Affinity: Chaos

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.

"Twenty-five spots have already been taken by the Royal Academy, while the remaining seventy-five are taken by the top seventy-five participants in the competition"

Grey was stunned, this was the first time he was hearing about something like this. Seems like the previous people who went in all kept it under wraps. But why were they keeping it a secret anyway? It's not like someone else would take the spot from them, given there were only four empires, and they jointly keep guard of the place to ensure none of the others cheated and placed in more people.

"So that's the reason they increased the number of students, but why didn't the Royal Academy fight for a spot like the others?"

He couldn't help but ask.

"Because they are 'royals'. The twenty-five spot which they took will be given to the youths from the royal family. The empire is actually quite good in this aspect, I heard the Azure empire only gave ten spots to the Academies there, and they took ninety spots"

Chris said with a light smile. Although the current emperor isn't as good as the previous one, it was good he didn't change this rule. But Chris knew some things were going on behind the scenes which he didn't know, but as long as it didn't clash with his interest, he didn't care.

The day ended without much happening, the third round soon ended and the fourth round began. Just like Grey expected, his opponent was someone in the Ninth stage. He battled with all he had, but still couldn't change the expected result, he lost.

The defeat didn't dampen his mood though since it was within his expectations, he was not the only one who was knocked out in this round, both Klaus and Reynolds were also eliminated. Klaus in particular almost had it worse, with his opponent being a student from the Starlight Academy in the Ninth stage of the Arcane Plane.

He made sure to curse him as much as he could before the battle started. The student almost went on a rampage when Klaus told him something in particular, luckily, as soon as the man in charge said 'begin', Klaus immediately jumped off the platform and admitted defeat. Well, he didn't forget to unleash more curses on the guy, which in turn, provoked the guy even more. The guy's eyes literally turned bloodshot from rage, but Klaus didn't care.

Klaus knew since they were no longer on the platform, the guy wouldn't dare to attack him since it will attract a huge punishment on the guy and he on the other hand will most likely come out unscathed.

Grey and Reynolds joined in the fun when Klaus returned, and they all had a good laugh while watching the rest of the competition.

Soon it got to the final twenty in the competition, and Damian was surprisingly still in it. He was lucky not to have met anyone in the Ninth stage, so he was able to advance, only after bringing out his summon that is. When the crowd saw it, they were all stunned as they never expected to see a summoner in the competition.

Of the final twenty, the Lunar Academy had seven left, while the Starlight Academy had only four left. Alice's next battle was against the guy who Klaus met the previous time, she was unexpectedly more violent compared to the previous times she battled and completely whooped him. She even broke one of his arms before he was able to admit defeat.

Klaus got excited when he saw this,

'Hmph! Trying to show your petty strength in front of me, now that you met my sparring partner, you couldn't even do shit'.

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?

Augustus looked at the crowd below him and nodded towards the man by the side to tell them about what they were about to experience.

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...