The minute the rune was completed, a huge wave of energy was emitted from the body. The body burst in front of him, the blood exploding into the air. The blood congregated into a single drop before dropping onto the ground.
The ground greedily absorbed the blood immediately, leaving no trace of it. The ground was completely free of any traces that there was a sacrifice. It left him doubting whether he succeeded or not.
"Did it work?" He asked Nefrati.
"Yes," she replied.
"But I don't see-"
As he was talking, the ground opened as a blood hand reached out and grabbed him. It enclosed him inside, cutting off all his senses. The ground closed up when the hand went back into the ground. The forest didn't show any signs of Leo and Elise being there.
Meanwhile, Leo was going through a rollercoaster-like experience. He could feel his body being taken somewhere. But with his senses closed off by the blood hand, he could not understand where.
"Stay calm, and don't move when you land," Nefrati warned him.
As she said that, Leo noticed that the hand was opening up. However, he was being dropped onto the ground, which meant he had to regain his footing while staying still once he stuck his landing.
To avoid all of that, he immediately activated his magic to start flying. However, when he did that, it failed, causing him to land on his butt.
"Ow!" He felt the pain in his buttocks which took the brunt of the fall.
"I told you to be careful when you land," she said.
"I was being careful. I tried to fly but my magic didn't activate. I don't know why," he said.
"Don't worry. The trials you will face are only based on your current level. Since you are a 2nd Circle Aura Knight, it will be adjusted for that level," she said.
Since he landed, he hadn't taken a proper look at the room he was in at all. He finally took a proper look and realized where he was.
The place he had been dropped into was a huge hall. It was a 100-meter-long hall with a ceiling as tall. It was very decently lit by the torches aligned along the wall. The hall was narrow, being only 15 meters wide, making it a very weird structure that made it seem like the goal was to walk forward in a straight line.
He was standing in front of a single square tile that was 10 meters long. A rune was carved onto the tile. In front of that tile was an array of similar tiles, all leading forward before diverging to different points. At each point was a pedestal. On top of the pedestal was a chest. The chests were decorated with jewels, giving him a strong hunch that there was something valuable in them.
When he saw this, his eyes glowed. This was why he had come - for the treasure. This would help him become strong since it was something left by a rumored 12th Circle Aura Knight. If he even got to one of the chests
To get to each pedestal, he would have to cross the weird tiles with runes. However, he knew it wasn't as simple as that. On top of that, Nefrati had told him to stay still when he entered the place. He needed to know why before trying to get to the chests.
"So, why did you tell me to stop?" He asked her.
"What you see is a form of a test created by the Blood God. By now, I think the test has adapted to your power level. But it will still be hard. I won't be much of a help apart from telling you the rules. So I will now explain how this works.
The tiles you see in front of you are considered blocks. You need to cross these blocks to get to each treasure. The nearest treasure that you see is the worst, while the furthest is the best. But each tile represents a challenge that you need to cross to get to a treasure." She explained to him.
"A challenge?" He asked her.
"Yes. See the rune in front of you? It means arrow. When you step onto the tile, you will be bombarded with an arrow trap," she said.
"So that means you will be very helpful to me," he said.
"No. There are very few runes that I am aware of. I recognized this one solely because it is one of the runes that I encountered when I was here," she said.
Leo smiled even though she would be unhelpful as if he had a backup plan. Meanwhile, she gave him more advice.
"Also. The rule in this hall is that you are only allowed to take two treasures. Once you do, the tiles will disappear and you can proceed to the next area. You can either proceed forward or back away and leave the temple. The one thing you are not supposed to do is to try and steal another one of the treasures and try to run away," she said.
"You sound very particular about it," he noticed.
"That was what got me caught and imprisoned. I thought I would be fast enough in escaping. Once I grabbed the nearest treasure, I tried to teleport but I was too slow. The price of that was hundreds of years in imprisonment," she said.
"Oh! So that's what you did!" Leo realized. "I mean, if he is offering you free treasures and you try to abuse it like that, it wouldn't be unjustified if he did that to you."
"Forget about that. For now, focus on the tiles in front of you. Some of them might be traps, while others will make you face an opponent. I won't know which is which so you have to be prepared for anything. And to make your route have the least amount of redundancy, pick out the treasures you want to take," she said.
Leo pointed at the two treasures in his line of sight. Both of them seemed to be right next to each other, making them the easiest two to pick once he would get there. However, Nefrati scolded him when she saw this.
"I meant something achievable. You picked the furthest two from you. Those are the hardest treasures to obtain," she said.
While the pedestals were in his line of sight, they were on the other end of the hall. He had purposefully picked them though.
"And what makes you think I can't handle it?" He asked her.
"You will see. The first tile is only a taste. As you take more steps forward and closer to the treasures, the tiles get more challenging. The further you get from the starting tile, the harder the challenge. And you won't even be able to predict what the challenge will be," she berated him.
His smile made her realize that he had something up his sleeve.
"What is it?" She asked him.
"What is what?" Leo replied with a question.
"What plan do you have to get out of this one?"
