The day had finally arrived.
Finally, Gravis’ goal was in reach. Did he not chose an elemental lower world just to practice in elemental cultivation? Finally, after all these fights and Heaven’s schemes, Lightning was in Gravis’ reach. Soon, he would take his first true step towards opposing Heaven.
Outside of Body City was a humongous arena, nearly a full kilometer across. The floor of the arena rose nearly five meters above the ground, and there were no seats for an eventual audience. Apparently, the Elemental Guilds didn’t care about onlookers. In the middle of every side of the arena were luxurious white stairs leading to the arena with several guards placed at each one.
Those guards were no ordinary guards judging by their outfits. Instead of wearing the usual armor and weapon of regular guards, they were wearing different colored robes. Some of them wore fiery red colored robes, while others wore robes as blue as the deep sea. Gravis could guess that those guards were not from the city, but probably from the Elemental Guilds.
It was still early in the morning, and not many people had arrived, and Gravis was one of the first participants who came. He walked to one of the stairs, which had four guards and stopped some meters before them. "I am here to register for the entrance exams," he announced.
The guards all smiled at him friendly, which seemed unusual in Gravis’ eyes. Why would guards care about participants? Yet, what Gravis didn’t know was that the guards were instructed to act very friendly. Every participant was a potential new asset to one of their guilds, and a good first impression may push a participant to join their specific guild.
"Welcome!" a guard with earthen-yellow robes walked forward and welcomed Gravis. "First of all, we must test if you are eligible to participate." Then, he pointed at a stone table beside the arena. "Please put your hand on the table. It will verify if you are in the eligible age range," he explained patiently.
"Thank you," Gravis said plainly and walked over to the table. The table was gray and made out of stone, but Gravis could see some signs of a Formation Array. Before the guards could tell him what he should do, Gravis placed his hand on a round stone in the middle of the table.
The table shuddered slightly, but that was not due to Gravis using too much strength, but due to the mechanisms and Formation Arrays doing their work. After some seconds, the table shone in a green light. Gravis retrieved his hand and looked at the guards.
The guards nodded at him. "Alright, next, we need to test if you have tempered skin." A guard in fiery red robes walked forward and unsheathed his sword. "Let me warn you. We don’t have an easy way to verify this, so we are using a basic attack. If you have tempered skin, everything will be fine, but if you don’t, your arm will be severed. Are you ready?" he warned and asked.
Gravis simply lifted his right arm so the guard could strike him, without a comment. The guard readied himself and chopped at Gravis’ arm.
CLANK!
The sword bounced back with cracks in its blade, and the guards looked shocked. They were using quite some strength when testing the participants. Usually, someone with a tempered skin would receive a slight cut, yet the sword bounced when it hit Gravis’ skin and even cracked a little.
Suddenly, the guards all started laughing. "Serves you right for using your own weapon. This is exactly why we have the testing blades," shouted one with a white robe.
The guard in fiery robes could only sigh bitterly. He looked at his sword in dismay. "My Fire Blade," he whimpered in agony. That sword had cost him a lot of money.
Gravis didn’t console him. Stupidity had its price. Maybe the guy could learn something from this experience, so Gravis just looked at the other guards. "So, can I go up now?" he asked.
The others smiled friendly and nodded. "Welcome to the Elemental Guilds’ entrance exams," they all said in unison and made way for him.
’This is a nice procession,’ Gravis thought as he jumped up to the arena, skipping the stairs.
Suddenly, the guards below looked grim. "He jumped the stairs," one said to the others, and they nodded. "He might have tempered muscles," another one said. "Should we revoke his participation? We all know that it is forbidden for people with tempered muscles to sign up for the entrance exam."
Another one shook his head. "That is not our task. We are only here to judge the participants on their age and their skin. If he truly has tempered muscles, the Guild Masters will throw him out. Let’s just continue doing our work," he said. The others agreed and continued doing what they were doing before.
Gravis saw multiple people already standing in the arena. Most of them seemed to be around 16 years old, and they had all gathered in small groups and talked with each other. Gravis ignored them, walked to a corner, and sat down. He had only registered, so he only had to wait now.
Gravis took advantage of the time and started concentrating on his Will-Aura. He released it and tried to shrink the affected space further. His practice in Martial Arts had already finished, and only actual fights could further his mastery in those. Right now, concentrating on his Will-Aura was the only thing he could do.
The other participants looked at the newcomer, but before they could greet him, he had already turned away and sat at a corner. After they saw that, most of them ignored him, but some tried to strike up a conversation with Gravis. Yet, when they got closer to Gravis, they started feeling nervous for no particular reason.
The closer they got, the more the nervousness transformed into fear, and all of them stopped at different distances and retreated. They shot a look at Gravis, not knowing what was happening, but they all started giving Gravis a wide berth and continued talking with each other.
Gravis continued training his Will-Aura, and as time passed, more people gathered at the arena. When the time had reached noon, one half of the arena was packed with around 5,000 youngsters, but strangely, no one stood in the surrounding 30 meters of Gravis. From above, he looked like a lone tree outside of a forest. He was an outsider.
Suddenly, multiple people jumped up to the arena from the furthest side of Body City. They were men and women with ostentatious robes. Their aura, body, and bearing were similar to their elements.
One young-looking woman was small and emanated a friendly, calm aura, like a deep lake. Her robes were, of course, deep blue.
One middle-aged man was over two meters tall with bulging muscles bursting out from the ripped-off sleeves of his earthen-yellow robe.
One younger-looking man had spiky hair, and a long sword hung on his back. With his fiery-red robes, he looked like a volcano ready to burst.
In total, there were seven different people in different colored robes. They all represented their elements and stood beside each other.
"The entrance exam will now begin!" they all shouted in unison, and Gravis opened his eyes.
Motivation and greed for power was burning in his eyes.