Preliminary Test

Zeralf slowly opened his eyes as he felt the space warp around him, the bracelet on his left wrist flickered after it completed the teleportation that brought Zeralf to this new region.

The temperature here was chilly but Zeralf's thick clothing kept him warm, moreover, he now had some level of resilience to extreme temperatures being a newly awakened deva. He wore a long dark robe with a red furry hood that hung below his neck and some strands of his hair rested on it. 

The scenery before him was a snowy mountain that had thick snow covering every part of the terrain, there were sparse shrubs that had lost their greenery growing at random places. 

He inhaled and focused his eyes while using space sense, no life was captured around the perimeter of the skill except for the howling wind in the distant horizon.

He began to walk ahead to complete what he was here to do. It was early morning of the next day and the combat exam had begun. However, there was a pretest, they had to look for clues that would lead them to where the exam would take place and that was why he found himself here since he had been teleported from his place all alone, obviously, this was going to be an individual task.

The clues would be carried by snow dolls and every participant had to destroy one to get the clue, not only that, they had to be observant and be sure that the snow doll had the doll if not, destroying the wrong snow doll would make them lose points and on doing that thrice, they would be automatically eliminated from the exam 

Although this was a pretest, it was difficult in its own right and every participant had to play it safe unless they wanted disqualification as their end game. 

After teleporting for five minutes without rest, he finally saw a snow doll in the distance. It had a short physique and was made of snow, it had a round head with no facial features and its body was human-like excluding its snowy texture.

The snow doll didn't react when Zeralf walked up close to it, it ignored him and just matched forward in a robotic manner. Zeralf observed the snow doll to see if it was carrying any odd object that may be the clue but it appeared that he wasn't that lucky, even with his space sense, he couldn't find anything worth taking.

He teleported again leaving the snow doll behind and after about a kilometer away from his previous position, he saw a long blue river, and inside it was a snow doll swimming along its current.

Zeralf used space sense immediately he saw it and his vision turned silver, everything within the skill range both underground and midair now had silver colour as the information entered his brain to process it.

'' Jackpot! '' He muttered inwardly and teleported above the snow doll. Gravity acted on him as he materialized in midair and when he fell freely downward, his hand touched the snow doll he then teleported together with the snow doll. They both appeared where he was previously standing and without hesitating, Zeralf squashed it with a straight face 

Immediately the snow doll was destroyed, it turned translucent and a black metal card, the size of half a palm dropped on the snowy ground. Zeralf picked it up and injected his Ki inside the card. A few seconds later, the card dissolved and the information entered Zeralf's mind.

'' Find the next clue on the big tree offshore. '"

''Um.'" Zeralf got up and headed for the place that had a giant tree. Trees here were sparse which would make the tall tree rather inconspicuous.

Just as he guessed, some minutes after he proceeded forward, he saw a thirty meter tall deciduous tree that had a red box hanging on one of its high branches. 

Not only that though, but there were also other participants here too and some were already climbing the tree using every means at their disposal. Evidently, different clues could lead to one clue and that was the situation Zeralf found himself.

Zeralf was not leaving this for others, he had no time to waste and he wasn't allowing anyone to take that clue.

'' You there with funny hair. '' Zeralf heard a comical voice calling him as he walked forward but he ignored the owner of the voice with his nonchalant attitude.

'' Leave this clue for me already you hillbillies. '' The boy who called out to Zeralf bellowed in annoyance ridiculously when he was ignored. 

As if bellowing wasn't enough, he proceeded to grab Zeralf's shoulder but before his right hand could connect with Zeralf's right shoulder, the latter twisted and grabbed his palm, pulling it close to himself, he twisted his arm and jacked it in a downward motion.

'' Crack! '' An inhuman sound of bone cracking against each other was heard by everyone close by and when they looked at the right arm of the boy that wanted to grab Zeralf, it was dangling freely and the shoulder joint was at a wrong hideous angle.

'' Arggh! '' The boy cried and grabbed his dislocated shoulder while subconsciously stepping backward as he looked at Zeralf in horror, his eyes were wide open and his white skin had turned blue, his mouth was trying to say something but only gibberish came out.

'' Do that again and you will lose your arms forever. '' Zeralf warned in a crisp tone that sent chills to those that heard it. Killing might not be allowed but he would not mind breaking one or two bones should he be crossed. 

'' We were here before you, and you think you can steal the clue under everyone's nose?  '' Three boys who were climbing the tree earlier stopped Zeralf who was close to the three too.

They had set their domineering stance when they arrived and that allowed them to climb the tree with little worry but with Zeralf's arrival now, their chances were threatened. It was not as if they couldn't look for other clues, just that everyone was short on time and one could not share their clues with more than one person.

Zeralf scrutinized the three with his cold eyes and he found their appearance comical. The trio appeared to be triplets from their similar phenotypes and clothing. They had short frizzy green hair, emerald eyes, oval noses, and thin lips, their heights were average and their olive skin matched well with the tan suit they wore. Each person wielded an axe and they had that intimidating pose to their figure.

'' Clowns. '' Zeralf muttered and teleported. He wasn't ready to engage in idle talks with some random ignorants.

The tree's crown was within his teleportation range so he just appeared close to the branch that had the red box and he vanished again leaving the participants who were still waiting for an interesting show to happen in a dumbstruck state.

'' What! Where is he? '' One of the triplets eventually understood the situation and his olive skin darkened while creasing his forehead.

Others too broke into murmurs that turned to noise as they tried to fathom what just transpired but the person they were talking about was long gone.

—---

'' That was convenient hehe. '' Endra had a wide grin as he proceeded to follow the location that the last clue revealed. He had seen many participants fighting over one clue and when one finally managed to run away with the clue, he knowingly bumped into him and stole it from the participants without him realizing, and now, he had appeared before a large snowy plain that spread into the horizon.

'' White haired! '' Endra called the only figure present here. Zeralf was standing before a transparent barrier but Endra was oblivious to that, he just walked up ahead and bumped into it.

'' Eh. '' His eyebrows rose and so were his eyes, and he slightly caressed his forehead which hit the barrier. '' So we're waiting or what? '' He glanced at Zeralf who only nodded.

'' It is because I was lending a helping hand, if not, hmph, I would've arrived here first. '' Kitasha started explaining immediately she arrived despite no one asking for her reasons.

'' Well, you're still third out of how many thousands? Princess. '' Endra retorted in a teasing tone together with a mischievous wink.

'' Wait till the end and see who's the third.'' The passing gale blew her hair gracefully as she declared with confidence.

As time went by, other participants started arriving and some also ignorantly bumped into the invincible barrier while the wary ones waited to see what was going to happen to those at the front.

'' Diinnngg!! '' A deafening bell sounded across every part of Golrich and those that had not gotten to the exam location saw their bracelets flickered with red lights, too bad, they had been eliminated.

To those that were close to the invincible barrier, they saw the barrier flicker with white lights and a grandiose structure appeared leaving everyone awestruck.

A tall white crystal tower that entered Golrich's atmosphere materialized along with gigantic walls also made from crystals. It had a segmented cylindrical shape and another building twined around it from the base to the top like some ancient snake. Runic lamps were fixed almost everywhere and they illuminated every nook and cranny. 

In some other places on Golrich, towers similar to the one before Zeralf also materialized with grandeur, and soon enough, the whole of Golrich was beaming with white radiance.

'' Welcome, the first phase shall now commence. '' A voice resounded in everyone's mind.