4 Right of Passage

The surroundings were white while a golden cloud, about the size of a 40 inch LED Television. Wisps of gold kept on coming out of the cloud occasionally that kept on vanishing into thin air. Unable to observe any more changes, Raghav decided to touch the golden cloud just like the 'Beginners Guide to Dungeon' explained.

He touched the beautiful golden coloured cloud with his right index finger. The moment his finger touched the cloud, it started vibrating madly. Even though the cloud was vibrating and increasing its size mystically. His finger started to sink inside the cloud and Raghav felt a soft and cold sensation pass through his fingers.

The cloud started to crawl up Raghav's arm and then reached for his body. Raghav felt a soft substance sticking to his skin through his clothes but remained calm during the whole spectacle. Slowly and steadily, the golden cloud managed to cover his whole body except his face making his appearance look a little 'exceptional'.

He looked like a golden-coloured candy treat, with a chiselled and wolfish face popping out of the treat. He tried moving his limbs but failed because he was covered in a sticky cloud and did not have any footing because he was still floating in a white space.

Suddenly, a voice echoed in the empty space.

"Commencing the test of Bodily Potential."

The moment the voice faded, the colour of the cloud shifted from gold to black. Tiny black tendrils entered Raghav's body through his nose and ears, making him feel itchy. Before the itchy feeling could fade away, he felt his whole body twitch in pain. But he didn't feel any pain.

He was feeling thousands of ants crawling inside his body and biting into him, but strangely, his nerves didn't send the pain to his mind. It was a very uncomfortable feeling because he could neither scream out in pain because he wasn't feeling it nor could he ignore it because he definitely knew about his condition.

The tendrils connected to his body started to shift colour from black to shining silver. The silver colour also contaminated more than the half of the area of the cloud. After more than 60% of the black cloud had shifted into pure silver, two new colours emerged in the rest of portion– Red and Blue.

The red colour took more than a half of the remaining portion, giving the blue colour a pitiful area to cover. After the Black colour was removed from the cloud completely, the previous voice sounded again.

"Potential Check Complete."

"Announcing the Results."

"Age: 16

Spiritual Root: Present

Bloodline: Present; Dormant"

The cloud slowly detached itself from Raghav and returned to its previous state of a golden-coloured floating cloud.

"Prepare yourself for the Rite of Passage.  Touch the cloud when you are prepared"

Raghav's mouth started twitching a little. He knew that the participants have the right to prepare themselves for as much time as they want. But unfortunately, no external power can be utilised in this Rite of Passage. The time given to prepare refers to the mental preparation to face death rather preparing yourself with types of equipment.

He immediately touched the fluffy cloud and the surrounding scene changed. He was transported to a vast field and another replica of Raghav was standing opposite to Raghav. The replica's eyes were cold as he regarded his original.

Raghav looked at his clone as a voice was heard in his mind.

"The Rite of Passage shall start in 10 seconds. The condition of passing is to duel with the opponent for a minute without getting killed. Extra performance shall be added to the score to determine the prize."

Raghav entered his fighting stance. The time given was not a lot and the fight quickly began. The replica entered into the same stance and slowly walked towards Raghav with his palm giving out a white lustre.

The fight was a generic clone fight where the opponent had to compete with his own replica who had the same physical quality alongside the skills that the original has been practising for a long time.

Raghav sighed in his mind and slowly walked towards Replica himself. A strange atmosphere started to build up slowly when Raghav's palm started giving out a faint white lustre himself.

"Swordless Art: Chop"

"Swordless Art: Slash"

The glow of Replica's hand intensified as he chopped towards Raghav's head with his right hand. Simultaneously, a shining palm blocked the strike almost immediately. They both were pushed back due to the force of the attack and shot at each other once again.

The sound of metal clashing against metal kept on sounding in the grassy plain as they both kept on fighting with each other. Raghav had no intention of passing the challenge with flying colours and only wanted to complete the conditions. He wasn't that interested in the prizes because he already knew the form of the reward provided by the dungeon.

The battle passed uneventfully as a sound appeared inside Raghav's mind again.

"Basic Conditions met, do you want to keep on fighting?"

"No."

The moment Raghav spoke, the replica faded away as if it was a mere illusion. The surroundings shifted once more and Raghav found himself in the white space in front of the golden cloud once again.

"Calculating score...talent conditions met…..battle results compiled….. displaying the results."

But before he could see the results, a strange voice appeared inside his mind.

[Ding, host has met the basic environment to activate the system. Starting the procedure.]