“The competition will start tomorrow, why isn’t Grey here yet?”
Reynolds asked with a worried look on his face.
“He should be here before the competition starts”
Alice said calmly, she knew Grey wouldn’t miss the competition for anything in the world.
“Since he went back with Senior Chris, he should arrive on time”
Klaus knew Chris, so he wasn’t worried about Grey not making it in time.
Before leaving, Grey told them he was heading back to Red City. Among the group, only Klaus knew Chris, so he was the most carefree.
While the group was still conversing, Grey and Chris were just entering the residence. Grey looked around awed by the exquisite designs of the buildings. Luckily, he didn’t act like a country bumpkin, else Chris would’ve been embarrassed.
He followed Chris, and they soon got to a building, Grey heard voices as they got close to the building.
“Have you been able to find out the reason they increased the quotas?”
“I have”
“A trial….”
The speaker suddenly stopped and looked towards the entrance of the building.
Chris was the first to step into the building with Grey following closely behind. The building wasn’t too large and was just like a hall, with seats at each side of the building and five seats arranged at the front. Tables were in front of the seats at the front and also the ones by the side.
Grey looked around and most of the faces here were familiar with him. The one who was speaking earlier was clearly the man seated at the front seat. This wasn’t the first time he heard the voice, so he was able to figure out it was him.
Seated at the front seat was none other than Oliver, the principal of the Academy. He saw Blake and the other head instructors, with a few other instructors he wasn’t too familiar with. But since they were together in the meeting, it’s evident their status at the Academy was high.
“When did you come?”
Oliver asked with a smile on seeing Chris.
“Just now”
Chris said offhandedly and took a seat.
“Why is he here?”
An instructor said while pointing at the Grey.
Grey looked at Chris before replying.
“I don’t know the place where the students reside”
The instructor looked at Chris before saying towards another instructor.
“Take him to where the students reside”
The instructor took Grey out of the building and directed him towards where the students were.
“What were you saying?”
Chris asked after Grey had been taken out.
“It’s about to open”
Oliver said in a solemn voice.
“You mean, that place?”
Chris asked with a startled look
“Yes, it has already been over a hundred years now. So it isn’t surprising it’s about to open”
Oliver said after some thoughts. He looked at the instructors in the building before continuing.
“Some of you already have an idea about what I’m talking about. Every hundred years, a land of trial opens up just at the border of the Magical Beasts Forest”
He paused and waited for the few people who were just hearing this for the first time to digest the information before continuing.
“It was first discovered by the Stellar empire, but we were able to catch wind of it. Just like how we have spies there, so do the other empires. The emperors…”
Oliver calmly told them about the history of the land of trial.
Nine hundred years ago, a strange array suddenly appeared on the border of the Magical Beasts Forest. It was discovered by an Elementalist from the Stellar empire, and he reported it to the higher-ups. On reaching there, they saw the most complicated array they had ever seen.
Since they had knowledge of arrays, they tried to power it up and see what it was used for. It took them several tries before they were able to power it up.
A portal twenty-five meters wide suddenly opened up. They tried entering the place but were rejected, after multiple attempts, someone was finally able to enter. The others all tried again but failed, only after the third person enter did they find out the pattern. Only those below twenty years of age could enter.
The people who entered came out after some time and told the others what they saw. From what the first set of people said, it was a very large place which was just like the outside world, they saw some debilitated buildings which clearly showed the place used to be occupied.
Not all the people who entered returned though, some of them were killed by magical beasts that resided in the place. Some came out with rare treasures.
After sending in more people, they found out the place was occupied by a faction called True Dawn. They had never heard of this faction, nor was there any records of them in their history books.
The Stellar empire was only able to hide it for three weeks before the information leaked to the other empires’ upper echelons. This was a place that could greatly boost the strength of an empire, if one of the empires were to have full rights of it, it would be a catastrophe for the others since it would only take at most ten years before they completely surpass them.
The empires finally came to an agreement to each send in one hundred geniuses into the place for training. They didn’t care what happens inside, but as long as one hundred of their geniuses went it, at least forty or fifty should be able to make it out.
But the results of the first trial stunned them all, the portal only stayed open for six months before it started flickering, clearly a sign that it was about to close up. Only twenty percent of people who entered managed to come out in time. The loss of people wasn’t what shocked them the most, it was the fact that of all the people who escaped, more than eighty percent of them were at the Mid-stages of the Origin Plane.
When they all entered, none of them was at the Origin Plane. But now, within six months, more than fifty people were able to not only breakthrough into the Origin Plane, but they also reached the Mid-stages.
They monitored the place for over ten years but nothing showed up. It was like the array never appeared in the first place. Only after one hundred years did it appear once again. After it appeared, the empires sent in one hundred geniuses each and strongly reminded them to come out once it’s getting close to six months.
Only after three hundred years were they able to confirm that it appeared at a particular time every one hundred years. They have still not been able to fully explore the place even after so long already.
After Oliver was done with the explanation, he added solemnly.
“This should not go out of this place. The empire keeps this information under strict orders, anyone found dessiminating it would be executed immediately”
They all nodded before they spoke about other important things.
***************
Klaus and the others were still speaking when Grey suddenly walked in.
Alice was the first to notice him before Klaus and Reynolds turned towards him.
On seeing Grey, Klaus jumped towards his friend with a sad face.
“Bro, I’ve been so lonely without you”
Grey’s mouth twitched when he heard this and immediately kicked Klaus away.
“Although I don’t have a girlfriend, I’m not into boys”
He glared at Klaus after saying this before seating beside Reynolds.
Klaus stood up immediately and complained
“Bro, you’ve become so cold-hearted. My heart is broken and this is how you treat me?”
Grey looked at Klaus with a puzzled look.
On seeing Grey’s look, Reynolds burst into laughter before explaining
“Leanne broke up with him just before we came over to the Capital”
Grey was surprised when he heard this
“Oh! This is new, Klaus was always the one who broke up with his girlfriends”
He looked at Klaus with pitying eyes before adding
“Now you know how it feels when you break up with them, right?”
Klaus almost started crying, this was the longest he had been in a relationship, he really felt maybe she was the one. But she unexpectedly broke up with him.
He sighed when he thought of all the times they spent together
“Maybe it was just not meant to be”
The group burst into laughter when Klaus made this statement.
Grey was finally able to cheer up Klaus before the end of the day.
The day soon ended.
After waking up the next day, Grey looked out the window.
“The day of the competition is finally here”