"Master! The Door is here."
Boris, like an excited kid who was about to open his present, looked up at the outline of the Door of Transcendence materializing directly above him as he called on his master, Fleur.
With his whip gripped tightly in his hand and garb of blue robes covering his body, his figure trembled in excitement at the thought of succeeding in his Transcendent Trials and reach the level of becoming a Transcendent.
Each trial is different for everyone but yeah, it all tests the three stats. Strength, Endurance and Intelligence or our Minds.
Though there's a chance of failure, thinking that he will certainly succeed is the right mentality at this point.
"Go on and stop jumping around. Mine is next. I'm going to watch your attempt first to get some experience."
Hikari held Boris in place even though she was also excitedly watching the Door of Transcendence above while continuously fixing her glasses in place.
There are a few hours of gap between their uses of the temporary skill to call upon the Door of Transcendence so she had the time to watch his attempt first.
The area where they will do their Transcendent Trials was behind the three interconnected territories, a valley which could provide them with some cover. However, with the commotion that might be produced by the two Doors of Transcendence, three Transcendents were standing guard for them.
Sofiel, Fleur and me.
Arland was left behind on his Magus Tower as he was most relaxed there. And among the three Luxian Rank 1 Transcendents, one was called back to Aves, one was standing guard near the Elementals' Forest and one who had the fastest speed were scouting for any possible enemies that would sneak in to wreak havoc while the two were attempting their Transcendent Trials.
During that night where I visited Fleur, we had a good time and certainly got closer together. She showed me the places that were memorable for her and also her parents that were already too aged to even fight despite being Elemental Monarchs. That was all for the sake of knowing more about her.
Though I looked too young in their eyes, when the two elderly realized that their daughter who was only focusing with her Elemental Pathway introduced a man to them, they both revealed a relieved expression on their faces.
After that, the two talked to me about what Fleur likes and dislikes that even she was unaware of. When she realized that everything they said was true, she revealed a rare flustered expression and ran out of her parents' house.
However, that's still not enough for her to completely fall for me. Even so, that's fine for now. Knowing about her like that increased my growing affection for her.
"You know what to do, Boris. The most important thing is to preserve your life. There's no guarantee that anyone can come out alive. If you feel yourself reaching your limit, find a way out. You can redo it as long as you live."
Fleur reminded Boris which the latter instantly acknowledged.
"Yes, master! I will keep that in mind."
Once he's done jumping around and calmed himself down, the Door of Transcendence has finished materializing and instantly spread out its strong Transcendent Aura.
The Archaic Door hanging above the sky made me remember my own attempt at it. After cheating using Danae's gun, the following Transcendent Endurance Trial became too hard for me to pass. If not for pushing myself, I would've died from it.
As Boris flew from the ground to start knocking on that huge door, we all fell back to a certain distance to see it better.
He wielded his whip and started enhancing himself with various Water Elemental Spells making his luxurious looking blue robes glow in a deep blue light. It's like seeing the ocean from it.
Using only his Physical Strength at first, Boris hit the door which produced a cracking sound from the door along with a piece of the Archaic Door chipped off of it.
However, upon seeing that there's only a small part of the door which he managed to damage, Boris repeated doing it for almost a minute. At each hit of his whip, the blue Water Elemental Energy would repeatedly be gathered around him and using it to enhance him, the cracks grew in numbers.
As he maintained that sort of intensity, soon enough, balls of Water Elemental Energy could now be seen being shot out at every hit of his whip.
Repeating that process until he accumulated firepower to counteract the automatic recovery of the Door, 10 minutes immediately passed.
Hikari who was enthusiastic earlier suddenly fell into a stupor. Most likely she now realized that she would face the same predicament at this first part of their attempt at Transcendence. Breaking the Door of Transcendence open relied too much on one's destructive power and she's not too focused on that. Sure, she has destructive spells but it was all on the scale of an Elemental Forming Realm or a Magus. That's also why I got the idea of borrowing Danae's gun and her Amplification ability to easily bypass the Door of Transcendence.
When Sofiel saw her looking like that, she walked over and encouraged her. Like Hikari, she has the same Main Elemental Core as her, Light, and during these past three days, she also served as Hikari's second master, teaching her some of her convenient Light Elemental Spells specifically for an Elemental Forming Realm such as her.
Calling her Hikari's second master might be pushing it. Sofiel's sole reason for teaching and helping her was just to keep her occupied with something else. That way this reincarnated girl could prevent Hikari from trying to take my attention away from her. She could tolerate Fleur since she saw firsthand that I am actively pursuing her but not Hikari. Either way, I could only shake my head and satisfyingly watch her little display of jealousy.
Another 10 minutes later, deafening cracking reverberations echoed and filled our ears as Boris finally broke open the Door of Transcendence.
Looking up, he had a large grin on his lips as he watched the crumbling pieces of the archaic door as it rained down below.
However, he was rejoicing too early. His Transcendent Strength Trial still hasn't ended. He still needed to pass through the Door Guardians and enter the opened Door of Transcendence.
"Daisuke, I wonder. Did you use your Orb of Concealment to pass the Door Guardians during your Transcendent Trial?"
Fleur suddenly asked. Of course, since she had knowledge of it, she would be curious about that.
Boris that was up there was currently having a hard time to pass through the Door Guardians who looked like a mix of an Orc and a Noxian. They have black bony wings on their hips and their faces resembled those Orcs from that certain movie about The One Ring. They're all wielding different kinds of axes as they roared towards the attempting Mortal. Along with their charge, their wings would then spread wide and cast Dark Fumes which was like a net trying to enclose Boris inside.
Using his Water Elemental Spells that could even slice if he used it to sharpen his whip or tear through if he focused it on his destructive strength, Boris tried to push through the Orc-like Door Guardians.
Though he could dodge and block them, when he reached a certain point, the Door Guardians would gang up on him, resulting in him being sent retreating back.
"Yes. Also, I cheated by blasting the Door in one shot."
I answered with a smirk which immediately garnered her curiosity.
Sofiel and Hikari who were at a distance also heard that and crowded back to us.
And in unison, they all asked.
"How did you do that?"
And so, while watching Boris' hardship at passing through his Door of Transcendence, I told them how I easily pass through it. Of course, I omitted the fact that the next part became incredibly hard for me.
As soon as I finished my story, the Door Guardians whose appearance looked like they were rendered graphics from an epic movie started crumbling into ashes. From inside the Door of Transcendence, Boris could be seen struggling to catch his breath. His body could also be seen dotted with various injuries before he disappeared inside and our views got blocked.
That's the first time I saw someone get that seriously injured from the first trial. Will he be okay? I've only seen three attempts including mine. Yuko and Yumiko did it easily. Perhaps, for others, it's harder than it looks.
Moreover, the two girls got another 50% of the Support Bonus due to them being both Supported Individuals and my Companion.
Either way, Boris successfully passed the Transcendent Strength Trial and is now inside to attempt for the next part.
Leaving it at that, we moved onto the next location for Hikari's attempt.
However, before her Door of Transcendence materialized, Sofiel and Fleur both looked at me with a serious expression on their faces.
A few seconds later, the silver-haired woman whom I only met when my consciousness would be sent to her place appeared before us. This time, she sent her Incarnation which means something happened that required her presence.
And I'm right, like the two women at my side, she had a serious expression on her face, something that seemed unlikely to happen for a World's Will.
She scanned the three of us with her deep gaze before opening her mouth to speak with us in a grim tone.
"The Portal of the Dark World. The widening of it has started."
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