted by the feeling of a good sword in his hands. Deciding that there was nothing more he could do to prepare himself Cal pushed the door open. He stepped out of the cabin with his sword held ready.

The cabin was in the middle of a small clearing in the forest with a river running through it. Cal looked up into the sky there seemed to be a thick mist hanging about 100 meters in the air and no sunlight reached the ground. Cal quickly scouted out the clearing but he couldn’t find anything. After a bit of hesitation, he crossed into the forest itself. After he had been walking through the forest for about thirty minutes he found a trail. He walked down the trail for about 5 minutes until ahead of him he spotted a figure.

The person had not seen Cal yet and Cal began to study him. The person was a man, that was the first thing that Cal noticed. He had long greasy hair that fell past his shoulders and wore nothing but a pair of pants. His face was bare of any facial hair and his eyes glowed slightly in the darkness. He was wearing grey pants and no shirt. The most distinctive parts of the man though were his fangs which protruded about an inch past his upper lip and that he had an aura that reminded Cal of Alucard’s.

The man finally noticed Cal and with a hiss charged forward. While he was charging the man pulled a knife from his waist and stabbed at Cal's stomach. Cal dodged the knife and swung his sword at the man’s arm. The man who had no room to dodge was struck by the sword which easily cleaved through his arm and partly into his chest.

To Cal's surprise, the man wasn’t dead yet and he continued to his and tried to stab at cal. Cal stepped back and withdrew his sword. When he had another opening he stabbed into the vampire’s neck and the vampire fell to the ground no longer making any noise.

[you have killed a level 1 vampire you have gained 0 xp]

After the fight was over Cal began to think about what had happened. The fight had been too easy he had easily cut through the vampire’s arm and partway through his chest with one cut. That could easily be explained though. Cal still holding tana in his hand walked over to one of the nearby trees. He chopped at it and with one swing his sword cut nearly halfway through the tree.

The sword was impressively sharp and Cal was reminded that it was a souldbound weapon. Cal was about to examine it but remembered what Gabriel said about conserving mana. He decided that it would be better to wait and started walking back towards his cabin.

The fight still didn’t make sense to him the vampire had been too unskilled its fighting form and technique were almost laughable and it hadn’t shown any signs of intelligence. Cal stopped as he realized something. The prompt explaining how the trial would work had said that the trial was scaled for a level 1. Cal smiled in delight at what that would mean for him. If everything in here could be defeated by a level one then he who had skills far beyond that of an average level one would easily beat it.