Chapter 59: Forbidden zones

Ralph was left stunned by the sight of the giant Orc being killed in an instant by the undead knight. This was a monster that the other under General was unable to defeat before Ralph eventually ran out of Nexus energy, but the undead knight had killed it in an instant with a single strike!Feeling a wave of excitement rushing within him, Ralph quickly started the next level of training, and the monster appeared. Again, the undead knight killed it with a single sword strike!

Level 10, cleared!

Level 11, cleared!

Level 12, cleared!

Level 13, cleared!!

This continued all the way till level 15 when Ralph ran out of Nexus energy, and he was unable to sustain the two undead Generals anymore and had to recall them to his Nexus sea; only then did he leave the training room, extremely satisfied with the results of his training.

He had gone from level 9 to level 15 in one go! Very few people have reached this level, even amongst the top 10, and all of this was due to the addition of the undead knight.

Ralph had discovered while the undead knight traveled that not only was its sword incredibly sharp, but the black aura around the sword had a corroding effect that would eat away at whatever it touched.

The horse was also strange, just like a real shadow; it was unable to receive damage, and its speed was not slower than that of the undead in a black robe, even while it was carrying the knight.

Ralph was very satisfied with all of this, he left the training room with a pleased smile on his face and headed for the cafeteria to replenish himself; he would head to the Nexus chamber after eating.

...

The day passed just like that, with every trainee in the Tower doing their best to increase their AP as much as they could, the end of the training session was coming to an end, and they had less than six weeks left to make progress.

Of course, there were a few people who were taking things easy; these were people with already enough AP to pass the training and were not feeling pressured even as the end of the training approached.

Morning training was the same as usual; under the guidance of Instructor Logan and Instructor Nathan, the trainees finished their morning runs and stretches while wearing gravity bracelets before heading to wash up and then to the cafeteria.

Ivan never failed to attract a lot of gaze, even in the cafeteria; everyone would also take a look at the tyrant eating to see if he had a different way of chewing his food that made him stronger than them.

After leaving the cafeteria, they all left for their compulsory classes.

During class today, a special topic was introduced to the trainees.

Forbidden zones in the dreamscape!

"As you all are already aware, the dreamscape, also the reflection of the real world, holds a striking resemblance to our world. It mirrors the climate, terrains, location of places, and even structures at times.

Of course, it also has its differences from the real world, which is why it's not called a second earth. These differences are the habitats of the dreamscape and the unusual color of the sky.

But those are not the only factors that make the dreamscape different from the real world because, since the appearance of the mirror gates, some territories on earth have adopted characteristics of the dreamscape.

So what really makes Earth different from the dreamscape? They are forbidden zones!" The instructor explained as various images appeared on the screen behind him.

" Forbidden zones are extremely dangerous territories in the dreamscape with features that seem almost impossible but are very possible. These are places that one must avoid at all costs unless under extreme measures with a purpose valid enough to take the risks.

Some forbidden zones might not hold horrors on their own but the appearance of a living being can vastly alter them. For instance, concept zones.

These are zones that do not pose threats by themselves, and ordinary people can actually live there, but of course, ordinary people can't go to the dreamscape, so that's not something to even consider.

The reason why concept zones are the safest and at the same time the most dangerous of all zones is because one would not be able to tell what type of danger they would face inside, a concept zone would only react according to whatever creature intrudes into its space and most times, the weaker the creature that entered, the weaker the horror that they will face but that will only be in the perspective of a stronger observer.

If a stronger creature were to enter a concept zone that was previously empty, it will suddenly have to face a being of equal strength and in cases that it defeats it, the zone will manifest stronger beings as a form of retaliation.

As for other forbidden zones, they are relatively simpler to understand since you'll know what you are facing and know what to do in order to survive, but this doesn't mean that they are safe; no forbidden zones are safe, not even for Nexulytes at the Demigod rank!"

The instructor went on to explain more about forbidden zones. They learned about concept zones that would create beings to retaliate to intrusion, zones that did not hold any monster but had different ways of killing Nexulytes, such as mental attacks, or even zones that attacked one's shadow or drove a person mad with amplified desires and emotions.

Other zones had strict methods of dealing such as having a particular number of monsters or levels to pass through, while some zones actually had the ability to move and actively search for prey!

To crown it all, the trainees realized that forbidden zones were territories in the dreamscape that they must avoid at all costs! Unless one was tired of living or did not mind dying for a particular resource that could only be found in it.

The trainees were given room for questions and after another thirty minutes of interaction, the instructor informed them that he had an announcement to pass.

"Since the training session is coming to an end with just a bit over a month's time left, the tower has decided to introduce a special training mode with promising rewards as a final push to aid all of you in your training. This is going to be a team mode where all of you will face different opponents in a simulation with realistic features.

Each team member will be evaluated by an instructor, and rewards will be distributed to those with high evaluations alone. So do not think that you can just join a good team and get free rewards, everyone has to work for it.

To make sure fairness is ensured, purposely making your teammates look bad or causing them to fail one way or another will result in your own disqualification. This is to ensure team spirit and cooperation.

Also, to make sure that all teams are balanced and everyone gets a chance to make a move, all teams will be picked by instructors. Teams and their members will be announced later in the lobby, so pay attention to changes on board," The instructor said before leaving the classroom.

The trainees immediately went into an uproar after the instructor left.

A team mode special training? Who's team would they be on? How was the team going to be set? Most importantly…who were going to be Demon Ivan's teammates?!

Ignoring all their chattering, Ivan stood up and left the classroom. He wasn't interested in whatever thoughts or ideas these people had to bring up since the board would reveal everything later; he would go focus on his other training for now.

…

Later on that day, the system for the new training was finally released, and everyone was rushing out to the lobby to see what team they were in.

The trainees realized that the teams were made up of four combat-type talent Nexulytes and two support-type talent Nexulytes.

Ivan wasn't here at the moment; he was still in his training with James, so Ralph decided to check for him.

He discovered that Ivan was in a team with five unknown people.

Group 16: Ivan, Camellia, Joseph, Rose, Mari, Susan.

Ralph was stunned by the sight of this. He did not recognize any of the people on Ivan's team so he looked them up on the ranking and was shocked to see that all five of Ivan's team were below 500th place on the ranking!

"They are really trying to balance teams huh? Putting such work on one person" Ralph said with a helpless sigh before checking his own team.

Group 44: Ralph, David, Joa, Noel, Kate, Sophia. seaʀᴄh thё NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Turning to look for his teammate's name on the ranking, Ralph saw that one of them was in the top hundred while the rest were below the 200th place.

"Not too bad" he nodded and then proceeded to check Glen's name.

Group 8: Glen, Lily, Hana, Benson, Doris, Lilian.

Ralph's face held a strange expression, Glen's group was almost a team of girls!