Chapter 11: Trial

Thwack. Thwack.

The metallic scent of blood filled a boy's room as his fists were pounding relentlessly against the scarlet-smeared wall.

He was currently shirtless as beads of sweat rolled down his body.

White bone jutted through the shredded flesh of his knuckles, the skin and muscle a gruesome pulp.

Despite the agony of such an action, the boy merely gritted his teeth, his eyes gleaming with determination as his fists kept crashing into the cave wall.

Luck was in the midst of training his hands. He was using a ruthless and barbaric method that only he could perform.

The destruction of his hands was extremely painful, however, with each time they fully regenerated, they slowly became stronger and stronger.

Now, he had to exert a ridiculous amount of power to even damage his hands. He even had to find an area of the cave that was especially uneven and rigid.

The combination of his owl body training method and the destruction and reconstruction of his hands have given him fists that were as hard as steel.

After the last bit of flesh that loosely hung onto his knuckles had been destroyed, Luck decided it was time to stop.

His knuckles were shredded, leaving his white bones grotesquely exposed. With every step, blood dripped down from his mangled fists. Anyone who saw such a scene would feel chills running down their spine.

Grabbing the last bit of black bread and throwing it in his mouth, he sighed.

"This is the last bit of bread." 

Luck guessed he had been in his cave for at least four days, perhaps a bit more. Despite the lack of food he had, surprisingly, his hunger hadn't caused him any issues.

He had discovered that the spider body training method had slowly adapted his body to survive off tiny amounts of food.

Furthermore, in these four days, he hadn't defecated once. The human body always has waste that needs to be removed, but Luck never needs to. He guessed that this was due to his Alpha Cells that can devour even the tiniest amount of energy — not wasting anything he consumes.

The efficiency of his Alpha Cells meant that his body utilised every bit of nutrients from the meagre food he had.

As he was deep in thought, he heard the sound of a bell ringing. The bell wasn't loud yet it felt extremely clear. It was as if the sound travelled through every single wall, resonating in his mind.

"It seems the fourth trial is about to begin..." Luck mumbled. With the information he got, he could guess it was the beginning of something all the children dread.

Putting on his bloodstained rags to cover his chest, Luck walked to the exit.

Directing the flow of life essence into his hands, his skin swiftly reformed as it covered his white knuckles. 

Just like that, His terrible injuries were restored back to its flawless state.

After much experimentation, Luck realised that he could use his life essence to somewhat manipulate his Alpha Cells.

With the life essence in his body, he could suppress his Alpha Cells to not regenerate or he could stimulate his Alpha Cells to have a greater effect. The only difference was that suppressing his Alpha Cells was much easier while the latter caused his body to feel fatigue.

He also realised that his Alpha Cells had limitations. Although it gave him rapid healing, it wasn't endless. He remembered after completing the gruelling training of his hands that lasted a few hours, his mind had become very sluggish.

Such a situation had made Luck want to test his Alpha Cells and see the full extent of what it was capable of. After thoroughly exerting his regenerative capabilities, Luck clearly remembered the sensation of wanting to kill himself.

Yes.

Suicide...

He remembered how the pain was intangible yet existed throughout his entire body. His entire body felt like glass on the verge of breaking and crumbling into dust.

It was worse than any torture or experience he had ever seen or felt.

Luck suspected that his Alpha Cells may correlate with his soul...

He realised that nothing was free. As a scientist, he should have realised sooner. How can something be created through nothing?

His Alpha Cells didn't require nutrients or anything like that to function.

It fed off his soul.

This was merely equivalent exchange...

That was his guess. A likely one. It also sounded more reasonable if his Alpha Cells merged with his soul instead of his body as he transmigrated.

It would explain why the altar didn't detect anything strange and why a powerful and mysterious figure like Lord Thel didn't find anything weird about his body.

Fortunately, the pain wasn't permanent. It seems his soul can recover through time. However, he still felt lingering pain afterwards. It only subsided when he woke up the next day.

As Luck made his way to where the children had to meet up, he eventually arrived at the location.

Lord Thel was currently standing above everyone present on a rock as he waited for all the children to arrive.

After he felt that all the children had appeared, he spoke.

"My children, today marks the beginning of the fourth trial."

With those simple words, everyone felt a sense of dread envelop them. 

Most of the children hadn't expected the fourth trial to happen so soon.

Everyone knew that many would die.

"Starting from now. Similar trials will have a new rule. If you bring a severed arm of one of the other participants, you won't need to continue with the trial." He spoke, his tone icy.

'Huh?'

All the children who heard Lord Thel visibly gasped. They were all shocked.

In the Sanctuary, almost everyone had to fend for themselves. Some were in their own social groups, but if it meant their survival, they wouldn't hesitate to kill one another.

But within the trial, everyone at least had a sense of unity where they could work together to stay alive.

Yet now, Lord Thel was practically asking them to fight and backstab each other within these deadly trials. It was too cruel!

Luck also felt that this was ridiculous. This was too inhumane. Did the cloaked man truly not value human life? Was he that indifferent to the lives of all the children, merely treating them as animals? No, even animals are treated better. In his eyes, all of the children were just ants or grass that could be stepped on without any remorse.

Lord Thel could guess their thoughts, but he didn't care. After realising that the growth of the children was too slow, he had implemented this rule to apply even more pressure to the children and to weed out the talentless.

At first, the children wouldn't even think about harming each other in the trial. But as the trials get harder, they'll come to realise that such a rule could save their very lives. The life of one can assure the survival of two. Such a way of thinking would plague their minds.

"As for the fourth trial, I will release hungry wolves into the Sanctuary. You will be in groups of four. Your task is to slay a wolf. Those that do not do so within a certain time frame won't be given food for five days." Lord Thel finished.

All the children were silent, as they knew that they could not disobey. However, even Luck could notice that the atmosphere had become much more gloomy. 

Lord Thel then assigned the groups at random. He then gave a stone dagger to one child of each group. Unlike the sharp rock that had previously punctured Luck's hands, these daggers were extremely well crafted, likely by Lord Thel with his magic. The edges were razor sharp, allowing one to easily cut flesh.

'This is probably for that rule...' Luck furrowed his eyebrows.

After some time had passed, Luck was eventually placed into a group. 

Luck slightly frowned. His entire group didn't look reliable. Like him, they were all frail children who looked heavily malnourished. 

One of them even immediately began bragging about how he was at the bronze stage, causing the two other kids to look at him as if he were their saviour.

Luck kept silent. Even when doing nothing, his group looked at him with hostility. He had been labelled as the weakest kid within the Sanctuary who had a history of being the sole survivor of each trial. He was like a bad omen that brought a calamity to those around him. Such rumours had made all the children somewhat despise him. 

Despite his performance a few days ago, It seems they still haven't received the latest information about him or they simply did not believe it.

"Tsk. Why did we get the leech in our team?! Although all of us are much stronger than last time, fighting against a wolf is still difficult with only three people. Back in the second trial, we had five!" The boy at the bronze stage complained, not even acknowledging Luck as a member of the group.

"It's just our bad luck, we can just use him as bait!" Another boy immediately spoke, trying to get into the good graces of the bronze practitioner.

"Not a bad idea."

Luck was indifferent to their conversations. If he was really at risk, at worst, he could just ignore his group and go five days without food. 

His team was quite weak compared to the rest. Some groups had one of the Dragons, and others had a silver stage practitioner. Apart from him, there was only another boy at the bronze stage in his group.

But judging from their confidence, it seems a bronze stage practitioner can hold their own against a wolf.

The second trial had been similar as the children fought a wolf in groups of five. The only difference with this trial was how there was one less.

Perhaps the trial wouldn't be as bad as he thought.

Luck immediately shook his head. 'This way of thinking is too optimistic. If each trial is more difficult than the last, this one would likely have a twist.'

Once all the groups had been formed, Lord Thel suddenly took out a leather pouch from his cloak. 

The pouch contained some kind of black powder. 

Beckoning a few children to come over, he swiftly applied some of the black powder on them.

"This substance is called beast luring powder. The scent is very strong and easily agitates creatures. This is to prevent people from hiding. Such a situation wouldn't be any fun, no?" Lord Thel spoke, his lips forming into a cruel smile.

He soon applied the black powder on all the children, before telling them to disperse.

He would release the wolves into the Sanctuary within an hour.

The groups of children quickly dispersed, going through the different paths in the Sanctuary.

...

Luck was following the arrogant boy as he led them.

They eventually arrived in an area of the Sanctuary that was quite open. It had rock formations that could be used to hide or navigate around. However, the area was quite badly lit up.

The torches couldn't light up the entire place, creating shadows that formed behind the rock formations.

'This place is pretty good.' Luck thought. At least the arrogant boy wasn't a total idiot. He already thought of a place that would be advantageous when fighting the wolf.

As Luck surveyed his surroundings, he suddenly heard a voice.

"You, leech! You're the bait! You just have one simple job. Just lure the creature to this spot and we'll kill it quickly," The boy at the bronze stage commanded with a haughty attitude.

Knowing that the nickname was likely his, Luck turned and gave a cold reply.

"And if I don't?"

With Luck's response, the arrogant boy was flabbergasted.

"You-!" The boy pointed his finger at Luck with irritation. "Useless trash, I'm the leader! Obey me or I'll kill you!"

Luck narrowed his eyes, his expression icy.

Not expecting such a cold gaze, the boy instinctively took a step back. Luck's black eyes felt like they were about to consume his entire being. However, he swiftly regained his composure as he snorted. He was at the bronze stage! Why should he fear this useless trash that had only survived because of his dogsh*t luck?

He suddenly took out the dagger given to him by Lord Thel as he pointed it at the boy, killing intent evident in his expression.

The tense atmosphere between them was heavy, causing the two other boys in the group to break out into cold sweat.

"Wait! Wait! Let's not kill each other! I can be the bait instead!" One of the frail boys suggested.

"It'll be a bad idea if someone already dies so soon! What if it attracts more wolves?" The other hastily spoke.

Hearing their logical reasoning, the arrogant boy gave a snort as he placed the dagger back into his pocket.

"Hmph! Count yourself lucky, trash."

Turning around, he went to a sturdy rock and rested his back against it.

"Phew." 

The two boys sighed in relief. They still haven't fully adapted to the Sanctuary, so they still weren't used to death and killing. They thought a strength in numbers approach when dealing with enemies would be more suitable. Wolves are still scary beasts in their eyes. After all, they were still only children.

Seeing the arrogant boy walk away, Luck had an indifferent expression as he went to a corner. 

Folding his arms and resting his eyes, he waited until the Trial began.