Brand stood up immediately when he heard crackling sounds echoing. He raced towards the stairs at the end of the hall and entered a narrow corridor illuminated by natural crystals glowing yellow.

After a while, he realized from the voices behind him that other parts of the ceiling had collapsed as well. Walking non-stop, he reached the end of the narrow corridor, and he found himself inside a strange structure.

He looked up at the wide stone spiral staircases and at the black circular pit in the middle, which seemed to stretch out into infinity. He thought this place looked like the inside of a tower. At the top was a cube similar to the one he had seen at first but much smaller.

It still managed to illuminate the entire structure adequately.

"Hmm?" As he was about to walk up the stone stairs, he saw a strange statue on his side.

When he got close to it, he began to examine it closely.

The statue's face or body features were not visible; it was covered by a cloak that left it in the shadows. It held a white orb with both hands, but it was not part of the statue.

The statue looked old, but it was as if a strange mystery surrounded it.

He also looked around the statue but couldn't see anything that caught his attention.

After taking one last look around, he headed for the stairs and started climbing them, checking each one for inconsistencies.

When he got to the second floor, he saw the dark space below from a wider angle and felt a chill in his spine. He quickly moved away from the edge. He noticed a kind of mirror on the wall covered with a layer of dust just before the staircase.

"It's about 3 meters above," he thought.

The first thing he saw when he reached the third floor was another statue, quite similar to the one he saw on the first floor. However, the orb it held in its hand was amber.

Likewise, there was nothing else conspicuous around him.

"The middle of the staircase ahead has completely collapsed." Brand grimaced as he looked at the shattered stairs leading to the fourth floor. Although the upper and lower parts of the staircase remained attached to the floors, the majority of the middle part was not there.

With a thoughtful expression, he began to carefully examine everything that caught his eye.

After a long, detailed examination, he was left confused and empty-handed.

Naturally, he knew there was a point behind it all that he had to explore, but he didn't want to skip anything he had to consider.

"I guess I have no choice but to take the dangerous way." Brand sighed, looking in the direction of the collapsed staircase. As he walked towards it, he noticed that the wall on the side of the stairs was not smooth.

He decided to try to approach the upper side of the stairs using the small ledges of stone.

He carefully began to climb the wall.

After climbing up to the equality of the upper stairs, he pushed himself back with his hands and feet and leaped to the remaining part of the stair.

Since the fourth floor was completely empty, he skipped it without delay and went up to the fifth floor. There was another statue a few meters away. He had a white orb in his hand, just like the first time he saw it.

Brand frowned as he looked down. At first, he thought it might all have to do with a minor alignment trick, but the positions of the statues were not suitable for any alignment.

After circling the statue, he went up to the sixth floor. This floor was the last floor he could climb, and there was a statue that was bigger and different than the other statues. It had a violet orb on its head.

Also, there was a large stone door behind the statue.

"Hmm? What is that?" Brand's brows rose in curiosity as he saw the plates on the door. When he began to examine it closely, he guessed that it was some kind of mechanism consisting of twelve plates in total.

Each of the plates had a different symbol on it that he did not know.

As Brand pressed one of the plates, the symbol on it flashed momentarily, and there was a grinding noise from behind.

He looked behind him and immediately noticed that the statue was standing at a different angle.

"Did it turn around?"

Brand quickly pressed another plate, and a voice echoed from below. He walked quickly to the edge of the floor and looked down.

"Interesting…"

He pressed the plates one by one for a long time and observed the movements of the statues.

On his other random try, a white light flashed below. He immediately ran to the edge and looked down again to observe what was going on.

The white orb in the hands of the first statue on the first floor began to focus a white light toward the wall. At the same time, the light on one of the plates on the door had not faded after being pressed, as it normally does.

Brand knew at that moment what he had to do.

He had to try different combinations over and over and carry the white light from the lowest statue up to the top in a constellation diagram.

He quickly started experimenting with combinations, but soon realized that he had to do another parkour.

He had to go downstairs and clean the dust-covered mirror. At first, he thought the mirror would somehow reflect light, but he soon realized he was wrong.

Luckily, he was able to get up without any accidents after going down and cleaning the mirror.

After cleaning the mirror on the second floor, the light reflected from it began to focus directly on the back of the statue on the third floor.

When Brand pushed the plate to turn the third-floor statue, the first-floor statue moved with him, and the constellation was distorted.

He gritted his teeth and continued to work on the combinations.

After a time that seemed like a long life to him, he finally managed to reflect the light to the top, and all the symbols on the mechanism began to shine with the light coming to the orb above the head of the statue at the top.

The great stone door opened with a loud jolt.

Brand's eyes were dazzled by a golden light from behind the door. In the middle of the room was a golden horn standing on some kind of altar. Although its size was only slightly larger than his hand, the golden light it emitted was enough to brighten the entire room.

He noticed that the walls inside the room were covered with neatly carved white stone slabs.

"So the Test pushed me to take this?" Brand was cautious as he approached the horn. When he reached over the altar and took it in his hands, the whole room began to shake.

The stone door closed, and the floor beyond the altar was split in the middle, like a two-lane door. Stairs descending into darkness became visible.

Footsteps sounded from the darkness below, shaking the ground. With every second that passed, a wheezing gasp began to be heard louder in the room.

Brand quickly hung the horn on his belt. Then he drew his sword and cautiously waited for what he would encounter.

A huge body emerged from the darkness.

"That's… a giant?"

Brand swallowed as the giant stared. He was bald, and his eyes were completely black without a pupil. He had many rings in his ears and was almost 5 meters tall.

"His single arm is thicker than my entire body!"

He couldn't suppress the fear that rose within him as he observed the giant before him. He had encountered a giant in a dungeon he had entered before, but this giant was in a completely different league.

In fact, he wasn't even sure it existed anywhere. After all, he was in the Test, so everything was just an illusion.

Still, Tuillisant might have put it to the Test as a duplicate of a real being.

He didn't know!

In the current situation, the only question he had to overcome was how to get over it.