Chapter 58 - Third Part of the Trial

'This was the next trial.'

That was what Rynold thought as he continuously looked around and didn't find any sort of way out. But what confirmed that this would be the next trial is the sudden change of the floors that they were standing on. Cracks and shifts in the foundation appeared out of nowhere as the ground violently shook.

With that, panic ensued.

Rynold looked around as he bumbled his way to the ground. The floor was shaking violently as both X and Rynold didn't know what to do and got constantly knocked off-balance.

He cursed inwardly at the sudden series of events that had come out of nowhere. Despite his efforts to stand on his two feet, Rynold couldn't do anything of the sort. What's worse was that he couldn't see anything that activated this sort of thing.

His worries, though, only worsened in the next few moments.

The ground shifted and cracked then, all of a sudden, broke. Both X and Rynold fell towards the depths that were filled with darkness.

As Rynold stared down into the pit that they were falling in, his mind was absolutely empty. The events occurred as fast as they appeared and it took a few minutes for Rynold's tired brain to catch up.

He had been falling for all of two seconds then a thought came into his mind.

'Why is the floor hollow?'

That was the only thing that he could think of right now as he pummeled into the pit. Even if he could grapple his way out of this one, Rynold still would have no place to go since up certainly wasn't an option.

Instead of struggling to find a solution, Rynold decided to just see what happens. It was extremely oblivious to him how this could mean death but he was simply too tired to care. After all, Rynold interpreted this as the most obvious thing ever.

Obvious in a sense that whoever is doing all of this obviously wants him to go down instead of straight or up. So, Rynold decided to swerve into the culprit's expectations.

High risk and extremely low rewards. This was essentially how Rynold lives his life at very bad moments such that his timing for doing dumb things like this one was always during the worst points in his life. At some point in the past, he had even tried to flush a clogged toilet just to see what happens.

Anyway, Rynold continued to stare into the pit.

It was a couple of minutes now and Rynold was pretty sure that he was falling for a few dozen thousand feet at a speed that would kill him once he hits off of something. But, despite that, he was still unfazed.

At this point, it doesn't take a scholar to understand that the falling scenario might as well be an illusion. Aside from the fact that he had been falling for a few minutes now, Rynold was practically sure that the tree wasn't tall enough to accommodate this much fall distance.

He might as well have gone to hell and back.

Getting sick of the falling, Rynold finally decided to do something about it. He weighed his options with all the time in the world considering how falling seems to be the only thing he was doing.

Grappling would kill him, if not, break his arm at this speed. Clutching to the wall won't make any sense either since he can't even see the thing. His current surroundings were dark to a fault, he can't even make out what was around him.

The only thing that he could say for sure was the wind on his face and that's about it.

'Hold up...'

Rynold considered and used logic to determine the situation. The wind on his face doesn't seem to be getting any stronger and what's more, was that the speed at which he is falling isn't getting faster.

At first, it was fast and Rynold hadn't realized it early on was that his speed was constant. 'Gravity doesn't work that way, right?' he pondered as he looked down.

Considering the situation, Rynold was sure that he was stuck in a wind tunnel. How else could this be explained?

With that, Rynold called out to X but there was no answer.

He was sure that the Mech Knight fell along with him into the pit. But why was there no answer? Questions rose inside his head as he guessed many theories that would explain the unnatural occurrence. Only thing was, there was no way to logically explain what's happening.

So, Rynold called out once more and many more times after that.

As expected, there really was no answer from his loyal Mech Knight. Perhaps they were separated during the fall or maybe X fell unconscious, there really was no answer to it. So much so, that Rynold even tried to sense the Mech Knight to no avail.

Now knowing he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, Rynold did the first thing that came into his mind.

Circulating his Mana, Rynold tried to poke around and see if he could find small traces of Mana around him. Unfortunately for him, though, there was no response. Nothing reacted to the small amount of Mana that he sprinkled out.

Despite the lackluster response, Rynold pursued further.

He pushed his Mana to the brim and radiated out a thin layer of white Mana around him, fully activating the newly learned skill, Formless Mana Defense.

The surroundings around him finally erupted and somehow shook, even though there was only darkness to shake. Rynold, however, was able to feel his surroundings react to the stronger release of Mana.

The sudden change encouraged Rynold to push Mana out on a much higher quantity, fully activating his defense. He, of course, had finally guessed right on the way out of this situation. It didn't take long for him to finally break open from the illusion and light suddenly filled his eyes.

Rynold had successfully broken through the spell and found himself falling. Landing flat on his chest, he groaned and turned to face the ceiling.

What looked like black clouds dissipated from where he was stuck. Rynold guessed that those black clouds were what trapped him and, at the same time, simulated falling.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Now that he was free, he had to look for his trust Mech Knight before even thinking of leaving the place. That was his goal until a window interrupted.

[Third Floor Trial Complete!]

[The librarian is now staring directly at you.]

'Staring at me? What?' Rynold thought as he sat up.

From there, he could see a beautiful lady that was attractive to a tee stare down at him. Even though she was not Rynold's type, the girl was beautiful nonetheless. She had blonde hair and flawless skin with a chest that would make any guy drool at the sight of them. Her pristine white robes fell over her shoulders as her dominating aura radiated.

Rynold instinctively gulped.

Perhaps out of the presence of either beauty or danger, Rynold inadvertently stared. He didn't know what to do and Rynold wasn't really confident if he could charm his way out of this one. Who did he think he is? Oliver?

"Human," the librarian spoke, her voice resonated a mature and yet seductive tone, "you are the first to free yourself from my spell. You now have the right to pass the final challenge."

'The first?' Rynold stared at the woman, her alluring voice still ringing in his ears.

He slowly and carefully inched his head to the side to look around. There, he saw the others that were trapped in the same spell he was in before. Although not being able to see their faces, Rynold was able to tell that Jack, Oliver, Strider, and X were all there. The only person missing was...

Eileen.

Rynold's eyes widened to make sure that he didn't miss the young girl. No matter how hard he looked, she definitely wasn't in any of the dark bubbles. There seemed to be a lot more of those around too.

His head shifted back to the librarian and noticed that she was waiting for Rynold to respond. It seemed like he was the only one that could break the spell that was trapping the rest of them since he was the only one free.

Dusting himself off, Rynold stood up.

He slowly walked to the center of the room and stood before the librarian who was sitting on top of her very oppressive chair. It might as well be a throne but that's not really the point. Rynold slowly took a breath in and instinctively clenched before looking up.

'Wow...,' Rynold stared in a daze before the librarian's beauty before shaking his head to focus on the task at hand. This was not the time to drool and stare, after all. He steeled his heart once more and looked at the woman who was staring down at him.

"What's the challenge?"