30 Minutes after Tristan had blitzed off to the next level, leaving his group behind. Tristan ran into a new environment where the desert ended, and a forest began.
"Wow, so this is how big an artificial gate is, then imagine the real gate?" Tristan asked himself as he looked at the change of scenery while he continued running.
Tristan looked back and noticed how far he had gone and wondered if Malachi and the rest would catch up to him.
"I wonder if they can still catch up...… I shouldn't worry about them right now; I should be focused on finding one of the orbs." Tristan said to himself as he stopped in the forest and began to walk.
"I don't know why, but my perception and instincts have become more sharper than before...…. Right now I can tell where most of the traps are being placed...… maybe I shouldn't trigger them so Malachi and the others wouldn't have problems when trying to advance." Tristan said as he carefully walked by the traps, and at the same time, looking for the orb is now about to leave the forest.
Tristan finally searches, and then he finds the orb, but just as he was about to grab it His neck felt a sudden chill, and as immediately he quickly grabs the orb and moves out of the way as a dagger lands where he was standing.
"Looks like you dodged weird, no one could ever escape that attack..... makes me wonder who are you are?" One of the cloaked figures from before said as he walked out of the darkness and picked up his dagger from where it had landed.
"Who is he? Is this part of the exam...wait...Hold on, I couldn't even sense this guy was following me?" Tristan asked as he got ready to fight.
"Or let me rephrase, what are you cause the kind aura you are emitting isn't that of a ghoul," Shadow said as the moonlight illuminated him as he removed his cloak and his dark hair and purple eyes with the ears of an elf could be clearly seen by Tristan. Shadow also looked like a 19-year-old.
"Weird, really weird ...….. for some reason I really can't understand what kind of situation I just got myself into," Tristan says to himself as he silently stares at Shadow.
"Hey, why so spaced out if you don't focus, you'll get killed," Shadow said as he appeared behind Tristan, he pulled out his second dagger and was about to chop off his head, but Tristan reacted just in time before the attack reached his neck.
"He's as fast as me!" Shadow said as he jumped back and held his two daggers in a fighting position.
"I need to concentrate… if not, I might not even leave this gate alive," Tristan said as he regained his balance and quickly observed his opponent.
"You have a very good build. Are you an assassin?" Shadow asked Tristan, and he tried to make conversation.
"Assassin?..... what are you talking about?" Tristan asked as he wondered what shadow was saying."
"You don't know what a job class is, seriously what are they teaching you in this school?"shadow commented as he was disappointed in the fact that Tristan didn't even know what a job class is.
"Sorry, today is my first day in this school, so all we did was introductions." Tristan replied as he looked at Shadow with a serious expression.
"Okay, a job class is like a role you play as an index in general," Shadow said as he sat down on the ground.
"What?" Tristan said as he wondered what shadow was even saying.
"I see you're still confused, well let me explain more on topic..... you see there are different categories of index first we have the 'assassin class' it mostly have To with fighters who lurk in the shadows or use snipers or arrows so in other word's their like assassin's like in the name, secondly there is the Knight class They are class that mostly deal with one on one battles And they mostly use swords or other weapons, Thirdly we have mages they use long range magic to attack and support magic to help their teammates.... Well, there are other classes involved, but I guess they'll teach about that in school, let's have a long talk. Shadow concluded as he used earth magic to hold Tristan in one place.
But immediately, Tristan broke it and dashed toward Shadow as he got ready to punch him, but as the punch landed, Shadow didn't even flinch.
"What a pathetic excuse for an attack," Shadow said as he quickly kicked Tristan's rib, and immediately, a loud crack could be heard from the sound of his left rib breaking.
"Shit.... My ribs," Tristan said to himself as the kick sent him flying into a tree.
And as Tristan tried to stand up shadow appeared by his Side and punched Tristan's already broken rib's and the pain could be seen on Tristan's face as the force of the blow sent him flying toward's the other direction, but before Tristan could land Shadow was already at the other side of where he was about to land and as Tristan got close shadow gave Tristan upper cut and broke his jaw as he flew up high in the sky from the blow's impact.
"Now watch closely, this is how an attack is supposed to feel...…Elven combat style: Star Impact," the shadow said as he jumped high up in the air where Tristan was, and immediately he clenched his hands together and then slammed Tristan's entire body back down. With the speed and force of a falling star, Tristan crashed into the ground and was immediately bleeding everywhere.
"My body...….is about to totally shut down...…in my entire life I never felt so much pain before.....so this was true Strength feels like," Tristan said as Shadow landed down softly and walked up to Tristan as he. Pulled out his dagger.
"Is this really all you can do if it is...Then this is a serious waste of talent if you were my student, I could nurture you to become a strong index....what do you say?"Shadow said as he held his dagger and waited for Tristan's answer, but Tristan couldn't answer as his vocal cords and lungs were smashed, so instead of replying, he raised his middle finger and showed it to Shadow.
"I see, so that's your answer, what a disappointment." And immediately shadow said that he used his dagger and removed Tristan's head.
After some second's shadow turned to leave, but immediately he turned around, a trident came out of nowhere and pierced his back, the trident came back and entered the dark part of the forest where the moonlight couldn't shine, and as Shadow turned around to see who stabbed him, Natty, Aries, and Ruby stepped out of the darkness.
"Looks like we came a little late," Aries said as she had a serious expression on her face.