Alex walked along the arena, taking in the sight. He did not know why people had ran towards the direction of the captains. The least Alex knew was that it was not a first come first serve basis.

While walking, he adjusted his ski cap to make sure none of his white hair showed. The competitors had stopped and were waiting for the exams to start. Julius, who was already on the platform, raised his hand and told all of them to settle down. He explained that it was going to be a series of challenges to prove to the captains their worth. This time, there was going to be a special occasion, two actually.

"The two occasions are that the tenth captain, captain of The Nameless Shadows, is here. " He had said and paused. The crowd was confused, they asked around if anyone knew about The Nameless Shadows. Julius continued, "I will also be taking in an apprentice for personal training before sending him or her to a group. "

The crowd cheered, everyone wanted to be trained by the top knight. Alex felt discouraged, there was no way he would win. They were all to write their name down and weapons used. Alex filled in 'Alex Lee' and 'swords' below his name.

He was given the number '239' to put on his shirt. Alex looked up, he never knew there were captains, he felt strangely inspired to try and at least join one of the groups.

The first task was to use a hand out sword and try to make a slash onto a bamboo pole. Everyone complained that there was no way they could damage a bamboo pole with a stick with no sharp edge. Meanwhile, Alex was just using a stone and trying to sharpen the edge. After several complaints and attempts to cheat, Julius felt that there might not be hope for future knights.

Just as he thought that, he heard a loud gasp. Alex had not only slashed it, but had cut it entirely in half. The place was quiet, Julius was speechless. All those that had completed the challenge had taken their own weapons to make a slash, yet Alex had used the wooden stick.

Alex looked up and asked, "Is that all? "