Yaniesvyl and the others started fighting the stone golems. They easily dismantled hundreds of stone golems with their strength. Some of the rogue experts suffered injuries but none of them died in the first trial.
In the battle, Yaniesvyl, Verto, Heimbra, Dream, Casti, and Hermo showed their powers. They showed the other experts what it means to be someone from the top faction. Dismantling hundreds of B-rank was an easy work for them.
The only people who weren't impressed were Souta and Alexander. The intensity of their energy could easily destroy the stone golems from inside out. Also, Souta even played with Two Shackles Realm undead in his previous mission so these stone golems were nothing in his eyes.
"Strong...!" Heili muttered.
"They've cleared the stone golems... We can go to the next trial." Alexander said.
"Next trial?" Souta narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah, the next trial will be harder..." Alexander nodded. "Also, be careful... The next trial is dangerous. Even I don't know where will we be transported to."
Souta glanced at Alexander's face before he turned to Heili. He took out the Escape Talisman he received from Alexander and gave it to her.
"Take it, Senior Sister. Once you encountered danger, just pour your mana into the talisman to activate it." Souta said to her.
"I can't take it, Junior Brother. What about your safety?" Heili shook her head.
"I'm fine. I have another one with me." Souta lied to her.
Heili looked at him straight into her to see if he was lying or not. After a few seconds, she smiled and said, "Okay, fine. I'll take it. I just want you to know that you should prioritize your safety, junior."
"I'm always thinking about my survival." Souta smiled back.
Clang!!
A mechanical sound echoed as a huge metal door appeared. A metal door slowly opened revealing a portal inside.
"Another portal?!"
"We haven't found any treasure in this room! Maybe, we could find one on the other side of this portal!!"
"Yeah!!"
"Let's go!!"
Although the experts wanted to rush inside, they still hold themselves back. They cautiously looked at the top experts, waiting for them to enter the portal first. It's fine even if they didn't get all the good stuff. They would just take the leftover.
"Hmph! A bunch of garbage." Hermo, from the Thunder Hall, snorted as he glanced at the other experts. He clicked his tongue and walked towards the portal.
Yaniesvyl and the other first rate faction entered the portal followed by the second-rate faction. The last batch of people that entered the portal were the experts that didn't belong to any factions, the rogue experts.
After that, Souta's group entered the portal.
Second trial...
"Huh? This is different..."
Souta found himself in another huge hall. The only difference was that there were various portraits stuck on the wall. At the end of the hall, there was an altar with dragon statues and there were two metal gates on each side.
Souta noticed that there were fewer people in this place. He looked around and found that Heili and Alexander weren't here. Even those people from the top faction weren't present.
It seems that they've been transported to different places.
"This is quite a problem. Luckily, I gave Senior Sister the Escape Talisman or else..." Souta smiled to himself.
He looked around and counted the people in this place. There were a total of thirty-nine people here and most of their power levels were low. None of them reached Liquefying Realm.
He also checked if they had hidden artifacts. Luckily, they only had artifacts below orange grade. With Souta's current strength, artifacts below orange grade would be useless to him. Even if it was for sealing or killing it wouldn't work at him because of his tremendous strength.
Even an orange grade still had a low chance of affecting him. Well, it would be different if it was in the hand of a stronger expert that could fully utilize its power.
Since these experts weren't a problem to him, Souta simply focused his attention on the hall. He examined the portraits of the dragons on the wall.
"Dragons...?"
There was even a dragon altar.
Certainly, the second trail was somehow connected to dragons.
'Multiple Elements Realm... Just who is the god that created this place? I kinda wanna know.'
Souta wanted to know if that god was dead or not. If the god was dead then where's the Living Labyrinth? Maybe, that god didn't bother creating a labyrinth when it was about to die.
"Hey! What's that?!"
"The four gates are opening?!!"
Souta turned his head when he heard the words of the experts around him.
The four metal gates slowly began to open, revealing dark passages. Soon, several tubes started to appear on the ground and ceiling. Then, semi-transparent creatures came out of the tubes one by one.
These creatures had the appearance of dragons but their aura was weaker. They didn't even possess best feram which all dragons possessed.
"Projection?!"
Souta narrowed his eyes. He then glanced at the portraits and realized what's the trail and how to complete it.
"Shit!! These monsters are strong!!"
"We need to get out of this place or else we would die!!"
"Let's go!!"
The experts found themselves unable to fight the dragon projection. Even if they defeated one, another dragon projection would only come out of the tube.
"We need to go to those four gates!!"
"But how can we make sure what's the right passage?!!"
"Is that important?! If we stayed here more and more creatures will only come out!! In just five minutes, this entire place will be filled with those creatures!!"
"Yeah!! We will die if we stay here!!"
The experts glanced at each other. Then, they rushed ahead and fought the dragon projections that were blocking their paths. They didn't defeat the projections. Instead, they just pushed them and run toward the four gates.
In the end, Souta was left alone in the hall. He was standing with his hand on his back, watching the dragon projections.
"Those people didn't even observe the portraits," Souta said with a sigh.
'What can they do? They are too occupied by those projections. They simply didn't have a time for these things.' Saya said.
"They didn't notice that the dragons on the portraits are all pointing at the altar. It's not a coincidence. I will wait here to see if my guess is correct. If not, then I will go inside one of the passages." Souta said calmly.
Roar!!
Two dragon projections swiftly charged at him. The two dragons swung both of their sharp claws that could easily tear metals apart.
But Souta didn't care about them. He simply took one step and the dragons simply felt a crushing force. Instantly, their projections disappeared leaving nothing in the air.
Bang!!
One by one the projections disappeared. They couldn't even make Souta look at them. The gap in their strength was simply too large. Even if a real third stage dragon appeared here, Souta wouldn't even bother himself.
Soon, he arrived in front of the altar. The altar started shaking and it slowly opened. The two dragon statues moved to the side, revealing two dragon claws.
On the claws, there were bottles with pills inside of them.
"Oh," Souta raised his eyebrows. "Aren't these Body Enhancing Pills and Mana Enhancing Pills?"
These two types of pills were for B-rank experts. It could help them reach a higher level faster. A level where their body and mana pool was strong enough to proceed to the next stage, the Liquefying Realm.
"It's useless for me but I'll take it. Astros had dozens of B-ranks and Isabella couldn't make each one of them a pill to enhance their power."
Souta smiled as he took the two bottles and placed them inside his pocket.
Soon, the altar had fully opened revealing a passage downstairs. The dragon projections constantly attacked Souta but every time they tried, they were crushed by his overwhelming energy. They wouldn't be able to approach him unless Souta was half-dead.
"As expected, there really another passage here..."
Souta smiled. He stepped forward and went downstairs. The second trial was nothing to him. It would only trouble those B-rank and A-rank experts.
"What about Senior Sister? I just hope that she is fine..."
The passage was dark but it didn't hinder him at all. After a minute, Souta found himself in a small room with a portal at the end of the room.
"Gods really had a lot of assets. Just building one pair of portals already exhausted my wealth."
Souta muttered. He looked around the room and noticed that there were cabinets. He looked through them and only found things for B-rank and A-rank.
Most of it was useless to him but he did bring a few pills for Liquefying Realm.
"Then, let's get to the next trial..."
Souta stepped as he nonchalantly stepped inside the portal. He hasn't met a challenge in this place at all despite it being made by god. From his guess, the trails were just a way to enter the real Multiple Elements Realm.
