“Welcome all to your first true test. You have all passed the preliminary tests, and for that, I congratulate you. Even if you do not manage to make it into the school after this, you will still be highly valued in our kingdom.”

Executive Yannick stood in front of the crowd of 500 potential students, ready to introduce the third test. Just as before a bubble of energy surrounded them, separating them from the crowd.

However, this time there was also an announcer outside, talking to the spectators to raise excitement. As such, even though Kai couldn’t hear them, he could still see the screaming crowd anticipating the next phase of the testing.

He’d asked Rian that morning what the next part of the test would look like, but his friend had shrugged and just told him that this third test was different every time. The fourth part of the tests however, always ended on a competition. Normally, by the end of the third test, the number of competitors would be cut down to an amount close to a hundred, but the final competition also decided rankings for the new students, which was something Rian promised he’d explain after this test.

“Your third test will use one of these Shards I have in my hand,” the Executive stated, holding a thin blue diamond shaped crystal. “Shards are one of the most important artifacts at the disposal of our School. Created by one of our late Master Craftsmen many decades ago, these Shards create an illusory landscape that we can control. Its purpose at our School is solely for training purposes, and here, we will be using it to test you.”

“Within this particular Shard,” he continued. “Is a large area filled with countless Beasts. Each beast within, just like your bodies will also be illusory. As such, instead of dropping Cores, Beasts will drop small crystals upon death. Meridians Stage Beasts will drop blue, Channels Stage beasts will drop green, and Core Stage beasts will drop red. And yes, there are Spirit Realm beasts within, which means there is a real chance that you will perish. However, do not fret as once your illusory body perishes, you will snap back to the real world unharmed. However, be warned as if you are killed within, you will not be allowed to reenter meaning that your crystals will be counted up as soon as you leave. Blue crystals count as two points, green as 5, red as 20, and should you manage to get a black crystal from a Spirit Realm beast, you will obtain 100 points. Only the top 150 students can pass this test and you will have three hours within the Shard to kill Beasts and collect crystals. Now, you have five minutes to ready any equipment you might have and center yourselves.”

His explanation finished, the Executive turned away as the remaining 500 began to mutter amongst themselves.

“Interesting isn’t it?” Kai said. “He never said that you couldn’t take the crystals from your fellow competitors. Or that you couldn’t help them, or anything else. This test seems to be very flexible.”

“True,” Rian answered. “But trust me when I say they’re also looking at your character. The school doesn’t want psychopaths there either, so be extremely careful.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Kai said with raised hands and a quick chuckle. “I prefer hunting the beasts anyways, but if someone does decide to come after me, I also will not hold back.”

“Agreed on that.”

“Hey tell me,” Rian said after a few moments. “Why would the Princess Heir of this realm and her cousin be staring at you?”

Kai didn’t make any sudden movements, but slowly started to turn towards where they were standing. As he turned past a certain point, he caught both the extremely powerful Princess and her cousin turn away quickly.”

Kai shrugged as he turned back to Rian. “Probably just scoping out the competition.”

“Yes, I forget that the commoner I chose to sit beside day one turned out to earn third on the Endurance Test,” Rian said with a grin.

Kai grinned back and said, “I’m sure these nobles are all just worried about a commoner taking their top spots.”

“Oh don’t lump me in with them. Trust me, I’m going to love seeing the look on their faces when you beat their asses in the last test.”

“Yeah yeah,” Kai said with a sigh. “We’ve gotta pass this one first.”

As Rian then checked his equipment, Kai just looked ahead as the only two things he really had were the sword on his belt and the cloak on his back.

A few minutes later, Executive Yannick’s voice projected across the area once again.

“Get ready, competitors. You will now be sent into the Shard in 3…. 2…. 1….”

And then everything warped around Kai and he was suddenly standing in an unfamiliar area.

He was on the side of a snow covered mountain and more and more of the white flakes were falling around him. He could sense no other humans near him, which didn’t mean much as his senses were muted by the weather.

After taking quick stock of his surroundings, Kai thought to himself. He needed to find beasts so he could kill them and take their crystals. And he just had a good feeling that the higher up the mountain he went, the stronger the beasts would be.

And so, that’s exactly what he did. He started to walk up and only a few minutes passed before he heard a grunting sound and made his way to it.

In a small clearing stood three beasts that Kai had fought many many times over the years. Three large wolves with green manes greeted him. He’d spent a lot of time in the forests the last year and with these beast being the most common, he’d fought many of them.

And there they were, three beasts of the same species as Kai’s first ever beast kill.

They snarled at Kai and rushed him as one. Yet, unlike years prior, Kai was not a weak mortal anymore. He unsheathed his sword with ease, unworried at the three snarling monsters approaching him.

And once they were near enough, all he did was draw on the enhanced speed of his higher cultivated body and sidestepped. And in the same motion, he lazily let his sword drift beside him as he sidestepped.

Covered in a sharper edge using his understanding of the Sword Earth, the sword slashed right through the body of the left most wolf, instantly killing it.

He wasted no time, spinning around and launching himself towards another of the beasts. The Green Maned Wolf had no chance and Kai, with practiced ease, slid his sword into the side of the beast and twisted, slashing sideways to spill its entrails onto the ground.

The second of the beasts crashed to the ground and Kai faced the last of them. And he saw an expression on its face that he had never really seen in a beast, even though he’d spent the last year facing them. Fear.

The wolf backed away from Kai, head lowered in submission, but Kai needed these crystals and truthfully he was in an illusion anyways so it didn’t really matter, though he didn’t understand much about the illusion itself.

A quick stab through the head later, Kai had felled the three beasts. All three of the bodies disappeared and due to the low Stage of the beasts, he gained three blue crystals.

He shook his head with a sigh and realized that he couldn’t waste time on these lower Stage beasts if he wanted to pass this Test. And truthfully, it had been a while since he’d truly challenged himself in a fight like this.

He could feel it, his blood singing at the thought of a true battle, adrenaline rushing through his veins like lightning, devouring his thoughts and leaving only one feeling inside of him. A desire to fight.

And it made sense didn’t it? The Gathering Technique Kai had spent the last year creating was based solely on the chaotic energy that was released from a fight. For the powers above may have the monopoly on what energy mortals could Cultivate but they could never truly control the energies themselves.

So even from that fight which really wasn’t a fight or even a warm up, Kai felt a small tendril of Chi worm its way into his Core and push its boundaries. He could feel it, just how close he was to Rank 2. His Core was full of Chi, ready to use, but pushing the boundaries of his Core was the only way to Rank up.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he rolled his shoulders and started forward again, intent on finding stronger enemies.

He found a few more Wolves after a few minutes but chose to pass them without engaging as he was looking for higher ranked crystals. A few minutes after that, he stumbled upon a Channels Stage Snow Tiger.

Snow Tigers were all white, obviously, but also sometimes had ice breath, which was an interesting attack. This one shot icicles from its mouth when it roared, but it really was no match for Kai.

All he had to do was dodge a couple of attacks and get close enough, where he was able to kill the beast in a couple of strokes. A green crystal dropped upon its death and Kai continued on, still moving up the mountain.

He stopped at a couple of spots, where he killed a pack of five Meridians Stage Ice Foxes and another Snow Tiger. He had seen a couple of people so far, but hadn’t recognized either of them and so he’d gone around them as they wandered, intent on finding a stronger beast.

Kai finally found some adversity after searching for a few more minutes. It seemed that his hunch had been correct. The higher he went up the mountain, the higher the Stage and Rank of the beasts he would find.

A Core Stage beast stood just 30 paces from him, a Black Horned Rhino in all its glory.

And even though Kai was about to fight a beast the same Stage as himself, he was relaxed. Because ever since his first battle with a beast, he’d been fascinated at the different ones that populated the Revanian Kingdom. And so, his training with his old mentor had consisted of learning about many of these different beasts.

And although more powerful beasts had a variety of different strengths, they also almost always had a glaring weakness.

The Black Horned Rhino’s strength was described in its name. The horn that protruded from its face, when infused with the Rhino’s power, could smash and rip through most things. And though the beast was massive, standing at Kai’s height and bulkier than most other beasts, it was also faster than most would expect.

The two main weaknesses it had were its inability to change directions once running, and the horn itself.

Once it lodged its horn into something, it was difficult for it to then dislodge itself from whatever it had smashed through.

Unfortunately, the clearing Kai was in had nothing that the Rhino could lodge its horn into, and so he’d have to use his speed and dodging ability to defeat his opponent.

The beast pawed the ground a couple of times before roaring in challenge. It then rushed Kai, with blazing speed that opposed the description of its bulk.

And with a move that he’d practiced over many years of fighting, Kai dodged right and let his sword trail. And although the hide of the beast was tough, Kai’s Sword Earth was much, much tougher.

As the Rhino passed him, a deep slash was left along its side, drawing blood. And though it roared in anger and pain, the beast’s momentum forced it forward until it smashed through a large oak tree. Splinters flew and the tree came crashing to the ground.

Yup, don’t mess with the horn, Kai thought to himself.

The issue was that even though Kai had wounded the Rhino, the beast didn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Normally, Kai would’ve dodged using his agility and bled the beast out, but he was on a bit of a time constraint here, which meant he’d have to take a little more of a risk, one that unfortunately involved getting close to the horn.

The Rhino shook its head, and turned around slowly to face Kai once again. It roared in anger once again and as it did so, a red light flashed within its large horn and Kai knew that its weapon was now even more powerful. It didn’t really matter because either way, if he was even grazed by that horn, he would be forced from the Shard and most likely, lose the competition. That would be unacceptable.

The beast charged again, but instead of dodging this time, Kai waited, and waited, and waited. The Rhino, thinking that the human in front of it had given up, snorted and lowered its head further to rip through him, but suddenly, Kai was no longer in front of the beast.

Once the Rhino had charged close enough, Kai had leapt up with full force, contorting his body fully horizontal so as to not even be grazed by the beast’s horn. He also set up his sword, still using his Sword Earth energy, in such a way so that the monster’s momentum carried it right into the blade.

And so, the horn missed Kai by just a few inches and instead, his sword rammed through the right eye of the beast and right into its brain, killing it instantly.

Kai landed on his back, breathing a little hard, while the beast’s momentum carried it another 15 paces before it crashed to the ground, dead.