Chapter 26: The Bestial Grounds
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Every student in the hall stared at the instructor with mouths agape and widened eyes.
"Today’s class is going to be practical. I’m also going to assess you all based on your performance, so I would advise you to take it very seriously—"
The instructor, whose name was Gerald paused, then he removed a sort of key from his pocket and clicked on it.
Beside him, a shift occurred and a compartment slowly rose from the ground.
Within the compartment laid multiple weapons of different types, ranging from small weapons like daggers to big weapons such as war hammers.
The students’ eyes brightened at the sight of it, most of them whispering excitedly.
"Form a straight line and pick out any weapon of your choice," Instructor Gerald grinned. "You are going to need it.
The students gulped at his choice of words, but excitedly formed a straight line— some of the students even began fighting for spots at the top of the line.
That was because it wasn’t regular weapons that were laid bare for them to carry, but artifacts.
Artifacts were special items either found in dungeons or created by Resonants who had the ability to craft such items.
They were ranked from F-Rank to S-Rank, with the latter being the strongest types of artifacts one could find.
Of course, there were potentially stronger ones, but those were on a different tier on their own.
One by one, the students walked up to the compartment.
They were given the liberty to test the artifacts so they could find a weapon they perfectly suited them best.
Theon and Damon stood as part of the last set of students to walk up to the compartment.
It took close to an hour, but it had finally reached Damon’s turn to climb up and pick out his artifact.
Theon stood behind him and watched him climb up the stage with a calm expression.
’I wonder what weapon he’s going to pick—’
Unlike the other students who tested multiple weapons before picking out what they needed, Damon did none of that.
Instead, his hands reached out for a crimson coloured clawed gauntlet that stood out among the other gauntlets that were laid out.
’I should’ve guessed that he was going to go with such a weapon,’ Theon sighed.
Damon put the gauntlets on, and walked down from the stage.
It was finally Theon’s turn to get his own artifact.
He calmly walked up the stage as well. He could feel multiple stares on his back.
It turned out multiple students wanted to know which artifact Theon would pick.
Theon stood in front of the weapon compartment quietly. ’I trained with multiple weapons in my past life— I could honestly pick any weapon at this point.’
He sighed and reached out for a pair of gauntlets as well.
The moment his hands made contact with it, the system’s golden, semi-transparent panel appeared in front of him.
[Host has made contact with an artifact]
[Name: Crimson Furnace]
[Attribute: Flames]
[Rank: F-Rank]
’Ohhhh!’ Theon’s eyes widened. ’So the system can do this type of things.’
A small smile formed on his face.
’I guess I should take advantage of it.’
He placed his hand on a pair of twin sabers.
[Name: Gale Reavers]
[Attribute: Wind]
[Rank: F-Rank]
Like this, he continuously began to touch multiple weapons and the system kept showing him the name and rank of each of the artifacts.
The students behind him who hadn’t chosen their weapons began to grow impatient with each passing second.
"What the hell is he even doing!? He should just pick one and get it over with!" One student hissed.
"Touching the artifacts won’t give him a better chance of picking a good one."
"He’s just wasting our time."
Instructor Gerald watched Theon with keen eyes, then his eyes narrowed when he noticed Theon’s hand reaching out to a long black katana. ’That weapon...’
[Name: Eclipse Requiem]
[Attribute: Darkness]
[Rank: C-Rank]
Theon’s smile widened. ’The first C-Rank weapon I have seen. I would’ve loved to keep on checking for higher ranks, but let me not get too greedy.’
He picked up the long katana and withdrew it from its sheath, before giving it a few swings.
The blade hissed sharply through the air with each swing, glowing with a dark glint.
"Nice weapon you got there, brat!" Instructor Gerald grinned.
Theon nodded his head and sheathed the sword before walking down the stage and walked over to where Damon stood.
Damon glanced at his weapon for a brief second then looked away and focused on the stage.
Soon, each and every student had finally picked their artifact.
"Good," Instructor Gerald smiled. "Now that you all have picked your artifacts, it’s time we head over to the venue."
The air in the room shifted. Countless runes began to glow a bright blue color all around the room.
The students’ gasped with confused expressions.
"What the hell—" Theon muttered, and then they were all enveloped in a bright blue light, before disappearing a moment later.
The room once filled with students was suddenly empty.
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Theon’s eyes slowly fluttered open, and bright sun rays filled his vision.
It took a few seconds, and his vision adjusted to the brightness, allowing him to fully take in the scene before him.
They were in a forest clearing, surrounded by massive green trees that stretched on endlessly.
’Did we— teleport?’ He pondered, his eyes still scanning the clearing.
He wasn’t going to lie, he had always wanted to know how it felt like to teleport wherever one wanted to.
He thought it would feel amazing— but instead, it was just nauseating.
Multiple students could be seen throwing up whatever breakfast they had eaten this morning.
Theon turned to check on Damon, and quite alright, he looked perfectly fine.
Though the urge to throw up was evident in his facial expression, he still held on quite well.
"Welcome, my dear students," Instructor Gerald’s loud voice echoed. All the students turned to look at their instructor who probably had the largest grin any of them had ever seen.
"Welcome to the Bestial Grounds. The assessment is very simple— in the next hour, I want you all to find and kill ten F-Rank beasts."
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