59 Combat School Trials Begin

In the early hours of the morning, thousands of teenagers stood at the fringe of Buille Forest. Buille Forest was a large expanse of evergreen forest located near the Combat School of Royal Dream Higher Academy. In fact, the forest was so large that it spanned several acres out of the premises of the academy.

Since the applicants to the Combat School had been told that the first phase of their trials would take place in Buille Forest, close to about three thousand applicants were standing outside the edge of the forest. Found among them was Savyrran.

Ever since Savyrran stepped into the academy, she had been waiting for this day. In fact, she had been preparing for it her whole life, and finally, it was here. Just like everyone else, Savyrran's curious eyes were fixated on a tall middle-aged man with a face full of neatly groomed thick black hair. The man's expression was stoic and devoid of warmth.

Using the voice amplification technique, he began to speak to everyone��s hearing without having to speak loudly.

"Welcome to the first day of the Combat School trials. I am Master Koo Minchii, Vice Head of the Combat School." Master Minchii paused for a moment as he ran his eyes over the large crowd.

A small smile was on Savyrran's face the whole time. So that was the Vice Head of the Combat School. Savyrran wondered where the actual head was. But as she gazed at Master Koo Minchii, Savyrran knew that this man was very strong; even far stronger than Master Bufan. For a moment, she knew that the Combat School was currently the best place to train if she was to get stronger. Even Master had Bufan thought so.

As Savyrran looked around her, she realised that perhaps, she was not the only one looking forward to this. Everyone else was silent, holding on to every word of the master like some kind of life-giving elixir. There were thousands of them making Savyrran wonder exactly how many of them would pass the trials. No matter what, she would be part of those who passed.

Savyrran's attention was brought back to Master Koo Minchii's address. "The first phase of the trials involves the collection of cores within soul beasts found in the forest behind me. To pass the trial, you will have to collect cores equivalent to one legendary beast."

The moment Master Minchii mentioned a legendary beast, murmurs arose among the children. With his hands folded to his back, Master Minchii simply watched on as the applicants whispered to each other in low tones. Of course, they were terrified. Not many blue users would even dare try to go after a legendary soul beast.

"So what I heard was true. The Combat School trials is a matter of life and death." A young girl said to another boy next to her. Savyrran was standing right behind them, and thus, heard everything they were saying clearly, even tough they were not speaking too loudly.

"How can we even attack a legendary beast, let alone kill it to remove its core? Even rare beasts would pose a problem." The boy said.

That was the general sentiment among the applicants. Even if they were blue users attacking a legendary beast would be incredibly difficult. The weakest of legendary soul beasts had indigo essence and they were powerful beyond measure.

Master Minchii finally cleared his throat to silence everyone. "To collect cores equivalent to one legendary soul beast does not necessarily mean that you have to get the core from a legendary soul beast. What this means is that you can collect cores from common soul beast and rare soul beasts, however, they must be equivalent to one legendary soul beast.

"Therefore, to pass the trials, you need to collect hundred cores from common soul beasts or ten cores from rare soul beasts. You can also mix them up, however, their value must be equivalent to one legendary soul beast core. But if you feel you can collect a core from a legendary soul beast, then all you need is just one."

Master Koo Minchii saw that everyone was finally understanding what he was saying.

"Now, this trial isn't meant to test how strong you are are. It's rather to test your sense of protection towards something valuable, which is your life and your property. Try not to get killed by the beasts or your colleagues. You need to protect the cores from being plundered from your colleagues. The trial is going to last for seven days. During the seven days, while collecting your cores, make sure to protect it from your colleagues who plan on taking them from you. However, if for some reason you are able to collect all your cores before the seven days are up, you can just come back to this place and you will pass the trial."

Savyrran closed her eyes as she tried to make sense of the lengthy information she had just heard. So they had seven days to collect cores from soul beasts in the forest. To pass the trials, she needed to collect one core from a legendary soul beast. Simple calculation told her that collecting a hundred cores from common soul beasts or ten cores from rare soul beasts sounded like too much work. But wait, how was she to know if a soul beast was common, rare or legendary? Well, then she would have to take everything she saw then.

To top it all, she would have to be careful of the other applicants since clearly, they have been given the go ahead to kill anyone if they wanted to plunder their loot. Master Bufan was right when he said that the trials in the Combat School was terrifying. Well, she had no interest in killing or plundering the loot of other applicants. However, anyone who tried to pick a fight with her might as well be ready to die.

Master Minchii interrupted Savyrran's thought. "As soon as you enter the forest, you will have a time monitor on your wrist indicating the countdown of the trial. Also, a space ring will appear on your finger, and you will have to put your cores in that space ring. You need to understand that this space ring has no blood ties to you so anyone who steals it from you can access it without even having to kill you. Protect yourself and your cores at all cost. It does not matter how. With that being said, if anyone wants to quit, now is the time to leave because once you begin, there is no going back unless you have collected every core."

No one left though. It seemed everyone had already made the resolve to see this through to the end.

"Alright then. You may enter the forest now."

With that being said, all the children filed into the large forest until not a single person was left.

…......

Master Inifa Haniki was seating in his office, his attention on several large screens on the wall, when a knock interrupted his thoughts.

Not waiting to be invited in, the person entered the office. It was Master Koo Minchii. A wide smile brightened Master Haniki's young handsome face once he saw his Vice Head.

"You enjoy terrorizing those children, don't you?" Master Haniki said. He had been watching everything on the screen and had been impressed by how Koo had made the trial look more fearsome than it actually was.

"Well, they needed to understand what they were getting themselves into. Joining the Combat School is not for weaklings."

Though Buille Forest was real, it wasn't the forest the children were entering. Instead, the children had entered Naa Vah. Unlike other weapon-type soul armos that were actual weapons that could be wielded, Naa Vah was very different. Naa Vah was a world created out of Master Koo Minchii's imagination. However, that imaginary world needed a physical boundary if someone is to enter. In this case, Master Minchii had used the edge of Buille Forest as the boundary between the real world and Naa Vah. Thus, once the children crossed that boundary, they would rather find themselves in a totally different forest, the whole thing being a soul armos.

Master Minchii had complete control over how Naa Vah worked. When a world is created within Naa Vah, Master Minchii set rules that governed how that world should work. A person trapped within Naa Vah would never be able to get out unless they followed all the rules to the end. So using the applicants as an example, an applicant would only be able to cross the boundary over to the real world only when they had collected all the cores or when the time for the trial was up.

The rules for time also worked in a similar fashion. Though Master Minchii had told them that the trial would last for seven days, in reality, it would only last for seven hours. Master Minchii had set the rule as one hour in the real world being equivalent to one day inside Naa Vah.

In Naa Vah, Master Minchii could determine whether a death was temporary or permanent. During the soul recovery trials, as demanded by Master Dinra, the rules set for death was temporary. Thus, a person who died in a trial would only be taken out of Naa Vah and back into the real world. If the rule set for death was permanent, dying in Naa Vah meant that the person was also dead in real life.

"Anyway, those who get killed by beasts will die permanently. However, those who die at the hands of their fellow colleagues will only die in the trial."

"You know, I'm surprised you did not make all rules towards death permanent." Master Haniki said. In the last eight years since he came, the Combat School had been using Naa Vah for its trials. The contents of the trials changed every year, however, what remained the same was that people lost their lives all the time.

There were some few people who thought this form of examination was too extreme. However, Master Haniki believed it was absolutely necessary. The Combat School trained majority of the kingdom's future Soul Guardians. Being a Soul Guardian was a not a joke since it could be a matter of life and death . The Soul Guardians were responsible for taking care of some of the biggest threats in the Dream Kingdom. Thus, the training one had to go through just to become a Soul Guardian was absolutely excruciating. The trials ensured that only the toughest and most resolute people were accepted into the school to undergo the training.

Royal Dream Higher Academy was one of the three higher academies in Dream Kingdom that trained future soul guardians. Thus, the academy was known for its rigorous examination and training regimen.

The fact that Koo had bent the rules was a little surprising to Master Haniki. He wondered if this had anything to do with Nien since Nien had told Koo that she did not want any of the applicants in the Soul Recovery School to die.

Nien… Master Haniki thought. He suddenly remembered the meeting he had with the woman yesterday.

"Nien spoke to me yesterday." Master Haniki said.

"Really? It must have been very important then. You know how she feels about seeing people."

Master Haniki chuckled. "It was. She wanted to talk about Savyrran Thark."

Master Minchii's thick black eyebrows raised slightly. Why would Master Dinra want to talk about someone applying to the Combat School? In fact, how did she even know about her?

Master Haniki must have sensed Koo's confusion, because he said, "Apparently, Savyrran is the twin sister of the boy who challenged the violet level."

"What?" It was all Master Minchii could say.

"Yes. I was surprised too. But what was even more shocking was that Nien confirmed what Luwei had said. The girl truly has no soul energy within her."

"You mean Master Dinra could not see the girl's soul energy?"

Master Haniki nodded. "That's right. She said she had never seen anything like it before. It was almost like the soul energy was cloaked by something and she was not too sure what it was."

"Cloaked? What does that even mean?"

"I don't know and even Nien did not understand it either. But one thing is for sure; we need to keep a close eye on Savyrran. Her brother challenged the violet level and survived and Luwei says she is strong. I trust Luwei, but Naa Vah will prove it."

Master Koo Minchii nodded in agreement. There were light crystals everywhere within Naa Vah recording the whole thing and sending the feed to all the screens in the academy.

In Master Haniki's office, there were several screens which would make it possible to observe every applicant at the same time. They could easily focus on Savyrran to see exactly how she would survive the trials without any essence. Was she going to attack the soul beasts herself, or perhaps, lie in wait for her colleagues to plunder their loot? All they had to do was observe for the next seven hours.