As they approached the two-faced profile, the archway opened to reveal not a corridor, but a chamber split perfectly in half by a wall of transparent glass.
The floor on the far side bore an intricate pattern of stones, each one slightly different in colour and texture. Some appeared to be pressure plates, others bore strange symbols.
The path from the entrance to a door on the opposite wall was barely three metres, but it was clear that a single wrong step would trigger whatever mechanisms lay hidden beneath the floor.
Above the glass barrier, the familiar blue screen appeared :
One walks, the others guide.
Before anyone could speak, the glass began to glow. Six beams of light appeared, each one targeting a different member of the group.
But Ethan's beam was different—brighter, more insistent, pulling at him with a gentle but undeniable force.
"Looks like you're up," Victor said as he looked at Ethan.
Ethan stepped toward the glass, as he touched the Judicator's Ring on his finger. "Let's get this over with quickly."
The moment he touched the barrier, the glass parted like water, allowing him to step through. Behind him, the barrier reformed, sealing him into the trap-filled chamber while his companions remained safely on the observation side.
He took his place on a chair in the center of the room, he assumed it would be his starting point.
"No pressure," Ethan muttered, the world around him, going dark, becoming one of sound and sensation. While Ethan couldn't see a thing the other's had no trouble seeing Ethan and his surroundings.
"Can you hear us?" Lily's voice sounded out.
"Crystal clear," Ethan replied, though his voice carried an edge of nervousness. "Just... give slow and clear instructions."
Walter's cane tapped against the floor periodically as he studied the pattern more closely. "The stones form a path, but not an obvious one. Some are decoys designed to look safe. Others appear dangerous but might be perfectly stable."
Sam already had his notebook out, sketching the floor pattern with rapid strokes. "There's definitely a logic to it. The symbols aren't random—they're following some sort of sequence."
"So where do I start? Remember, I can't see anything." Ethan spoke.
"Two steps forward," Victor said after conferring with the others. "The stones directly in front of you look solid."
Ethan took the steps, feeling the stone settle slightly beneath his weight but holding firm. "Okay, what's next?"
The process was agonisingly slow. Each step required discussion, observation, and careful consideration of the pattern they were beginning to discern.
Ethan stood motionless while they debated, sweat beading on his forehead.
"I can feel something vibrating under my left foot," he said during one particularly long pause.
"Don't move," Walter said. "That stone has symbols that are glowing now."
"Lift your left foot slowly and step back," AJ instructed. "There's a safe stone half a step behind you and to the right."
Ethan executed the movement with careful precision, feeling the vibration cease as his weight left the trapped stone. "This is worse than fighting that shadow creature. At least then I could see what wanted to kill me."
"You're doing great," Sam encouraged. "You're almost halfway."
The pattern was becoming clearer, the safe stones formed a serpentine path that doubled back on itself twice, requiring Ethan to trust completely in directions that must have felt counterintuitive.
"This is a test of more than just trust," Walter observed quietly to the others. "It's about communication under pressure. Making sure our instructions are clear and precise."
Victor nodded, watching as Ethan carefully negotiated a section where safe stones were separated by larger gaps. "And it's testing him to follow instructions even when they don't make sense from his perspective."
The most challenging moment came two-thirds of the way across. The safe path required Ethan to step over a stone that looked like it would trigger every trap in the room.
"You want me to step where?" Ethan's voice fluctuated as they explained the situation.
AJ's form shimmered slightly. "You just need to go straight in front of you, while stepping over it, it's about one meter in length."
Ethan stood on the threshold for a few long seconds, the ring on his finger helping him calm down. Finally, he lifted his foot and carefully placed it on the other side, going over the ominous stone.
Victor spoke up. "Two more steps and you're home."
The final steps were almost anticlimactic. Ethan reached the far door and Ethan's vision returned.
The glass barrier dissolved, reuniting them as the chamber transformed around them. The trap-filled floor became simple stone, the ominous symbols fading to nothing.
Trial Complete.
The blue screen appeared briefly before the door opened to reveal their path forward.
---
The final rest area was nothing special, they returned to the main chamber and were given places to sit and rest for a while.
They had barely settled into the comfortable seating when the blue screen appeared—larger and more elaborate than any they had seen before.
Trial analysis complete.
Overall Placement :
437th of 2,849 recorded attempts
Individual Metrics :
- Survival Rate: 100% (Rank: 1st - Tied with 358 others)
- Trial Completion Speed: 61.3 hours (Rank: 464th)
- Creative Problem Solving: 74/100 (Rank: 449th)
- Group Cohesion Index: 81/100 (Rank: 389th)
- Adaptation Under Pressure: 79/100 (Rank: 420th)
Special Achievements :
- Shadow Slayer - Defeated the Nightmare
The text paused for a moment.
Enhancement removal commencing.
They felt it immediately—a pulling sensation, as if something was being drawn out of their very essence. The additional strength, speed, and resilience that had been granted to them earlier in the Spire began to fade.
"2849," Sam finally said, his voice barely above a whisper. "In less than half a year since the wish event, nearly three thousand people have found this place."
Victor ran his hand through his hair. "That's not possible through random wandering, or even if people knew about it there shouldn't be that many people capable of completing all those trials."
"358 groups achieved perfect survival rates. That means..." Lily paused, calculating. "If most groups were our size, that's over two thousand people who made it through alive."
"Where did they go?" Ethan asked. "Why haven't we seen any of these groups?"
"The world is pretty big Ethan, it's no surprise we haven't come across them." Walter said.
AJ's form had been unusually still throughout the discussion.
"I need to tell you all something," he said. "About a dream I had back at the Titan's Spine, just before we investigated the Obsidian Sect's mine."
Sam leaned forward. "Dreams? You... you can dream?"
"I don't know what else to call it," AJ replied. "I was recreating a crystal of astralite and I fell asleep without bothering to reabsorb it. That crystal showed me a vision, maybe or a recording."
The others exchanged glances. AJ had never mentioned anything like this before.
"I was in space... and there was something there, something massive. It was a machine." His form shuddered as he recalled the details. "A forge built on a stellar scale. At its centre was a star, five titanic pylons surrounded it."
AJ's form flowed through shapes that approximated the massive construct he'd witnessed. "The machine was compressing the star, trying to crystallise it into something new, but something went wrong and the star went supernova."
His voice grew quieter. "I watched as dozens of orbs were flung into space—each one burning a different colour. What if one of them reached Earth?"
Walter's cane tapped against the floor as the implications hit him. "Concentrated stellar energy. The kind of power that could rewrite reality on a planetary scale."
"Aliens," Lily breathed. "The wish event was caused by aliens."
Sam was calmer about the revelation than the others. He paused, seeming to weigh his words. "Actually, I need to tell you something as well. Something that happened right after the wish event, when we were being sent back."
The others turned to him with renewed attention.
"I spoke to the entity responsible for the wish event," Sam continued, his voice steady despite the magnitude of what he was revealing. "It called itself Progenitor Zhi. I didn't make a wish initially, and it... rewarded my curiosity with answers."
Victor's eyebrows shot up. "You spoke to an alien? And you're just mentioning this now?"
"I wasn't sure how you guys would react at first..." Sam admitted. "It told me they were like what humanity might become if we survive long enough. That they reshape worlds out of curiosity—we're subjects in their experiments."
"But why?" Ethan asked, his straightforward nature cutting through the speculation. "What's the point of granting wishes to an entire planet? What do they get out of it?"
AJ's form rippled with unease as Sam answered. "Entertainment. The same reason we study animals in laboratories. They find us... fascinating."
The chamber fell silent again as they absorbed this revelation. The Spire, their trials, even their survival—it all took on a different meaning when viewed as part of some vast alien study.
"The Spire is recording our performance," Walter said slowly. "Measuring how we adapt, how we grow, how we maintain our humanity under pressure."
"We're like test subjects," Victor added grimly. "All of us. Every person who's entered this place."
Sam looked up from his blank notebook page, his eyes conveying a mixture of fear and fascination. "The question is: what are they trying to learn from us? And what happens when their experiment is complete?"
---
The screen flickered once more before displaying new text:
Final preparation period. You have 3 hours.
Sam looked around at the others. "I'm not sure about you guys but I feel close to some kind of milestone or limit in my cultivation."
AJ's form rippled with agreement. "The trials have pushed us to our limits repeatedly. We've been absorbing mana constantly but never had proper time to consolidate it."
Lily nodded. "I feel it too, we should definitely use this time to cultivate."
"Same here," Ethan said, flexing his fingers. The Judicator's Ring caught the light as he moved. "It's similar to that feeling of fullness we felt in the misty area."
Victor stood and moved to a clear space in the chamber. "Then let's do something about it. Maybe we can push further."
They arranged themselves in their familiar cultivation circle, the one they'd used in the mist-filled canyon what felt like a lifetime ago.
Walter closed his eyes first, feeling the energy coursing through his renewed body. "The mana feels... eager," he said quietly. "Like it wants to move, to change."
Sam began circulating his energy through his established pathways, but immediately felt resistance.
The accumulated mana was denser now, more substantial. His channels, whilst strong, weren't quite adequate for the volume he'd gathered.
"It's not flowing properly," he muttered. "Too much mana, not enough capacity."
AJ had spread himself thin across the floor, as he watched the others.
Lily felt it first—the pressure building behind her carefully maintained circulation. The mana wanted to flow faster, stronger, but her current pathways were like trying to channel a stream through a garden hose.
"Something's happening," she whispered, her voice tight with concentration.
The energy began to pulse.
Not the gentle, controlled circulation they'd practiced, but powerful waves that surged through their bodies in rhythmic beats. Each pulse pushed more mana through than their systems could comfortably handle.
Ethan gritted his teeth as the first wave hit. The ring on his finger helped him maintain focus.
Walter's weathered hands trembled as energy flooded through his body. His channels began to stretch, adapt, and accommodate the increased flow.
Where the previous breakthrough had been about forging pathways, this was about expanding them—widening the rivers of mana that flowed through their bodies.
Victor felt his circulation speed increase as his channels broadened.
Lily gasped as another wave crested and began to recede. Her pathways felt different now—broader, smoother, more efficient.
The final pulse came like a gentle tide, washing through them and leaving behind a sense of completion. The accumulated mana settled into their expanded systems with perfect harmony.
Ethan opened his eyes first, looking down at his hands with wonder. "I can feel the difference. It's like... like I've been breathing through a straw and now I can take full breaths."
Sam nodded, feeling the improvement in his mana circulation. "We can hold more, process it faster, and use it more efficiently." He paused for a beat. "I guess this puts us firmly in the Earth Realm."