Beyond the Walls

Abel had no idea why or how Zeke was simply not taking part in this stage of the test.

If he really had recorded his values before, then that was fair enough, but why was he the only person to have done so?

The prince, Otto, recorded a massive qi strength of 92.

This recording was met with applause from the students and masters, who even bowed with respect upon seeing him do this.

"How does he always get such a high result every time, it's so annoying." Abel said to his friends, while clapping.

"It's elixirs, man. He just drinks and drinks the most expensive elixirs he can get so that he can speed up his cultivation." Zeke stated, while watching him return to the crowd.

The students all recorded their physical strength and qi, before the old master then stood ahead of them once again.

"Okay, students. The next stage of this training will be spent outside of the city walls. I know this will be a first for many of you, and we will be each giving out one piece of equipment and one weapon to those that do not have their own. You will be tasked with taking down beasts and acquiring their crystals. Once the beasts for each crystal that you attain has been identified, we will tally up points and state how well each of you did." He explained.

Each team was going to consist of three fighters, and they were going to enter what was known as an F-Zone. F-Zones contained the weakest beasts and were in the calmest, tamest terrain.

These were the zones of the world where cities were usually found.

Above that were E-Zones, all the way up to A-Zones that housed the most dangerous beasts that the world had ever seen. These zones were usually devoid of humans, and only the strongest cultivators dared step foot in them to challenge these powerful beasts.

"You know what? Let's get that Abel kid. I don't believe he got 24 strength and I want to smash his face in!" A student whispered to his friend, behind Abel.

His ear twitched, and even though it was a light whisper, he could hear what they were saying nearly perfectly.

"Oh yeah, sure. I won't believe that that weakling has higher physical strength than me. Let's show him just how weak he really is." He replied, while they gave of maniacal, villainous chuckles.

Abel couldn't help but smile upon hearing these remarks.

'Try me, then.' He thought to himself, clenching his fists with anger.

The students picked the items that they desired, and Abel took a while to decide what to pick. Even though most cultivators didn't rely on weapons in battle against one another, they were commonly used against things like beasts.

Abel decided to use gauntlets. Using gauntlets didn't require any extra, specialist training, and he had none of that. With no family to act as backing for him, he had never received training from within his family and only from the academy.

For a piece of equipment, he decided to go with an armoured vest, made of the scales of a Black Cave Snake.

His friend, Zeke, settled for the katana. He was an orphan, just like Abel, but seemed to be a lot better warrior in terms of fighting skill.

The way he used a katana was quite advanced for one of his age, and certainly for somebody of his class.

Duncan was tall and relied a lot on his physical strength. Duncan utilised a large, double-handed sword that he had already been used to. This was the double-handed sword passed down to him from his father, so he'd received significant training with it. He also wore an armoured vest, that was made of the same black cave snake scales.

The snake was of the feral beast rank, so the second-worst rank for a beast, and thus these scales weren't exactly indestructible. However, they were strong and were akin to a heavy metal in terms of what it could endure.

The students gathered around one of the city gates. The gate was heavily protected, with tens of soldiers above it and by the opening. They wore armour of several different colours, while many had glowing crystals wedged into the centre of their breastplates.

Abel wiggled his fingers, readying himself for the challenge ahead. Many students felt nervous and anxious, since this would be their first time venturing out the city.

All they had heard about what laid on the other side of the wall were horror stories. It made almost everyone in the city proud to be safe in such a fortified place. There was always news of terribly mangled corpses found in the lands beyond the walls, and soldiers slain by the likes of terrifying, evil beasts.

At the forefront of this procession, a soldier guarding the wall walked up to approach them.

"Great-great-grandfather Master Klemens Garberg." The armoured warrior said, with a bow.

"Great-great-grandfather?" Abel wondered, looking to the white-haired old master that stood ahead of him.

"Ah, if it isn't my descendant Viktor Garberg. What a pleasure to see you, it's been nearly 15 years!" He said, giving the warrior a hug.

"Just how old is our teacher?" Abel asked his friend, Zeke.

Zeke just chuckled upon hearing this question.

"Do you not know who he is? He's Master Klemens of the noble Garberg family. He is 269 years old." He replied.

As humans would cultivate, their aging would gradually slow. The greater one's cultivation, the longer they'd live. However, one would only reach true immortality at the very end of the path of cultivation. If one could beat their aging, they would remain alive forever.

Currently, there wasn't a single immortal being in the world at this point, but many people were several centuries old, while still looking like they were in their fifties and sixties if they were mortals.

Their master's level of cultivation was not world class and so, he had already aged quite substantially, even while just being in his third century of life.

"I hope you and your students have a safe journey beyond the walls. If anyone needs our assistance, they can return to the walls, and we will promptly send troops where necessary." He stated.

What was even surprising was that this great-great-grandson of his looked to be in his thirties. It just made their master seem even older.

The large metal double-door that was more than 50 metres high started to open. It was being pushed by many large, muscular warriors that were cloaked in qi auras of various vibrant colours.

"The zone ahead of us will be the zone that you will remain in. You will all be provided with maps to make sure that you remain within this designated F-Zone. Have a safe journey, students." Master Klemens called out to them.

The students eagerly rushed forward as the gate was opened, and they scattered around into the surrounding zone.

Zeke, Duncan and Abel weren't the most confident bunch since they knew how weak they were. Abel was the most fearless of the group. Not only did he know he now had quite impressive strength, but his healing factor meant he wouldn't be very hurt by much.

Duncan held the map they had been given, detailing the marked off zones in the surrounding area of the city. In this current area, it was an F-Zone, and the entire city was placed within an F-Zone.

As you looked further and further out from the city, there were other zones that had higher rankings, which were shown with yellow warning signs and were highlighted in yellow, amber or red.

Red zones were A-Zones and B-Zones. There was only one red zone, that was a B-Zone, labelled on the map. Just being less than 1000 miles from an A-Zone was classed as quite dangerous. Therefore, nobody really knew the location of any.

The city was surrounded by jungle-like forest, and the group persevered on to find their first beasts. Duncan and Zeke trembled slightly in their advances. Duncan even struggled to hold the map steadily for his peers to look at the information on it.

Squeak!

From beside them, a rat of colossal size charged right at them.

It resembled a large wolf in size, and it revealed massive incisors when it opened its mouth. Its eyes glowed a dim yellow colour too.

The first to act was Zeke, who whipped around his sword to slice its belly.

Red blood spurted out from the slash wound, then he threw down his katana to stab it right in its head.

Another giant rat charged in their direction, but Abel rushed to action. His eyes flashed gold in his advance, as he tried to use his anger to fuel his strength once again.

He could feel himself being invigorated by his fury, and he landed a full power punch to the rat's face.

His fist drove downward, and he crushed its skull upon forcing it into the floor. Blood and mangled brain matter spurted out from the openings in its head, leaving quite the nauseating, revolting mess.

The students didn't want to waste time, though, and swiftly tore open the rat's abdomen to retrieve dark grey crystals. They were about the length of a pinkie finger and the width of three fingers.

They pocketed the bloody crystals and didn't even have to move to get their next targets.