While some of the Armhands, who were there to guide the selection of new members of the group, looked curiously at Minos' team, the first people to die in this selection had their bodies destroyed.
Still on the first step, Minos and his people watched as the bodies of some of the aliens on the same step as they exploded after they couldn't withstand the overwhelming gravity on them.
That made some of these individuals from the Spiritual World even more anxious as they tried to move to the second step.
Maximilian was the first of the group to move and reach the second step. But he immediately understood the trick behind this test.
'Shit! The pressure dropped, but now I'm a bit exhausted!' He looked at his surroundings in shock, seeing how diabolical this test was.
As much as he had moved from the first to the second step and the pressure on him had decreased, the test's difficulty had not decreased!
The gravity on each step would be smaller and smaller compared to the previous steps. However, with each step one passed, one would have to make a considerable effort and could not use any accessory items to pass the test.
One would already be so affected by the previous step that the difficulty of the test would not decrease even if the subsequent steps had less pressure on them.
The next people of Minos' group to move realized the same thing, noticing their urgency to reach the top as quickly as possible.
The longer they took on each of the lower steps, the worse their climb to the top of this area would be!
Minos looked at Ruth, concerned for his wife. 'Do you want help?' He asked since she was the weakest of the group in terms of cultivation.
Ruth was having a harder time than everyone else, but she managed to move a little and reach the second level on her own.
'No, my ability will help me climb the steps of this place. You should save yourself the trouble of getting to the end of this test.' She said with a pained expression as she walked towards the third step.
Minos knew how his wife's ability worked, but he still decided to help her a little.
'It won't cost me anything.' He said as he made her cultivation reach level 95 while stealing the cultivation base of one of the aliens who tried to do this test with them.
Those beings became weakened and found it more difficult to move, immediately realizing that a parasite was acting against them.
"This is a fascinating ability." Commented one of the test observers watching Minos' group.
But it wasn't against the rules. Any skill or technique could be used in this test. As long as it was a cultivator's natural ability, something that depended only on them, they could do whatever it took to get to the end of the test.
To be so determined to harm an opponent in order to help an ally right at the beginning of the test was something remarkable that the test observers couldn't help but notice.
"This person is interesting. If he passes this test, he'll probably join Armhands." A level 104 Sovereign commented. "But he'll have a lot of enemies."
The other aliens or natives of Zocarro taking the test looked at Minos and realized that he was the one behind the sudden decrease in their cultivation and the increase in his and Ruth's cultivation.
Some tried to ignore this and other deaths in the first ten steps of the staircase, while others felt that this was a competitor to be eliminated.
That was a selection to determine the future members of the Armhands. The number of places was limited, and eventually, one would fight against the others there to get their place and not have to serve this force as slaves or mere servants.
In a situation where they would have to rely on opponents to fall, having a strong competitor capable of stealing the powers of others was a problem!
'I must prevent this person from going over 300 steps!' Thought a level 98 individual who was two steps ahead of Minos.
As Minos took his 15th step, sweating and feeling a lot of pain, especially in his legs, red spatial distortions suddenly appeared around him. From these distortions, hands seemed to be attacking him, while the space around him seemed to be distorted by them.
Minos frowned and made several black rings appear around him. Some of them focused on those energy hands, while others appeared on the bodies of those closest to him.
'Are you trying to take me down?' Minos looked at the person who had attacked him as his eyes flashed.
Dragon's Gaze!
Suddenly, a giant golden dragon emerged from Minos' body, its terrifying aura spreading through the surroundings as it charged at the enemy.
At that moment, Minos felt his powers rise a bit and took the opportunity to take two quick steps while moving under the dragon's form.
The creature that first attempted to attack him had little choice but to raise his guard to defend himself, changing his stance when he saw that the enemy was no simple matter.
Then, while Minos was attacking this enemy, another individual attacked him, causing the figure of a huge transparent green insect to appear above him.
Minos felt the creature descend on him with its sharp legs aimed at his body, intending to pierce him mercilessly.
He didn't hesitate to use his most advanced technique, causing everything around him to deteriorate as it approached.
"If you want to play against me, go ahead. Don't regret it later!" He said loudly to his opponents around him before merging Chaotic Gravity with Devouring Art to form black holes in the area.
He had been taken by surprise in this test, and he saw Armhands as his enemies. However, when he encountered those aliens who were attacking him, he turned his anger on those who were attacking.
Then, four black holes appeared above the first 30 steps of that staircase, causing the 587 or so people on that staircase at that time to change their expressions as they looked at those regions of space.
Even the Armhands observers couldn't help but be surprised by this sight, as they noticed a change in the gravity above those stairs caused by the formation of the Minos' black holes.
In an instant, the four regions of space attacked the 40 or so individuals closest to Minos' group, leaving them no chance to defend themselves.
As the black holes absorbed those lives and some of the gravity in the area, Minos' people felt the difficulty of this test temporarily decreased for them.
"Quickly, take advantage of the opportunity Minos has created." Maximilian realized this as he took 15 steps forward in an instant.
