Unlike the Trials in the Warrior Hall, Alnea knew practically next to nothing about the Trials of the Scholar Hall. He still knew one thing though. The number of Trials in the two Halls were about the same. Accordingly, the number of Wanderers taking the Trials in the two Halls should also have been the same. But the long queue in front of him said otherwise. This could only mean one thing.
“The Trials in the Scholar Hall should be more difficult than the Trials in the Warrior Hall. Or at least, the Mystery Trials are more difficult than the Aspect Trials.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cecilia said. “You haven’t even been to the Trial Space yet. How can you know that the Mystery Trials are more difficult than the Aspect Trials?”
“How else can you explain the queue in front of us?” Alnea said, pointing to the Wanderers ahead of them with a tilt of his head. “They are probably here to retake the Trials after failing them before.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Even if they are not here to retake the Trials, we should still assume the worst,” Yuri said, with just as solemn expression on her face as Alnea. “Only then, will we be able to respond to any situation.”
“…I never knew that challenging Trials would be so complicated. Forget it. Just tell me what I should do next.”
“…As you said earlier, of the three of us, you have travelled the least on the path of Scholars. So, for now, you should wait out here while Yuri and I check out the Trials. It should give you a better chance of at least perfectly clearing the Trials.”
“…Are you underestimating me?” Cecilia said, gritting her teeth to show her frustration. “You said it yourself, right? That you are not much better than me when it comes to Glyphs.”
“That may be true, but I can also adapt to changes much more easily than you.”
“…Let’s see how you adapt to the punch I throw at your face,” Cecilia mumbled in annoyance. “Don’t make me wait too long.”
“Of course,” Alnea said, nodding his head, before turning towards Yuri. “Let’s go.”
Yuri nodded her head back in return, before following him into the queue. Thankfully, though the queue was long, the process of entering the Trial Space itself was short. As such, it did not take long for them to reach the doors themselves. Glancing back one last time towards Cecilia, Alnea gave her a nod, before placing his Blood Card on the black pillar, and stepping into the Trial Space. An absolutely dark space, with nothing but a blood red curtain of light floating in front of him.
“Welcome to the Scholar Hall, Blood Soldier N 06 08499.”
“You are in the Trial Space of the Mystery 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 degree of connection you will be allowed with your Mysteries. The higher the difficulty, the weaker your connection will be.”
“The difficulty level of the Trial will also determine the kind of Glyph you can use for the Trial.”
“You must select your lineage before beginning the Trial.”
“Using a Glyph beyond the specified kind and lineage will disqualify you from the Trial.”
“How quickly and efficiently you complete the Trial will decide how many Trial Points you earn…”
“…perfect clearance of the first Trial is 10 Blood Coins, which will increase 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.”
“If you fail the Trials, or are disqualified, you will not be rewarded with any Blood Coins.”
“If you can gain perfect clearance in all ten Trials, the Hall will reward you with additional 500 hundred Blood Coins, and a Low Grade Scholar Medal, which can be used to redeem any Initial Stage Glyph, 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 Scholar Medal.”
“If you…”
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“…It’s almost the same as the Aspect Trials.”
“Almost. There are still a few differences.”
“Still, these differences are not enough to make people fail the Trials… At least not in such high numbers. Unless those people are stupid…”
“…Or there is more to the Trial than what we can see from the instructions.”
“There is only one way to find out.”
“…Let’s do it.”
Alnea chose the lineage of Destruction, and began the Trial without hesitation. Moments later, the symbols on the blood red curtain of light scrambled around, forming a new set of instructions.
“Inscribe an Initial Stage Glyph on the Trial Stone.”
“Only the Carving Knife provided by the Trial Space is allowed to be used.”
“You can conjure the materials required to inscribe the Glyph by selecting it from the Assistant Panel.”
“Only the materials listed within the Assistant Panel is allowed to be used.”
“Only the materials provided by the Trial Space is allowed to be used.”
“Violation of any of the above rules will result in disqualification from the Trial.”
“Perfect clearance condition: Inscribing the Glyph in one go, without any interruption or mistakes.”
“Record 1: Inscribing the Glyph in 15 seconds.”
“Record 2: Using 4 materials to inscribe the Glyph.”
“Record 3: Inscribed Glyph can keep working for 17 days(passive Glyphs) or 78 seconds(active).”
“Your Trial will begin at the count of 60.”
“60.”
“59.”
“58…”
“These instructions…”
“Just the Initial Stage Trials are already so complicated…”
“No wonder so many people failed to clear the Scholar Trials.”
“Fortunately, we asked Cecilia to stay back first. Or I am afraid that she would have messed up the Trial in confusion.”
“Or, we could have just asked the others about what the Trials were…”
“But that would have ruined all the fun…”
“You are still thinking about having fun?”
“Why not?”
“…Forget it. Let’s focus on the Trials first.”
“That’s easy to say. What are we going to do about the Initial Stage Glyphs?”
“…That’s indeed a problem. We cannot inscribe Initial Stage Glyphs on our Spirit just to pass the Trials, right?”
“…It’s not impossible. But I think I have a better idea.”
“What is it?”
“Do you remember how new Glyph Arrays are made?”
“…That’s indeed not a bad idea. But only if it works.”
“…It should. As long as we can truncate the Mysteries in the Intermediate Stage Glyphs to a lower level…”
“Invoking a lower Stage Mystery from a higher Stage is not unheard of… but it won’t be easy.”
“That’s why this is a Trial, is it not?” Alnea said, just as the countdown neared its end.
“3.”
“2.”
“1.”
“0.”
The blood red curtain shattered after completing the countdown, its fragments falling down to the ground like broken shards, fading away into the darkness, only for the darkness to also fade away, making way for a bright white light that soon spread to every possible corner of the Trial Space. Just like the Trial Space in the Warrior Hall. He was not in the Warrior Hall though. He was in the Scholar Hall. And so, what he faced was not Blood Shadows, but a giant stone tablet.
Standing nearly five times his height, and half as wide, with a large arch near its zenith, the stone tablet was quite majestic to say the least. Unfortunately, he did not have the leisure to marvel at the tablet’s majesty. Subduing the awe in his Heart, Alnea reached out to the blood red curtain that appeared next to him. Assistant Panel, the instructions had called it. A panel that held the list of all the materials he would need to complete the Trial. Or so the instructions had said.
Blood Sniffer’s saliva
Black Thorned Vine’s sap
Black Cactus’ thorns
Flame Scorpion’s poison sac
Sand Diver’s sweat…
As he went through the materials listed in the Assistant Panel, Alnea understood the second reason for the high failure rate of the Mystery Trials. And if his guess was right, then it was not just the Mystery Trials. All the Trials of the Scholar Hall probably had just as high of a failure rate, if not more. After all, most of the materials listed in the panel were those harvested from the Black Desert itself. Maybe those materials could also be found in other parts of the world, but few, if any, Wanderers would have experience of using all those materials with each other.
Then again, it was understandable for the Lost City to provide local resources. He had been charged with only ten Blood Coins to enter the Initial Stage Trial Space. And he would not be charged again unless he left the Trial midway. Considering that he passed all the Trials in one go, he would be paying an average of one Blood Coin for one set of materials to inscribe a Glyph.
No, he would not even have to pay. The reward earned from completing the Trials perfectly would be more than enough to pay for the use of the Trial Space by over a hundred a times. Though that was just an ideal situation. Still, with little to no connection to the world outside of the Black Desert, it was unreasonable to expect the city to provide common materials to its Trialists at a loss. Especially since most challengers of the Trials were going to fail and waste those materials more than once.
The Lost City may be a place to train the younger generations, and may even house a legacy from the Age of Gods, but it was not doing charity. Only the worthy could claim its resources for their own. And at the moment, it was telling him that only those who could make use of the local resources of the Black Desert to inscribe their Glyphs were worthy of passing its Trials.