Facilities

Andrew and the group watched Tez leave towards one of the facilities where majority of people headed to. It had a big sign saying *Ranking Hall*.

Andrew theorized it to be some sort of battle arena where people of the same level or realm fight to determine the hierarchy. He wasn't far from the truth.

5 core demonic corps have different requirements of acceptance, meaning that their criteria for quality and quantity of applicants vary from corps to corps. 

Blood Devil Corps is in the top 3 among all existing corps in Demonic Abode, be they low-level, mid-level or high-level. That's why the requirements for acceptance are so high. Among 2000 original applicants only 10 are allowed to join in and the rest of 1990 is destined to die.

Of course, such requirements were set to sort out bad seedlings from the beginning. No one wants a weed to appear in their beautiful garden.

In the low-level corps, the requirements are much laxer. For example, Dark Lagoon Corps accepts 500 people out of 2000 applicants. That's a very high acceptance rate. Moreover, not all of those 500 demons may be suitable for that corps. It takes resources and time to sort them out even further. 

To make it easier to categorize everyone, almost all forces on Azraa have structures and systems similar to *Ranking Hall*. Instead of going through all the hustle of individually testing each person, they just rank them according to their strength.

Naturally, not all people might like such thing as there are quite a few eccentric characters among them. So to make it more appealing, the administrators of such places give rewards according to the importance of the rank that an individual holds.

It seemed like there were less than a hundred members of all 5 corps present. The place didn't look shiny or majestic even though this is the training ground of 5 major factions of hegemonic power.

The demons were just that, simple. It would be a stupid idea to waste resources no matter how insignificant they are if they don't add any significant boost to the strength the demons wield and the results the demons will show later on. It would be just an eyesore and a waste of resources. 

The cave that all facilities were situated in, was extremely big and spacious. There were around 15 different facilities that seemed to serve various purposes. 

Andrew wasn't sure where to start as he didn't know the details about facilities and their functions to begin with.

Andrew decided to approach an old man who looked like a clerk.

The old man sat at the entrance of one of the facilities as he seemed to be in deep meditation. His breathing was irregular as the air around him felt different. 

Andrew got a gut feeling that disturbing him now will do no good so he just patiently waited for the man to finish.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group went to different places trying to inquire about anything from someone, yet no one even bothered to look at them the moment they felt the aura of the tokens. They didn't want to waste their time explaining something to mere class-0 demons.

Their inquiries were unfruitful as the old man seemed as the only person present who wasn't a member of any corps since he wore plain white robes. While the members of 5 major corps had varying styles and designs on their clothing.

Andrew and the group had to wait for a whole hour before the old man's breathing became normal and he opened his eyes.

The moment the old man opened his eyes he began to speak...

"Class-0 blood devils, access level 0, allowed into *Meditation Zone*, *Ranking Hall*, *Existential Hall*, *General Training Grounds*" the moment the old man said those words he shut his eyes as his breathing became irregular once again...

Andrew more or less expected such behavior since everyone here didn't want to waste their time with small talk. Especially with class-0 demons.

Then, Andrew simply bowed as he left for the Ranking Hall since this place seemed the most popular.

The rest of the group also bowed as they chose different destinations, most of them chose the same as Andrew.

Andrew entered the facility that had a sign saying *Ranking Hall*. It was a simple cubical-shaped building, it was entirely black in color. It was 40 meters tall.

No one paid attention to the newly arrived demons since they were busy doing their own stuff. Andrew looked around trying to find a receptionist or someone similar.

Eventually, he spotted a 3-meter tall and wide cube that was in the far corner of the building. It had a hole in it and a sign saying *Place Your Hand Into The Cube*.

Andrew went towards it. He placed his hand into the rectangular hole and it started to glow. 

*Andrew, Blood Devil Corps, Generation: 737, class-0, Assigned ID: 0273701* an androgynous voice resounded in Andrew's head.

Andrew knew that this was just a mental transmission. This cube was relaying information through mana directly into his brain.

*Demonic Abode Ranking: #63441

Blood Devil Corps Ranking: #4312, you will be given a token that will allow you to participate in battles* the voice stated.

The next moment, a token fell right into his hand from the hole's upper part. It was a palm-sized rectangular object, it had nothing on it except a couple of strange symbols.

*You are now eligible to participate in battles once your opponent accepts them. If your opponent declines or fails to accept it in time you can take their ranking, but remember that same applies to you. You can choose different battle options through the slate in this building* the voice explained.

Andrew got his hand out of the hole with a blank slate in his hand. The group of demons that followed him patiently waited for him to finish. Seeing that he got a token from a cube they decided to do the same.

Andrew simply looked around trying to find the object mentioned by the cube.

In another corner of the space, he spotted small cubicles. There were 20 of them and majority of them were empty.

Andrew entered one of them as he closed the door behind him. The cubicle was sealed! 

Andrew didn't understand why would they put such a function.

'For anonymity?' he thought.

In the cubicle, there was a 2-meter tall and 1-meter thick slate. It had a hole just the size of the token that Andrew got from the cube.

He placed the token into the hole and a bunch of information appeared on the big slate.

ID:0273701

Blood Devil Corps

Generation: 737

Name: Andrew

Class: 0

Existence: Mortal

And just below it, there was an icon saying *Challenge*.

Once Andrew understood how it works he simply pulled out the token and left the cubicle. For now, it was pointless to challenge anybody since he was just a mortal and mortals received no privilege except their assigned facilities.

Andrew saw his group of demons take the tokens and head towards the cubicles. 

'I wonder, is someone going to challenge me?' he nonchalantly thought as he exited the facility.

Next, he decided to head to *Meditation Zone*. It was a big rectangular building that extended for hundreds of meters. As expected, it was empty and no one could be seen in the hallway. 

Andrew decided to go upstairs and see what they had on the second floor. He saw a long hallway stretching for hundreds of meters. 

'This should be meditation rooms' he thought as he walked towards one of the doors.

They were metallic doors and had no handles on them. There was nothing that it could be opened with. Andrew decided to walk further and after a couple of dozen meters, he spotted a door with a hole in it.

Andrew took out his token and placed it into the slit. The next moment the door opened and an empty room was revealed. It wasn't big as it was just 5 meters wide and 3 meters tall. There was a praying mat in the middle.

Once Andrew stepped in, the door automatically closed behind him. He didn't find it strange and just went to sit on the mat.

It was fairly comfortable, but it didn't matter to Andrew as he entered a meditative state.

From as young as 5 years old, Andrew has been practicing the general meditation technique which could be found in any library.

But after becoming a demon, he had to change the technique since his anatomy has changed too. It didn't take him long to find and learn it from one of the libraries of Demonic Abode.

It's said for a person to start feeling mana, their bodies and minds should be ready to accept mana.

Andrew was more than ready since long ago, yet it was quite unfruitful. He felt like there was a restriction that pinned him down and didn't let him contact mana, he felt it ever since he became a demon. A feeling of immense suppression whenever he entered a meditative state.

'It's said that this Meditation Zone has arrays that will help to break down the mana for a mortal to understand it easier. Let's see how it goes' he thought in his mind as for the next 3 hours, there was no sound except his irregular breathing.