Arcane Tower Sect Selection Exam

Wei Wang’s household maid gently shook him awake around two am the next night. Sleep was in his eyes, and he didn’t want to crawl out of bed. In fact, he had forgotten all about the selection trial, and crankily turned to go back to sleep, shoving the maid away.

“Young Wang, you have to get up. The selection trial starts in just an hour.”

At first, the words didn’t register. Then, slowly, Wei remembered what his teacher had told him the day before and turned to look at his maid. She was slightly older than Miss Rodriguez, and not nearly as pretty.

Reluctantly, he crawled out of bed and pulled his trousers on, and then put on a shirt and jacket. Even though it had been so hot that day, the night was cool, the air crisp and cold. A bit of fog had already floated into the city from the lake surrounding Golden Bridges City.

As quietly as they could, Wei Wang followed his maid downstairs and out onto the street. They walked through the foggy, cool night air towards the imposing Arcane Tower, whose black ebony and amethyst stones seemed to be a shade of pitch darker than even night itself.

Despite that, the stars could not be seen, the fog being too thick. Around the plaza in front of the Arcane Tower Sect, he and his maid found his teacher and the rest of the students in his class. Across the plaza another class was gathering, and the students, knowing they would soon fight each other inside the grueling trials, could not help but shoot hostile glances at one another.

Miss Rodriguez, for her part, could not wait for this horrifying tragedy to pass. As a child, she too had participated, and the scar on her heart the trial left had never been forgotten. She was not one for battle.

Here the students milled about. Wei found his friends, and they stood around guessing what the trial would be like. After about half an hour, some whirring noises could be heard from inside the first floor of the Arcane Tower, and slowly, one by one, other children were seen ushering out.

Without exception, they hung their heads in shame, their faces ashen, their eyes wide with an expression of horror. They said nothing, and disappeared in various directions into the night.

After 45 minutes, the last of the previous group had ushered out of the pavilion, and a wizened old man wearing emerald green robes with a white beard and a bald head, holding an oak staff as tall as his body, emerged from the Tower.

”Welcome to the Arcane Tower Sect’s selection examination. All of you will fail, therefore I won’t bother going into details on what will happen inside. There are two portals within the first floor of the Tower behind me. Stay with your class. If you try to sneak in the other side, don’t blame me when you die within seconds of the trial starting, and come back here destined to spend the rest of your life as a janitor. If by some chance of luck or fate you pass, which I assure you, will almost certainly not happen, you will remain inside the tower and advance to the next level, where you will be given further directions.”

Slowly, Wei and his classmates filtered into the first floor of the Arcane Tower pavilion. The floor was stone, and the first floor comprised nothing more than a massive, wide open circular space. Stone walls rose all around, and at a height of about 25 feet murals made of shining stars that looked like heavenly constellations adorned the twelve directions.

Across from the entrance, two large stone gateways stood. Swirling thick smoke created a vortex in each. Above each gateway, a singular blue shining like was perched. This blue light was much larger and brighter than the constellations, and seemed to have some meaning.

What meaning it was, however, Wei had no idea. Behind him, the elderly emerald robed man was ushering the children of both classrooms forward not so gently, like a well trained Border Collie whose job was to ensure these two flocks of wild 12 year olds made it into the Arcane Tower Selection test’s trial gateways.

Reluctantly, the children made their way forward until they stood on the very edge of the swirling thick smoke.

“In, in! There’s no use stopping now, might as well take the plunge and get it over with!” The old man was shouting from the back. Naturally, he couldn’t come up and push the first students in himself, because he had to watch the back and make sure no one “escaped”. Therefore, all he could do was uselessly herd them closer and closer, until all of the students started to scrunch up against the precipice of the gateway.

Wei Wang ended up being near the front. Everyone was nervous and scared, especially the girls. He wasn’t at the very front, but at that instant there was one girl in front of her, who despite being pushed forward was timidly trying to hold herself back.

“Well, there’s no use waiting, like the old man said,” Wei suddenly thought, and with that thought stepped past the girl who was first in line and plunged over the edge of the portal.

An icy sensation swept throughout Wei’s body. Thick fog swirled all around him, and he felt like his insides were being stretched and warped, like a kind of candy made of sweet, stretchy material. Instantly he hit the ground, his knees wobbling from the impact.

He stood alone in a dense forest. On the right and the left thick foliage crowded in, so thick it was impossible to consider heading off in either direction. In front of him, however, the trees made way for a long, narrow, and surprisingly straight stretch of open ground. Far, far in the distance was what look liked a castle of some kind, but it was just on the edge of perception and guarded in a hazy fog of its own.

Being the first, Wei had no less than two heartbeats to look around and get an advantage before the girl he had stepped passed thudded into the forest clearing.

She hit the ground far worse off than Wei did, falling to her knees in the dirt.

The next second, three or four more youths plummeted in, all experiencing varying degrees of success in sticking their landing. A steady stream started to trickle in, as they were no doubt pushed forward reluctantly by the old man on the other side of the portal.

Wei looked around. Other than the castle far in the distance and the trees on either side, he didn’t really notice much of anything. Then he turned, and looked towards the back.

Now he stumbled backwards, his feet wobbling below him. In the opposite direction of the castle, far in the distance, black winged beasts were flying, and they were heading straight towards him and his classmates.

”Wei, what is it?” Another boy who had just managed to get his bearings asked as he noticed the expression of horror on Wei’s face.

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Wei could only point at the sky. One by one, all of the other children began to turn their heads to look behind them. One by one, they stumbled backwards in horror.

”Run!” The fat boy suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs, and like that each and every one of them took off running. There wasn’t time to think. It was well known how dangerous this trial was, and those flying beasts didn’t look friendly. Massive talons gleamed in the darkness, and their beaks were sharp like pointed knives.

Wei turned and ran with his friends. In the back of his mind, he wondered what death looked like. He didn’t need to wonder long.

There was a loud “Caw!” Sound that issued from behind the group. As they ran, the very last girl, a timid little girl who always had a ragged teddy bear with her, finally dropped into the clearing far too late.

She had probably been afraid, and finally the old man in emerald robes had to push her in. Almost as soon as she landed, she fell to her knees in the dirt, and the foremost flying beast swooped down.

It’s talon impaled her through the chest. She didn’t even have time to scream. Blood gushed from her chest as the beasts talon protruded through her front from the back, and then she coughed up a mouthful of blood and fell over, limp and dead.

Wei stumbled as he ran, and as he watched the little girl die, he turned his head and shot forward.

“Even if we all die here today, I won’t die with them,” he thought to himself. His legs pumped like iron and he passed some of the fatter boys who had previously been leading the class.

He still wasn’t first though. The beasts continued to caw from behind, but luckily, in some macabre fashion, the first beast had stopped to tear apart the little girls body, and so the other beasts were that much further away.

Now they ran. The forest corridor was long, and there were surprisingly very few distinguishing features about it. The castle far in the distance didn’t seem to draw any closer, no matter how hard they fought forward. The cawing of the beasts slowly edged in, however, giving them no time to think.

Suddenly another sharp shriek issued from the back, followed by a loud scream of pain as a second one of their classmates was killed. This time, Wei didn’t even turn his head to look. He knew every second mattered, and he couldn’t afford to ponder which one of his classmates had been killed.

”Even if we all die, I will make it to that castle!” he thought within his heart, and again his feet pushed forward against the dirt. The boy in front of him was about five feet away, both with each moment Wei fought to draw closer.

Just then, however, the ground beneath the boy in front’s feet gave way, and the boy plummeted out of sight. Wei skidded to a halt, quickly pushing his legs back against his momentum.

There was another scream, and as Wei looked down he saw the boy impaled upon a thick wooden spike that was sticking up like a trap from the hidden cave in the earth. Around him, his class mates were catching up, but instead of sticking around to investigate, they parted like a sea and swept around either side, continuing on in their death race.

Something like a glimmer of fire caught Wei’s eye. Was there a passage beneath the earth? Past the dead body of his classmate?

He turned. The cawing was growing louder. More than two thirds of his classmates had swept past him now. Another boy, this one thin and scrawny, was again impaled before Wei’s eyes by the beak of another beast. Three more were swooping down, and as the rest of his classmates past him, Wei suddenly realized he was the next one up.

Without thinking, he dove. He had no choice. The hole in the ground in front of him was blocking his path, and he had already lost too much momentum to go around it. The beasts were coming in now, cawing violently and killing all around him. How many of his fellow classmates had already died as they ran?

Wei dove into the cavern. In his descent, he narrowly swept past the impaled body of his fellow and hit the dirt, rolling in the dust. It was dark down here, but as Wei landed he turned to look behind him. He starred up at the bright opening just ten feet above, waiting in horror for one of the flying beasts to swoop down and viciously impale him like the others.

A moment past, however, and with one caw after another, all of the remaining beasts swept past in the sky above, continuing their hunt of the rest of Wei’s classmates.

Wei’s breath was heavy. He panted, his chest rising and falling, as if waiting for some sick surprise to come and end his participation in the selection exam. It never came, however, and after a few moments Wei realized he was safe for the moment.

He pulled himself from the ground and looked around to see where he was.

He was underground. Aside from the bright shining light where the trap hole was, the cavern he was in was mostly dark. Beneath the bright opening, the body of his fellow classmate hung on a wooden spear, blood dripping down to the ground where it was collecting into a pool.

His head hung down, but for a brief moment Wei desired to look into his classmate’s dead eyes, to see what death really looked like.

He shook his head. There was no time for such strange thoughts. Death could come for him at any moment, too. There was no way back up, and even if there was Wei wasn’t sure he would want to take it.

Instead he turned, his curiosity suddenly spiking. What was that red like he saw before?

He stumbled through the darkness, holding out his hands in front of his body to find the walls of the cavern passage. The walls were rough dirt, but they felt cool on his hands. After about ten feet, the passage turned, and Wei found himself in a small underground cave.

There was a bit of light here, a softly shimmering red spark of light that was floating in the air, seemingly of its own accord. Beyond the spark there was what looked like an altar of some kind. Behind the altar was a bronze sculpture of a monkey standing in a strange stance, its knees bent and holding both of its arms out straight before it, fists closed.

Cautiously, Wei inched towards the red light. At first, he was timid, afraid that like the flying beasts it would suddenly explode and kill him. He needn’t have feared, however, because the spark simply floated in midair, as if awaiting his touch.

When nothing happened, Wei took another step and reached out his hand. The spark seemed to resonate with him, humming vibrantly as if it suddenly became excited. Then it suddenly dove forward into the palm of his hand and submersed itself inside his body.

Wei felt a strange, excited energy fill his body. His muscles tightened of their own accord, and his heart and belly had a warm, pleasant feeling. As the spark disappeared, there was a grinding noise to the side, and a new passageway opened, light from above flooding into the cavern.

Wei didn’t leave immediately, though. He wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, and he also wanted to look more closely at the monkey statue.

Drawing near, he found a jade tablet on the altar in front of the monkey. Reaching out his hand, he picked it up, and suddenly the energy in his heart leapt out, sped through his arm and down in the tablet. The next moment, four images filled his mind in rapid succession.

”The Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat Techinque.”

In an instant, Wei understood the contents of the manual. It was an incredibly simple combat technique. It had exactly four forms, and only one layer. There was nothing more than that to it. It wasn’t a grand method for gaining immortality or flying through the sky.

The forms were as follows. Horse Stance, Fist Strike, Forearm Block, Hook Kick.

In that instant, it was as if Wei had practiced the jade tablet form 1,000 times. He threw 1,000 punches with both his right and left hand. He stood in the horse stance 1,000 times. He threw 1,000 blocks on right and left. He threw 1,000 hook kicks with each foot.

His muscles tightened even more, his biceps seemed to tense and even grow slightly.

Then the memory faded. That was it. He held the jade tablet in his hands, looking down at it strangely.

First, there was the spark, he thought to himself. Then, it was as if that spark had lit this tablet, and somehow imprinted its contents onto his mind.

But now, it seemed as if the magic of that spark was gone, consumed, and he could no longer read any more information from the tablet. Instead of magical knowledge suddenly instructing him, it was just a dead, green, emerald piece of stone.

Still, he was changed. He knew how to punch, and how to kick, and how to block. It wasn’t much. He wouldn’t be surprised if other kids in his class had already learned that much and more simply by attending some martial arts afterschool program. It was better than nothing, however, and the newfound strength flowing gently through his muscles told Wei that maybe this set of punches and kicks was slightly stronger than anything he could learn in the world outside.

Now, however, it was time to continue the selection test. He tucked the jade tablet into his clothing, and turning to the newly opened passageway, stepped forward into the bright light and began to ascend back to the forest path.