After a while, Skyler finally stood up.
Taking a deep breath, he told himself that everything would be fine. But as he turned around to continue what he had been doing, another message appeared in front of him.
______
The Last Trial Progress:
Two of the participants has died.
Remaining participants: 97
_______
After that, it felt like an endless countdown that never stopped. Messages continued to appear before him without any pause, each one announcing another death. By the time Skyler had finally finished building the boat and reached the other side of the clear lake, the number of remaining participants in the trial had already fallen into the single digits.
______
The Last Trial Progress:
Four of the participants has died.
Remaining participants: 4
_______
Skyler stared at the message screen with bloodshot eyes and let out a hollow laugh.
As he staggered off the crude boat woven from wood and vines, gentle ripples spread across the crystal-clear lake as the small vessel slowly drifted away from the shore.
He looked at the distant towering trees bearing massive flowers. His strength left him, and he slowly fell to his knees. At that moment, when even breathing felt difficult, another message appeared before him.
______
The Last Trial Progress:
Three of the participants has died.
Remaining participants: 1
_______
Skyler’s vision blurred as he slowly looked down at his hand that had begun trembling, gripping it tightly with his other. He wanted to believe that one person remaining meant there was still someone else beside him.
But deep down, he already knew the truth.
One remaining participant meant only one person who entered the trial was left alive.
Him.
Finally, the realization settled in.
"They all died... they died."
He slowly lifted his gaze toward the sky.
"How could they die? Weren’t they so powerful... the real chosen ones?"
His voice, loud and laced with disbelief, even attracted several people from the city behind him. But instead of calming down, Skyler’s voice only grew louder and louder, almost as if he were laughing at the sheer absurdity of everything that had happened.
"How am I supposed to complete this trial when I don’t even have the power needed to survive?! How?! Is this some kind of joke?"
His breathing was heavy when he finally noticed the spirits gathering behind him, only to leave one by one after seeing him.
Although the people of the Spirit Race did not harm the intruder who had appeared in their realm, they were far from welcoming.
They merely watched him with strange eyes, as if he were nothing more than an insect, before turning away and leaving.
Surviving in that prosperous city filled with people so different from him proved even more difficult than the forest where he had spent so much time. There were moments when continuing to live felt unbearable.
Because even when he somehow found some treasures said to increase one’s potential, none of them worked on him.
The reason was something Skyler had known all along—his body... it was never capable of holding power in the first place.
He had been born that way. And if he couldn’t even hold power in his body, how could he increase his potential? There was simply nothing within him to strengthen.
Years passed.
All he did was struggle and survive.
Because he knew very well that if he died, the trial would end. And with that, everyone who had entered it and died would vanish.
It was Skyler’s seventh year in the Spirit Realm. The place was no longer foreign.
He had found a way to earn a living in the city and even saved some capital to roam around, searching for a way to gain even a bit of power so he could complete the trial.
He had even seen the Royal Castle from afar, where the Queen of the Spirits lived.
Skyler had no idea if he would be able to accomplish anything in the end before his allocated time ran out. After all, he could feel himself growing older with each day.
Still, at least, his life had become better compared to when he had first arrived in the city, when he had lived in a dark alley.
It was just another exhausting day when Skyler noticed a white-clad, middle-aged winged woman passing through the city.
A group of young spirits followed behind her, respectfully calling her their master.
On impulse, Skyler, who had just finished his work of delivering herbs to a medical shop and received his wages for the day, followed the group from a small distance.
Fortunately, they were not moving too quickly and were simply walking leisurely.
As the group stepped into the lush forest surrounding the city and stopped beneath one of the towering trees, the middle-aged woman leading them began explaining the various elements found in nature to them.
Skyler sighed and sat down behind a tree near the group, listening to the woman.
Taking out a small knife, he broke off a nearby branch and simply began carving a random shape into it. It was a habit Skyler had developed over the years—to distract himself whenever he felt like giving up.
The woman’s voice was calm, carrying a faint sense of serenity that made it easy to listen to. Through the occasional chatter drifting over, Skyler learned that they had come from an Academy—the place where talented youths of the Spirit Race trained under the guidance of the older generation.
It was located behind the Royal Castle, a place he hadn’t known existed until now.
He smiled to himself at that thought. But just as he was about to leave, he suddenly felt a gaze fall upon him. At the same time, the middle-aged woman changed the topic, as if she had done so specifically for him.
"Even if you are born with a body incapable of holding Evol, there is still a way to obtain power. It is known as the Path of the Divine. But few are able to walk this path because it brings more harm than good. After all, a weak, mortal body is not strong enough to withstand the pressure that comes with it."