After receiving their Elite Class ID cards and specially designed uniforms, Jack and the others stood tall like chosen warriors destined for greatness.
Ding!
The soft glow of the ID cards still shimmered on their chests, pulsing with subtle magic symbols of prestige, potential, and power.
Their faces radiated pride. Hearts pounded with ambition. Each of them had just been hand-picked for a program that only accepted the rarest of talents, true prodigies of the Production Path.
Whether it was Alchemy, Blacksmithing, or other specialized crafts, this Elite Class wasn't just a course…It was a rite of passage directly to 3rd Star Adept Master.
The Grand Hall buzzed like an electric storm.
WHOOSH!
Excitement swirled in the air like invisible winds of destiny. Laughter, whispers, and sharp intakes of breath filled the space with tension and wonder.
Students broke off into small clusters debating, planning, dreaming.
"I'm going with the Alchemy Guild," one girl whispered, clutching a vial that shimmered with glowing mist. "Imagine crafting a potion that could cleanse poison from an entire battalion..."
"Hah," another student snorted, his sleeves rolled up, calloused hands flexing. "I'd rather forge a blade that could split mountains. Blacksmith Guild's where the real legends rise."
"You're both stuck in the past," a third chimed in, adjusting his monocle. "The Production Hall is where the future is born. Spell-tech hybrids, mana-reactive constructs, reality-defying experiments that's where I'm headed. And They will have all production knowledge a to z."
Each path was a world of its own. Each choice, a commitment to a legacy.
Meanwhile, the Guild and Hall representatives moved through the crowd like hawks circling prey
Click… Step… Whisper…
Sharp-eyed. Calm. Calculating.
They weren't here to observe. They were here to recruit. To seize the next generation of legendary creatures.those who could forge artifacts to bend time, or brew concoctions that defy death itself.
And in this newly formed Otherworlders Continent no one knows what future holds for Otherworlders only time would tell.
Thud!
A heavy bag of enchanted ores dropped nearby as one Blacksmith Guild envoy demonstrated a gleaming obsidian ingot veined with molten runes.
"This," he declared, voice deep as a forge bell, "is Obscurite Steel. Only found in the Abyssal Mines of the Serpent Peaks. Infused with darkness and heat. A single blade from this can pierce through the dragonbone."
Gasps echoed around him.
Across the hall, a woman in flowing green robes from the Alchemy Guild swirled a crystalline liquid in an open vial. It glowed with eerie light.
"Potion of Elemental Transcendence," she announced, her voice like wind through leaves. "One drop, and even an apprentice mage can channel a Grandmaster's power for exactly ten heartbeats. If You join our Alchemy Guild we give gift for joining us, only for selected students."
More murmurs. More wonder.
A group of students gathered around the Production Hall booth, where an elderly artificer was levitating a mechanical raven with glowing red eyes.
"Not just a toy," he said. "A surveillance construct. Sentient learning. Combat-capable. And this is just the prototype."
"We, the Production Hall, hold the complete knowledge of every Production Class from A to Z. For those who choose our Hall, we will provide a comprehensive Beginner's Manual tailored to your chosen profession be it Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, or beyond."
And yet, Jack stood still. Unshaken. Unhurried.
He held his Elite Class ID card in one hand, his uniform folded under the other. His face is calm , almost unreadable.
Not because he lacked excitement. But because he was listening. Watching. Thinking.
His eyes swept the hall slowly, catching every detail, The flicker of a nervous hand.The confident posture of a Guild agent. The faint shifts in ambient mana as enchantments activated and subsided.
This wasn't a celebration. This was a battlefield of choices.
A field where one decision could define the rest of a life.
And Jack… wasn't about to take it lightly.
Jack didn't speak a word. But in that silence
you could feel it.
Something was building.
A pressure…
A Crack!
In the air…As if the world itself was holding its breath.
But then
BZZZZZ!
BZZZZZZZ!!
BZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!
A piercing, thunderous alarm exploded through the Grand Hall like a jolt of lightning cracking open the sky!
The sound came from every Ascendant's Adventure Guild ID Card vibrating, glowing, shrieking.
The cheerful atmosphere was gone in an instant.
SNAP!
CRACK!
You could almost hear the joy shatter like glass on stone.
Jack's fingers clenched around his ID card as he instinctively brought it up. So did everyone else.
A flashing red interface appeared on each device.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
[Emergency Alert: Beast Tide Detected.]
[Source: Unknown.]
[Location: Deep in the Heart of Jakartha Forest.]
[Target: Jakartha City's Central Zone Including Otherworlders Ascendants Association, Adventure Guild HQ, City Market, and Surrounding Areas.]
[All Active Adventurers of Jakartha Guild Required to Report Immediately!]
BOOM.
Silence fell.
Not the peaceful kind. Not the calm before serenity. But a suffocating stillness, the kind that presses against your lungs and steals the breath from your chest. Heavy. Crushing. Ominous.
Students froze mid-step.Gasps cut through the stillness like cracks in glass. Some trembled, unaware their bodies had betrayed them.
Even those who wore masks of composure seconds ago… faltered. Their expressions cracked. Their eyes widened.
The Guild representatives once relaxed and aloof hardened in an instant. Their gazes sharpened.
Their auras stirred.
WHOOSH.
Whispers ignited, spreading like wildfire across the assembly.
"A Beast Tide…?"
"From the Heart of the Forest…?"
"What is beast Tide, Wait… how can the source be unknown?"
Confusion. Worry. Fear.
The Otherworlder students, young, bright-eyed, brimming with potential, looked around in growing panic.
But they missed the one thing they should've feared most...
The expressions of the Samsara World natives.
The ones born of this land. Forged in its cruelty.
Hardened not by lessons… but by survival.
They had gone pale. Not from shock. But from recognition.
They knew.
They had seen the signs. Watched as cities were swallowed whole by monstrous waves of beasts.
Smelled burning blood on the wind. Heard screams echo unanswered through crumbling streets.
THUD.
A potion case hit the ground. No one flinched.
Because reality had already struck deeper than fear.
This wasn't training. This wasn't an exam.
This wasn't a lesson.
This… was war.
And Jakartha City stood at the eye of the storm.
BOOM…
The air thickened. Breaths were held.
A storm was building one that wouldn't wait for heroes.
It would drown the weak. Shatter the unprepared.
And spare no one.
As the final echoes of the alarm faded into a void of silence… Everyone knew.
This wasn't the climax. This wasn't even the battle.
This was only the beginning.
--------
To Be Continued..!!