Such a thought was committing blasphemy against its esteemed master.

Its master had lived for an unfathomable amount of time. She had crossed worlds, studied laws beyond mortal understanding, and created this ancient trial as little more than an interesting experiment.

Comparing a young Advanced Mage to someone like her was absurd, completely absurd!

And yet, the abyss continued spreading as the ancient runes beneath Elion began cracking. The formation flickered uncontrollably.

[Warning: Soul Strength Exceeds Measurement Parameters.]

[Warning: Fundamental Potential Exceeds Measurement Parameters.]

[Warning: Unable to Determine Upper Boundary.]

[Warning: Assessment Integrity Compromised.]

The white chamber trembled as several formations shattered simultaneously.

Elion remained standing at the centre of the chaos, looking around with a faintly confused expression, "Did I break something?"

The spirit stared silently as the abyss behind him slowly faded.

The white chamber was gradually restored. The ancient formations dimmed one after another until only the central rune remained intact.

Then the layered voices echoed throughout the space.

[Final Assessment Complete.]

[Mana Affinity: Beyond Standard Measurement Parameters.]

[Mana Core Potential: Beyond Standard Measurement Parameters.]

[Comprehension Talent: Beyond Standard Measurement Parameters.]

[Soul Strength: Beyond Standard Measurement Parameters.]

[Fundamental Potential: Beyond Standard Measurement Parameters.]

[Third Trial Complete.]

[Congratulations, Aspirant.] 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Elion raised a brow.

"That was surprisingly straightforward."

The trial spirit could only watch him in disbelief.

Straightforward?

The boy had almost destroyed an ancient assessment formation simply by standing inside it! The chamber dissolved as Elion’s figure blurred as the trial began pulling him toward the final reward space.

The spirit remained motionless for several seconds, with its glow flickering faintly. There had to be some higher power involved in this absurdity!

There was no other reasonable explanation.

A being with this level of potential could not simply emerge from such an ordinary world by accident. Perhaps some ancient existence had secretly placed its attention on him.

Perhaps the piece of the origin core that it could feel attached to him was far more important than it initially appeared on the surface.

Perhaps...

The spirit stopped itself.

It did not matter.

The results spoke for themselves.

Elion had completed all three trials with achievements far exceeding their intended thresholds.

That meant he was guaranteed to receive the highest possible rewards. The spirit dimmed miserably. Those treasures were not supposed to be claimed by some ignorant pup!

Its master had placed them inside the trial mostly for show, confident that no Aspirant would ever achieve the results required to receive them.

They were symbolic, decorative, and impossible incentives intended to inspire ambition. And now an inexperienced young man with little understanding of what he had stumbled into was about to walk away with some of them.

The spirit watched helplessly as Elion entered the reward chamber.

Ancient pedestals appeared around him one after another.

Weapons, artifacts, techniques, lofty bloodlines, soul-strengthening resources, and unique abilities sealed inside glowing crystals.

Items that its master had casually gathered throughout her travels and placed inside the trial without any expectation that someone might actually claim them.

’This is going to be troublesome.’

How was it supposed to explain this? First, a demon woman escaped from the trial with the Philosopher’s Stone. Now, an obscenely talented young man was emptying the highest reward chamber as though he had stumbled into an unattended marketplace.

The spirit could already imagine its master’s expression. Perhaps it would be scolded. Perhaps it would be punished. Or perhaps its master would become curious enough to investigate the boy personally.

The spirit paused as a thought occurred to it.

If it recommended that its master take Elion as a student before she decided who deserved the blame for this mess, perhaps she would be slightly less irritated.

It was worth trying.

After all, it had only followed her instructions.

She was the one who ordered it not to interfere too heavily with the trials. It had already done plenty by impeding Elion’s respawns because of his connection to that woman.

’I was only obeying the rules,’ the spirit thought with a quiet sigh. It watched its master’s collection slowly disappear.

This was going to be quite the story to tell.

...

Prior...

As Elion stood before the seemingly endless sea of pedestals spread out before him, he could not help but grin like a madman.

Finally!

He was about to reap the fruits of his labour. There was only one problem though; There was far too much to choose from.

Elion had already asked the trial system for a basic explanation. Apparently, every participant’s access to the reward chamber depended entirely on their achievements throughout the three trials. The layered voices had gone through a painfully long sequence of announcements listing his accomplishments, including the fact that he had fought against a Saint-class Mage during the first trial.

He had not been the one to deliver the final blow against Asmodeus, but he had contributed more than enough for the trial to acknowledge his efforts.

For a moment, Elion wondered how the others were doing wherever they had been sent. It was only a passing thought. He had more pressing matters to deal with.

The trial had granted him the right to select any ten rewards of his choosing.

’Ten huh....’ Honestly, it didn’t seem like much to him, but he had gotten so used to having easy access to treasures already through his system store.

Elion looked out across the vast catalogue of treasures and immediately felt a headache coming on.

He had no intention of spending months inspecting every pedestal one by one, so he asked the trial system to display only the finest rewards available to him.

The countless pedestals shifted, and most of them faded into the distance until only a small collection remained.

Elion’s eyes brightened immediately, but his gaze was naturally drawn toward the bloodlines.

"Holy hell..."

The sight of him drooling would have looked rather strange to anyone who knew him, but that was exactly what happened. He did not even care about appearances anymore.

The treasures displayed before him were the very bloodlines he had spent so much time dreaming about.

Greater Beastkin bloodlines!

Every species he could think of appeared to be available.

The Progenitor Elven bloodline.

The Progenitor Vampire bloodline.

A Profaned Demon bloodline.

And even the Peak Primordial Dragon bloodline!

A foolish grin spread across Elion’s face as he wiped away the thin line of drool running down his chin.

"Hehe..."

Honestly, he was tempted to spend at least half of his ten reward slots on bloodlines alone. Treasures and techniques could be found elsewhere.

He could purchase plenty of powerful abilities from the system store given enough time and points.

But bloodlines of this purity? Those were priceless.

Elion reached toward the closest pedestal. A notification immediately appeared before his eyes.

[Warning: Only One Peak Primordial Level Bloodline May Be Selected by each Aspirant.]

Elion frowned.