As much as Dante wanted to stay here, and as much as Beatrice wanted him to stay, he had to leave eventually. No banquet can last forever, and they both had tasks to achieve.
Still, knowing that they now had each other to rely on and fall back on in this cold universe, they were doubly motivated and felt endless strength surging into them.
Dante chose to enter the True Martial World immediately. As Beatrice said, his pursuit of Supercoins was a waste of time right now. He would not be able to earn enough to give him sufficient time in the Black Land to increase his superpower.
As such, it was just better to wait for the remaining 28 days to pass until he could enter the Black Land again. Right now, it was best to maximize his time in this world, so the Rising Star World was resolutely abandoned by him.
In the future, when he was more free or there was a necessary purpose, he could play with it.
Upon descent, Dante entered a sort of black void. Various screens appeared before him, asking him to choose his background and city along with a wide map of the world.
Dante was shocked at how nonsensically large this world was. There were seven continents with crisscrossing lines in each of them, demarcating a certain territory belonging to a kingdom, beast clan, or demon race faction.
Dante was silent for a while before deciding to choose the background of an orphaned scholar who wished to learn martial arts to change his fate. He also chose to descend into Green Wind City of Green Feather Province, which was a state within the territory of the relatively small Great Song Kingdom.
After choosing his parameters, Dante felt his mind fall and then land into a body. When he came to, he was standing in a large courtyard with hundreds of other males and females of all ages around him, who were either white-skinned, yellow-skinned, dark-skinned, old, young, tall, short, buff, or skinny.
Before them was a large table where a row of ten muscular and burly men of diverse backgrounds sat, all of them wearing tight red and black gi as they glanced at the people in the courtyard with looks of disdain in their eyes.
The people in the courtyard were either nervous, scared, or confident. Dante scanned around idly and was not very impressed with the lineup, as he could tell that no one here had the same SDI as himself on the outside.
Speaking of SDI, he decided to check his in this world.
"Player Name: Dante
Player Race: Human
Faction: None
Internal Arts: None
External Arts: None
Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 1
Constitution: 1
Vitality: 1
Money: 0 copper coins, 0 silver taels, 0 gold bars."
As expected. Shared worlds forcibly limited one's SDI to 1 point in everything to balance things. If one had the means to raise it again, they were free to do so, but until then, they couldn't exactly blame the world for putting them back at the starting line.
This was fine with Dante since he didn't plan to use his virtual body to do anything. However, he didn't immediately descend with his true body as well, wanting to make sure that everything was truly okay.
If his head got cut off by some superpowered being, that was it, game over with no chance of respawn. His budding relationship with Beatrice would come to an end, and she wouldn't even be able to get revenge because she'd just be killing a virtual being.
As such, he remained in the crowd while the men in the seats before them watched them. Eventually, the one in the middle, who was bald and extremely buff, spoke in a gruff yet powerful voice.
"Welcome to the annual recruitment of my Supreme Martial Hall! My name is Hao Donglei, and I am the Vice Hall Master! I will be in charge of overseeing this recruitment process."
The crowd began to speak in hushed tones with excitement and shock. It seemed that the name Hao Donglei had some meaning and fame to them, and Dante could identify slight fear in the eyes of some.
"Silence! The Vice Hall Master will not deal with you directly. I am the Hall Elder in charge of administration, Jun Feng. All of you, form lines in front of each deacon beside me on the left and right, then undergo the entrance test!" A slightly lean and white-skinned fellow seated beside Hao Donglei roared with a commanding tone, shutting up the crowd.
"Err, sir… what are the details of the entrance test?" A silly-looking man asked with a disarming smile.
The eyes of Jun Feng landed on him, but he did not shout. Rather he explained softly. "The requirements are simple. You must have a requisite level of martial talent to be admitted. There are outer disciples, inner disciples, and core disciples."
"Only inner and core disciples learn for free. Outer disciples pay a monthly tuition fee after the first 3 months and then have to gather their own resources themselves."
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm Hearing this, everyone immediately became jittery and unsure. Even those who were confident became a little nervous, as they were only sure of their talent themselves, but what if it was not up to the standard for the Supreme Martial Hall?
One should know, this was the number 1 martial arts institution in the entire Green Wind City. In the entire kingdom, they had branches in many top cities and were ranked in the top 5 across the entire territory.
Even if they were outer disciples, their backing and ability would soar to the heavens, and they would become like nobles within the city, able to offend everyone and anyone without fear and retribution.
Thinking like this, the crowd quietly formed lines in front of various deacons who were closer to them. Dante also joined the line and quietly watched the testing process as it went on in front of him.
It seemed that when a person went up, they would report their name and age, then the deacon would use his fingers to massage their hand. After that, they would fire a ball of reddish liquid which would strike the candidates' chest and enter their body.
Finally, they would place their hands on a crystal gem that was clear and flawless. When they did so, it would light up with a red color of different intensity. The darker it was, the brighter the smile on the deacon's face, and the higher their assessment it seemed.
Of course, the crystal becoming dark red was extremely rare. From all sides of the line, Dante kept hearing 'eliminated!' over and over again, along with begging from candidates who did not want to accept their fate.
They would then be carried out by disciples of the hall who were standing to the side while watching them like hawks, waiting for them to cause some trouble.
Dante observed all of them and saw that everyone in his line before him had easily and totally failed. Only the person right before him was qualified to become an outer disciple. Even then, he rejoiced like he had won the lottery, and the disciples by the side changed their attitude towards him, going from hostile to friendly.
Next was Dante. He sucked in a deep breath and took a step forward, descending with his real body the moment he did. Due to
the fact that switching in and out did not cause any phenomena or changes, no one noticed it.
However, that was what Dante thought, until the face of Hao Donglei changed greatly. His eyes landed on Dante, making him glance over with a calm expression.
"Young man, please come this way. We won't be able to gauge your true talent," Hao Donglei said slowly.
Dante glanced at the stunned deacon before him who had been waiting for him to report his name and age, then resolutely left him and walked in front of the Vice Hall Master. Both men sized each other up, one young and one old.
Hao Donglei then smiled. "Name and age."
"Dante, 21 years old."
Hao Donglei's breath caught in his throat, but he slowly exhaled and nodded. Dante obediently stretched his arm out, and Hao Donglei grasped it firmly, massaging Dante's palm and wrist area slowly.
His expression became more solemn as he went on. Dante didn't feel any pain or discomfort, as if his hand was like jelly in this guy's grip. After that, Hao Donglei fired a blood-colored light at him that was the size of a basketball, more than a hundred times bigger than what the others got.
When it hit Dante, it easily entered his body and made his blood circulate faster. His already thunderous heart which had been suppressed to reduce his energy corruption was like a wild horse that had been released, galloping wantonly.
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