Chapter 64: A Peculiar Girl, The Drilling Grounds

The Drilling Grounds was a wide and spacious field within the Seeker's Union compound, a place fitted with several odd constructs and various mechanisms used to aspiring Seekers. Looking even further, one would see dirt pits, fighting rings, and many other objects.

A lizard faced examiner had brought Marius and the other Seeker Candidates in a broad and spacious circular-shaped battle ring. Here, erected spike traps had surrounded all corners with high hanging chain balls on each side. The harsh-looking concrete floor splattered with fresh bloodstains along with broken weapons, some having a rusted look as if they've been in that spot for quite some years.

Inspecting the ground a bit more, one would see fissures as if the weapons had scarred it, with some areas seeming to have suffered from claw marks. Just by looking at the scene, many of the candidates began sweating with fear in their eyes.

Marius had a look of interest as he saw the ring; he stooped down and took up a rusted weapon, he gave it a light swing, but as it moved, the blade broke from its handle before crashing onto the floor with a clanking noise.

'Well, these weapons are pretty much done for, must have been here for a long time.'

Marius thought with curious eyes.

A few of the candidates gave Marius a look because of the sudden disturbance. Within them was a slender and short figure with clothing wrapped over their face, revealing only a pair of lively almond-shaped eyes that glistened with pureness.

"Hehe, I say big uncle, you surely are a troublemaker." A soft and cute-ish voice said.

Marius glanced at the form and shook his head as he replied, "Little girl, who are you calling an uncle? I bet I'm still younger than your dad."

"Hehe, uncle, it's not good to lie, buts it's okay; I know that you old men like to feel younger. A little note though, I'm not a little girl; I'm eighteen this year." The petite girl said cheekily at Marius shaking her magical staff held in her hand.

"Eighteen? Yeah right, kids these days," Marius uttered as he rolled his eyes. The other candidates looked at the two with strange looks. However, unlike everyone else, the lizard faced examiner glared at the two of them as he shouted, "Hey, less meddling and more focus!"

"Sure, sure," Marius said as he shrugged his shoulders as if saying it wasn't that big of a deal.

The strange mage-like girl only tittered as she held her staff, showing a look of no care.

"You..." The examiner said with an angry look on his reptile-like face, he was about to angrily explode for being treated so lightly, but before anything could happen, Torn's small figure had arrived at his side.

"Hey, Repton, quit wasting time; I didn't attend to see you guys act like children, so hurry on with the tests!" Torn said as he slapped Repton's back.

"Ouch!" Repton groaned. He felt even angrier, but as he saw the stern-looking face of Torn, he didn't dare to counter-argue.

Torn took this chance to size up Marius once again, but when his eyes shifted onto the girl, they couldn't help but flicker with surprise as he thought to himself.

'Well, I'll be; it's that Leya Paltine; I didn't know that the lazy and overprotective bloke would even send that prized daughter of his here. Ha, no wonder such persons had joined this batch of spectators.'

When his thoughts reached here, his eyes glanced at this batch of onlookers standing at various areas, some being shrouded by the dark with stern gazes while most others had looks of ease and interest.

Torn smirked, saying nothing more, but for Repton, he glanced at both Leya and Marius with a fierce look before looking at the candidates and speaking.

"Everyone, we will finally commence with the testing phase. As you can see before you, we are within the battle ring of the Drilling Grounds. It is here you will receive the most efficient tests of all, meant to recruit only the finest. Do not fear; no one will die; if anything unexcepted happens, I'm sure one of the random Seekers somewhere can do something about it. Besides, we do have a competent medical staff; even death isn't necessarily irreversible."

When Repton said this, he noticed that the look in the eyes of candidates turned darker, feeling a harsh stare from Torn at the back of his neck. He sweated as he hurriedly continued his statement.

"Ahem, enough about that, you shall each be taking part in the battle simultaneously; your only goal is to stay conscious within that ring for as long as you possibly can. Let us begin!"

Both Repton and Torn made a jumping motion, blurring and appearing on a podium outside of the battle ring with his shout.

'Hmm, it's finally starting, I wonder, what will it be to rear its head?'

Marius thought with a fascinated look in his eyes, his fist clenching tightly.

'Father, humph! I'm not a little girl anymore; I'll show you today that I'm better than all those worthless Seekers!'

Leya thought with a rebellious expression on her face as she firmly gripped her staff.

Both Leya and Marius burned with a fighting spirit, but as for the others, they only trembled and showed looks of fear, knowing full well of the dreaded rumors for what's to come.

Rumble! Soon after, the earth started to shake as multiple beams of light erupted from all corners of the ring's spike pits, forming into what seemed like a cage.

Once this happened, two separate corners of the battle ring started to rise, showing what seemed like a gate with metal bars. A few dreadful roars of unusual creatures sounded from behind each gate, as one could even hear both soil and metal being scratched.

Seconds after, a few red lights lit up from the darkness behind gates, showing a multitude of savage-looking eyes that glared at the Seekers like prey.

Torn watched this from the side with a smirk as many spectator's eyes lit up when Repton clapped his hands, creating a resounded boom as he shouted, "Commence the Drilling Trials!"