Standing right below the second floor's pillar, Andrea blinked twice. "Was it really this easy?"
Yasenia looked at her. "What did you expect?"
Andrea said strangely. "More people to fight us, or to stop us, or for some unknown event to hold us back."
The dragoness's lips twitched, and she stepped forward to hug her. "Darling, are you getting a bit paranoid because of the incoming war?"
Andrea looked down with a wry smile. "Why are you looking at me as if I were saying something crazy? Doesn't all the proof point toward something happening?"
Yasenia laughed and stopped teasing her, explaining their situation. "First of all, we arrived at the second floor relatively easily and quickly. Then, we took many precautions in our way, making our 1-day journey last one and a half. Moreover, we have not stopped to gather treasures for longer than 20 minutes. All in all, we are advancing at a very quick pace while also being cautious."
Yasenia then looked at the large desert. "Lastly, this place is very large. It would be nonsensical for them to be able to find us as if they had a tracking device attached to our clothes or something. In short, darling, we are not the center of the world, and not everyone wants to kill us."
Cecile muttered. "Not everyone, most."
Yasenia's eyebrow twitched.
Meanwhile, Andrea nodded, but she still felt conflicted. Yasenia started walking toward the pillar while holding her hand. "Afraid that you won't be able to fight enough to consolidate your foundation?"
Andrea chuckled. "Can you read my mind?"
Yasenia coquettishly patted her butt with her tail. "Silly, you have that expression all over your face. I can tell at a glance." Andrea scratched her cheek with a smile.
Yasenia commented. "If we enter the tournament, we'll have plenty of chances to fight. Or… If you really want to fight in a no-rules place without observers, we can give up the tournament altogether and fight the groups we encounter."
Andrea shook her head. "How could I do something so selfish? I was just a bit unsatisfied, nothing more. Let's quickly arrive at the top."
Kali commented as they entered the giant entrance that led to the second trial. "We've already been here for four days, by the way. How are you doing, love?"
Yasenia blinked. "Me? I'm fine, why would you ask?"
Kali smiled, placing her hand before her mouth to lightly hide it. "With how… 'active' you are, I was just wondering if you were okay."
The dragoness laughed, her tail playfully sneaking from below her skirt and tickling her around her thighs.
"Ah? Yasenia, stop, haha. It tickles~."
"Oh? Did you want action, hm? Nobody would guess where my tail is hiding if we stood side by side~."
Kali felt the tip poking her underwear and, blushing as her fox ears straightened, stuttered. "D-Don't, I won't be able to hold back."
Yasenia smirked and retrieved her tail, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I feel perfectly fine. While it is true that my body forces me to be sexually active and things become a bit worse as I advance the mortal realms, my mental strength similarly increases. The sexual urge I'm feeling right now is nothing. I can go on for a few months easily, and even a year wouldn't be that big of a problem…"
Yasenia paused. "Well, or so I believe. Things might've changed from the War Trial time. After all, I haven't gone… 'hungry' for the last few years." The dragoness seductively winked at them. "I've been well-fed by all of you~."
The girls coughed to hide their shyness.
After checking their surroundings like before, they all stepped into the formation and were transported.
Once inside, their bodies suddenly felt extremely heavy, so they all entered a state of high alert. They didn't feel any danger after a while, so they relaxed their guards and observed their surroundings.
The dragoness blinked as her gaze had to go up at the massive structure before them.
Kali blinked and asked. "What's this?"
Cecile commented, uncertain. "Obstacle course?"
Yasenia nodded. "It looks like it."
The massive structure before them was a spiraling building that had an extremely complex obstacle course carved into it and around it.
Andrea muttered. "30,000 meters tall?"
Yasenia nodded. "Something around there."
Then, curious, Yasenia crouched and pushed, trying to jump with all her strength.
With a loud sound, her body shot upward for around 200 meters and then quickly fell back.
Bang!
The dragoness titled her head. "Wow. There is a very strong force blocking my flight ability and also pushing me down."
The dragoness turned toward Cecile, and understanding, the Phoenix woman stretched her wings and began flapping.
She quickly flew upward, but similarly, at around 250 meters, Cecile could be seen flapping her wings, but instead of continuing to fly, she was quickly falling down.
Bang!
With another harsh landing, Cecile dropped down to Earth. "The force gets increasingly stronger. Flying, even physically, is impossible."
Feeling it was fun, Yasenia looked at Kali, Andrea, Eira, and Valeria with glittering eyes. She was practically telling them. "Jump!"
The four of them chuckled and followed her wish.
Kali went first. She pushed against the ground with all her strength and shot upward extremely quickly and agilely, reaching around 120 meters.
Andrea was next. Without taking off her armor, Andrea flexed her legs and jumped upward. Her body quickly flew, reaching a height of around 150 meters.
The dragoness's gaze turned toward Eira, leaving Valeria for last.
Eira bowed once and then crouched. Right after, the girls could feel the air compressing above Eira as she pushed and jumped.
BANG!
Her body flew upward like a shooting star, overcoming the 200 meters in less than a second and continuing her flight until she arrived at 1,200 meters.
Then, she fell back down and smashed onto the hard floor, creating a loud and wide shockwave.
Andrea whistled. "As expected of a Dantian Spiritualization realm. The base strength is just on another dimension."
Kali agreed. "Moreover, it isn't as simple as six times more. After all, it gets increasingly harder. I can assume that Eira's jumping strength was at least 15 times more than Yasenia's. And that's a conservative estimate."
Eira commented in her usual cold voice. "When Young Miss reaches my cultivation level, feats like mine will be nothing in comparison."
The girls didn't argue with that statement.
Finally, they all turned toward the giant, three-meter-tall, voluptuous woman. Valeria blinked. "Do I really have to?"
Yasenia blinked cutely and wagged her tail. "Please~."
Valeria got a direct hit to the heart. 'So cute!' She crouched down, patting Yasenia's head. "Okay, okay. I'll do it."
Valeria looked upward for a moment, rubbing her chin. Then, she nodded.
Andrea saw a few calculations going through the powerful woman's head and commented. "Only physical strength, okay?"
Valeria laughed gently. "Don't worry, I won't cheat, haha."
Then, the three-meter-tall woman finally flexed her legs, followed by her pushing against the ground.
A creaking sound of the earth below the woman crying was heard for a fraction of a second before a massive explosion happened.
BOOOM!
Our girls protected their faces and hastily looked upward with stunned expressions.
100 meters…200 meters…500 meters… 1000 meters…
As if she was not losing speed, Valeria flew extremely quickly and finally reached an absurd 5800 meters of height before starting to fall again.
The girls took a few steps back, but unlike what they expected, Valeria touched the ground as if she had made a jump for a stair step instead of falling from almost 6000 meters.
The light tap of her feet touching the ground was like a trigger, and the girls all exclaimed.
"Wow!"
"How did you go so high, Valeria?"
"I don't know what I was expecting, but that was incredible."
Valeria chuckled. "In truth, I'm not much stronger physically than Eira. With Eira's technique, I would've reached around 1600 meters or so."
The girls blinked, confused. Kali asked. "Then how? We all used just physical strength."
Valeria leaned down and poked her forehead. "That's where the problem lies. You are not as efficient in using your bodies as I am. You might've controlled each individual fiber to do that jump, but I'm controlling everything. With the same base strength, I can create much stronger results."
Valeria sighed, placing a hand on her cheek. "Sadly, I'm not that efficient in physical strength usage. If not, reaching 10,000 meters wouldn't have been out of the question."
Curious, Yasenia asked. "How high would Tatyana reach?"
Valeria titled her head. "I don't know. Between 3000 to 8000 meters."
Andrea's lips twitched. "That's not very accurate."
Valeria pouted, looking seductive and tempting. "That woman is a bit of a mystery in a few things. I can't read her at all. Probably only Mirrory has seen the true depth of Tatyana."
Kali asked, intrigued. "And Mirrory?"
Valeria shrugged. "I dare not guess that mirror's true depth. Her previous master used Mirrory to fight the Main Heavens and was able to fight back. That feat alone goes against all things I thought were possible before. If it weren't for Lady Truth Saint Fu Jing Jing's good intentions and pure heart behind that act, Mirrory would've probably been stricken down as a demonic artifact by all existence. Thankfully, Mirrory's wielders are all pure and good by nature, and it is incredibly difficult to corrupt them, almost impossible, to the evil path, as having a clear heart and mind are the minimum requisites to wield her."
The girls nodded with understanding. Andrea asked. "By the way, what was her name before Mirrory? Does she have one?"
Valeria smiled. "Well, ask her later. That's not something I should answer."
Kali laughed. "You really don't want to be on her bad side, eh?"
Valeria pouted. "She is one of the few things between the entirety of Heaven and Earth that can deliver True Death to me. I don't want to offend her! Now, children, stop talking and go complete the trial."
They all answered Eira included. "Yes!"
The dragoness turned toward the obstacle course and commented. "So… Do we go one by one, all at once…? How does it work?"
They looked around and found the start of the trial's obstacle course. This time, the rules were written on a large white mural.
In addition to the five rules, there was imagery of people climbing this giant tower. Of these images, the ones that showed people actually dying caught our girls' attention the most.
Kali muttered. "So, there are lethal obstacles."
Cecile nodded. "And not a few. It seems that this entire thing is a lethal trap."
Yasenia read the rules aloud.
"First Rule: If you want the last section to open, you must cross the checkpoints across the trial before 5 minutes pass."
"Second Rule: Each checkpoint only needs to be crossed by one person from the group."
"Third Rule: Time will start ticking after someone crosses the first checkpoint."
"Fourth Rule: To be considered as [Checkpoint cleared], at least a part of the body must touch the checkpoint."
"Fifth Rule: If time runs out, you and your group will be expelled from the World Trial."
They looked at the imagery on the large mural and saw the shapes of the checkpoints. They were triangular shapes with a large blue gem in the top vertices. From the illustrations, they looked around 3 meters tall.