Back at the Emerald Forest's only Oasis, Soren stood in place, contemplating the nature of his current plight.
'Though all the previous tests have touched upon different aspects of my memories and cognitive brilliance, this test... this test...' He mused to himself.
"You will be given a specific set of ingredients, and at any moment, you shall be allowed to add only five more, which you must mention before using.
You must reveal the extent of your adaptability and create your treasure from within the ensuing chaos." The Dragon revealed.
With a silent nod, Soren, understanding the gravity of the trial before him, bided the Dragon to commence.
Though this isn't merely a test of focus and imagination, but also a quest to unlock the secrets of creation, and the mastery over the force of chaos.
Nevertheless, before he approached, he sought guidance.
"How should I approach this trial?"
"In this trial Soren, you can only trust in your intuition and creativity. Seek harmony in the chaos and let your instincts guide you." The Cosmic Vagrant advised.
"Remember, true mastery comes not from forcing elements together, but from understanding their inherent nature and finding the fundamental balance between them." It added.
Then with the otherworldly being's words echoing in his mind, Soren stepped forward and approached the cauldron.
With each step, he pondered the challenge before him.
'How can I merge disparate elements into the perfect synthesis?
What secrets lay hidden within the essence of creation?'
Soren arrived before the Cauldron of Primal Harmony, and a sense of exhilaration wash over him.
The Imperial Scholar within him was basically raring to reveal his prowess; but with a deep breath, he focused his mind, channeling every single one of his thoughts into the task at hand.
He gazed at the mysterious cauldron and began to observe it.
This was what he... or rather, the Imperial Scholar loved...
This trial was well centered around his strongest strength; the thirst to observe and understand the nature of any scenario he found himself.
Soren utterly scrutinized the cauldron, burning as much of its image as possible into his mind.
However, the more he focused on the cauldron, the more his mind muddled and his focus wavered, leaving him feeling like he was riding the fastest merry-go-round, while fixing his gaze on a tiny dot in the distance.
An overwhelming sense of vertigo hit him squarely, threating to send his mind into the endless cosmos, never to return.
However, in that moment, and as if responding to the threat posed to its host, the Origin Pupils suddenly came alive.
It slowed Soren's focus to a crawl, halted it, and then latched it onto the cauldron once again.
This time not only did Soren manage to etch an even more detailed image of the cauldron into his psyche; he even went as far as scrutinizing it essence and innate capabilities.
Upon witnessing the sight, the Dragon was slightly taken aback, as though shocked but confident that what was happening wasn't going to impact the difficulty of the trial.
Then as if on cue, a torrential surge of alien information began to bombard Soren's mind.
The pressure of their sheer volume threatening to drown his consciousness into the deepest of abyss.
Soren's Soul Body flickered violently and even began to slowly fade as the information flooding his mind through the Origin Pupils proved too ginormous for his mental capabilities.
He felt as though he was nothing but a puny insect trying to stop a flaming cartwheel.
Soren shuddered at the potential consequence of his carelessness, unable to do much of anything even as his very Soul Body gradually turn translucent.
"Crap, I was too careless..." Soren berated himself, lamenting his umpteenth oversight.
"The Origin Pupils is a treasure that absorbs every information within its span of perception.
While commonly known for just that, it also scrutinizes the very nature and essence of everything in its perceptive span; its potency being determined by the level of its wielder's intent and focus.
If the Cauldron of Primal Harmony had been an ordinary mortal treasure, then this little seeker's soul might have been able to withstand the load of information.
Unfortunately, it is a Quasi Origin Grade Treasure; the amount of information that can be derived from it might even kill an immortal.
But you puny humans think yourselves smart; time and time again you have failed to learn that when you bite more than you can chew, you will choke and die!" The Dragon sneered.
'To think I was already reminded that my soul was only strong enough to endure nine lifetimes worth of memories.
And now that I have yet to even digest a tiny fraction of that bulk, I just had to go and add another bulk of similar volume.
How could I repeatedly fail to estimate my limits!' Soren furiously berated himself.
He was forgetting that he was being exposed to things even a being with the total accumulation of all his past lives might still find nigh-impossible to comprehend.
He was also forgetting that a seven-year-old soul with the memories of thousands of years and multiple lifetimes was still merely a seven-year-old soul.
While one's Soul might be capable of holding so much information, it might not necessarily have the mental power to process them.
After all, having information is one thing, converting them to knowledge is another, then applying that knowledge is another can of worms on its own.
He was nothing more than a seven-year-old who had merely converted one of a billion percent of his accumulated memories into knowledge, yet already holding himself to the esteem of a sage.
The part of him that was constantly holding him to an overhyped standard, was merely the feelings and logic that came with these lifetimes of memories.
This instinct perpetually plunged him in a pervasive mood of thinking he was more than he actually really was.
~ ARRGGHHH! ~
Soren let out a scream of overwhelming frustration mixed with soul-splitting migraine.
"Hehe he... Is that defiance I smell?
Good... good. Show me what other than fear is hiding in your depths." The Dragon hummed to itself, grinning like an old pervert seeing young Gen-Z girls in micro-mini skirt.
Soren kept trying his hardest to survive his current plight, but the information was simply too vast, and his mind was already teetering on the verge of collapse, even as the fading of his soul picked up pace.
'Seems curiosity does indeed kill the cat.' He thought in resignation.
Soren had already resigned himself to his fate, but just as the seed of defeat was about to form within his mind, a pulse of violent flames suddenly erupted from his Soul World.
This pulse of flame, rippled out of the Blazing Sun where the Raging Inferno of his first trial now called home.
It raged into Soren's Soul Body, incinerated his fears and doubts, while setting his passion and curious mind ablaze.
Soren's eyes suddenly flared to life, his gaze narrowed as his nerves steeled, granting him a level of clarity that bordered on overconfident arrogance.
In this energized state, he thought more clearly, and found the source of his plight.
Firstly, he had an eidetic memory, and when one coupled that with eyes that gave complete details about the various dimensions of a thing's existence, mental overload became an obvious pitfall.
Secondly, the Origin Pupils, saw everything from all perspective all at once, and as such, it was up to him to control it, and choose the number of, or which specific perspective he wanted at each instance.
In a nutshell, it was as if he was learning every level of every area of STEM, from novice to Nobel Science as an highschooler; it was only natural that his mind would nearly collapse.
Finally, he realized that while the beasts presiding over his previous trials gave him hints into the dangers of their trials, this one didn't, and in fact, made it seem like it posed no danger whatsoever.
Soren snorted in disdain as his opinion of the serpent was abased to the barest minimum.
However, he had also learnt a hard lesson; because everyone knew right from wrong didn't mean they will always do what is right.
But most importantly, he learned that no one owed him anything.
However, Soren was yet once again undeterred, his resolve having smoldered to greater levels.
If this primal worm thought it was setting him up to fail by hoarding such an important warning from him, then it must have woken up on the wrong side of the forest.
'Think... Think Soren... What can you do to get out of this mess.
Wait... The codex...
It's a book, right?
It should be able to record all of these information...
But how do I even do that; heck, how do I even get it to respond to the situation?'
Soren bounced through various train of thoughts, asking multiple questions he had no answers to.
But the moment his thoughts mentioned the Origin Codex, the influx of information suddenly halted.
The ambient chaos rampaging through his mind stilled, becoming eerily quiet, like a horrified rat in front of a looming viper.
The Dragon smirked, thinking Soren's had finally lost all hope, anticipating the inevitable dissipation of his soul and consciousness.
"Hmph, It's only a matter of time.
Worry not, I shall take good care of the Origin Pupils and everything else you may leave behind. Haha ha-ha ha!" Its eyes gleamed with ecstatic greed.
But just before the echoes of its maniacal laughter dissipated into the forest, the cosmic canvas in the sky trembled, dimming as it began to leak as if the milky way was pouring out of the cosmos.
The energy in the ambient surrounding also began to gather in wisps, being extracted from every corner of the oasis, drifting like scent in the air, and gathering around Soren.
The more they gathered, the more they seemed to gain momentum, descending in surges that later turned into gushes, and finally a steady stream.
In little to no time, the sheer amount of Cosmic Qi that had descended could only be defined in floods.
Then they suddenly invaded Soren, through his eyes, mouth, ears and even nostrils, flooding him with so much energy that his dimming soul began to brighten up.
Winds kicked up in the area, as Soren continued to greedily absorb them all, solidifying the hue of his Soul Body which had begun to take on the color of the Cosmos above.
"What?! That's imp... that's impossible?" The Dragon exclaimed, totally stunned by the turn of events.
Meanwhile, the volume of data that had threatened to destroy Soren's mind, consciousness, and Soul Body were gradually being devoured by the Origin Codex, the source of the external commotion.
They arrived in form of glowing glyphs of some sort; and upon coming in contact it, transformed into several runic scripts that appeared on its pages, in a sorted manner.
Soren felt a sense of relief wash over his soul. It was so comforting that it nearly sent his mind into euphoria.
All the aches and fatigue he had accumulated ever since the beginning of his existence seem to dissolve into drifting ash.
He observed the Codex, watching as even his memories were recorded, leaving him with their signature intuition and instincts, and in the same vein, freeing his mind to an extent where he actually began to feel liberated.
In little to no time at all, every information within Soren's memories were accurately recorded within the Codex, and to top it off, a connection was established between it, his mind, and the Origin Pupils.
With this, everything the Origin Pupils sees from now on would be perfectly sorted and catalogued by and into the Codex itself.
His entire mental capacity was now freed up; left to do only a single thing; process thoughts.