As it turns out, after completing the trial, they would find themselves back in their room. Professor Ferial sat at her desk, unmotivatingly announcing what their results were.

“Mina Fethly, Completion Rate 65%.”

Mina appeared in her seat with everyone staring at her. On her sleeves was the mark of a half-moon with a cross cutting through it. It seems like she made cuts in her uniform to get this symbol.

“I… miscalculated…” Mina could feel the glances from everyone around her. She had already chosen to take one of the symbols on the lower side of the obelisk. She didn’t expect that she would’ve overshot like this.

As uneasy as she was with everyone’s gazes, there was one particular girl that she was very afraid of, Sefi. Mina looked in Sefi’s direction only to realize that she didn’t mind at all. In fact, Sefi was more interested in the giant projector above Professor Ferial.

This screen showed what was still happening inside the trial with the few handful of students left inside. As the projector showed everything in a widescreen, certain details were still hidden from them.

Seeing that people were starting to lose their interest in her after finding out what she did, Mina was starting to relax even further. Now that nothing major came out of it she also placed her attention towards what was happening inside the trial.

What made it really interesting was the fact that most of the students who passed the initiation trial were still there, except for Sefi. From there, it could be said that there were four groups that were separated right now.

The largest group consisted of four people, Elliot, Barlot, Alclair, and the mysterious youth. They seemed to be the most eye-catching group. It was followed by three students who weren’t in any way outstanding.

The next group was only a pair, it was the twins, Liam and Lianna. Liam was trying to glean any more information from the obelisk while Lianna was viciously warning everyone to leave them be.

The last person, who was still standing on his own, was Arin. He hadn’t moved from his spot ever since the beginning. It was easy to determine this since most of them didn’t dare to come close to him at all. The reputation he had set up for himself was doing wonders.

“That’s the plan. Anyone willing to try it out?” Elliot didn’t hide his voice. However, this didn’t really matter as it people copying them didn’t really matter to him.

“As much as I would want to, I have other plans.” The mysterious youth had his own thoughts. He noticed something peculiar that eluded the others.

“I’ll do it.” Alclair voiced up. He quickly went and took out a marker. He then drew the corresponding symbol at the very top of the obelisk on his arm. This wasn’t all though, he continued on to start climbing the obelisk where he placed his etched drawing on the similar-looking symbol on it.

As soon as Alclair had contact, the glowing symbol on the obelisk dimmed down and immediately transferred onto his arm. He slightly smiled as Elliot’s plan had worked. All he needed to do now was go and walk through the path that would complete his symbol into a perfect circle.

Alclair jumped down and was about to walk off when he realized something. “Elliot, something’s wrong.”

“What is it?” Hearing this, Elliot immediately took it seriously, they had no idea what could happen so they had to prepare for the worst.

Alclair’s expression turned serious as he immediately jumped back. This caused everyone to look at Alclair’s sudden movements. It didn’t make sense but he jumped back as if he was dodging something.

From the classroom, Sefi’s bored expression turned vicious. “I missed out.”

Alclair shouted, “A golem appeared! It’s glowing blue! Something-” His voice was immediately drowned out as he was sent flying back to the wall, creating cracks in the runic background. The walls lost their shine as soon as Alclair’s mark met with them.

“It… doesn’t hurt as much.” Alclair coughed out his words. Even still, such a towering figure intimidated him. From the corner, Arin’s eyes took note of this, his plan was slowly forming.

Elliot didn’t even hesitate, “Barlot! Help Alclair out!” As weak as Elliot was, he still had the mindset to direct orders.

“Say less.” Barlot etched another symbol on the obelisk on his arm. He did the same procedures as Alclair, touching the obelisk and siphoning the glow. Now Barlot could also see the world that Alclair was looking at.

“We might have a problem, Elliot.” Barlot spoke in a low voice. Alclair was still trying to run away from the golem he was facing. As comedic as it looked, what Alclair was facing was genuinely something terrifying. It wasn’t something Elliot should be facing this early on.

“Don’t tell me each symbol shows up a different entity to defeat!” Elliot latched on, this was the most plausible explanation right now.

“Unfortunately so, I’m facing against a glowing blue bear. I’ll be honest, it looks strong.” Barlot took this seriously, if he was facing something this terrifying already, god knows what Alclair’s fighting against right now.

In Barlot’s vision, this bear was extremely lifelike. Its paws were surging with energy as numerous runes were placed all over its body. Its eyes were glowing brightly as ephemeral as it looked. It wasn’t completely solid as it was slightly transparent with how solidified its body was.

Left with nothing else better to do but face it in a contest of brute strength, Barlot ran towards it with open arms. The glowing bear raised its paws and slammed down on Barlot. They had locked arms as they tried to gain an advantage against one another.

Man and beast were fighting against each other using their own strengths to wage who would come on top. The grizzly roars caused Barlot’s ears to ring but it didn’t distract him from the task at hand.

“Come on!” Barlot’s grim expression showed just how difficult it was on him, despite having the greatest brute strength, he was still struggling to compete against it.

Numerous discussions were being had in the classroom. Most of them were about how hilarious Alclair and Barlot were acting. Since there wasn’t anything visible on screen, they all assumed they must’ve gone a little crazy.

Professor Ferial didn’t even bother with their wrong assumptions and just let it be. She would’ve just ignored everything and went along with it when Sefi came up to her.

“Professor Ferial, don’t you think we should be able to see what they’re up against?”

Sefi stared at Professor Ferial and Professor Ferial did so as well. With how problematic Sefi was with her Fragment, Professor Ferial didn’t want to work overtime dealing with any tantrums she might cause.

The screen that was once empty was now filled in with two monsters. One was a giant bear, even bigger than Barlot and another one was a golem taking up half the room. Realizing the severity of their current predicament, they reacted accordingly.

Those who mocked Alclair quickly shut up as they would be in an even worse situation than he is. Dodging each of this golem’s gigantic arms was a feat in of itself.

Among these students, one particular girl gave a sigh of relief as she made the right choice. She did feel odd with how mystical everything looked and it not being a part of the solution she had.

There was one creed that every Solver held dear, use everything you can. Although there were multiple ways to get a Perfect Clear, even finding one of them was extremely tricky. One has to realize that you can only go as far as you can. Going beyond what you are capable of would only cost you your life.

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Seeing that they were being separated by what symbols they took, Elliot immediately faced the mysterious youth, “Don’t you want to-”

But before Elliot could even utter another word, he once again expressed his stance, “Like I said, I have my own plans. I won’t be dealing with this.”

Alclair was still struggling with the golem waving its massive hands all over the place. The robust and metallic structure of the golem made any thoughts of resistance null. Seeing that this was supposed to only be a Maze-level Trial, it could only mean two things.

One, the academy had forcibly raised the difficulty to ensure that the students would grow accustomed to such a dangerous environment. Or two, the more likely answer, the dangers in these trials aren’t something any normal man should be facing.

The spike in difficulty as one tries to increase their Completion Rating was absurd. As for which one was the real answer, Alclair didn’t care at that particular moment. He was currently biting off more than he could chew.

The twins, Liam and Lianna, were still watching from a distance. They weren’t particularly interested in what would happen to them since it was just a test. They were more interested in what they should do to pass the trial. After all, there were only ten minutes remaining.

The moon on the floor was slowly shining brightly. The closer it came to the end, the stronger the moonlight became. At some point, the glow would be so strong that it would be blinding.

“Liam, you think you can handle that supposed ‘golem?’ Alclair looks like he can handle himself just fine,” Lianna whispered to her brother. She knew for a fact that they would be passing this trial, the only question was how willing were they to get a top score.

“I don’t think… we should do that. Look there.” Liam pointed at Arin who was observing the the place where Alclair touched with his etched symbol.

Arin had been snooping around, trying to figure out the secrets that were laid behind this trial. He was getting close to a possible route to a Perfect Clear yet at the same time, he was far too behind. Arin glanced at the moon on the floor and at the mysterious youth.

He knows something that we don’t. He isn’t likely to go through the route we’re doing right now. That’s his path, I’d rather focus on how I should go about this my way. Arin thought.

Feeling eyes locked on his back, Arin looked behind him to see that Liam and Lianna were still watching him. They were mumbling on their own which he didn’t particularly mind. They were waiting to see if there was anything left to uncover here.

As for the normal group, they all collectively decided that a high Completion Rate wasn’t worth the risk. They all decided to just etch a symbol on their hand without filling it up with this mysterious glow. As a result, they all got a Completion Rate of 60% or higher.

The remaining students were now fighting their own battles. As for Arin, he needed to act now.

“Now, it’s my time. Let’s begin.” He took out a marker and drew a circle on his right hand. This was a full circle, it wasn’t a complicated symbol like one that was in the obelisk but rather a fully simplistic circle.

Arin used his right hand and touched the walls to see that it didn’t react. “As I thought.”

As expected, the obelisk was the catalyst for all of this. Arin immediately ran to the center and jumped up high, grabbed a hold of the obelisk, and scaled himself up to the top. He dragged his symbol all over the obelisk as it started to siphon every single symbol from it, gathering power and summoning all types of unholy creatures that surrounded him.

Slowly but surely, he finally managed to get to the top where the symbols that summoned the bear and golem were. He still placed his hand on top of the already dimmed symbols. Oddly enough, despite having little to no glow left within them, he still managed to siphon something from them letting him see the creatures that Barlot and Alclair were facing.

It was just that, he wasn’t facing just these two monsters alone. He was now facing twenty genuine monsters.

From the skies, an eagle swooped down on Arin, trying to claw out his eyes. He responded to this attack by shielding his face. The talons of the eagle slashed Arin’s arms causing them to bleed. Using his body as bait, Arin grabbed ahold of the eagle and clenched its throat.

The eagle was quickly disposed of without much struggle as it was one of the symbols on the lower obelisk. The disappearance of this eagle caused one of the doors to shine bright, showing him the way out.

“So that’s how it is.” Arin looked down below him to see many more creatures to be slaughtered. Yet as much as he wanted to go in and face against them all on his own, he still had some sense to him. He still needed to increase his chance of victory.

The golem that had been only focused on Alclair the entire time saw that Arin was now also a target. He waved his hands and tried to grab ahold of Arin.

Jumping from the very top of the obelisk, he dashed towards the walls where the numerous runes were still vibrantly glowing.

Alclair had been dodging the entire time so when he finally managed to catch a break, he took it. Recomposing himself, he saw what Arin was doing. Adding on the fact that he felt much more energetic than before, he finally realized it.

“Elliot! Barlot! The runes! If you touch them with your etched symbol you’ll gain power!” Alclair shouted out.

Elliot immediately acted accordingly, he followed Arin’s footsteps and drew a circle on his hand. He did the same actions as Arin except for the fact that the symbol that contained the eagle was no longer there. There wasn’t even a light glow anymore as the symbol itself was gone.

Barlot gritted his teeth and used up all his strength to throw the bear away, using that small window of time to run to the side. He quickly managed to reach the walls where he touched the runes. The glowing, shimmering runes immediately were siphoned away by Barlot’s etched symbol giving him immense power.

Never before had Barlot felt that his strength could increase this much so quickly. The running bear was directly after him, trying to finish what they had started. Barlot could feel immense power surging through his veins as he lined up a punch.

He took his stance and ran forward with such momentum that even Barlot was shocked by his own physical capabilities. The joy of feeling such power was well beyond him. The bear in front of him didn’t even stand a chance as Barlot’s hand pierced through it with such ease. This was far too easy compared to what kind of difficulty he had facing it earlier.

A standstill so easily tilted to his side. This was what playing by the rules meant. If they wanted to do this optimally then they would need to properly utilize the unspoken rules within the Trial.

As he did so, Barlot saw a pathway light up. He felt as if he had made a mistake being far too eager. He looked at Arin and Elliot, realizing that he had to show off his strength at a later time. After all, they were three of the four most dangerous students in their class right now. With Sefi being the other one.

“Barlot Jeros, Completion Rate 91%.” Professor Ferial’s voice came as such a surprise that even the students were caught off guard. Such a simple trial actually had such a complex system hiding behind it. Even a Secret Maze difficulty had such complexity that it made everyone realize just how seriously they needed to take this.

“Are you regretting your hastiness?” Barlot directed his question at Sefi who was watching the show the entire time.

“Not really.” Sefi had her eyes locked on Arin. Her eyes were a mixture of adoration and wrath. After her Fragment had reacted, she was starting to see things in a much clearer light. If she wanted to do what wanted then only a person like Arin could grant her that wish.

“I see.” Barlot stopped conversing with her since there was no longer any point. He just wanted to keep Sefi in check, after all, Fiona had specifically asked him to do so. With such a reputable person asking him a favor, there was no reason to deny her.

As for what was still happening inside the trial, things were getting much more interesting. Elliot had also seen what Arin had seen. The sheer amount of creatures vying to tear him apart was genuinely terrifying. Even so, he still had a companion.

“Alclair!” Elliot shouted out. Alclair immediately siphoned enough of the runes to gain superior physical strength that he could easily pass the distance between the obelisk and the walls in a brief moment.

Alclair went up to the obelisk and carried Elliot off it, bringing him to the side of the walls where he could gain physical strength as well. Their teamwork was on point. Although Elliot seemed as if he was just being saved by Alclair the entire time, they wouldn’t even be here if Elliot didn’t dissect the secrets for them.

A pair of twins were watching this unfold and decided to finally act. They both drew a peculiar symbol on each of their wrists. They didn’t go all in like Arin and Elliot, letting them quite easily pass the trial.

“Liam Mashur, Completion Rate 90%.”

“Lianna Mashur, Completion Rate 89%.”

“If you had more confidence, we could’ve gotten a higher score!” Lianna roared at her brother who was quietly taking in the verbal abuse. Although they took the easy path, there was one thing everyone in the class missed.

How did they do that? Some of the observant students were keeping an eye on the twins yet for some reason, they finished it so quickly that they didn’t even manage to get a glimpse of what they did.

“Sis… everyone’s looking…” Liam meekly said as Lianna glared at everyone else.

“What are you looking at? That’s right.” Lianna dragged him to their seats where they just quietly waited for the results. Lianna’s personality was very volatile yet it wasn’t to Sefi or Arin’s level. Despite this, it was better safe than to be sorry. Two psychopaths were two too many.

There were now only four students left inside the trial. Time was ticking as the glow from the moon on the floor was vibrantly shining even harder than before.

Professor Ferial’s attention was finally caught by one student, as much as she wanted to get this over quickly, she was starting to get interested in one person. The one person who hadn’t made a move this entire time.

“First it was Arin, next it’s you. This experimental batch really does produce really interesting results. First, Mina, a master at deciphering runic symbols, managing to figure out the subtle hints and next you, Noah, the child who desires knowledge the most, concocting the most interesting plan out of nothing.” Professor Ferial actively spoke out what she had in mind.

This caused a few attentive students to finally look at Noah’s direction.

Professor Ferial then glanced at two other students, Arin and Elliot. “You two had read the book so you should’ve known that killing these creatures isn’t the way to get a Perfect Clear. I’m either going to get really disappointed or…”