Walking out from the Trial Space, Alnea was greeted with a smile from Cecilia and Yuri, waiting for him near the door of the Trial Space.

  “Looks like your Trial went well too?” Cecilia asked, as he walked towards them, returning their smile with his own.

  “…You can say that,” Alnea said, recalling the number of Medals he had earned. “It was just a little tiring.”

  “Tiring?”

  “Didn’t Yuri tell you about it?”

  “She said that she would let you tell me about it.”

  “You are our Captain, after all,” Yuri said, still smiling at him, but with a hint of amusement at the edge of her lips. “Besides, it was your idea in the first place. Not to mention that the way I cleared the Trials might not be suitable for her. It would be best if you tell her about the Mystery Trials, and the way to clear it.”

  “…Was the Trial so difficult?”

  “…For some, the Trial may indeed be a bit too difficult. But for some, completing the Trial may be as easy as drinking water. Of course, that does not include breaking the records. Otherwise, I would not have been so tried. Still, as long as one has a solid foundation in Glyphs, and has a good grasp of the Mysteries they have mastered, clearing the Trials perfectly should not be a big problem.”

  “…Stop talking in circles. Just tell me what Trial is about, and what I need to do.”

  “…First of all, you need to calm down, and not let your impulsiveness take hold of your Heart,” Alnea said, with a helpless smile on his face.

  “…Are you saying that I am impulsive?”

  “…A little?”

  “I would have to agree with Alnea on this,” Yuri added, saving Alnea from Cecilia’s glare. “Although the Trials themselves are not too difficult, if you let your impulsiveness overwhelm your Heart, then you may not even pass the Trial, let alone clear it perfectly.”

  “…I will try to control myself,” Cecilia said after a moment of silence, before letting out a dissatisfied hum at Alnea. “Now, can you tell me what the Mystery Trial is all about?”

  “…The Mystery Trial is all about testing how good of a grasp we have over the Mysteries that we have mastered. Once you enter the Trial Space, you will be asked to inscribe a Glyph, while the Trial Space itself will try to interfere with your connection to the Origin Sea, trying to disrupt your control over the Mysteries you will be summoning. And this interference will only get worse at the higher levels of the Trials.

  “Of course, we can try to stabilise our control over the Mysteries that we summon through the materials that we use to inscribe the Glyphs, but the ones who designed the Trial Space also knew about this possibility. So, when you enter the Trial Space, you will be asked to specify the lineage of your Glyphs. Consequently, the materials that the Trial Space will allow you to choose from will exclude all the materials that has anything to do with your lineage.

  “Only if you understand the essence of your lineage, and know how to artificially induce its trace, will you be able to take advantage of the materials to help you in the Trials. But that is also a test of your understanding of your Mysteries in a way. In any case, as long as you have enough control over your Mysteries, it should not be too difficult to complete the Trial. There is just one problem. Since the first ten Trials are of the Initial Stage, the content of those Trials is also of the corresponding level…”

  “…An Initial Stage Glyph?”

  “…Now, can you understand what we were trying to say?” Alnea said, sighing as he recalled the headache he faced when he was in the Trial Space. “For those who have carved Initial Stage Glyphs onto their Spirits, the Trial will indeed be a little too easy. But for those who have not engraved any Initial Stage Glyphs on their Spirits, the Trial will be a little too difficult to handle. That is probably the reason why so many people failed in their Trials. Still, as long as you remain calm—

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Is this something that can be solved by remaining calm?” Cecilia said, scratching her head in frustration. “How am I supposed to inscribe an Initial Stage Glyph? No, before that, how did you two inscribe an Initial Stage Glyph?”

  “That’s the point. We did not. Or at least I didn’t. Yuri though—

  “She cannot use the method I used,” Yuri said, shaking her head. “It is not that I do not wish to help, but that the method I used is a little complicated. Even if I were to teach her the method, she would not be able to use it unless she had had years of experience.”

  “…Now, I am curious. What kind of method did you use?”

  “…It’s a secret,” Yuri said, winking at him, with a charming smile on her face.

  “…Forget it,” Alnea said, tearing his eyes away from that charming smile, before it could draw him in any further. “As I was saying, I do not know how others pass the Trials, but I personally did not inscribe any Initial Stage Glyphs. Instead, I used some Intermediate Stage Glyphs to create a Glyph Array that was equivalent to an Initial Stage Glyph Array in effect. At the same time, I also made some adjustment to the Array, so that when the Mysteries were summoned, they were not summoned completely, limiting their strength and potential to the level of Initial Stage Mysteries.”

  “…Limiting the strength of the Mysteries… How did you do it?”

  “I truncated their paths to strip them of some of their effects.”

  “But that’s how Glyph Arrays are normally made. Stripping off the effects of the Mysteries that we do not need, while keeping only the parts that we need…”

  “Indeed. But there is one more step in creating Glyph Arrays that I did not follow.”

  “…What is it?”

  “Connecting the truncated Mysteries,” Alnea said. “The reason why Glyph Arrays can be so powerful and versatile at the same time, is because we strip off the parts of the Mysteries that we do not need, before connecting all the truncated Mysteries to effectively create a new Mystery. A mystery, that would not pale in comparison to its constituent Mysteries. And if the conditions are right, the new Mystery might even surpass its constituent Mysteries in strength and potential.

  “When I inscribed the Glyph Array though, I did not connect the truncated Mysteries. On the contrary, I ensured that the Mysteries would hardly interact with each other. As such, when I activated the Glyph, what I summoned were just parts of Mysteries, whose end effects came together to create a somewhat functional Glyph Array that allowed me to pass the test. And that’s what you need to do too. Or we can go back, and wait for you to inscribe an Initial Stage Glyph onto your Spirit…”

  “Truncating Mysteries,” Cecilia mumbled, ignoring what Alnea said towards the end. “I knew that using Glyphs of lower Stage to create Glyph Arrays of a higher Stage was possible, but using Glyphs of a higher Stage to create a Glyph Array of a lower Stage…”

  “It’s not that difficult. You just need to have a good grasp of your Glyphs, and some experience in creating Glyph Arrays. To be honest, any decent Scholar should be able to do it.”

  “That may be so, but like Cecilia, I too have never heard of Wanderers using Glyphs of a higher Stage to create Glyph Arrays of a lower Stage.”

  “Probably because they did not have any need for doing so.”

  “…Maybe. But even if they did have a need for lower Stage Glyphs, they would have probably just learned a few Glyphs.”

  “…I would have probably done the same if I was not in the Trial Space.”

  “Still, just the fact that you can think of such a unique way of passing the Trials, and even breaking some records, is enough to show that you have already started to break away from the conventional path of Scholars. Maybe you really might become the greatest Scholar one day.”

  “What do you mean by might? I am going to become the greatest Scholar,” Alnea said, puffing out his chest to exaggerate his confidence, before noticing the complicated look on Cecilia’s face. “Are you thinking about the Trial? Then again, it is a little too difficult. Maybe we should head back, and wait for you to master an Initial Stage Glyph. It would not take long anyway. Probably a day or two. We can come back—

  “No,” Cecilia said, shaking her head. “I am doing this right now.”

  “But—

  “I said, I am doing this right now.”

  “…Are you sure?”

  “I was not before, but now I am.”

  “…What does that mean?”

  “It means that you should trust her, Alnea,” Yuri said, nodding at Cecilia with a satisfied smile, before turning towards Alnea. “If you do not have faith in her now, how are you going to trust her with your back later?”

  “…You two always team up at the weirdest of times,” Alnea mumbled. “Forget it. If you want to challenge the Trial, then go ahead and challenge it. That was our plan in the first place anyway.”

  “…Thank you, Alnea.”

  “…No need to say thanks. Just don’t make us wait too long. And remember everything that we said.”

  “I know,” Cecilia said, nodding with a confident smile. “I will try to complete the Trials as soon as I can.”

  “…Maybe this is not a good idea.”

  “Too late,” Cecilia said, sticking out her tongue, before running off towards the entrance of the Trial Space.