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*RAAAWWRRR*

*THUNK*

*KUURRR*

*BONK*

In the mountain behind the golden palace, the sounds of struggles were heard.

Roknos perched up on a tree as he looked towards what was happening on the ground, Ysmir moved around avoiding the attacks of a beast with difficulty.

But every time Ysmir would dodge an attack, he would swing his arm or leg towards the head of the beast effectively hurting it.

Though it wasn't his fist or his leg that he was using to attack but rather the weighted cuffs on his limbs.

*RAAWWRR*

The four-legged beast jumped forward once more with its jaws wide with the intent to bite Ysmir whole, but Ysmir side-stepped and did a full spin and with his arm fully extended before slamming against the side of the beast's head again.

*THUNK*

The beast reeled back in anger and pain.

"Hehe, come get some!" Ysmir challenged the beast, though it was hard for him to move without the weights he had the stamina of an æsir who could go on for a while.

He was confident in this.

He finally felt progress with his strength.

Although he was using an advantage, it was like using a weapon.

Roknos wouldn't let Ysmir use a weapon while hunting these beasts, not just yet. It would be too easy, if possible, Roknos would like his student to take down a beast with his own strength before he can use something like a weapon.

"AGGHH!!"

Ysmir was suddenly thrown to the side as the beast used its claw, slashing the side of his arm.

Ysmir quickly took a knee as he glared at the beast. "Come on!!"

The beast rushed towards him and opened its mouth for another big bite, when Ysmir suddenly jumped with all his strength.

The beast, with its quick reflexes, followed Ysmir's small figure with its mouth wide open, but Ysmir suddenly flipped frontwards and brought both his hands down smashing it on top of the beast's head.

*THOOMP*

Ysmir fell on the ground, along with the beast, fully unconscious.

"YESSS!!" Ysmir jumped in celebration as he finally took down a beast, although a bit weaker than most but he still did it.

"Teach!! Look I finally took one down, with my bare hands!!" Ysmir looked up towards a certain tree as Roknos was crouched down drinking ale from a big horn.

"Good work." Roknos dropped down from the tree and spoke.

"Next."

"Huh? Next… what do you mean next?" Ysmir asked, a grim feeling in his guts.

"Next beast." Roknos said with his ever expressionless face.

"But…I just… I already took one out." Ysmir said with despair.

"You have three moons until your trials against these beasts, better you get used to them before the day arrives." Roknos spoke as he walked deeper into the mountain as Ysmir helplessly followed.

•••••••••••

Three days later…

In Asgard, the three districts turned busy.

More specifically in the senior academies where students sixteen years old to nineteen years old attend.

Though there were trials one has to go through before they are officially seniors in the academy.

This trial is specifically to rank the teenagers while in the academy, the higher you rank the more honor and glory you have, basically fame.

The purpose of the ranking system is purely for progress of the most talented æsirs, motivating individuals to grow and progress in strength and skills.

High rankers depending on how much they grow are expected to serve under the king themselves with the honor of being titled with Lord or Lady.

But that was only after they passed the coming-of-age-ceremony at twenty.

Of the three districts of Asgard, the three Senior Academies took about 10,000 square meters as school property.

A large amount of the property was used for training areas for the students.

In the West district, a large area that was usually used for training was cleared of all equipment and stages, and replacing that was a large crowd of thousands of people as well as those in the floating boats all facing a newly built fenced stage about 50 sq. meters along with a few smaller stages around.

A large piece of slab floated around the stages in the air, as an old man sat on it.

The old man was Lord Logros, a third generation æsir, also the owner of the colosseum that usually floats around Asgard.

It was strange to the rest of the inhabitants of the district as the host of the Senior Academy entrance trials was usually the dean.

But someone like Lord Logros is the actual host today.

Lord Logros began his job as a host by greeting the children rather than the crowd.

Lord Logros welcomed the kids before he spoke of how they were all the future of Asgard, the next generation of warriors who will bring glory to Asgard and such.

The reward was basically non-existent unless you're looking for honor and a chance to fight alongside the King and the future Prince.

There was also a chance to learn directly from Lords and Ladys, the mightiest warriors and sorcerers in Asgard.

There are two parts of the trials, first is to challenge the beasts and enter the rankings depending on the ranks of the beasts one fought and the count.

The beasts are separated into three ranks, these ranks being; Puny, Fair and Mighty.

The second part of the trial is for combat among the kids, a chance to either rise or fall from the ranks.

As Lord Logros continued to explain, three certain girls couldn't help but look around for a certain someone.

Sigrun, Hilda and Kara had new weapons in hand, shiny weapons built by the best blacksmiths in Asgard.

Harder than most metal and as heavy as 5 vætts (Basically 5 Tons), though it all depends on the kind of weapons they have.

"Where is he?" Sigrun asked aloud.

For a few days the Junior Academy has not seen Ysmir, it wasn't strange for Ysmir to not be seen constantly as he was both strong and smart thus not needing most of the lessons and the training provided by the smaller Junior and Undergrade Academy.

But this was the entrance to the Senior Academy which no child would dare to miss.

"Perhaps he ran off, cowardice in front of the beast." Hilda joked.

"You know well that's not true, Hilda." Sigrun corrected Hilda as Kara nodded, agreeing.

"He's to be late, as always." Kara chimed in.

As the first part of the trials began, Ysmir was elsewhere snoring away without worries.

A flying boat slowly headed through the city as Roknos sat at the back directing the boat while a young teenage boy laid in the boat snoring, limbs spread out.

Roknos consumed large amounts of ale which seemed to be bottomless.

For the past three days and two nights, Ysmir has been struggling against beasts left and right with no rest.

As an æsir who's full of energy and can go on without sleep it shouldn't be much of a problem.

But Ysmir was still a kid and his mentality was limited by his human thoughts.

So when the time came, Roknos declared the training finished just as Ysmir dropped right that second and went to sleep.

Roknos had to carry the boy to his own boat before they started moving.

He had gone through different beast's from big to small, mighty to puny and stupid to smart.

Ysmir had learnt many things from the past three days, he didn't need months or years to understand how to fight such beasts.

Sometimes it took only days for some people.

"Huh…I'm here again." Ysmir said.

He was in a whole other world.

The constant gold shining everywhere, the loud noises and terrifying beasts he had seen for a while was gone.

Standing there, he realized where he was, the rocky small island floating in darkness with endless stars shining far away.

And the two menhir-shape stones in front of him.

This was where it all started for him.

Being there he couldn't help but look towards his life as Frank, and his family.

Nina.

Benny.

Images of the two most important people in his life appeared in his head.

He came to realize something as well, it seemed that his curiosity for his new life had pushed those memories of his to the back of his head.

He was afraid he would completely forget about them.

And his love, his precious wife who he expected to meet once more in the afterlife.

But the so-called afterlife he expected was different, too different.

Was this what the afterlife is? Was heaven and hell all a ruse? Is life after death normal?

Could there be other people who died just to be reborn into a new life?

Was he alone in this situation?

There were too many questions that weren't answerable.

The mightiest æsirs call themselves gods but they wouldn't have any answers for this, they weren't real gods but merely a powerful race with supernatural abilities.

But maybe the more he lives on the better chance he could find some answers.

In Frank's mind there were only two people that could answer his questions, the most knowledgeable Mimir, and the Great Buri.

Mimir may have some answers about his situation considering he's lived for thousands of years and gathered knowledge over the cosmos, but the chances were low.

Buri on the other hand might be his best bet, the fact that he created the race of æsirs was one of them.

He created life and this home for the æsirs.

The power of creation, maybe that was what it took to be a real god.

Frank waved his thoughts as he looked ahead to the two menhir-stones ahead of him.

If he remembers correctly, the two stones had two images of a sorcerer and a warrior.

Walking ahead he stood between the two stones and looked at them.

The stone on the left which was the sorcerer's stone lit up dimly, lines of blue connected to the holes on the stone resulted in a sorcerer.

But the stone on the right was not lit up like the sorcerer's stone.

Frank walked towards the warrior stone and carressed it.

*TOOoosh*

*WIING*

The blue light on the sorcerer's stone shut off, as light began to shine on the warrior's stone.

Blue light lit up and connected the holes of the stone showing a warrior.

Before a beam of blue light shot off into the dark stars.

But unlike the last time where everything disappeared, he still stood there watching the light before it dimmed into the stone and what's left of it was the shining image of a warrior.

'Could this be?…'

The last time he was here he panicked and touched the sorcerer's stone last before he fell into darkness.

Did the stones have influence in his current life?

Was he so interested in sorcery and knowledge because he touched the sorcerer's stone last time?

If so, what kind of influence does the warrior's stone have on him…

He appeared nervous, hoping he wouldn't turn into an idiot like most of the æsirs, only thinking about fighting, drinking and sex.

It wasn't too bad of a life…but it also wasn't productive.

For a race that could travel through the cosmos and have great power, it needs responsibility.

Or else the only thing the æsirs could offer was chaos and spread of idiotic influence towards the cosmos.

Though it was a touch subject for the æsirs, they were so influenced by power and their way of life that even the All-Father can't do anything about it.

Surely Mimir knows of this influence, but he couldn't do anything about it.

The only ones who had some sensibilities were the Vanir's, who were known to be "weak" due to their normal magic use and sentimental influence towards mortal races.

*WHOOSH*

Everything suddenly disappeared as Ysmir opened his eyes to see Roknos.

"Rise boy, we have arrived."

Ysmir was back to reality.

A second ago he was in the darkness before bright lights flashed and he woke back up in Roknos' boat.

Ysmir moved and looked downwards to see where they were at.

Just ahead, he could see a few stages surrounded by thousands of crowds and other floating boats in the skies.

This wasn't the first time he'd seen this, for more than ten years he had frequented these events for the entrance trials for the Junior students into the Senior Academy.

Parents, instructors and Senior students would come to watch the trials as well.

Ysmir stood up…and his face widened in shock.

He moved his hands around as well as his legs with surprise.

The weighted cuffs he had on seemed lighter, he could still feel the weights but…not enough to bother him.

They were still the five vætt cuffs, yet it felt like fifteen pounds weights in human terms.

He was able to get used to the pain, irritation and some weight from the cuffs in the past three days, but this was different.

It was the warrior's stone.

It had to be.

The warrior's stone must've had the power to increase his strength, maybe even his durability.

He shook, excitement ran all over him.

Roknos saw Ysmir in excitement but didn't think much of it, what kid wouldn't be excited about the trails, to prove their worth in front of everyone.

"Teacher, I wish to part from the cuffs during the trials." Ysmir looked at Roknos as he stated his wish.