Woosh
In a floating island filled with several craters, a blur flashed across it. The blur zigzagged its way through the terrain.
This was the fourth island.
This island was made out of stone and its surface was covered in ashes and craters. From the sky, a constant meteor shower occured, leaving massive craters on impact. Besides that, from time to time, geysers could be seen erupting in the ground, the hot water and pressure killing great part of the little amount of beasts that lived in island.
The blur was traveling swiftly across the harrowing terrain. This figure was none other than Ray, who was using aura sense to predict that area of eruption of the geysers and the place of impact of the meteor shower.
Aura sensing worked in waves. It left the user in a similar way as ripples in the water got further from the point of collision of a pebble with water. It traveled through the air slowly getting distorted due to the obstacle in its way. For an aura user, their aura felt like an extension of their body, so the feeling one got from aura sense was similar to bumping your hand into an object.
Ray was using such a method to feel any movement underground as well as any approaching objects from the sky. As a former dragon, and one of the size he had been, his range of aura sensing had been trained to be several times bigger than normal for someone of the same power level.
Therefore, this island was not such a dificult chalenge and it was only slightly annoying to mantain it, that was all.
Ray swiftly made his way toward the magic circle that he had located a few minutes ago.
He had been in this virtual world for around a day now, he decided to not hurry himself, intead he decided to leasurly make his way towards the first island. He even had time for a good night of sleep.
Anyways, Ray reached the magic circle in no time and activated it, sending himself toward his next destination, the third island.
The third island was not that different from the eighth island. It was full of green and had a really dense forest, reminding one of a jungle.
Ray did not mind that much, since this was an island that didn't imediatly threathened to harm him, he decided to leasurly walk in the direction of a distant greenish hue, this island's magic circle.
Midway, as he was crossing a particularly large clearing, he spotted a group of people.
The group wasn't particularly large, however, the person who was leading them interested him. It was a young girl with an unusual hair color, it was pink. Her eyes were blue and they seemed to carry a certain gentleness.
She was one of the few people who had caught his interest back at the entrance of the building, mostly due to her enormous amounts of divine power, truly a girl favored by the gods.
As a demonic dragon, Ray had quite the bias against the gods, after all, his own demonic power as well the one who had corrupted several magical creatures into monsters, was believed to originate from the god's disdain, in other words, the opposite of divine power.
People with great amounts of divine power had great sensivity to Karma. It was a term well known in the east and it had seemed to be growing in popularity on the west as well. Karma was in its nature a way to measure good and bad deeds. Beings of great divine power can look upon other people's Karma.
However, users of demonic power, the ones who could still maintain the sentience, could hide themselves from this ability for as long as they completely hide their demonic power.
In the past, Ray never had any need to hide his demonic power, even if it was impossible to be sensed unless propusely unleashed, however in order to mantain his origins a secret he was now forced to do so.
The only downside of this is that the fact of a being not having Karma was just as glaring as demonic being's horrendous and malevolent Karma. However, it was not as identifying as his own Karma.
He watched carefully as she approached.
She carried a gentle smile and didn't seem to have any malicious thoughts, she also didn't seem to notice his lack of Karma.
'She must still be a little inexperienced. Or she just has a really good poker face.'
The people behind her though seemed to be not as accommodating as her. They eyed Ray with contempt.
'They are trying to curry favor with her, it seems. Another person in the mix means less attention towards you, meaning, fewer opportunities to make a favorable impression.'
Noting his negative reviews of the people behind her, mentally, Ray looked at the girl.
"Hello there. I'm Arianne, a member of the church. I was asked to further my studies in the academy this year, it's a pleasure to be working with you."
The girl seemed kind by nature. If that was just a facade it was too early to tell, but Ray knew to never trust saintesses.
"I'm Ray."
He answered, not wanting to turn the interaction hostile.
"Nice to meet you, Ray. I was wondering if you need assistance in reaching the last island? I've been rallying some people to help eachother in this test, would you like to join."
This was a Practical Test with a great emphasis on survival. Forming groups for mutual assistance was a normal and popular strategy for survival. However, since it was an ideia that came for a single person who possessed more power than the rest of the group, it resembled more the relationship of leeches and their host.
"I'm fine. I can deal with this test on my own, I do not need your help. You can find other people to follow you, in the end they are the ones who are going to suffer."
After all, they won't be surviving by their own methods, it will surely cost them a lot in their evaluation. He was not sure why he had made a point to point it out. Was he trying to warn her or to rile her up? Both seemed correct, seriously, he was becoming more bipolar by the day.
"I can see why you'd say that, however, rest assured that I'm making sure that no one is leeching off the others."
Ray studied the faces of the ones behind her.
'Smart girl.'
She knew just how much they thought of her and how much they were willing to do to curry favor. She subtly hinted that she would appreciate it if the members of the group don't leech off the other members.
This way, the members of the group, who want to give a good impression, would try to their best in showing their reliable side.
'She knows exactly how they think and how to hint them in the correct path, regardless, they seemed to have used the initial time of the test to group up and make plans, it seems they are heading to the last island. There is no need to follow them, even if she has proven to be smarter than my early assumptions.'
"Regardless, there is no need for me to join your group, I've been doing fine and have a good amount of bonus points to compensate any type of errors I make during the test."
In a somewhat rude gesture, he kept walking in the direction of his original destination, ignoring the group completely, until a voice echoed, making him turn back.
"Who do you think you are?!"
A young man who belonged to the group screamed loudly at Ray.
"Saint Arianne went out of her way so you could receive her help, who are you to act in such a rude manner towards such a kind person."
'Oh. Does he think that screaming at me after I rejected them is going to paint the figure of a just and brave man in her eyes?'
Amused, he decided to entertain the guy. It was not every day that he decided to deal with a problem with a verbal solution.
"I am who I am. There is no need to downplay my value. If I believe that the best way to pass this exam is by working alone, who do you think you are to tell me what to do? As for being rude? Why do you care? I don't believe I spoke to you."
"Ugh. It's not about speaking to me or not! You were rude to Saint Arianne! She is so kind and forgiving that she decided to let you go off the hook, but I am different! I will not let you disrespect her like that!"
"Oh~, do tell, how do you plan to make me show respect?"
"I will beat you in a duel!"
As he said, he took out one of his gloves and threw it on the ground right at Ray's feet.
Genuinely confused by that gesture, Ray picked up the glove for a while, put it into his own hand, and looked at the young man as he was walking away.
"Well, I'm leaving, if we do run into each other make sure to throw the other glove as well!"
Flabbergasted at the reaction that Ray showed, the young man didn't even remembered to call him back to have the duel, he just watched perplexed at Ray's back for a moment.