Brand began to wander around to explore the surroundings. He was on a wide and long road, lined on either side with smooth walls that stretched almost to the clouds.

The ground he stepped on was all soil, with sparse grass in some places.

There was a solar eclipse above.

The atmosphere was gloomy and gray-toned.

Brand followed the road. It was not possible to see in the distance as the fog started after a certain point. So he didn't know where to go.

After he had walked for what he thought was at least two hours, a bad feeling began to rise in him.

Although he kept moving without stopping, he had never seen anything different. The smooth walls, devoid of the slightest indentation or protrusion, had shown no degradation anywhere in all the distance he had walked.

Brand continued to move forward with difficulty.

After an unknown amount of time, he realized that he had reached a larger space than usual. Due to the fog surrounding him, he could not see exactly where he was.

"Oh… Don't tell me…" Brand wandered around a bit and began to see a few different road entrances.

He was in a maze!

It collapsed in place and didn't move at all for a while. He was very tired, thirsty, and hungry, and he had pains almost all over his body. In the Test, all of these were not life-threatening situations, unlike real-life situations, but they were situations that constantly exploited willpower.

He was wondering how far the Test would take him, and he wanted to see the end of his trial. He knew that if the Test gave him a high grade, his power would be top-notch.

So willpower was the most important element in the Test.

After resting for a while, Brand took another road and started to move forward.

****

He didn't know how long he had been wandering the labyrinth. He had completely lost his sense of time. He had walked the long roads of the labyrinth to her many times and had only come across two things: another road or a dead end.

He didn't know how long he had been navigating the labyrinth. He had completely lost his sense of time. He had walked the long roads of the labyrinth to her many times and had only come across two things: another road or a dead end.

When he returned from the roads, he succumbed to the complexity of the labyrinth and completely lost his sense of direction. The signs and clues he left at the entrance of the roads were not there when he returned.

After resting for a while, Brand intended to return with suppressed boredom and anger. However, a difference suddenly caught his eye.

The broad wall before him, marking the end of the road, seemed to have some protrusions he hadn't seen before.

He immediately ran to the wall and began to examine it closely.

He was not wrong!

Indeed, although most of this wall was smooth, it was not all over it.

He pulled back a little and looked at the wall from a wide angle. It was as if a small portion of the wall was made of a very similar but different material to the rest.

Brand drew out his sword and began to strike the wall with all his might with its hilt. His every hit reverberated like a cannon shot through the high walls.

"It's really falling apart!" Brand exclaimed excitedly. He had tried to break a piece of them before, hoping he could at least infer what material the walls were made of, but he couldn't make the slightest scratch on them.

It had caused a circular dent on it after hitting the wall nonstop for a while.

Blue smoke began to seep out of the pores opened in the wall.

He took a few steps back and began to carefully observe the blue smoke.

The blue smoke leaking from the pores began to gather together on the floor and take on a form.

A few moments later, his expression reflected confusion as his eyes widened in surprise.

"A powemarph?"

He had heard many rumors about powemarphs. Some argued that they were a type of spirit, while others argued that they were existential reflections of beings in other dimensions.

The powemarph before him had taken the form of a squirrel. In the middle of his body was a concentrated spirit essence that looked like a white pearl. His body was the manifestation of an unknown type of energy.

It looked down at Brand and turned around him several times.

"Hey!" Brand smiled awkwardly.

The powemarph rushed forward and only then turned to look at him.

"Does it want me to follow it?" he thought.

Brand started following it. He was observing it carefully as they moved forward together.

"Why would the Test put a powemarph in front of me?"

While he was trying to find an answer to the question in his mind, the two of them came to a wide area that opened up to five different roads.

It just started running around as if it were looking for something. A few moments later, it stopped. It was looking around as if it had noticed something.

After not moving like a statue for a few moments, it suddenly ran into one of the paths.

Brand followed it helplessly for a long time.

"Oh? This…" Brand frowned, staring at the fog ahead. Although he couldn't see clearly because of the fog, it was clear that there was something great ahead.

As he continued forward, he saw a very large and old-looking tree. However, he soon realized that the tree in front of him was not ordinary.

Its branches were covered with cobwebs. In some parts of it, there were spiders roaming almost as big as him.

The trunk of the tree was black and hairy, like that of a spider.

As Brand approached the tree, it trembled and shook its branches. Spiders of various sizes and different appearances began to descend from the branches of the tree.

"Damn it! "There are too many of them."

Brand gritted his teeth as he stared at the spiders coming down from the tree. He drew his sword and charged directly toward the first spider to land on the ground. He knew he had to kill at least a few before the spiders at the top of the tree could come down.

He quickly delivered a cross-slash when he came in front of the spider. But after the spider escaped his sword by jumping backward, it leaped towards him and tried to pierce him with his teeth.

With a swift and graceful trick of the wrist, Brand turned his sword and parried the spider's attack. Then, he raised his sword and split its head in half with a downward slash.

Its repulsive black, hairy body fell to the ground and never moved again.

*Chi!* With an angry, shrill cry, two more spiders jumped towards him.

"Shit!" Brand rolled to his side to avoid being crushed under them.

At that moment, an event occurred that caused his eyes to widen.

The powemarph's squirrel tail got longer and wider. Then it caught one of the spiders and started slamming it to the ground very hard.

Brand ran towards the other spider and swung his sword, cutting off both of its front legs. When the spider began to back off, unbalanced, he followed it and leaped toward it, splitting it with a downward slash.

"Ugh! This is very disturbing!"

Brand saw a different-looking spider approaching him. This spider had a flattened body, and its legs were wide to the sides. Its eyes shone a menacing green, and its body was mostly covered with yellow hair, with black spots in parts of its body.

The most disturbing thing about it was that it had half a face and three mouths right next to its face that had not fully mutated.

The spider rushed forward at a high speed and began to attack him nonstop with its front legs.

Even though Brand parried its attacks with his sword at the same speed, he was losing his advantage with each passing second.

The powemarph had finished off the spider it was fighting. It wrapped its tail around the spider's legs, which were attacking Brand relentlessly, causing it to lose its position.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, he took a step forward and swung his sword with all his might to sever the spider's front legs.

However, the moment the sword hit the spider's leg, it stopped as if it had hit a heavy iron mass and rebounded.

He grimaced at the intensity of the pain spreading into his arms.