Avon and Zia looked at others standing there, many people had come in groups and were discussing plans together. Avon noticed that two people were gaining a lot of attention.
One was a man with long silky gray hair and a clean face. He was surrounded by many women.
Another was a woman with green hair and a very beautiful face. She was surrounded by many too. Both of them seemed to be enjoying the popularity of rather it seemed that they were habituated to it.
"The woman with green hair is Lady Kira. She is from a wealthy noble family. Those people are trying to be on her good side and curry favors with her. The man with gray hair over there is Sarung. He is also from a wealthy family. Be careful around them as these heirs of wealthy families can be very arrogant and rude. They have a strong influence so going against them is not a good action. "
Zia told Avon and he listened carefully. They strolled around looking at other participants. Some looked weak and poor, others looked a little aged. Some were nervous and others didn't even care.
Soon it was time for the test to begin. Everyone was asked to stand before a huge gate which directly lead to the forest. The gate was opened and they were given a wristband. The moment a person crossed the starting point the hand began a reverse countdown. Everyone went in one by one and began looking for the direction markers.
The marks were on trees painted red. Everyone was rushing because time was running out but they had no idea how much distance they had to cover.
"Kyaa!!" They heard a scream from ahead. Then they heard more screams
"Traps! There are traps set!" Someone said.
"Wait , I know these, they will render you immovable for 5 minutes." Someone else said.
" Oh I know how to identify these, they look like huge black rocks imbedded in the ground. These are usually use for ambushes." Another said.
"Now how do I know which one is a rock and which one is a trap device?"
"You simply avoid both, idiot"
Conversations began. Avon and Zia simply continued running avoiding all rocks in their way.
The deeper the went the more dense it got. The traps were difficult to spot and the huge roots were making the footing extremely uneven. Avon and Zia helped each other out over the difficult parts.
The time still had three hours left after an hour since the beginning.
They continued following the markings for a long time. They weren't encountering any animals along the way.
"You have good stamina little brother."
Zia said as they were running through the forest.
"I could say the same about you"
The crowd had significantly thinned out after two hours. People were getting tired. Avon saw many people who has sprinted hard in the beginning walking now because they couldn't run for so long.
Avon and Zia maintained a constant speed since the beginning because they didn't know about the distance.
Finally when only an hour was left, they could see the finish line in the distance. A man was standing there and stopped both of them from crossing the finish line.
"You two will wait here, my brother must cross before the count is past hundred. Already ninety people made it across."
Avon and Zia found it very rude.
"If you want your brother to be in top hundred then he should be running fast, don't block us."
Zia said in protest.
Avon was thinking,
'who does he think he is to tell others what to do.'
Avon then told the man,
"What does your brother look like?"
"He is little short and has silver hair. He is wearing a blue robe."
"Ah, yeah yeah I saw him while coming, he is very close, look I can see him in the distance, there!"
Avon said pointing at the track.
Zia was confused because they never came across someone like that on the way, they were probably always ahead of the man's brother.
The man took a few steps forward squinting his eyes trying spot his brother,
That's when Avon grabbed Zia's hand and causally walked past him and crossed the finish line.
The man couldn't believe what just happened. Zia was surprised too, then a chuckle escaped her mouth.
"Little brother that was smart"
Avon chuckled too .
The man couldn't just let this slide,
"You-how dare you, do even know who I am?"
Avon looked at him for a moment and said,
"Hm...do I look like I know who you are?"
"I am from the Gong family, we are part of the Dong faction! How dare you trick me!"
While he was saying all that a woman ran across the finish line, then the man realised that he still had to stop other people from crossing.
"I will deal with you later!"
Saying so he turned towards the other side and continued stopping the people approaching. Avon and Zia didn't stay there and returned their wristbands and got their timings recorded.
Avon was at the ninety first place and Zia at ninety second.
After another hour a list of qualified people was pasted on the board. A total of 457 people had qualified.
The next test was after two more hours. Everyone was given time to recover till then.
The man who had stopped Avon and Zia at the finish line was walking towards the exit dejected along with the people who had failed the first round.
"Hey Gong! Why are you leaving?" Avon asked out of curiosity.
"I didn't cross the line in time"
"But you were there before us..wait don't tell me-"
A wide smile spread across Avon 's face as he realised,"-waiting for your brother you actually forgot to cross the line in time!"
Avon tried to suppress his laughter. The man was so dejected he didn't even show any hostility towards Avon and left quietly.
"I didn't know there were such idiots here"
Avon said with the smile still on his face,
"Idiots are everywhere little brother."
Zia answered.
They glanced at the remaining participants, the heirs and heiresses of the wealthy and noble families had all qualified. Even some people who looked weak were present.
Next was endurance test.
Everyone was assigned a spot to stand in. Then first the temperature dropped extremely fast. The cold was reaching Avon's bones. It reminded him of Reveria's training. Next the temperature rose quickly and it became very hot soon . Many people jumped out of their assigned places to escape the extreme temperatures were disqualified.
Finally the temperature was back to normal. Then the air around him began vibrating. The vibrations became stronger and stronger and he could feel them in his bones. His bones and other parts pained because of the vibrations. He closed him eyes and tried to bear it. It was getting more difficult with each passing second. He felt that his body would break apart because of these vibrations.
Fortunately the vibrations died down. He could still feel his body shivering. Lastly, the sect elder came and began beating everyone with a stick one by one. He didn't hit hard but because of the weakened state of everyone's bodies, it was enough to knock many out.
Not Avon though, he beared through it with his teeth gritted. This pain was still very little compared to when the protector of Ferona had hit him.
After the test he saw that Zia had managed to qualify too.
"Little brother, I am glad you qualified. Now it is easy for us to get selected."
Avon didn't understand,
"Isn't the third one a tournament with only hundred getting selected, how will it be easy?"
"Little brother, see how many passed this round, only 110 participants. If you do better than just 10 people you are selected. Is that not easy?"
Avon looked around and saw that the numbers had really decreased. He had gotten combat experience because of the raid. Ofcourse one on one fights would be different but he was sure he could manage.
Everyone was tired after the second round so they were given a pill to regain their energy.
The leaderboard was presented again and Avon was promoted to 88th position while Zia to 62nd.
The tournament would be held with consecutive numbers fighting each other. Avon had to fight number 87, while Zia 61.