Aaron and Mo’han stood near the entrance with Sooty and the assistants at their backs, waiting for the new arrivals to come through.

  Mo’han waved with both hands and hollered as the portal rippled and the first of them stepped through, but Aaron kept his guard up. He couldn’t care less about the insect, but his gaze was firmly trained on the thal’kesh and the necromancer.

  “Hello. My. Name. Is. Mandor. This. Is. The. Shadow. Trials. Is. It?” The insectoid said, its mandibles clicking with each word.

  “Greetings, Mandor!” Mo’han boomed. “It is indeed the Shadow Trials! Welcome, warrior!”

  “Yeah, hey,” Aaron waved, but he was too distracted to give the greeting the proper courtesy.

  “Another human?” Darius said, licking his lips as he strolled toward Aaron.

  That guy is… creepy as fuck.

  The necromancer’s path was corrupting him more with every passing day, and much of his skin was lined with visible veins and turned purple in many parts.

  Then there was Ikran, the thal’kesh, who simply snorted and passed straight through the gathering, heading directly for the trial dial.

  “He’s not very talkative, is he?” Mo’han said, eyeing Ikran as he passed them.

  “Not. At. All.”

  “How on earth did you beat me here?” Darius said, eyeing Aaron up and down. Irritation radiated from the man, and the slightest of tremors could be seen if focusing on his hands.

  “Me? It’s a long story.”

  Darius narrowed his gaze.

  “Please, share it with me, Aaron Dober,” Darius said. “I’d love to hear it.”

  The necromancer had obviously inspected Aaron and was no doubt curious about what he had found.

  Aaron was certainly glad he had kept the titles he had. He didn’t need this guy knowing he had two blessings. Or anything important for that matter.

  “What’s the problem, Aaron? Tell me, how did you get here at that level… what are you hiding? We’re both humans here. No need for secrets.”

  Everything about the necromancer was beyond creepy. Aaron could imagine the guy driving around a van with blackout windows and parking it across from school, and such.

  “Ohoh, it’s quite the story!” Mo’han chuckled and slapped Aaron’s back. “When Aaron—”

  “Not now, Mo’han.”

  Mo’han looked down and immediately read Aaron’s expression. “Sorry, I got carried away.”

  “It’s cool, mate. You’re not the one I’m worried about.” Aaron said from the side of his mouth, his focus locked on the necromancer.

  He already knew enough about this guy to know he was bad news, and the aura he brought with him was more than unsettling. It stunk of death, and just being around it made him uncomfortable and sent chills tracing down his spine.

  “I’m special. How about we leave it at that?”

  “Hmm,” Darius narrowed his gaze. “Fine. Whatever. Somehow, you tricked the System. You’re an interesting specimen, but I’ve wasted enough time. I’ll keep my eye on you, Aaron Dober. And you,” he growled, turning to Sooty, who was standing in his path.

  “Huh?”

  “Step aside, you filthy gremlin.”

  His attitude toward Sooty changed drastically. Talking to Aaron, he was creepy, but didn’t sound annoyed.

  “Hey! Watch your tone! I don’t care who you are. He’s with me,” Aaron said, stepping forward.

  “Hahah, with you? Fine, have the filthy thing,” Darius said, looking between the two of them, but then calmed a little. “Tell me, how did you bring that little thing here?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The System informed me that my undead army has to wait in stasis unless I’m in a trial. Please,” he cooed. “I just want to know how you brought him here.”

  Aaron shuddered at the man’s creepy attempt at sounding gentle. “Sorry, but I ain’t telling you anything, mate,” Aaron pointed at the necromancer.

  Their gazes locked for a moment, but then the necromancer rolled his eyes and kept walking.

  “Whatever,” Darius said, his back already turned to them. “I’ll figure it out myself when I add you to my army.”

  “Well, that went over well.”

  “Is this how you humans normally communicate with one another?” Mo’han asked. “It’s rather tense.”

  “No. That guy’s an asshole.”

  “I see. A pity we’re stuck here with him.”

  “Eh, no biggy,” Aaron stretched. “The assistant said that there would be more arriving soon, right? I guess we’ll just have to wait for company.”

  “He did, yes.”

  “Well, that settles it. I’ve got work to do. Time to knock out a few easy trials whilst I wait for those guys to arrive. Hopefully, we get someone a little more conversational than these three.”

  “The bug guy was okay, wasn’t he?”

  “Oh yeah. He seemed fine, I guess. Anyway, back to work.”

  Seeing the necromancer up close only drove the point home for Aaron. He needed to get stronger, much stronger.

  “Good idea, A-ran! I shall do the same! Shall we have a friendly co–”

  “Nah,” Aaron waved before Mo’han could finish his sentence. He already knew how a competition would turn out. “Let’s just go at our own speed this time.”

  “As you wish, A-ran! See you soon!”

  And with that, Mo’han’s massive strides took him to the trial dial in an instant.

  There was only one constraint on his training: Aaron did not want to get stuck in a death loop right now. He still wanted to focus on the trials, but he also wanted to see who joined next. Someone new would arrive soon, and hopefully they would be more likable than the necromancer.

  Not only that, but he felt like there was a need to try to set some kind of groundwork for what Superearth would look like after the Tutorial. Of course, Aaron didn’t want to be some leader or politician in this new world, but if he could explain to others what was going on and what he had seen in the viewing room, perhaps decent people would have a better chance of coming out on top.

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  Or just anyone other than the creepy necromancer.

  However, he had some conflicting feelings about it all. He wanted freedom. To do whatever he wanted after the trials were over. The last thing he wanted was some kind of self-righteous new government making rules for everyone. But what if that was the only way to keep people like Darius from taking over?

  Survival wasn’t just about himself. He didn’t want to set humanity up for failure, and so far, the two top tutorial takers were a psychotic necromancer and an eldritch alien. In other words, they weren’t off to a good start.

  Okay, what now?

  After a short consideration, he decided to knock out the second stage of the Trial of Magic. Mostly just because it was just a second-stage trial, and he hoped to be able to do it quickly and return to see if any more arrivals had shown up.

  He chose Oozagh and entered the trial. The decision for picking the ogre was mostly just because time always seemed to get away from him with Yendal, and picking a new god seemed like more trouble than it was worth.

  Entering the trial, he found himself at the center of an arena, with a huge, bent-over golem at the far end, grabbing hold of the stone wall. The golem appeared to be trying to lift something, and upon closer inspection, he could see a line traced through the wall it was lifting, which was in the shape of a door.

  “Huh, what’s all this then?”

  He realized he was standing on some kind of diagram, and he could feel it calling out to him to push mana into it, and so he did.

  The moment his mana started to pour into whatever it was that was below his feet, the golem started to twitch and come to life.

  “Oh, I think I get it… kinda.”

  He didn’t really get it.

  Aaron tested his simple theory, pouring out more mana, and the golem moved again. But he had a feeling it wasn’t just supposed to move, but to lift whatever it was trying to lift. And it wasn’t currently doing that.

  He decided to give the trial the same treatment he had given the other Trial of Magic, placing his hand on the maze and channeling mana into it.

  Unfortunately, it was one hungry son of a bitch. He poured all of the energy from his adipose tissue and then some, and yet he didn’t even feel it starting to reach the limits of whatever was sucking it in.

  His idea either had no chance of working or would require stupid amounts of energy, as even though mana wasn’t his strongest energy resource, he still had a lot for his level.

  That being said, it required stupid amounts of mana because Aaron wasn’t trying to solve it. Instead, just brute-forcing his energy into it.

  Then again, perhaps his mana reserves were rather mediocre compared to the average level 50+ caster who specialized in the stuff.

  But he got an idea when he inspected the maze beneath his feet. A path had been lit up with azure light after pushing his mana into it.

  “Huh, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t there before.”

  Aaron cycled his mana again and then channeled it into one of the lines, and sure enough, he could fill it in with his mana.

  “Wait, I know where this is going.”

  The maze was like one of those you complete with a pen or pencil, following between the lines until you reach the end. Except, this was freaking huge and used mana. It filled the entire arena, making it impossible to determine which path was correct to follow.

  And because there were so many paths, and it drained mana so quickly, he’d need a lot more than what he had to just fill the entire thing.

  Using [ Gust Step ], Aaron bounced up into the air to get a better look.

  Aaron was immediately thankful that he had started investing more in Perception, but even so, following this maze with the naked eye was anything but easy.

  Not only that, but to keep the maze lit up required constant mana injection into what he had already filled, so it would cost a ridiculous amount of mana to light the entire thing up.

  If he knew the correct route to take to complete the maze, the mana requirements wouldn’t be that great. However, that was easier said than done. The thing was huge, and the maze paths were impossibly narrow, allowing for the zigzagging maze to wind around itself and crisscross its paths in every which way.

  For a pre-integration mortal, the damn thing would be nigh on impossible. That said, Aaron wasn’t just some guy anymore, and he was fairly certain he could figure it out if he wanted to. But did he?

  Aaron focused his Perception on the maze, tracing through some of the routes. In his mind, he was already working out how to solve it, but he was reluctant to actually get to work on completing it. Perhaps it was all the time he had spent with Yendal, but he found himself distracted, appreciating the precision and quality that had gone into the creation of the maze. Most of all, he was distracted by the way it used his mana.

  When the golem moved, it had used only his mana. As far as he could tell, there was no internal or external power source for it. It was completely inert except for the mana he generated. He knew that the meager mana that made it to the golem wasn’t enough to move it, let alone get it to lift the door, yet it had still managed to budge the giant construct. But how? It didn't make sense? Was this just a divine level of mana efficiency, or was there something more going on?

  Of course, he still wanted to smash the trial out quickly, and simply solving the maze didn’t seem like it would take that long. But his thoughts had traced back to the beauty and delicacy with which the maze had been crafted. The precision again reminded him of Yendal’s teachings, and he knew there was something worth learning here.

  The maze was both a physical and magical construct, and as such, it was built upon truths given to it by its architect. Some kind of hidden mechanisms that allowed his mana to be more effective, or some clever method of mana manipulation.

  Whatever the case, he felt like it was edging on something profound. He didn’t have a Profession anywhere near whatever this maze’s creator had, but he still made things. The principles of the maze might not be directly applicable, but he could still learn some interesting things from it.

  That didn’t mean there was some secret waiting to be exposed that would allow Aaron to craft every item and transcend the System limitations of a single Profession. Still, if he could decode the maze and understand the concepts that went into its construction better, he might be able to better counter items crafted throughout the multiverse.

  Not only that, but it might give him insights into his own cooking Profession.

  No longer was Aaron simply attempting to finish the maze. Channeling mana, he was probing for its secrets and the secrets of the one who crafted it.

  He had to cycle mana and eat constantly to keep it up, but with no immediate danger in this trial, he could afford to do that. He studied, then, when he ran out of mana, he sat back and ate, then jumped right back in.

  This went on for hours, and whilst he wanted to catch the next arrivals, he wasn’t willing to leave when he felt a breakthrough coming.

  Eyes closed, he hovered by using [ Gust Step ] every other second, and meditated on the maze below.

  He could feel his understanding of it, and how it had been crafted, growing with every second, and suddenly, it hit him!

  This was the secret he had been looking for. Conditions. It was the application of conditions that made the maze as powerful as it was. That allowed it to enforce strict rules and multiply the power of the mana he poured into it. In the same way that his own Skills had activation conditions and limitations, the maze had them too.

  There was no way the amount of mana required to trace a single line would be enough to power such a large golem, let alone lift a door of stone that was essentially a cliff face. Similarly, there was no way Relentless Scourge could just buff his movement speed so simply. It was a clever use of Stamina, yes, but as he thought about it, it was also more efficient than it should have been. It seemed he was touching on a fundamental rule of the System, where applying conditions and limitations to Skills and items, their power and efficiency could be amplified.

  By weaving conditions into the maze's design, the architect was able to impart more power with fewer resources and energy.

  And this was exactly the breakthrough he was looking for.

  If Aaron could learn this skill and add conditions to his cooking, then he could take it beyond anything he had done so far. But also, this presented a great insight into dealing with others.

  If any crafted item in the multiverse had more power than it should, it likely had some kind of special conditions applied to it, and knowing that would help Aaron find its weaknesses and exploit them.

  So, what was the limitation of this maze? He wondered.

  It was time to find it and exploit it for his own gain. And by doing so, he would further his understanding of conditions themself.

  Weaving his mana through the maze, Aaron searched for answers as much as he searched for a finish.

  There were obvious conditions put in place. Such as only mana could interact with the maze. But conditions that strengthened the maze would only make it more difficult to craft.

  There had to be something else—a true weakness.

  He delved deeper into his inner mind as he searched, cycling more and more mana out from his newly stored adipose reserves, flooding the maze with mana as he surrendered his search for the finish, and poured all of his effort into finding a way to cheat its rules.

  This was it. He knew he was close. The secrets were thinly veiled, and soon, he would bring the wall that kept them from him crashing down, and with it, his understanding would expand.

  Time no longer played on his thoughts. The reward was too tantalising, and if anything, Aaron was a man of determination. Not someone who could simply look at a potential boon and means to step further ahead and look away.

  He had seen the goal, and no matter the difficulty, he would find a means to crack it open and benefit from the knowledge it possessed.

  There, there, it is!

  His eyes sprang open with realization. This was more profound than he had first realized.

  This was a leap forward.

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