"That’s quite unfortunate, but anyway you have an extrely high number of points from phase one, so that should make up for it," said Flor with a smile.
Flain heard footsteps coming straight toward him. He turned to the direction they were coming from and saw Naomi approaching him with a wide smile.
"Haha, I expected sothing better from you, but I’d still love to kill you," she said, and a dagger appeared in her hand, which she licked.
Flain looked at her; he was in a really bad mood now, and if he could, he would’ve preferred to take care of her personally.
"What are you staring at, you pervert," she said sarcastically and covered her chest with her hands.
A mont later, Itai appeared as well. Flain had nearly the sa ti as Itai. Sure, Itai was pretty good at magic and had excellent talent, but that was about the only good thing one could say about him.
After 20 minutes, all the students gradually arrived. "Excellent, you’re all here, so the third round can begin, and it will send you to the trial," said the old man and teleported everyone away.
Everyone appeared sowhere on a mountainous terrain, and there was thick fog all around them, so they couldn’t see far. In front of them stood a long black tower.
"The third round is the Resonance Tower. Each student will enter their own tower with 10 floors. Each floor has so kind of obstacle—a random obstacle—so each student will face sothing different. If you fail on a floor, the tower automatically teleports you to the previous one, which you must complete again. On the final 10th floor, all previous obstacles will appear at once, and if you overco it on the first try, you will receive a large point bonus. You will be judged by how fast you complete round 3 and how many attempts it took you," said the old man.
"May I ask why it’s random? Because in my opinion that’s unfair, since I could get sothing much harder than soone else, and so they get through faster and earn way more points. Or is there so difficulty level that every obstacle has?" asked Lia from the crowd.
"Luck can also be counted as a skill. The obstacles do not have a stable difficulty level. Alright, just like with the labyrinth, everyone line up and you’ll enter one by one," said the old man.
Everyone lined up and gradually entered the tower. Flain’s turn ca and he plunged into the sa darkness as when he entered the labyrinth.
He appeared on the first floor of the round tower. The tower was black and made of a similar black stone as during the first few minutes Flain had spent in the labyrinth.
There were windows along the walls, but the view was blocked by darkness through which nothing could be seen. At the end were stairs leading upward, but the path up was once again blocked by darkness.
The floor was completely empty, but Flain noticed sothing strange. From the ceiling ca a peculiar sound three tis in a row.
ZZRRRZXXXRZZZ
Nothing else happened. Flain thought about what he was supposed to do here because he had no idea. Maybe he was supposed to imitate that sound, but he had no clue how, because that sound was so different from anything he had heard until now.
But at the sa ti, the sound felt familiar to Flain, as if he had heard sothing similar before. And after a mont, it clicked for Flain where the familiarity ca from.
Similar sounds were produced by his mana pulse during the first round. Flain placed his fingers on his chest and activated his mana pulse. He examined it for a while to figure out exactly what kind of sounds it made—when Flain poured a lot of mana into it, it produced more hissing sounds, when it had plenty of mana it made more echoing sounds, when he was angry, it produced much louder sounds, and so on.
Flain was now almost certain that he had to imitate the mana pulse sound that was coming from the ceiling.
ZZRRRZXXXRZZZ
The sa sound echoed from the ceiling three tis again. Flain spent a mont testing what kind of sounds each effect made. He focused and used his mana pulse to replicate exactly three tis the sa sound that had co from the ceiling.
ZZRRRZXXXRZZZ
A sound of strong wind was heard, and the darkness blocking access to the second floor dissolved. The first floor didn’t feel very difficult to Flain, but Flain was Flain, and his level of focus was extrely high due to being a Spell Master, so for anyone else, it would have taken many more tries.
Also, the difficulty could have been low simply because it was the first floor, and it might increase with each new level.
Flain walked up the stairs to the second floor. On the second floor stood a large mirror, and when he looked into it, his eyes widened.
In the mirror, he saw himself being abandoned by his parents, his friend dying in his arms, and himself dying unsuccessfully before fulfilling his goal.
Flain didn’t feel like he was just looking into the mirror, but as if he was reliving it again. Flain dropped to his knees and held his head in his hands, a wide smile appearing on his face.
"Haha, you think this will break , tower?" he shouted, stood up, and walked toward the mirror.
"I’ve co to terms with this long ago. I can’t change what happened, but I can change what will happen—and that, very well," he whispered, stretched out his hand, and struck the mirror, which shattered into a million pieces.
For soone else, this could have been extrely difficult, since it’s essentially reliving the worst monts again, but for Flain, sothing like this didn’t work.
The darkness blocking access to the third floor dissolved, and Flain could continue onward.
Flain stepped onto the third floor and found himself in sothing similar to the second round—it was another kind of labyrinth, Flain’s worst enemy.
"Labyrinth? Anything but that," Flain grumbled in displeasure when he saw what was in front of him. He still vividly rembered how, because of that stupid darkness in the labyrinth, he lost a significant number of points he could have earned.
Flain slowly entered the labyrinth...
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