The blinding light forced them to close their eyes. However, Alex still kept being vigilant as he knew whatever could happen in a situation like this. Firia also raised her Fire Element to see whether there was someone around her or not.
A few seconds later, the light dimmed down and got replaced by darkness.
"Where is this?" Firia furrowed her eyebrows, scanning their current position. There was no door behind them despite going through one earlier. There was only a hard stone blocking the path to go back.
Surrounded by the wall, Alex tried to look further and noticed something different.
"I have found something, but I don't know whether this is what we are searching for or not…"
"What is it?"
"If we follow the only path we can, which is the front, we will meet staircases to go up. I can see a violent Spiritual Energy there." Alex informed her with a calm expression.
"Do we have any other choice?" Firia asked.
"Let me look around first." Alex didn't answer and kept looking with his Spirit Eyes, wondering if he had missed something.
Firia also looked around, not letting Alex do all the work. The wall behind them surprisingly held a few words, ingrained on it. "Alex… Look behind you."
"!!!" Alex thought it was an enemy attack and immediately turned around, only to find a few words.
'Shall you want to obtain what the Gods and Goddesses had in the past, go to the center tower where they resided… Your time limit is two weeks for the whole trial: The first week is to go to the checkpoint and the other week is to pass the second one before you arrive at the Tower of God. Go forth and show your strength! The timer will start as soon as you finish reading this.'
"!!!" Alex read it out loud, so Firia could hear it as well, but because of what he did, the words shone.
A red blood-colored number appeared within the wall.
168:00:00.
167:59:59.
"Let's go. There is no doubt that we need to climb the staircases." Alex warned. "I have checked everything around the area, including on the top and bottom."
"I understand." Firia nodded and followed Alex upstairs.
The staircases weren't that long and high, so they managed to climb it within a minute, of course, without flying. A new world appeared in their vision after coming out. The staircases suddenly closed itself as if it was alive.
Knowing that they couldn't go back, Alex checked their surroundings once again, noticing many energy signs around them. They had a similar posture as monsters, so Alex classified them as dangerous, considering most of them were 7-Star Martial Monarch or above.
"That must be the center tower." Firia pointed her finger toward the tall tower far on the horizon before realizing the change in Alex's expression.
"This place is surrounded by monsters. We need to sneak around to pass them before finishing this one… As much as I want to kill them, I want to see what kind of trial this is."
"I understand. I will cooperate with you." Firia nodded.
Alex then summoned Nelson without hesitation.
"You see the tower over there?" Alex asked while pointing at the tower.
"Yes."
"Your task is to lead us there without the monsters around noticing us. Can you do that?"
"It's easy." Nelson smiled with confidence. "I can see that the monsters are quite powerful around the area, so I think I need around one hour before I can reach that place. I hope Young Master lets me go first to check the entire place."
"Sure. Do what you think is right. Firia and I will stay here." Alex nodded, and Nelson disappeared into thin air.
"What are we going to do now? Wait?"
"Of course not. I want to kill some monsters around to see whether they are real or not. If they are, I can summon the other spirits and kill all of them before we go to the second one near the time limit."
"What if the others know about our situation? It will be troublesome, you know…"
"True enough." Alex nodded, falling into deep thought. "How about if I go ask someone to keep a close eye on the surface to see if there is anyone coming in? We might leave this area first and just go straight to the tower after that."
Firia agreed this time. "Sure."
Alex then leads Firia to the weakest monster around here. It was a 7-Star Martial Monarch White Serpent. Alex killed it without trouble.
[EXP+100]
Both of them immediately had an idea as soon as they saw this notification. They said at the same time. "If there is no problem with the trial, we can summon everyone except one person here and kill these monsters until the other influences intrude this place."
"We will wait for an hour then." Firia nodded.
"Yes." Alex nodded.
After another hour, Alex waited for Nelson to give him the signal before summoning him again.
"Young Master. I have checked everything in your way… This place doesn't possess that much danger, considering there is no trap or whatsoever, only monsters. In other words, we can eliminate them as much as possible before going to the second stage." Nelson confirmed their next course.
"I want to check the end first, is that alright?" Alex asked.
"I understand. I will lead the way." Nelson nodded and guided him along with Firia toward the end of the place. It turned out that the place was a swamp covered with fog. When he turned around and checked what filled the place, he found many swamp monsters like crocodiles.
Nelson skillfully guided them, knowing when to fly and when to run. An hour later, they arrived right in front of a tall wall, circling around the tower.
Alex couldn't help but comment. "Why does the trial have the same appearance as the one outside? A tower and a wall like this?"
"I don't know." Nelson shrugged while Firia looked away.
"Still… This entrance is so strange? Although I can't see what is inside yet, I can watch the movement of Spiritual Energy. I bet there are some words again around here. We can read it later." Alex nodded before summoning every single spirit except Anya.
He took Anya's card and apologized. "I am sorry, Anya. You need to watch our progress there… Do I need to send Nelson to you?"
"No need to apologize. I am fine here. My mission is only to see whether another person has entered the pillar, right? It's easy to watch them from afar." Anya said softly, understanding the situation.
"Yeah. I have blocked the connection of my Spatial Gate for the time being, so there won't be monsters coming out of that place."
"You don't need to worry about me. By the looks of it, they need around two or three days before they can break through these monsters. I have taken a look at their tactic and realize this… So, you only have around this much. Unfortunately, you can't use the True Spirit Body as well, so…"
"Even if there is no True Spirit Body, the benefit alone is far better than the one we have been doing. This place is surrounded by 7-Star Martial Monarch monsters, so we need to use it to our advantage."
"Oh!" Anya's expression brightened. "Make sure to kill many of them, alright?"
"Sure." Alex smiled and looked at his spirits. "Because Anya is there, we will separate the group again like before when we only have two groups. In other words, each group will have seven members. Although our objective is to kill as many as possible, make sure you act cautiously because this is by no means land that we have information about."
"Understood." They shouted in unison as they split up.
Unbeknownst to them, their actions were actually watched by a few people. The one that was the most excited was an old man with purple hair. He looked like someone who just passed their middle-aged, so he wasn't that old. "This is…"
"Oi! Who is the one that arranges the trial this time? Look at this? There are supposed to be two of them, and now it becomes fourteen…" Another guy shouted.
"Still, I can't see how they can bring people… I mean, the entire trial this time has been coated by Space Element Array, right? I mean, Divine Array. It should not be possible to bring someone even with a Teleportation Array."
"That's right. But the fact that they… No, he can bring them in is still apparent."
"Yeah. Does he have a weird technique or something?"
"How about the Space Element? He must have a Space Element, right?"
"I watched the situation outside the tower not long ago and only found that this guy had only Fire Element. Besides, I can sense three beings inside his body…"
"Don't focus on him! Can't you see that the woman has a trace of Divine Aura? From the power alone, I feel it's coming from a high ranked God…"
"But we have closed the entrance to this world. They shouldn't come from the outside!"
"You need to be clear about that one. We only close the entrance for God Rank Expert. As for those below that stage… I don't think I need to say it."
"I know that, but we have no news about another race coming from another planet… The only thing we know was the one from a few thousand years ago. Three races came here with their ship."
"True enough. That person informed us about it when he underwent this trial and met us…"
"What should we do now?"
"We should observe them first. Seeing their movement, I know they are going to fight the monsters around here for a week. I am wondering what kind of secret they hold."
"Yes. I do think we should observe them."
"I have confirmed his power. It's indeed a Space Element… It means he has two elements. It was like that guy a few thousand years ago… Who was his name again?"
"Maxwell."
"Yeah, Maxwell. He was a talented one that had undergone a reincarnated cycle, and to our surprise, he even retained his previous memory."
"Anyway, we shouldn't talk about him for the time being. Our problem is this guy… Actually, I am sure that whatever he did, it was through the Space Element." The purple-haired old man nodded with confidence.
"You are the one who put the Divine Space Element Array, right? No one should be able to break through that array, especially those who are not a God Rank Expert, let alone he who has yet to reach Martial Saint Stage."
"As much as I hate this situation, I remember an old tale… There was once a guy, having a weird Space Element. That power was otherworldly. Despite having ranked lower than a normal Space Element, that guy can go toe to toe against a Pure Space Element. From what I heard, that guy's name was Smett, one of the highest-ranking Gods, a God King. People knew him as Dungeon God."
"What? Do you mean that this guy has the same power? Or does he his inheritor?" These souls of Gods and Goddesses roared, not believing such a thing.
"Even at our peak, we only have rank 5 God. Are you saying that he is the successor of a Rank 1 God, AKA, a God King?"
"I don't believe it as well, but the power fits the description…" The purple-haired guy nodded. "Hey, I am thinking about taking this child with me… Will that be alright?"
"What are you planning?"
"I want to make a transaction with him. You should know about the Space Monsters inside my realm, right? I am thinking about having him to defeat them and kill their mother. We are planning to annihilate them, so I think this plan is good."
"I see… That is indeed a good idea. Our plan in erecting this place is to hold them until they died… But there is no one qualified to kill them. I think this guy is the right choice… Haiz, I wonder if there is someone who can destroy my realm too…"
"I hope too…"
"If they die, we can release our descendants and let them experience the outside world…"