12 Finishing exams

Clay walked out of the arena as the crowd sat in stunned silence, unable to comprehend what just unfolded in front of them.

A man, a merchant judging by the crests he wore, was the first to break the trance and speak. "Cheating! This kid is cheating! Even the most powerful of my guards couldn't summon something like that." He cried out. Clay ignored it and decided it was time to check his notifications having only bothered applying the stat points but not reading through the many blinking exclamation marks that plagued the bottom of his vision.

—— Title earned: Subterranean Carnage. Grants bonuses when fighting under ground. 15% stat increase when fighting 5m or lower under the surface.——

"That makes sense considering I wiped almost the entire colony off the map." He mumbled to himself.

—— You are now lvl. 183——

"Well no really." Clay said sarcastically. Bringing up the next one Clays eyes widened in surprise.

——Congratulations survivor: milestone achieved: Second survivor to reach lvl.100. Select your reward.

-New mana usable

-Random equipment

-new ability gained—

Looking at the list was a bit shocked at the fact that after fifteen years, after the every second he sat there, he was still the second to reach that level. Shaking his head to clear way the thoughts running through his head Clay took a serious look at the list. Weighting the opinions he considered the pros and cons of each. New mana could be useful or completely useless whereas new equipment might be great or awful since the description was so vague as was the case with ability. Finally reaching a decision he chose new mana as it allowed him a chance to become more versatile in combat.

—-Your Element will be randomly selected—-

A large wheel like the one seen on game shows appeared in his virtual eye a list of every element listed around it, some larger than others changing the probability of his luck, a small sliver of gold was in three places representing all the legendary elements an almost non existent chance of getting one.

It took a few seconds before it started to spin, going through all the options until it finally landed on the one. Nature, the elemental opposite of lightning, now became his to control a new list of abilities appeared in his vision.

—Animal Communication: Always user to communicate with any creature on the most basic level. Increases with use.

Plant growth: at a cost of 10 mana per second allows the user to increase the growth plant life around them up to 75%.

Earths ending: combining earth element mana into a large ball, the user has the ability to detonate it causing all plant life to rapidly die in a 7x7 area.—

(Error 37218: No combined abilities available.)

"Hey, staring into space are we?" A boy of the same age stood in front of him with a group of 5 others. 2 other boys and 3 girls stood behind them talking, "impressive display I must say, whatever that was. I'm Eric West." Eric held his hand out for Clay to shake. Clay took it and replied "I'm Clay and thanks."

"Wanna get food with us while waiting for the next exam?" Eric asked motioning to some of the cafes around the park. "Sure." Clay replied with a shrug. Hopping off the bench Eric introduced him to the others. "Hey I'm John Asen." A tall boy of about 6'4 introduced himself with a wave, curly blond hair sat upon his head loose hairs trailing down to a rather chiseled face, he adjusted the tight fitting shirt collar. "Ugh this thing sucks" He spoke fiddling with it. Next was a girl with with auburn hair only about 5'5 she was the shortest of the group."Hi, I'm Aurora Gilender" she stated, a smile perched on a doll like face. "Your magic was amazing!" She squealed "what was that? A sum-". "Enough, I'm Ella Bosak it's nice to a fellow dark magic user." The tallest girl spoke, standing 6'3 her silver coloured hair formed a perfect box around her definition of beautiful face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Finally the last girl spoke up, "H-hi I'm uh J-jasmine, nice to meet you!" She whispered staring down at the sidewalk unable to meet his gaze. Her raven hair sat in a loose bun upon her head, a blush obviously on her cheeks. "And that depressed sod standing over there is Cooper Blevins." Eric said pointing at a boy of about 5'7 with light brown hair.

"Well let's go then." Eric said motioning the others over. Sitting down at the local cafe Ella spoke up.

"So Clay tell us about yourself? Where you from?"

Clay sat there in thought for a moment before responding. "Ya I'm Clay uh.. Tiamat and I am from RoseCliff a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. I use dark magic and yeah I guess I like hunting." Clay decided to lie about the last name not fully trusting them yet. "How about you guys? Where you from?"

Ella was the first to respond. "I'm from a town west of here called Woodrow and like you I use dark magic too. My hobbies include boxing and hunting." She smiled at him when John started talking.

"I'm from the capital here and I'm the son of a nobleman so ya.. I like sports and honestly just relaxing."

Next Eric spoke "I'm from the same village as Ella, we actually were friends when we were little. I like reading and history."

The last people to speak were Jasmine and Aurora, Aurora being the one to speak while jasmine just stared straight at the table. "We're sisters from the leaf village east of here. I like magic and the study of it, while jasmine here loves animals."

"Sisters?" Clay asked "you don't really look alike?"

"That because jasmine was adopted by my family after an.... unfortunate accident." Aurora responded in quieter toner. A few seconds of silence Ella spoke again "you have family here?"

Clay thought for a few seconds before giving a relatively true answer. "No not really, came here alone after my parents.. disappeared from my life."

"Oh so your an orphan?" Eric asked. "Eric!" Ella shouted.

"Sorry that was a little rude of me." Eric said .

A moment later the food was brought out, plates of steaming fish, multiple types of bread, colourful drinks of all kinds. It was amazing as Clay had only eaten that single kind of soup he got from the village.

"So good.." Clay moaned, back on earth he was a bit of a foodie trying out as much as possible.

"I will pay guys." Said John causing a little cheer from from the rest of the table, well everyone but cooper who sat there eating.

An announcement came over the many speakers around the park. "Stage 2 will begin soon. Please go to your assigned area."

"Guess we can meet up after?" Eric asked. Nods of agreement came from around the table.

"Well see you then."