They were ordered to gather around Graceful Peace mountain and given the rings again. Musnuf placed them on his left arm. He could feel Tiger’s gaze and he made eye contact but she turned around right away. Something was off.

Something was different from far off. Small hill mounds were rising out of the dirt. They were tiny compared to the mountain. Each hill flattened out at the top forming a platform.

A smiling elder was waiting for them. He had shoulder length curly hair and a wide smile stretching from ear to ear. “I think that’s everyone. Now I’m going to walk you through this test. As you can see there’s nine hills behind me.” He swept his hand towards the hills.

Musnuf guessed them to be the result of an artifact. He hadn’t observed anyone utilizing anything other than flammable arts. The only anomaly was Autumn Peace. He smiled at that. It was a close call but kicking her out of the running had been satisfying.

“The point is simple. There’s fourteen of you and only seven hills. The one who gets up there first can claim the hill. You have to protect the platform for fifteen minutes in order to claim the hill. After that, the people who don’t have a hill are going to be called back down.

Each hilltop has wards to protect you, they will go down for ten minutes. If the wards are down you can attack the Hill-Holders. This evens the playing field.

However, every twenty minutes after that. One hill is going to be selected at random and it will be destroyed.

Last man standing wins.”

Musnuf pored over each word. He stepped back a little bit. People were crowded around him.

The second place disciple raised her hands. The elder nodded at her. “How do we know the wards are down and what about the rings we obtained in the last tutorial?” Her name was Treasure something. He’d heard someone say it.

He smiled at that, “I was getting to the rings but you have to find out if the wards are down. There won’t be an obvious indicator, you have to find out or guess.” He shrugged. “However, in order to prevent you from just waiting it out until the last hill. A Hill-Holder won’t just be provided with the wards. Instead, you have to purchase it using your rings.”

“A bronze ring buys you ten seconds, silver, thirty seconds, gold gives you a minute and half and the ruby ring gives you fifteen minutes.”

Musnuf could feel their gazes on him burrowing into his head. He had the greatest advantage out of them all.

His mind was whirring around in his noggin trying to determine the best strategy. He had a bit more than thirty minutes available. That meant he could sit out three ‘down-period’s’ in total. However, using it in the beginning would be a waste. The hill might just get destroyed. That would leave him without a hill and no rings.

Get to the hill too early and you might just end up wasting your rings. Get up there too late and the disciples might just use their rings to wait it out. If the hills weren’t going to be destroyed then he would’ve gone for a hill right away.

Why am I being so nervous? He took a deep breath. He was a bundle of nerves. Being nervous and anxious wasn’t going to help him, it would just be a hindrance.

“Well, you guys can start.” With that soft proclamation, the elder floated up into the sky on his cloud.

“Now!” He heard a shout and Treasure was right in front of his face. Her pale complexion accentuated the mischievous smile stretching across her face. She punched him in the stomach and he was launched back.

He felt a burning pain on his ankles and he looked down to find ghost chains restraining him. More bloomed out of the ground until his legs and arms were covered in them.

All thirteen disciples had joined up together to take him out of the race. That elicited a soft chuckle from him. He was blindsided. That was what that strange feeling had been.

“Let me guess, Tiger organized this and it was Dragon’s idea or was it the other way around?”

Treasure laughed. “It was me. I went to you first but you were the one who brushed me off.” At that her face turned into a hideous grin and she formed a large blazing flame ball. She blasted him in the chest with it. “Oh, my aim was off.” She formed another one, aiming for his face. Tiger grabbed her hand.

“That’s going too far. Let’s just take the rings.”

Treasure pulled her hands away. “Che. You’re too soft.”

She pulled off the rings and pecked him on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“Children, you’ve wasted nine minutes already. Go claim a hill.” Treasure started counting out the rings and just like that she was running off. She’d tricked them.

Musnuf started laughing. The group dissolved and ran after her. Treasure started giggling like a madman.

A set of ghost green chains started descending from the sky. He could feel the pain blazing through his body. It felt awful. He felt disoriented. He felt around for his pouch. They’d left him with that at least.

The chain grabbed his leg and started pulling him up. He formed his own chain and blasted it into the ground.

“No! Leave me!” The chain stayed there for a second, wavering on whether or not to leave him. He stared up at the sky, trying to will it with his gaze.

The chain disappeared and he dropped back on the ground with a groan. I’m going to fucking kill them!