//Author's note: I wrote this with a headache. Will edit it for smoother reading experience.//
Since the Light and Dark Gates were occupied, that leaves us with 6 options, not including the last gate that includes everything from the other gates.
Moving towards the Gate of strength, I asked the voice to open it for me.
"Would you like me to explain the rules?" the voice asked, but I shook my head as I entered the gate, wasting no time.
Just like previously, the same black and white hall appeared, leading to a central area where a tall square stone was present. As for the test, all I had to do was to break it.
[One Way Out!]
[Strength Boosted!]
Even though I maxed out my strength, I still was going to hold back. All in all, there was not one reason to go all out when the results can be achieved by 40… no 30% of the strength.
Taking a proper stance, I then positioned my fist towards the stone. Controlling my strength…
-BOOOM!!!!!
The stone turned into dust as two portals appeared again.
The normal strength one needs to fulfill this trial is around 250. Anything below and you won't be able to get past this.
'Well. Now we need to wait for at least a few minutes for the cooldown to finish,' I sighed as I moved out of the room and looked at the Dark and Light gate, still active. Both Oriel and Gray were going full in their trials.
'I believe they are going to take about an hour or two before finishing it,' I pondered as I sat there on the floor, recovering my strength.
And once the cooldown came back to 0, I stood up again. Moved towards the Gate of Agility.
"Would you like me to explain the rules?"
The monotonous voice rang again in my brain and once again, I shook my head as I simply walked into the gate.
Once again, the same black and white hall appeared in front of me, as I looked at the 5 warriors standing in front of me. Each of them seemed to be made of paper as they carried swords and shields with them.
[Frenzy!]
[Battle Zone!]
With the battle zone reaching [Advanced] level, now I can see 5 people within the zone along with the ground and a bit of the surrounding area. The senses were still limited, though.
The reason I didn't use [One Way Out!] immediately, is once again the same as before. You need a bare minimum of 250 Dexterity to even have a chance of finishing this trial and I was… no… I must keep it bare minimum.
As for completing the trial…
-Whoosh! X 5
Taking a step back, I dodged the attack of the warriors before swimming my sword. Two of them were in front of me, two on each side and one coming from above.
-Slash!
Taking a side step, I slashed through the one on the left first, before taking a jump away from the 4.
These warriors had speed and power. Enough to slice you before you know it, but good thing that this was all they had. Their defense was paper thin.
-Whoosh! X 4
And their attack pattern was predictable.
-Slash! X 2
Killing too much at the front. I then turned around as I waited for the last 2 to follow me. Using the perfect timing of their attack pattern, I jumped above them before.
-Slash! X 2
And once again, I killed the remaining ones without much problem.
"Phew… this one went better than expected," a smile appeared on my face as I could see how much I improved in this. Much better than when I started first.
Though not minding much, I then moved to the portal and returned to the previous space. Waiting for my powers to return to normal and out of cooldown, I then moved towards the Gate of Wisdom.
Unlike the Gate of Intelligence, there weren't any knowledge related questions here. Though instead it was more of a moral based question. And only 3 of them.
"Between Darkness and Light, which is better?"
"None and both."
It was fascinating that the answer was quite biased, as only a follower of God of Balance that doesn't differentiate anything would be able to answer this correctly. Even I took some time before figuring out the right answer.
This was another reason that Ii didn't bring Evelyn to the gate and to the other ones.
"What is the best way to test someone's good nature?"
"By bringing his enemies in front of him and letting him decide what to do with it."
"What is the right path to success?"
"The one with the most hardships."
"Acceptable," the voice answered before the portal opened and Ii returned again. I looked at the Light and Dark Gate, still active, making me wonder how much longer there had left now.
'Evelyn should have reached home by now,' I thought as I then moved towards the Gate of Mana Control.
Gate of Mana control was simple as well. All I needed was to show a certain level of mana control to the statue, and he let me pass through the gate.
Gate of Endurance was about fighting a bunch of normal immortal warriors under 3 times gravity. The duration was 5 minutes without rest. Tiring but doable.
The Gate of Defence was about taking hits from the statue. 3 strikes in total almost killed me but I managed to survive.
Gate of Skills asked me to perform 5 different skills of different nature. I showed a Dark Spell, a Light spell, a speed oriented skill, a strength oriented skill and finally the skill to heal myself without light magic.
By the time I finished these basic trials, I saw that Gray had completed the test and the Dark Gate was still open, though the Light Gate was still occupied, meaning Oriel was still going at it.
'He should finish any moment now,' I thought as I looked at the last gate, which was said to have all the features of the other gate. While all the other gates were doable, this one was freaking hard no matter how I tried it.
'But I guess everything is possible if you know how things function,' I said before moving towards the Dark Gate.
"Would you like to know the rules of the Trials?"
The voice asked again and once again as usual and as usual I rejected it before entering the dark Gate.
Once again, I entered that black and white hall. Once again I walked towards the center. And just like every other trial, there was something peculiar about this one as well.
A man donned in light stood in front of me, as he observed me with a look. His eyes seemed to be serene and happy, as if he had watched her favorite show just a few moments ago.
"Seems like you enjoyed the fight with Gray," I spoke first as I observed that guy with a calm look. His smile deepened a little as he nodded,
"That is. It's not every day that you get people as honorable as him. All those years waiting, I feel like they are worth it."
His voice was beautiful and pure. Iit was as if the kindest soul was speaking from pure joy while he looked at me.
That light slowly dimmed as his figure became apparent. A man… or to be precise, a demihuman monkey wearing a golden headband, stood there with a smile. He wore a golden armor while a red waistband was tied around his torso. Holding the wooden staff in his hand, he looked at me.
"Are you a dark mage, too? Are you his friend?" He spoke with a bright expression while I shook my head.
"I would like to be.. But has other plans, so we didn't interact," I told him as I took out the dagger while he positioned his staff to me.
"Is that so? Well. I hope you would be at least half as good as that guy… gray, was it?" he spoke as he smiled sincerely before he jumped towards me at a rapid speed. His body glowed golden, and so did his staff.
-Whoosh!
Running towards me, he reached me in an instant.
[Frenzy!]
And within the next moment, I dodged him while coating my dagger with dark magic.
He was about half as fast as the most agile warriors, so Ii didn't need to exert too much pressure either.
There were several reasons why I couldn't go all out right now.
One was that this guy adapts to you pretty much to everything other than our dark magic. If you use fire magic, he will use that too. If you show a drastic increase in speed, he will immediately match it.
So using the base strength as a given minimum.
The other problem was that the last trial was also similar to this. It will take all the information it can about you from the other trials and give you an equally powerful trial.
In the first few runs, I went all out in all the trials, creating a trial that required me to go against a monster that had all my powers but at its max.
'Though luckily the difficulty doesn't increase in the last trial after it starts unlike this one,' I sighed before concentrating on that guy..
'Now, how should I deal with the insane amount of Light magic coming out of his?' I began thinking as I observed him.