Infinite Realm

"What happened just now? Where are we?" An uncomposed female voice sounded out.

"Relax." A calm and deep voice replied the first speaker.

Glancing around, Sato tried to find his bearings in this new location but all he could see was a long corridor, wide enough for 10 men to walk side by side, with blue flames lit on torches that hanged all the wall. 

"I think we got in." Sato said. 

"We got in?" Xue Yan asked with surprise. She suddenly turned behind hoping to see the door but all she met with was a wall that stood tall. There was no crack, split or any sign that it was a door. It was just like an average wall, only being taller.

"Are you sure about that?" Xue Yan asked Sato.

Sato replied her, "I said it's a guess but it's most likely probable. Give or take, 70% sure." 

The reason Sato wasn't 100% sure was because there were scenarios in various VR games where one would actually be teleported elsewhere despite coming in from another place. Considering the fact that there was no door behind them, Sato presumed that it was either they got into the tower but were transported to another room or they were actually teleported to another place and never really got into the tower. 

The first scenario wasn't bad as they would have still achieved their goal gaining entry but the second one wasn't so good. In most games, being teleported elsewhere was usually a sign of not having used the correct entry method. In summary, it would mean that they were lost and would spend a lot more time tracking their way back. 

While Sato was more inclined to the fact that they had gained entry to the tower, he still couldn't eliminate the possibility of having being teleported elsewhere.

"Let's check the place out first. We will figure out the rest as we go." 

Saying so, Sato began walking towards the corridor with the intention to reach the end. Xue Yan followed up with him since she didn't have a choice. Recently, Xue Yan discovered that since she left for the raid with Sato, she hadn't been able to keep up her cold attitude around him but there was nothing she could do about it. She and Sato were stuck together and in order to find their way out of this mess, Xue Yan had to communicate more often with him even if she didn't like communicating.

The two kept walking for at least 4 minutes before they finally saw the end of the path. At the end of the corridor was a hall that was very large. The roof of the hall was a dome structure with the highest point being more than 20 metres above the ground. This was 5 metres less than the height of the door of the tower, but still, this was an already impressive structure. As for the size of the hall, it was on par with an average soccer stadium with a seating capacity of 50,00 people.

Walking into the hall, Sato and Xue Yan began to study the appearance of the entire place.

At the sides of the hall, there were 15 metres tall grey coloured statues of different human-like figures that exuded different auras that were all greater than that of the kobold king. One looked like a warrior in full-body armour and it suffused the aura of an unyielding warrior. Another was like a wild unruly berserker(1), dressed in what looked like animal fur with absurd bulging muscles making it obvious that this character was an untamable savage that lived a life of blood and iron . Another statue was of an anthropomorph that had large but lean muscles, perfectly adding to its beauty but the aura it exuded was one of the most dangerous. Despite being just a statue, Sato felt that if he got too close, he might actually die.

'Amazing.' Sato commented within his head. 

Apart from imagery and physical sensation, another attribute VR game developers tried to mimic from reality was perception and the other abstruse sensations. Improving the game's graphics and imagery wasn't much of a difficult task and linking physical sensation with the right brain wave patterns also wasn't difficult as these two features were the foundation of VR games. While those two weren't an issue, attaching the natural perception, instincts and and other abstruse sensations were very difficult, especially something like aura. Most games had failed badly in this and ended up as a flop, the most popular of all being Syncral. Where these games failed, others succeeded. So far, Sato had noticed that the aura sensation and eruption mechanism of IR was at the top, being superior to that of the current number 1 game, Conquest, by a small margin. Even features such as instincts and occasional instinctual perception were applied to the game, making it more realistic in more ways than one.

While Sato stood still and admired the novelties of IR, Xue Yan was frozen in place.This was the first time she had come head to head with such an overwhelming and burdening conglomeration of various auras. It should be recalled that this was her first time in a VR game and for most of her life, she had lived an average and simple life; not coming into contact with any dangerous scenarios or individuals. As such, unruly auras and bloodthirsty ones like the one that suffused from the berserker figure, made her legs wobbly. Added with the unyielding and forceful aura exuded from the armored statue and similar others, it was already quite impressive for Xue Yan to remain standing. 

Xue Yan might not have been a player before nor encountered life and death scenarios before but it was an innate ability of man, just like every other animal, to take notice of auras especially when the sensation was too intimidating and imposing like these ones. The weaker the creature's will, the more susceptible they were to the mental pressure. Having not encountered that much dangerous events in her life, it was expected for her will to be weak. However, her background made it such that while Xue Yan never met with any dangerous mishap, she didn't have it easy in life and ended up with a strong level of determination for a girl her age.

Sato noticed Xue Yan having some problems with holding her ground so he patted her on the shoulder and said, "That's enough. Just wait by the corridor for me."

Xue Yan wanted to argue when she noticed that Sato's attention wasn't on her anymore. Instead, he was staring at one peculiar statue 20 metres away.

"Stay on guard." Sato said with a low voice as if afraid of being overheard.

"What's wrong?" Xue Yan asked.

Sato didn't reply but a frown formed on his face.

"That's enough hiding. Why don't you come out and introduce yourself."

There was silence even after Sato had spoken as if showing that they were the only two animate beings present.

"You think I'm joking? Stop playing pretend and show yourself!" Sato roared.

Two seconds went by and the place was still silent. Xue Yan began thinking whether Sato had some mental issues when the man in question suddenly changed his expression and raised his sword up in front of his body.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

3 audible and resounding claps sounded out from in front of them, covering the entire stadium sized hall without losing out in pitch or intensity at any point.

"Impressive. Despite my leaking just a bit of my aura with the statues of the Achievers, you were able to catch on to it." A deep and calm voice sounded out.

Sato and Xue Yan both glanced at the speaker with Xue Yan being a bit shocked at his appearance. Yes, his. The speaker looked to be an old man, though not that old, and had features just like an average human being. The only difference being that his skin was of copper skin tone. It looked awfully similar to mud but had that metallic sheen to it, making it look unnatural and almost as if it wasn't flesh but metal that was used to forge the old man's body.

"Who are you?" Sato asked. The reason Sato took the questioning approach rather than just randomly attacking was because he felt that the old man knew a lot about this place especially as he had mentioned 'Achievers'. Also, they were within his grounds. Sato didn't know the man's strength nor much about the environment so it was best to take a cautious approach to things. Nonetheless, he had no intention of letting his guard down nor sheathing his sword.

"Who am I? Why don't I answer that for you after you've passed a simple test of mine." 

Saying so, the old man clapped twice and with that, one of the statues began to move. 

The statue was one of the 'smaller' ones reaching only a height of 12 metres. Compared to the taller ones, this statue had a much weaker aura, possibly signifying that it was weaker than them. It looked like a swordsman as it held only one sword in hand with a clothing that looked like leather armour. But of course, as the statue was made of a weird grey stone, the 'clothing' was also made of the same material.

"You don't need to defeat it to win. Just survive 3 strikes and you've won. In order to make things fair, I have limited their power just suitable enough for you. Win and I tell you whatever you want to know and also give you an opportunity at greatness. Fail and you die. Oh yeah, I know you both are Chosen Ones so don't think you will die a simple death. Hehe." The old man smirked evilly.

Sato frowned at the old man's words as he realised that things wouldn't be as easy as he thought. Even if the condition was just 3 strikes, the old man wouldn't make the test to be so simple otherwise, what would be the point of organizing it.

"So, who's going first?"The old man asked. But before Sato could reply, the old man added "You know what? Since you spotted me, it means you should be much stronger than the female over there. I don't have a habit of bullying weaklings or females so I pick you, boy." 

Once the old man concluded his words, Sato smiled bitterly but wasn't bothered. In the beginning he never planned on letting Xue Yan take the test but he didn't expect the old man to be such a sexist either.

"If I win, does she still need to take the test?" Sato asked. This was what he had on his mind as he doubted whether Xue Yan would be capable of passing the test. Even though they were bound by a simple contract, Sato wasn't inclined to let her die just like this.

'Worse case scenario, we run back where we came from and try to defeat the statue with the terrain.'

"You don't need to worry about that." The old man said. "You both seem to be of the same team so technically, you count as one. But she still has to pass the test. In that case, rather than facing 3 attacks, you would have to take on 6 strikes but can be assisted by the lady. Do you wish to take this option?" the old man asked with a smile that didn't look exactly like one.

"...yes." Sato nodded.

"!!!" Xue Yan was shocked that he actually decided to do such for her. They had yet to see the strength of the statue but with the aura it radiated, it was no pushover. Facing 3 attacks from it would undoubtedly be difficult goal but Xue Yan believed that Sato would be able to barely make it. As for 6 attacks, that was nothing short of a suicidal wish.

"Why?" Xue Yan asked softly.

"It sounds like a challenge so I thought it would be fun." Sato replied.

Even if he didn't have much exposure with the opposite sex, Sato wasn't a total dimwit. There was no way he would say that it was because she was weak so he just forged a simple lie. But in all honesty, it wasn't a lie. From the placing and location of the statues, Sato felt that they were heroes or as the old man said, 'Achievers' of the ancient civilization that once dwelt here. In other words, these guys were extremely strong characters who could crush him with just 1% of their strength. Even if they were weakened, Sato still wasn't their match. This was very obvious from the fact that the old man brought out the shortest and weakest of them all for him to face. Sato really wanted to see whether he could push his limits and handle 6 attacks from such a character.

The statue began to make its way slowly towards the duo and as it did so, the aura it exuded began to weaken till it was exactly 7% of its original. From this, it could be seen that the old man limited the strength of the statue to only 7%. This was his estimation of what was barely manageable for Sato yet suitable for the test.

"Get ready." Sato said as he tightened the grip on his sword