“…Do we really have to do this?” Ralph said in a slightly sheepish voice, as he looked at the pair of giant doors ahead of him. “I mean, we may be going a little overboard…”

  “What? Are you afraid?” Alnea said, glancing at his teammates standing next to him with a grin. With the ten of them coming together, they had taken up almost a quarter of the eighth floor’s landing by themselves, intimidating the rest of the Wanderers to stay away from them. Though he was not too worried about other Wanderers eavesdropping on him anyway. Not anymore.

  “Who is going to be afraid of mere Trials?” Zain said with a scoff. “Is it not just challenging ten Peak Mystery Trials consecutively? Bring it on! I will show you why they call me the White Arcanist!”

  “That’s the spirit!” Alnea said, glancing at the rest of his teammates. “And what about you? Did you not all agree to conquer the Trials with me?”

  “…When you said that we were going to conquer the Trials of the Lost City a week ago, this is not exactly what we had in mind,” Karl said in his usual gloomy voice. “But we should have guessed it when you cleared all the Trials up to the Advanced level in just half a month or so. Or when you kept telling us about how we do not have much time… In any case, since we are here already, we might as well try it.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Norren grumbled. “You dabble in all three paths, but I am mostly a Warrior. I somehow got through the Trials of the Glyph Hall by barely mastering a Peak Stage Glyph… but what am I going to do about the Trials of the Arcanist Hall?”

  “Relax,” Alnea said, patting Norren on his shoulders. “Do not think about it too much. You just need to go in, and it will be over before you know it.”

  “…Do we look like some three year old children to you?” Norren said, turning towards his captain with a stiff face. “Completing the Trials of the Warrior and Scholar Hall in a day was already hard enough, you want us to repeat the same with the Trials of the Arcanist Hall? You are not even letting us rest!”

  “Come on, it is not that bad,” Alnea said, laughing off Norren’s worries. “You just have to go in, and create a bunch of Prototypes. How difficult can it be?”

  “…Just a bunch of Prototypes? Just a bunch? Do you know how long it took me to complete the Trials of the Arcanist Hall up to the Advanced Stage? A whole month! And even then, I barely completed the Trials. You expect me to clear ten Trials in a day? And that too, Peak Stage Trials… Vestia, can you check if everything is alright with our Captain’s head?”

  “I agree with him though,” Vestia said, shrugging her shoulders. “What is so difficult about creating a bunch of Prototypes? If you fail on your first try, then keep trying until you succeed. It is not as if you are going to suffer any backlash anyway.”

  “…I forgot that you are another freak, who is only a little worse than the three monsters.”

  “…You should not call a girl with mean names like freak, or monster, you know?”

  “…Sorry…”

  “Don’t bully Norren, Vestia,” Alnea said, and did not wait for Vestia’s reaction before turning back towards Norren. “And you too, Norren. I know that my demands are a little unreasonable, and I do not mind you freaking out because of it, but you should still control yourself. Or do you want to tell me that this is all that your Warrior’s Heart can amount to? Getting disturbed by just a slightly difficult task?”

  “…I will be mindful,” Norren said after a while, in a much more subdued, and calm voice. “As for challenging all ten Trials consecutively, I still think it is a little unreasonable. Even if there will be no backlash for failure, not all of us are suitable for examining Mysteries, and experimenting with Oren. What might take you just an hour, may take me as long as five hours to accomplish.”

  “Right, that is what I want to say too,” Ralph said, nodding along with Norren, while glancing at the other Star Seekers.

  “…Do not look at me like that,” Fran said. “Although I may not specialise as an Arcanist, as a Scholar, I still need to deal with Mysteries all the time. Especially if I want to create Glyph Arrays. Things like experimenting with Oren is a daily practice for me.”

  “…I also know how to inscribe a Glyph Array or two. Why have I never heard of Scholars experimenting with Oren?”

  “That is because you do not want to break out the mould of the traditional Scholars, and create your own path,” Aren said, shaking his head. “It is true that inscribing Glyph Arrays do not require experimenting with Oren, but when it comes to creating a Glyph Array from scratch, not only do you need to have an extremely thorough understanding of your Glyphs and Mysteries, but you also need to experiment constantly with Oren, trying all sorts of combinations between the different strokes of Glyphs.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “…Creating Glyph Arrays?” Ralph mumbled, going into a daze, prompting the rest of the Star Seekers to shake their heads. Having reached the Peak Stage, their foundation was already set. For Ralph to break out of his traditional thinking, and delve into the path of Glyph Arrays, he would have to build his foundation all over again. Even then, it was not sure if he could leave the path of traditional Scholars behind.

  Not that there was any problem with being a traditional Scholar. Rather, walking a path that had already been walked upon by their predecessors came with its own benefits. After all, following a set path was much easier than creating a path. At the very least, they would not have to waste time groping their way forward. Just by copying their predecessors, they could walk step by step to the heights that their predecessors had once reached. Breaking past that height though…

  Although walking on their own path was difficult at first, they would not be limited by the heights of their predecessors. Neither would they have to restrict themselves to the means explored by their predecessors. Creating different means to deal with different situations was what those who created their own paths were famous for. Of course, they would have to become capable enough first.

  Little Shiny, the Serpent of Secrecy that had once guarded Yuri’s room, was just a True Ranked Glyph Array in essence. Yet, it took the Serpia clan nearly ten thousand years, and countless resources to develop the Array. Though Serpia clan’s inexperience with Glyphs, and Little Shiny’s special nature were part of the reasons for such an exaggerated number, Little Shiny’s example still highlighted the difficulty of creating new paths for Wanderers.

  Even if someone had enough talent to walk on their own path though, they could not do it without the guidance of their elders. Just the foundation required to forge their own path was not something that young Wanderers could build on their own. They could still make up for their lacking foundations when they grew up, but by then, it would be too late for them to walk out on their own paths…

  “That said, I also agree with Norren that expecting us to clear all ten of the Mystic Trials today is a little unreasonable,” Aren said, breaking Alnea from his thoughts.

  “It really is not too hard, but since all of you are insisting… Fine, just go ahead and try to clear as many Trials as you can. Also, try to maintain a record of Perfect Clearance in all Trials. We still do not know what the new rules of challenging the Final Trial will be. Do not end up losing your qualification to challenge the Final Trial with the team just because you were a little lazy in the rest of the Trials.”

  “…Speaking of losing the qualification to challenge the Final Trials, I am more worried about you and Cecilia,” Karl said, staring solemnly at Alnea. “Challenging the Peak Stage Trials as just Advanced Stage Wanderers… I do not know how you got through the Glyph Trials, but the Trials of the Arcanist Hall will not be so easy to bypass.”

  “That’s right,” Norren said, staring at Alnea with a fiery gaze. And though the others did not say anything, except for the girls, the way that the rest looked at him was almost the same. “We thought that you two would most likely fail the Trial. And yet, not only did you clear the Trials perfectly, you even broke a few records. How exactly did you two do it?”

  “…Did I not tell you about the essence of Trials a few days ago?”

  “The essence of Trials?”

  “I clearly remember telling everyone that the Trials are not simple,” Alnea said, furrowing his brows a little. “I even specially reminded you before going to the Glyph Hall. Do not think about just clearing the Trials. Focus more on what you can learn from them.”

  “…What could we have learned from the Glyph Trials?”

  “…You really do not know?”

  “If we knew, we would have also broken the records.”

  “…Do you really think breaking records is so easy?” Alnea said, suppressing his urge to laugh at his teammates, before answering their question. “Of the three Trials of the Scholar Hall, The Mystery Trials teaches us how to make the best use of the materials available to us, the Glyph Trials teaches us how to control and manipulate our Glyphs according to our situations, and the Scholar Trials teaches us how to perfectly combine everything we have learned to forge our own paths.

  “Of course, we are still far from creating our paths. At best, it can only be said that had you paid more attention, then the Trials of the Glyph Hall could have helped you strengthen your foundation, and teach you how to apply what you have learned. Like inducing a trace of higher Stage Mysteries into your Glyphs. As for breaking records… It would have depended on the depths of your foundation…”

  “…Is this what humans can do?”

  “…We did it just the day before…”

  “…Alright, we understand how you cleared the Trials of the Scholar Hall. But what are you going to do about the Trials of the Arcanist Hall? After all, inducing higher Stage Mysteries is completely different from comprehending them. How are you going to deal with their backlash?”

  “…Why do I have to deal with their backlash of Mysteries?”

  “…Is that not obvious? As an Advanced Stage False Wanderer, how can you face Peak Stage Mysteries without suffering from their backlash?”

  “…First of all, it is not my Spirit Power, but the level of my Heart that decides what level of Mysteries I can bear. And my Heart is Serene enough to withstand the backlash of even the strongest of Peak Stage Mysteries. The only reason why I have yet to comprehend any Peak Stage Mysteries, is because my Spirit Power is not enough to support me to the depths of the Origin Sea where I can encounter such Mysteries.”

  “…I almost forgot about that…”

  “…Heart and Mysteries…”

  “…I am feeling so embarrassed right now…”

  “It is all your fault… I obviously believed in Captain…”

  “…You…”

  “…Most importantly,” Alnea continued. “I think you have forgotten the fact that the Mysteries we will face in the Trials will be Artificial. As Vestia said earlier, they will have no backlash. And even if they did, we are not in the Origin Sea. Just a simple rest should be enough for us to recover from the backlash. Why then, should I worry about facing the backlash of Mysteries in the Trials?”

  “…If you say it like that…”