The first thing Micheal felt conscious again was heat. Not the kind that makes one comfortable, but raw and metallic one, the kind that smelled like burning iron.
He then blinked against the crimson glare. The sky looks like a sea of bleeding clouds, torn open by veins of black lightning. Beneath it sprawled a wasteland of fractured stone, where dust glittered faintly like powdered glass.
He pushed himself upright, his head spinning, and stomach rolling. "Ugh—what the hell…"
The wind howled through skeletal ruins and hollow bones, some as large as buildings. The air shimmered faintly, breathing like it was alive.
[Welcome, Aspirant. You have entered the First Trial: Shackles of Flesh]
[Objective: Reach the Tower of Bone within 7 days]
[Failure Condition: Death]
Micheal froze as the words pulsed inside his skull. Then it faded after a heartbeat, leaving only silence and the slow, rhythmic hum, beneath his skin.
He laughed dryly and cannot help but comment . "Seven days. Hmm...that's generous. I usually only get three to finish some major work before my payday." He joked darkly.
He stood up, brushing off gray dust of his dirty pants, and stared toward the vast horizon. There, somewhere piercing through the crimson haze, stood a colossal tower made of homungous bones from an unknown creature, it's the Tower of Bone. It glowed faintly from within, each pulse matching the vibration in the air.
A faint system window flickered in his vision:
Name: Micheal Arsia Vanne
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant (Shackled)
Path: —
Gift: [????] (Locked)
Abilities: [????], [????]
Techniques: None
Essence Accumulation: 0 / 100
Trial Progress: 0 %
Remarks: The universe watches.
"Cute..." He muttered with forced smile on his face. "It looks like an unpaid internship with high death risk."
Then Micheal look across the wasteland and learned that he wasn't alone. It's an irregular trial, as first trials were usually conducted alone or with few accomplices, most of the time is that, the people that you meet in the trial were going to be your enemy and needs to kill one another.
All across the red plain, people appeared out of thin air, hundreds of them. Some stood dazed, others already started moving.
Men in combat uniforms, women in business suits, students clutching their backpacks standing their in daze like they doesn't believed that they would be sent into this.
A few though, moved differently. Their posture sharp, alert, and purposeful like they trained for this. They body were adorned with countless high tech military equipments and weapons, marching with a bit of unison.
They are Aspirants who had joined the Government Trial Programs before this day came. Micheal had heard news about them. When someone's were chosen by the trial system, they would have a glowing mark on the back of their hands weeks before a Trial to signify they're about to be sent to a new world.
Recruiters would come knocking at their doors offering finest protective equipments the world has to offer, and combat training through professional military veterans or from an Ascender first hand.
But it wasn't out of charity, they need to sign soul contracts to serve the organization afterwards, if they ever survive. They gain many benefits in doing so, but at the cost of some of their freedom.
If they declined, no one knows what would happen to them as most of those people were never been heard from ever again.
So Micheal had kept quiet like a certain few that doesn't want someone to control them. He'd hidden that system mark warnings for so long without notifying others he was a chosen.
If the universe wanted him to die, he wish that he could at least do it without bureaucracy.
Now, seeing those trained ones form squads and wearing flashy equipments, he wondered if that had been a mistake.
Suddenly, a voice were carried across the ruins, it was calm and commanding:
"Immediately form ranks! Gather anything you think are usable, grip your weapons tight or you'll lost it, the same as your life! Keep your heads down and your mouths shut..."
The one shouting was a tall man with a military bearing, it was Jorden. A high ranking military official that become a bit famous for surviving a Rift breach in Manila in the first year the trial appeared. He is one one of the first humans to slay a beast with his own hands.
People from all direction gathered around this group of trained individuals, following around as move as they felt a bit secured seeing them, especially when they felt afraid being transported into this unknown world.
When Jorden noticed that more and more people are following close to them, he stops and find a broken stone slab to stand on.
His eyes scanning the masses and finally spoked. "Everyone, if you want to follow us around then you should follow our rules. First, if you don't want to be lost or split from the group then don't break formation no matter what."
"Second, don't touch anything you don't know, especially glowing ones unless I or other members of my team say so..."
People moved closer to the armoured group, drawn to his voice. The chaotic gathering crowd slowly becomes orderly, squads of frightened civilians huddling close to each other for safety, behind the armoured and trained Aspirant team.
Micheal lingered near the edge of the forming camp, while crouching beside a fallen rib of stone-white bone of some creature.
His gaze followed the forming groups silently, eyes measuring. He'd spent a bit of his life under construction supervisors barking orders and deep inside him he hated this kind of people that treat people like a dog.
This Jorden guy was no different from those construction supervisors in his eyes, just better armed.
Still, he listened to his barking nonsense. Surviving seven days in some apocalyptic wasteland means not standing out.
As they got transported into this world at sunset, they need to camp around as it's not convenient to travel at night and it was also the best time to rest, as well as to feel familiar to this new environment, or so they thought.
...
When the red sun finally sank deep in the sky, the wasteland were masked by a massive shadow of the night. The air cooled down but carried a new sound, a low, wet scratching that came and went with the wind.
Micheal huddled alone near the dying campfire, a long rebar he found around the ruins, clenched in his hands. His muscles ached for a bit and he couldn't relax for a moment, maybe because the fatigue from the long construction work and being transported into this unknown world full of danger that his mind wouldn't settle.
Around him, hundred of pitiful souls also tried to rest to no avail, their fear thick as smoke stop them. The trained Aspirants patrolled the edges of the makeshift camp, their advance armor glinting faintly under the eerie moonlight.
Then out of nowhere, screams of something unknown came.
The screams wasn't human nor anything they have heard before. It started low then slowly rising into a shriek that clawed at the skull. The earth vibrated faintly.
Jorden was on his feet instantly and shouted:
"POSITIONS!"
Then shapes emerged from the eerie fog that started to cover the temporary camp. This creatures of the fog were tall and shuddering. Their skin hung like ribbons, as if stretched too tight, that their bones are showing through like pale armor. Their mouths gaped wide open without lips, while crawling, walking, and others others leapt mysteriously.
This creature all moved wrong.
"Contact with the enemy! Now firing!" A soldier yelled, firing his high caliber rifle. The gun's fire sounds like thunder cracking the air, then silence prevailed from the soldiers location. Then dozens more screams that came out of nowhere appeared.
The monsters poured in from every direction of the mysterious fog. Their claws raked and flesh split, causing commotion and panic.
Because they doesn't expect they that would got trashed by this trial in just single night and their strength aren't enough to fight off the unknown monsters, their guns and explosives doesn't help much in subduing the monsters. The first line broke almost instantly.
Micheal swung the rebar he's gripping tightly out of instinct, smashing into a figure that suddenly lunged at him from the fog.
The impact crunched at the monsters chest, it's body were too soft but at the same time, strong. The creature's jaw hung open by threads, drooling black fluid.
"Growl"
"God—!" Micheal stumbled back, barely dodging another attack from the disturbing monster. Adrenaline continuously course through his entire body, making him high alert and a bit stronger than before.
"Grawl!"
The monsters grawled angrily, as it thinks that this prey is a hard nut to crack. Then it run away, choosing another human to prey as it would be waste of time fighting this human.
...