016 - The Dark Forest

The map displayed was of the sect and its surrounding area.

It showed the town below, the five peaks and a big block of blacked out area towards the back of the sect.

I had a very bad feeling about this.

“Since all the remaining people here want to take the assessment, I will continue. The blacked out area you see at the back…”

The map expanded to highlight said area. The other parts of the map disappeared and the blacked out area expanded to show exactly what it was, a forest.

“The Dark Forest, as the locals call it, or the Four Golden Hunting grounds, as we call it.”

I wanted to scoff at Jushen’s words. Calling it the Four Golden Hunting Grounds was sugarcoating it.

There was a reason this was called the Dark Forest by the locals, it had existed long before the Four Golden Sect came and built their sect at the entrance of this forest.

It was the outer area of one of the five known forbidden areas called the .

The only reason it is called five "known” is because no one has fully traversed this world completely before. Even though magic has developed this much and they have advanced far beyond what earth had, they still couldn’t match what this world had in store for them.

A lot of the world is unknown and the part that is known is also dangerous.

The one where I am, the human continent, is called . And in Eden, the Weeping forest was one of the most dangerous places to be.

The surrounding forest was dangerous too, there was a reason the locals named it the .

No matter the time of day, the forest would be covered in darkness.

A lot of people were already starting to worry and I could see it in their eyes that they regretted not walking out.

…

We were promptly moved towards the testing area, which was a section of the dark forest prepared specifically for the test.

It was a few square kilometres across and covered completely in darkness. Even with a light, you couldn’t see more than a few metres ahead of you.

All the students had gathered in a clearing just before the entrance of the area, which was guarded by the warriors and wizards of the Four Golden Sect.

We stood in front of a large barbed iron gate. The rusted lock the size of a small child covered in unreadable runes was opened and thrown to the side for today.

Usually it would be locked, but today, for the sole purpose of throwing some children in there, they had kept it open.

How nice of them.

As the students waited, they saw the instructors gather in the front along with the Peak masters and Sect master.

Sect Master Jushen had already explained everything to us before coming here so he wasn’t saying anything now.

Soon, it was time to enter, I could see Roy and Gwen standing behind me, their bodies quivering but their eyes filled with resolve.

Both of them came from the village below, and grew up hearing the scary stories about the forest their entire lives. Now, suddenly they are thrown in the place they only dreamt of in nightmares, of course they would be scared.

I saw Sarah looking straight ahead at the gates. Her body straight and her face as expressionless as always, it’s hard to know what that girl was thinking.

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I mean, considering this test was only for aspirants and since at most they would have us hunt down some Rank 0 monsters, she had no reason to worry as she was a genuine rank 1, unlike me.

Although she was using some kind of magic to hide herself, with my , I could clearly see the faint glowing circular tattoo on her heart that connected itself to the illusionary organ called the magic root, located just in the middle of her chest.

That was the first magic circle.

If I had another day, I probably would’ve made mine too, sadly I didn’t get a chance.

…

We moved towards the gates with slow steps as the peak masters watched us enter from behind.

The objective of this test was simple: hunt down monsters. Rank 0 monsters gave out 5 points, Rank 1 monsters gave out 10 points and Rank 2 monsters gave out 50 points.

A total of 100 points were required to pass.

We all were given small crystals that would detect how many monsters we beat and it would record said points on it automatically.

Even though they called them monsters, they actually were just golems created in Claudia's Mystic Tome Tower. There were also a few weaker monsters roaming around that they didn’t bother to hunt down to give as experience and as the primary food source for the examinees. Mostly at Rank 0 or 1 at most.

I don’t understand why they bothered with the golems. They aren’t like wild monsters that might run or hesitate. They won’t stop. If an aspirant comes across one, they have only two choices, run or fight. And if they fight, they have to win. Losing means death.

They had released hundreds of golems in the forest for the test.

The aspirants, which were around 200-300 before, now had reduced to around seventy, half of which were nobles and sect people, and the other half commoners.

Since the aspirants found that they wouldn’t be fighting actual monsters, some of them sighed in relief, but it was just false hope, they had no idea what was coming for them, and if they underestimated these golems, a lot of them were going to die.

Fighting monsters would be bad, sure, but they were wild animals in the end. You could scare one off if you were in a large group.

But golems, on the other hand, are programmed to kill.

The golems we are supposed to fight are also actually programmed to fight. They know how to work in groups, how to hunt and more importantly they know how to kill.

A lot of these kids were going to die by their hands, that was for sure.

Still, it wasn’t my concern what happened to others, they had chosen to come here all on their own.

It did piss me off however.

Most commoners here weren’t born into wealth or training. No expensive awakenings, no mentors. Just kids who had no power and no future. Until this test gave them a chance to change that.

For them, passing meant survival. And failure… let’s just say death was preferable to going back.

After walking a bit, everyone heard the gates lock behind them as reality finally dawned on where we were.

The commoner kids started shaking and I could see the reluctance in their eyes, but there was no other way now. They moved a bit closer, since most of them were in a similar situation, it wasn’t hard to form a group and soon, a lot of the commoner kids had formed a force of their own that would be moving together for this test.

The nobles’ kids looked at all of this with apathy, their eyes didn’t linger on the lowly commoner kids, they had their own niche groups, and soon they too stood in smaller groups of four to five people.

Although their eyes didn’t show anything but determination, their shaking hands holding their swords betrayed their calm demeanor.

Gwen and Roy chose to stick to me. I thought they would move with the largest commoner group, but they stood next to me instead. I didn’t really mind though.

Still, Gwen couldn’t help but steal a few glances towards the group who was throwing disdainful looks towards not just the two of them, but to me as well.

It didn't bother me even a little bit, but Roy wasn’t like me.

“I-I’m sorry, Anshe, because of us, they are making fun of you too, if you want we’ll go away…”

He spoke softly.

I looked at Gwen and she too had the same ashamed look on her face.

“Don’t worry about it you brats, I don’t really care what they think. If you want to move with me, then move with me, don’t care about what other people think. Do what you want.”

I spoke slowly.

They sighed, relief evident on their faces as they nodded with beaming smiles.

I scanned the clearing, but the little princess was nowhere to be seen. Unlike the others, who hesitated and grouped up, she had walked forward without a second glance. Like she already knew what was waiting ahead.

Although she had gone off on her own, I could clearly see where she went.

I could also see some people looking around for her, but they didn’t voice it out loud. Clearly they had recognized her real identity.

I debated going in the same direction as her, but decided against it as I had my own objectives and the two kids with me as well.

I picked a random direction and had the siblings follow me. And they did so without question.

Seeing as people were separating, the other kids also decided to head out.

Soon no one was left near the gates and the forest succumbed to silence once more.