65 2.20 Trial of Self-control - Part 3

"A plan?" Arica asked in confusion.

"Yeah, just summon Jack when I give you the signal," I replied.

I was trying to do the same thing because of which I accidentally summoned flare last time: concentrating the surrounding mana by manipulating it directly. Under normal circumstances, one can only use the mana that gets naturally absorbed in their body but back then I was able to use it directly from the surrounding.

It came with a heavy price though; I was unconscious for a whole day. Even though my body could handle a bit more mana than I could back then, I was definitely not ready to handle that level of mana flow yet.

'Well, it was stupid of me to do it like that,' I thought as I remembered one of the questions asked in the trial of wisdom. Having just some knowledge about surrounding mana manipulation was the cause of trouble back then.

'But now that I know a little more, I might be able to do it properly.'

Under normal circumstances, it would be stupid to try this here since there were more trials left after this one. But things weren't normal, and this was probably the only way we would be able to clear this trial.

I closed my eyes and tried to feel the mana in the surrounding.

'Wow!'

Not just the room, I could feel the mana of the whole labyrinth. It was like how small small batteries used to be connected in series and parallel combinations. There were hundreds of rooms with different concentrations of mana. In a way, I could feel the whole labyrinth and it somewhat even felt like a map. But a map without any labels.

I had no time to be going through that all, so I just focused on the mana in the room that we were in. It had a higher concentration of mana compared to other rooms. There was a narrow passage that connected the mana between the rooms.

My plan was to just prevent the mana from entering and concentrate the mana into a point for a few seconds. My understanding was that mana was the essence of life so doing that for a longer period of time may be dangerous. Unlike the last time when we were in the open, there was no other way for mana to enter here except the passage.

I then started concentrating the surrounding mana into a sphere. I was also absorbing the mana that was coming through the passage directly into the sphere.

"Oh look, our clothes are back," I heard Princess Anna say that.

And right when most of the mana in the room was concentrated into the sphere, I opened my eyes and said, "Arica now."

Hearing my words Arica summoned Jack using the mana she had within her body. It was decreasing rapidly but we just needed a few seconds.

'It's as I thought.'

The illusions had disappeared, and the devils had slowed down significantly. They were probably using the raw mana to move. By what I felt, their mana bank was small, but their absorption rate was high, hence the speed.

The reason why we needed Jack was because even though he looked like the laziest one, he was smart. Smart enough to strike at the right movement to hit the enemies even though they were fast.

With his eyes still closed he rotated his golden staff once in the air, and with a single diagonal swing, he hit both the devils that were in the air.

'Man, that's some legit skills.'

I had no idea how much my surrounding mana manipulation contributed to this, but it at least brought the girls back to their regular clothes.

Some part of me felt relieved to see them back in their regular clothes while the other was still missing those bikinis.

'Guess what they said about there being both good and evil inside someone is true.' I thought as I released the mana that I had collected.

I wasn't even able to stand as I did that, so I fell on my knees. Even though it was significantly less mana than last time, doing it without flare's support was still hard.

"What happened? Are you alright?" asked Princess Anna in a worried tone.

"Yeah, I am fine. Don't worry, I am just a little tired so let me rest for a while," I replied while trying to take long breaths to fix my breathing.

While I was resting, princess Eliane caught both of the devils that were unconscious.

I stood up after a few minutes and said "good work" to Jack after which Arica unsummoned it.

'We need to hurry.'

We still had five trials left, and on top of that, Marina, Lucy, and others were still missing so I was starting to get worried.

I looked towards the ceiling but before I could say anything the voice of the labyrinth said, "Hmm... That was an unorthodox technique that you used. It should have been impossible for anyone except me, the master of this Labyrinth to control the flow of mana here. It's impossible for a mere human to do that."

The voice of the labyrinth paused there and hummed for a while after which it continued, "This trial wasn't supposed to be like this. But since you fulfilled the winning condition, you pass. In future trials, could you not use that technique? Because if you use that, the trials would be meaningless."

'Ha-ha, the answer to that is simple.'

"No, I won't. Why should I go easy on you when you never did that on us?" I replied.

"Well, I went easy on you by bringing your friends to you."

"Yes, but some of us are still missing."

"That is because the lady with the pink-haired girl and the fairy are already ahead of you. And the two men didn't enter through the door even though I opened one for them."

'Huh?! That's odd. I never expected Marina to be ahead of us but if she is with Lucy and already ahead of us, she is probably safe. I am more worried about the other two.'

"Do you know why they didn't do that?" I asked.

'They must be in some kind of trouble. Considering Drake's attitude, I expect nothing less.'

"Yes, but I can't tell you that."

"Okay, then can you take us to them?"

"No, you can only move forward in this Labyrinth. You will only be able to go back when you reach the top. Even though I am the master of this labyrinth, I also need to follow the rules."

'Rules huh?'

"Well, guess we have no choice then, the answer is still 'no'. And it doesn't look like it is against the rules so can you open the door to the next trial already."

After I said that, the door in the front slowly slid open.

'Guess we have to clear this damn trial fast and reach the top. But before that let me check where others are.'

I closed my eyes and tried to feel the mana inside the labyrinth. There were tens of floors with many rooms in each, but there was a floor that was distinct among all of them. The room from where mana was flowing to all other rooms.

"What! Marina is at the top?"

Next Chapter: Brotherhood