After everyone watched Caius Astroweild burn quietly in the flames until the very end, the time for the fifth stage concluded, and with it, the exam came to an end.
The large screen flickered off, and Caius’s mind was automatically pulled out of the immersion.
In the end, Caius secured first place with a perfect score, announcing himself at the peak once again, followed by Kyle Astro and then the others.
For the professor who had predicted that none of them would even reach the fifth stage, the results were literally shocking—especially regarding Kyle and Caius, who had entered the fifth stage, surpassing most of the third-year students.
The professor looked at Caius, who was removing the device from his head, and a single thought kept repeating in his mind:
’If we had completed all the stages... just how far would he have reached?’
...
In another place far from the Axis, outside the four empires and the safe lands—
Towering black mountains rose with sharp peaks, while smooth plains stretched out everywhere under a purple sky.
This place looked as if it were made of non-reflective black glass, as if this entire land had melted thousands of years ago only to reshape itself from volcanic glass.
This was one of the Red Zones... the territory of the Fallen Star Shard, a Great Rank 7 beast.
However, the latter had only appeared a few times throughout the past centuries, while its sleeping place remained unknown, as a large portion of these lands remained entirely unexplored.
But perhaps things would change soon, because recently, unexplored ruins were found in this place—or more accurately, just a sealed entrance.
After this place was found by chance, a dispute arose among the four empires over who had the priority to explore it.
Why not let the one who found it take it?
Well, go ahead and try to put that idea into the heads of those rulers and their extreme politics... they would start giving you reasons dating back hundreds of years.
In the end, to avoid further conflicts that could lead to war, this place ended up in the hands of the Luminar and Aurelion empires.
Thus, each of them sent an elite exploration squad to enter the ruins.
And here they were now, in a spot between the black mountains; several people stood before a massive gate ten of meters high.
On its surface, many strange runes were engraved, indicating that this was no ordinary door.
In front of the door, two people stood examining it, while the others stayed back to guard the area from any monsters that might catch their scent and come here.
Both were Rank 5 experts and specialists in exploring ancient ruins and knowing the history of this world.
One was a woman who looked to be in her fifties, with long dark hair and brown eyes. Her name was Sarah, and she was from the Luminar Empire.
The other was a man in his thirties, with black hair and grey eyes; his name was Noah, from Aurelion.
Both were searching for a way to open this gate.
This door was extremely solid—to the point where it could withstand the strikes of a Rank 6 expert—so using force was not an option here.
Well, in fact, they could bring a Rank 7 and have them break this gate, but that might lead to the collapse of the space behind the door... and they didn’t want that.
Even if it didn’t destroy what lay behind the door, they might risk activating any security mechanism the place contained.
Who knows what kind of things exist in ruins built thousands of years ago by unknown beings among these mountains?
Their lack of knowledge was another reason not to do it.
Especially since no one knew what kind of treasures and Relic were hidden here... the main reason the empires were fighting over this place.
Sarah ran her hand over the runes on the door, trying to decipher their purpose and find a way to open the gate.
After they had spent a few days studying this door, they finally discovered the method to open it.
The lock on this door wasn’t something conventional... if it were, they would have opened it the moment they stepped foot in this place.
In fact, they had seen doors like this before in other ruins.
These doors have a magical lock that doesn’t just lock the door, but even the space around it, so the thing won’t budge no matter how much force you exert... unless you shatter space itself, of course.
Most importantly, to open this type of magical lock, you always need a special key or a specific Essence code.
Of course, they didn’t have the key... where would they find the key to ancient ruins built deep within a Red Zone?
So, they were here trying to find a code to open the door... through trial and error.
To make it easier to understand, an Essence code is a bit like Morse code, where you have to inject certain amounts of Essence into specific parts of the door designed for this purpose; of course, this must be in the correct quantity and order.
For Sarah, it wasn’t too difficult, but it took a lot of time. Her calculations said that opening the gate would take at least a few weeks.
Why not dig through the mountain to bypass the door?
They had tried, but even the inner walls of this place were like this gate, as if those who built this place made it a fortified castle to hide from something.
’Perhaps it would have been faster if they sent someone more competent,’ Sarah thought, looking toward Noah.
It wasn’t that he was bad, but honestly, compared to her, he lacked a lot of experience.
She watched him as he injected Essence into certain spots between the runes.
Suddenly, a wide smile formed on his face as he spoke words that surprised Sarah:
"I think I found it."
In the next moment, the runes lit up one after another on the massive door, while Sarah’s eyes widened as she took a few steps back.
Those who were guarding the place came over immediately as soon as they felt something strange.
Noah also stepped back with a broad smile on his face, while the place began to vibrate slightly.
The smooth ground trembled beneath their feet as the runes grew brighter.
Slowly, the intensity of the vibration increased before it began to settle, and then the light of the runes started to fade.
In the end, the shaking stopped completely, and the runes went dark.
"It didn’t open," Sarah spoke, looking at the gate which remained closed.
But it seemed Noah hadn’t given up; he stepped forward to the gate and placed his hands on it while his muscles tensed as he tried to push the door open.
The ground cracked beneath his feet, but the gate didn’t budge from its place.
Finally, Noah stopped pushing, standing there and scratching his head.
"So, what just happened?"
...
Behind the massive gate, and deep within the black mountains, there were dozens of tunnels connecting the place together.
In one of the halls, something resembling a circular stone table rose.
Runes filled every part of it, but at a certain moment, those runes glowed, and a three-dimensional map appeared.
If anyone saw it, they would recognize it... because it was a map of the continent.
But it was also different from the maps drawn by humans today.
And there, on that map, a small red dot appeared, pointing to an area within the Safe Lands.
Specifically, inside the Solaria Empire.
...
Back at the Aixs, night had already fallen.
Inside a certain room, Caius was sleeping peacefully in his bed... he didn’t even notice the person standing beside the bed.
There stood a mysterious figure, a cloak covering their entire body... was it a woman or a man? No one knew.
The figure looked at the sleeping Caius with intense interest before uttering a few faint words:
"Slow... you are too slow."
Usually, Caius’s senses were sharp even while sleeping, so he should have heard these words and woken up... but for some reason, he didn’t.
The mysterious person approached Caius and uncovered their hand.
"Perhaps you need to change the environment around you to speed things up."
They grabbed Caius’s wrist and turned it, revealing the distinctive tattoo that the Key of Dimensions had placed on him.
The figure raised their other hand and placed it on the tattoo.
A faint white light shone from the person’s hand before fading after a few seconds.
They looked at the tattoo for a while before letting his hand fall back onto the bed, while the covers automatically returned over him.
"Let’s hope you are complete in time."
With those words, the person disappeared from the room, while Caius remained sleeping peacefully.
completely unaware of what fate was weaving for him.