Alex still reeling from the effects of the trial realm, slowly began to gather his thoughts, planning what moves to make next.
'Mmmh,' he moaned in comfort and looked down at the token floating in the air before him, taking a closer look at the calm interior of the great hall.
Alex with his hand, now learned reached out for the token. But upon contact with him, it merged into his skin and an instant later appeared within his now frozen sea of consciousness.
On inspecting the strange token that was now floating within his frozen sea, like a massive ball of light. He touched it and a red display like earlier appeared in his sight.
Ding...
[Token of Determination discovered]
[Token Grade: Divine]
[Available uses: 3]
[Description: The Token of Determination is a great recognition from the Temple of Origin and can be expended as a breakthrough enhancer. The number of uses and the grade for ascension depend on the token's grade.]
Alex on seeing the description drew in a sharp breath of excitement. Although his soul had upgraded in the aspect of his will, it seemed that he had awakened something powerful and unique.
He still had no way of controlling it. Heck, he didn't even know what exactly he had awakened to, working only with bits and pieces of information.
Seeing no other changes occurring within his sea of consciousness he looked towards the beautiful violet tea cup which was still sealed within the central pillar of ice. He saw the pillars of ice still floating domineeringly in the sky, without any signs of melting making the place look like a tundra.
Withdrawing his awareness, he looked around the hall at the various gateways displaying their auras appearing agitated and excited. One radiated in a beautiful heavenly golden aura looking like the gateway leading to heaven, and one radiated with a myriad of colours as though to mimic the light of the universe.
Another was enshrouded in a melancholic aura of black and white as though it was the gateway of yin and yang and the last glowed in a cold but calm and even shade of crimson seeming like the heart of the world's most wanted serial killer.
Looking back and forth between the gateways, Alex was hesitant to choose any. Even the solid and stable white aura of the Gateway of Determination didn't seem to be all that truthful about the trials and challenges it had.
Filled with traps and pitfalls the auras of the gateways did the severity of the tests no justice whatsoever.
After settling his mind and considering his gut feeling, Alex walked directly towards the crimson gateway's aura. Approaching the gateway the moment he was entirely engulfed in the aura, the next trial began.
"So it's the Trial of Intellect next huh? This is going to be interesting to watch. I wonder how that nasty guy would react to another Origin treasure entering his realm suddenly. I just hope he doesn't act greedily and end up tampering with the test's progress though." the Temple Guard said as he watched the progress of the trial calmly.
"As for this one," turning to look at the Gateway of Determination "The best I can do is to mask the changes for now. Luckily the temple has stored a vast amount of the gateways' aura against a day like this."
"At least until all the trials have been completed and the formation of the temple has been deactivated, no one would be able to notice the changes here giving this little one the chance to escape from the clutches of those jackals."
On saying this the Temple Guard waved his hand in the air and a barrier covered the entire Temple realm. Due to it being a small space, he could still camouflage the overall aura of the plane.
Meanwhile, outside the Temple of Origin, the two spectators had their mouths agape as they watched the series of unexpected events finally regain their composure.
"Big Brother Felix, what the heck just happened?"
"Well, this was truly a magnificent experience," Felix replied his face filled with excitement
"A token was granted to Alex by the Temple Guard himself, and a total clear was achieved. This is just an amazing feat and a miracle."
"What does that token mean?"
She asked puzzled as to why her brother would get so worked up about a mere token. So unlike himself, who would be stoic even watching a planet explode into galactic dust. Now he was jubilating like a toddler who was offered ice cream.
"What it means, what it means, my dear Gaya. Is that our prodigy Alex would be able to smash apart any tough bottleneck blocking his way to the next grade of power.
I'm sure you know that the upgrade from the Grade 1 Mortal Master Realm into a Grade 2 Traveller Spirit Realm is the most gruesome on the body of any human, especially those who have immense potential.
However, with this token no matter how dangerous it is or how powerful that barrier is he will smoothly break through. Seeing as the Will Clone of the temple guard presented the token to him personally, it definitely cannot be a low-grade one.
Most likely, it is good enough for two great breakthroughs. Unlike the other tokens I've heard of, which are only good for a single use." Felix explained to his sister finally saying her name out of sheer excitement.
"The benefits of the token are felt when you break through. And following the fact that he cleared the trial after breaking out of the phase two death trap, there are likely other benefits that his achievements have earned him. Which we know nothing about yet.
I never expected that he would face the death trap no one had ever escaped from, and come out unharmed." Felix said relief finally showed up on him after Alex made it out of phase two of the trial.
"Is there something wrong with the Gateway of Determination?" Gaya asked after a long pause
"It seems so weak all of a sudden."
Felix's attention was immediately drawn to the state of the gateway.
Felix looked at the gateway, noticing it was all but gone from the hall. Hiding in an ethereal form in the outer area of the hall
"It would appear that now that phase two has been cleared completely, the trial has fulfilled its purpose. So no matter how the previous challengers cleared the trial the gateway within the temple had remained unchanged this has finally changed.
This could have dire consequences for us if unfriendly guys discovered that it was our realm's genius that completed the trial. After all, we are not the only ones with access to a projection of the Origin temple.
Let us just hope that the gateway state improves later, returning to normal or else some troublesome guys are gonna be searching for the culprit."
He said solemnly and the air turned stifling.
'Hmmn' Gaya said and turned her attention to the gateway Alex was standing before. The Crimson Gateway.
"The Gateway of Intellect." She looked worriedly as the aura of the gateway was not exactly welcoming.
"It is sometimes called the gateway to idiots. It is famous for its absurd difficulty of passing so much so that I've never heard of anyone who could beat the first phase of the trial perfectly.
Nine out of ten persons who took the trial came out of it much dumber than when they went in, and the majority of that ten per cent returned empty-handed. The only person I know who came out of the trial stronger and even earned an overpowered token from it was the 358th Patriarch of the keepers.
"That Guy!" Gaya said in shock never expecting it would be that monster who was referred to as the most legendary patriarch.
"From what I've experienced, I can confirm that what he experienced within that trial made him into the wisest being in the history of the Earth realm.
That is just how fearsome the Trial of Intellect is.
It can break your mind or make you into an unrivalled force."