The kid dies before it can even reach any closer to him. Struck by his blade, there is almost no resistance as it passes through its torso, cutting the body in two equal halves.

  Adrian frowns at the ease of it, and backpedals. The other kids too move towards him, their movements ghoulish and with no restraint as they claw their way through their own siblings, tumbling and falling. But none lunge now.

  In the place where the first kid died, Adrian now notices how nothing is left except the diaper the kid had worn. He had merely joked about the poison in the diapers, but a gas does waft from it.

  Is this their way of saying I can’t kite them?

  Truly, the gas might or might not be dangerous in its current dose, but if he kils them slowly and takes his time, then the gas would have more than enough time to fill this small room and make his life hard. Perhaps even kill him.

  Readying his blade once again, this time Adrian attacks. A low sweep with his sword from a distance hurts some, but most are safe. Even the ones hurt don't seem to mind the pain as they rise once again.

  Adrian jumps on the bed, and waits for the zombie kids to come at him together, tumbling and mingling as they usually do.

  He keeps his disgust inside as he jumps with full-force on the zombie kids, squashing some, while giving the others a chance to lodge themselves in his leg with their sharp claws. Adrian has already expected that, so steadying his footing, he quickly hacks any approaching zombies with his blade.

  Some attacks still come through, and the worst of it all is the smell which wafts from the dead babies beneath his feet.

  Quickly jumping away, Adrian jumps on another bed and waits for them to gather around each other once again, but this time as if guided by an adult mind, they change tactics and move separately in a formation.

  Five left, I can do it.

  Adrian checks the timer, and only a few minutes have passed since then, but he really doesn’t wanna stay here any longer. The sight of the kids like these, and the smell, the smell.

  Adrian lunges on one of the kids at the end of their little formation, but while he kills it, others jump at him. Adrian manages to kill one more, before the situation could become any worse and jumps away to another bed.

  The kids this time follow through, suicide lunging at him as he settles himself on the bunk bed.

  Surprised by the attack, Adrian hurriedly rolls away, rolling on the dead poisonous diapers.

  Ugh my shirt.

  The kids do not follow through this time, more from a lack of ability than desire, it seems. While the zombie kid reorient themselves, after having broken their own spine from the suicidal lunge, Adrian quickly finishes them all off.

  As soon as the last of them dies, the Tower comes to congratulate him on his massacre.

  Congratulations! You have completed your first test! (1/8)

  Enjoy your rest, or fight for more.

  The choice is yours!

  Adrian walks out of the now open door as quickly as he could, not wishing to stay another moment in the possibly poisonous environment of the poison diapers.

  Walking out of the door, he enters the dungeon again, and follows the lights back to the station.

  During the walk, he checks his wounds. Most of them are mere scratches on his ankles and leg, but nothing that he couldn’t walk off. Unless the claws had poison in them too. Probably not.

  All the blood and poison that he may have gotten on himself during the fight has also mysteriously disappeared as he cleared the fight, ridding him of all the bad smell he may have incurred. He sighs in relief at that.

  The station appears sometime during his walk, such that he doesn’t even realise before it is there. The train waits for him where he left it.

  Adrian climbs in, and notices that a few of them aren’t here yet. It brings a moment of joy and pride for him, before he crushes it. He isn’t the first, he has no reason to be happy about a result like this. None seemed wounded at least, given by how boisterously they are talking about and discussing the test.

  Looking around, Adrian finds Ji-a still seated on their seat. She notices him coming and waves. Adrian waves back and takes his seat beside her.

  “How did it go?” Ji-a asks.

  “Disgusting. Otherwise easy,” Adrian replies, still feeling the crunch of bones and zombies beneath his feet.

  “It was the first one, obviously it wouldn’t be harder. Still took you a while, huh,” Ji-a says in mock-contempt.

  “I’m afraid not all of us could be as strong as my lady here,” Adrian sighs. He looks at others who are already in, and finds that the twins from earlier are in too, and are talking to another pair, a guy with a beanie and someone with a long earring and a katana.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  There are more people that he is only now noticing properly, now that his first test is over. Earlier, everyone seemed to have become a huge mesh of strong competitors, but now they look more… human.

  There is a trio of women, seated along the middle rows gossiping among themselves. Adrian wonders if they are all from the same place, or just that chatty that they already have such deep friendship.

  There is also the man who had been looking out of the window the last he saw him, now seated silently, meditating with his blade in his lap.

  As time passes, more and more of them return back.

  Another man with bright blonde hair and blue eyes who was looking out of the window, quite shaken and looking sick. Adrian feels it is a shame that he is already so frightened after the first test.

  He has such good muscles too, he could’ve gone further

  Then there is an androgynous beauty who sits alone in her seat, chanting something with her eyes closed. Adrian wonders if she is praying.

  The rest of the time waiting for the test to finish is spent looking at everyone who comes after finishing the test, talking to Ji-a and the twins, and discussing more about what may or may not come. Eventually though, the test is finally over and the train departs once again.

  The first test is now over in every instance.

  Good job on surviving!

  #

  “So how has living as a nomad been for you?” Adrian asks Ji-a.

  “It’s so-so. Sometimes it's quite fun, but most of the time it’s spent worrying about food, water, bandits, and mosquitos,” She answers.

  “Mosquitos are not real. They are just a myth by people based on vampires. Like what if a vampire was small? Kinda thing. You wouldn’t find them even in the Tower,” Adrian corrects her.

  “Adrian my boy,” She pauses to look at him and then continues, “You have much to learn. Come with me, after the Trial is over. I’ll show you sights that you would never even believe! Travelling after awakening would be very easy too,”

  “Please don’t talk to me like I’m a kid,” Adrian sighs. He couldn’t even tell if the girl beside him really means her word or is just joking with him. Do mosquitos really exist outside? Is the clan protecting them from the threat? Then what else is outside? How strong are they?

  Adrian feels like he is discovering some things that he never even thought about. In his own sheltered ignorance, things that he had never considered.

  What is out there? In the world? How big is it? Are there more Towers?

  He couldn’t help but wonder, but those questions are stashed away for now. Nothing good would come from thinking about it right now.

  “Everyone is just a mere child to me, Adrian. You don’t have to feel sorry about yourself,” Ji-a smiles and pats his head. Adrian swats it away with a scoff.

  “What about you? How’s your clan life?” Ji-a asks.

  “It’s okayish. Nothing exciting really happens on our side except the occasional sacrificial festivals. My best friend was sacrificed yesterday, that happened, yes,” Adrian tries to keep the hurt and the rage out of his voice, but he might’ve failed.

  “Oh yea, they do that. How are you holding up?” She asks.

  For a moment, Adrian wishes to just tell her how exactly he feels about it, and how much he hates almost everyone back in his clan for doing this and how much he hates the Tower for promoting it, but then common sense takes hold of him, and he shuts up.

  “It’s fine. I’m fine. These things happen. He… he was just an Unfaithful anyway.” Adrian shrugs to hide the inflection in his voice.

  The rest of the trip goes in utter silence, except for a hand on Adrian’s shoulders that he didn’t notice for a long time.

  But when the train finally comes to a stop, there is a shift in the air that even he can’t ignore. The mood changes, voices disappear, and the atmosphere is strained. Adrian looks around, finally notices that they are on another station.

  Then the announcement comes with its familiar static.

  “This is the second test. Warning! This is a special test!

  “Everyone who wishes to participate, should deboard within the next 5 minutes. Every extra minute would be taken from the time allotted for your test. All the best!”

  A special test. A special test always means death. Even if you survive, it doesn’t mean you’ll go unscathed. There’ll be blood, there’ll be wounds, and there will be loss.

  A special test is the point where you differentiate the better ones from the average. It is the time where friends could become enemies. Everyone already knows it, and that’s why they are alarmed.

  But slowly, people start to get up and get off the train. The man from earlier who was meditating gets up first, followed by the androgynous one. The trio of girls get out too, the guy with the beanie, and also the one with the earrings–his katana laying lightly against his shoulder.

  A man with a pair of nunchucks and small eyes gets out, followed shortly by a dark coloured man with short hair.

  It was then that Adrian noticed that no one else stirred awake from their seat.

  “You coming?” Adrian asks Ji-a.

  “I was waiting for you to ask,” She smiles brightly, and then gets up with a bounce in her steps, contradicting the environment with her very smile.

  Adrian gets up too, and on an impulse looks at the twins seated behind him. They smile at him and go, “All the best out there. We are looking for a utility class from the beginning.”

  Adrian nods back with a smile, and finally deboards with his blade in his hands.

  The station and all of its mist is there, but unlike earlier, he isn’t teleported to a different location. Instead, the mist clears, and a figure on the other end of the station is made visible.

  Adrian gauges his opponent, as very clearly the other person does too. He’s a male with an average height, not much taller than his own. Twin daggers play professionally in his hands, and his footing betrays a desire to lunge at the first instance.

  The test is soon revealed, although both of them already know what it is.

  Second Test: Fight for your Class.

  Men have fought through the years for many things. Should it be land, wealth, justice, or plain ego; war is a crucial part of us. Today you’ll fight for your Class.

  Handicap: Every 10 minutes, one of your Sacrifices will be destroyed, in the ascending order of their rarity.

  Goal: Kill your opponent before the timer runs out.

  Time limit: 30 minutes.

  Adios!

  Their Sacrifices appear in the air, floating way beyond their reach. Adrian’s is a warm yellow for Spirit Wyrm, a fierce red for Fire Bovine, and a bronze for Khalkotauroi.

  Whereas his opponent’s are blue, pink, and green. Adrian doesn’t know which beast they belong to, but their elements are obvious. Human, dream, and life respectively. It is a good combo. Adrian’s opponents eyes linger on his warm yellow Sacrifice, depicting Spirit element, with confusion before they focus back on him.

  The clock is already at 28 and counting. Neither of them wait any longer, and the fight starts in an instant.

  #