Michael was lying down on top of his bed, reading the alphabet and trying to learn that new language, his progress was surprisingly fast.
Compared to his previous world, the progress was in fact really great, the only reason it was taking this long was because the language was more complex than others.
So much so that while he was able to memorize the entire alphabet he was still finding it difficult to speak it or read it properly.
That’s even with the assistance of his INT stat, it felt strange actually learning for once.
It has been a year by now, Michael’s daily routine was mana refinement, learning the language and from time to time, meeting up with Freya to talk about random stuff.
He found it easy to talk to her, as if they knew each other at some point, which the way things were unfolding, was highly likely.
The visitor she mentioned did not show up either, maybe they forgot?
I can’t fix the status screen, it’s frozen, however, your stats are increasing, get your mana core already.
‘It sure would be nice if I had someone by my side that could, well, I don’t know, give me some answers?’ Michael scoffed back at the system.
The only hints it gave him across the year since it came back, was to keep refining his mana and he would figure it out.
Basically the same thing Freya said.
Michael couldn’t understand why the system couldn’t tell him, it’s not like it was alive, would it die if it broke the oath, was it even under oath?
I am, the memories I have are from people who all had mana cores, not including you of course.
‘So? Why can’t you tell me exactly?’
Oaths can kill any being, even if god himself broke an oath, he would be killed, doesn’t matter if I don’t have a body, I can still die.
‘Wow, who invented the oaths then if they can even kill gods?’ Michael thought in wonder.
The beings before gods most likely, no one really knows.
‘Like primordials or something?’
As I said, no one knows.
Michael shrugged and went back to reading, however, a wave of mana erupted from his pocket, specifically the pocket in which the orb of trials was located.
The button that was pressed down all this time, came back up, signifying that today was the day he could enter the trials once more.
He immediately got off the bed and headed for the fountain room, he was going to tell Freya, however, she was not in her throne room.
It was strange since that’s where he always found her, but since she wasn’t there, he couldn’t do anything about it.
Michael arrived in front of the fountain and sat down just a bit in front of it, before pressing the button and once again being transported to an unknown place.
It was dark.. too dark.
He tried opening his eyes, however, it was to no avail, it felt as if he was blind.
He clenched his fists ‘System?’
I am here, it says Trial of Sense, guess you are blind for now.
‘Can you see anything then?’
No, I am the same as you, I can feel around myself though, the mana is pretty rich in this area.
Michael understood what it meant and began spreading his mana around himself, it slowly connected with the mana and he could feel roughly 50 meters around himself.
‘Woah.. it’s much better than I thought’ Michael learned this type of application while he was messing around back in the temple.
The system and Freya told him about the possibilities, which quite frankly, were nearly endless.
Enhancement, Projection, Detection, combining all of them leads to even more combinations.
Yet, he felt there was more than that and that was why he was so excited to learn about it.
As he used Detection, he was able to perceive the surroundings as if he had eyes, the mana acted as his own limbs.
He could touch and feel everything in a certain radius and what caught his eye was the fact that he was in some sort of a trap room.
There were sharp spears all around and all sorts of other booby traps on the ground.
Michael picked a direction and walked forward, neatly avoiding the traps.
‘This seems a bit easier than the other one no?’
Say that after being in here for longer than a minute, traps aren’t the only thing you will face.
‘Bummer..’
He navigated the traps and appeared in some sort of an open room, it did not seem like there were any traps here.
As he was taking the next few steps forward, he suddenly couldn’t hear anything.
‘Don’t tell me..’
Yes, first your sight, now your hearing, I don’t need to tell you what’s next do I?
‘God.. I fucking hate this trial already’ Even with the mana, not seeing or hearing puts him at a big disadvantage, the only reason he was able to deal with Kevin last time was because he could see his HP still.
Though he guessed something like that wouldn’t be happening anymore.
And here he was, slowly losing his senses until what, he doesn’t even know he still exists?
‘Since this is most likely some memory fragment, just who the hell experienced this?’ He thought.
The memories seemed overexaggerated, the last trial was anyway, was this how the past Michael saw the world?
‘I can assume he was blind, but the other senses as well? I am not so sure about that.’
Watch out.
As the system’s warning reached Michael, a massive figure suddenly appeared in his Detection range.
It felt like some kind of a massive werewolf, its speed was definitely impressive.
However, for the current Michael, it was a walk in the park.
The moment it was within 10 meters of him, a Sword of Mana manifested and flew straight through the werewolf’s head, killing it in an instant.
If Michael had to guess, his current prowess was just below the goblin leader he met previously.
Safe to say, the progress he had made was considerable.
He believed that he could finally prove to Amanda that he was ready to take on higher level dungeons, by now he was considered strong, in Vivum at least.
However, from the conversations with Freya, he realized that there was a world outside of the one he was in, one that was much bigger and housed many more strong people.
It was an exciting thought, he didn’t know when his desire to become strong ignited, but, it was currently his main driving factor.
Once he becomes strong enough, he can decide what he wishes to do moving forwards.
And for that, he needed to finish the trials and awaken his mana core.
Don’t get ahead of yourself now, more pups incoming.
‘Sure’ He twisted his body around and shot out a few Swords of Mana which all hit vitals, immediately killing the monsters.
It has become his favorite ability, there was also Mana Spears that he used from time to time, however, he felt they were not as effective and satisfying.
The swords were fast and deadly, they also cost barely any mana to cast, it was the perfect ability.
After finally finishing up, he noticed another change, he could not smell or taste anymore.
‘2 at once?’ He was slightly shocked.
The trial adjusts the difficulty based on your abilities, so far you have been annihilating the monsters, what did you expect?
Michael nodded, slightly nervous ‘Isn’t touch next?’
