“The Final Trial… It is finally here,” Aren said, clenching his fist, as he almost jumped up from his seat in excitement. Noticing his strange state, he quickly stopped himself, and settled himself back into his seat, trying not to let his emotions show on his face. And when that did not work, he simply closed his eyes and began taking deep breaths to calm himself.
“…What’s wrong with him?” Zain mumbled, glancing at Aren in confusions. “Is he alright?”
“Leave him alone,” Alnea said, and paused for a moment, before continuing. “He was just a little excited to hear about the Final Trial.”
“Are we not the same?”
“…He is a little different. This means something much more to him—
“I am fine,” Aren said in his usual gloomy and calm voice, as he opened his eyes, and looked back at Alnea. “I just lost myself to my emotions for a moment, but there is no need to worry now. Everything is under control.”
“…Is it? Or have you just suppressed everything?”
“…I will take care of it before the Final Trial.”
Alnea looked at Aren in silence for a few moments, and glanced at Fran’s pale face, before letting out a sigh.
“I thought that it was only Fran, but it looks like you are in a worse state than him.”
“Huh? Is something wrong with you too, Fran?”
“…No one will treat you as dumb if you keep shut,” Fran said to Zain, before turning towards Alnea. “Do not worry. I will not let it affect the team.”
“Rather than the team, I am more worried about you… Or should I say the two of you. Till when are you two going to keep everything to yourselves?”
“You are overthinking things,” Fran said after a few moments. “I am just a little agitated by my weakness. That is all. It will get better as I grow stronger.”
“Yet you will not be able to grow stronger until you calm your Heart, and gain Clarity.”
“…I have a lead on how to gain my Clarity.”
“That is true for me too,” Aren said, only for Alnea to shake his head in response.
“With your Hearts blinded by hatred, I doubt if you can even calm your Heart, let alone gain Clarity.”
“…Do you think I do not know that?” Fran said after a moment of silence, with voice taking on a hoarse tone, as if being infected by his emotions. “Seeing you all progress, catching up to me, and then surpassing me one by one, as I remain stuck in place, do you think I cannot see my problems? But so what if I know? After what I have been through… with what is resting on my back… do you think I can let go?”
“…I agree with Fran on this point,” Aren said, clenching his fist once again, but no longer trying to hide his emotions. “I may not be carrying as big as a burden as him, but the flame in my Heart is no less intense than his. This hatred… It is not something that I can control.”
“…You two may have misunderstood what I was saying,” Alnea said, glancing helplessly between Aren and Fran. “I am not saying that you should let go of your hatred. I would not have let go of it in your place either. On the contrary, I may even have been more extreme than either of you. Rather, I was indeed more extreme than you two. It is only because of some special reasons that I have become what you see. And one of those reasons is opening my eyes, and taking a look around myself, at the people next to me.
“Hatred is important. It works as a driving force, motivating us to keep moving forward despite all the difficulties that we may face. Although I would rather not have any hatred in the first place, I must admit, without hatred, I would not have forced myself past my limits. But hatred is not everything. You cannot keep yourself locked in your hatred, in your past, for all your life. After all, there is more to life than we can ever know.”
Both Fran and Aren went silent as they heard his words, going into a daze, digesting what he had said. After a while, Aren finally let out a sigh, and said, “Maybe later. After I am done with the Lost City. For now, I just want to know the answers to my questions.”
“…And I want strength,” Fran added in a much more normal tone, with only a hint of his emotions leaking from his voice. “Enough to have my revenge.”
“…Then you should take care of your emotions,” Alnea said after a few moments of silence. Reaching into his storage pouch, he pulled out a couple of Medals, and tossed them over to his two teammates drowning in their hatred. “I will lend you two an Advanced Grade Medal each. Go exchange for a Dream Essence in the Blood Hall. It should be able to supress the restlessness in your Heart for a while. Long enough for us to tide over the Final Trial.”
“…Thank you, Captain.”
“…We will take this favour.”
“And I—
“We are sorry for worrying you.”
“It is alright… As long as you two are fine,” Alnea said, smiling with satisfaction, before turning towards Vestia. “Let us continue with your explanation, Vestia.”
“…If you want me to explain, then do not interrupt me every so often. At least not with such important topics, or it would be hard to keep track of what I was talking about,” Vestia grumbled, prompting everyone to go silent. “Where was I… right, the Final Trial… Forget it. I will start from the beginning.
“As I had said earlier, according to the new rules, Wanderers are not allowed to kill each other outside of the Arena and the Trials, as it would go against their motive of nurturing the new generation. Fighting in the Arena with your consent is, of course, not considered a violation of this rule. And neither is fighting in the Trial. Just like the Death Battles, the missions that can allow Wanderers to kill each other in the desert will have to be taken voluntarily. Unless they are given as a punishment.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Regardless, the city insists that all of its Trials are designed to nurture its Trialists, and help them hone their skills. The only exception to this rule is the Final Trial. Unlike the other Trials of the city, the Final Trial will be a Trial in a true sense. In that, it will be a test of the skills for the Trialists, and not some hidden guidance. At the same time, everyone will be given only one chance to challenge the Final Trial. Those who clear it will get to enter the inner city, while those who fail will have to leave the Lost City. Forever.
“We had already guessed as much though. The things we did not know about were the requirements to challenge the Final Trial, and the rules of the Trial itself. Of the two, the first one is simple. And the reason why I said that we may not have to explore the Black Desert anymore. As per the new rules, there is no hard requirement of getting any rank in the Black Desert Trial to qualify for the Final Trial. As long as Wanderers have completed all their annual quotas of the Black Desert Trials, it will be enough.
“However, that exception holds true only for the Black Desert Trials. We still have to achieve a certain standard in the other Trials and the Arena. Still, in the new rules, the standards have become much more clear and defined. To qualify for the Final Trial, Wanderers need to get into the top five hundred ranks of all three Halls, or top hundred rank of one, and get into the top ten thousand ranks of their Arena.”
“…That is it?”
“That is it.”
“…Are we qualified to take the Final Trials now?”
“…Apparently, we are.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
“…Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Alnea said, resuming his solemn expressions. “Do you know what the Trials are all about? What are its rules? Will it be a team battle? Or will it be individual battles? Whether it will even be a battle or not? How many enemies we will have to face? Do you know anything about the Trials?”
“…We have not read the rules yet.”
“Then settle down, and think with a calm head. There is no need to rush to make any decisions. Besides, we may be qualified to challenge the Final Trial, but so are nearly forty thousand other Wanderers, ten thousand from each of the four Districts.”
“But… then… No, those who have reached the top ten thousand rank of their Arenas may not necessarily have cleared the requirements of the other Trials.”
“Do you really think that those who can become one of the top ten thousand Wanderers in their Districts, cannot complete the requirements of other Trials if they wish to challenge the Final Trial?”
“…But how can tens of thousands of people challenge a Trial all together?”
“Who said that the Final Trial will be held together for all people? The venue for the Final Trials is… large to say the least. At the very least, it is large enough to hold several Trials at the same time. So, everyone will get to participate in their Trials separately. For the most part. There will still be some intersection between the Trialists, as hosting separate Trials for thousands of people is not possible, but in general cases, a Final Trial will consist of at most a hundred Wanderers.
“So, even if all forty thousand Wanderers apply for the Final Trial at the same time, only a hundred of them will face each other at a time. But that is in general cases. There might be some special cases… Besides, you may be overlooking a point here. Yes, there are nearly forty thousand people who can challenge the Final Trial, but everyone can challenge the Final Trial only once. Who would dare to take a risk on this one chance unless they were absolutely sure?”
“…Then the question of challenging the Final Trial comes back to us,” Karl said, with a tangled expression on his face, as he glanced at the rest of the Star Seekers. “Are we confident of clearing the Final Trials?”
“Of course, we are,” Zain said, puffing out his chest. “We are Star Seekers. Nothing can stop us when we are together.”
“…If someone had asked me that question a couple of months ago, I may have said no,” Ralph said, taking a deep breath, before breaking out into a grin. “But now, I cannot be more confident.”
“…Since even Ralph has spoken up, the I cannot back down now, can I?” Norren said, laughing out his worries. “Count me in too.”
“And me,” Aren said, with a fierce light shining in his eyes. “I cannot back down… Now now…”
“…I hope the inner city will give me ways to increase my strength quickly,” Fran said, indirectly acquiescing to everyone’s decision.
“…Sometimes, I think that I may have joined the wrong team. Each one of you is more reckless than the other,” Karl mumbled, before sighing in defeat. “I hope that we are not making a wrong decision.”
“Come on,” Zain said, slapping Karl’s back, while laughing out loud. “Stop being so pessimistic. You are in my team. Everything is going to be alright.”
“…If the team was yours, then we would have died the first day we went out into the desert,” Karl said, before glancing at Alnea and the girls. “Speaking of which, why have you four not said anything? I thought you would be the most confident ones out of our team.”
“…If only the Final Trial was so simple.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Do you remember what Vestia had said about the Final Trial last time?”
“…Something to do with resolving irreconcilable grudges?”
“Wanderers with irreconcilable grudges can apply for the Trial together, and then resolve it within the Trial.”
“So?”
“…The Lotus clan’s plan,” Karl said, turning just as solemn as Alnea. “Is the Lotus clan really going to attack us in the Final Trial?”
“…It may not just be the Lotus clan.”
“…It looks like they are still going to ambush us with a hundred Wanderers. Just not in the Black Desert Trial.”
“Can we not just refuse them?” Norren said, scratching his head. “I mean, these battles involving life and death are voluntary, right?”
“…If it was a normal Death Battle, then yes. But the Final Trial is different. If a Wanderer has irreconcilable grudges with other Wanderers, and meets the requirements for the Final Trial, then he just need to challenge his enemies to the Final Trial. As long the other party has also fulfilled the requirements of the Final Trial, then they must accept it, or leave the Lost City at once.”
“…Why are you all making such faces,” Zain said after everyone else fell silent. “It is just the Lotus clan. I have even lost count of how many times we have defeated them. I am sure that their allies would not be much better. Why do we have to be afraid of them?”
“…None of us is afraid of the Lotus clan, or even their alliance. But you are forgetting one thing. The greatest number of Wanderers we have dealt with at a time is only around fifty or so. This time though…”
“…No matter how many enemies we face, they should still be limited to a hundred Wanderers. As long as we plan well, we still have a chance of winning against them.”
“…Remember the special case I talked about earlier?” Alnea said in a gloomy voice. “Since there can be only two results in the Final Trial, the city decided that it may be unfair to some people if they limit the number of people participating in the Final Trial at once, as that might deprive some people of the right to resolve their grudges. So, they made a rule that there will be no limit to how many people a person can challenge in the Final Trial. Similarly, there will no limits to how many people can challenge a person.”
Pausing for a moment to let his words sink in, he added, “We may be facing a lot more than just the Lotus clan and their alliance in the Final Trial.”
