Glyphs, remnants from the Age of Gods, that allowed people harness the powers of the Origin Sea with the least danger of the three paths. That is, if one followed the basic rules of Scholars. Like limiting the number of Glyphs that one carved on their Spirits within what their Spirits could carry. After all, even Supreme Wanderers had a limit to their Spirit Power. In contrast, there was no limit to the number of Glyphs. Literally.

  Even after millions of years of development, and exchange between Wanderers from all over the world, no one could possibly know how many Glyphs there were in the world. What they did know was that carving Glyphs onto their Spirits would put it under a burden, preventing them from carving even more Glyphs on their Spirits. This was not just an intuition on the part of the Wanderers though. It was a conclusion that Wanderers had come up with after countless sacrifices, creating the basic rules of carving Glyphs with their blood.

  Another basic rule for Wanderers to carve Glyphs onto their Spirits was to carve only those Glyphs which belonged to their chosen lineage. Consequently, as a Scholar of the lineage of Destruction, the only Glyphs that Alnea could inscribe were from the lineage of Destruction. And since he had not been walking on the path of Scholars for long, there were not many Glyphs that he could choose from.

  Winds of Annihilation, Fire of Doom, Water of End, Black Lightning, and Last Earth were some of the few Glyphs that he had mastered over the past few months of his stay in the Lost City. However, of all the Glyphs that he could inscribe, none of them were of the Initial Stage. Rather, all of his Glyphs were of the Intermediate Stage. After all, by the time he began walking on the path of Scholars, Initial Stage Glyphs could not help him anymore. As for why he had not carved any Advanced Stage Glyphs onto his Spirit before coming to the Trial, that was because of the path that he had chosen.

  With all the restrictions from basic rules of Glyphs, Scholars, or Wanderers in general, could choose to carve Glyphs onto their Spirits in three different ways. Some chose to carve a large number of lower Stage Glyphs in each Rank, giving them access to all kinds of Mysteries, while some chose to ignore the lower Stage Glyphs, and focus on higher Stage Glyphs in each Rank. Then there were those who chose a balanced path.

  When Alnea had first heard about the three ways that Wanderers could walk on the path of Scholars, he had been tangled for a while on how to choose his own path. With his ambition of becoming the greatest Wanderer, he could not accept mediocrity from himself, even if it was on the path of Scholars. Rather, he had determined himself to become the greatest Wanderer on all three paths.

  However, he also knew that he could not divert his focus. While his talent with Aspects and Martial Styles could help him on the path of Warriors to some extent, he had no such talents on the other two paths. So, he had to make a choice. Either focus on the path of Scholars, or on the path of Arcanists. But his Oath… In the end, as a compromise, Alnea chose to walk on his own path.

  Rather than carving just some Initial Stage Glyphs onto his Spirit, he chose to carve a large number of Intermediate Stage Glyphs, while reserving a few places for some Peak Stage Glyphs. Doing so, not only allowed him to comprehend a large number of Mysteries from the lineage of Destruction, but it also did not compromise his potential on the path of Scholars.

  While in the lower Stage, he could use Intermediate Stage Glyphs, and at higher Stage, he could just group the Glyphs together and create Glyph Arrays to make up for his lack of Glyphs. And if he could incorporate some Peak Stage Glyphs in his Glyph Arrays, then it would not be impossible for him to become one of the greatest, if not the greatest Scholar.

  In any case, Alnea had never given up on the path of Scholars. Even when he was faced with the challenge of inscribing an Initial Stage Glyph on the stone slab in front of him, he did not give up. After some careful thought, he decided to see if he could use some Intermediate Stage Glyphs to create a Glyph Array equivalent of Initial Stage Glyphs. After all, if Glyph Arrays could emulate Glyphs of a higher Stage, they could also emulate Glyphs of a lower Stage.

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  Taking the Last Earth as the base, removing all the strokes, except for the ones that summoned the Mystery, Alnea added in a stroke to convert part of the Oren supplied to the Glyph Array into a wall. Just a wall of Last Earth was not enough though. Especially after he had removed the strokes that kept the Last Earth stable. So, he added in the strokes of Water of End to give a little more substance and cohesion to the wall. But it was still not enough. So, he added the Winds of Annihilation to the Array to further consolidate the wall, giving it the ability to remain in a semi-permanent state once the Array was activated.

  In the end, when the form of the Array was almost done, he drew a branch from the fourth stroke, connecting it with the eighth and the eleventh stroke, creating a route for the Mysteries of Water of End and Winds of Annihilation to be summoned, finally completing the Glyph.

  However, what was completed was an Intermediate Stage Glyph Array. To convert the Array into an Initial Stage Glyph Array, Alnea went back to the first stroke that he had made on the stone slab, and began creating branches around it, all the while dripping the pale red blood onto the blade of the carving knife, allowing it to flow into the grooves of the strokes he had made.

  It was not time to focus on the blood though. Turning his attention back to the Glyph Array, Alnea made a curved branch from the first stroke, connecting it with the third stroke, before doing the same for the fifth and the seventh stroke, creating a shorter path for the Mysteries, effectively bringing down the Array’s demand for Oren to the level of Initial Stage Arrays.

  Yet, his work was still not done. Though the Array’s effects had been brought down by a notch, the Mysteries it summoned were still of the Intermediate Stage, making the Array itself an Intermediate Stage Array. At best, it was just a Failed Grade Array. So, to truly convert the Array into an Initial Stage Array, Alnea made one last stroke, connecting the two shorter paths he had just created, reducing the effect of the Mysteries that would be summoned, while also reducing the time they would be summoned for, effectively truncating the Mysteries, making them comparable to an Initial Stage Mysteries in essence.

  Heaving a sigh, letting go of the breath that he was holding, Alnea withdrew the carving knife from the stone slab, and put away the empty vial, before looking at the Array he had inscribed on the stone slab. It was ugly and inefficient, with no practical use, except for creating a wall that might explode with just a touch of his hand, but it was an Initial Stage Glyph Array, nonetheless, satisfying the demands of the Trial in a sense. There was just one last thing that he had to do.

  Picking up the ink black crystal from the ground, Alnea used the carving knife to scrap off some of the crystals’ edges, before sprinkling it evenly on the Array he had just inscribed. Then, and only then, did he channel some Oren into the Array. He did not let up his guard though, ready to sprinkle more of the crystal’s powder, and if need be, exchange a few more materials to stabilise the Array. Until the Trial Space itself announced the end of the Trial, he could not let himself relax.

  Fortunately, things went as he had planned. The moment that he infused his Oren into the Glyph Array, darkness erupted from within the Array, engulfing the entire stone slab in a fraction of a moment, before slowly receding back to just the strokes that he had inscribed into the slab.

  Almost immediately, the traces of blood soaking the grooves carved into the slab began bubbling with the darkness, as if getting ready to erupt out of the slab. Before the darkness could escape the slab though, the miniscule shards of darkness, of the Black Sand Essence, floating around the edges of the grooves, arrested the darkness’ excitement, confining it within the grooves.

  Seeing the Array stabilise, Alnea finally let out brief sigh of relief. He had already done his part. Next, all he had to do was to wait. And as he had expected, the Array soon materialised a wall, roughly two metres in height, and twice as wide, right in front of him. Moments later, the Assistant Panel floating beside him shattered into pieces, just as a darkness erupted from within the Trial Space, drowning everything within sight, announcing the end of the Trial.