Glenn observed his opponent, Mary, the Cleaner, before suddenly shooting his Mana Bullet. The Cleaner swiftly dodged the spell, the deep blue mystical glint of the magic reflecting off her dagger. She dashed and slipped right under Glenn’s defense, striking upward without hesitation. Glenn hurriedly jumped out of reach and shot another Magic Bullet, forcing her back.

With that short exchange, Glenn was now certain. If he were to categorize her in an RPG manner, she would undoubtedly fall under the Rogue class. Which wasn’t great, since his own archetype was a mage. Oh well.

‘Come on, liven this up a little!’ Diamanes chuckled wickedly within Glenn’s mind. The latter gritted his teeth and prepared an invisible Magic Bullet and infused more Mana in this one than usual. He shot it while aiming for Mary’s leg, hoping to reduce her mobility, but the Cleaner simply deflected the attack with a swift motion, the spell dissipating in a loud metallic clang. Glenn felt a shiver crawl down his back. He hadn’t even been able to perceive her arm’s rapid movement.

Mary made her dagger spin in her hands, unfazed and composed. Glenn clicked his tongue and changed his strategy. If speed and power didn’t work, he only had quantity to work with. He drew a deep breath before unleashing a barrage of Magic Bullets, firing them rapidly at a rate of forty-five projectiles per minute. While this barely matched Earth's basic semi-automatic firearms, it still felt immensely impressive. If he had this back when he met the creature in the forest or the wolves, he certainly wouldn’t have been as terrified.

The shots were very cost-effective, and Glenn calculated that he could sustain this pace for at least five minutes, considering he didn't have to worry about his defense. However, Mary seemed to effortlessly predict the trajectory of each bullet, dodging or blocking every single one. Sometimes she just stopped in place and the bullets would shoot past her, completely missing her. Glenn didn’t manage to hit her even once.

‘Try something else than brute force, maybe it’ll have better results,’ Diamanes suggested with a mocking tone. Glenn pressed his lips together and suddenly stopped his bullet barrage, switching up strategy. Mary shifted from one foot to another while glancing at the tinted glass ceiling. Glenn resumed his attacks with a slower firing rate but with more power and potency. They also demanded greater concentration, as each was precisely aimed to force Mary to block most of them with her left-hand dagger. He circled her, a bead of sweat sliding down his forehead as each shot hit Mary’s dagger and failed to tire her.

Mary laughed, struggling to comprehend what Glenn was trying to achieve. She deflected another shot lazily, before yawning from boredom. Although Glenn’s attacks were indeed a little stronger, they were nowhere near enough to wear her down. Soon enough, Glenn completed a full circle around Mary and halted in place, his breath held as he stared at her with a determined gaze.

Mary rolled her eyes and shrugged, “Whatever you’re attempting, it’s not working. Care to change your tactics?”

Glenn shot another Magic Bullet in response, which Mary easily blocked. Only, hidden by the first bullet was a second one charged with even more power. Mary blinked in surprise and hurriedly deflected that attack too, only to stumble back a little and lose her footing. In that same instant, Glenn flicked his finger and activated the thirty Magic Bullets he had set up during his round around Mary. The sound of thirty cannon shots firing simultaneously filled the air as the Magic Bullet rushed for their targets. Mary’s lips curved upward slightly as the Magic Bullet made contact with her, creating a large cloud of dust. Glenn waved the dust away while smiling in satisfaction.

“...That should have done it…” He muttered hopefully. While circling Mary, he had meticulously set up thirty delayed Magic Bullets from different directions to ensure at least one direct hit, all while keeping his monotonous attacks to divert her attention.

‘You should have screamed “The Worldooo!!” when you shot those bullets,’ Diamanes commented with a tinge of disappointment. Glenn’s eyebrows twitched but he remained silent, squinting as he tried to peer through the dust cloud. The dust eventually settled down, only revealing an empty space where Mary had stood earlier. A cold, sharp blade pressed against Glenn’s neck from behind.

A cheerful voice chuckled, “And that does it. I did warn you it wasn’t enough, but a very good effort nonetheless.”

Glenn turned to find Mary unharmed, standing proudly with not even a speck of dust on her shoulders. She sheathed back her dagger with a grin before producing a sheet of paper. She tapped her chin with a fountain pen, before writing down on the document.

“...Shit,” Glenn rubbed the back of his neck with disappointment. He knew that he had no chance to win, with his opponent much more experienced and stronger than him, but still. It was frustrating. What could he have done better? How could he have won? Firstly, having more spells would certainly help him. Using Implosion had been out of the question, since Mary would have probably dodged the spell, and Magic Bullet was simply not enough.

Mary scribbled one last word and handed him the sheet. Glenn took it and received a light pat on his shoulder in addition. He looked at the document, which was mostly a lot of technical gibberish. The one interesting thing was the mention at the bottom, which read “No fighting experience, lack versatility, potential of twenty.”

Glenn rubbed his chin confusedly, “Potential of twenty? What does that even mean?” He pondered aloud.

Diamanes broke the silence with a mocking laugh, ‘Well, it means you just got schooled and that you’ve got a lot to learn. But hey, they can somehow see something interesting in you! Maybe…’ The entity paused, ‘...Maybe they got a glance at my marvelous existence?’

Glenn sighed loudly, interrupting Diamanes’ quipping, and instead headed off to the Power-testing area. Sahro had probably performed much better than him. It was infuriating, but it made sense. After all, Sahro was a combat specialist, while Glenn never fought a single time in his life before coming to Limbo. Even his fighting experiences in this world resumed to fleeing, being lucky, and bashing someone’s head in. Which wasn’t that rich of an experience.

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He looked around and quickly found Sahro, who was also strolling toward the Power-testing area. The Black turned his head with a dejected smile.

“How did you do?” Glenn asked plainly. Sahro shrugged and showed him his document.

“Recommended for Silver-rank, exceptional combat skills, defeated a Junior Cleaner, high potential. Huh, you defeated your Cleaner?” Glenn exclaimed in surprise as he read the evaluation. Sahro nodded and picked his nose.

“Yeah, but the Senior Cleaner completely destroyed me. Damned human…” The Black Heir gritted his teeth, “Shit, I thought I wouldn’t lose to anyone besides Redan and Giselle!”

Glenn rolled his eyes and sighed with a pang of frustration. Sahro was already that good; why the hell was he complaining?

'Don't worry; if you start using me more, you'll soon become much stronger than Sahro,' whispered Diamanes in his mind.

Glenn almost laughed out loud but held back to avoid Sahro's unwanted attention. 'Well, for now, you're honestly not very useful. Don't take it wrong; I'm starting to enjoy having another inner voice, but you don't add much to the power table right now.'

Diamanes couldn't retort, as the facts stated couldn't be more true. In his current state, he couldn't do much besides 'taking' low-level spells and using them only once.

'Well, later on, I'll be capable of much more, so hurry up and get to the Third Mana Circle, alright?' Diamanes implored eagerly, impatient to show his “true powers”. Glenn scoffed and shook his head.

He and Sahro arrived at the new testing area, a small child in a white robe with red crosses too big for him waiting there. They arrived alongside a few other candidates, all wondering what the next test was going to be.

Glenn hesitated to ask the child if he had lost his parents, but since he was wearing the Cleaners’ clothes, it probably wasn’t a good idea. He remained silent and discreetly asked Sahro to do the same. After a few more minutes, all the other candidates were done with their tests and joined the group. An immense man with bulging muscles and an equally immense sword crouched next to the child.

“Are you lost, kid?” He asked with an attempted gentle smile. The white robe covering the child trembled slightly, and a second later, a steel column erupted from the ground, kicking the huge man a dozen meters away.

“I’m…Tom…” The child spoke with an unusually raspy voice that sent shivers down Glenn’s spine, “...I’ll be…the…Tester…”

Glenn took a step back despite himself. This was no child’s voice. The Cleaner Tom was struggling to speak, having a hard time pronouncing even one word. Glenn glanced a little closer and indeed, he discovered a tag on his rob, reading “Tom Delora”.

‘So he’s from the same family as the other bald creep. Well, I don’t see why I would be surprised…’ He thought sarcastically.

"I'll conjure... Steel pillars... For you to attack... Do your best...My cute maggots..." Tom muttered in an unnatural cadence. An eerie laugh echoed from under the robe as steel pillars manifested, numbering the same as the candidates, including the huge man who had been sent flying.

One large steel pillar appeared under Tom’s feet and took him above all the candidates, allowing him to have a better overview of the test. He looked down, his face hidden behind the darkness of his hood.

Glenn suppressed the instinct that made him want to curse and run away from the strange environment of the Cleaner’s Workshop but held his ground, driven by one sole goal: money. And also to not look like a coward in front of the other Black Heir bastard.

He rolled his sleeves up and looked at the steel column in front of him, wondering how the hell was he supposed to break that thing. Magic Bullet…will probably not be enough. But it was still worth testing. Glenn shot a quick spell at the column, only for a loud change to resonate. The steel pillar was unscathed, not even a scratch.

“I’m going to need more firepower…” Glenn muttered as he prepared an Implosion. Diamanes sighed and interrupted him.

‘Why don’t you use this perfect opportunity to create new spells or enhance Magic Bullet, huh? You already know Implosion is going to reduce this pillar to dust anyway.’

Glenn moistened his lips and dismissed the Implosion he was preparing, recovering most of the Mana he had used for it. Diamanes was making a good point.

“I need to pierce that thing…Penetration power…how can I achieve penetration power?” Glenn pondered while looking down at his hands. Eventually, his thoughts drifted back to Earth, where tools were capable of piercing even the strongest materials, bending them to the humans’ will. The firearms industry even created new armor-piercing rounds every day of the week. Nonetheless, besides maybe a tank round, which he had a hard time envisioning, Glenn couldn’t imagine a bullet strong enough to pierce through five meters of steel.

“Maybe I look at this from the wrong side…” Glenn took a step back and changed his focus. Besides explosives and highly-charged kinetic projectiles, there were only a few things that could pierce through tough materials. One of these things was drills. They were made with this purpose in mind, using high-speed rotating bits to pierce through strong materials. Of course, for a five-meter-thick steel pillar, the equipment would be considerably larger and more powerful than a handheld drill.

But! This wasn’t Earth. This was…whatever this world’s name was, and there was magic. This meant that if he could properly envision the spell he wanted, he could probably create something strong enough to pierce through anything while using a boatload of Mana. Additionally, maybe he’d be able to use that new spell to enhance his existing ones, such as Magic Bullets and Implosion.

Fusing science and magic—that was the only way he could solve this problem besides pure brute force. The prospect of shooting out literal Magic Drills was strangely exciting, and without wasting a second, he began shaping his Mana.

In the meanwhile, Sahro unsheathed his curved sword, drawing a long breath as he did so. A crimson light, his Aura, covered the blade from the tip to the hilt. He assumed a battle stance, and without hesitation, cleaved diagonally at the steel pillar. For a moment, nothing happened, until the upper part of the pillar slid down to the ground in a thundering noise, leaving a clean, perfect diagonal cut.

“That should be enough, right?” Sahro asked with a cocky smile, challenging anyone to surpass his feat.

Ignoring the Black Heir gloating nearby, Glenn completed his spell. It wasn’t perfect yet, but it was functional, and that’s all he needed. He extended his right hand forward, fingers outstretched, and traced a circular motion in the air, as if twisting the void itself. Mana flowed out of his body and gathered into a massive, spectral drill in front of his opened right hand, shimmering with a deep blue, otherworldly radiance. Glenn exhaled and conjured the spell, casting it at the steel pillar. It spun with extreme speed, invisible to the naked eye, and made contact with the thick steel pillar.

A sharp drilling sound rang through the Testing Hall as the magical drill burrowed effortlessly through the pillar, rapidly creating a one-meter-wide hole in the five-meter-thick steel. Glenn chuckled hysterically at the sight, maintaining the spell without losing his concentration until it pierced the whole pillar.

“Science and magic, bitch. Haha, I love it!” He laughed heartily. This was fun.