IT WAS ANOTHER SUNNY day at Elania. Wrik opened the door of his room, rubbing his eyes. He was about to look for Kathrin to recall that he had left her at aunts'. He shook his head, then look around to notice Anton was not there as well. It's about seven on the clock, so it's reasonable for him to not be here. Morning walk was one of Anton's daily habits out of all the other good-or-bad habits.
They came back to their apartment at night, yesterday. After all that journey, Wrik didn't bother with anything productive—went straight to bed. Anton did the same as well, thinking tomorrow would be a big day of their life.
Having nothing to do, Wrik went straight to the washroom. Yesterday he was too tired, even for a bath. So now was better than ever to finish what's due.
Even after wasting too much time in the washroom, it didn't take him more than half an hour to clean himself. Anton still hadn't arrived yet. He went over to the couch and found that he was too excited to sit around, it's only a few hours away from the Trial. Yes, it's the day. He didn't have much problem sleeping yesterday, but he felt restless after waking up. He hadn't felt this much anxiety in years.
He stood up from the couch. After browsing for a bit, he brought out the box that held the tickets. After putting in the password, he opened the box, and two tickets and a tiny red ruby greeted him. He hadn't inspected the ruby much, thinking that he had started examining it. But it's a lost cause, Lucas mentioned it needed a Mahasayer to read it. So he had to wait longer to see what Lucas left in it.
Shaking his head, he put it down to lift the ticket—the one with the sword symbol. Apparently, the tickets were not that tricky as the red ruby. It was easy to use it. All you had to do was to bind the ticket with blood, then rip it apart. He didn't know what would happen after that, though. Calming his heart down, he waited for Anton to arrive.
And the person in question arrived when the clock hit ten. He entered holding large bags, which gave an idea why he was late. Wrik helped him in unloading the bags and confirmed—it was the necessary tool for the Trial. Apart from the tools, Anton didn't forget to bring the breakfast, it's the same old bread and butter from Alpstone.
"I'm wasted." Anton exhaled a deep breath, resting his back on the couch. It wasn't easy to carry so much load on oneself—moreover, it seemed he didn't find any wagon to carry it either.
"Well, you could've woken me."
"Well, it doesn't matter anymore," Anton washed away his fatigue instantly and continued with enthusiasm. "Let's eat, time is running out."
"We still got about two full hours." Wrik checked the clock. "I'll arrange the food, while you unpacked the gears." Saying that, he went over to the stove with the food. It didn't take him more than a few minutes for it. While he looked over to see, Anton had unpacked over half the contents. There were two leather suits with legwear and arm guards, belts, straps, and over two dozen knives of distinct lengths.
Wrik started his fast, as Anton joined in a bit later. Wrik gobbled the bread in seconds, looking at the stuff on the couch. It's too late to calm his nerves, and he did nothing to calm it either. All the expectation, anticipation, anxiety that he stacked over the years blotted out.
"Let's get dressed," Anton yelled out, finishing his plate. He almost lunged at the equipment while Wrik left both of the plates at the sink without washing them. He was too excited to wash those dirty dishes now. After making sure the locks and other kinds of stuff, he joined in with Anton.
"There's no firearm?" Wrik asked, looking at the weapons in front of him.
"Apparently, we're not allowed to bring any firearm or large weapons with us," Anton said, putting on the leather armour. "Red said that it's one of their ways to make it fair."
Wrik nodded and started to put on his suit. He found out that it was relatively comfortable than it looked, though heavy he didn't have much problem moving around. After that, the legwear and armguards. He was not used to these though it's not the first time wearing them. It still felt rather foreign and uneasy. It would take a few days to get used to it. Now the things that left were knives. There are about a dozen short ones—the ones used for throwing. While another dozen with medium to large size.
He left Anton the stage for the knives, as Anton was quite good with the knives.
"You should at least take two of each length," Saying that, Anton wore them all over his body. Wrik followed the instructions from his good brother. It's not as if he knew nothing of playing with knives. Wrik may be not as good at it as Anton, still, it's quite handy.
He put two each on both sides of his thigh while the other two lower in the legs. He stretched out around a bit and tried equipping the knives from his thighs as fast as he could. After trying a few times, he gave a satisfactory nod.
"Now, the only thing left is—" Anton said, spinning a knife in his palm.
"The tickets," Wrik completed his sentence, bringing out the tickets from the box while keeping the box with him.
"By the way, how does it work?" Anton asked a rather meaningful question. They know how to use the tickets but how the tickets work was still unknown to them.
"Maybe it would teleport us straight to the trials."
"Well then," Anton brought a short knife with a swagger from his legs and cut a little on his index finger. Wrik did the same, dropping a few drops of blood on the ticket.
"Now." Both of them exchanged glances before nodding.
They tore the ticket apart, yet nothing happened. Wrik looked at Anton again to notice blue lights coming from his hand. Then he saw something in front of him in blue as well. The first that came was some weird scripts before turning into something he understands.
[Triggering of Invitation ticket detected.]
"Ton?" There's no reply. His heart raced, reading the next words.
[ Initiating transportation of the User to the Trial in 10...9.. ]
"Ton?" Wrik looked around to find there's no one.
[2...1...0]
[Transmission successful.]
[Welcome User Wrik Everknight to the Trial of the Maha Tower.]
[You will be granted onetime entry to Sword abode with the Sword command.]
[May the Maha be with you.]
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