Flicking the crystal, the lines below started to light up again. The extremely white room appeared around him again. Lucas sat down, not because he was tired or anything, he just knew that what followed next was better done sitting down.
The room seemed to light up even further, blinding him. Then, as he anticipated, it happened, a scorching headache attacked him out of nowhere. This time it felt even worse than last time. As he clutched his head, he activated a spell he prepared beforehand. A plank made out of pure mana appeared in his mouth for him to bite down on.
He wasn't going to resort to biting his hand again. Lucas tried his absolute best to endure the searing pain as random memories flashed around his dome. Moments that seemed to be completely unrelated and years apart from one another passed through each other.
Time passed extremely slowly and felt a lot longer compared to the first trial. Then out of nowhere, the pain stopped again.
'So this hasn't changed.'
'Goddammit. You're wrong, it lasted two seconds longer.'
[Would you like to start the second trial?]
There it was again, that same voice like last time. At the end of the first trial he heard a small monologue from this place, but then there were emotions embedded into the words. Here, it felt like an emotionless rehearsal.
Lucas didn't really understand what that message was about. It was already extremely short and vague which didn't help him in the slightest when he tried to decipher it. For now, his theory was that some grand mage created the trials during some kind of war. But that didn't make sense on multiple fronts.
If there was a war, why bother putting it behind a trial? Why bother making all of this when you could simply give people power, and what would be the point in giving different rewards, if they were really in some kind of war, giving everyone the best reward would only make sense.
If a shortage of materials or energy was the problem, why did the message encourage him to help the others reach the same result? He thought about it for some time before pushing it away.
"Yes!", he shouted loudly in the white room.
[Rank 2 Wizard detected, trial adjusted]
[Special Tier 1 body detected, trial adjusted]
'That doesn't sound good.'
'No shit. I've already prepared the improved shields, but I don't know their strength yet.'
'Don't worry, the first test is just questions.'
[First test: Three questions will be given, please choose the correct answer.]
As the voice ended, the white room transformed into a simple grass field. There was nothing but dark green grass around him and the blue sky above had nary a cloud in sight.
[Question one: Of the two people in front of you, who deserves to live?]
Two people suddenly appeared on the field. One was an older man with a cane and a long beard while the other looked like a mercenary. Scars covered his body as if he was collecting coins.
"What the fuck? Where are we?!", the brute shouted. He looked around him not recognizing anything, the older man stayed quiet as he lifted his heavy eyebrows to take in the surroundings.
A thousand thoughts raced through Lucas's mind as he tried to get a grasp on the situation. Without wasting any more time, he brought out his aura and forced the two men in front of him to the ground.
Their easy domination made it clear he was dealing with normal humans, or at least they weren't mages.
"I am the lord of blood and despair, both of you have been summoned as potential candidates. Only one of you is worthy to become a subordinate of mine, speak without deception or lies. You go first.", Lucas pointed at the brute as he lifted his aura.
After experimenting on the nobles, he knew what his aura was capable of, if he kept them inside his aura, they would start going insane. So it was best to keep their contact to a minimum. Still, that small experience in that blood-red aura was enough to scare them both.
While his audience were terrified stiff, Lucas was dealing with another problem.
'Hahaha, lord of blood and despair? Hahahaha, what a fucking joke!'
'Hey! I had to act, this looked like the best way!'
'And that's what you choose? Hahahah!'
'I had to pick a name that sounded dark or evil, combined with our aura, that seemed like the most logical choice! We need to know who's the worst of the two, and now they'll try to appeal to us.'
'Hahahaha!'
As Lucas was having trouble handling himself, the brute was starting to panic. He had been asked to speak, but hadn't said a word. It was clear that the person in front of him wasn't joking.
The aura that was only on display for a few seconds scarred his mind more than what he wanted to admit. Scenes flashed in front of him, he even felt like he was holding the corpse of his daughter in his hands for a few moments.
Staring at the grass below him, he tried to get a grasp on reality. He just had to explain who he was, yet the words he so desperately needed wouldn't come. Lifting his head slightly, he was confronted by the two golden irises that made him freeze in place.
"Well?", the voice was cold, almost annoyed. That was the last thing he wanted right now.
"My- My name is Kust.. I- I'm a mercenary!", the man explained his life's story in simple terms and to the point, not wanting to waste any time for the monstrous being questioning him.
'So he had a kid, his wife died, and now he's working as a mercenary, but only taking the highest paying jobs.'
'Yeah, so this dude probably has a history with all the darkest corners of the world. He isn't a good man. He's a money hungry killer.'
'But he is doing it to help his daughter.'
'Pff, hey, didn't your persona of lord of blood get to your head? Hahaha? How many people did he kill, how many families did he ruin to save his own? You would call that a good man?'
'No, let's listen to the older man first.'
'If he's also scum then we're going to be in trouble.'
Lucas turned his sight on the old man, his stare was enough for him to take a knee. He seemed to be a lot more educated in serving someone.
"Oh Lord, my name is #531, but everyone calls me Venom Blade. I was born a slave, and was raised to become an assassin. I'm experienced in poisons and venom, while I'm just a human being, I was capable of killing a Rank 0 mage and severely hurt a Rank 1 mage."
His story was a lot more summarized then Kust, he had experience in following orders and assassinations. It was clear that both people in front of him weren't the cream of the crop.
'One's willingly killing people to save another, while the other never had a choice to begin with.'
'Shit, I think they're both bad people. If I had to choose someone, it would be the old man. He didn't have a choice, so he's good in my book. We're the same, no?'
'So we kill Kust? Hmmm, something feels off. The trial was adjusted because we got the best reward from the first trial. And that wasn't meant to be achieved. Only the greatest geniuses could've answered the final question.'
'Or you needed unbelievable luck like us and have that voice break itself.'
'So how would a genius act? Would they say that Kust is more honorable since he was putting his life on the line for others? Or would they have pity for the old man since he was never given a choice?'
'Nah....'
'What do you mean "nah"? At least try to help out.'
'I am, idiot, look, if we try to think it out logically, then we can only try to imitate how a genius would act. If we want to get the same result, we need to think outside the box.'
'How do we go about that?'
'By flipping the question.'
'Hmm?'
'The question was, of the two people, who deserves to live? I say there's none. We make a choice by not choosing between them.'
'You know what? You make a good point. Since I can't figure out the correct answer, let's get rid of them.'
Lucas had been taking his time to figure out the best result, leaving the two men on their knees, waiting for his reaction.
Then suddenly, he summoned a sword out of nowhere. The sword looked basic, yet both had the experience to tell it was sharp enough to end their lives. They stared at the blade as they waited in anticipation of who would be chosen.
As he lifted his sword in the air, their eyes glued to it, hoping it would swing the other way. As the sword came down, Kust couldn't react in time and felt his head split in two, dying on the spot.
The old man bowed down to the ground. "Oh, great lord, thank you for choo-", he grunted as the sword was inserted in his back, splitting his spine in two. "Why?", Lucas lifted his sword and pierced him again, this time below the neck. After the old man lost the life in his eyes did the voice appear again.
[Congratulations! You have answered correctly!]
[Question 2: You have encountered a Rank 2 Dragon. What will you do?]
'This isn't even a normal question anymore. The previous could be interpreted to check your sense of morality or something, but this is just strange.'
'Yeah, the answer is also so obvious.'
'Indeed.'
'You run/hide.'
'What? Hiding from such a monster isn't going to work. The only logical solution is to run away.'
'And that's where you're wrong dummy. When you run away you show that you're afraid of it, you're easy prey, but if it can't find you in the first place, it might not consider fighting you.'
'Hmm, do you think we have any magic that will hide us from such a monster?'
'No, luckily those assassins do. So as long as we can get our hands on them, we'll be ably to pry out every single bit of information. I don't care if we have to pull out all of their teeth, melt their eyeballs or have insects build nests in their stomach, they'll give in.'
'Uhm... okay, then I'll leave that to you when we get to it. Back to our topic, the answer is to not engage, right?'
'If you can't acknowledge my correct answer, then sure, say whatever.'
"You keep your distance and limit your presence to ensure not to come into contact with it."
[Calculating...]
[Congratulations! Your answer has been deemed correct enough.]
'Correct enough? How the hell does that make any sense?'
'Forget it, on to the next question.'
Lucas had some trouble with the last question but got through it after going to great lengths. His brain was fried and needed so much time that more than a week in the world above had to have passed. He was asked to fix an array and frankly, depression wasn't far from him at that point.
Before he even understood what the array was about, a day must've passed. He hated his shallow knowledge. Rubbing salt into his wounds, the trial didn't spare him any mercy.
He almost gave up, the thing that kept him going was admitting he wasn't good enough. Each time he reached his limit, a surge of energy sprung up from nowhere to force him to continue.
He didn't mind running away from a fight or admit he didn't know certain things, but if he was given infinite time to solve an issue. Then the only thing that could hold him back was his own determination.
[Congratulations! You have answered correctly!]
[You have passed the first test!]
[Second test: A combat trial will be presented. Please defeat all enemies within the allotted time!]
[Remaining time: 12:00:00]
Standing on the open field, he looked around as nothing seemed to have changed. The light breeze flowed through the grass, the clouds and the sun in the air was a refreshing sight compared to the dark Underworld.
Then Lucas noticed a black line in the distance. A line as thin as a needle floated in the open air. Approaching it with caution, Lucas pressed his finger against it. While the needle was tiny, his touch said that he was pressing against a wall.
Instinctively, he used some of his strength to put some pressure on the line. A sound of glass breaking came from the line as it rapidly grew. The cracks grew and grew until it surrounded him. Then the space shattered into pieces. None of the shards remained visible, but they did reveal the truth behind the grass field.
Before, there was just endless grass, now his surroundings had changed drastically. There were five areas with distinguished features. One was a dark forest, another was a mountain range with sharp peaks. A volcano, a large lake and a desert.
His little space of simple green grass felt like the only safe space.
'What in the? Why did you touch it so ignorantly, for all we know that could've been some kind of trap or something?'
'A trap?'
'I don't know, shattered space?'
'Shattered spa-, I was going to make fun of you, but space did shatter just now.'
'Shit, okay, focus, those areas are for the great beasts or whatever?'
The surrounding areas seemed familiar. During his hunt for the Great Beasts in outside the trial, Lucas tried to copy as many spells as he could. This also made him familiar with the typical nests those beasts resided in.
'Most likely. But as far as I know, there aren't any of those in a desert. There's barely any sand in the Underworld, so what is over there?'
'Don't know, don't care all that much right now. We don't have much time, take care of the easy prey first.'
'Or should we focus on the strongest one first?', Lucas turned to look at the mountains in the distance. It was the habitat of the Black Griffons, which meant it was time for a rematch.
He had searched out the so-called Great Beasts in order to find more spells to copy, and while a few were quite handy, he wouldn't be able to use them here. Still, he at least had a good idea for how to tackle each monster.
Rushing towards the dark woods he went to take care of the easiest of the beasts. The Terrabears lived in those kinds of woods. He had enough experience to take one down even if it was an adult, it shouldn't be an issue.
Finding one of the Great Beasts, Lucas took his time summoning a Blue Flame Spear and threw it with a slight arc, hitting the Terrabear from afar.
'There, that should be one, you did well in changing the form of that sword. The more forms it can take, the better.'
'Hey.'
'What? Are you asking which one we'll do next? It should either be the Magma Turtle or the Lake Serpents.'
'No, we aren't done yet.'
'Hmm?'
Turning around, he looked at the aftermath of his attack. When he experimented in the wild, a single spear made of Blue Flames was able to kill an adult. There were some that survived the initial impact, only to have the flames snuff their life out.
A ferocious roar came from the flames as a large figure was making its way towards Lucas.
"No way."