To Walk The Mist

Ed felt his head spin for a second. The next moment, he was standing before a large gate. Looking beside him, he saw the others who had entered before him. More were still arriving. In front of the gate were two giant men. They looked completely hairless and their skin looked like strong refined leather.

"Wait until all of you have arrived." one of them said. This caused the rest to look behind them. They noticed that many were still arriving. After a while, the last person appeared, and the dark hole closed up.

"You are now in the great spill. You may have been young lords were you came from, but here, you are the bottom of the food chain." one of the giants said.

"We are gate keepers. Our job is to tell you the rules of the great spill. As long as you obey them, you will be fine." the second giant said. His voice was much softer, throwing people off for a second.

"Rule one. All must register their token under a power or under their name. You can choose any of the factions on the list before you, or you can form your own." this caused the young elites to frown. They looked up to find ten factions and ten lone names on the large slate.

"What is the purpose of the factions?" one of the elites asked.

"Rule two. Every one on the list must fight every month." confusion was even greater now than ever.

"What is the stakes of the fight?" someone asked.

"Rule three. Every one one the list will be given a cultivation cave. The winner of the battles every month will take the cave of the looser."

"Rule four. The first five names on the slate will receive a high grade cultivation cave."

"Rule five. No fighting allowed unless during monthly battles. Rule six. The number one name can choose when to fight. The top five to top two must accept challenges every four months. Please come forward and place your name." the giant said and many paused. After a while some young masters of special clans stepped forward. One would have thought that they would choose to put down their name, but they wrote their name on top the letters of different factions. When they were done, their names vanished and the faction name remained.

Many saw their actions and were confused.

"It must be dangerous to be alone." a person said.

"Of course it is. They said that the names on the list will battle it out every month. Doesn't that mean that mean that if you are alone, there is a chance you will have to fight a faction? A faction has many members. You are bound to loose." another said.

"But, those that stay alone are given one cultivation cave to them selves. In a faction, wouldn't there be lack of resources?" another asked.

"As if that matters! Will you be able to keep the resources at the end of the monthly battles?" many were confused.

"Who is willing to join me? Let us form our own faction!" a person said. "If we stand together, we will be able to fight together during the monthly battles. We will be better off than those large factions, who have thousands of followers!" as he spoke, some joined him and stepped towards the standing slate.

Ed felt that was a stupid move. A bunch of newcomers fighting against opponents that have been here for years, they were bound to loose. Those that chose to stand alone would suffer the same fate. He looked up at the stand alone names on the slate. They were the first ten names, making them top ten. After them came the factions. The top ten must be really strong.

This only meant that the factions were second rate powers. They looked to be a group of weaklings trying to survive against the top ten. Think about this, there were also only ten factions. He heard that many people spent more than one year in the great spill. If so, there must be a lot of people in the great spill at the moment. How could only ten factions be there? That meant that these factions were also considerably strong.

He saw as few had placed their names without joining a faction, others joined, and many created their own. He suspected that by the end of the month, the number of factions will return to ten. As for the number of lone names, he could only turn solemn. After all, he had no intention of joining any faction.