"Ugh!" I touched my head lightly while grimacing in pain as a headache assaulted my mind, rattling my brain and making me grunt in the process.


    "What the hell happened?" I muttered in pain before the headache intensified, and the memories of the ''insights'' I had gained shed within my mind and caused me to shudder in fear after remembering the amount of pain I felt.


    "One hit, huh... Look like I did it in the end." I mused with a smile on my face as I could not help but feel ted by my current increase in power. I didn''t know how long I had stayed in that realm, but I knew it was much longer than just a few days.


    *Rumble*


    *Rumble*


    As if hearing my thoughts, I looked up with a surprised expression as my eyes darted in random directions. There was not a single cloud in the sky, yet I could still hear the faint rumbling of what sounded like lightning or thunder crackling within the sky and getting ready to smite anything and everything down without a second thought.


    However, now that I could not see any clouds in the starry sky that was once bright with the sun before I had gone into my state ofprehension and learning, I knew that something I could not understand was happening, making waiting for my only option for the meantime.


    "Congrattions." The sky echoed with a booming voice, uprooting much of thend and tossing it into the air as I struggled to resist the voice. However, as if the voice had a consciousness of its own, I felt it evade me entirely, hitting everything around me and uprooting thend beneath my feet instead.


    "This power..." I narrowed my eyes but did not say anything. At the same time, I quickly used my control over the earth element to create tforms for my feet to stand upon, allowing me to float mid-air while looking down upon thend below me with a worried nce.


    My mastery over the earth element had reached a point where something like the tforms I created and controlled barely took any mana. I didn''t know exactly what stage my understanding of the earth element had reached, but since I had nothing else to do, I quickly checked my status screen that contained my elements.


    "You have passed the trial of patience!" The voice boomed again, destroying even more of thend and turning all the uprooted trees and earth into ashes in the process.


    My worries gaze still lingered on the ground below me as only one thing went through my mind at that moment.


    ''What power...''


    While its demonstration seemed to put fear in the mind of whoever saw it, I knew better than to believe it straight away. For all I knew, this might have been some kind of illusion or separate world that this creature hadplete control of. On the other hand, if the creature does happen to be this powerful in the real world, I should probably avoid antagonizing it or even trying to make it angry.


    I stood there with my arms crossed, and my eyes directly pointed to the sky with an unflinching aura and a determined gaze.


    ''Trial of patience? I wonder how long I''ve been in here.'' I thought to myself, and as if the creature in the sky could hear my thoughts, its voice boomed out again, destroying and turning the rest of the world into ashes.


    "You have stayed in my realm for 5 earth months."


    "5 months!" I eximed, yet all I got in response was a slight chuckle from the voice.


    "You have been meditating five months now and hadn''t moved a single muscle. Do not worry, child, as this realm''s time does not directly corrte to the time in the outside world." The thing in the sky exined, which made me calm down slightly.


    "So, how long would I have been out? I can tell that this isn''t my real body; instead, it is one fabricated by this realm with the only thing holding together being my consciousness." I asked without a semnce of fear in my voice.


    "You are quite impressive... anyone else in your ce would have been shivering in front of my disy of strength, yet you can stand here without a sign of fear. You are also intelligent, something I look forward to seeing in someone I can call my sessor."


    "Sessor?" I asked, confused by the term she used.


    I could tell she was a woman after hearing her speak for the third time. While at first, it might have seemed like she had a very deep and distant voice, yet after a while, her voice started to replicate that of a woman''s due to how soft and tranquil it began to be after every time she spoke.


    "Sessor?" I asked with a raised brow, causing her to chuckle once again, yet this time her voice had almost left me in a trance.


    "Yes, a sessor. I''ve been looking for a sessor for the longest time, and eventually, I gave up. However, after I grew old and died, I found a way to put my soul into one of the stars, and this one, while being rtively weak overall, it was the best one I could find. After putting my soul inside the star, I was kept there for a few thousand years before it finally chose to put me on this. Its been almost 80000 years on this and finally, after waiting for so long, I found someone who had passed the trial of patience." She exined, every single one of her words being etched into my brain.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Her voice was melodic and almost transcendent. I felt like I was being spoken to by a being far beyond anything I couldprehend.


    "But why was the fallen star still forming when I came in contact with it?" I asked before her chuckle entered my ears once again.


    "So you know the name of what I became. You are quite knowledgeable for someone of your age, however, I guess you muste from a prominent background for you to know so many things." She mused.


    "This realm closes every time someone fails to inherit its treasures, and so it has to reform in another location, which takes about 100 years to do." She exined, and I could not help but open my mouth, shocked by the revtion. However, right before I could ask anything else, I heard her voice once again, yet instead of it being melodic and warm like before, now it was filled with seriousness.


    "I cannot tell you anymore unless you pass the next trial." She states, and before I knew it, I felt my feet touch the ground as familiar constructions that resembled arenas erected out of thin air.


    "Your next trial, as well as your final trial, will be the trial of warriors. You must do one thing... Survive as long as you can." She ordered before her voice faded as it had never been there in the first ce.


    [The first wave shallmence in 5...]


    My eyes widened due to not having expected my own system to speak to me.


    I quickly rummaged through the four items in my inventory and took out the spear I had gotten from the goblin chief. In the next instant, I held it firmly within my hand with an iron-d grip while my eyes darted, wary of anything and everything around me.


    [4...]


    "She did say it''s the trial of warriors... So I''m guessing that the trial has something to do with battles. Now that the system is talking about a wave, I can conclude that just like those games I used to y in the past, a wave of enemies wille rushing at me and I have to kill every single one of them so the next wave canmence." I muttered to myself before narrowing my eyes as a crimson halo encapsted my pupil.


    [3...]


    Immediately, my vision became red, and almost everything became visible to my eyes. Everything from the mana currents that were slowly but surely concentrating in one area, to the runes that began to sh under the tiles I stood and while moving in a specific direction.


    ''Tactical runes?''


    [2...]


    [1...]


    [First Wave]


    There were several silhouettes of mana in the area where the mana had been concentrated, and eventually, a figure emerged.


    "I see..."


    *Roar*


    Five distinct roars entered my ears, and I quickly spotted all 5 of the creatures that stood around me.


    Around me stood five ck bears, yet instead of being tall,rge, and intimidating, they were slightly small with two razor-sharp ws and a somewhat reclined figure that would make anyone think they were looking at a gori if they were to squint their eyes.


    "Sloth bears?"


    [Author''s note: I know a lot of you don''t know him and many of you don''t care but I''m going to say it anyway. Most of you already know that technode had passed away recently. Honestly, I watched him a lot 6-5 years ago and he had been somewhat of an inspiration to me. He was always charismatic and I wanted to be like him when I was in my teenage years. He will always be a legend. Rest In Peace Technode (Alex)]