[Welcome, Wrik Everknight to the summoning room.]

The moment Wrik opened his eyes he found he was in some unknown location—it looked like some kind of weird white room to him. The thing that relieved him was that he was not alone. There are about a few dozen figures around him, sitting in their seats. The room was still. No one was causing any disturbance or anything.

He looked around to see if Anton was there or not. After browsing for a bit he shook his head. It appeared that there's over one summoning site. He took a seat in the middle section of the room and noticed a timer in front—32.54. It was projected in the very air, like when he had seen when he tore off the ticket.

Without much to do, he examined the place he was in. This place was air sealed, but the atmosphere here was rather fresh. No, fresh was not enough to describe it, it's more like the very air was ethereal. He felt like a fish in water. Apart from that, there were a few dozen folks dressed in distinctive types of dresses and weapons. Few of them looked dangerous, few looked rather calm, while some looked over-excited. Nobody took the care to greet him, and he didn't try to talk to anyone either.

A few more people arrived over time. There were fifty seats present on the site, above forty were already filled, so all the fellas should arrive before the timer ran out.

"Buahh . . ." the sound of someone vomiting came to his ear. Wrik looked around to notice a young man of his age, though looked a bit on the delicate side. He looked rather pale, dressed in neat black clothes. He apologised to the crowds to take a seat quite close to him. Then another person came. Wrik glanced again to notice a slender silhouette of a young woman, a few metres away from him. The moment he saw that girl, the last words she said to him—rang in his mind: 'I'll be at that bench beneath the willow tree in the afternoon, tomorrow.'

It's the emerald-eyed girl he encountered a couple of times in the last two days.

'Crap!' Wrik cursed inwardly. He totally forgot about her. With all the other things, and even if he didn't forget it, he wouldn't be able to visit her yesterday. At that time he was on the train—returning from his Pantia.

She dressed in black all over her body. The gown looked rather bland, yet expensive. Other than that, she had a cap on her head. As Wrik was checking on her, she noticed his gaze.

Wrik was just about to greet her when he heard someones' voice. A loud voice at that.

"Alright, everyone should be here, let's get started then."

As Wrik was drawn to the voice, glanced towards where it was coming from. A man over two metres tall with broad shoulders, he was brown-skinned with black hair, dressed in some unique uniform. There's nothing to note of his exterior apart from being a bit stiff. There was a small symbol of a tower on the left chest of the man. But the most astonishing part to Wrik was when or how the huge man arrived here.

"First, let me introduce myself. I am your guide for the Trial," the broad-shouldered man laughed out, seeing the astonished gaze from the fellows. He seemed to enjoy the attention he was getting. "We're allocated two hours for the rest of the process. It should be more than enough time for the explanation."

The last statement was like the man was assessing it himself.

Wrik peeked at the corner of his eyes towards the emerald-eyed girl. He noticed she had taken a seat near the last guy who just vomited. They were quite close by, without much thinking he returned to what the large man was speaking of.

"When the time is up, you all will be dropped to an unknown place," the man who proclaimed himself as the guide laughed while saying that, but then continued in a slow and stern tone. "I'll only explain this once, so listen carefully, cause your life may depend on it."

The words made everyone silent. They looked at the guide with anxiety in their eyes, waiting for him to continue.

"First let me tell you, what types of advantages will be given before the trial, food and water and basic emergency tools—medicine, first-aid will be given to everyone. There is no partiality in this."As he said this, the broad-shouldered man waved his hand in the air a few times and dozens of bags were flown towards everyone present here. "The sustenance and water would last about two days, while the medicine—it depends on how beat up you will be."

Wrik checked the bag and found four bottles of water, each holding a little over a litre—it's barely enough for two days. Apart from that, there's a good amount of dry rations—bread, meat and dry veggies. Apart from that, there were antiseptics, aspirin, a few other creams with gauze, bandages, and other necessary tools in the medicine section.

"As for weapons, you can choose yourself; you can choose only one, so choose wisely." The voice of the guide came to his ears.

A blue transulent screen appeared in front of Wrik. He looked at the screen. There were many weapons of different kinds and lengths present there. He browsed all to the end of the scroll; there's everything from the one-handed swords to a bow, spear, hammer, halberd, pike or a rather magical weapon—wand, staff, shaft; there were even firearms. Wrik looked at the section of the firearms, pondering for a good minute to shake his head. The firearms were limited with low numbers of bullets and ammunition. After scrolling a bit he chose a long sword with a length over 1.2meters and a width of 5cm. Playing with your strength was in his mind. Though the last time he practised swords was months ago, Anton did most of the fieldwork before this. But Wrik should have a few of his reflexes in his muscle memory.

A sheathed sword of the same length and design appeared in the same way the emergency kit arrived before. Wrik found it had good weight in his hand, it had been months since he had picked up a sword, but it didn't feel foreign in his arm. He only felt an excitement, a pure thrill he felt when he first picked up a sword.

He peeked towards the fair girl while wearing the strap and stealth in his back; she chose a small staff about half a metre in length, while the vomiting guy next to her chose a sword similar to him.

"Everyone should have selected their weapon by now, then let's talk about the purpose of this trial." The guide stopped for a bit after saying that. Looking at everyone's complexions, he continued, "There is only one purpose for you all: STAYING ALIVE. Everything comes after you're alive. Am I clear?"

It was like the very air became still after that. Everyone, including Wrik, nodded. Some of the exteriors of the fellows became solemn hearing that. And yet, the Guide laughed, he was enjoying this pretty well.

_____________________________

END OF CHAPTER SIX: THE DEPARTURE.

NEXT CHAPTER THE AWAKENING.

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