Chapter 85: The First Trial

  Emilia opened her eyes and gasped in surprise. Instead of the cold, rocky tunnels of the cave, a vibrant meadow bathed in light unfolded before her. The strange part was that, despite everything, they were still inside a massive cavern. It was colossal. The ceiling stretched hundreds of meters above, and the light did not emanate from a single specific spot; it simply existed everywhere.

  She looked around and saw the other young participants. Some had clearly woken up earlier and were already organizing themselves. A little later, Rumi also woke up.

  "What is happening?" she asked.

  "We have successfully entered the private space," Emilia answered simply. Meanwhile, Rumi rubbed her eyes and squinted at her surroundings.

  "Now we need to find the first trial."

  This specific private space served two functions. One was to gather mana from the mountain's core to create a special mana-rich atmosphere, allowing for the cultivation of numerous unique plants.

  The other function was to test the new generation and distribute various rewards. Everyone who entered was required to gather a certain number of herbs, and each person had received a list. This was part of the price for their entry.

  These herbs were exceptionally valuable and required specific environments to grow. Some had almost completely disappeared outside of such private spaces or specific, extremely complex and expensive gardens created solely for their cultivation. Thousands of years of evolution among the sentient races had led to an eternal search for ancient, mana-rich treasures.

  Countless specialists, even those of the highest levels capable of flight and sensing such treasures from hundreds of kilometers away, had spent a few millennia tirelessly harvesting the strongest and most ancient plants.

  In the Era of Heroes, such treasures were abundant. Any shepherd could stumble upon a 100,000-year-old ginseng, unlock their mana just by smelling it, and reach level one with a single hair from its roots.

  Today, however, only the efforts of the older generations could preserve such legendary treasures.

  Rumi stood up and began pulling Emilia's hand impatiently. "Come on, let's go! I can't wait for the first challenge!"

  Emilia noticed Elion, caught up to him, and the three of them headed forward together along a strange path.

  To the left and right of the path stood numerous statues made of wood. "What are these statues?" Emilia asked, and Elion, who was always reading one book or another, was quick to answer.

  "These are the statues of previous visitors to the private space. Notice how some are larger while others are smaller. This is due to their performance in the trials. And do you see how some statues have faded and their features are blurred? Those people lost their lives within this space!"

  Emilia knew there was a certain level of danger, but now, as she looked around and saw the various faded statues, she remembered her parents' fears and the many nights of discussion. "But I received this second chance from the Goddess, and I will not settle for an ordinary life!" she thought once more, though this did not completely banish her fear. Nevertheless, she felt more confident, and her stride became firmer.

  "Look, look, there are other races besides humans!" Rumi ran ahead, pointing at the various statues. Some races were similar to humans; others, like the centaurs, were quite different. And those of the strange giant flies living in the mountains and underground were completely alien.

  Emilia looked at a statue of a centaur, and next to it, three statues of Stone Lizards. A little further on, there was even a massive Tauren and two Dragon Riders.

  As they walked forward, Emilia did not stop scanning for danger. Even though the place looked quite orderly and maintained, it remained dangerous.

  Soon, the group reached a massive hall filled with countless revolving doors. Emilia had seen similar doors on Earth, but these served a slightly different purpose. Each door was a construction with two to eight wings connected at the center, allowing them to move freely in all directions. Every part of the doors was inscribed with various magical diagrams.

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  "We are lucky," Rumi rejoiced. "This is one of the easier challenges!"

  During the briefing, Emilia had learned that there were dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of challenges within this space. Some were relatively simple, others more difficult and illogical, and some were downright mind-bending. A small portion of them included extremely dangerous battles, where it was even possible that participants would have to fight each other for the right to move forward.

  This challenge, however, was in the form of a spatial puzzle. These doors could rotate 360 degrees. The goal was to align various combinations of elements, and there was a limit to the number of attempts each person could make.

  "Emilia, I think I'll skip this challenge. I hate all this logic and math. I'll just try a few random combinations quickly and then explore around before heading to the second challenge. My father gave me some quite useful items, so I'll be able to handle most of the magical monsters here. Please don't be late; I'll wait for you at the more interesting challenges."

  Like most of the wealthy children here, all of Rumi's items were fully enchanted. She most likely possessed several hidden treasures to preserve her life. Besides those, she had a magical spear that could fire bolts of lightning, which she could partially guide with her mana.

  Emilia had often seen her training with her weapon and had asked many questions. This was how she realized that most people here would rely on their items, both now in the private space and in their lives ahead.

  This had quite disappointed Emilia at first, but Rumi had casually replied that it was simply because Emilia came from a poor family. If you could afford an enchanted carriage, why would you walk on foot?

  Emilia had reflected on that strange sentence for a long time and, in the end, could not reach any deeper conclusion regarding weapons and carriages.

  Now, however, here at this first challenge, Emilia had a certain advantage. She had worked with numerous formations and diagrams and hoped she had developed some logical skills.

  She approached the first revolving door carefully and began to examine it slowly. The inner doors within the strange structure were not inscribed with formations, nor could any mana or aura be seen flowing between them. Emilia studied them but saw little meaning in them.

  Meanwhile, Rumi spun several doors with all her strength, then stopped them and activated a key that locked them temporarily. She had the right to press such keys 20 times, whether on twenty different doors or simply twenty times on the same door.

  Rumi had naturally chosen to spin the nearest 20 doors around her, trying to keep them clustered together. After the last door stopped, she pressed the keys.

  Rumi gave a shout of surprise and hurried to collect the few rewards that had dropped. Three of the twenty doors had materialized some strange rewards, though it was not clear exactly what they were because the doors had become almost opaque for a moment.

  "This is a rather strange challenge," noted Elion, who was observing the actions of those around him and was in no hurry to move forward.

  "Do you have a strategy?" Emilia asked, never stopping her scan of the surroundings.

  "Elementary. I will simply wait to see what combinations others make and use the combinations that have already yielded a reward."

  Emilia thought for a moment.

  "So you're going to copy all 20 doors from someone else?" she decided to clarify.

  "No, I will try to guess what happened, select several variants from other people, and try to create my own combination."

  "Sounds interesting," Emilia said. She had no other plan, however, and so she decided to wait.

  Several other children, much like Rumi, hurried to pick random combinations. Time here was limited; in three months at most, the space would forcibly eject them. Furthermore, whoever reached something valuable first would be the one to claim it, while those who lingered would be left with empty hands.

  In other words, those who delayed here would gain an advantage in the first challenge, but they would sacrifice time and miss out on future opportunities.

  "How cleverly designed," Emilia decided. Now she faced a choice. Should she try to win as much as she could here and now, or risk it and push forward?

  "The others might find more opportunities ahead, but they will also face more risks," Elion reminded her. "I am not good in a fight, so I prefer to wait a bit. Most participants are stopped by one challenge or another anyway and cannot proceed. No one has ever successfully solved all ten."

  Emilia fell into thought. So often in the sacred books, heroes navigated the challenges the world threw at them with perfection. This was something most readers even came to expect. Yet, as Elion said, in all the long centuries, no one had actually succeeded. Why would she be the one to manage it?

  But then, did anyone write books about heroes who did not succeed?

  "I am not a hero in a book," Emilia reflected. "If I were, I would already have all those expensive items like the nobles, I would be riding a dragon, and I might even have my own flying ship. I certainly wouldn't be wasting my time in some third-rate pocket space."

  ........

  Emilia chose to stay behind and observe the attempts of the others. However, she quickly realized something—most of those who stayed back, like herself and Elion, weren't just waiting to see those opening random combinations. Primarily, they wanted to watch the ones who would attempt something based on more than just luck. They would learn from their successes and failures, building upon their experience.

  "How interesting," Emilia thought. "If we all organized, perhaps we could test more combinations. But who would agree to be among the first? Who would trust that the last ones would share their rewards?"

  Emilia studied the doors and soon noticed an obvious combination. There were two wings that had an almost identical number of elements. They formed a very clear possibility. If all the doors were lined up like dominoes, touching at the identical elements, it would create a very orderly system. It wasn't the most profound system, but it wasn't entirely random either.

  "What would someone else do in my place?" she wondered.