In the soft breeze of the afternoon sun stood two figures.
One of them was under the shade of an apple like tree with his eyes closed.
He was a man who looked to be in his middle age, brown hair,short beard with a small scar on the right side of his face.
He wore a fitted leather armor that showed of his physique.
The other was a boy much younger, who looked to be around 14-15 .
he wore a serious expression on his face, with black hair , black eyes that even the sun's rays couldn't light, a blue shirt with a tight trouser which had a black rope tied around his waist,and overall above average face.
Of course this two were none other than Rivor and Zilon.
Zilon stared at Rivor for a few moments as his mind drifted back to their earlier conversation.
*-----------*
"Yes I did" Zilon said with a calm expression as he glanced at Rivor.
"I see that you did...." Rivor folded his arms.
"....but I need to confirm for myself,you can't expect me to believe without proof right?" He stood up and walked out.
Zilon gazed at his back for a while before he also stood up and followed suite.
*----------*
"This brings us to the current situation" Zilon had a weird expression as he kept on looking at Rivor who was just standing, motionless.
Infact he was so still that even the winds that blew away his body.
"If I had to make a guess, then about 15 minutes have passed since we stepped out here" Zilon thought frowning as sweat slowly began accumulating.
"this makes me to wonder....."
Suddenly Rivor's eyes snapped opened and locked onto Zilon's standing figure.
"...How is he really going to confirm my stats"
"Alright Zilon, get ready I am going to be testing your strength" Rivor suddenly spoke up.
He walked forward closing the distance between him and Zilon.
"You said all of your stats, right?"
Zilon glanced at his status window, his dark eyes loosing there blackness slightly.
[ Status–
- **Name:Zilon
- ** Level : 1
- **Race: ???
- **Age: 15
- **STR: 18
- **AGI: 18
- **ACU: 27
- **STA: 26
- **MAG: 62
- **MAN: 72
- **SLP(Soul power): N/A
.
.
.]
Zilon smirked and look up at Rivor tall figure.
He nods his head and Rivor's expression immediately became serious.
He reached out to his waist, Zilon's body tensed as a thought crossed his mind.
However the next second, his mouth opened slightly when he watched Rivor suddenly pulling out something from a white bag, similar to the one he gave him 7 days ago.
"but how didn't I notice that" Zilon felt his heart pounding faster.
To some, this may be a small and insignificant detail,but to Zilon it meant quite a lot.
"Here, put this on" Rivor brought out something from his bag and handed it to him.
Zilon looked at him and then the object.
"its a gauntlet...." Zilon's raised an eyebrow still confused about how this was part of the test.
Still he didn't waste to much time and pushed his hands inside.
He felt a slight shift inside were his hands were resting on the leather inside.
Zilon raised his hands, shocked as to how much it stuck to his hand even though it was quite oversized.
"This is gauntlet is called The gauntlet of burden, it's one of the equipments we use to train new registratance of the military" Rivor began his explanation.
"Well the name already gave it away" Zilon looked back at the gauntlet analyzing all its details.
The iron glove, was about 7 inchs and as wide as an adult fist, it was black in color, exactly how a normal gauntlet should look like.
Still that wasn't the reason why he was observing it, apart from the magic he can sense on it, and the weight of the object which was almost non-existent, the glass that looked like a screen was what interested him the most.
"Is this meant to measure my power" Zilon thought intrigued.
"Now the test is...." Rivor turned and faced the rocks.
"... Gather all your strength and hit that huge rock over there" Rivor pointed and Zilon could only sigh
"So he isn't giving more details...."
He nods his head and walked towards the rock, the sun's rays hitting him with more vigour.
Zilon stood a considerable distance, 6 steps away from the rock.
He took a deep breath and placed his left leg behind.
Leaning his upper body back and resting on that leg, his muscles tensed up as he expanded all the energy.
"That gauntlet....can only be moved by someone who's strenght is higher than 20points, the moment you throw a punch the weight will directly send your hands to the ground" Rivor thought with a serious expression on his face.
"Based on what I know"
Zilon's eyes flashed, the veins on his legs seems to pulse with a sliver light as he channeled energy to his legs.
"Even if he got 10 points extra...."
"AHHHHHHH"
"He won't be able to deliver that punch " Rivor said as his eyes flashed with an unnatural light.
Zilon raised his right leg from the ground, allowing his body to lean more to his left leg.
The gauntlet rested on his left palm as he applied more pressure.
The next second his mind flashed with only one word.
"[Dash]"
From Rivor's view,it looked as if Zilon took a huge step and appeared in front of the rock.
BANG
Not long the small sound of impact reached his ears.
Rivor stared , his eyes widened as he saw Zilon's hand which had struck the rock.
Zilon moved back and shook his arm a bit.
Then he glanced over to the glass but unfortunately it was still the same glass that stared back at him.
"Hmm, so was it for decoration then?" Zilon scratched his head.
Just when he was about to look at Rivor who was approaching , the glass suddenly released a soft blue glow.
The blue glow drew what looked two characters, 4 sub designs of something that surprisingly Zilon couldn't read it.
"Is this the roman figures" Zilon raised an eyebrow with a frown as he stared at he stared at one character that looked like an x with 2 dots.
"Weird..." Zilon looked up and saw Rivor looking at the characters.
His expression was unreadable,but the way he stared at it made Zilon slightly worried.
"Did I ....do it right?"
Rivor stared back at Zilon and smiled slightly.
"Yes you did.."
Zilon was about to jump, his hand was already in the air when he saw the serious expression on him, which made him to freeze in place.
"Get ready for your next test...." Rivor said with a pause as if thinking of something.
"he said I didi it right but he didn't confirm if I passed,huh?" Zilon sighed inwardly.
".....I will be testing your agility next "Rivor walked away and Zilon was finally left alone to pounder on what happened.
Zilon then removed the gauntlet, happy that he didn't have to worry about that weight ever again.
While it may have looked like nothing had happened, in reality there were small details that not everyone will be able to see in those split seconds.
When Zilon channeled Mana to his legs, he immediately felt the weights on the gauntlet, begin to raise.
he knew at that point that his time was limited.
"A short boost won't work, I need something more powerful " Zilon gritted his teeth as he felt his left hand going downward from the weight.
He stomped forward, what was meant to be a small boost, ended with him having to activate a skill of his to boost his trajectory.
His tactic of pushing himself already even before the skill gave him a boost also contributed, with the already accumulated momentum, he was able to actually double the power of his attack.
If it weren't because of his quick thinking and his already planned strategy,even though he didn't really understand how the device worked..... things might not have gone the way he wanted.
"Once again luck was on my side today " Zilon sighed.
"Get over here Zilon!"
"Oh, right " Zilon walked towards Rivor.
When he reached he looked at the Field and was alittle puzzled when he noticed bumps on the ground.
"This is an artificial part of your yard, which we call the Shifting minefields " Rivor folded his hands.
"Basically there are mines around which I planted while you weren't looking, your goal is to manage to navigate this bombs, count out how many you see and finish it as quickly as possible, you only have 1 minute to do this" Rivor then glanced at Zilon who had a horrible expression on his face.
"Now listen carefully,the rules are simple, you can't use magic, and in exchange I will give you a hint, there are some of which explode, try your best to avoid them, because the more you get hit the more weaker you become until you black out" Rivor said.
"You also have to be running and cannot stop until you each the end" he pointed at the end of the area, almost close to the door which had a red X marked on the ground.
"Lastly you can only get hit 3 times, anymore and have automatically failed the test"
Zilon's expression turned grim when he heard that part.
"This is intense " Zilon's heart pounded again.
"Begin when you please " Rivor then walked back to the tree and leaned under the shade.
"Because this isn't going to be something easy" Rivor mumbled then closed his eyes.
Zilon glanced went between the resting Rivor and the Field.
"Things just got tougher " Zilon thought..
he held his chin as he began to analyze his chances.
Then he reviewed what Rivor just said....
"This test was called shifting minefield, which means this traps aren't static,much to my dismay" Zilon thought frowning harder.
"My best bet will be to use it ...."
".... however, the rules implied no use of magic,this also means I can't activate [Chronico eyes]" Zilon tapped his chin.
"Not to mention I can't get hit more than 3 times"
Then with a smirk, a plan slowly formed.
"I still have an advantage.."
Zilon looked ahead with resolve and after calculating everything with his eyes, he took a step forward.
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