Gravis looked at the Guild Master of Lightning. "What is it?" he asked, a little friendlier than with the other Guild Masters.
The Guild Master of Lightning noticed and combed his long beard with his fingers in pleasantness. "The first test of the entrance exams are a test of willpower. We normally use Fire Torture Pills for that. Fire Torture Pills inflict suffering on the user, and the possibility of death is very real with those."
"Just spit it out, already. Your mock-calm is disgusting," said the Guild Master of Darkness from the side to the Guild Master of Lightning.
The Guild Master of Lightning didn’t seem to take the comment to heart. "Would you be fine with using your Heavenly Pressure as a test regarding will?" he asked directly. The other Guild Masters now had a light of recognition in their eyes. After a while, they all nodded to each other. That was a good idea.
Like this, they wouldn’t traumatize some of the participants. On top of that, they wouldn’t need to waste 5,000 pills for a test. That was a lot of money, after all.
Gravis thought this idea was interesting, yet, he wouldn’t do it for free. "I want Bone-Pills," he said directly.
The Guild Master of Lightning smirked. Gravis did not want to take a loss just to please the Guild Masters. This temperament was very much to his liking. "Don’t worry. After the exam, we’ll give you all the Bone-Pills you need to temper your bones," he said with confidence.
Gravis felt relieved. The next step of tempering was secure now. "Alright," said Gravis simply. Then, he walked to the middle of the arena, the participants giving him a wide berth. When he arrived in the middle, he sat down, closed his eyes, and released his Will-Aura.
Participants that were closer to him immediately jumped back, and again, the image of the lonely island appeared. No one else stood in a radius of 30 meters around Gravis.
"Alright," came a shout from the sky. The participants looked over and saw the Guild Masters sitting on some kind of wooden bench on a wooden tower. The wooden tower was around ten meters tall, and all seven Guild Masters needed to squeeze together to fit on the tower bench.
The participants had no idea where that wooden tower bench came from, but apparently, the Guild Masters were prepared for every eventuality. The participants fell quiet and looked at the Guild Masters, waiting for instructions. Yet, the Guild Masters were silent for a while. This only increased the tension the participants felt.
What the participants didn’t know...
"Hammer! You’re taking up nearly half the bench. Try to make yourself a little smaller," whispered the Guild Master of Fire to the Guild Master of Earth with annoyance in his voice.
"Earth does not give," said the Guild Master of Earth. Yet, he had already made himself as small as possible. If he didn’t have a skin as thick as earth itself, one would be able to see his face change color to red. He was just too big.
"Argh, this is infuriating!" whispered the Guild Master of Water, squeezed between Hammer and the Guild Master of Darkness.
Suddenly, they heard a slight giggle coming from the young woman with green flowing hair, the Guild Master of Wind. She showed a playful smile and jumped to Hammer. She landed gracefully on his lap and sat down, smiling playfully. Now, there was more space on the bench.
The participants’ mouths opened wide in surprise. Were the Guild Master of Earth and Wind in a relationship?
No, they were not.
The Guild Master of Earth sat as stiffly as a rock. He didn’t dare to move. Any kind of movement could be interpreted as an advance from him, and he felt really uncomfortable right now. He showed that his title of Guild Master of Earth was not just for show, and perfectly imitated a rock.
The others gloated at him. Serves him right for hogging all that space. The Guild Master of Wind just sat in the Guild Master of Earth’s lap and dangled her feet down playfully from his knees. She looked like a girl, playfully letting her legs dangle from the edge of a cliff.
"Protection disciples, assemble!" shouted the Guild Master of Fire. Suddenly, from every side of the arena, seven people each, shot up the stairs, looking at the wooden tower bench with different gazes. The earth disciples looked with envy and pride at their Guild Master, while the wind disciples laughed slightly.
One courageous earth disciple even showed a covert thumbs-up to his guild master.
’Just wait till I sort you out,’ thought the Guild Master of Earth in frustration.
"Every protection disciple is to get as close as possible to this guy," the Guild Master of Lightning pointed at Gravis. The Guild Masters first, had to test how far their own disciples could go, so they could judge what the cut-off point for the participants would be.
The 28 protection disciples nodded firmly to their Guild Masters and started closing in on Gravis, but when they reached a distance of 30 meters, they started getting nervous for no reason. The closer they got, the more afraid they grew, but they had to follow their Guild Masters’ orders.
When they had reached a distance of 20 meters, their nervousness completely transformed into fear, and cold sweat ran down their bodies. Yet, they all continued and reached the 15-meter mark. By now, their teeth were chattering in terror, and the first person stopped, while the others continued.
Over 50% of the protection disciples couldn’t reach the ten-meter mark, and only two managed to reach the five-meter mark. They were a stalwart disciple of earth and a, normally, calm disciple of water, who looked everything but calm, right now. The disciple of earth was a man, while the disciple of water was a woman.
They both looked at each other with a look of competition in their eyes. This was not the first time they went up against each other. They were some of the geniuses of the Elemental Guilds that had a future in the middle-continent, and their will was exceptional.
Their speed slowed to a crawl as they entered the five-meter distance, and they used all their power to reach Gravis. A look of madness had replaced their looks of competition. It was like Gravis was their goal in life, and they used everything in their power to reach it.
Four meters!
Three meters!
Two meters!
One meter!
With incredible courage, they both opened their hands and reached for Gravis. Gravis opened his eyes suddenly and concentrated his Will-Aura on those two. Before, he had only released his Will-Aura passively in the surroundings.
Their faces whitened, and they jumped back several meters. Their breathing quickened, and they looked at Gravis in terror.
"Don’t touch me," Gravis said evenly and closed his eyes again.
The other protection disciples managed to go further, and the most distant one was at a distance of twelve meters.
"Alright! Everyone, stop!" shouted the Guild Master of Fire. "You can go back to your posts," he said.
The protection disciples felt relieved and quickly ran back down to their posts.
"Participants!" shouted the Guild Master of Lightning, and the participants looked up. "You each have five minutes to get as close to the young man as possible. One hundred participants will go at a time. Now, form some lines!" he ordered.
The participants started running around, forming different lines. After a while, they all settled down again.
"Good! The first hundred can go in," he commanded.
"But, we won’t tell you how far you have to go in order to pass," he said with a sadistic grin.