Chapter 22: Real Test

It was already late at night when Keon regained consciousness. Keon slowly opened his eyes with a puzzled look on his face as he stared at the ceiling above him

"What happened?" Keon asked himself while the memories of the things that happened earlier flooded in his mind. As a result, Keon's body jolted in shock and he immediately sat on his bed

When Keon looks around him, he saw that his three other roommates were eating at the table not far from him. Nath was as talkative as always but the other two with him were as unmoving as a large block of ice

Noticing the eyes staring at them, Nath turned to look at Cairo with a smile on his face

"You're finally awake! This is the first time I saw you overslept. What got you so tired all of a sudden?"

Keon blinked his eyes repeatedly before his eyes focus on his two other roommates. Could the things he remembered actually just a dream?

Looking at Gabe and Mady, both of them were acting like usual of minding their own business while silently eating their food. No abnormalities can be found in them

"Kreon, tell me what happened earlier. Does it really happened or is it just a dream?"

Keon waited for an answer but he just heard Kreon snort at him. In terms of unfriendliness, his other personality won't lose out against Mady and Gabe!

The sensation in Keon's head when violent emotions appeared in his mind that came from Kreon felt so real. However, since both his roommates and Kreon were still the same as usual, he doesn't have a way to verify things and he is forced to believe that it was just a dream

After all, Kreon's eruption of emotion was too violent as if he hated the two people to the bones. If that is really the case then why would he stay silent?

Noticing Keon's absent-mindedness, Nath misunderstood him. "Come here and eat, you still look disoriented!"

Keon was brought back to reality because of Nath's words and he went down to eat. However, he was different than usual as he is still thinking if what happened was really just a dream

Keon watches Mady and Gabe's actions but neither of the two was showing any abnormal reaction. In the end, Keon can only conclude that what he thought happened was either a dream or these two are just really great at acting

The four ate their food as usual before resting in their respective beds to cultivate in their own

-----

July 31 the Year 1000 of the Mystic Calendar

Just like that, another half a month has passed and the day the trainees are both excited and fearful finally arrives

Early in the morning, they were already gathered by their supervisor. This time, there is no morning exercise or training as the government will finally put them on a real test

The tests prior to this one are still like the government babysitting them but the test this time is the real deal!

Simply said, all the previous tests are akin to school examinations but the test today is a job interview. This test will determine whether they are suited to become professional mystics or not

Most of the twenty trainees are currently nervous as they stared at their supervisor that is looking at them as if they were already dead

The trainees still didn't know the exact thing that they need to do in the test but this is giving them a bad feeling

After all the orphans are gathered, their supervisor finally speaks again

"I know that most of you are afraid of the test and I just want to say that .... you should really be afraid!" Dante started and his words were really not helping the trainees' situation

"After this test perhaps only 5 to 7 people will remain out of the twenty of you. The chances of death are real. i]If any of you are unlucky or careless, you wouldn't survive this test at all"

The fear the trainees have just grown with Dante's words. Only 5 to 7 of them will return alive? That is really a low number. Although the trainees knew that they will face the threat of death if they successfully entered the Hunter Department, when the real thing arrives, they can't help but get cold feet

"I suggest all of you put your focus on the test and treat it is as a real danger. Well, you would really be facing great danger and none of you can't back out since doing so will have death as a consequence"

The trainees' faces darkened at that. They knew that on the first day that they became an orphan, they really cannot disobey the government but since that fact was directly slapped in their face today, none of them are feeling really good

"I hope all of you study the materials we gave you beforehand on how to survive on other realms and the things that you need to watch out for. Well, if any of you didn't study it then good luck, you just raise your chance of death to almost a hundred percent "

"A lot of you will die and those are the unlucky ones. As for the ones that will survive, congratulations in advance, the government will provide you with much more resources. We will foster you in exchange for your service. Even breaking through the barrier of Level 3 Advanced Grade Mystic is not an impossible possibility to all of you albeit the chances are low "

This supervisor of them really knows his way with words. At first, they told them how dreadful the test is then tempted them with benefits

Level 3 Advanced Grade Mystic is a rank that is achievable by most people as long as they spent time in their cultivation. Almost all professional mystics can reach that rank as long as they are given time. Mystics won't stumble into a roadblock in their cultivation until they want to advance again from Level 3 Advance Grade Mystics. However, the rank next to that is more complicated

Those three levels are just like the beginning of one's cultivation and they are even sometimes called Pawns because of their weak power in the standards of mystics above the pawn ranks.

It was hard but the benefit and increase in strength are also high. Mystics higher than pawn rank already have some status in this world. For the orphans like them without any backing, reaching the peak of pawn rank is already enough, what more if they even advance after that?

The temptation was really great and these orphans hope that they would be included in the people that will survive this test so that they can try breaking through above the pawn ranks

"This test is actually a very simple one. We will send you to a Level 3 Realm and all you need to do is to survive there for at least three days while hunting monsters before coming back. If any of you came back before the three days time were up, you will be executed in the spot "

"Of course, hiding near the teleportation points protected by humanity is also not allowed. That's why we also need you to hunt monsters to show that you really fought with monsters. Here take this"

After finishing his words, twenty pouches appeared around Dante and the pouches floated towards the trainees that caught them with their hands

"Inside that pouches are twenty Energy Cores. All you need to do is to kill monsters and put the core near the corpse. As long as the monsters won't resist and are really dead, the core will automatically absorb the mystic energy from the corpse "

"The cores given to all of you are at the same level as your cultivation base. Meaning, Level 2 Mystics have Level 2 Energy Cores. Each pouch has twenty cores and you need to fill at least five of them in the span of three days. That's all, simple right?" Dante asked with a smile and the trainees can only smile bitterly

It sounds simple but it was far from simple! The government gave various basic information about the situation in the other realms and the trainees already have some knowledge about them

The task might only be to survive for three days and fill energy cores but the danger level is high

First, the environment is unfamiliar with them, and compared to the human realm that only has monsters when a weak point in the barrier appeared, the other realms are completely different

Those realms are dominated by monsters. You can meet one everywhere you go!

A certain realm might have been already studied and the common creatures present in there are recorded but that was not absolute!

There is still a chance that unknown monsters with unknown abilities are living inside these realms. Even the Levels given to these realms are also not absolute

Level 3 Realms meant that either the strongest monster found there is Level 3 or most of its inhabitants are Level 3 monsters. There is a huge difference between the two

The former only has one Level 3 monster while the latter has multiple monsters at that level. Not to mention, there is also a slim chance that a higher leveled monsters are hiding in there or one of the Level 3 Monsters broke through the next rank after the humans surveyed that realm

There are just so many uncertainties in these realms. Surviving is already hard but the trainees even have to fill five energy cores at their level

This doesn't mean that a Level 2 Mystic only needs to defeat 5 Level 2 Monsters. Level 2 cores have the capacity to store the mystic energy of a peak Level 2 human Mystic. Filling a single core to the fullest certainly needs more than a single corpse

If a Mystic fought a monster for a long time and the monster uses up a lot of its mystic energy then the energy the humans can get from the corpse will certainly be much lower

From the data from the government, even if a monster was one shot kill without it using any energy, a single corpse is still not enough. A mystic needs to extract some more energy from a second corpse if they want to fill a single energy core

If a Mystic fought a monster until both of them are fully exhausted, it wouldn't be surprising if the core will need more than five monster corpses in the same condition just to fill a single core

Of course, there is still the option of targeting monsters below one's level but then, they also need to kill a lot more monsters to fill the core. In the realms outside humanity's control, the more a human battles the monsters, the more their lives will be endangered!

"Considering that all of you are weak, you can team up with anyone you want except for the top four of you with the strongest power. We need to prevent anyone from being carried by their team in this test"

"Of course, since they have two Level 3 Mystics in their team, Mady, Gabe, Nath, and Keon will be sent into a more dangerous part for fairness sake. Meeting multiple Level 3 monsters isn't rare if they are unlucky"

This arrangement was really cruel for Keon. At first, he was happy that he will be in the same team as the strongest mystics among the trainees but then they will actually be sent into a different area with stronger monsters

If Keon met multiple Level 2 monsters, running away shouldn't be that hard. However, if he met multiple Level 3 monsters then he needs to have a huge amount of luck to survive. This is really giving him a headache

"Kreon, if you don't want us to die you better help me in the test. With my brain and your intuition, we can increase the chances of surviving"

As long as Kreon can locate enemies then it shouldn't be too hard to avoid the chances of confronting multiple monsters at once

Keon's team has a higher level of strength, as long as they avoided fighting tons of monsters at once, it shouldn't be a problem for them to survive