"I travel across an ocean then the third continent just to get here and now I can't have a celebratory drink of water? Damn." With a sour expression plastered to his face, Iwa angrily threw his empty flask back into his bag and sat down, inhaling a short breath of air. He looked around at the others under the gazebo, eight of them. Iwa only really saw four of the eight though, as the other four were covered in a strange shadow, almost as if he was only supposed to see the four in front of him. Slowly standing up, Iwa scratched the back of his head, unsure of whether he should introduce himself or stay quiet. 'Geez, this is awkward. It's like a bad movie. Nobody talks unless the script calls for it and everyone just stands there, motionless. If I wanted that, I'd have stayed back at the dojo with uncle. Atleast things never got awkward there. Weird, maybe. Awkward, no. Ah, screw it.'

"So, I'm Iwa Hoshi, a martial artist from Xilin. Wassup?"

"It Begins!

After all introductions have been made ((You still have to put your characters interacting with the other characters)), a booming mysterious voice begins to speak.

"You all have come here for the sole purpose of becoming truly god-like individuals and I shall grant you that wish, but not through magic or miracle, but through method. I have trapped you all here for the remainder of the test and no one shall leave unless you pass. Prepare yourself to survive in my pocket dimension for five whole days before you are granted your powers. There are requirements to be met besides survival. You must be able to find and inflict damage upon me with whatever skill you have, you must be able to use the resources around you to make a feast, and you must be able to kill a dinosaur without trying. Do these things and you will have passed my test and you will be allowed to leave my pocket dimension with great power. If you are lethally injured or die, I shall revive you back in your world and you can try again next year. Good Luck.

Kit licked her lips, eyes peering into the bottom of her leather water bag. She scowled and dropped it back onto the belt around her waist. Her violet eyes flickered around at the men around her, narrowed in suspicion and wariness. Her hand was always close to the knife sheathed at her waist when she traveled and today was no exception--in fact, around so many strangers in such an isolated place, her fingers were relaxed around the hilt. Then, the tall one spoke up, seeming friendly and genuine enough. She looked around at the others--one was a scrawny kid, she noted--and shrugged. "Kit," she said, giving her first name. She retreated back into silence, eyes flickering around the group.

Ash's eyes bounced around everyone nearby, he was just as cautious as everyone else that he was around, since the friends he knew all were killed by the wilds, he had not other feeling to give these strangers besides a cold silence, but suddenly he found his sense of hospitality, Ash took his helmet off and put it under on of his arms, he kept his off hand on the handle of his sword, Ash bowed forward," I am Ash sir." he spoke with a very heavy accent and kept his manners calling Iwa sir.

When leaned back up he saw Kit, he gracefully and carefully took her off hand into his platemail covered gloves and kissed her hand," Madam, you can call me Ash." He repeated himself to her, then let go of her hand before she would get angry with him," If you feel angry with me for doing my action, I'll apologize, it's just in my culture, warriors kiss the hands of women to show their chivalry and manners towards the opposite sex," He continued.

Kazz studied the group that surrounded him. He looked at each one of them for what seemed to be forever, it was enough to be noticed if anyone was staring back at him. He got into a crouching stance and let his bow rest on both of his knees. He adjusted his fingerless glove which he wore on his right hand. He then adjusted the bracer above that to get a comfortable feel to it before resting his elbows in between the string and the upper and lower limbs of his bow. Iwa Hoshi, Kit, and Ash. Wonder who this other guy is. He looked him up and down again. Everyone here seemed to be quite friendly. He didn't know if that was a pro or con at this point considering the way he was now.

That Ash character seems to have made quite an entrance. Kazz looked down and checked his water flask. He had just enough for himself. He put it away and broke the silence, he didn't expect anyone to know him so he wasn't going to make an amazing entrance. "Kazz..." He trailed off and then stood up after picking his bow up with his left hand, which he gripped firmly. He left the mask that his hooded cloak provided him on. He didn't want to reveal his face just yet. He didn't trust this group at this moment. Maybe down the road he would allow them to catch a glimpse of his face.

The kid felt exhausted, though he hadn't done anything. The weight of the dagger in his hand, as well as the idea of it in his mind took all of his strength to carry. He was empty inside, a walking shell of what he could have been. He watched the rest of the group as they stated their names, revealing their identities to the rest of the group. What was in a name, anyway? The kid didn't really have a 'name', rather, just a bunch of memories of what he was called. A tear fell down his cheek as the memories flashed through his head.

The kid quickly decided on one name that would fit. "M...Mm..My name..My name is L...Lamb." Lamb shrunk back into his cocoon of solitude. He looked at the dagger, blood stained and vile. He had no where to go. It was here, or nowhere.

Kit flinched a bit at the sudden contact upon her gloves. Her eyes flickered to the perpetrator, her other hand tightening around the hilt of her knife. Although she relaxed a bit when he spoke kindly enough, she remained unimpressed and continued to scowl at the man with narrowed eyes. Even more so as his lips brushed against the fabric of her gloves. She promptly pulled away and brushed at her hand, as if trying to rid it of dirt. "Well in my culture, uninvited advances upon a woman are grounds for castration," she warned coldly, her eyes flickering back to his, "or death if you're lucky." The young woman didn't elaborate as to whether or not his greeting counted as an "advance," but it was certainly uninvited.

The man with the bow spoke next, draped in mystery with only those pale eyes peeking out from beneath his hood. Creepy, she thought. Her thoughts didn't change much when the boy called Lamb spoke, and she eyed the dagger in his hand. "Hm," she hummed, frowning at him.

Ash bowed to Kit once more, this time more gracefully, the entire time he had his off hand on his sword's handle." My dear, it's whatever you think it is really," Ash spoke not feeling any fear from her words." And I may not mind being butchered at the hands of a woman who's more than capable of dealing with most of the strange entities of this land." he continued. Ash noticed a new person join them, he didn't look much like a warrior, but he was much younger than Ash himself, the kid looked like he was on the run from somebody, which quickly rose Ash's suspicions, and before Ash could ask of his name, the kid just blurted it out as Lamb, which sounded odd to him. " And foreigners say, our people's names are weird."

Iwa watched them all give out their names and exchange some odd glances. He took one step back when Kit mentioned her culture's thoughts on 'advances', and one step further when he noticed they all had their hands on a weapon. 'So, it's obvious Ash is from middle Xilin. Kit looks like a street rat from Goln. These last two, Lamb and Kazz, look a bit odd for natives of Ikard, but to be fair, Ikard is an odd place.' Before he could get a chance to speak, the booming voice told them about the test, and what the requirements were to pass [see the first post]. "Finally. This thing can get started." Iwa smiled anxiously before running into the fog to begin.

Kazz took slight notice to the Lamb character. He would have to get to know this boy. Is he nervous or is that how he acts around everyone? It was after a few moments that a voice boomed over head. He was unsure what these tests would prove. "Finally. This thing can get started." Kazz looked over to the tall one who spoke, Iwa. He ran off quickly and without hesitation Kazz followed after him. He stopped for a moment and looked back at the others. Kazz knew that without teamwork they wouldn't be able to pass this test. He stared at the others for a moment. "Well? Are you all coming or not?" His voice trailed off as usual and waited a few more moments before taking off after Iwa again.

And so they were suddenly part of a game. Kit scowled up at the sky, a small gesture of her unhappiness with the bodiless voice. At least death wouldn't be an issue. Iwa seemed excited, and he disappeared into the fog. Then Kazz, the creepy one with the bow, stalked off after him. She had planned to stand her ground until he looked back and prompted everyone to follow. She sighed, her crossed arms falling to her sides as she followed with a role of her eyes. Her enthusiasm was lacking, however, and she only strolled after the men.

Ash looked though the slit of his helm at the sky and heard the disembodied voice, he didn't feel that anything good would come from this mysterious voice," We should take caution with this voice, it may lead us to our doom, if not that glory and wealth, I kid, it may just be doom for us really." Ash said trying to make the best of the strange situation. When the others began walking to follow Iwa, Ash was almost hesitant to follow behind till he saw Kazz and Kit follow after them.

" Yes, let's follow the mysterious and disembodied voice to wherever." Ash said outloud, then he grumbled," And my parents always told me to be a leader not a follower." he said to himself as he tightened his grip on his shield and the handle of his sword ready for what unknown creature that would try to attack them or if the voice was gonna lead them into a trap of some sort." If this be a trap, I will remember this."

Lamb watched as the group began to walk forward into the haze. It was an odd group of characters that had formed. Iwa, who ran into the fog without a moment of hesitation. Kit, who was obviously someone you wouldn't want to mess with. Ash seemed to be little more than a chivalrous weirdo. There was also Kazz, who seemed to be just a masked archer. Lamb noticed that the others seemed to be older than him. He silently walked forward, following behind the rest of the group. The heavy dagger still weighed down his left hand.

With the other four following after him, Iwa continued to run until he ran out of the foggy area and into a circular clearing large enough to fit a small town. In the middle was a stout man wearing a big white hat with a bushy black mustache and a large grin. He turned toward Iwa slowly and opened his mouth to speak. Instead of a normal voice or the stereotypical italian voice, the disembodied booming god spoke from the chef's mouth.

WELCOME TO THE FIRST PART OF MY TEST! THIS IS MOZZARELLA AND HE WILL BE TELLING YOU PRECISELY WHAT TO DO!

The crowd that had formed around Mozzarella began to mutter. Some little snippets like "What kind of name is Mozzarella?" or "Why is he so creepy? arose around Iwa as he stood there, watching everyone voice their opinion. Mozzarella stepped forward slowly, making his way to the front of the crowd and stopping. Clasping his hands together, Mozzarella opened his mouth again, but this time his actual voice spoke. "I am-a Mozzarella. I will be your helper for the 24 hours you will-a be in the Forest of Good-a Taste. Ah haha."

'He's Italian? Never coulda guessed. He seems good natured enough, but something's off about him.' Iwa observed Mozzarella's every movement closely. Rigid and metallic- like a machine. He walked slowly, too, but in an abnormal way. Like a horror movie villain. Then there was his face. Mozzarella was never not smiling, almost like he didn't have a choice in the matter. His cheeks looked like they were made of plastic and his eyes were glassy and purple- two traits human eyes don't have without special surgery.

"Now-a, before we get started, I would-a like to thank each and every one of you for coming. It would be-a so lonely without visitors here every week. Your task here is to cook a delicious meal for me. The best cooks pass, the worse start again. You only have 24 hours to gather ingredients for a meal and meet me-a back here when you're done. But, be careful not to get lost in the forest. Bad-a things lurk there. Bad-a things indeed. Begin." Immediately after Mozzarella finished, people had questions...

"What forest?"
"What exactly do you want us to cook?"
"Why the hell are we even doing this?"

...all of which were left un-answered. Except for one.

As soon as Mozzarella made his way back to the middle of the clearing, a forest began growing around it. Trees began popping out of the ground everywhere. One poor sap had a tree grow underneath him. He was stuck in the leaves for the remainder of the week.

'I assume we're expected to fend off these 'bad things' while we collect food and stuff to cook? That shouldn't be so hard... for a group of people at least.' Iwa turned to the other four that were waiting under the gazebo and smiled slightly. "So guys, I have a proposition. I want to team up with the rest of you to beat this thing quickly and easily, and in return we can all share credit for the meal. What do you say?"

Kit gazed around at the group of people before her gaze settled on the man talking. She listened with a bored expression and arms crossed, occasionally glancing at the others. She frowned a bit, not too interested in the test already. Her violet eyes widened, though, when trees and bushes started growing about. She had trouble recognizing many of them. Vegetation wasn't her forte at all. She pursed her lips, eyes already flickering between fellow audience members. Surely there'd be someone savvy about she could "borrow" ingredients from...

Then Iwa stepped up with his proposition. She blinked at him, not sure what to say. He might just be a lousy cook wanting to mooch off people who knew what they were doing. Sure, she was ready to do the same thing, but c'mon. The woman gave a silent shrug, curious about what the others would say.

Ash listened to the man speak his speech and try to give them orders, when he noticed Kit seeming hesitant and some of the others seeming like they weren't in the mood for some cooking challenge, Ash spoke up for them, but his way, he sliced part of the man's hat off without touching him and cut off the left side of his mustache in a second swing," I believe I speak for everyone when I say, we will not part take in your silly cooking challenge, my country may have good cuisine, but I wasn't brought into the military for cooking. So let's skip the bullshit and move to what you really brought us here for." Ash spoke in a mean tone sounding pissed, he held his shield up just below his helmet's mouth as he spoke.

Kazz made sure that the other three caught up but he stood in the back of the four, especially when the audience was in his view and some odd looking fellow. There were too many people and he was extremely uncomfortable with that. Kazz let out a sigh when the challenge was mentioned. Out of all things a cooking challenge is part of this. This is already looking to be a waste of time. A forest began to form from underneath their feet. Kazz stepped to far behind the group and had to move out of the way before a tree took him to the sky. Well at least we are in a setting I can adapt to. Kazz fixed his eyes on Iwa as he spoke. He looked around at the group and noticed that Kit most likely didn't want to participate in this. Finally, the unsettling eyes of Kazz rested on Ash. He made a scene rather quickly and gripped his bow tightly, as if he was ready to take off.

Kazz knew the group probably already thought he was strange, everyone did. Thats why he liked to work as a lone wolf the best, there was no one to judge him, especially by his cover, and those that didn't were the ones that quickly trusted him after finding out he was a worthy ally. Kazz hoped something in these challenges would allow him to do such a thing. He hoped that the group would be able to relax with one another and work together to scale obstacles, no matter how large they were. After a few moments of silence Kazz spoke up. "I'm in. He stood to Iwa's side. He stared at the others, who were probably not quite ready to count on others for the upcoming challenges. However, it was certain none of these challenges would be cleared without the help of all of them.

Spriggs27 said
Ash listened to the man speak his speech and try to give them orders, when he noticed Kit seeming hesitant and some of the others seeming like they weren't in the mood for some cooking challenge, Ash spoke up for them, but his way, he sliced part of the man's hat off without touching him and cut off the left side of his mustache in a second swing," I believe I speak for everyone when I say, we will not part take in your silly cooking challenge, my country may have good cuisine, but I wasn't brought into the military for cooking. So let's skip the bullshit and move to what you really brought us here for." Ash spoke in a mean tone sounding pissed, he held his shield up just below his helmet's mouth as he spoke.

"Hmm. Maybe choosing cooking as a challenge wasn't a good idea. But it is-a the only way to keep animal corpses from-a rotting up the place. This forest was specifically designed to-a hone hunting skills, as a lot of-a people need that to survive in the world. Lots of people learn hunting at a very young age, sure, but not this kind of hunting. That's-a probably why your military was easily killed by demons and monsters the second-a you tried to invade." Mozzarella's was overall unphased by Ash's attack, however he sounded irritated when he talked.

GodOfChaos said
Kazz made sure that the other three caught up but he stood in the back of the four, especially when the audience was in his view and some odd looking fellow. There were too many people and he was extremely uncomfortable with that. Kazz let out a sigh when the challenge was mentioned. A forest began to form from underneath their feet. Kazz stepped to far behind the group and had to move out of the way before a tree took him to the sky. Kazz fixed his eyes on Iwa as he spoke. He looked around at the group and noticed that Kit most likely didn't want to participate in this. Finally, the unsettling eyes of Kazz rested on Ash. He made a scene rather quickly and gripped his bow tightly, as if he was ready to take off. Kazz knew the group probably already thought he was strange, everyone did. Thats why he liked to work as a lone wolf the best, there was no one to judge him, especially by his cover, and those that didn't were the ones that quickly trusted him after finding out he was a worthy ally. Kazz hoped something in these challenges would allow him to do such a thing. He hoped that the group would be able to relax with one another and work together to scale obstacles, no matter how large they were. After a few moments of silence Kazz spoke up. "I'm in. He stood to Iwa's side. He stared at the others, who were probably not quite ready to count on others for the upcoming challenges. However, it was certain none of these challenges would be cleared without the help of all of them.

"Hey thanks, Kazz. How about you, Kit?" Iwa looked over to Kit who looked like she didn't even want to be here.

((Sorry for shit post today Wasn't in the mood for writing, really, but I felt I should respond before this died again. I'll have better posts from now on. Thanks.))

"Mm," Kit hummed, looking around again and stepping aside as a flower sprouted beside her. "Sure, okay. Might as well, I suppose." She nodded a bit though unlike Kazz, she didn't make a physical declaration of support by standing beside him. "At least it should be easy," she added. She personally didn't think so, but surely the others did.

{{ Shoort but Idk man. Finals are just around the corner, too, so I'll be slow af this next week.}}

Ash looked away from Mozzarella in a look of disgust, he gotten angry by the weird man's words," Those men died because they were all soft and lived a life of luxury before they were conscripted, and some of them were mere teenagers like I was." Ash's tone switched over to angry and his accent almost disappeared as he spoke, then he noticed that everyone began to change there minds about cooking challenge that this man was having them do," If you wish to do this strange man's stark challenge then I'll just comply and aid you all with it."