Chapter 2

"Who are you?"

"Oh, you will have to wait for the others. I don't want to introduce myself too many times," the man replied and stretched his arms. "It's stressful to do that."

It was at this moment, Silver realized they weren't the only on in the room. All around with a distance of five meters in between, he found several people lying down. Each and everyone of them were unconscious. They were all strangers and some of them had something in common, they had gotten into the same bus he had.

"It won't be long now, more are waking up," the man said, as some of the unconscious showed signs of waking.

Silver got to his feet while still looking around. One by one, two others got to their feet, a bald man and a young lady with brown hair that looked to be in her early twenties. They were both speaking but he couldn't hear them. From their expressions, he could tell they were also wondering what was going on.

Silver turned to the man seated. The man remained in place and said nothing. 'Is he waiting for the others to get up?' he thought and sighed.

He saw the bald man walking toward the man seated, however a green barrier prevented him from getting close. The bald man slammed the barrier with his fist while talking to the man seated, still he got no reply.

'There are no teens here,' Silver thought while more and more people woke up. Everyone in this white room looked like they were at least twenty. Well, everyone except him and the man seated, whose face could not be seen.

He saw people walking up to another and tried speaking. From the faces they made, he could tell, just like himself they couldn't hear what the other was saying.

The white room quaked strongly, causing the unconscious ones to awaken and the conscious to reveal expression of fright.

'Was that an earthquake?' Silver thought and turned to the man seated.

"It seems the big bosses are tired of waiting," the man said pulling everyone's attention to him. "Let us begin with introductions," he said and got to his feet.

"My name is Lucarus Kendrick, I am a little one among the celestial beings. And I have been granted this opportunity to host this group, in this era's Celestial banquet."

'The what and the what?' Silver thought.

"Thirty one of you have been chosen to join and entertain the celestials in this year's banquet. Well, you were meant to be thirty, however, there is an entity that was mistakenly selected," Lucarus turned to Silver as he spoke.

Most turned to silver who in turn points at himself. "Yes, you. The big bosses have noticed your presence and have concluded on what to do with you. They'll grant you another identity in one of the lesser worlds. There, you will prepare to join the banquet. But before that you will join the others, to prove your worth," Lucarus said.

"How do I do that?" Silver asked.

"Relax. As, your world is joining the banquet for the first time, allow me to explain. Once in a thousand years, powerful beings called celestials gather together to celebrate peace. This gathering is called the celestial banquet. However, this banquet is not only to celebrate peace but to determine the rankings of the powerful celestials. This method was chosen to prevent the destruction of worlds and galaxies," Lucarus said.

Behind him, just above his head, several names appeared. "Each of you are candidates, meant to battle it out and survive tasks. Everyone of the celestials will pick a candidate and whatever result that candidate achieve will determine the celestial's ranking," he explained.

He took in a deep breath and exhaled quietly. "As per procedures, for now, you all can not communicate with one another. Though, you can communicate to me. And the first three that came through will get to pick a random skill. Usually, your celestial g**** *** ***. Oh, currently you are not allowed to know that," Lucarus said and snapped his finger. Immediately, Silver appeared before him. Three black boxes appeared between the two of them.

"Please pick one," Lucarus said.

"What are they?" Silver asked.

"Pick one," Lucarus said sternly.

Not daring to ask again, Silver stretched his hand and picked the first one to his left. As soon as he touched it, the box dismantled and disappeared.

"Huh?"

"You will find out what it is after proving your worth." Lucarus snapped his finger and Silver returned to where he originally was. When he looked up, the brown hair young lady from before had replaced him.

"Pick one," Lucarus said. Currently, there were two boxes before her.

Silver didn't see the one she picked. Lucarus snapped his fingers and she returned.

"Well, you don't have to pick," Lucarus turned to the bald man and snapped his fingers again. The box disappeared and Silver didn't know if he had just kept it away or had refused to give the bald man.

"Alright, let us proceed. Before you is the rating of your current ability. For now, you can only view it at the beginning or end of a task, so take note of your strengths and weaknesses."

As soon as Lucarus finished, a 3D text appeared before Silver, causing him to tilt his head.

***

*** Attributes ***

Name : Silver Jackson

Age : 17

Stats : Strength- F Mana- E Stamina- F Agility- F Luck- B

Skill : Locked

***

"Per the rules of the banquet, you are the only one capable of seeing your rating. No, candidate, official or celestial can view your rating without your permission," Lucarus voice sounded.

Silver continued to stare at the text before his eyes. 'It's just like a game,' he thought.

"We will now begin," Lucarus voice sounded and the text before him changed.

***

*** Mini Task ***

+ Show Your Worth - I +

Difficult- Low

Time Limit- 10 Minutes

Summary- Pick a weapon, and survive.

Reward- Entrance Ticket

Failure- Death

***

Following that, were the appearance of small images. Each image, was the picture of a weapon. And beneath the images the characters, 'pick one' formed.

First was a whip, followed by a sword, a spear, an axe, a bow, a trident, a mace and more. Just beneath the 'pick one' characters, Silver noticed a countdown.

+ Time- 00:39 +

'What do I pick? I don't even know what I'm up against,' he thought.

+ Time- 00:00:37 +

'Let's just go with a spear,' he sighed and stretched his hand to image of a spear. All the images before him disappeared, and a wooden spear appeared. It was planted to the ground.

"What a perculiar choice," Lucarus voice sounded. Silver looked up and found Lucarus facing him. "May I asked why you picked that?" Lucarus asked.

"No reason. Perhaps, my guts made me pick this," Silver replied.

"I see. Well, I'm looking forward to your performance," Lucarus said as the surroundings changed.

The white room turned into a field. It had brown knee-length grasses and stretched as far as the eyes could see. Silver looked around. The distance between him and the next person was at least forty meters, away.

***

+ Mini Task Begins +

+ Time- 00:09:59 +

***

The characters displayed before his eyes. Silver quickly grabbed the spear. He still had a few things he didn't understand, but that didn't mean he was going to die here.

'This is a game. A one-try game. No retry, no redo,' he said in his head.

He knew it was stupid to call this a game, but this was his way of calming himself. Right now, the exact words didn't matter, what did matter was the effect of those words.

A flurry little creature step up from a part of the grasses. It was not more than two feet tall. Having four short limbs, a fat body, that seemed too large for its limbs to carry and a short donkey-like tail. A huge mouth had replaced its head.

It appearance took Silver, aback. Nevertheless, when it opened its mouth and revealed the terror hidden within, he came back to his senses. With as much strength as he could muster he thrusted his spear at it.

The spear bridged the distance between them. It pierced through the mouth of the creature and came out it's back. Almost immediately, the creature's body dispersed into black particles.

***

+ You Have Killed A Grade 1 - Hundun Beast +

***

Silver raised his left brow at the characters that appeared beside him. However, he didn't have time to bother about it because just after killing the beast, two more poked out of the grasses.

He stabbed at one, killing it instantly. While the other let out an annoying cry and ran toward him. Its short legs and heavy body did not allow it to run fast. Silver quickly increased the distance between them and stabbed it with his spear.

The 3D characters from before appeared again. However, the four annoying cry coming from different directions did not allow him spare it a glance.

He thrusted his spear at the closest one. As soon as he killed it, he turned to another. With a jab he sent it off.

"Ah!" Silver cried out.

One of the Hundun beasts had bit his arm. He gripped the top of the spear and jabbed it. The spear pierced the beast, and Silver quickly moved on to the next target. They were quickly getting close to him and their numbers were increasing.

Two were close by, and five others behind. He just couldn't understand where they were coming from. His bleeding hand hurt however, it didn't prevent him thrusting and jabbing his spear at them. At the same time he avoided them as best as he could.

How much time went by like this? How many did he kill? Silver didn't have a track of time and kill count. They were too many to count, and they kept coming in at least groups of three. Every time he killed three, another group of various numbers appeared.

Jabbing, thrusting, and moving out of the way. It didn't take long for his upper muscles to start hurting. If things continued like this, his arms were going to give out soon. And sooner or later his leg will follow suit.

'I can't remain here,' he thought.

He clenched his spear and ran away. His legs moved as fast as they could while avoiding the Hundun beasts in his path. There was nowhere to hide but he ran anyway. And the beasts followed after him as fast as they could.

Some tried to block him, but he avoided them as best as he could. The ones he couldn't avoid, he jabbed them with his spear, killing them as he fled. He ran and ran, only after covering about twenty meters did he stop. He was out of breath but this wasn't the only reason he stopped.

It was barely visible, but he could see it. There was a green barrier before him. One similar to the previous one that blocked the bald man from reaching Lucarus.

"Shit," Silver yelled, while gasping. The Hunduns were rushing over from all directions behind him. Yet his path forward was blocked.

Beyond the barrier, Silver saw a middle aged man struggling. The Hunduns in his zone had surrounded him, leaving no path for him to escape from. He could barely swing the sword in his hand. His black suit was tattered and his body had wound. Two Hunduns were biting at his left leg.

Silver turned around quickly. There was no time to waste on idling. He ran towards his left. It was the direction with the least amount of Hunduns.

'Move!' he screamed in his head.

He ran along the side of the barrier. Luckily, the Hunduns weren't fast though their numbers were alarming. And he definitely couldn't run forever.

"Ah!"

Silver cried out as he tripped. Hurriedly, he got to his feet. There was no luxury for lying down entitled to him. The annoying cries of the Hunduns behind reminded him of that. There was just no way for him to stay in place. He got up with his spear in his hand and resumed his race.

Once again he arrived before a barrier. Just across the barrier, Silver could see Hunduns munching down on someone. From the look of it, the person had ran like he did, but was cornered by the Hunduns.

Like a clan of hyenas tearing into their prey, they feasted on the person. They pushed each other, while digging into the body. The latecomers stepped over the others and forcefully dug themselves in. None of them wanted to miss out of this feast.

Silver's eyes widened and his grip on his spear tightened. His stomach turned, his legs trembled and he fell to knees. In the next moment...

"Blechhh!"

His mouth opened wide and his stomach fluid poured out of it. He just couldn't stand the sight before him.

"Blechhh!"

Again and again, he threw up. Unknown to him, he caught the attention of the Hunduns before him. Most of them raised their head to him. As soon as they saw him, they cried out and raced toward him.

"Move," Silver spat out.

The barrier before him had disappeared and the Hunduns were rushing over. He got to his feet using his spear as support. Nevertheless, when he looked around, there was nowhere to go. Hunduns were charging at him from all directions. They were too many for him to rush throw them.

His breathing grew heavier, his grips over the spear became tighter. Both hands held on to it so tightly, it looked like it was going to break.

'No,' he yelled in his head.

The Hunduns were closing in. They were going to pounce on him in no time. "I can't die here. Please, I can't die!' His heart raced, cold sweat rolled down his face and his breathing became unsteady. He knew it, he was done for. The Hunduns jumped at him, with their mouths wide open. They were going to feast on him.

***

+ Mini Task Concluded+

+ Time- 00:00:00+

***