CHAPTER 114: Three Assessments {(Part-1) out of 3}

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As Day-9 began, Earth's Alpha Chosen, with the exception of Jay and Dante, were teleported to Earth's Foothold in the Trial World.

When they all were about to go train in the various facility centres within the Earth's Foothold, MJ gathered them to make an announcement.

"Today is the last day before regional Trial Tournaments take place. You've all trained well in the past few days, and made some considerable improvements.

However, my master does not only want our Earth trial zone to come out on top among the 1000 trial zones in the upcoming tournament, but also wishes for our trial zone to be the one to achieve the highest results among each tournament that will be taking place simultaneously in each of the 1000 Trial Regions in the Trial World.

So, for that to happen, each of you has to be even stronger to make the whole team more powerful, since the first tournament will be a team-based one, rather than a one-man job.

That was why Master decided to level you all up using the Party function and provide you with Rare Grade Spirit Equipment that's suitable for each of you."

Hearing this, many gasped at Jay's ambition. A few like Henry, Kasim, and Gabriel were gleeing in ecstasy at the thought of improving their level and Spirit Equipment.

Especially Kasim and Gabriel, as they were the lowest level ones among the Earth's Alpha Chosen. However, their wide smiles were short-lived upon hearing MJ's next words.

"Don't celebrate just yet. This won't be for free, as you all have to earn Reward Points, in short RP, and use them to exchange with what I just mentioned and many more. These RPs basically will be the currency within Earth's Foothold for you all and the Earth's Beta and Gamma Alpha Chosen.

As for the RP, they can be earned by going through assessments. The amount you can earn will depend on how many stages you can pass."

Kasim raised his hand, "Great Venerable, what type of assessments?"

Instead of giving a direct answer, MJ turned around and said without looking back, "Follow me to the virtual training chamber. I will show you all there."

It didn't take long for them to enter the virtual training chamber where the room was mainly empty, just with tens of one-meter wide disks on the floor, and each of them emitted green columns of light.

"Enter the virtual space, we will continue there." MJ said as he disappeared from the spot.

Soon, each of them walked onto separate disks. Since they used the virtual training chamber in the past few days, they already know how to enter the virtual space.

Once they entered the green light columns, their bodies began levitating in the air before they entered a sleep-like trance.

As the Earth's Alpha Chosen regained their consciousness, they found themselves standing on a large square platform in the middle of a vast grassland.

Soon, MJ's voice caught their attention and they turned towards the centre, where Baby MJ was floating in the air.

He then said, "Alright, about the assessments I will be conducting here. They will consist of three aspects. The first one is about the degree of control you have over your Innate Talent.

In this, there will be 10 stages, the higher you reach, the higher the amount of RPs you will earn."

MJ waved his hand and two large screens floated high above the square platform they were standing on.

The first screen showed the amount of RPs they would earn for passing each respective stage.

Whereas the second one displayed what they could exchange the RP with.

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Combat Assessment Stages:

Stage-1: 5 RP

Stage-2: 10 RP

Stage-3: 25 RP

Stage-4: 50 RP

Stage-5: 100 RP

Stage-6: 150 RP

Stage-7: 200 RP

Stage-8: 250 RP

Stage-9: 500 RP

Stage-10: 1000 RP

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Reward Point Exchange:

1 Level Up: 100 RP

Rare Grade Spirit Equipment: 100 to 250 RP

Durability repair: 10 RP

Grade-3 Spiritual Fruits: 50 RP

Grade-2 Spiritual Fruits: 25 RP

Grade-1 Spiritual Fruits: 10 RP

Slots of Training Facilities: 10 RP per hour.

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Among the Earth's Alpha Chosen, Olivia, Andrea, and Min-soo were the only ones who had reached Tier-3 Mid-Phase (Lv.34 to Lv.42) and the remaining ones were at Tier-3 Low-Phase (Lv.26 to Lv.33).

Min-soo and Andrea were able to reach there thanks to Jay sharing the Life Energy obtained from killing monsters but once both of them reached Tier-3 Mid-Phase, Jay halted his supply of Life Energy.

As for Olivia, she hunted the Tier-3 Low-Phase monsters that were roaming in the Earth's Trial Zone, increasing her level along with a few of the others.

In the same way, Kasim and Gabriel also reached Tier-3 and the only ones that remained in Tier-2 were Dante and Jay.

But, it didn't take long before they couldn't find monsters anymore and their levels stagnated.

Because of that, everyone's rankings in the fell drastically, till there were none of the Earth's Alpha Chosen in the top 100 rankings, except for Olivia, who stood at the 95th position.

Min-soo and Andrea were at 400's whereas Brandon and Sergei were barely a few ranks away from being thrown out of the .

Not to mention, Jay was not in the top 1000 anymore. Although their overall rankings fell down, they were in no way inferior to those higher ranked than them, due to the special training facilities in the Earth's Foothold.

Nevertheless, they were pumped up now that they were presented with the opportunity to exchange for Rare Spirit Equipment and level-ups using RP to grow stronger.

Gabriel walked ahead and excitedly requested MJ, "Great Venerable, please start the 1st Assessment with me."

The Baby MJ, who was floating in the air with hands behind his back, nodded at the excited Gabriel and snapped his fingers, causing a huge portal-like entrance to emerge on a side of the platform.

From this entrance loud sounds of wind whirling could be heard.

MJ then pointed at the entrance and said to Gabriel, "What are you waiting for? Hop in that entrance and you will enter a different part of the virtual space that is filled with raging winds and storms.

The first assessment is to test the standard of control over your Innate Talent Mastery. Since you have a Wind Innate Talent, this location is created for you.

Crossing every 100 meters there means entering a new stage in the first assessment, and that will grant you Reward Points corresponding to the final stage you manage to cross."

As soon as MJ finished, Gabriel ran and leaped into the entrance with a look of confidence.

After he passed through the portal-like entrance, MJ spawned a screen to show everything that's happening in there to the other Chosen.

Within that, everyone could see Gabriel effortlessly run against the raging wind currents, using layers of winds to protect his body.

In just a few seconds Gabriel effortlessly crossed the first 100 meters. Once he crossed the 100-meter mark, the intensity of wind currents nearly doubled, slowing down his speed.

Nevertheless, that didn't prevent Gabriel from crossing the 200-meter mark and more. Everyone out on the square platform watched intently and imagined how their first assessment location would be.

As time passed, Gabriel's movement speed slowed down drastically, and by the time he crossed the 600-meter mark, he could barely walk in the wind storms surrounding him.

At around 690 meters, Gabriel couldn't move anymore and it was the least of his worries since his body was on the verge of being torn apart by the cyclones pressing on him.

The confident look over his face was long gone and had been replaced with agony from the pain he experienced by having his virtual avatar die.

With a wave of MJ's hand, Gabriel's virtual avatar was brought back to life and he fell on the platform floor with a thud.

Kasim approached Gabriel and offered his hand and said after pulling him up, "You could have just given up when your virtual avatar was about to be torn apart. Even though we only experience 20% of the pain here, it still sucks to die in virtual space."

Gabriel sighed and said with a dejected face, "Man, I was just a few meters away from crossing the 700-meter mark and reaching Stage-7."

With Gabriel, Kasim and Dante being the lowest levelled ones they had grown closer in the past few days.

They supported and motivated each other to grow stronger. So, looking at the dejected Gabriel, Kasim patted his back and consoled him.

If Dante was there, he would have done the same but at that moment, he was with Jay in a faraway trial zone.

MJ then gave an in-depth explanation to everyone, "This Assessment doesn't depend on how high the grade of one's Innate Talent is, or the height of one's Innate Talent Mastery for that matter.

The only aspect that matters here is the amount of control you have over your Innate Talent, and how well you can utilize it.

The virtual location that Gabriel entered was specifically designed, so that as long as he uses 100% of his Innate Talent potential, he could have crossed the 1000-meter mark and completed it.

Since Gabriel reached 690 meters, it means he has only accessed 69% of his full potential."

MJ then turned to look at Gabriel, "If you hadn't trained in the Wind Cultivation grounds and other various facility centres for the past few days, I can assure you that it would have been hard for you to cross even the 500-meter mark.

I am not saying this to dishearten you, but to point out that as long as you train hard in the future, it won't be long before you will be able to cross the 700-meter mark and more."

Hearing MJ, Gabriel's eyes glinted with resolve to improve himself. Whereas others were curious to find what extent they could reach in their respective Assessments.

Following that, MJ once again looked at everyone and yawned, before asking, "Well, who wants to go next?"