Chapter 87: First Trial

“We are currently under a different time flow than the outside world.” Damon muttered.

Those words rang like a thunderclap in Sia’s mind. She didn’t need to question how Damon knew, because she obviously knew it was due to the numerous reflections he had probably left outside.

What her mind questioned was, what was the ratio, and how bad was it? Depending on the difference in time ratio, the consequences could be bad, terrible even.

Her brows furrowed just thinking about it.

“How bad is it?” she inquired looking at the unfamiliar face before her. This wasn’t the face Damon had used when they first met, and it also wasn’t his real face, so it still felt kind of unfamiliar to her.

Damon meanwhile sighed.

“Roughly every twenty eight seconds here, is only a second outside.”

Damon for his part, had noticed the difference in time flow the moment his vision cleared, which was also the moment he found himself immobilized in this place.

His mind noticed that the world from him looking through the perspective of his reflection, was moving mercilessly slow, while the world from using his reflection to look through his main body’s perspective felt like watching a movie in 10x speed.

The only reason why he hadn’t brought the matter up was because first, he had to ascertain how big the difference was in time flow was.

“That’s…. not as bad as I thought.” Sia muttered. It could have been way worse. What if it was the opposite? By her calculations, a day in here would be equivalent to roughly an hour or so outside, but if it was the opposite, a little less than half an hour spent here, would result in a search for them by the institute, then followed by her family.

Even still, they couldn’t be at ease, who knew when the time flow would suddenly run amok again? As the two stood contemplating, the five minutes time frame soon ran out, and Dpress soon sauntered over, flanked by his friends.

“I hope we have a joyful cooperation Ms Sia.” He smiled upon reaching the two.

“So do I.” Sia replied curtly.

“Now that the time is up, this old man won’t continue to keep you waiting.” The translucent man materialized back.

“The first trial is simple. A battle royale. Only ten teams would go on to the next trial. Any team with less than three participants, would automatically disqualified.” The man said without pause. “In two minutes, every team would be transported to where the trial would take place. I wish you luck.” he disappeared.

–”A battle royal? that’s insane.” Someone muttered.

–”Just great.” someone scoffed.

–”What type of twisted game is this?” Another added.

They didn’t care one bit about the battle royal itself, or that they had to kill other teams, if anything they loved the former, and relished the latter.

What they were really peeved about was that first, they’d been forced to work together, and now the ghost said that any team with less than three members would be automatically disqualified? It indirectly meant that they would be forced to protect weaker team members, or get disqualified.

“Looks like people are a little annoyed about ’the protecting your team’ part. Dpress smiled shooting a subtle look at Damon, but not one of them missed it.

He was clearly insinuating that Damon was the weak link in the newly formed team.

Damon blinked.

’Wait, is this a jab at me?’ he thought in disbelief. He knew his rank didn’t exactly scream strength to begin with, but Damon was pretty enough to not let this go.

“Yeah, you’re kind of right.” Damon smiled. “But how do you know some aren’t just annoyed at the bastards they have on their team?” He tilted his head, looking straight at the savvy young man.

The guy’s friends frowned at the statement, Sia however, was enjoying this. “Worry not, my little brother can pull his own weight.” She smirked.

“Hahaha, I see what is happening.” Dpress however, burst into laughter. “Forgive me if my words might have sounded like something else to you two.”

The five soon stood in awkward silence for the remainder of the two minutes given. Once time was up, Damon felt darkness clouding his vision once more, it felt exactly like the moment they entered the mouth of that creature.

When he finally saw light again, it was from the moon hanging in the sky.

’Night?’ He thought. It was still afternoon outside though. ’So a pocket dimension then.’ he concluded.

Beside him stood the rest of the team, Sia, Dpress, Greg, and Nina.

Glancing around, he got an analysis of their surroundings. The place looked like an apocalyptic city, and everything was in ruins.

’It looks quite real.’ Of course Damon knew it was all fabricated.

A voice that was unmistakably that of the translucent man, then sounded across everywhere.

“All teams were spawned randomly, but every hour, the locations of each team will be shown for ten seconds. Starting now.”

The moment he finished speaking, a projection appeared before us, showing various blue dots, and a single red scattered around a map. It didn’t take a genius to know that Damon’s team was obviously the red dot.

Some of the dots were far from each other, while some were closer. Damon didn’t know how big the pocket dimension was, so he couldn’t get a reference of how large the distance between the teams actually was in relative to what was shown on the map.

But if there was anything that eased his mind, it was that they were quite a lot far from the other team nearest to them, even on the map.

The projection soon disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Viewing a map for ten second wasn’t a very long time for mundane humans. But for aetherials, all of them here had probably already committed all the positions of the other teams to memory in that ten seconds– at least Damon had.

“Well, that is a relief.” Dpress turned to the others. “At least we’re quite far from the others.” he said.

“This gives us a lot of time to prepare. If it wouldn’t be too invasive, I propose we know what we are all capable of.” The guy continued. “My friends and I already know what we each can do.”

Hearing that, Damon realized that the guy was trying to pull the move Ms present did back at the Ashen Deadlands. Show a bit of their hand, to make him and Sia do the same. But it wasn’t all that bad, if anything it was quite reasonable. Knowing their strengths would help in coordinating with them.

Not to mention, Damon and Sia might be able to glean their weaknesses for when the inevitable arrived.

“Of course not, why would it be invasive?” Sia waved her hand as if it was nothing trivial.

“Great then, I’ll start.” Dpress beamed. “My ability is rather simple, it’s called lock. I can freeze an enemy’s movement with a look.” He said almost smugly.

’Shit!’ Damon inwardly cursed. That was some terrifying ability, especially if caught unaware. But still, unless he had an Alpha or Beta ranked physique, the ability would have to have some serious limitations. For example, like maybe he could only use it on one person at a time, or it doesn’t last long, stuff like that.

“Nina, say what you can do.” The savvy guy turned to the blond. She stepped forward.

“My ability is called Kinetic absorption. I can store kinetic impact, and release it as an explosive force.” she said dryly.

’Quite a solid ability.’ Damon thought. If she could use it well, she would be extremely troublesome.

Next was Greg, the stocky guy, he didn’t even need to be told before he came forward.

“Adrenal surge, I can boost my strength, speed, and pain tolerance.” He said in a rather gruff voice.

’This guy’s ability was rather straight forward, and from how he looks, it definitely fits him.’ Damon mused eyeing the stocky guy up and down.

“Well guess it’s our turn.” Sia smiled, somewhat embarrassed, but Damon caught the pretense.

’What is she up to this time?’ he frowned.

“I’m afraid our abilities aren’t as fancy as yours. Mine is called momento, I can increase my momentum, simple as that.” she said, still with the pretend embarrass.

’Oh so that’s how we’re doing it.’ Damon’s brain clicked.

“Mine is called Duplicate, I can clone myself.” He said without the slightest bit of embarrassment.

“Oh, those are rather good names.” Dpress commented with a smile, though, his eye that was somewhat twitching said otherwise.

“Great then, come, let’s find a place that’s not this wrecked, and come up with a plan.” The guy turned and started walking, with his friends following behind him.

Damon and Sia meanwhile raised a brow, before turning to look at each other.

Their eyes seemed to say; ’Wait, am I missing something? since when did anyone nominate this guy as the leader?

**********

Thanks for the support everyone. There are now five privilege advanced Chapters on webnovel. So if you want to read ahead, you’re welcome.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep