Valdis, who was the topic of discussion between the two instructors, suddenly appeared in the forest. The first thing he did was scan the area around him. Noticing that he was the only one around, he quickly began moving in the direction of the mountain.
'That instructor's mastery of spatial laws must be extremely profound. He just casually transported fifty people into this forest while separating them in the process. It seems there are no ordinary people in the House Ebonhart,' Valdis thought.
As he ran through the forest, Valdis expanded his senses to the limit, making sure nothing escaped his senses, as the Ebonhart trials were notoriously difficult.
Suddenly, Valdis quickly stopped and propelled himself backwards. As he moved, he quickly summoned his sword and struck towards his right, and almost immediately, a purple viper appeared in the path of the sword. Before the viper could react, the sword tore through its neck cleanly, separating the head from the rest of its body.
Valdis paused and looked at the corpse of the snake. His eyes widened in shock as he took a deep breath.
The Viper he just killed was an Amethyst Corpse Viper. These vipers had little strength, and their lethality lay in their venom. Although Venom didn't kill instantly, it took its time, slowly torturing its victim for about five minutes before finally killing them by liquifying their insides.
He knew that the instructor wouldn't let the venom kill a trainee, but for those few minutes, the individual would wish they were dead. It was now that it fully dawned on him why people absolutely feared this training program.
Valdis thought that the Ebonharts were seen as madmen due to their immense thirst for battle, but it seems that their training methods were even crazier.
"It seems I'll have to tread carefully from now on, as this trial isn't as simple as it seems," Valdis said
After a brief thought, Valdis continued moving.
In another part of the forest, a battle raged on between two combatants. One was the boy with purple hair, and the other was a black leopard that was incredibly fast and agile, but these attributes didn't give it an advantage over its opponent, as he was being pushed back by his spear.
The purple-haired boy was calm, dodging each attack while countering with one of his own. The leopard couldn't touch him, but was heavily injured by the boy.
After a few rounds, the boy put a slight distance between himself and the beast.
"It seems we'll have to end it here as I need to focus on this trial," he said
It was unknown if the leopard understood what he said, but it seemed enraged before swiftly lunging towards him. The person in question didn't behave as though he were the one being attacked, as he stood completely still watching the leopard approach.
The moment the leopard crossed a certain range, he finally moved quickly, thrusting his spear towards the leopard before quickly stepping aside.
The leopard, which had missed its target, landed and was about to turn when it collapsed. And quickly, blood covered the ground.
The boy looked at the corpse of the tier one beast with an indifferent expression. After a while, the boy suddenly spoke.
"Well, you can stop hiding; the show's over," he said while his eyes were still focused on the corpse.
"It seems I can't hide from your senses, Silas." A voice appeared, and a boy with dark hair stepped out from behind a tree.
It was that moment that Silas finally turned to face the newcomer. His eyes held no emotion as he said
"Cassian, what do you want?" Silas asked
"Why are you saying it as though every time I come looking for you, there is some agenda behind it?" Cassian said
But his words did not affect Silas as he continued looking at Cassian with the same indifferent expression.
Cassian, seeing that his words had no effect on Silas he sighed in defeat and said
"Ok, ok, you got me. I came for a very simple reason: the new guy. Who is he?" Cassian asked
Silas looked at him for a brief moment before he said
"No idea." After saying this, he turned to leave without even looking back
Although seeing him leave irritated Cassian, he knew he could do nothing about it, as Silas was the strongest youth in their generation, and although he was ranked second, he clearly knew the gulf that existed between them
"It seems I'll have to find the newcomer myself," Cassian said as he turned to leave
Valdis, who was in another part of the forest, was rushing towards the mountain, slaughtering any beast that crossed his path.
As Valdis got to the final stretch of the journey, he found that the closer you get to the mountain, the more powerful the beast you'll encounter
And currently, he was locked in battle with a giant ape known as the stone ape. This ape was called this due to the rock-like nature of its skin, which made it difficult for weapons to harm it.
But that only applied to normal weapons, as Valdis' sword easily split its skin apart, shocking the beast greatly.
The defense that it had been proud of seemed useless before its current opponent. Realizing this, the ape wanted to put some distance between itself and Valdis before fleeing.
But, unfortunately for it, Valdis had noticed its intent and increased the pressure on the ape. Seeing no way out of this situation, the ape put on a desperate struggle as it charged towards Valdis.
Valdis, throughout the battle, had been calm and calculating, and when the ape charged at him, he didn't retreat but advanced instead. Just as they were about to clash, Valdis moved to the side as his sword flashed past the ape, beheading it instantly.
Valdis, who had been calm and vibrant at the beginning of the trial, looked exhausted. After a short rest, he proceeded forward, but before he could move any further, he heard a blood-curdling scream from a specific direction, which made him halt his steps for a moment, but since he had no interest in investigating what happened, he continued forward.
This hadn't been the first time he had heard such a thing since these trials began. He just knew that whatever had made a trainee scream like that was most likely something extremely powerful, and if he rushed to aid the person, he would only find the beast present when he got there, as the trainee would have been saved by the instructor, leaving behind an enraged beast.
"It seems this trial is a lot harder than I thought," he said before he continued forward.
As he got the got to the end of the forest, just as he was about to celebrate completing the first part of the trial, an aura suddenly appeared, rushing towards him at incredible speed.
Soon, the beast who owed the aura appeared before him, unleashing an incredible amount of bloodlust which would make the minds of most people his break, but Valdis held strong as the bloodlust barely affected him.
The beast was a Titan bear, which was known for their aggressive nature and impressive strength and size.
But what truly shocked Valdis about this beast was that the beast in front of him was on the second tier.
Running into a Titan bear at the peak of the first tier in a forest was considered unfortunate, but running into one at the second tier meant that your luck was atrociously bad.
Seeing him, the bear roared in his direction, making Valdis step back slightly.
Seeing the situation unfold, Valdis immediately cursed whoever came up with the plan of leaving such a beast in a forest full of children at the body refinement realm.
"Now I see why nobody had any good memories concerning the initiate training. This place is hell," Valdis said, looking at the beast, which stared directly at him, looking like it couldn't wait to rip him apart.