Several hours passed by in an instant.
The black realm remained silent under the reign of Kai, who lay on the invisible floor without any thoughts to worry about—sound asleep.
However, something seemed wrong.
His brows furrowed tightly, creating deep lines over his forehead while his eyes squeezed shut.
"Mmm..." He grumbled in a low voice while clenching his jaws tightly.
His body twitched as he clearly looked in distress. Almost as if someone or something was plaguing his thoughts.
"Lukas... I h-hope... You will be... Able to e-end... This cycle..."
Within the walls of his mind, a strangely familiar voice echoed softly. It was a voice he had heard repeatedly through his dreams.
Yet, for some reason, he always felt like it was his own words that carried his emotions, his feelings, and most of all, his regret.
Each time he was reminded of those things, he'd feel a pain slowly burning its way through the middle of his chest, as if there was a sharp blade stuck there in a half-impaled state.
Over time, his breathing became rugged. Small, sharp gasps escaped through the slight opening of his mouth.
Cold sweat began to form on his forehead as his breathing suddenly became rapid and more uncoordinated.
"Pr...omise... Me... Luk...as..."
The voice rang once again, creating havoc of thoughts piling upon each other in his mind.
The same phrase began to repeat itself continuously. Each time, its sound grew louder and louder.
Until finally, Kai couldn't hold it in any longer, and with a sharp, deep gasp, sprung up and sat up straight.
His eyes, wide open, frantically stared at his trembling hands while a faint heaving sound still lingered in the air.
It didn't take long for him to figure out that it was nothing but a mere dream, but a sense of familiarity and curiousness remained tugged onto his expressions.
Kai didn't utter a single word about it, although, his mind had already made the decision.
'Nope, I shouldn't be worrying about such a thing at a time like this. Right now, my priority is to survive through these trials while also trying to get a hold of those Rewards while I can.'
His muscles loosened as his body quickly calmed down. His composure had completely changed within a matter of mere seconds as his eyes reflected his calmness.
"System, Start the next trial!" Breaking off the realm-wide silence, he stared into the air anticipating the system's arrival.
---
[Initiating the Second Trial.]
[You will be Teleported to the Next Trial in 5 seconds.]
---
"Aight. You gotta survive this too, Kai Evernox." He said calmly as he clenched his hands together.
Time ticked down and reached zero in no time. Once again, his body began to resonate in a whitish glow, spanning across his body while some tiny particles floated around him.
With an eye-blinding flash of light, his vision had changed once again.
"It doesn't hurt my eyes as much, I guess I'm getting used to it now." He muttered under his breath as he slowly opened his eyes and felt the light fading away from his body.
In front of him were giant fields of grasslands that stretched for as far as the eye could see. The grass blades —long and thin— fluttered through the air as they covered a large amount of ground view.
Rays of light emerged through the tiny gaps in between those grass blades as the sun began to rise into the violet night sky.
He turned his head around for a while, taking everything into his view, memorizing the landscape as if already trying to guess where the safest area would be.
Moments later, as he was done memorizing the rough patterns of the earth, he turned around to do the same for the other side.
But to his surprise, things weren't the same as he had planned.
Behind him, a tall, broad-shouldered man stood with a heavy Broadsword in his hands—stretching way back into the sky.
His hair was short, with a jagged undercut that ran along the sides of his head. His beard was wild and unkempt, almost like a coarse mass of black bristles that clung to his jaw like the remnants of a storm.
His face carried a bright smile, almost as if greeting the man in front of him— Kai.
Kai though, seemed to have been struck down by lightning as soon as he saw another human beside him.
"Oh hey, you done with analyzing and stuff? I guess you're the last one." He said as he extended his arm towards Kai to offer a handshake as a sign of greeting, his voice —firm and calm.
'Last one!? THERE ARE MORE!???' Kai's mind raced as he found out about the existence of more human beings.
Kai was simply shocked by the fact that there were more people in this trial because now, most of his strategies had become useless.
And the fact that there were more people in a trial, meant he had to go through the phase of Teamwork, which he had the least experience of.
Without any delay, he too, extended his arm and shook the hand tightly —only to regret it later.
"Haha! Nice to meet you, man! My name's Damon Cross." Damon chuckled as his lips stretched, forming a bright smile.
"I'm Kai. Kai Evernox. Nice to meet you too." Kai's voice slightly wavered as his hand was basically getting punished under the false name of a handshake.
As they were done with their greetings, Damon turned around.
"Follow me, Kai. Time to meet the others!" Damon seemed rather enthusiastic about the idea of Kai meeting the others.
Kai shook his head in silence as he knew he had no other choices for now and began to follow after him.
As they were walking, a faint light pulsed infront of Kai as another System Window materialized up front.
---
[The Second of the Seven Trials —The Trial of Endurance— has begun.]
---