Gabriel had no choice but to acknowledge the skeleton of Sion. There was also no reason to refuse. After all, Gabriel had only said, “Create four teams,” without specifying anyone.
“There was a bit of a disturbance,” Gabriel said to everyone. “But we will move on to the next task immediately.”
“Principal Gabriel. Are you really going to acknowledge that?” Rudric exclaimed, seemingly unable to accept it.
“I told them to form teams purely to accomplish the next task, not with the intention of eliminating anyone,” Gabriel explained. “No matter how you put it…!”
“Isn’t it interesting? A talking skeleton,” Gabriel chuckled softly.
In truth, he never intended to eliminate Sion from the start. After all, he had prepared this test for Sion.
Still, a suitable excuse that students could understand was necessary.
“Anyway, to pass the next test, cooperation from each member of the team is necessary. Simply having a talking skeleton won’t guarantee passage, so rest assured.”
Rudric sat back, licking his lips. Gabriel’s words were correct. He didn’t like it at all, but he couldn’t imagine passing Gabriel’s test with just that skeleton.
“…It must be a truly ordinary skeleton.”
Today’s test was going to be quite interesting. Gabriel thought as he continued speaking.
“Well then, I will announce the second task.”
The brief disturbance caused by the skeleton was forgotten as everyone focused on Gabriel’s words.
“Sion Rockefeller.”
Gabriel had seen everything up to now. Even though he was level 99, Gabriel judged him to be at least level 60.
Gabriel wanted to confirm two things with this test: whether he was truly level 99 and, most importantly, whether he was not an evil person. If he was, “he must be expelled from Eden.” He couldn’t risk passing on information about the Empire’s capable talents to someone who might become an enemy in the future.
“Please bring the token of the promise,” Gabriel pointed his finger, and a different world unfolded before everyone’s eyes.
In a quiet forest, Sion looked up at the sky with calm eyes.
Drip, drip—
It was a perfectly imagined scene. The sensation of the wind, visual information, the smell of trees piercing his nose. Sion could guess how high Gabriel’s illusion magic level was.
“But…” Sion looked around quickly. “Why is no one here?”
Lydia, who had been next to him just now, was nowhere to be seen.
The skeleton was the same. Judging from the fact that it had not been dismissed, it seemed to still be in reality.
“….” Sion, who had been pondering for a moment, reached out into the air and closed his eyes.
Zap!
The dark magic collided with the virtual world.
Soon, a slight gap appeared in the air.
Without hesitation, Sion tore through that space. Beyond the torn space, Lydia’s figure appeared.
“Lydia.”
Lydia looked somewhat surprised.
“What are you doing there?”
“I guess as a cleric, magic doesn’t work well for me.”
“I see. Come over here.”
“… Is that okay?”
Lydia cautiously crossed the torn space.
“It’s real. I made it over.”
Lydia clenched and unclenched her hands in amazement.
“It’s my first time experiencing magic. This feeling…”
“Gabriel’s illusion magic doesn’t work on you,” Sion thought.
So, she must have the trait of “High Magic Resistance.” It’s an S-rank trait that can block any magic or mystery. It’s very rare, and as far as Sion knew, only Aria had it besides Lydia.
“What’s going on?”
“Sion. Where are we?”
“In an illusion.”
“But… everyone suddenly disappeared.”
Sion didn’t feel like explaining.
“There’s something like that.”
Lydia puffed her cheeks.
“[Please don’t be too surprised.]”
Gabriel’s voice echoed throughout the entire forest.
“[Some of you may have noticed, but this is an illusion magic. It’s not a transition to another place.]”
“[All you have to do is find the token of the promise here. And if you hand it to my assistant in the center, you can escape. Until dawn. Any other escape attempt from illusion magic will be disqualified.]”
“[Oh, I forgot to mention something important. This is an illusion world. Even if you die here, it won’t affect you in reality, so don’t worry.]”
“[…And Sion, please take the skeleton with you. I don’t know why it’s massaging my shoulders.]”
Lydia looked at Sion.
“Take the skeleton with you.”
“I almost forgot.”
Somewhere, it sounded like the skeleton’s bones were sighing sadly.
“Summon a few more skeletons. It’ll help pass this test too.”
Sion’s eyes glowed blue with excessive magic. Soon, black flames ignited.
The world darkened for a moment. Sion began to chant.
“Undead summoning, Skeletons, 100,000 ma…”
“[Sion! Summon only two! More than four is prohibited!]”
Startled by Gabriel’s panicked voice, Sion canceled the summoning.
Instead, he summoned only two, feeling disappointed.
“It’s a shame. I was planning to quickly clear it by summoning 100,000 undead.”
Today, his goal was to pass quickly and continue attending Principal Gabriel’s lectures in the future.
So, he chose the fastest method, but it was blocked. As expected, the principal’s tests were not easy.
“What’s this?”
At that moment, Lydia squatted down and picked something up.
It was a small, sparkling gem-like object.
“It’s the token of the promise.”
“Really?”
Lydia’s face brightened.
“Then we passed!”
“…”
How nice would that be.
None of Gabriel’s tests were easy. Sion decided to show rather than explain.
“Follow me.”
“…Lily worked hard to find it.”
As they were about to move, Lydia stared at Sion intently.
‘What’s wrong?’
With that kind of look, Lydia suddenly turned her head.
“I’m not asking for praise or anything.”
‘So she wanted praise.’
Sion realized belatedly and gently stroked Lydia’s head.
“You did well.”
After Lydia’s mood improved, they could finally set off.
They traversed through the forest. Lydia looked around as if fascinated by the illusionary surroundings.
“What’s this?”
“That’s a tree.”
“And this?”
“…A rock.”
“Wow, fascinating.”
‘Was she trapped somewhere for 20 years?’
He seriously wondered.
“But what about your magic?”
They were quite far from the center of the forest. Taking the opportunity to kill time and confirm Lydia’s capabilities, Sion asked.
“Lily doesn’t know how to use magic.”
“In Eden, magic refers to all supernatural ‘abilities.'”
“Oh. Then… Lily knows how to pray.”
‘Oh.’
It was a different ability. Apart from creating undead, it piqued Sion’s interest enough to make him curious.
“What effects does it have? Instant death for the desired target? Party-wide buffs? Or healing?”
“Um.”
Lydia hugged the token of the promise and nodded.
“Praying makes you faithful.”
“…”
It didn’t seem to have any special effect. Sion felt dizzy.
“Oh, I found another one here!”
There was another token of the promise between the tree roots. Lydia casually picked it up and grinned.
“Be thankful. Thanks to Lily, I was able to pass the test safely.”
Sion spoke with a cold look in his eyes.
“Enough. Let’s go where the assistant is.”
“What? Give me more praise.”
Unfortunately, he couldn’t praise her anymore. Otherwise, the day would end with just praising.
Finally, Sion and Lydia reached the center of the forest. The center was a wide clearing with a single giant tree, and an elf stood with eyes closed.
“It seems the tree person is the assistant.”
“It’s not a tree person, it’s an elf.”
Sion gestured to Lydia as they approached the elf. Lydia confidently held out the two tokens of the promise.
“Here, the token of the promise.”
“That’s not enough. Meeul.” (Elf)
“…”
Lydia asked Sion with a puzzled expression, “What’s Meeul?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“I don’t know what it is, but I’m really annoyed.”
At that moment, a rustling sound came from the elf.
“It’s time.”
Then, the elf rolled up his sleeves and began to do push-ups vigorously. After a while, Lydia couldn’t stand it anymore and said, “I brought the token of the promise. Please let us go quickly.”
“Still haven’t gone?”
The elf stood up and brushed his hands.
“Two are still not enough.”
“Huh?”
“It means you need a hundred. Meeul. Now, don’t disturb my workout.”
Then, he started bench pressing with a huge barbell from somewhere.
Sion looked up at the sky. Then, he remembered something he had always thought about since playing this game.
“Developer, this NPC is a bit weird, isn’t it?”
**
“Here, juice made from sweet apples.”
“Oh, uh… Thank you.”
On a cliff overlooking the forest, Academy Principal Gabriel received the juice with a troubled expression.
“Skeletons…?”
“Yes.”
“Did Sion instruct you to do this?”
The skeleton nodded solemnly.
“No, this is my free will.”
“Really? Are you moving on your own without any orders? How is that possible?”
As seekers of truth, magicians couldn’t just let curiosity pass.
They had never encountered undead with self-awareness before, let alone being so polite.
‘Better than humans…?’
Such thoughts crossed their minds.
“That’s because my master gave me one command when he created me.”
“A command?”
“Yes. He said, ‘Be a courteous gentleman.'”
Gabriel also remembered those words.
“Oh, so that’s why you were born in such a wonderful state just because of one word added when you first created the skeleton.”
It was a quite interesting fact.
Just one word could make such a difference.
‘But finally, we’ve arrived.’
It seemed like Sion was standing in front of the elf.
The elf’s name was “Saira.”
In the past, Gabriel had created him based on the strongest elf he had ever seen.
In this illusion, Gabriel could implement anything.
So, this “elf” also had abilities similar to those in reality.
‘But to pass the test, we have to overcome that elf.’
There were various methods.
Whether it’s offering 100 tokens of the promise, persuading verbally, or overpowering the elf with force.
Of course, the last method was impossible.
Even if Sion was truly level 99, it wouldn’t matter.
Because it wasn’t designed to be won.
“It’s impossible with force alone. Sion, what will you do?”
Gabriel smirked and then his expression turned contemplative.
The skeleton’s massaging skills weren’t half bad.
