There are around fifty odd candidates going for the solo formation competition and the invigilator started explaining the format.

"All of you will enter the castle at the same time. A space gate will drop all of you at random. No two people would land at the same place.At the start of the game, you will be at the outermost region of the castle.

There is a formation acting as boundary within which you need to stay in to be part of the competition.

Now, everyone of you will be given a set of obstacles that you need to overcome and reach the center. And at the centre of the castle, we have a trophy placed in the middle of one of the most complex formations you have seen.

Your goal is to get that trophy, whoever gets it, wins.

"

Everyone is listening intently and the invigilator stopped to let them digest all that information. After two seconds he spoke.

"There would be constant elimination in this competition.

All fifty of you will be given the same level of obstacles. The distance and difficulty will be same for everyone. So, the moment one of you clears their first obstacle, the boundary will start moving.

As more obstacles clear up, the faster the boundary will close in.

Once you touch the boundary, you are out.

For example, even if one person among you clears ten obstacles before the rest of you could even clear one, the boundary would have already eliminated all of you, because it would be closing in on you by then.

So, be fast.

Finally, some restrictions.

None of you can fight directly. No hand to hand, no weapons, no trinkets, no inscriptions, not even formations made from inscriptions, no beasts. You land as much as a single punch you are out.

If you really cross paths and want to kill each other, then use formations to fight. You can make some of your own and if you are capable enough use the formations placed in the castle. But all battles must happen with formations only.

The competition ends when one of you holds the trophy.

Any questions?

"

None of them spoke.

After a couple of minutes, all of them were led into the castle gates. Sam felt a wave of spatial energy sweep over his body and in the next instant he is standing in a dark room. It is a very small room, as small as a broom closet and he felt restricted.

He couldn't move his arms or legs, he couldn't even turn his eyes and his spiritual sense is restricted to the room. The only thing he could sense is the boundary which is around a hundred meters to his rear.

Sam was impressed.

He closed his eyes and spread his energy. It entered the walls of the room and with observation ability he could see the formation and its energy structure. It is indeed a complicated formation, but it is definitely not of a very high level. It is still within his means to easily destroy it.

But Sam didn't do that.

He tried to find a node in the formation that connects to the parts outside of this room. It was hard as the structure of the formation is designed to isolate whatever it is inside the room from the rest of the castle. Unless they break it, it is almost impossible to see what happens.

Almost.

Sam found the bridge point to the room and the area around the room. After all, since the room is not in a separated dimension there is bound to be some connection to the castle. So, it is only a matter of time, effort and skill to find it. Luckily, he didn't require a lot of any of those.

He tried to extend his energy as far as he could to see if he could spot any of the other candidates nearby.

Even though he managed to get his energy out, he still felt some resistance. After two minutes of no results, he decided to just go on with it.

"Fuck it.

"

The next second, a few threads of energy escaped his body in a burst and targeted a few points in all corners of the room.

The formation collapsed instantly and the first obstacle is cleared. Sam came out of the room and arrived at the large corridor. It is a curved corridor and from what he could guess this might be a circular corridor.

There are a bunch of rooms just like the one he came out of. He could also sense the boundary slowly moving forward. It seems like he is the first one to clear the first obstacle.

He thought that the elimination would begin instantly, but luckily the formation is moving very slowly. It would take at least ten minutes for it to close in on the first obstacle range. Sam is actually relieved because of it. There are some plans he made, he didn't want early eliminations to occur and mess those plans up.

His energy finally spread again.

Now with no restrictions, he started checking out the rooms while he walked in a certain direction. After five minutes, he managed to find a path that might lead him out of this corridor. Apart from the rooms that is the only way that he has seen until now.

The room doors of course are in the direction of the boundary which is closing in.

Sam didn't enter the path immediately. Instead, he condensed some energy into his hand. It is space energy and it turned into a few small orbs that created a formation in the palm of his hands. The next moment, the surrounding energy resonated and the same formation, but of a large scale appeared at the mouth of this new entrance.

With just a thought it assimilated into the ground.

The resonance trick is really coming into handy. Sam then looked around before he stepped into the entrance. The formation did nothing to him. Then for the next couple of minutes he walked at a moderate pace.

Meanwhile, the other candidates are cursing as most of them are still stuck in the rooms.

A young man from Thor's Academy is a bit away from Sam's room, but he is still the closet and at the moment, he is sweating bullets.

"Who the ** cleared the first one so fast?

"

He cursed under his breath and started channeling his energy into the formation. Blue lightning flashed as he tried to gain some free motion. After that, he examined the formation with some technique, finally where there is just two minutes left before the boundary closed in on him, he escaped the room.

"Fucking hell.

"

He cursed and started running in the corridor aimlessly. He didn't know where to go and he couldn't spread his senses too far. He just picked the left side and ran at full speed and finally he found the entrance that he was looking for.

But the moment, he set his foot at the mouth of the entrance.

*ZAP*

Spatial energy surrounding him and in a flash, he was transferred back into a different spot within the corridor. He is right in front of Sam's room to be precise.

He was stunned and since it is a circular corridor, he didn't even know where to run, but he didn't even have the time to do so. The boundary closed and he is transported out of the castle.

He looked around in bewilderment and noticed that there are over three people. All three of them are eliminated because of Sam.

Usually, the first obstacle is actually easy. But students would take some time to not expend all of their energy. It is first time the invigilator and the elders saw someone that didn't care much about the expenditure and even set traps right after the first test.

Instantly Sam who was already attracting a lot of attention became the complete focus.

Everyone watched as Sam stood in the corridor.

He reached the middle of it. Sam sensed that the boundary stopped inching forward and he could also sense that something is weird. He activated energy vision and looked around. There are no discernable fluctuations.

He walked forward with that, he even ran at his full speed, but he couldn't reach the end of it. It is like a never ending tunnel. Sam realized that he is in the second obstacle.

Sam sat down and started thinking.

After a couple of minutes, he sat placed a mark on the wall before he started walking backwards. At the same exact pace that he entered the tunnel with and in exactly two minutes he came to the entrance that he originally came through. His formation was still there and it was triggered three times.

Right behind it laid the boundary.

He once again conjured a formation and this time utilized it on his own.

He disappeared and reappeared in the dark tunnel. The mark on the wall is still there and he started walking forward. The mark moved along with him. That seems to be the beginning of that never ending tunnel.