Day Two

“Hey, Leah, there’s someone in the bed next to us,” A boy’s voice woke Wei first thing in the morning. In truth, he had only gotten a few hour of sleep, since he arrived in the tower in the dead of night.

”Hm, looks like a boy, do you think he will want to join our team? We only need one more for the next trial.”

”Could be, and with you we already have one girl, that’s enough dead weight dragging us down. Another boy would be good.”

”Hey! With my bow, I’m not dead weight, okay! I explained this already. While you boys attack at the front, I will hold them down from behind.”

”Yeah, that’s why we let you in. I’m just saying, no more girls!”

Wei opened his eyes. Even though it was morning, there was no outside light in the second floor of the Arcane Tower, so everything looked roughly the same. Around him, a boy and a girl were peering over from their beds. Nearby, two more beds were occupied, but both of the kids in those beds were still asleep. One was even snoring not so quietly. He seemed to be larger than average for a 12 year old.

Wei looked around hesitantly. He didn’t want to join their team just because they had an opening. It would be better if he could find out whether they had any chance of winning first.

“He will probably want to join. Everyone else’s team is full already. If he doesn’t he might not have any options and get thrown into some random team right before the next stage starts. Let’s ask him when he wakes up.”

At this, Wei decided the boy speaking at least sounded on the kinder side, so he decided to speak up.

”I’m awake,” he said, finally getting their attention. “Um, before I join, don’t you want to know whether I’m good at fighting?”

The boy across from him looked a bit sheepish. He had just been thinking about filling up their roster, not about how good the last member was. The girl smiled though and glance over at Wei.

”Of course! We want to know, what did you find in the first stage?” She asked.

”Hmph, I haven’t decided if I want to join you yet. If I tell you first, and then you end up rejecting me, I’ll be at a serious disadvantage later if we meet as opponents. Shouldn’t you tell me about your abilities first, and then let me choose if I want to share?”

”Ch!” The sheepish boy didn’t know how to respond to this, and the girl blushed. From the side, however, a voice that was slightly deeper than most 12 year olds came.

“Sword technique, and Lightning Ember Cultivation Technique to go with it. According to the judges, only two other kids from the first stage got both,” the boy who spoke was still in bed, but as he spoke he woke up and put his legs down on the ground, yawning steadily. “Look, if you don’t want to tell us what you got, you don’t have to. I don’t really care, your lucky to be on my team already. If you really don’t want to stick around, I wont stop you, we can find someone else.”

”Hahaha,” an even deeper laughing came from the boy who had been snoring previously. As he sat up, Wei saw he had a big belly and a fat face. “Hui, with a team leader like you, we are sure to win!”

”My name is Hui Li,” the boy with the sword style continued. “So, what do you think? Either join or not, its your choice. Although it will be good to have a full team.”

”And I’m Aaron Murphy. I got a cultivation technique, Earth Bearing Circle, but I didn’t get a weapon,” Aaron was the fat boy. An Earth style really seemed to suit him.

”I’m Leah Levi, I found a bow style manual, and I managed to bring a bow with me from the first round.”

Wei looked at the three who had revealed their styles so confidently, and the sheepish boy next to Leah who still hadn’t told him his name, and decided he would take a chance.

”I’m Wei Wang, and I didn’t find anything in the first test. I managed to win on luck alone. If you want to have me still, knowing that I can’t contribute, then I’ll join your team.”

There was a pause, and then Hui Li grinned. “Cool, I like your style. Your in. Come on, Aaron, we should go practice our cultivation techniques together. We need to get ready. These kids don’t have a cultivation technique, so they can’t come with us. We’ll meet up with them later.”

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As the two walked away, the shy boy finally spoke up. “I found a crafting method. Honestly, I’m not sure what good its for right now. Without any materials, I can’t actually make anything yet. However, I managed to grab a dagger from the first trial, and since I’m naturally quiet, I kind of just hid and well, the others weren’t as fast as me.”

This boy was sly. He appeared so shy, but in truth he had probably stabbed his friends in the back in order to win the first round.

“I’m Eliot Fitzpatrick, by the way, nice to meet you,” Eliot actually stuck out his hand as if to shake Wei’s which was quite absurd behavior for two 12 year old boys. Wei looked at his hand, but didn’t have the heart to make fun of his new teammate for this, so he awkwardly took Eliot’s hand and gave it a quick shake.

Leah laughed at this. “So, what do you think the next round will be like?” She asked.

”It’s a tournament, so maybe its just back to the castle to fight each other again?” Eliot replied.

”The judges told me its still possible to find more items. If that’s the case, I don’t think it will be as simple as just a stage. We will probably have to make our way through the trial area first, like last time, and find items as we go. Then, we will meet the other team in the end and have a battle.”

”Wei is right. So does that mean we will have to run from the vicious beasts again?”

The three considered this for a moment, and then Wei had an idea. “Maybe we can even try to kill the beasts this time?”

”No way!” Eliot shot back. “We still only have the most basic weapons and skills. Those beasts were way above our level. Especially me, all I have is a knife. What am I going to do, craft them to death?”

”Eliot, what kind of crafting can you do, anyway?” Leah asked.

”Seems like weapons, from what I can tell. I got one spark, but from what I learned with just one spark, its honestly just some refinement techniques for basic materials. I mean, there are ways to make blades, and ways to make handles, but I don’t even know how to completely make a sword yet. The trial judges told me that I should expect to put at least ten sparks in the cultivation method before I can really craft anything of worth.”

”Hm, ten sparks. Then you’ll need a cultivation method to get those, wont you?” Leah asked.

”I think we all need cultivation methods, at this point,” Wei replied on Eliot’s behalf. “From what the judges told me, it seems like the cultivation is the most important part. Whether you have a combat technique sounded secondary.”

”Ok, then, when we get there, we all have to look for cultivation techniques,” Leah replied. Then she craned her neck and looked over to where Hui Li and Aaron Fitzpatrick were meditating. “What about those two. They already have cultivation methods. What should they look for?”

”Hmm,” Wei responded. “Aaron didn’t find a combat method, so he should look for one. As for Hui, he already found both, so he should guard everyone else and be ready to fight for us. We could probably win with him alone, but we shouldn’t expect him to defend us for no reason. If we get into trouble and we die, we have no one to blame but ourselves.”

”That’s right,” Eliot said. “In this trial, if we die, we will just get replaced, and the people who replace us will probably be stronger than us anyway. Hui didn’t really seem to care whether you joined or not, so maybe that’s what he’s thinking.”

”Probably,” Wei said, “If you let your team fill up with weaklings, and then let them die, in the second ground you can join a team who has proven they are capable of surviving. Either that, or if we actually live without his help, then that proves we are strong without him, which is even better.”

”Wow,” Leah said, “so boys really think like that, huh?”

Wei couldn’t cultivate, so for him, Eliot, and Leah, there wasn’t much else to do besides chat. The day went on like this. Once an hour, a new participant would teleport in and speak to the judges. They were far enough away that Wei couldn’t hear what they said, and since it didn’t concern him, he didn’t try to pay attention.

It was day now, and most of the contestants were up and milling about. When a new participant finished speaking to the judges, they would invariably be poached by one of the teams that still lacked a member. In the morning, a few teams were left so they argued over who would join which team. By early afternoon, however, all of the remaining teams were completely full.

At this point, there were exactly 230 contestants filling the second floor. Over the next ten hours, two more teams of five would be formed, and then the second stage would start.

Around nine at night, all of the contestants started to get anxious, and began to crowd closer and closer to the judges table. Wei Wang, along with Leah Levi, Hui Li, Aaron Murphy, and Eliot Fitzpatrick were among the teams beginning to gather in.

The last person to drop in naturally had their team predetermined, and a ragtag bunch of four 12 year olds who had most recently dropped in stood near by waiting to receive their final member.

As his body materialized in a flash of brilliant light, 48 array formation symbols etched into the ground beneath them began to blaze to light.

”Alright everyone, choose a symbol pattern with your team and stand in the center of it. When exactly five contestants stand in the light, you’ll warp in. Go!”

There was a mad dash to find an array formation. Wei’s team just happened to be standing partially on top of one already, but half another team was also encroaching on there space.

”This one is ours,” Hui Li said assertively, glancing at the three others. “Go find your own.”

They looked at one another and realized quickly they had lost two of the group members somewhere, so they really couldn’t argue about it. Once they had left, Wei and the others shared excited glances as the floor beneath their feet became brighter and brighter, until finally they could see nothing but brilliant white light surrounding them.