“Uh?”
[??]
[Lily, take it easy]
[Heavenly Horse’s Dominance ㄷㄷ;;;]
[? LOL]
[You said to control your power]
[And then you just go and destroy a mountain]
[Great Lily]
[With just one step of Lily, the mountain collapses…]
“…It wasn’t me?”
Most of my power is sealed, and what I’m using right now is just the aura drawn from the Earth.
No matter how much aura surrounds me, it simply can’t have that much power to sink the ground just by ‘walking’.
Of course, if I wanted to, I could cause a similar impact with a small amount of power, but right now, I’m not even trying to exert any force.
I focused as much as I could and examined the ground beneath the sunken earth.
Upon closer inspection, I could see sharp spikes buried in the debris below.
“…A trap?”
The ground suddenly sinks, and there’s a trap below it…
“Hmm… Ah.”
[Huh?]
[?]
[Why? Did you figure something out?]
[Wow]
[Heavenly Horse Lily ㄷㄷ]
“Thinking about it, this is a space of the magic array, isn’t it?”
This place is a space of the magic array formed by the ‘power of the Earth.’
As much as the power of the Earth suppresses the challengers’ strength, the trap devices here, that is, the magic array, must also be composed of the power of the Earth.
But I was ‘absorbing’ that power of the Earth into my heart.
“If I’m absorbing the power of this place, perhaps the trap device is going haywire, and it activated automatically when the anomaly occurred?”
If that’s the case, then even such absurd phenomena like Heavenly Horse’s Dominance make sense.
The ground before me was ‘originally’ a trap, and it was meant to activate when I stepped on it first, but it was triggered after being absorbed.
Considering the spikes are buried in the debris, it means it wasn’t a regular activation.
However, if there’s still a lingering question…
[Is this?]
[Really?]
[Isn’t it too big?]
[It’s definitely a trap LOL?]
The size of the sunken ground is abnormally large compared to the space filled with spikes.
The area with the spikes is about 20m, but the sunken ground easily exceeds a radius of 100m, five times that.
Rather than the magic array malfunctioning and triggering, it feels like the magic array ‘itself’ has sunk.
I feel myself getting deeper into a maze of thoughts.
Shaking my head as I fell into deep contemplation, I realized that no matter what, a trap destroying itself wouldn’t be a bad thing for me, and I could figure it out if I went up a bit further.
“I’ll go up carefully this time. Just a little…”
Creeeak!
“Pair?”
Dozens of trees splintered.
■
—Huh?
—Why is this happening?
—……
Boom! Crash! Smash!!!
“…Is this the God of Destruction?”
“Seems like a walking disaster.”
Minja and Won-ho, watching the second trial, couldn’t help but chuckle at the challenger, Lily Elbrite, who was destroying everything in her path.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the challenger, Lily Elbrite, who destroys everything in her path.
The second test involves finding a flag on a mountain filled with traps and planting it at the mountain peak.
At first glance, this seems much easier than the first test, but the issue, of course, is the traps.
With countless traps lurking on the mountain, letting your guard down is absolutely out of the question.
These traps are so threatening that they can take the lives of challengers with robust bodies, and escaping while in a sealed state is nearly impossible.
It’s a test that cannot be passed without enlightenment in power and technique.
“Maybe it’s not the right time, though.”
Boom!!
A minor landslide, which was about to crush Lily’s body, suddenly flipped over.
This landslide isn’t just a pile of rocks; it’s a pile of ‘power’, and in a sealed state, it poses a lethal threat.
But even if death occurs, it’s no big deal.
She can be revived at the ‘Spring of Life’ in the central continent.
It might consume some resources, but for someone at the extreme defense level, that’s hardly a steep price.
In fact, right now, there are continuous deaths and disqualifications coming from the mountain with a separate magic array.
“…I really think it’s a blessing,”
“Ridiculous… Uh? A blessing, you say?”
At Minja’s chuckle in response to Won-ho’s serious question, she giggled.
“If we had started in ‘one place’ like the previous exam instead of splitting up, at least 30 out of the 47 passers would have made it, right?”
“…….”
I don’t know what that woman’s ability is, but she seems to be smashing through all the traps.
If all the challengers had started in the same space, the threat of traps would have vanished, allowing them to easily ascend the mountain.
However, unlike last time, this exam proceeded in separate spaces for everyone.
“Isn’t it funny? They intentionally made the exam easier by splitting us up. They want us to go up honestly without fighting each other.”
There used to be a time when everyone took the exam in one place.
This test isn’t just about climbing the mountain while avoiding traps; you also have to find the hidden ‘flags’.
But there weren’t enough flags for every challenger to have one.
“It’s already hard to find them, and you want us to avoid traps too?”
Given such a challenging difficulty, challengers often saw it as normal to interfere with other competitors or steal flags from those ascending the mountain.
Since the exam didn’t prohibit harming other challengers, it made sense.
Thus, this test was designed to split everyone into separate spaces to conduct it somewhat ‘easier’…
Boom!
“…If we had all done it together, there would have been quite a few passers.”
All because of that one woman, the situation turned completely around.
Other challengers were desperately avoiding traps while she casually smashed through them.
─Found another one.
It was indeed surprising.
Naturally, when the trap area completely flipped over, the hidden flags nearby sprang up.
The woman named Lily was climbing the mountain with 18 flags in her possession.
“I have no idea what kind of ability she has. Why are the traps exploding like that?”
“Isn’t she an outsider from another world? Maybe she has a special ability like that claw girl?”
Won-ho, assuming that since she’s an outsider, she must be special.
It’s not a completely absurd statement.
In fact, most outsiders possess unique abilities, and their powers are rare even in this world of Teshiniria.
Even if they were sealed by the power encompassing the magic array, there must be something that could break that seal.
“So, what’s the first one?”
“Excuse me?”
“The first test, Extreme Strong Stone, didn’t use any of those abilities. She learned and mastered the technique in an hour. If she had something like that, she should have used it sooner, right?”
“…That’s true.”
If she could casually ignore the constraints of the magic array, why did she take the first test normally?
‘She could have just smashed everything like she’s doing now.’
This posed a significant question to the two supervisors, but an answer didn’t come easily.
─…Looks like I’ve found most of them.
Meanwhile, Lily had gathered the flags, leaving the destroyed traps behind.
She had collected a whopping 31 out of the 32 flags that were placed this time.
At first, it seemed she couldn’t understand why the traps were exploding, but now it looked like she was enjoying herself, collecting flags as she circled the entire mountain.
At that moment, Minja shivered as if feeling a chill.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Isn’t this situation worthy of reporting to the higher-ups?”
“Isn’t it? A passerby in the four-minute range is impressive, but destroying traps like that is unheard of. Moreover, it seems she’s even breaking the magic array itself…”
“If Mujoo’s death sentence comes, it will be worth it.”
“…Huh?”
To check on the claw girl, Mujoo entered the inner hall.
Only those of ‘Upper-ranked’ or above can enter the inner hall, and it’s a place that is incredibly convoluted both structurally and magically, taking considerable time to enter and exit.
Since quite a bit of time has passed since Mujoo left, by now…
Creak!
“…I’ve roughly reached a conclusion. Once the last test is over, the order is to immediately bring that guy, Gapwoo, here.”
“……”
“……”
“It looks like they plan to use him as an ‘Outer Gate Disciple’ due to the urgency rather than technique. Just his body and power are enough to overshadow ordinary upper-ranked disciples. I’m a bit envious.”
“That…”
“How did the test go? Has Gapwoo passed already?”
“You might need to go again.”
Minja quietly projected a screen made of the magic array in front of him.
On the screen, there was Lily, turning a hill to dust with each step she took.
Lily’s figure was reflected as she turned the hill into powder.
“…..”
“Um, I know you’ve had a tough time, but isn’t this a situation we should report on…”
“W-would you like to rest a bit?! Mujoo hyung has had a really hard time.”
“I’ll be back…”
Mujoo turned around, opened the door, and left.
For some reason, his shoulders looked incredibly drooped.
“…If I have to go back again because something happened in the third trial, he’s going to be furious, right?”
“Then he might just kill us all.”
■
Rumble!
The last trap of the mountain (probably?) collapsed, and we finally obtained 32 flags.
I didn’t originally plan to collect flags like this, but as I naturally broke the traps, the number of flags increased over time.
Since I was collecting them anyway, I decided to gather them all.
[LOL]
[Can you feel the mountain’s rage, Inoo!!]
[Lily, stop breaking everything;;]
[Mountain:ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[At this point, it seems like she’s enjoying it]
[Lily, the goddess of nature destruction;;]
[The Forestry Agency doesn’t like this broadcast]
[Just walking around is destroying nature]
[Great Lily]
Cough! “Shall we start heading up slowly?”
Unintentionally, I started breaking both the traps and the mountain at the same time, getting a rough grasp of this power structure.
‘Destruction through absorption, and then the backlash.’
While absorbing the fundamental power of this magic array, I temporarily became closely related to the ‘Earth.’
In simpler terms, if I obtain the power of the Earth, I also gain the ‘influence’ of the Earth itself.
The problem here is that if my influence clashes with the ‘hostile’ influence of the Earth, a significant ‘backlash’ occurs.
That backlash destroyed the trap magic array, and the aftermath of that destruction… well, you can see how it turned out.
Moreover, the power of the Earth had already fully integrated with my body in the form of aura, so there wasn’t really any way to stop it.
If I wanted to, I’d need to ‘discharge’ the massive aura built up in my body or use the holy power to ‘purify’ it, but I can’t do that.
‘I’ve come this far to become a disciple; I can’t just stop learning, right?’
This was unavoidable.
Thinking this way, I shared my realizations with the viewers.
[Isn’t there a magic array inside the Inner Hall?]
“…That’s a bit of a problem.”
If I wear a mask, it’ll all get smashed to pieces.
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