When the party arrived at the training hall, they were surprised at the huge queue of people that were waiting for a turn.
Looking at it from the outside, it seemed like a normal building but the moment they entered, everything was very cramped.
With the simulators in the centre of the room, there were huge monitors displaying the scene to the rest of the people.
There were groups cheering on for one another while others only laughed.
Funnily enough, one of the best compliments that the party heard was ‘Good job! You lasted 2 seconds in there!’.
To their left, there was a receptionist who was assigned here by the Pope. Seeing Shiro and the party, she immediately greeted them.
“The pope has informed me of your arrival. If you wish, we can provide you a private room upstairs so that you don’t have to wait in this cramped space.” She smiled.
“No it’s fine. So do we have to pay to give the trial a go?” Shiro chuckled.
“Of course not. I’ll print you off your spots immediately.”
Handing the party some notes that showed their current spot in the queue, they couldn’t help but raise their eyebrows at the number.
“Don’t worry, while the number is large, the wait time isn’t that bad as each person gets one turn. We’ve already reset the queue number twice now.” The receptionist chuckled softly as Shiro nodded her head.
Gesturing for the party to wait by the side, Shiro watched all the attempts with a soft smile.
There had been a few ‘famous’ figures that appeared to give the test a try but they were either barely able to complete super easy or fell like the others. For the one that barely managed to complete Super Easy, he was welcomed with a cheer.
Seeing this, Shiro only shook her head.
‘Why is he happy about super easy. Even though I haven’t trained Helion and Chen Yu yet, they can probably complete it as well. Hell, give me a day or two and they’ll be able to complete normal.’ She thought to herself.
{By a day or two I suppose you’re not going to allow them to rest and put them through torture.} Nimue yawned.
‘What of it?’
{Nothing, just confirming my thoughts.} Nimue shrugged.
Watching the attempts one by one, Shiro couldn’t help but frown at the quality of mana control that she had been so far. No wonder everyone hated her in the future since after losing the system, everything needed to be manual. Once the system was gone, they were essentially useless.
“Do you think they’re faking it?” Lyrica whispered over to Aarim as some of the attempts were truly pitiful.
“Unfortunately, no. Our party is just too strong.” Aarim shook her head.
“Too strong? Isn’t that a bit Arrogant? Did you not see how even a Genius barely managed to complete Super Easy?” A man called out with a frown.
“What do you mean? We’ve already got someone who’s completed it before.” Aarim raised her eyebrow and pointed towards Lyrica.
Taking a second glance at her, the man recognised her to be the same elf who had completed the Normal difficulty, which was unthinkable as even a ‘genius’ barely completed the Super Easy difficulty.
“Bah! That could have been a publicity stunt for all I know. They might have just lowered the difficulty for you so that it looked easy. After all, who would look this unphased during the test?” The man scoffed.
“Seems like you don’t believe the legitimacy.” Shiro chuckled.
“Of course not. It’s the digital world, they can adjust it however they like.”
“How about this, why don’t you attempt it at the same time as one of our party members in the same trial room. That way, you can verify the pressure.” Shiro suggested with a grin.
“Hell no. If you want to prove it, why don’t you go against the genius that completed Super Easy before.” The man shook his head.
Despite his talk, he didn’t want to do the test again. After all, being turned into a flesh paste wasn’t his favourite thing to experience.
“Che, coward.” Madison taunted with a frown.
Ignoring Madison, the man walked away.
“Well at least it was solved peacefully.” Silvia sighed.
Waiting a little longer, it was finally their turn.
Shiro was the first while Lyrica, Aarim and Silvia were next in the queue.
Entering the digital world, the four of them proceeded toward the first test.
Seeing Lyrica, everyone recognised her to be the one that had completed normal before and kept their focus on her.
“You want to give Above Average a go? Normal was quite easy for you after all.” Shiro asked with a smile.
“Sure. How likely do you think I’ll be able to complete it?” Lyrica asked.
“In terms of percentage, probably 70 to 80%. As for hard, the chances of success for you is around 20%.” Shiro replied after a short paused.
“That big?” Lyrica furrowed her brows.
“Don’t worry about it too much. You’re already doing much better than 90% of the chucklef*cks in the room.” Shiro laughed as everyone felt ticked off by her comment.
*Sigh
Sighing softly, Madison felt like things were going to get annoying as she had just pissed off everyone in the room with a single comment.
“What about me?” Silvia asked.
“You? Hmm… I’d say you can probably do Hard with a 40% chance of success. Since you utilise mana more than Lyrica on a daily basis, your control is much better. As for Aarim, you can complete Hard with 100% chance of success but only 10% with Super Hard.”
“Holy… Only 10% chance?” Aarim raised her eyebrow in surprise as Shiro’s analysis of their power had always been pretty spot on. The fact that there is such a big difference between the two grades caused her to be curious about what she was lacking.
“Just give it a go or look at the video. You should be able to figure it out.” Shiro chuckled.
Hearing their discussion, the adventurers shook their heads with disdain.
Some even openly talked about their arrogance and how it would bite them in the back.
With all eyes on the girls, they picked their difficulty.
Lyrica chose Above Average just so that she can get a feel for the pressure while Silvia chose hard. As for Aarim, she decided to go Super Hard since there was no point completing something she had a 100% chance of success on.
However, when people saw Shiro’s choice, they couldn’t help but stare at her in disbelief.
Choosing the Hero Tier difficulty, Shiro walked into the room with a grin.
“Ah, before I start, you girls might want to step back a bit. The room might not be able to contain the pressure.” Shiro chuckled.
Hearing her warning, the three did not hesitate to begin running away from the location since in Shiro’s dictionary, ‘a bit’ was VERY misleading.
Looking at their figures running away, Shiro laughed and began the trial.
Cracking her neck, she took a deep breath.
*BANG!!!
Mana erupted out of her as a motes of light could be seen around the room. Coalescing into a cocoon around her, the barrier of mana slowly faded away.
All seemed silent for a moment as the adventurers furrowed their brows in confusion.
However, Silvia, Aarim and Lyrica wrapped themselves in mana and braced for impact.
*BOOM!!!!!!
An ear rupturing explosion rang out as adventurers were knocked off their feet. Their bodies were sent tumbling away.
A cloud of dust and debris could be seen rising into the air.
*COUGH COUGH COUGH!!
“God damn it I forgot how hard the pressure hit on this difficulty.” Shiro waved the dust away as they could see blood dripping from the corners of her mouth.
Wiping it away, she walked back to the party.
“Seems like you girls were prepared haha. Go do your trials and I’ll wait here. Don’t worry, Super Hard won’t have the same impact as Hero.” Shiro smiled.
“I’m not worried about Super Hard. But rather, I’m worried about them.” Aarim chuckled while gesturing towards the adventurers that were walking towards them.
However, Shiro only raised her eyebrow and flicked her wrist.
Suddenly, a wall of mana erupted out of the ground as it prevented the adventurers from coming closer.
“You have it covered I see. Welp girls, let’s not waste any time I suppose.” Aarim chuckled as Lyrica and Silvia nodded their heads.
Watching the girls enter separate trail rooms, Shiro had a smile on her face while massaging her rib area.
{I can’t believe you underestimated your own trial.} Nimue sighed.
‘Well I didn’t realise how potent my Armour Penetration and Mana Leech is so it took me by surprise.’ Shiro laughed.
{Do you think Aarim can complete Super Hard?}
‘Not likely but if she does, her gravity magic will experience a power spike.” Shiro smiled with anticipation.
