Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis burst through the forest at full speed, carrying his saber in his right hand. He ignored everything, and simply ran around. He had already activated his Will-Aura to lure the spider out. It was daytime right now, and the spider was probably sleeping somewhere underground or on a tree.

Gravis' breakthrough had not influenced his Will-Aura. Will and physical strength were two completely different things. So, when he released his Will-Aura, the spider would know that it was him and would surely attack. He only needed to find it.

He continued running, but the spider didn't appear. Even after several minutes, there was no inkling of anything big running around. However, Gravis saw multiple smaller animals and birds. Gravis narrowed his eyes. "The spider changed its territory," he concluded.

Heaven's plan had failed, and now it quickly made the spider retreat. It didn't want Gravis to get its treasure. That would be a big problem.

Heaven might not be able to influence people much, due to their consciousness, but it wasn't difficult to change beasts' emotions. It might move some animals in one part to get a stronger beast to migrate to this fertile land. It might influence the weather to make certain areas uninhabitable by others. Heaven could do a lot of things with beasts.

So, when Heaven had seen that it couldn't kill Gravis anymore with the beasts, it started pulling back all of them. It might throw a ferocious beast at him, so Gravis would get his treasure to pass the entrance exam. It couldn't possibly hide all the creatures from him.

As Gravis continued sprinting around the forest, he saw a big wolf to his front. It was grey and had a height of about one meter. Gravis judged that it was a ferocious beast, and Gravis saw that a pill was bound around its neck. As Gravis saw the pill, he sneered. "Now, after I have tempered my bones, you send beasts with Bone-Pills to me?" he sneered.

The wolf noticed him and readied itself to kill Gravis. Humans were delicious. Yet, when Gravis reached a distance of 30 meters, and the wolf came inside Gravis' Will-Aura, it stopped and froze in fear. Gravis didn't stop and ran the wolf over. Multiple of its bones broke, and it got smashed into a nearby tree.

Gravis didn't pity the beast since it had just shown its willingness to kill him. He ignored the pill and continued sprinting, and he was intent on finding the spider… or at least something with a similarly valuable treasure.

As he continued running, more ferocious beasts appeared before him. The chances that Gravis would find so many ferocious beasts in such a short time, even though the Basin of Nature was so big, showed that Heaven was trying to throw trash at him to make him stop. He just needed a treasure to pass the entrance exam, and Heaven knew that.

Yet, why did this small mortal creature not accept Heaven's treasure, that it had so magnanimously bestowed upon it? Heaven felt frustrated. It was already taking a step back by offering Gravis the treasure. It could just do its best to keep all beasts away from Gravis. Yet, Gravis didn't seem to appreciate its kind gesture and kept running around like a wild animal.

Gravis didn't give a fuck about Heaven. He was going to get his treasure, one way or another. Heaven could influence the beasts, but if Gravis continued running around like a madman, Heaven wouldn't be able to keep them hidden for much longer.

As more ferocious beasts appeared, Gravis started seeing that they actually started carrying some useful things. Some of them carried battle pills, that increased one's strength for a short time. Others carried some excellent weapons. Yet, Gravis kept ignoring the beasts and rolled over them. He didn't even pick up the treasures.

Yet, after Gravis noticed that more weak creatures came, he started getting an idea. 'Heaven wants to give me treasures?' he started grinning madly. 'Then I won't decline!"

Starting from this point on, Gravis began to collect all the treasures of the beasts. Heaven thought Gravis would continue hunting until he got a suitable treasure, yet Gravis now started collecting all of them. Heaven grew furious after seeing that and stopped sending beasts at Gravis.

Yet, even when Heaven sent the beasts away, Gravis was just too fast. The beasts wouldn't simply run in full sprint if Heaven said so. Heaven had to influence them slightly so that they would move on their own accord. That speed was no comparison to Gravis'.

Gravis had also passed by several other participants. They couldn't even react to him since he already vanished before they could even really see his profile. They didn't know what had just passed them, but they became fearful.

Only a middle-grade demonic beast could be so fast! No participant had tempered muscles, so they knew that it couldn't possibly be another participant. They all felt lucky to still be alive. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Gravis started finding fewer beasts as the treasure mountain, strapped to his back, grew. While passing by a tree, Gravis noticed a beast hiding on the tree. Gravis only sneered. "Oh, running doesn't work, so you hide them now, eh?" he said in disdain as he punched down the tree.

The tree fell over, and the beast jumped off. Before the beast could even react properly, Gravis had already punched it away, breaking many of its bones. He quickly retrieved the treasure and continued running, but this time, he did something different.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Gravis didn't avoid the trees anymore and continued running through them, and one tree after another got violently thrown away. Animals and beasts ran around in panic and fear, and nothing dared to hide anymore. Gravis continued finding more beasts, and their power also seemed to increase steadily. He smirked as he realized that he was probably growing closer to the demonic beasts.

The Guild Masters had long arrived to look at what was going on, and when they saw Gravis' rampage in the Basin of Nature, their jaws dropped. Gravis didn't even have tempered muscles, but he showed the strength of someone with a fully tempered body. He was crazily destroying everything in sight.

"Should we stop him?" asked the Guild Master of Earth.

The others were unsure of what they should do. It was technically still part of the entrance exams, but it seemed to lose any meaning with Gravis. Gravis was collecting treasures like crazy, and treasures that he deemed unworthy, were simply left behind on the bodies of the heavily injured beasts.

This was no longer a test of strength and luck. Now, this was only a test of luck. The other participants were so much weaker than Gravis that their power grew meaningless. Now, they could only rely on their luck to find some beasts with treasures that Gravis deemed unworthy. Yet, before the Guild Masters decided on what to do…

"Heaven!" Gravis shouted loudly at the sky. "Give me the spider, or I will continue rampaging around, and I will gather one treasure after another!"

And Heaven answered!