“This is the first room.”

“This place tests your heart, huh? So it’s like a Feelings Room? There doesn’t seem to be anything special… oh! It’s that thing over there!”

“Ugh, stop being so nosy.”

Disregarding Miho’s grumbles, Merlin looked around while alternating between his Enhanced, Scanning, and Aura Vision. Most of the items in the room had spiritual protection, so Merlin couldn’t garner much information from them, but he was able to understand their basic mechanisms.

“Put your hand on that. You’ll see an illusion appear, and once you overcome it, I think it’ll be over.”

“Hey, you’re not the test proctor. How could you know that?”

“It’s obvious.”

“Hmpf.”

Miho grumbled and put her hands atop the crystal board in the center of the room. Soon, a stretch of text passed by her eyes.

“I was wondering what you meant by trial… it’s just a training system. Oh, that’s probably why each power sent rising candidates instead of their most powerful beings.”

Merlin recalled the representatives he saw aboard Moby Dick. Hader, the mermaid prince, was Level 9 while Miho was Level 7, but these two seemed to be the exception rather than the norm. All the other representatives seemed to be Level 8. This aligned with Merlin’s assessment that each of the powers had sent rising candidates as their representatives.

Ting!

While Merlin was having these thoughts, the light on the crystal board went out. Miho opened her eyes.

“Phew…”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought.”

Right as she finished speaking, one of the crystalline walls shrunk down, like ice melting, and another door opened in its place.

“As I suspected,...