“Welcome to the Arcanist Hall, Blood Soldier N 06 08499.”

  “You are in the Trial Space of the Arcana Trials. Please select the difficulty of the Trial.”

  “You cannot select a difficulty 2 levels beyond the level you have already cleared.”

  “The difficulty level of the Trial will decide the integrity of the Prototype you will be given. The higher the difficulty, the lower the integrity of the Prototype will be.”

  “You must disclose the lineages your Roots are based on before beginning the Trial.”

  “Additionally, you can choose to specify the lineage you are more familiar with, but it must not be one of the lineages that your Roots are based on.”

  “Specifying a certain lineage for the Trial will result in deduction of Trial points.”

  “Points deducted for specifying your preferred lineage will not affect the status of ‘Perfect Clearance’ of the Trial, or any other rewards.”

  “Note: If you have completed the Mystery Trials, then you can give up the opportunity of perfect clearance of the Trial, with no other penalties, to use the Prototype you created in the corresponding difficulty of the Trial to create Arcanas, instead of the random Prototype provided by the Trial Space.”

  “The total points earned will be calculated on how quickly you interpret the Prototype into an Arcana, and the Grade of the Arcana you create.”

  “Creating Arcanas of Perfect Grade will be considered as perfect clearance.”

  “The reward for perfect clearance of the first Trial is 10 Blood Coins, which will be increased to 20 Blood Coins for the second Trial, 30 Blood Coins for the third Trial…”

  “If you fail to gain a perfect clearance, your reward will decrease according to your performance.”

  “Failure to interpret the Prototype will disqualify you from the Trial.”

  “Creating an Arcana of Failed Grade will be considered as a failure of the Trial.”

  “Failure or disqualification from the Trials will result in forfeiture of rewards.”

  “Perfect clearance of all ten Trials will be rewarded with additional 500 Blood Coins, and 1 Low Grade Arcanist Medal, which can be used to redeem any Initial Stage Arcana, or resources of an equivalent value.”

  “Breaking records will grant you an additional amount of Blood Coins, equivalent to what you would have gotten for a perfect clearance for that level.”

  “If you break a record for the entire city, you will earn an additional Low Grade Arcanist Medal.”

  “If you…”

  Alnea paused, and read the instructions of the Arcana Trial once again, making sure that he had not missed any details, before finally letting out a sigh.

  “These Trials never stop surprising me.”

  “It is a good surprise though, right?” Yuri said, not bothering to hide the amusement in her voice. No one could hear their voice, after all. “At least it did not ask you to learn any Arcanas.”

  “I certainly am happy about that. Still, creating Arcanas… Looks like it is going to another hard day for us.”

  “I thought you liked creating Arcanas.”

  “I do. But in moderation. Not ten at a time.”

  “No one is asking you to challenge all ten levels of the Trials at once.”

  “…We don’t have much time.”

  “Did Vestia find something again?”

  “We will talk about that later. For now, we need to focus on these ridiculous Trials.”

  “Ridiculous?”

  “Don’t you think these Trials are ridiculous?”

  “…I think they perfectly embody the meaning of Trials.”

  “…How does creating Arcanas embody the meaning of Trials?”

  “This is the Arcana Trials… What else did you expect?”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “…Something more reasonable.”

  “Do you think that fighting several enemies who have no care about their lives, while restricting ourselves in all ways possible is reasonable? Or is deliberately giving us the wrong materials to inscribe our Glyphs reasonable?”

  “…I still think that the Trials of the Arcanist Hall are more unreasonable.”

  “…Then why can I hear the excitement in your voice?”

  “…That’s just because I like challenges.”

  “…I knew it.”

  “…Knew what?”

  “…Pervert.”

  “I am not a pervert!” Alnea said, using his Aspects to hide the shame in his voice. “And I am trying to get rid of the negative influences on my Heart… But it will take some time.”

  “Relax,” Yuri said, in a calm, and soothing voice, that seemed to incite the Serenity in his Heart. “I know you are working on your Heart. Even if it is not apparent, I can still see the changes you are making. As for what I said earlier… I could not help it. You are so irresistible to tease at times.”

  “…I thought you were a teacher, but who knew that in truth, you were a bully.”

  “…Should I bully you some more then?”

  “…Forgive me, teacher Yuri!”

  “...You will never learn. Forget it. Let’s talk about the Trials. Creating Arcanas… It is not as if we have never created Arcanas. Maybe the Arcanas we created did not reach the Perfect Grade, but that was because the Mysteries we were interpreting were of the Origin Sea. The Prototypes that the Trial will ask us to interpret should be of Artificial Mysteries. Flawed, and incomplete. As long as we perfectly interpret these Prototypes, creating Perfect Grade Arcanas should not be out of our reach.”

  “…For you and me, maybe. But for Lia…”

  “…Aren’t you underestimating her a little too much?” Yuri said. “You should believe in her a little.”

  “But—

  “Trust me. She will be fine. Though she might be cursing entire generations of the creators of the Lost City, these Trials are not enough to stop her advance.”

  “…I hope so,” Alnea said, before shifting his focus back onto the panel floating in front of him. “Let’s complete the Trials, and go back as soon as possible.”

  “…May Goddess Ilea be with you.”

  “May Goddess Ilea be with you.”

  Filling up the boxes asking for the lineages of his Roots, and the difficulty of the Trial, Alnea ignored the rest of the boxes on the panel, before choosing to begin the Trials.

  “Interpret the Initial Stage Mystery embodied in the Prototype provide by the Trial Space into an Arcana.”

  “You will be provided with an endless supply of Artificial Oren.”

  “There is no time limit to the Trial. You can experiment and create Arcanas however many times you want.”

  “The Trial will end once you chose to submit your Arcana.”

  “You must not imbue Mysteries beyond what is provided by the Trial Space into your Arcana. Any violation will result in disqualification from the Trial.”

  “Perfect clearance condition: Creating a Perfect Grade Arcana.”

  “Record 1: Creating an Arcana in 27 minutes, 16 seconds.”

  “Record 2: Creating an Arcana in one try.”

  “Record 3: Creating a Perfect Grade Arcana.”

  “Your Trial will begin at the count of 60.”

  “60.”

  “59.”

  “58…”

  Alnea ignored the first and second record after just a single glance. The second record was practically impossible to break. As for the first… Maybe, if he was quick enough, and had Goddess Ilea’s blessing, he could give it a try. But then, it would mean sacrificing the Grade of the Arcana. This was the only possible time that he was going to be given a chance to create Perfect Arcanas. How could he give it up just to break some silly records?

  “43.”

  “42.”

  “41…”

  Besides, if he really wanted to break records, he would break the third one. Though that also seemed impossible to break. After all, how could he create a Transcendent Grade Arcana with just one Mystery? That was contrary to all common sense. No, it was better to just use this chance to experience creating Perfect Grade Arcanas. It would surely be huge help to his future.

  “27.”

  “26.”

  “25…”

  On second thought, creating Transcendent Grade Arcanas was not impossible. He just had to be a little careful. After all, the instructions just said that he could not imbue Mysteries beyond the one provided by the Trail Space. It said nothing about keeping himself limited to the Prototype. As long as he could deduce the Mystery behind the Prototype…

  “12.”

  “11.”

  “10…”

  No, just deducing the Mystery was not enough. He also had to create his Arcana in such a way that when being casted, it would induce the Prototype being interpreted to resonate with the Mystery it was based on. Then, and only then, would his Arcana be able to break the bounds of the Prototype it was interpreting. But…

  “3.”

  “2.”

  “1.”

  “0.”

  Before Alnea could think more about how to create a Transcendent Arcana, the panel finished its countdown, and shattered into tiny shards, repeating the usual process of merging into the darkness, and making way for a bright white world, with a nigh endless amount of orangish Oren fog spreading endlessly in all directions. Except, this time, with the place he stood as the centre, a small circular area had been carved up in the white expanse, where no Oren fog dared to enter. Other than the small cloud of Oren floating in front of him, of course.

  Different from the sea of Oren fog around him, the small cloud of Oren floating in front of him had a golden and silverish hue around its edges, with a red core at its centre. Or at least that was how the cloud seemed from its surface. Still, other than being a little more colourful, and a bit more stable, it did not seem to be much different from the fog around him.

  Was this the Prototype of a Mystery provided by the Trial Space? So small? What kind of Mystery—

  A white light erupted from within the Oren cloud, overwhelming all of its colours, dyeing everything around itself in its own hue, before vanishing back into the cloud just as abruptly as it had appeared, returning the cloud back to its original form. Yet, in his eyes, the Oren cloud had suddenly changed its form, becoming a bit more alive, emanating the profound air of a Mystery.