The Greatest Awakener: Ruler Of Time And Portals.

Nicolas looked at her with a annoyed expression, "Now then, go on. Tell me about the 2nd stage. My saber is still somewhat hungry. Make it quick else it might bite."

"Why is he so rude?" The girl thought in her mind but the words that came out were, "Calm down, the 2nd stage will test 7 objective metrics: Speed, strength, endurance, tolerance, focus, mana strength, and mana control. The grade given will be based on the arithmetic mean of the scores you obtain on these metrics. I don't know about the others but the focus will be tested through one's ability to comprehend fast spken and sped up demonstration of magic theories. I bet my 'life' on it."

"Okay, you may go but I will not be saving you next time." Nicolas said dismissively.

"Uh! Could I come with you, please!" The girl said in a childlike voice.

"No." He replied definitively, his face showing no expression.

"What a block of ice!" The girl thought. "At least tell me your name."

Nicolas was getting fed up with her persistence, "Nicolas, it's Nicolas."

She said, "Mine's Merrila, Merilla Priar." She displayed a smile of triumph, proud of her small achievement.

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in the royal palace of Valtheris, Suharita was alone in her chamber. A hologram was floating before her, the broadcast of the assessment opened in it. It was displaying the prominent moments and fights.

Out the blue, a sight of a familiar figure lit up her face. The dashing youngster had in one hand a gleaming saber, the other stretched outwards casting a Glacial Lance spell. The dreadfully huge spell devoured the two oncoming ones, rendering them effectless. The mass of ice continued its mayhem as it destroyed the trio it was aimed at.

The princess' eyes fawned over him. For her, every breath of hers was incomplete without his. Her eyes went to the comments, which had become abuzz with discussion.

Reality-check_18: To think our city had such a talent. why haven't I heard of him? Ipay attention to every news in Lumen Metropolis.

Fawrning_Over_mEchs: Such a showoff, I bet he is begging for attention.

Oral_maniac-<4>: Upstairs, are you for real? I BET you don't have a life. Mech maniac!

"Well, they are broadly posistive." She thought, cognizant of the typical netizen's behaviour.

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Nicolas was making his way further into the forest, while calculating something.

"Twelve million four hundred thirty nine thousand six hundred and ninety, that's the total number of points. In an ideal situation, the average points of the top 100 thousand would be 124. So, I should aim for a 100 thousand points if I want to get into the top 10. And the only sane way to do that is to kill the strongest participants."

Nicolas' monologue was interrupted by the sight of a strange structure. It looked like as if someone had attached a singular door to air as gravity seemed to have no effect on the door. Tardily, he made his way to the door and as he did, a ringsounded from his band. A notification displayed:

[You have discovered a low-grade testing instance, a sucessful clearing will result in 500 points]

"Well, that's a pleasant surprise!" He thought as he got closer to the door and opened it.

He was transported to a cavernous corrider. Everywhere his eyes went laid a different room. Every room had a board attached to its door which contained a series of three digits. He was slightly confused which one to enter, the gate had disappeared too so going back; not an option.

He selected a random room and entered it.

The interior was a pure white, some crude wooden furnitures placed here and there.

As he was thinking about his next course of actions, a huge spider launched itself at him, its mouth spraying a purplish fluid.

Nicolas dodged, swiftly drwing his saber and ending the attacker's life.

As the body of the spider turned lifeless, a sudden music start to play.

In myriad hearts, lies a tune That of the brightest star.Next to the shiny moon Setting countless minds ajar. Cease? It will, but not so soon Only when it leaves a scar Only when comes the noon.

A soft masculine voice sounded from an unknown source and vanished just as mysteriously.

"Huh! A poem, it's probably some hint. What could it be?" Nicolas' mind was filled with confusion, finding all sorts of pattern in the poem and eliminating them. "The brightest star, isn't that 'Octavus'?"

Nicolas' stood there, confounded. "Could it be telling me to wait till noon, but 12'0 clock has already passed." It suddenly clicked in his mind, "12'0 clock and Octavus(8), goining by the poem's order, it's 812."

Nicolas immediately rushed out of the room and went to the room with the label '812', opening the door, and going through.

As soon as Nicolas' foot pressed on the ground, a series of engine noises emerged. He immediately leapt into the air, generating a earth wall below his feet as he did. The floor below tore apart, deadly rotating saws rised out of it, not even a corner bereft of one. As the saws and the Earth wall clashed, the reinforced magical earth first chipped and then broke the saws, stoping them completely.

Nicolas waited for a poem to ring out but none did. "Looks like this one is different," saying so Nicolas spread his gaze all around the room, looking for a hint. Two things caught his eyes: The ceiling's pattern which consisted of many smaller triangles forming a square pattern and a huge banner as long as the wall itself, it too was made from tiny triangles forming a rectangle.

"The room itself is a rectangle, the ceiling, a square, and the banner, a rectangle. It's probably a 3 digit number that leads to the door. 3 digit, 3 digit. What is it?" Nicolas once again was thrown into deep contemplation.

"What's unique to figures, their dimensions? Could it be asking for the dimensions of the room?" Nicolas starting counting the triangles to measure the length, breadth, and height-the usual order.

"9, 9, and 8." Nicolas still looked to be in doubt. "There's only one way to find out," Nicolas exited the room and quickly opened the door to reom no '998'.What greeted him was an unusual room, it looked like he had been transported to a medievel mud house. The ceiling was made of some type of plant and the walls were almost pure mud. "No trap yet." Just as Nicolas though that, the celing collapsed and countless shrieks sounded, he saw a huge group of bats coming through to attack him.

They had large red fangs and a vast wingspan, about 5 metres. Nicolas casted the Flamethrower spell, the fiery elements converging to form waves of erupting fire. The seemingly deadly bats howled in pain, falling to the ground and writhing around, trying to abate the fire that had caught their bodies.

Soon all motion ceased. Nicolas was baffled to find no hints were there. With nothing else to do, he decided to count the bats. "There are 18 of them, should I go to 018. That sounds stupendous though especially for a puzzle instance." Something clicked in his head,"All the other rooms had hints but this doesn't, is it suggesting me to go to '000'. That seems plausible," saying so Nicolas promptly went out of the room and rushed to the start. There it was room no. '000'. As he went inside, a shout sounded and a Piercing Icicle launched towards his head, the speed however was too slow for Nicolas, he sidestepped and dodged the spell.

He looked for the source of the spell, his gaze landing on that familiar childlike face, that of Flumen. Both of them were confused as they looked at each other.

"What are you doing here?" The two said simultaneously.

After the initial shock, Flumen's face lit up. He said enthusiastically,"Thank god, you come. I thought I have been trapped here forever. For the past 2 hours, I have opened and closed so many doors that I don't even remember."

As Nicolas was about to respond, a sudden movement caught their attention.