The Aurora Continent.
Grey looked at the portal once again. He stayed in a strange world for weeks, and he couldn't help but feel his gains were very good. His earth elemental grade saw a huge boost, and he comprehended gravity as well. He also broke through to the Eighth stage of the Overlord Plane in both his cultivation stage and his physical body. What else could he ask for?
Connor walked up to Grey, "Thank you for your help, it wouldn't have been this easy without you."
"It's okay." Grey replied with a smile.
Grey spoke with them for some time before leaving. Connor invited him to travel with them, but he refused. His current objective was to get into a Faction and cultivate patiently until the time for the battle.
Once he enters a Faction, getting to the Sage Plane was his first aim. He didn't really care too much about other things.
After leaving, he started his journey once again.
Three weeks later.
Grey was standing in front of a large gate, a huge crowd were standing outside the building as well, all the youths below twenty years of age with only a few above twenty. He heard a top Faction was recruiting members, and all they had to do was to challenge someone from the Faction, if they won they would get a chance to join them.
The Faction was on the decline according to what he heard, but it was still a powerful Faction nonetheless. The Faction was mass recruiting members, so many youths naturally came to try their luck.
'The people are too much, it would take forever if they have to fight one by one.' Void said.
'They will most likely change the plans.' Grey nodded.
While he was speaking with Void, an old man came out to welcome the people who came over for the recruitment program. Seeing the size of the crowd, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"I see that we still have some appeal. Unfortunately, we naturally can't take in everyone, and with your numbers, the task to get into the Faction has changed…"
The old man told them about their new task. They would be taken a special place where they would have to survive for one week, those who survived would be taken into the Faction. There was a side quest that would give them a better position when entering the Faction, the place where they would be kept had magical beasts running rampant, the person with the highest number of beast cores and best qualities would get a good position.
The thought of endangering themselves just to get into a Faction made a few of the people who came for the recruitment have second thoughts. Factions rarely used this method since it caused too many deaths.
A few people even gave up immediately and left the place. Not everyone would want to put their lives at risk just to get into a top Faction, especially when it was one that was dying.
In the blink of an eye, over thirty percent of the people present left the place. The old man didn't seem fazed by this, it was within his expectations.
"Anyone else leaving?" He asked after noticing no one else was moving.
A few more people left the crowd, reducing its size once again.
When the old man confirmed that no one else was leaving the crowd, he nodded before addressing those present. The place they would be sent to had different zones, for each of the three stages, Early, Mid, and Late stages of the Overall and Origin Plane.
The magical beasts in each zone was within said stage, if anyone went to a stage above them and died, it had nothing to do with the Faction. Not just that, but if any of them died from the beast's attack, it showed they were not competent.
When the crowd heard his words, a few more took a step back. They were all thinking if trying out was a good idea or not.
"You still have the chance to leave if you want." The man looked at all the people present.
Many more people left when they heard this. In no time, the place which was previously crowded with thousands of people had reduced to a bare just over eight hundred people.
The old man looked at those present and nodded, "Courageous, each individual will be given a talisman that can help them if they are in danger. The talisman would teleport you out, this will however mean that you have been eliminated from the trial."
When the youths heard of the talisman, they couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.
'He wanted to see if those who came are brave. Interesting.' Grey thought.
This was the fifth Faction he had come to since leaving the horned race's world. None of them had been able to attract him, so he hadn't joined any one yet.
When he heard about this Faction and it's history, he was a little interested in it so he decided to come over and see how the trial would be. At first, he was disappointed when they said all they had to do was to fight against someone from the Faction, but with this change, he felt a little intrigued by them.
The old man used a simple method to weed out those who weren't brave. If he had said that there was a talisman from the start that would teleport them out of danger, then everyone who came would take part in the trial, but he excluded it, making the youths think they were going to endanger their lives.
After the man finished telling them about all the rules, he told them to get into a line for their respective stages.
The gates opened up and thick elemental essence sipped out. Grey's expression changed slightly when he sensed this. He never expected that the elemental essence here would be this thick.
People dressed the same way came over to lead them into the place. They would be undergoing the trial in the Faction grounds.
