Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

Just as he was about to summon the clone, a sharp dagger emerged from the darkness slitting his throat while stabbing his c.h.e.s.t a few times. 

His heart started beating faster as he fell to the floor. His Hp was at 0, he effectively wasted his time on this high risk and high reward play. The AI had effectively predicted his strategy and calculated his Manifest. Had he pressed on with his two bodies separate he would have survived longer and maybe even accomplish his mission. 

Unfortunately, that didn't come to pass, his score was 0, a high-risk high reward play that ended up short. 

Z looked at the screen off stage and nodded, so far from the information he gathered, the trial wasn't as simple as he had initially thought, there were melee soldiers, ranged soldiers, there were even assassins. The only thing lacking was magicians, but Z quickly shook his head, this isn't a fantasy world right?

Possessing the information, Z noted down the likely options he would have if he were to enter the fray. Luck was on his side as he wasn't in any hurry to go on to the stage to begin his assault. He was placed rather far behind. Z watched on as he took a good hard look at the screens. 

Everyone who had participated in the first round got eliminated, except for one person. On stage 3, the countdown had started yet again, prompting the student hiding in the pre-dug hole to take action once again. Coming out from underneath the boulder, he hurriedly used his cloak to cover his body as the archers spotted him from above the tower. Arrows rained down as his flimsy cloak suddenly hardened. It ended up deflecting the arrows as they landed onto the ground. He smiled cheekily as he picked up his pace walking towards the wall of the Castle. 

More and more archers were gathered at that one spot, where they constantly aimed at the student and shot multiple arrows at him. 

---

"Damn it! I hate to admit it, but it is effective." 

"He's only surviving, I don't see how he can penetrate the castle defences like this! doesn't his manifest have a certain limit? Won't he be swiss cheese once his manifest runs out?" 

"He would! but damn he's cool. Does anyone know his name? He's my idol from now on!"

"Idol? because you feel that he's strong? or because you like his handsome look?" 

"I think his name is Dillon!" 

"Wow! Dillon! I support you!"   

---

Finally Dillon reached the wall, his heart was thumping, there was a downside to hiding behind his cloak, he couldn't see anything in his surroundings, for all he knows he could even be surrounded by the enemy forces already. Dillon was anxious, as he touched the wall he began to close his eyes, he looked at his commswatch, the timer on the commswatch was counting down. 

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

With haste, he pushed through the wall as he went through it with no resistance. The cloak which was standing upright got pierced by multiple arrows as it dropped to the ground. 

Leaning against the wall, Dillon took long deep breaths to calm his heart. The ranged soldiers on top of the wall all returned to their respective positions. Looking around, Dillon found that he had entered a room, there were huge barrels on the ground with some opened up already. Dillon walked forward as he put his hand into the barrel and felt this black sand. He quickly shook it off as he entered into the compound trying to find his way to the king. 

Walking into the corridor, he felt something amiss, there was a rumbling sound coming from one end of the corridor and at his back, the door seemed to close shut. In a panic, he tried to shake the door handle but to no avail. He was still worried about the rumbling sound until he saw it, a boulder rolling towards him at full speed. If it was someone else they would have already given up and kneeled down to give in to their fate. But he was different. Walking forward he put his hand gently onto the ground with no hurry at all, the boulder still approaching him at full speed. Upon reaching the ground near him, the boulder stopped immediately, it started sinking into the ground as it gave way for Dillon to pass. 

Dillon smiled as he slipped past the boulder and dashed straight up the steps. He was already having an adrenaline rush, making him feel like he could do anything. Upon reaching the steps, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand. But his detection was too late, he saw an arrow flash across his face, then 3 more, then 6 more. He was basically pierced entirely until he looked like a pincushion. His hp dropped to 0, and he didn't manage to gain more points from his excursion. 

This batch had ended. It was rather spectacular as all of them had different strategies that they had used, from waiting to entering the castle directly to guerilla warfare. But the fact of the matter is that this particular trial may be a bit too difficult for the students to bear. 

---

'Whap!' 

The chief instructor gave his staff a good pat on the back,

"There we go! wasn't it easy! this is the kind of standards we should have! Otherwise, how would we weed out the weak? The trials this time is rather spectacular! The AI is doing its work well!" 

"Yes boss, the AI this time has deep learning, so it will learn from the usage of the manifests and program a deterrence against them. Which makes it unpredictable." 

"Okay, great! let's keep this up. I've already received messages from the school praising how good the improved system is. We'll eliminate more students!" 

The Chief instructor smiled as he looked into the monitor. 

--- 

In the stands the students were feeling a bit antsy, although it was a good thing to weed out the weak, it really wasn't really interesting to watch everyone just flunk out like this. Looking at the stage, the instructor stood in front of the S.A.D as he announced the names for the next batch of students.