Chapter 78 - Magical Beast Forest
The next day...
The group all went over to the arena, Alice was in a good mood, and she laughed more often compared to the previous days. Grey noticed the change but didn't think too much about it since he knew Alice was a cheerful person.
Alice was still reminiscing about the previous night which she enjoyed, she hadn't had this much fun in a long time. Klaus being a great company only made things better, he took her to all the fun places he could think of, and they only returned when it was past midnight. They would have stayed longer if not for the battle she had today.
Her opponent was in the Eighth stage of the Arcane Plane, who she easily defeated and came back hopping to her seat.
Just like the previous day, Klaus ditched Grey and Reynolds and opted to train with Alice. He still didn't know if they still wanted to beat him up, and didn't want to take the risk. Although he was also beaten up like the previous day by Alice, she seemed to have held back compared to yesterday.
After training, they continued their touring of the city. Reynolds could only find comfort in Grey since they were the ones who were left out. But unfortunately, Grey also left Reynolds and headed over to meet up with Chris for his training.
Although Grey wanted to be with his friend, he couldn't reject it when Chris called him since he had been training on his own since they came here. He noticed since the incident, Chris had tried to make sure he improved in his speed in creating the symbol. It felt like he wasn't going to see him for some time.
"Teacher, do you know what this special training is about?"
Grey suddenly asked after finishing his practice.
Chris gazed at the sky before replying,
"You'll know about it anyway, so there's no use in hiding it from you. You will all be going..."
Chris told him some details about the land of trial which was about to open up. He also made sure to tell him not to tell others about it, well, he could tell his friends, but they should keep it to themselves since the empire would execute them if they found out they knew. Well, Grey would be safe, so also would Klaus and Alice. Reynolds however didn't have a more prominent background like the other two, so he might be executed.
Reynolds on the other hand, was always excited whenever he sees the people from the Starlight Academy being beaten.
When it got to the final ten, the Starlight Academy only had one student left. This was a total setback compared to their previous year's triumph. The Lunar Academy had five students in the top ten, this was an amazing record. They completely dominated this year's competition, from now, they would definitely be regarded as the number one Academy among the others.
The competition ended with the Lunar Academy winning it comfortably, with two of their students taking first and second place. This was the first time in the history of the competition that one Academy took first and second place. Alice was ranked fifth overall, the student from the Starlight Academy was able to grab the third spot, just barely.
The result of the competition was announced in the empire and the rewards were given to those in the top ten.
Five days later...
Grey looked at the man who stood before him giving a speech, and was quite moved by the majestic aura radiating from him.
"You all, are the future of the empire"
The man ended the speech with this.
The participants all cheered after the man finished his speech, this was the emperor of the Qilin empire. They never thought they would get the chance to meet the emperor, so seeing him was a pleasant surprise to the seventy-five participants. Well, there are some new faces among the seventy-five participants, but the others didn't really care. It was not like they were the ones changed, right?
When the majority of the crowd heard about the mysterious land of trial, they couldn't help but feel excited. They all knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and they were glad they would be able to participate in it. Now they understood why the quotas were improved previously.
The youths formed different groups and chatted about the new place they were about to head to. They were informed beforehand to come with their weapons if they used any, and some clothes since they would be out for a while.
Grey had finally reunited with his short blades, he was about to step into a dangerous land, going without his blades was impossible for him. He had spent the last five days training mostly with Chris since he would be gone for a while, and he needed to improve the speed at which he created the symbols. Inscription will be very useful for him in a place like that.
A group of men came out and directed the youths towards an open field in the castle. The youths were stupefied by the sight, a bunch of aerial magical beasts gathered in the place, this was going to be their ride.
They all got on the different birds and the birds took off, their destination, the Magical Beast Forest...