Maya's subtle way of asking him to leave the test scared Gondel.
The geek quickly tried to correct his position.
"I… I am perfectly fine with Sage Lehan's absence, Lady Maya– we all are. A Sage like him shouldn't waste his time on anybody like us. I get it. Please… please let us know what we are supposed to do to claim his Legacy."
Eren couldn't help laughing when he saw the geek bowing in front of Maya like one of her well-behaved servants. He had to say that the guy was pretty quick-witted despite his momentarily spontaneous actions and words.
"Alright."
Maya said to Gondel, relieving him of a crisis of his own making. She then looked around and observed other participants before starting to explain how Sage Lehan's Legacy could be claimed.
"The participants are required to find an array key inside a city. The one who finds it and hands it over to me wins the Sage Legacy."
Maya brought her empty hand forward and opened her palm to project the image of a small golden sphere. The surface of the sphere had various runic patterns over it that would exude multi-faceted lights intermittently.
This golden sphere looked a lot like the miniature version of the giant golden ball that was hanging over the Edinnica Arena.
Maya's description of a city confused Eren and the participants. They looked at each other before looking around themselves with puzzled expressions. One of them couldn't help raising a question straight to Maya.
"Lady Maya, which city are you talking about? Where is it?"
Maya smiled before answering simply.
"Here."
Saying that Maya raised her staff a bit before slamming its butt on the ground. In the next moment, the participants were intimidated by the surge of mana happening around them. They felt like they were caught inside a huge mana storm they couldn't control or get out of.
The earth rumbled and the participants felt like they were standing above water, riding waves. It was as if someone had cast a Sage-level earth-element spell that resulted in the creation of Earth Spikes all around the participants.
The Earth Spikes started taking shape under another wave of mana. They molded themselves into various architectures, creating another wave of earthquakes in the process.
Maya's action resulted in the creation of a city in the blink of an eye.
The participants found themselves standing in the center of an abandoned city. They were stunned by the city's sheer size. A city as massive as Edin was created in the barren land in a matter of seconds.
'Damn. Mana and magic truly don't have any limits. They are only limited by their users.'
Eren thought to himself as he looked at the tall buildings and solid constructions. He felt that he should have hired Maya to create the city of White Raven for him. He might have saved a lot on labor charges.
"You have 24 hours to find the key. If nobody finds the array key within that time frame, then nobody will win my father's Legacy.
The city has array traps and maze structures full of dead ends. Constructions that appear solid may be as fragile as feathers.
Likewise, you'll want to be aware of the residents of the city. They will attack you as soon as they see you.
Plus, most of these city residents will match your ranking status and elemental attainments. So it would be better for you to make sure you don't get attacked by their horde.
This is a preliminary warning. Considering Sansara World's current changes, you might even die inside the city at the hands of city residents. You can choose to quit now if you are not up to the task."
The participants started to sense some faint mana signatures around them as Maya spoke. They guessed that they were city residents Maya was talking about.
The faint mana signatures disappeared immediately, indicating that the city residents knew how to hide inside the city. Meaning it wouldn't be easy to dodge all of them completely while looking for the array key inside the city.
Eren also realized something else.
Unlike the other three Sages, Sage Lehan's test had a time limit. Meaning Sansara Sage didn't care if none of the participants managed to claim his Legacy within the required time. It highlighted his callousness as a researcher and demonic ranker.
Sage Nira Nightshade might have had different intentions before she met Eren. However, once she met him, she played with everyone to get his Spirit Beast. So her test couldn't really be counted.
However, Sage Lufthansa and Sage Ivar both seemed genuinely interested in passing down their Legacies to participants. The participants died attempting in previous tests as well. However, most deaths were temporary because the tests allowed the defense mechanism of Sansara World to kick in. As a result, not many participants died for real while being judged by previous Sages.
There was another thing that worried all the participants. A majority of city residents could match the participants' current ranking status and elemental attainments, so they couldn't treat them as an easy mob.
It was already going to be difficult to navigate through the city because of the array traps and mazes. The faulty constructions couldn't be sensed using one's mana sense either.
The possibility of having to face multiple powerful opponents in a restricted urban setting shot the test's difficulty to crazy levels. Additionally, it seemed that the city residents might continue attacking the opponents even after they were critically injured, not allowing them to be revived by the Life and Death altar.
The number of participants had already dwindled to 17 at this point when the graduation event was about to get over. These 17 rankers were the cream of the crop of the current generation. However, none of them was arrogant enough to underestimate the difficulty level of their current test.
The participants started to understand the test's horrifying nuances step by step. They couldn't help but feel that the Sansara Sage was excessively cruel to them.
