Tha reward I got was a piece of clothing — a long coat to be exact, it was all-black in color, sleeves that reached up my elbows, and stretched pass the back of my knees.
The fabric was made up of soft, comfortable cotton. It really didn't feel like a piece of cloth but more like another layer to my skin. It was weird.
If air blew in this sealed room, the coat would fluttered around in a dramatic manner. The coat had some beautiful lines that stretched across it serving as a captivating design.
The coat didn't hinder my movement at all, in fact, it made my body a little bit lighter. I moved around and found it very accommodating, it didn't hinder my movements at all, I could move the same as me not wearing it.
"This is a coat imbued with magical enhantment, it has slight resistance to elemental attacks, boost the wearers agility a little bit, and hide the wearers presence."
The monotonous voice explained.
Is that so...
Resistance to elemental attacks — now that was something! Such an enchantment is very useful in fights against mages, unfortunately, despite its potential, right now that feature was quite useless, to be frank.
Boost the wearers agility, that explains why I feel that my body feels lighter.
And the last feature — hide the presence of the wearer, an enchantment I could use greatly. Such a feature is overpowered, hiding the presence of the wearer? That's some assassin type of level shit!
All was great in all, I was beyond satisfied with the rewards. I wondered what the reward for the second trial will be.
But imagining the trial I just finished, and back into thinking about the second one, it seems like it won't be easy, not by a long shot.
After a while, my mana and body strength recovered. For some reason, the speed of which both was recovered was faster than usual by at least two times.
I didn't doubt for a second that it was because of another special mechanism of the Labyrinth. Now I'm really curious as to what kind of powerful mage had been able to build all this.
"I'm ready for the second trial now." I uttered.
Neph was also ready, her mana was filled to the brim. Not only was her mana as a spirit very large, but her speed of recovery was also pretty fast. I get why they have the title of "Mana's Children."
"The trialist is now ready, the second trial shall commence." The familiar monotonous voice echoed.
Light engulfed my eyes.
I opened my eyes to the sight a massive mountain. The mountain looked so domineering, it slightly intimidated me.
I was having a bad feeling about this.
I gulped, then the familiar voice echoed in my mind, "Reach the mountain peak with your bare hands."
My heart shook!
What do you mean by bare hands! I screamed in my mind.
Suddenly, something made my face pale, throughout my body, I could not feel even the slightest drop of mana, none at all!
It was like I was stripped of a major part of me! It was horrifying.
My mana was gone, my magic was gone. For a mage, losing these things is tantamount to giving up on life.
I looked around and saw Neph right beside me without much of a reaction.
She seemed...fine?
She looked back at me and tilted her head. Her face was saying, what is it?
She was totally fine! She was even flying right beside me.
"Ca-can you use magic?" I stuttered, still taken aback by this second trial!
Neph furrowed her brows and raised it in surprise, "Ne-neph, no magic..."
There was a hint of troubled light in her eyes, I sighed, "Don't worry, once we finish this trial, it should come back."
Neph wiped away the beads of water about to drop from her eyes and nodded.
Still, Neph could fly, that was something.
She could lead the way whilst finding the best route to reach the peak.
I just hoped no beasts shows up, but I doubt there would be, after all, the special mechanism exists. Climbing the mountain bare hands without magic was extremely hard enough, and you want to include beasts? Thats tantamount suicide.
Anyway, I looked back into the massive mountain, on a closer look, I saw some slight resemblance of its outlook to the mountain in the forest — but much massive.
"Is this a simulation of sorts?" I didn't know but this place looked as real as it could be,
I breathed in deeply, "This climb...will be a long, long one."