As Simon stood wearily on the platform which was now finally still, he heaved a sigh of relief. ‘That trial was actually quite difficult. Thankfully this old man still has some skills!’ he thought with a chuckle.

If it were a master mage in his place, they would most likely have fallen under the combined assault of the three void creatures. Only the strongest of grandmaster mages could possibly stand a chance at victory... It was actually that precarious!

But as he stood at the platform, Simon’s thoughts inevitably wandered to Jake's situation, and the mirth on his face slowly evaporated, leaving him with a solemn expression.

‘He is likely facing something similar to what I am. And in that case...’ Simon couldn’t help but to sigh.

Though he knew that Jake was unfathomably talented... This trial was truly monstrously difficult. Even he had barely survived the first platform!

As a result, it was hard to believe that Jake’s situation was not dire.

However, Simon still had faith in his disciple. After all, he had never seen such a talented mage in his many years of life! Even when he recalled legends of the most unfathomable mages, in his opinion, they were comparable to Jake at best.

Thus, if anyone were to survive getting abruptly thrusted into a deadly trial, in which one had to rapidly improve - other than himself - it would definitely be Jake who had the most promising prospects.

‘Whether or not he can turn this disaster into fortune is up to him. I can only hope that he manages… ’

From what he had seen, this place was most definitely both a curse and a blessing.

Thus, if Jake fared well here, he would most assuredly skyrocket in strength, be it from increased combat experience, or from the acquisition of special techniques and energies!

But if he didn’t…

Well, the result of such a situation did not need to be said.

After shaking his head, Simon rid himself of these distracting thoughts before taking note of his condition.

He still had approximately a tenth of his mana reserves and another half of his mana reserves worth of Void Essence remaining. His body was also somewhat physically battered, but he still possessed roughly 80% of his combat strength.

Simon nodded. ‘Such a situation isn’t ideal, but it also could have been much worse.’

Suddenly, another bridge began forming opposite to where the first bridge once was, paving the way into the darkness.

Seeing this, Simon promptly stepped onto the bridge and ventured forth.

-----

A long time later…

A sluggish and dispirited figure treaded upon a bridge made of floating dark stones mindlessly - as if such an action was what he had done for all of eternity.

Suddenly, the man snapped to attention and gazed warily forwards, towards a faint silvery speck of light that could be hardly seen in the distance.

Seeing this, Simon laughed dryly; his voice had long since gone hoarse since the last time he talked.

‘Finally… The next platform.’

Simon was relieved.

He truly had no clue of the length of the journey from the second platform to the third. However, he had a hunch that he had been walking for many months…

Whatever the case, he knew that the second bridge was much more lengthy than the first one. Or perhaps, the void had affected his mind to the point where he grew disoriented, thus twisting his sense of time; it was hard to tell.

Over the course of traversing the bridge, the void around Simon had also inevitably affected his mental state, and he found himself occasionally slinking into despondency.

And even when he caught himself, he nonetheless fell still deeper into the grasps of the void with every cycle; the sheer solitude and suppression was omnipresent and unavoidable in this place…

It has to be known that though Simon had an indomitable will of steel, he was still plagued by his past; he had suppressed such feelings, not resolved them, after all.

Such a fact only served to exacerbate the feeling of solitude that the void instilled within him.

…

Soon enough, Simon finally stepped onto the metal platform with his wand in hand, peering around the platform with caution.

‘What will it be this time?’

He still had no clue of what this place was, but he suspected that it was a trial of sorts. Naturally, if that were the case, some sort of obstacle was likely going to appear in front of him.

But after standing there for a few seconds, he could find nothing out of the norm, and so he decided to move forward.

However, just as he set his foot in front of him, something abruptly pierced his arm!

Simon immediately twisted his body to locate the source of danger with a solemn expression. However, there was nothing to be seen in his surroundings.

‘Hmph.’ his gaze sharpened as he mended the hole in his arm which blood flowed incessantly out of, before casting an illusory barrier around him and taking another step forwards.

Crack!

Suddenly, before Simonn knew it, his barrier was shattered and he was pierced in the leg and torso!

He stood still once again, and his expression was grim as he recovered his wounds.

‘How troublesome.’ he thought with a frown.

This time, he had seen what happened, albeit with some difficulty…

Whenever he took a step forwards, shards of the void approximately as wide as a finger would be sent flying towards him. These shards were as fast as bullets, and likely had penetration strength superior to any projectile known to man!

However, that was not the worst part…

The worst part was actually how hard they were to detect.

After all, even when focusing his senses to the utmost level, he actually couldn’t sense these shards of the void in the slightest! It was only due to the green barrier’s help that he managed to notice them at all.

After recovering from his wounds, Simon tentatively tried stepping backwards. Nothing happened.

Seeing this, he nodded and readied his wand, before promptly stepping forwards once again.

Woosh!

At the same moment, he sent out a blast of air to propel himself backwards!

Alas, a hole formed in his knee and neck despite him being well over meters from the edge of the platform; it seemed that so long as he stepped forward, his body would get pierced.

With another burst of air, Simon launched himself back to the edge of the platform and landed lightly. And as he did so, he frowned.

‘I can’t block, can’t dodge, and nor can I endure it. What can I do?’

The obstacles in front of him seemed unsurpassable. As for bypassing the platform? …He didn’t even wish to try such a thing.

After all, from what he had seen, the means of the creators of this place were boundless and profound! How could something as simple as bypassing the platform possibly work? Most likely, he would be shredded to bits if he tried.

And so, he quickly got to work, attempting to pass the platform with vigor.

…

Over the course of the next few hours, Simon tried many things such as rushing forwards, using a variety of spells, and dodging as he ran. He even tried the mysterious footwork technique that was reminiscent of the void!

However, nothing he did worked. By now, he had approximately 40% of his mana worth of void essence remaining, having been pierced by void shards thousands of times. And yet, he had gained practically no information that could contribute to him reaching the other end of the platform…

However, Simon was still far from giving up.

‘I am not yet out of options!’

With a determined expression, he sat down cross-legged at the front of the platform and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile, within Simon’s mana core…

Fourteen stars of condensed energy were currently submerged within a faint orb of turbid energy - this energy was pitch black, and reminiscent of the void itself.

Suddenly, this globule of profound energy gradually began dissolving, before streaming out of the mana core in force.

Meanwhile, outside of Simon’s body…

Particles of the void emerged from his orifices, quickly forming a singular tendril of emptiness above his palm - or rather, a tendril of condensed void. This tendril was extremely difficult to detect, yet, the energy within was unfathomably potent.

At this moment, Simon frowned with his eyes still closed.

‘Not even close. Maybe it should be less dense?

A majority of the tendril of void suddenly was drawn back into Simon’s body, leaving a hint of essence that was rather faint in comparison above his palm.

‘Nope’ he shook his head. It was not remotely close either.

Of course, what Simon was currently trying to replicate were the shards of void which shot towards him on the platform. Ultimately, without understanding it, he doubted that he could progress more than a few steps.

After all, with every subsequent step on the platform, another shard of the void would shoot towards him - seemingly impossible to impede, and impossible to avoid. Moreover, these shards were so inscrutable that even Simon felt helpless when trying to unearth their secrets.

And by the fiftieth step, where several dozen shards shot towards him at once… even he, as a mage with fourteen elemental stars, was unable to bear such an assault with light repercussions!

Thus, he could only try replicating such shards to understand them.

-----

Whilst Simon was immersed in his research, furthering his knowledge of void essence, time quickly passed.

Actually, this environment was rather beneficial for researching the void, as one was constantly surrounded by its presence. Thus, even if one didn’t wish to, one would eventually come to understand what the boundless void truly meant in this place…

Even so, progress was relatively slow here; breakthroughs in knowledge happened very occasionally, and Simon was plagued by bottleneck after bottleneck in his pursuit of knowledge.

However, he was not too fazed - bottlenecks and long phases of experimentation were unfortunately things that he had bountiful experience with, after all. In any case, they were normal occasions for a mage attempting to form new elemental stars and for researchers in the midst of their research.

Soon enough, after an indiscernible amount of time…

A practically unnoticeable shadowy fleck soared about above Simon’s palm, in a lively and dashing manner. It was both illusory and dark - almost like a region of nothingness.

However, if one paid close attention, one could sense a potent energy from within this shard of energy flying about…

“Hahaha, ingenious! This method of energy manipulation is simply too profound!” Simon exclaimed hoarsely as he gazed at the shard of void with pride.

At first, he had worried about not having enough void essence to recreate a shard of void. But as it turned out, he had worried for no reason; the shards of void required very little void essence.

The most important aspect to them were their structures… These shards were made in such a way that when used properly, their penetrative abilities would be compounded, at the same time making them exponentially harder to detect!

It required the utmost level of precision, skill, and concentration to pull off the creation of such a shard. After all, to use such a miniscule amount of energy to form such a powerful projectile was easier said than done.

As a result, rather than a void technique, it would be more accurate to call it an energy formation technique, and an extremely profound one at that...

Naturally, Simon’s control in manipulating energies increased by a good portion in this time, and he had even found a new technique to add to his arsenal as well. Not to mention, with his newfound understanding of the shards of void, he now knew what needed to be done to pass this platform.

‘To think that it was that simple…’ Simon ruefully shook his head, before standing up slowly.

First, he dissipated the shard of void essence and reabsorbed its energy into his mana core. Then, he leapt towards the opposite end of the stadium in one large bound, completely forgoing the 1,000 or so steps which he originally had to navigate.

Woosh!

Upon landing on the opposite end of the platform, Simon was abruptly surrounded by thousands of shards of void, containing enough force to kill him multiple times over. This time… they were easily detectable, as there were simply too many of them, approaching him like an unending wave.

And yet, he smiled nonchalantly, watching them approach with an amused gaze. Even as the air around him distorted from the shards of energy from all directions, he did not lift a finger.