It was, once again, a western desert. Complete with cacti, harsh and barren earth, tumbleweeds, hot sun, and warm weather. There weren't exactly any wildlife, but it was for a certain fact not simulated like the one that had manifested a year ago. This was very much real, and the danger was ever more present.

However—

“Haah!!”

The voice of a man, leaping back into the air, disturbed the peace. He bore himself a whip, with his deep blue eyes, and sword. He had been struck by a destructive warping of space, it was only thanks to his Battle Aura, the core component of the Warrior Path of Essence Magic, that he was actually not harmed.

This man was fighting a rock golem, immense in size, equal to about 20 metres in height. The final boss of the Sanctioned Veil of the Royal Academy, the guardian of the final floor, of which there are seven in total.

His combat whip was coated in his battle aura, manifesting blue flames as he would then lash it onto an incoming earthen arm trying to strike him down. The lashing of the whip met the arm, and the kinetic energy of the strike was successfully defended against, bringing the velocity of movement to zero and forcing the golem to drop its fist to the ground.

He soon landed and manoeuvred into the flanks. Another person would take his place as he would focus on delivering attack after attack from below.

From above, charging straight at the golem, would be a girl of silver eyes, hooded and bearing the silver metal staff of her family.

“Lux Impetus!”

About a dozen glyphs of light would be manifested around the golem as she orbited the construct. And in an instant it was struck with a bombardment of light, damaging it in full.

The golem would react by blocking the onslaught of attacks, but at the same time with its multiple set of arms it would strike the flying girl away from it. She would recover mid-flight fast, having blocked the attack with an immediate barrier, repositioning herself, observing the scene.

Notice: Guardian Golem health is now at 65%

“Yeah yeah, I know!” She yelled.

She could see signs of damage as her team, consisting of three people in total, kept harming the golem bit by bit. This thing was tough, she thought.

Adrian had been consistently damaging the golem and dodging its strikes from below, his Battle Aura maintained and visible. His strikes are tangibly harming the golem, each time carving the rock that formed the golem’s body. Her most recent bombardment also did some great damage, but it successfully fended it off.

All that was left would be…

“The princess is really missing out here!!” A yell from afar, a young woman of pink hair and tall stature, on all fours, could be seen.

Her travel speed was obscene to the eyes of the common man, twenty times faster than sound. And with the following gathered momentum, she pounced at the golem and struck true like a bullet. It was a sure hit at its eye-like gem core, causing it to stumble back significantly.

Notice: Guardian Golem health is now at 55%

“Aha!”

Elysia had successfully caused it to reel in pain, if it were to have a nervous system that is. She stood up, claws at the ready, her four limbs having transmuted itself to a more draconic form for further durability.

Adrian ran over to her side, whip at the ready, while Marilyn landed to her other side.

“That thing is slightly above half health, I’d say.” Marilyn would say to the group.

“Understood. That was a successful assault plan too.” Adrian responded.

Elysia was recovering her breath, but made sure to retort, “Maybe it would’ve ended faster if Cecilia was here, we’ve been at it for over 30 minutes now y’know!?”

It was the result of all of them working together, the slightly-over-half health percentage that was presented being the quantified culmination of that result. The golem had managed to recover as they conversed however, its multiple arms at the ready.

And Marilyn’s eyes widened into a stellar azure.

Warning: Spatial Warping detected.

It was charging out an attack, as the space around the golem could be seen visibly warping.

“Guys, disperse!” She yelled out, flying out again.

The two other people willingly acknowledged her call, running out as far as they could. As for Marilyn, she flew to the skies once more.

And the next moment after that was met with a crescendo of the golem’s destructive capability, as the warping of space expanded into a burst of spatial manipulation with it as the epicentre. The ripple effect, accompanied by visible lines of void and folded spatial anomalies, met the environment and caused a destruction akin to a small meteor.

It had even caused the far cliffs to collapse, and the clouds to part unnaturally, as if it was forcibly moved away and not exactly dispersed.

If it weren't for the byproduct of Essence Energy coating their being right now, to enhance their chances of enduring supernatural attacks such as these, they would've been minced and severed into pieces.

But—

“Hraghh-!!!”

Marilyn was not so lucky. While she didn't die from this, her Willpower capacity wasn't as high as the others in her team. The others were merely knocked away far from the construct, being knocked and forcibly crashed into solid walls or the ground itself. But she was forced to take the brunt of the spatial expansion attack.

Her mage uniform and cloak forcibly torn, the rippling effect shaking the foundation of her body and staff apart, severely wounding and disorienting her. It caused her to fall from the sky and crash towards the dry earth below her.

Her immortality saved her of course, her body and clothing repaired almost immediately, but the disoriented mind was still present.

Marilyn stood up still with her staff acting support, her eyes glowed azure once more. The construct in front of her exuded a powerful aura that shook the earth beneath them, it was similar to what Adrian had in his disposal.

The others would be currently out for the count by the attack, so all that was left was her and the Guardian Golem.

Warning: Spatial Warping detected.

Considering the health percentage of the golem, it was safe to say that this beast had entered its second phase. This really reminded her of those Souls games she used to see Violet play, whenever she visited her house.

“Gotta…figure…something…out!” She said, trying to catch her breath and stabilising her mind, to try and focus.

If they were to suffer any greater amount of damage, their tomes would teleport them out of the Sanctioned Veil and back to the real world, essentially failing this assault.

She wouldn't want to make them do all of this again, especially since the final floor would force them to go through all of the other floors again, and not just it on its own. They've been scraping this challenge bit by bit for the past three months or so, it was quite the investment.

Unfortunately, Cecilia was not here to witness the finale. She was so close to participating in beating the challenge with all of them together, but she was too busy with the Royal Academy's multiple pages of homework.

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“Tch…”

Perception speed slowed down.

Once again, she had to focus. What would she be capable of now that she was currently alone?

The warping of space was visible, anyone would be able to see it. Considering that the only present target was her, the attack would be targeted specifically at her. It won't just be her clothes being torn and body and bones shaken to its core, but her being would be obliterated entirely on the sub-atomic scale.

She was quite certain that she would survive that, after all she managed to snuck in an unintentional death at the hands of a magical acid spitting giant snake at one of the previous floors. Her entire body was melted and transmuted into an unrecognisable puddle of cursed ooze, but she returned just fine prior to the team attempting to check on her.

With that mind, Marilyn's immortality, to be explained more clearly, would essentially be the reversing of any cause of harm towards her being. It would be to the point that she may not look past her young adult years, due to aging at some point being considered as something harmful, as it would go against the idea of a 'prime' body.

It was not just basic regeneration, because she wouldn't exactly be able to regenerate if she's just a transmuted pile of ooze. It was a painful experience, but she managed to pull through somehow.

In any case…

“I have to return the attack back to the golem somehow. It would be a gamble though…”

Using spatial manipulation as a weapon, it was something she had seen before happening with her own eyes.

Her father was an expert at this in her eyes. She felt the warping of space of the Phantom Dragon's attack all those years ago too. And most recently, barring the Guardian Golem’s assault, the assassin was capable of this, or at least she attempted to.

She had no doubts that Helena would be capable of this, considering her level of skill. But, those observations were poorly observed and noted down by her, so she couldn't exactly try it out herself.

But perhaps…

Scanning structure of attack…

She would try to use the Eyes of Heaven to her advantage. It would be a gamble if this would work effectively, but she must try.

Perception speed normalised.

The Guardian Golem wouldn't just unleash an omni-directional attack now. Instead, it would send a directed torrent at the current target present before it, Marilyn Althorn.

The silver staff of her family was presented before the construct, her eyes of stellar blue focused and determined to face it head-on. And from the gem-core that acted as its eye, it unleashed a blast of space.

The attack was silent, yet blinding, a sudden eruption of distorted light, the byproduct of spatial distortion, flaring out into a lance. It carved through the air, like an invisible spear that violated the equilibrium of the world. As it surged toward her, there was no heat, no sound, only space. The only sounds that it would produce are indirect, as the atmosphere was being torn apart, shockwaves produced.

The air in front of Marilyn shimmered with the afterimage of the shockwave, warping and distorting the light around it. Tiny particles, of dust and debris, disintegrated instantly in its path, swept away into nothingness.

It was not fire that roared forth, but the void itself, a blast that erased rather than consumed. All the while, the gem-core at the centre of the golem’s chest gleamed coldly, calculating, relentless.

But the blast itself, who struck Marilyn, did not destroy her at a subatomic level immediately. It tried to, and tore her form significantly by the fraction of seconds, but her body was maintained and regenerated almost instantaneously. The blast instead was being absorbed and contained by her staff, its silver-like material shaking from the energy.

“Haahhh!!!!!!!”

Marilyn roared out a cry as she attempted this gamble ever so onwards, using her skill of rewriting the composition of magic for her to use. It was a struggle to attempt to master the art of spatial manipulation such as this, especially when she poorly understood how it worked. But the Eyes of Heaven gave her an advantage to scan it directly, so that her mind could comprehend it.

Analysis complete. Skill "Spatial Cutting" is now available to use.

And the fruits of her labour would be unleashed.

The invisible beam ended, it was mastered and contained, altered like it was a tangible material. And in turn, Marilyn flourished her staff towards the golem, and unleashed a spatial attack of her own in the form of a blade, as she swung her weapon downwards.

Her attack wasn't as destructive as the golem’s, but the invisible and soundless nature was still apparent. The blade would make contact with the golem shortly after it was sent, and with the property of cutting through space it sliced cleanly through the golem, bypassing its defensive aura and toughness.

Then the sound of the attack, of rocks crushed and falling, was heard. The golem was split in two, and it fell lifelessly to the ground, the gem-core disintegrating into harmless Essence Energy.

Victory had been achieved.

New milestone achieved. Perception paused.

- Title gained: Adept Mage

- Strength is now level 25

- Essence Aptitude is now level 25

- Willpower is now level 20

“Huh…previously I was level 18 at most, nice.”

It would seem that she had also gained a new title, she thought. No longer was she a Novice Mage, but she was now an Adept, a step above.

For context, there were seven ranks in total in this case, for any kind of level of skill over some type of field.

Elementary signifies anyone that has basic and introductory skill in a particular field. Novice would be the second lowest for those that have skill. Adept the third lowest, and Expert the prime middle.

Master would be the third highest, Exceptional second highest, and the title of Transcendent is the pinnacle of the ranking for the Tome System.

There could be extra or unique ranks, but the standard totals in seven.

For context, from what she could see, Robert was an Expert level mage. Bethany would also be an Expert level fighter too in comparison.

For most, the rank of Expert was the highest one could reach, and most would really just be at the level of an Adept. And as it would seem, it was quite rare to even see Master level individuals in the world.

Titles also wouldn't correlate with levels necessarily, in fact it was far more likely one would reach the Tome System's max level, level 100, without ever attaining anything beyond the title of Master.

They were mostly used as an identifier more or less. While levels calculated someone's maximum potency quantitatively, Titles identify the person’s level of skill qualitatively.

Skill cannot be quantified, so even people of the same rank wouldn't have the same level of skill despite being comparable, as it was said before. But the makers of the Tome System did their best in trying to categorise it.

Even so…

“It really took me knowing how to control space to reach Adept?”

Inquiry detected. Answering…

Not necessary. Titles show level of understanding and honed skill over one’s field of expertise. Multiple paths could be used for gaining new ones.

It would be a long road ahead for her, but at least she now knew that information.

Perception speed normalised.

“You did it!!!”

Marilyn, who was perplexed by the event, was caught off-guard by the sudden Elysia level assault. She was hugged at supersonic speeds, and that would’ve killed anyone not aware of her strength.

“Sooo glad you're the one to end this! I wouldn't have known what to do there you know!!!”

“Elysia, you're being too rough on me!!”

Adrian was the last to arrive, having run over to both of them. His Battle Aura collapsed, and exhaustion set in. He was trying not to collapse now.

“Man…we did it huh?” He said, breathing out a massive sigh, “So…what reward do we have now? Last time it was those golden arrows from the monster centaur…”

Marilyn would fortunately be able to answer safely, now that Elysia departed from her. “Hmm…” She would try to observe from afar, something was glowing.

“I got it!” And Elysia would be the one to rush ahead, grabbing the glowing object before returning to the two of them, presenting the reward.

“It's awfully small…” Marilyn commented, looking at the object closely.

It was some sort of purple diamond, the same colour as the eye-shaped gem-core of the golem they vanquished earlier. Marilyn had yet to scan the thing to see its value, so Adrian was the first to speak out.

“That thing is the true form of the gem-core! It's quite expensive!” He said, somewhat hyped up by this.

“Ah, that's expected then. Should we sell it?” She responded.

“I’d say we should eat it! See what it tastes like!” Elysia suggested to them, smiling.

“No! Don't eat it! We had to rush you to the clinic when you tried to eat something from these Veil creatures last time.” Adrian would reply.

“Hm, gem-cores are already expensive to begin with…but I have seen them being used as strong focuses for a mage staff…”

Marilyn looked at her own staff here. Perhaps it could definitely be used as a significant upgrade, considering how powerful the golem was it would be obvious that would be the case.

However—

“-!”

The staff had broken in two.

“Welp, looks like we have to sell it for you to repair that.” And Adrian would comment on that disappointing event, arms crossed.