The left chamber of Nalanda smelled of sandalwood and ink. Its walls curved high like a temple dome, every inch etched with Sanskrit mantras that glowed faintly in rhythm, as though the very building breathed. At the center, a wide circle of polished stone gleamed. Around it, dozens of figures stood, each with a glowing token pressed against their chest.
Aryan, of course, was one of them—though his token read not Aryan, but:
Aditya Raj – Chakra Stage 3.
He slapped the badge proudly against his chest, puffing himself up as if he were walking into battle. His robes were crooked, his hair wind-blown from the dragon crash, and yet his small six-year-old body carried the swagger of an uncle showing up drunk to a wedding.
Whispers rippled through the room immediately.
"A child?"
"No… impossible. Must be a disguise technique."
"Look at how he talks—definitely some old monster in a child's skin. A prankster trying to fool Nalanda."
Aryan cleared his throat and, in his best "mature" voice, declared, "Yes, yes. I am indeed… Aditya Raj. The strongest competitor, you will face today Very professional. Very dangerous. Very… uh… mature."
System:
[Correction: You sound like a twelve-year-old trying to fake a deep voice on the phone.]
Aryan muttered under his breath, "Shut up, I'm already freaked out because Roshni told me that there will be only children under 10 year old and I have seen people here. I guess who are 60 year old or more I guess they must be disguising themselves so that they show themselves bigger in age so that I back out, From this competition."
The Watchers across the circle stood others: men and women with sharp eyes, calm postures, and tokens that glowed with far greater levels.
One woman in particular, tall with raven hair braided neatly, her token reading:
Meera – Chakra Stage 4, First Step.
She studied Aryan for a long moment, her gaze cool as water but calculating beneath. He looked like a brat, spoke like a fool… but his aura was strange. Unfathomable. And if he was truly disguising his power? Better to keep him on her side.
This boy is dangerous, she thought. I should bind with him before others do. Even if he is weak, his presence feels like… depth. I can use that.
She stepped toward him with practiced calm. "Aditya Raj, isn't it? A strange name for a strange… appearance."
Aryan blinked, then smiled wide. "Oh! I appreciate your gesture. I guess you should introduce yourself too."
Aryan talking like a adult as he was a person who has already lived two lives till death, and also for the intimidation so that not only those people in the room, but he can also pressurise himself towards them.
System:
[Correction: You look like you just escaped from Jail who didn't see any woman for a long time?.]
Meera ignored his nonsense and said, "oh! how rude of me my name is Meera and my Chakra level is stage four level one, By the way This trial… it will be brutal. If you want to survive, perhaps we should watch each other's backs."
Aryan's eyes lit up. "Really?! A partnership?! Finally, someone sensible!"
System:
[Correction: She's using you as a meat shield. Congratulations, you're officially a walking shield now.]
Aryan stuck his tongue at the air. "Better a shield than alone in this battle of death, who knows what is in front of us as my third Chakra level is already weak for Nalanda. I don't know what other things they will throw at us."
Meera arched an eyebrow, bemused at his muttering, but she didn't question it. She had decided—she would ally with this strange boy.
The chamber shook suddenly. Sanskrit runes across the dome blazed brighter. Then a voice—calm, ancient, commanding—rolled over them like thunder.
"Welcome, candidates. You stand at the threshold of Nalanda, the greatest crucible of cultivation under the heavens. Before you lies not teaching, but trial."
The air trembled with the words.
"Nalanda holds three tiers of students: Śravaṇa-śiṣya—the Listeners, lowest of the academy. Adhama-śiṣya—the Lower Students, who walk the path of strength. And Uttama-śiṣya—the Upper Students, nurtured with resources to become the pillars of the future. As instructors, you will not merely teach—you will endure. Only the worthy may stand before our students."
Aryan panicked saying, "what do they mean by instructors? Aren't we hear for the admission in Nalanda university?"
Meera chuckled, thinking that he is trying to uplift the mood before the trial.
The tokens on their chests glowed, binding tighter.
"Your test is the Kālaparīkṣā Maṇḍala—the Circle of Time Trial. Inside the trial, one hour outside equals one year within. Survive, and you may return with proof of worth. Fail… and the world will not remember you."
The chamber went silent. A few swallowed hard.
Aryan, meanwhile, grinned like a child about to open birthday presents. "well, I don't know why I am in the trial of instructor or is this new way to call students, but I need to say one thing Only one year? Bro, I've done 27 inside the Cave of Desires, with half years suffered because of Despair chewing on my brain daily. This is vacation."
System:
[Correction: Well, you cried like a baby when you were in cave of desires, facing your perfect self for first few weeks.]
Aryan: "Shut up, I'm flexing."
Everyone in the room watching Aryan thinking is this person has gone insane or he is too chill to enter a death trial like this.
The circle beneath their feet lit up with violent light. The floor itself turned to liquid, swallowing them whole. Aryan yelped, arms flailing, while Meera calmly held her posture her hands folded over her test, like she has seen these types of things, many times.
In an instant, the chamber was gone.
The air shifted. The smell of earth and damp leaves struck their noses. Heat pressed against their skin. Around them rose colossal trees, their trunks thick as towers, their roots like coiled dragons filled with dense Chakra. Mist coiled through the branches, glowing faintly with the shimmer of chakra.
They stood not in a room, but a jungle.
A jungle that breathed.
Everyone thinking how to escape while one person has some different idea
Immediately, someone tested it. A tall man with cold eyes, his token reading:
Raghava – Chakra Stage 6, First Step.
He sneered, unfolding his arms. "A jungle? Do you think the great Raghava will crawl like an animal? Hmph."
He bent his knees, chakra flaring, and shot upward into the air, wings of force lifting him high above the canopy.
For a heartbeat, everyone stared. Maybe he would scout ahead. Maybe he would find an easy exit.
Then the sky screamed.
A bolt of white lightning tore downward like the judgment of gods. It struck Raghava mid-flight. His body convulsed, twisted, then plummeted back into the jungle with a sickening crack. Smoke curled from his flesh. His token dimmed black.
Dead.
Silence.
Then the voice of Nalanda echoed again:
"Did you think we would not account for flight? This is no escape. The only way out is forward."
Every face turned pale.
Meera's hands tightened. Others began to tremble, whispers breaking into panic.
Aryan tilted his head, blinking. "Whoa… crispy. Smelled like chicken wings for a sec."
System:
[Correction: That was the smell of roasted overconfidence.]
Meera watching Aryan standing like nothing happened in front of him with a straight face.
Meera stared at him in disbelief. "You're not… afraid?"
Aryan smirked, scratching his head. "Afraid? Nah. I've been through worse."
System:
[Correction: Worse = crying in the Cave of Desires while talking to yourself like a lunatic or killing thousands of soldiers in Vaikunth Dham and that was also done by despair, not you.]
Aryan: "WHY do you keep leaking my backstory?!"
System:
[there, you go talking like a idiot again, how many times I have to told you, no one else can listen me except you okay?]
Aryan feels shy, saying "still, it feels weird when you spout out information about me in front of everyone, it's not like a screen follows me every day in my past life's."
A few cultivators overheard him and whispered: "See? He's definitely an old monster. Talking about worse trials… and also I am sure he has disguised himself as a boy so that no one from us, disturb him when I think about it… it is ...terrifying."
Meera thought the same: He's hiding something. Better stay close.
As the group began to scatter through the jungle, Aryan walked with his usual awkward stride, hands behind his head like he was on a morning stroll.
Everywhere he went, chaos bent in his favor.
A massive snake dropped from the canopy—its branch snapped conveniently, dropping it into a pit before it could touch him.
A swarm of venomous bees swarmed toward him—only to be eaten midair by a passing bird-beast.
Roots shifted under his feet, catching him when he tripped, setting him gently upright again.
System:
[Max Luck in action. Truly disgusting.]
Aryan smirked. "See? Easy mode that's why I already knew that any kind of trial cannot stop me."
Meera, watching from the side, mistook it all as skill. "He avoided that ambush like it was nothing… his reflexes are flawless."
Aryan muttered, "Hehe, reflexes, yeah. Totally reflexes."
as Aryan flex more, he forget that Nalanda elders are watching them
So, calm did not last much longer.
The ground trembled, vibrating like a war drum. The air thickened, mist swirling violently as if sucked into unseen mouths.
From the depths of the jungle came a sound—low, thunderous, primal. The kind of sound that crawled into your bones and demanded your body shiver.
Meera froze. "What… what is that?"
Aryan blinked. "Sounds like my stomach when Ganpat forgets breakfast."
System:
[Correction: That sound means you're about to die.]
The trees bent as shadows rose from the mist. Massive, hulking forms with eyes like molten embers glared from the distance. Their growls shook the canopy, snapping branches like twigs.
The voice of Nalanda returned, cold and merciless:
"Survive. Only the worthy will remain."
The jungle roared to life.
Aryan shocked, his emotionless face showing a wide grin which was before listening to the roar from the Jungle. "okay system, I think my luck has run out here. Are you sure we can win this right?."
Meera turned her head slowly, horrified. This… this lunatic is smiling?!
System:
[ well, if your luck has run out, we cannot do anything because you are two things right now, insane, and a very big idiot.]
And as the shadows lunged forward, the trial of future instructors of Nalanda truly began.