Congratulations on completing the fourth floor of the Tower of Revelation.

  You have entered the fifth floor: Trial of Endurance.

  New quest!

  Quest: Flow.

  Objective: Successfully close the circuit.

  Rewards: Access to next floor. +5 Reward point.

  Physical capabilities will be suppressed.

  Concepts will be suppressed.

  Storage items will be blocked.

  System windows will be disabled.

  Your body will be suppressed by way of seals.

  You who has reached a new level in your cultivation, discover the limits of your mana.

  Glancing around, Eric found himself within a large square, surrounded by four walls with three distinct squares in each one. Then, in each corner, were tall towers with what appeared to be a screen on each of them pointed toward him. It resembled an arena of some sort, and nothing really appeared to be out of the ordinary.

  “Which is what makes this quest all the more confusing,” he said, scratching his head. “What circuit?”

  As if responding to his question, a sudden surge of electricity began to flow from one tower to the next, powering their respective screens. On each screen, a different colored number was presented, from one to four. Suddenly, the visible electrical current began to descend, the image remaining intact.

  It wasn’t until the current hit the wall that was between each of the towers that the image began to distort, but only for a second. As the image distorted, the squares within the walls began to illuminate, each one a different color.

  Feeling like the colors were important, Eric quickly glanced around and tried to remember the order in which they appeared. “Yellow, blue, red, green, yellow, red, blue, blue, green, yellow, red, green. Yellow, blue, red, green, yellow, red, blue, blue, green, yellow, red, green.” He began to repeat it, over and over. “Wait, what color were the numbers?” he asked, turning to face the screens. “One, blue. Two, red. Three green. Aggh!” he grunted as the screens flashed and turned off.

  The squares then began to shake lightly, a small amount of dust rising from their edges, and they began to protrude from the walls. When the shaking stopped, the squares, that now looked more like rectangles, were sticking outside the wall at varying lengths.

  “Is this a fucking memory game?” Eric asked calmly, as his eyes widened with both surprise and amusement. He frowned as he felt a sense of alienation, but he quickly dismissed it as what was happening in front of him seemed more relevant. “Focus. What were the colors again? Yellow, blue, red, green, yellow, red, blue, blue, green, yellow, red, green.”

  Then, as he was feeling a small amount of relief, his skin began to burn. Quickly turning to his arms, he saw red hot magical circles being seared into his skin. They were incredibly intricate, connecting and traveling through his entire body. For a moment, the web of magic glowed a bright red and quickly dimmed, leaving only faint burn marks on his skin.

  “Yup. This is more or less what I imagined seals would look like,” he said, inspecting himself and tracing some of the marks. Then, as he tried to flex his muscles, he realized that he had no strength to do so. “I feel as empty as I do after I exercise.”

  Focusing entirely on his right arm, he flexed as much as he could. When he felt he couldn’t do it anymore, he felt some strength break through. But, just as the strength made an appearance, the seals on his arm began to burn and the strength vanished.

  “Good to know,” Eric said with a nod. “That’s the seal part. I’m guessing the circuit is closed when I push the squares back into the walls the right way, but what does ‘flow’ have to do with this quest?”

  ----------

  Unsteady steps echoed as Neris made her way through the stone passageway. With a light thud her body hit the stone wall, begging for rest. Mustering what little strength remained, she pushed herself away from the wall and continued to walk toward the bright light in the distance.

  “I—I—I need to get out of here,” she muttered, her voice shaky and weak.

  Behind her was a trail of blood that seeped from her wounds and trickled down her arms. A blood stain remained on the wall she had just removed herself from, slowly flowing downward. In her hand she held a snow-white shaft that was almost completely destroyed.

  The usual temperature reduction that accompanied her was nowhere to be found, in fact, her internal temperature was rising. Her pale white skin now looked sickly instead of delicate and pristine. Her hair was in disarray and her clothes in tatters.

  “But I made it,” she said weakly, her body collapsing a few steps before the portal. “I have to—I must—I must wait and see.”

  Items began to appear beside her. Pills, vials, bandages. None of the items were powerful enough to heal the amount of damage she had suffered in this trial but that wasn’t their purpose. They just had to keep her alive for a few weeks at most.

  ----------

  “Ungh!” Eric exclaimed as he tried to push the first square back into its position. He wasn’t even capable of sweating with what little strength he was able to muster. “I feel like I’m playing at making an effort. This seems so much simpler. I just need to figure out what I need to do.”

  Shaking his head lightly, determination appeared in his eyes. “OK. Pushing them in as I am doesn’t work. So, what’s next?” he asked, looking around the square. “There doesn’t appear to be any secrets. Could this be a trial for perception? ... No, the second and third trial had more aspects of perception than this.”

  “Flow, what flows? … If this trial is still about getting familiar with our bodies, than I just have to narrow… it… down—Its fucking mana, isn’t it?” He rummaged through his mind, even using Mental Focus because he was sure he could, and he remembered it perfectly. “Physical, concepts, storage and system. Nothing about mana or skills.”

  Then, to confirm what he already knew to be the case, he poured mana into the channels that he had formed in his legs. It felt crude, they weren’t as perfect as they could be and there were traces of something there, but he ignored it all and continued.

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  When he was finished, he felt that his legs were full of energy, so much so that they were even twitchy, desperate to release their energy. “Might as well test this,” Eric muttered as he got into a ready stance before the first square.

  Unsure of how much damage he could do or how much damage the square could take, he practiced briefly. He lifted his leg, marked where it would hit and repeated the motion until he was sure it would land where he wanted, in the center.

  Without further ado, he raised his leg, bent his knee and released his kick. Instantly, his leg shot out, the strength felt wanting but the power behind it was still incredible.

  With a thud, the square shook, but ultimately only went in a centimeter or two. Eric winced, not in pain, but because he realized something as he kicked the square. Narrowing his eyes, Eric was determining if he had even made a difference.

  “It might have moved a bit… or not,” he said with some doubt. “But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is that I can reinforce my weakened body with mana.” Looking at his hands and thinking about how little a kick moved it, he considered something else. “It’s probably better to push than to hit.”

  With a new objective, he sat down in a meditative position, as if he were to cultivate but not really. He focused on his natural sense to detect mana and also activated Mana Insight, trying to amplify his senses to the maximum.

  With the level of connection he had gained with his evolved body and its enhanced senses, he quickly felt his mana, easier than he previously had. Flowing, crashing, dispersing and flowing once more. But there was a difference. Channels that appeared ethereal had been formed on his arms and legs. Their shape wasn’t defined and at a glance, they appeared to be simple and incomplete.

  Focusing on his legs, Eric pushed mana through the channel and noted anything that he might find to be useful for what he wanted to do. As soon as the mana flowed, he felt the increase of power in his legs. Then he focused on the channels in his arms and the did the same. Eric frowned, jerking his arms a bit. Repeating the process over and over only made his frown find permanent purchase in his face.

  Opening his eyes, Eric clenched and unclenched his fist over and over again, his frown remaining unchanged. “Why is it different? Mana is flowing through them all the same… Am I doing it wrong?”

  Eric focused on the fact that, while directing mana into his legs, he felt a surge of power; but when he channeled it through his arms, he didn’t.

  He once more closed his eyes, allowing himself to be immersed in his internal sea of mana. Using Mental Focus to answer question after question, he was slowly arriving at an answer. Soon, he felt his mana bottom out, but he already had an idea as to what the reason for the difference was.

  “The channels are for different things,” Eric muttered, looking at his arm, as if looking inside it. “They travel near and around individual muscles, extending and connecting with other muscles and channels so that the desired effect is realized,” he said, resuming his findings. “If I had bought the Amplification or Dash skill before, I would’ve probably realized it earlier.” He let out a small sigh. “Well, I’m pretty sure this information is more important than simple skills.”

  Once his mana was recovered, he got up from where he was sitting. While he waited, he actually remembered something. Recently, whenever he moved, whether it was light movement or not, he felt something flow along his body. If he was right, just like when he formed the channels in his legs, the others might already be semi-formed, following a natural path.

  Turning his senses inward, he began with light movements. At first, the mana remained as wild and free as it always was, showing no sign of change. But soon, as his light movements became a more intense form of stretching and rudimentary fighting moves, the tide within began to turn.

  It wasn’t a single wave, there were multiple. Some were near his arms, others along his back, more near his legs and chest, even his neck and head were included. Not enough, not yet, he thought to himself.

  He was sure he had felt a more concrete flow while his level of exertion was higher, and he was right. Continuing his efforts, his movements became sharper as he ran around the arena, jumping from wall to protruding square, all the while he mimicked the movements he made in the third trial.

  With his senses as heightened as they were, continuing with his movements, and falling into a demi-meditative state, he began to form the channels. Starting with his arms, his existing channels already paved some of the way, he only needed to add a bit more, before something else took over, completing them, just like with his legs.

  Now that his senses were more refined and he was more connected to his body than ever before, he could tell that what helped form his channels was something exterior. The tower? he asked himself, but quickly dismissed it as he felt the familiar tug from the System.

  Little by little, he was creating channels across his entire body. In his semi-meditative stat, he didn’t even notice how much time was passing. At some level, he could feel the day change to night and become day again in an endless cycle, but he wasn’t conscious of it.

  He was immersed in a state where he found what he was doing to be incredibly easy. I only need to make some of the effort and something else will complete it for me, he thought, the System tugging at him once or twice while he did so.

  While he wasn’t exactly conscious of the time that was being spent, he was aware that what he was doing was completely different than what he had done on the first floor.

  On the first floor he only wanted an escape route, not an actual strengthening method. So, without any real care, he formed a basic channel that gave him explosive energy. When he kicked the square, he noticed how wasteful it was. And that was the key difference, it was what made him take so long this time around.

  The channels that he was creating were being formed through a careful analysis of his movements. Instead of burning the mana with explosive force, it would be burned as it strengthened him. The consumption would be significantly less and the increase in power would be more controlled.

  Taking a final leap, he repaired some of what he considered to be imperfections on his hastily built leg channels, especially near where they began. With that, an all-encompassing sense of power began to envelope him. A calm warmth coursed through his entire body.

  It only lasted a few seconds since he had burned through most of his mana already, but it was more than enough to confirm that he had succeeded. Confirming his thoughts, another tug from the System was felt.

  After waiting for his mana to recover, he walked up to the same protruding square and readied himself. Pouring mana not only into his arms and legs, but also the soles of his feet and his back, he began to push.

  While he had succeeded in his endeavor to strengthen his weakened body with mana, it didn’t make the trial that much easier, it only made it achievable. His mana reinforcement was new, and he still had to get used to doing it on command. Something also gnawed at the back of his mind. At some instinctual level, he knew that his mana could and should flow faster without his input and only one thing came to mind. Mana core.

  “I’ll ask Stella when I get back,” Eric said with zero doubt in his words.

  Willing his mana to flow faster with Mana Insight, he increased his strength and continued with the trial.

  Everything flowed without trouble until he failed the trial immediately, not once but twice. Each time, the square shrunk, and the walls rose, giving Eric an image of being crushed. Not knowing what he did wrong, he repeated it once more and rapidly caught on to his mistake.

  “The numbers aren’t just about the color and order, its also about the number of squares,” he muttered to himself.

  He was correct, until he wasn’t once more. As the square shrunk a bit more, he went through what he had done in his mind. Having access to Mental Focus was a huge boon.

  “Ahh, yes,” he said with a nod. “How far out they are is also part of the order.”

  Quest complete!

  That was the final realization he needed to have in order to complete the trial, power the screens and for a portal to appear in the middle of the arena. But before Eric went through it, he saw the images on the screens change.

  On each screen was a different species. One was too hairy to make anything out, another was a robot, the third appeared to be a bird of some kind and the final one was a bald human with what appeared to be plastic skin.

  Buzzing could be heard, but not much else. Focusing on the human looking one, Eric could more or less make out a sense of gratitude, at least that’s how he interpreted their movements and gestures.

  “At least it doesn’t feel like a ‘thanks for visiting our dead planet,’ kind of thing,” he said with a hollow chuckle that even he found alien.

  Frowning at what he just felt, he stepped into the portal.