276 Confusion & Incoherence

A few minutes prior…

After waiting for almost 5 hours, the silhouettes of the other three appeared in front of a black crystal each just like I did as they looked a bit confused.

"Oh, you are finally here…"

"What? You were here all the time?"

Mountain stared at me in confusion as if they thought I was already dead or something, with the fact that all three of them appeared at the same time, then the only conclusion would be…

"Were you perhaps together the whole time during the trial…?"

"That was supposed to be a trial? Did you actually go through that alone?!"

Sean stared at me as the confusion on his face only grew and grew more apparent with time, it seemed like I have hit the nail and it didn't actually make sense that happened…

"Tell me what did you go through first."

Asking them first was what I thought of right off the bat, because I at least needed to be somewhat consistent if what they went through was different so that I wouldn't be the one that would spark suspicion first.

"We found ourselves in a green forest for some reason and we waited a few minutes before we started getting attacked by thorny vines that weren't that easy to cut…"

'At least we went through similar situations…'

The vines on my trial was indeed not that easy to cut using a sword slash as I needed to use an elemental sword concept to cut one when I tried, and considering how it easily regenerated, it wasn't worth it to fight stupid plants with tough endurance which was why I only acted to dodge the attacks and not actually confront them…

"However, as the numbers weren't that big, both me and senior mountain were able to protect  Clara who managed to feel that something was wrong as she lead us to the source of that feeling, which was an orange hanging from a strange colored tree. It took us a bit of time to reach there as the number of vines increased with time, albeit slowly, but we still managed to reach our target which Clara believed that it would be our way out of we destroyed it, and that's how we got here."

'What?'

Not only did his way of telling the story made it seem that the trial was a lot easier for them, but they somehow didn't experience the decaying of the forest until they reached here, it didn't make that much sense unless it was…

'A level based trial.'

But even then it was a bit confusing, just why would all three of them be together and why would it be easier for them when they are all in the same trial instead of the opposite, not witnessing the decay wasn't that strange though as I more or less had a gist about what it might be…

'Probably because of the initial failure of 'Illusory Light'...'

According to the system notifications mixed with the legacy's processed messages, my Intelligence and Wisdom stats were too high for me to believe that it was a true place, which made sense why I went through the process of the space rift turning back to its original form, unlike the rest of them who were under slight hypnotism that caused them to maybe believe that the whole adventure that they went through wasn't that long nor did see the finer details of how they went back as their mind experienced it differently…

There's also the possibility that I was separated and forced to face a harder trial since I managed to resist and nullify the first attack of 'Illusory Light'...

'Well, it doesn't matter anymore.'

Thinking about it without gaining any confirmation was not going to be of help anyway, so I decided to think more about what we were going to go through from here on instead…

"I see, I went through the same thing but at a different place and pace, that's why I arrived slightly earlier…"

"Ah, that's good then, we thought that something wrong might have happened to you… We have to search for the sect's legacy then… Wait what?"

'Huh? He didn't receive the secret method?'

Thinking about it from my own point of view, I understood that as long as one passed normally and had the related  attribute, they should be able to receive the secret method, and according to what I inferred as I didn't open the mental package that I received just yet in case they returned early and basically in order to not get taken by surprise somehow, it seemed to have both water and earth attributes as its main attributes, so even if Clara didn't receive it, both Mountain and Sean should have received it…

"Why did we show up in this closed place? How are supposed to get what we came for this way…? And… Why was I so excited and enthusiastic about getting whatever we would find here anyway…" Sean looked around in confusion as he kept muttering

"I wonder as well, I was sure that I would find something I have wanted for a long time here…" Even Mountain started acting strange with him, as only Clara stood in her place while closing her eyes in a similar fashion to what she did before when she was searching for the 'Sign of Vegetation'...

'This is getting more ridiculous…'

At this point, the way that the trio acted, starting from when we got closer to this place when they started acting in a more anticipated way, and the current confusion they displayed, it totally made no sense at all. I could finally confirm that they weren't normal at this point and not just diagnosed with split personality disorder like Long.

"Can you calm down first so we can talk and discuss what…"

However, just as I tried to stop their confusion that seemed like it would turn to panic soon…

"It's there."

Clara pointed at the floating black crystals that was floating in front of each one of them as the three grabbed one each and...

"What do you think you are doing?!"

Directly crushed them.