Omni-Ascension Isekai: Reincarnated With A Harem System-Chapter 8 - 7: The Trainee Passage Trial

In Bloody Haven village, a great time came as the period of the year reserved for kids ages 13 to 14 was approaching.

The trial determining whether they were fit to stay in the role they had picked for themselves, or if they had failed to walk such a path, was only one month away.

Nerves and fears roamed at an all-time high, and the focus to train and prepare was beyond anything before this for these kids.

However, among them all, there was one understanding, an idea they had long since put to their mind.

If they hoped to stand out, the golden-eyed boy must come down.

However, at some point in the past, way before the time of this trial, years before, things had started.

That same boy was now looking at his friends, watching them face something no human from Earth would want to encounter unarmed, even armed. Some things are better left in the imagination.

At the southwestern region of the outer blood forest, near their tribe's village, there stood many flash-like trees, stained in acid and blood, while the ground looked dead, grass barely there on the bloody dirt.

Next to him, a young man with black eyes raised an eyebrow as he saw what was happening.

"Tch! You are a sadistic bastard, aren't you?" Borin, with his arms crossed, asked.

There was no response from Kriantis as he simply smiled lightly, sending shivers down his spine.

Meanwhile, ahead of them, two others were busy fighting for their lives.

"Aaahhhh! Hit it! Hit it! Hit it!!!!!!" Toro yelled out of his lungs as he ran full force, not allowing himself to trip at all, despite the forceful movements.

"I'm trying! Aren't you supposed to be a knight? Where is your courage now? I want to, but I need to properly aim this. So slow down a bit!" Elara responded as she aimed her arrow as she pulled on the bow string, but was not quite able to take the shot.

"Slow down! Are you crazy!? I value my life! Thank you!" Toro shook his head, still focused on running despite wanting to stop, so he could yell at her up close for even suggesting that.

Behind him, a 3-meter-tall boar covered in green fur was chasing after him, its tusks cutting through the wind to make it aerodynamic.

A dashing line terraforming the surface of the ground before it at every step, ready to turn the boy running in front of it into dirt and blood

Growl!

The magical beast's voice echoed through the area as it kept getting closer and closer to the Toro. Until it was just at his tail.

"Do SOMETHING! BOSS! She's failing! She's failing!! Ahhhhh!!!" Pulling strength from the ends of his very core, the brown haired boy with orange eyes kept running at full force, demanding to live with his very movement.

The girl with green eyes and hair of the same color was not pushed by him; her eyes narrowed and her expression got thicker, yet she did not stop or lose focus, quite the opposite.

Taking a shot, she put her all into an arrow one that was filled with her mana, one that cut the air like a hot knife through butter, and there were no ifs or buts, it hit. freewebnσvel.cѳm

From there, Kriantis got up and began clapping his hands, a smile appeared on his face.

The arrow crossed the head of the boar just as Toro jumped away, and it charged just at his returning body. Instead, it derailed and fell to the side after ragbolling for a bit and crashing into a few trees before stopping.

"A level 9 boar down! Not bad, not bad at all. The problems are still here, though. Toro, while you're good at gaining the attention of the enemy, it's of little use if you'll just be putting yourself in danger, so far I have only trained you two on the basics, physical training, and how to excel at schooling activities.

"Though in your case, Elara, you were doing great without me, beyond what people expected from you, truly impressive, and yet you have terrible focus, it took you minutes upon minutes to get there in a real fight, you don't have all that time. While just getting stronger will allow you two to fight more beasts, if you want a chance against anyone who knows what they are doing, this is far from enough." The golden-eyed boy pointed out, looking at his friends, companions, the ones who intend to use to build his dreams, and the ones whose dreams he will make true in his path.

They both came up to him with smiles, but as long as he spoke, their expressions became complicated, but they could not deny that he was correct. Much was still left to be learned in their path.

"You're always such a bore. Can you, for once, just be positive about someone's performance?" Borin, on the other rolled his eyes, tired of hearing his critics every day.

No matter what he did, Kriantis would always, ALWAYS point out what could be better.

"No, this is how I look at it, even for me, right now, I consider my skills trash, I need to improve as fast as I can if I ever hope to achieve my dreams." The golden-eyed boy shook his head as he spoke, there was no an ounce of doubt in them.

"Boss... You? Trash?...." Toro blinked multiple times, he could not believe what he just heard, not from him. If that was true, then what was he?

"Huh... You're joking, right? Number 1 with the best overall ranking since the village chief himself, how could ever be... No... That makes no sense." Elara shook her head, unable to understand his reason for saying that at all.

"I'm typically confused by you, but now I'm baffled. What insanity are you spouting now?" Even though Borin was looking at him with even more disdain than usual, it was just a confusing moment for all three of them

"You see, that's the problem. All of you, and O mean all, see yourselves only through the lens of our village. I don't do that. There are far greater things than us in this world. He who aims high cannot be content with being the greatest in a pond when the ocean is out there. Even a river is much greater." Kriantis replied to them with a serious expression, there were no jokes.

This made the three of them look at one another, as the thought hadn't even crossed their minds, not because they couldn't think that way, but rather because they had no points of reference to think that way.

All they knew was their village and the forest, while Kriantis had knowledge of Earth, and most of it, as part of a very well-off family in his past life, he had been to every continent on trips, and many countries, even before he was 18, many realities had been instilled in him.

That and the vast catalog of fiction he had consumed all his life fed thoughts right now, but the final nail in the coffin was Vireya.

(In a world where a Goddess exists, in a world where those above her are real, I will rise far beyond all that, I will not be at the mercy or whims of others anymore than I have to be. My dreams will come true, I will make it so. A greedy, sinful bastard like me can't settle for anything, I must have it all.) Kriantis clenched his fists, thinking about it, his eyes burned like a disaster waiting to happen.

"Boss! I want to do better, no, to be better. You said I can be a good knight, and I want to! Before we started this, I was just another boy, someone nobody would pay much attention to, my talent is not all that great, but better than average, yet you with golden eyes I didn't understand at all before, still chose me. I won't let you down!" Toro nodded his head and took a step forward.

Following his lead, Elara was the next one to speak.

"I... You.... Ah, it's hard to say a lot. I'm not like Toro, and I'm not much of a fighter, yet you decided I should stick around. At first, I wasn't sure what to think, honestly, you're so calculated it's scary... It feels like you're not genuine at all, but then I look at your eyes, and I see passion.

"Burning so hot and bright, the sun looks dim, that's what I saw in you, it's unlike anything I've seen in anyone's eyes before, it's like you don't just appreciate to be alive, you don't just yearn for greatness, you demand it, but you're not trying to take but earn it. So odd, so contradictory. I don't understand you the more I know you, yet I know that despite everything, you are kind first before anything." She spoke sincerely after seeing Toro do it, and her voice carried a lot of emotion, embarrassment, confusion, happiness, frustration, and so much more.

"Thank you. I will help you both, my dreams won't be the only ones to come true, our dreams will. I'm a lot of things, but I don't believe in betrayal." Kriantis smiled at them both, there was an air of sincerity they didn't see in his face most times.

"What is this?!... I hope you don't expect me to join the SAP tournament here. I'm here to grow stronger myself, I don't care what you do." Borin crossed his arms, uninterested in what was going on between them.

This led to the others laughing, and things continued from then on for 6 years until Kriantis was 14, and the trial was one month away.

"Ok, let's go over the basics again like every day. Mana is the building block of magic, a wonder energy made up of mana particles that are everywhere. Like a mirror of reality.

"Once you start meditating and become able to sense mana, you then can start trying to manipulate it, until you can somewhat command it. This will activate your energy circuits that are connected to your particular core, and allow you to command mana, and do basic magic, This is the mana link stage.

"Now answer me this, there are two main types of mana, what are they?" Kriantis sat out in the blood forest with them, just like that day years ago, but a lot had changed since then.

"Hmmm... I know this! I do... It's huh... The one you can control and huh... I..." Toro tried to remember, but his mind went blank, even though he had an understanding of what was being said.

"Two types, internal and external mana. Internal is the one in your body that is naturally refined by your body, and the external is the one in the air all around us, and everything except in sentient beings. Our particular core acts like a mana heart and pumps our internal mana through our energy circuits, and that's how we can control it to perform magic." Elara was the one to answer the question with a smile, though she blushed a bit once he focused on her, not too much though

"Don't look at me, I'm not playing into your annoyingly simple questions." Borin rolled his eyes at this.

"Correct, Elara. We can easily control Internal Mana with training, but external mana is a whole other beast. Not that it matters, as we can only touch internal mana now and for a very long time.

"Happily, we don't need it, blessed by Vireya as we are. Hahaha, but seriously, all of you managed to reach mana bonding the second stage of mana manipulation, and can now use more than just basic magic, you can now use intermediate magic, something most people our age could only dream of doing." Kriantis spoke, and to illustrate his point, he did two water spells, one on his right hand, a small water sphere the size of a basketball, a basic spell, and the other hand did one ten times bigger than the first one, as an intermediate spell.

"Those two are the limit of basic and intermediate... You still surprise me, just being able to do it so casually, no incantation." Elara commented upon seeing them.

"I can't believe you're this good at everything, magic, hand-to-hand, gathering, stealth, hunting, and everything else... How?! Boss, you truly are blessed." Toro sighed, not even surprised anymore, just accepting that he was the knight of a unique individual.

"It's frustrating being around you. It feels like I'm not improving, even though I'm in 3rd place now. That crazy girl, Eima, is as much of a monster as you, if not more, considering her purple eyes." Borin commented with his arms crossed, even if he wanted to complain about it, being around the golden-eyed boy allowed him to grow.

"I guess she is. Anyway, we have one month before the trial, so let's go in on the training. A lot of what we did was setting up a foundation, it's very important to have all that honed to the max.

"Unlike years ago, you can all fight, control mana up to mana bonding, use at least one weapon, and your specialty. From now on, the training will consist of hunting, and more importantly, you will go up against me together." Kriantis told them, after years of lectures, personal training, and general practice, to hone themselves, it was finally time to go at it.

"You have the be trying to annoy me! All 3 of us? Against you? Alone? We've spared before, you're good, but not that good. Even a loser like Toro can handle you if he tries." Borin was the first one to voice his thoughts.

"Don't talk to Boss like that... Hey! What do you mean, even I?!" Toro was going into the defense as the knight he was until he realized something.

"Are you sure about this? It's dangerous..." Elara was worried he would get hurt.

"If you guys win, each of you gets to make any one request from me." The golden-eyed boy responded with a small smile.

This peaked the attention of all three of them, even if it was for very different reasons.

(A request?!?! Oh my! Oh my! I could get him to go out with me! As friends, of course... Hehehe! Focus! You're going to be the one to figure out the truth, you can't be thinking about him... Your... Friend! Too much!) Elara blushed at the thought, but soon shook her head and got serious.

(Hmph! This bastard has got to be asking for it! I'll finally put you in your place, you golden-eyed manipulative prick!) Borin smirked, excited at the opportunity.

(Boss! I'm proving that you didn't waste your time on me, I will be a worthy knight! If it's the last thing I do, I will never waste the chance you gave me.) Toro stood and got his sword and sword ready, they were wooden due to being used for training.

Following suit, Elara got her bow and arrow, while Borin got himself a club, and all three of them stood ready in formation.

At the back, Elara could be found, while Borin was right behind Toro at the very front.

Grabbing a wooden battle staff, Kriantis rotated it around with expertise, not just to show off, but also to get a good idea of the weapon, something he would always do before a fight, no matter the stakes.

(Ok, I'm ready, time to try out all I've got now. After these many years of training and studying this world, learning new skills, and adapting as best as I could. My Stage 3: Manacule allows me to use advanced magic, but that would be overkill; 10 times intermediate magic is too much.

(I have a bunch of skills I honed from basic, through intermediate, and to advanced, and using my elemental affinity, I was able to get the magic of all the 9 basic elements, though only water and Earth are honed to advanced. My hand-to-hand skills should be at that rank, though my level and body are still at Intermediate or ER: H.

(I will show them who I am, I didn't call myself master of roles for no reason.) Kriantis took his stance, staring at the three individuals before him, and he was fully ready to go all in.

What took place after that was a heavy battle, one most of those involved would rather never talk about, but it was only the start.

For the whole next month, to was pure intense training with little to no breaks, every day there was intense danger waiting for them, but the golden-eyed boy himself did not slack on his training, quite the opposite, now that he had an excuse train even harder, he went all in, not letting the worry others would try to stop him hinder him this time.

Days upon days of preparation occurred, until eventually the day of the trial finally came, the day where these young tribe members prove they have what it takes to fulfill their roles.

As well as a sort of mid-term exam before the final one that will graduate them from being trainees.

They all had gathered at the trial grounds, their families, elders, the 3 commanders, and even the 2 members of the chief's band all came to see it.

Just like he had been on the stands for his sisters before him, Kriantis' family was there to watch him, though there was still worry regarding his choice to be the so-called master of roles; even so, they had come to support him.

It was not a moment to fail or do wrong.

"Boss... I heard the chief is watching as well." Toro commented with orange eyes, looking all over, trying to glimpse the figure of their elusive chief, one he had yet to see his whole life.

"Shhh! The elders will start the announcement soon. Be quiet." Elara replied with a frown.

"If he is watching, all the more reason to put on a spectacle," Kriantis responded, only for Elara to look at him with a softer but still strict expression.

"This is going to be a bother, but good luck. I'll be doing my own thing. Before anyone says anything, yes, I know there's a group section, no, I don't care. See ya." Borin walked off, creating some distance between himself and the group.

Nobody could comment on him going off before three figures came up to them.

"Would you look at that, it seems Golden Boy had a golden touch. Not only did you push Borin of all people to 3rd place, but you almost made these two scary. Mister wannabe knight, and lovey do here." Morio smiled as he said, looking at the group with a smug.

"Oh yeah?! I will be the one to take you down, just watch me! I'll show you a real knight." Toro gritted his teeth, it wasn't just an insult to him, but to his very own aspirations.

"This is what you wanted to say, please? Boys... I swear..." Liatine rubbed her eyes, facepalming as she sighed.

"Don't even, you're better, also here to antagonize us, do you people have nothing better to do?" Elara narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms as she asked.

However, before an answer came, steps put a silence to the meeting, and everyone turned to look at Eima walked right up to Kriantis, standing eye to eye.

"As expected, you're still a disgusting monster with no reason to be. I will live by words and put you down before you cause trouble." She said with a smile, but the frown on her face and the tone of her voice all carried deep disgust and even hate.

"Monster with no reason to be? Hahahaha! Now I'm curious, just what is that supposed to mean?" He raised an eyebrow at her words, curiosity taking the best of him.

"The fact that you don't even realize just proves me right. You might be human in body, but definitely not in soul, golden monsters, enjoy your time while you have it, unless you get lucky, I'll slay you during this trial." Eima said before walking away.

"Well, it seems we'll have to see later, don't worry 'real' knight, I'll give you a taste of what it takes to be one, don't go running away. It won't be fun if you do." Morio comments as he follows her leaving.

"Tch! I'm not here because I believe in them, I'm here because I don't believe in you, and I have to remove competition, nothing personal. I just don't work with greedy pigs, even if they are golden." Liatine responded, giving Kriantis a side glance as she did.

"You washed up, harlot! Who are you calling a pig?! I'll bury you in a mountain of pig corpses, and then you'll know what pig is!" Elara grabbed her by her collar and pulled her in face-to-face to say this.

"You little!!-" Liatine's eye widened before fury kicked in, however, she was not able to act on him, Kriantis separated them.

"Enough! I'm sorry for that, but if you want to resolve this one, the trial will start soon, and that time will come, unless you would rather be disqualified." He said to her.

"Hmph! I'll get you greenie, and when I do, you'll swallow each word harder than you do him, Jezebel wanna be!!" Liatine yelled, then turned to leave reluctantly, but the anger in each word was palpable.

After that, the golden-eyed boy turned to Elara and said.

"You don't have to do that for me. These troublesome people seem to be after me, so I'll handle it. This goes to you, too, Toro." He smiled at them.

"Stop trying to do it all! I'm part of the team for a reason. I didn't like what she said, so I will do something about it. It's that simple." Elara crossed her arms again.

"I feel the same, Boss. It's not all about you. This is my fight for my knighthood. So step aside, and I'll face my challenge." Toro added a wide smile to his face.

"Then so be it, I'll leave it to you two." Kriantis nodded, as their attention turned to the Elders, who finally started moving.

It was about to start, the trial that would dictate many futures and conclude many feuds.

Whatever happened, everyone was aiming for the top, but among 1000 participants, there was only one number 1 spot.