{ Trial Grounds – Jungle Perimeter }
Green darkness swallowed everything.
The Tower's final trial had begun. Everyone hit the wild edges where civilization bled into untamed wilderness. Howls echoed through branches. Wings thundered overhead.
No magic. No skills. Just survival.
The jungle was hungry.
---
{ Dante's Landing Zone }
THUD.
The earth cracked under Dante's impact. From the shadows, wolves emerged.
Eight of them. Grey death with yellowed fangs.
They circled him, growling. Dante scratched his head, confused.
"Huh. Big dogs?"
The alpha lunged. Dante's fist moved almost by accident. CRACK. The wolf slammed into a tree.
"Oops! Sorry, doggy!"
The pack attacked as one.
Dante swung his arms around like he was swimming, accidentally demolishing wolves left and right. His backhand sent one flying. His knee connected with another's ribs purely by chance.
"Why are you all so angry?" he asked, genuinely puzzled as claws raked his chest. "I like dogs!"
Nearby climbers pressed against trees, terrified.
"Is he... is he trying to pet them to death?" one whispered.
"Don't get near him!" another hissed, fleeing.
Dante paused, confused wolf still in his grip. He petted it roughly.
"There, there. Good doggy."
The wolf whimpered and went limp.
[VOX Commentary – Bewildered]
"I... what did I just watch? Dante's either a tactical genius or completely brain-dead. I'm genuinely not sure which."
---
{ Lucien's Predicament }
SMACK.
Lucien hit the forest floor with a SMACK, sliding into a thorn bush and dumping into mud.
He lay there blinking, gasping for breath as thorns ripped at his clothes and skin.
"F—fine." He staggered up, slick with dirt and shreds of cloth sagging on his shoulders.
Two newly arrived climbers approached. One snickered, slapping the other's back.
"Look, it's our trial beggar! When'd they let that creep in?"
Another shrugged, eager to find tokens. "He can't be that strong."
Lucien flushed red. Mud clumps flew from his coat.
"I'm not a beggar, you peasants! You're the beggars—your entire families are!"
[VOX Commentary – Amused Tone]
"Ha! Our first comic relief—Lucien by way of mud bath. He's already giving as good as he gets!"
---
{ Elina's Shadow }
Elina's feet barely touched earth before she dissolved into the canopy like morning mist.
High above, perched on a thick branch, she watched the chaos unfold below with calculating eyes. A pack of wolves had cornered a smaller climber—young, terrified, clutching a broken spear.
She pulled out a small notebook and started sketching tactical diagrams.
"Fourteen wolves in the eastern sector. Eight climbers, three injured. Wind from the south..."
She cataloged everything: pack size, wind direction, escape routes, behavioral patterns.
"If I redirect the wolves toward the western group, they'll create enough chaos for me to slip past unnoticed..."
Below, the climber screamed as wolves closed in.
Elina made a note: "Distraction successful. Moving to phase two."
She was already three moves ahead of everyone else.
[VOX Commentary – Impressed]
"While everyone's fighting for their lives, Elina's playing 4D chess. That's either brilliant or terrifying."
---
{ Zayna's Harvest }
The wolves struck the moment Zayna's boots hit ground.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" She backed against a tree, trembling. "I can't do this! I'm not cut out for fighting!"
The wolves sensed weakness and moved closer.
"Please don't hurt me! I'll give you my tokens! I'll—"
The first wolf lunged.
Something clicked.
Her eyes went cold. Dead cold.
"Actually," her voice dropped to a whisper, "you made a mistake."
Her twin blades sang free. SLICE.
The wolf's head rolled.
"Did you really think I was weak?" She laughed, the sound sharp and cruel. "How pathetic."
She carved through the pack like a surgeon, each strike clean, brutal, precise. No wasted motion.
When the last wolf fell, she gasped, scared girl returning.
"Oh no! What did I do?!" Then she noticed other climbers watching and smirked arrogantly. "Of course I won. Did you expect anything less?"
[VOX Commentary – Disturbed]
"That was... unsettling. Zayna just went through two different personalities in thirty seconds. Note to self: avoid eye contact."
---
{ Kaleon's Market }
Kaleon landed amid a cluster of panicked climbers and immediately raised his voice like a carnival barker.
"STEP RIGHT UP! Welcome to Kaleon's Token Emporium! Best prices in the jungle!"
He'd somehow set up a makeshift booth using broken branches.
"Tokens, all your extras—I'll buy them! Ten Tower Gems each!"
He ignored the scoffers and attracted the cautious. Some handed over surplus tokens—wolf kills, scraps from others.
His stack grew. His posture remained calm, calculating, victorious from the start.
Kaleon grinned, pulling out a ledger. "Supply and demand! I supply the gems, you supply the tokens!"
His stack of tokens grew steadily.
[VOX Commentary – Laughing]
"Kaleon's turned a death trial into a shopping experience. That's either genius-level capitalism or complete madness. Possibly both."
---
{ Evara's Hunt }
Evara struck earth like a falling blade.
Three climbers stumbled nearby—disoriented, vulnerable, pathetic.
"How disappointing," she said coldly. "Is this really the best the Tower could find?"
She moved without hesitation.
The first barely had time to speak. "Hey, maybe we can work togeth—"
Her blade was already moving. Clean. Efficient. Final.
"Work together?" She stepped over the body. "I don't work with inferiors."
The second turned at his companion's gurgle, eyes widening—
Her knife was already sliding between his ribs.
The third tried to run. She was faster.
"Three down." She wiped her blade clean. "Several hundred to go."
She looked around for her next targets, smile cold and predatory.
[VOX Commentary – Chilled]
"Evara's not fighting for survival. She's hunting for sport. That's not strategy—that's pure, cold-blooded murder."
---
{ Rokhan's Stand }
Rokhan dropped onto a wide clearing where chaos had already begun.
Several climbers were under attack—packs of wolves darting in and out, drawing blood.
One boy screamed as a wolf latched onto his shoulder. Another fell with claw marks tearing down his back.
Rokhan didn't hesitate.
He charged in like a boulder rolling downhill—
CRACK! His foot slammed into the wolf's ribs, sending it tumbling into a tree.
"Get up!" he barked, grabbing the boy's arm. "You're not dead yet."
Another wolf lunged from the right—
Rokhan spun, caught its jaw with one hand mid-air, and drove his elbow into its throat. The beast gurgled and fell limp.
A few others hesitated—climbers who had weapons but froze in fear.
"Form a circle!" Rokhan roared.
"Anyone who wants to live—fight with me."
Some scrambled to obey. Others took off into the trees.
He didn't blame them.
He raised a long branch like a war club. The wolves regrouped, circling faster now, testing the gaps.
"Don't flinch!" he shouted, eyes sharp. "We stand or we die here."
The wolves pounced again.
He met them head-on.
Wood cracked bones. Knuckles split fur.
One leapt for his throat—he grabbed it mid-air and slammed it into the dirt.
Blood sprayed across his chest, and still, he moved.
By the end, four climbers stood with him—bloody, shaking, but alive.
"Names later," he said, panting. "Let's move. We're heading in."
He didn't wait for thanks.
[VOX Commentary]
"Rokhan didn't just fight—he built an army mid-battle. That's leadership, raw and real. You follow him, or you fall."
---
{ Zephyr's Domain }
The moment Zephyr landed, the jungle stilled.
Wolves, saber-fanged cats, and wild raptors that had been snarling and circling suddenly froze, low growls dying in their throats. Dozens of monsters—all surrounding him—paused like prey sensing death.
Zephyr glanced around, calm.
He didn't flinch.
Didn't reach for a weapon.
Didn't take a fighting stance.
He just sighed.
And that alone… made the predators flinch.
A raptor twitched.
A wolf bared its teeth.
Zephyr moved.
He bent slightly, picked up a jagged stone from the ground, and threw it with a flick of his wrist.
CRACK!
The stone ripped through the air and exploded through a wolf's skull like a cannonball. Blood misted across the grass.
Another monster growled and lunged—
Whud-THUNK!
Another stone. Pierced clean through its eye and embedded into the tree behind it. It slumped, dead before it hit the ground.
Three more tried to surround him.
He took five steps forward—calm, slow—and grabbed more stones without even looking.
Whip—WHIP—WHIP!
One stone shattered a raptor's ribcage.
Another burst a monster's knee sideways.
A third took a leaping predator in the throat, lifting it mid-air before it crashed into the underbrush, dead.
It wasn't just precision.
It was power.
Each stone hit like a war spell.
Monsters howled, turned tail, and ran.
They didn't scatter. They fled.
Climbers hidden in the foliage nearby watched with wide eyes, too afraid to move. One whispered, trembling, "What the hell is he…?"
Zephyr turned, eyes sweeping the treeline, locking eyes with one of them.
"You watching?" he said flatly. "Then remember."
He crushed a final stone in his fist—dust and shards raining from his fingers—and walked into the jungle without looking back.
[VOX Commentary]
"Did he just… kill five beasts with stones?"
"That wasn't a flex. That was a message. Zephyr Karshem doesn't need a weapon—he is the storm."
{ Noah's Rampage }
BOOM.
Noah landed right in the middle of a beast brawl and immediately started laughing.
"Ooh! Ooh! Are we playing?!" He clapped his hands like an excited child. "I love games!"
A massive wolf-thing turned and snarled at him.
Noah's eyes lit up. "You look strong! Let's play fight!"
His fist connected with the creature's skull. CRACK. The beast's eyes rolled back, but Noah was already spinning to the next one.
"This is fun! You're really good at this!" he giggled, getting clawed across the chest. "Ouch! That tickled!"
He grabbed the largest monster and vaulted onto its back like mounting a wild horse.
"YEEHAW!" he bellowed, riding the thrashing beast deeper into the jungle while cackling.
Pain was just another flavor of fun.
"Best day ever!" Noah called out. "Do you guys do this every day?!"
[VOX Commentary – Amazed]
"Noah's turned mortal combat into recess. That's either the most terrifying thing I've ever seen or the most wholesome. I genuinely can't tell."
---
{ Jin seok's Awakening }
Ryu found the tallest tree in sight and climbed with practiced ease. High above the chaos, he settled into a comfortable fork between branches and closed his eyes.
"Aris," he yawned, "how long until this ends?"
> [Aris] You're seriously going to nap here? While everyone else is fighting for their lives?
"Why not? It's peaceful up here." He stretched lazily. "Let them tire themselves out first."
Screams echoed from below. Roars. The sounds of carnage.
"See? Boring."
He was drifting toward sleep when the notification blazed across his vision—bright, insistent, impossible to ignore.
> Legacy System Alert
Objective: Win the Tower's Newbie Trials — Rank 1st
Reward:
• 1,000+ Legacy Points
• 1× Additional Skill Unlock Card
Ryu cracked one eye open.
Below, voices drifted upward. Footsteps. A small group of climbers moving with obvious intent.
Toward his tree.
He sighed dramatically.
"Fine, fine. I guess it's time to do some actual work." He stretched like a lazy cat. "But I'm not happy about it."
> [Aris] Finally taking this seriously?
"Seriously? Aris, please. I'm just mildly less bored now."
[VOX Commentary – Exasperated]
"Ryu Jin-Seok, everyone. Treating a life-or-death trial like an inconvenient alarm clock. The confidence is either inspiring or completely insane."
---
The jungle breathed around them all, ancient and hungry.
The true test was just beginning.
_________________________________________________
{An Original Series by Celestial Raven}