Anna was about to cheer, finally done for the day, but she found herself on a circular platform floating in space, similar to the one that Tai found himself on. She had reached level 100 and was taken to her trial.

Besides the platform were two women. One with purple eyes, long pointed ears, and dark skin, similar to a dark elf. The other looked like a normal human, but with a pair of black, cat ears atop her head. A tail could also be seen behind her.

They both wore mysterious, purple robes with arcane printing, that screamed sorcerer.

"Interesting, and a connection with the abyss? Dear, what's your name?" the dark elf woman asked.

Anna turned to see the two women, quietly admiring their bodies which would make any girl on Earth jealous. "Umm, my name is Anna, Anna Zenith."

"Anna Zenith..." She turned to her colleague, smiling. "What an ...interesting name, don't you think?"

The cat girl nodded. "Interesting indeed, but are her skills interesting?"

"Hmm, let's see..." The dark elf woman extended her palm out at Anna, the woman's eyes becoming a blank white.

Anna felt a mysterious force inside her mind, looking through her thoughts, and memories. 

The woman's eyes returned to their purple shade as she placed her hand down. "Quite plain if you ask me, but her brother is interesting. They're both connected to the abyss."

The other woman nodded. "Alright then, let the trial begin."

Anna had long figured out that this was a trial, and she had been looking forward to doing her trial as she was told that one would gain good skills if one did good in the trial, and even if you did bad, as long as you passed, you would still get a reward which was good for her.

"What will I be doing in the trial?" Anna asked in an innocent tone.

"Simple, dear. Your trial consists of 3 challenges. First, you will try to destroy 10 mana-reinforced metals in a row using only mana. Second, you must keep yourself afloat for 1 hour, and third, you must fight against a Demon Sorcerer. Now, begin."

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Behind Anna, 20 floating pieces of mana-reinforced metal appeared. They weren't that thick and would actually be considered relatively thin, but the problem was that Anna could only use mana, and they were reinforced with mana. She won't let that get her down though. Nothing has ever stopped her, and it won't now.

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Back on the planet, Tai was surprised when his sister suddenly disappeared but realized that it was most likely her being taken to her trial, as he remembered her saying that she had reached level 99 a few minutes ago.

He couldn't really do anything else, so Tai just turned around and went back to the city, grabbing some street food on the way. That was one thing that this city had that his last one didn't: street food. Some humans and even some aliens bought small to medium-sized stalls and sold food for a small price. 

There was the familiar barbecue, kebabs, empanadas, and there were also alien street foods that looked weird, but when he tried them, they were actually pretty tasty. There was one that looked like jelly on a kebab stick, but instead of feeling like jelly, it felt like biting on meat, but sweet. Like a chocolate chicken that he wanted more of. 

Tai gladly splurged his AC since he had gotten a lot from doing missions with Anna. He was also glad that there was ice cream, but the bad thing was that there were only three people making ice cream, meaning that there was a long line of people behind each stall. Aliens were also lining up, eager to taste the cold treat.

Tai didn't mind waiting. He had a lot of time, and if Anna's trial was anywhere as long as his, it would take her at least 1 hour.

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"AGHHH!" Anna was annoyed. No matter what she did, she just couldn't break 10 metals in a row. Her attack would do good for the first five, but then its power would suddenly drop and only make a small hole on the 6th metal.

"30 minutes left."

"Calm down, Anna, you got this," she said to herself. "The mana is yours to control."

Taking a deep breath, she formed her usual mana ball, injecting it with all her mana. The good thing about this challenge was that her mana would regenerate once she used it all up, allowing her to inject more mana than she could normally.

As she was about to throw the ball, a realization went through her head. "Wait, balls aren't that good at piercing, so what if I..."

Using her new realization, the shape of the mana ball in her hand changed. It went from its spherical shape to a small rod with a sharp point at the end.

She threw it at the metal that had regenerated at a fast speed, much faster than the ball as it was thin and not as affected by the wind. It went through the first 5 just fine as always, and now is the time to see if changing the shape made a difference.

It went through the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th metal, but it wasn't done. It broke the next five, reaching the 15th metal before it finally stopped.

Anna cheered and jumped up and down. "Yaaay! I did it!"

"Impressive, but I think you could've figured that out much sooner. Not everything is about how much mana you can put into an attack, in fact sometimes, it's not the best to use a lot of mana in one attack as it could easily be detected."

"Now, onto the next trial."