4 The Fool

[First Trial: Survive the sky fall]

"Hahahaha!" Emmet chortled as he spun around.

Like grains of sand helplessly blown by the wind, hundreds of challengers scattered throughout the sky, some had a look of despair in their faces, some screaming out their lungs by the sudden thrust of the situation and some still waving their hands about in search of a hopeful but futile grab.

'What fun!'

"Wooohooooo!" Emmet spread his arms and legs making an X, fully enjoying the trial.

This was what he had been missing. The thrill, the danger, the unknown.

Other contestants who heard his howl turned to look at him with weird faces. That wasn't how a frightened yell sounded and so they thought, 'Ah, he broke…'

But Emmet did not care. Instead, he closed his eyes and felt the wind playing with his hair, the coldness of such altitude paired well with the warm and cozy red scarf warped around his neck.

He took in a deep breath of the fresh cold air.

'Ahhh, is this what it feels like if I tried to jump all those days?'

Emmet's smile widened to a grin, "I'm glad I held on all that time," and he snickered again.

"Because now I have nothing to hold on to."

He laughed one last time before whispering, "Now, what to do…"

He looked around again. This time in scrutiny.

The field Emmet and the other challengers were in, was that of a volcano. It stood alone, occupying most of the land was its sloppy almost vertical slope with bits of fringes of greenery. Surrounding it, as far as the eye can see, the bodied water spilled from a wounded giant, colouring the sea red and red.

What looked like a hazy silhouette of a mountain range, turned out to be the body of a giant. Lying down, parts of it submerged in the sea, most of them peaking above the sea like an imposing mountain, parting it in two different distinct colours.

Blood red of the sea, saphire blue of the ocean.

Along the hardened back of the giant was a big diagonal gash from which his still-hot blood gushed from. Waterfall of steamy blood dyed the sea red, giving rise to the hazy cloudy look of the giant corpse, masking it as one of the natural wonders of this map.

That was all but a distraction, a hidden mechanic of the trial.

What they should be doing was not focusing on the breathtaking view of the bleeding giant mountain, but on the volcano island which would be their landing point.

Those who were mesmerized by the giant corpse would find themselves in a pinch when they realize that they are too near to the ground but had not prepared anything for the landing.

A clever little distraction by the Three Great Academies.

'But still, where's the head?'

Emmet shook his head. He took a deep breath and converged his attention to the volcano island. If given time, he would also like to assess more about the bleeding giant mountain as he knew nothing was ever randomly generated even in private servers.

From what he had glanced from his spinning earlier, most of the challengers were dropped from the same level at the beginning. Though some of them started above others.

"Those must be the Easy bunch."

Now that some time had passed, their level in the air varied. Some who were quick on their feet, spread their arms and legs like Emmet to slow their descent. Some who noticed a tad bit late found themselves amongst the first ones to land if they did nothing to change that.

"Not that landing first is a disadvantage though," Emmet commented.

He looked at the worst bunch of the batch. They could not even control their spins and were still spinning like a mad top or hamster wheel, depending on their axis of rotation. It was unknown whether they were still conscious or not.

Those were the most probable earliest dropouts.

The volcano itself was quite peculiar. Many things could be commented about it. The colour of the volcano island was almost white.

"Chalky," if he needed to be specific.

Along the cracks of the volcano flowed crimson throbbing veins, contrasting well with the chalky white of the volcano rocks.

Its maw opened up like a jaw of death so deep into the earth, Emmet could not see the bottom even with the help of the glowing veins.

As he stared at the abyss, the abyss stared back at him. A tingle ran down his spine. Maybe it was the excitement and thrill. Or maybe…

Emmet shook his head and focused on the matter at hand. The volcano.

'Active or inactive? Not known. Most probably active by the look of the vein. It could be lava or maybe that thing. Will be confirmed after landing.

Height? About ten kilometers give or take by the look of the slope. Depth of the crater? Unknown.

Objective? Survive the fall. In other words? Land safely. So which side is safer, the outside slope or the crater? Depends on the state of the volcano. If it's active, outside would be safer in the long run. But landing is needed to assess the volcano state…'

His thought ended there. Emmet was stuck. He pondered how to tackle this dilemma when he heard faint whispers from his side.

Hard to see from his position but Emmet still recognized that flickering light.

Script.

'Someone is preparing a spell.'

And that was the start of the cacophony. The flock had chosen their course. Mumbles and murmurs of words Emmet had long tried to forget entered his ears.

"That was an option but was that really the best answer? What spell could help us land?"

If there was a spell that could help him land, then it did not matter which side he was on. He would rather focus on landing safely first and the danger of the surroundings later.

"If I want to go with the spell route, one spell may not be enough. Since I had to do scriptless spells then a compound spell might be a better option."

From what he heard of the people scripting spells around him, they were all preparing spells of the same nature.

"Updraft. Air Cushion. Wind Shield. Air Step."

They were all air elements.

'Air Step may not be a good idea…'

"Ahhh! Why is my skill not working?" screamed a frustrated voice from above.

'One of the Easies, huh? What a dummy. Of course, it's not working. I bet he wanted to Double Jump,' Emmet shook his head.

As the name implies, Double Jump is the ability to jump in midair after the first jump.

'Unless he jumps off the cocoon before it breaks, which is unlikely, the skill will not work.'

The condition was clear. Double jump needs the first jump for it to be deployed. That was why Double Jump was categorized as a low-level skill despite its various utility.

'Air Jump would be a better option. But given its higher prerequisites, I don't think any of the challengers had obtained this skill. I don't have it at the moment. Though I can try to attain it now but Hardies don't get to use any skills.'

Emmet's options were now limited to scriptless spells and magic and his physical capabilities. Though the latter was out of the equation since Emmet did not have any special physique.

'I wonder if there are any Fools in this batch?'

'Arghhh!" came a piercing scream from below, interrupting all of the scriptings. The surrounding specks of flickering light immediately dimmed down.

The cacophony of voices died down left for the still screaming voice, wailing in pain.

'No, I'm not asking for that kind of fool.'

Below, the young man was writhing in pain. His right leg looked limp and deformed.

'That's why Air Step is not a good idea…'

Now everyone had to think twice before choosing a spell to script.

While everyone was blinking in surprise and confusion, the ever-imposing slope of the volcano came nearer and nearer. Those who decided to land on the slope needed to act fast.

And so Emmet finally decided on his route of spells.

"I'm gonna need an elevator."