Chapter 102: The Earth Altar

The twins both glanced at each other with a tinge of helplessness and disgust. Seriously considering whether to step forward now or just pretend that they are not present. Maybe they could just ask their friends to lie for them? Looking at the rest of the group, they wanted to cry. All of their expressions pretty much wrote out "you are on your own." They could not help but think they needed to find new friends later, obviously they were blind choosing this group of heartless people. Even the new kid, Greyson, just looked away while shrugging at them. Sighing together, they both told Cerul to pull down his wind shield.

"What do you want Afina? We have some business to take care of right now and time is tight." Fervis stepped forward and spoke up towards the group.

"Do I need to have something specific to say when I want to speak with my fiancé?"

"Well, we are going to leave if there is nothing."

"Wait! I want to go with you guys."

"We don't need company, thanks. We are not really doing anything dangerous, it's just a harmless trip. If anything, an even bigger group would be inconvenient." Without even giving her a chance to say more, Ferno interrupted with his reasons why she could not come with them. Afina snorted angrily as fire was released from her snout clearly showing her anger.

"If I let you leave right now, then you need to come over to the tribe later and accompany me after this mission is done. You have not said hello to my family in ages and even the talk of marriage has been indefinitely delayed. It has been almost 30 years since our family suggested the marriage!"

"And we keep telling you to just get married to someone else if you are in that much of a rush! We will obviously live extremely long lives, why the rush to get married and settle down?" Ferno exploded in anger.

"You should not just back out of things so easily. I don't understand what is so terrible about myself that you both do not want to even give me a chance!" The flames around Afina's body continued to grow in heat and volume which reflected her own fury.

"Forget it, we obviously cannot come to an agreement. You are just stopping us for no reason!" Fervis waved his hand and Cerul followed by putting up his wind shield again before flying off. Afina huffed angrily and did not leave but instead followed behind the group.

"Hey, you know she's following us, right?"

"Leave her be. She's always like this."

"Anytime we run into her, she ends up following us for most of the mission. She's too prideful to actually approach us and get rejected, but also too obsessed with the twins to just turn and leave. They avoid her like the plague, so anytime she runs into them she wants to follow them around." Hayze surprisingly spoke up this time. Greyson looked over at her and then glanced at their back. Shaking his head, he wondered why she could not just let them go. Maybe there was more to the story than what the group thinks? He did not think this was just an obsession due to the twins' strong fire element talent and dragon bloodline.

...

After that last interruption, the entire trip was smooth sailing. Every stop in a small tribe was followed by the Amians. They would even sit next to them in the tavern while they ate food, however, no one would talk to each other and they would act like strangers. After he saw Afina's human form, Greyson started to understand why the twins were not super attracted to her. He had heard from Elder Sweetbow that a magic beast's human form is normally a translation of their attractiveness towards other magic beasts. If they are attractive, then their human form is attractive as well. Afina had charisma and she was extremely handsome. However, the issue was that she was a female! No matter how Greyson looked at her, though, she exuded the charm of a still beautiful but more handsome young man. She was tall, broad-shouldered, and had lean muscle which showed her strength. The female magic beasts were the ones swooning after she walked into the tavern instead of the men. She looked like she could pick up girls better than either of the twins... Ah... Thinking of this, Greyson sneaked a peek over at the twins. Was this why they were so adamant towards rejecting her? It somehow hurt their manly pride to have a wife who is more handsome than they are?

Knowing they would not react kindly to such a question, Greyson just kept it to himself as he wondered privately about the truth. After a couple more days of travel, they arrived at a large mountain range. Right in the middle, at the tallest mountain, was where the Earth Altar was located. As he approached, Greyson stared in wonder at the massive structure. The entire mountain was carved into a building like structure that reached to extremely high heights. From his view, Greyson could not get a clear view of the top since it was covered by clouds. Fascinated by the grandness of the altar, Greyson did not rush inside and instead observed for a little. The bottom of this mountain was extremely busy with a constant crowd of people filtering in and out. When their group arrived, they brought a lot of attention with them. It was hard to miss a large Wind Dragon landing in such a crowded space. Most of the groups quickly looked away after realizing who the group was. Rosalie's group of friends were the geniuses of their respective tribes and had built up quite a reputation for themselves in the empire. It would have been strange if they were not recognized by the others. The braver ones continued staring, some eyes showed curiosity while others greedily took in the beauty of the girls in the group. Particularly disconcerting were the eyes that followed Greyson and Rosalie. Although not identical, the pair of siblings were definitely enough to catch everyone's attention. Greyson was dressed in the Snow Dragon tribe's classic white robe with purple lining with brown boots fit for travel and his white hair sporting a new cut. Around a week or so before, Rosalie thought that Greyson's hair was too long and she cut it for him. Now his hair was shorter with one thin braid running down his back from his original long hair. Rosalie had her silver hair pulled up into a long ponytail with a silver dress tied at the waist along with leggings and black boots.

Distracted by the Earth Altar, Greyson did not notice the attention at all, however, Rosalie's expression turned cold. Feeling such heated and suggestive stares sent chills up her spine as disgust burned in her stomach.

"Let's quickly get moving. Once we are inside the altar, we will get separated. Everyone must stay on their toes. Grey, there is a chance that you will meet another participant in the trial as a test and they can kill you. There is no protection. Although less common, there are definitely some nasty individuals who will not mind killing you instead of finishing the test." Rosalie dragged all of them closer to the entrance while giving her final warnings to Greyson.

"Do people die often?"

"Hm... If they are not from an important tribe, then yes. Common magic beasts and Beastmen die in the altar all the time. This is not necessarily because of others, either. The test is also extremely deadly for those whose talent does not match up to the standard. I don't think you will have to worry about this, though. Since I could get through just fine before, I really do not see you getting into any lethal danger. The test is always different depending on your level and stage as the Black Phoenix wanted to set up these altars as more of a way to unearth talent in the Beast Empire not to find the strongest. Magic beasts live so long, that sometimes they are just powerful because they are old not because they are actually talented in any way. The Black Phoenix ancestor always wished for the Beast Empire to expand and for them to take down the humans who try to enslave their brethren. The only problem was that magic beasts normally take too long to mature and increase in power. To help the tribes filter through the most talented even in the distant branches or mixed bloodlines, these altars were created so that the genius could experience a boost in power over a short period of time because of the time difference and also give them a corresponding treasure to help protect the future generation's talent. Grandma started to gain support in the tribe after she went through the altars. She ended up reaching the seventh and final level in the water altar. Although she did not pass, it was still a rare feat to even reach the seventh level."

"Grandma reached the seventh level?!" Now, this grabbed his attention. "What about Grandpa?"

"Grandpa? He only reached the sixth level." Smirking slightly, Rosalie still remembered the look on her grandfather's face when her grandmother first told her about this.

Clenching his fists, Greyson aspired to reach the seventh level as well! He believed that if his Grandma could do it that he definitely could too.

"Alright, no more chit-chat. Let's all go in! I want to see if I really can't reach that seventh level!" Sloan rushed them all to the front before going through the entrance without any warning. The rest of the group all laughed at her enthusiasm before nodding to each other and also walking through the entrance.

Greyson felt the space around him warp until he was alone in a grey space.

"Sit peacefully and meditate." A deep, charming voice spoke in the emptiness. One could not tell the gender as if the voice was purposefully kept neutral. After getting a rundown from the rest of the group, Greyson knew that this was the first level's test. It was quite simple and straightforward; however, a majority of the participants fail at this level. Apparently, a certain amount of mana will flow through this space of all the elements and your absorption rate and element affinity was tested. This was a basic test that everyone goes through and tells a lot about natural talent. Knowing this much, Greyson exhaled slowly before quickly entering his meditative state. Freely absorbing the elemental spirits into him in streams, Greyson was overwhelmed by the comfortable and warm feelings that arose. It almost felt like the mana in this space was never-ending. Only this state was, of course, temporary. In what seemed like an instant, his test ended and all mana was cut off. Stopping himself and awakening, Greyson waited for the announcement of his result.

"Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, and Lightning absorption rate and affinity extraordinary. Also, some space element detected, however, absorption rate and affinity are low and average accordingly. Other elements meet standard, participant will now proceed to the second level." The same charming voice spoke out once again. Although it was great he passed, Greyson did not move and was instead still hearing the last words ringing in his mind. Space element! The extra talent of the Snow Dragons which he believed that he did not possess. Some excitement welled within him, only, thinking back to the judgment of the voice, he knew that he could not get ahead of himself. His talent in that element is almost nonexistent. Maybe he would be able to fix this issue, but for now he could not think of pointless ventures now. In front of him, a black opening appeared that he quickly walked through. The space distorted around him once more and he took a moment to orient himself to the new environment. He was surprised to see that it was actually an extremely beautiful place. Every part of the land was covered by different kinds of plant life. All the colors of the rainbow and then some covered the ground.

He was told that the second level was two different ones. Either Hell Garden or Blade Mountain would appear, and it seems that he was transported to Hell Garden. Greyson already knew to be wary because although it looked beautiful, almost all the plants were alive and extremely dangerous.

"Kill the leader of this garden." A new voice commanded. It was gruff and no-nonsense while definitely being male. The minute this voice finished speaking, Greyson's surrounding came alive. Without hesitation, bursts of flames also appeared around him. All of the group told him that the fire element was the best one to use to solve this level and he could tell why immediately. A lot of the plant life actually began screeching as their bodies burst into flames and turned to ash. Somehow Greyson actually felt a little cruel, but he knew this was a test so he couldn't hold back.