Entering the test room, Aarim narrowed her eyes.

  ’Since Shiro said that there is only a 10% chance of me succeeding, that means there is something that I need to grasp and that something is the 10% chance of success. Right now, as I am, I cannot pass this test. Knowing Shiro, that 10% is actually false. I’ll only get the 10% once I grasp onto the something I’m missing. Without it, it’ll be a 100% chance of failure.’ Aarim thought to herself as mana started to flow around her.

  ’I only have one chance. After this I’ll need to requeue but how many times can I do that until we need to leave this city? She can probably make more simulators with her nanobots but if I can do it now, I should. Plus, since Shiro told me that there is a 10% chance for me, it’s highly likely that I can achieve it in my first try. Think…… what am I lacking in terms of mana control?’


  Clenching her fists, she started to think about her main weapon as a mage and that was force magic. It was magic that allowed her to manipulate the natural forces like gravity.

  For this test, mana will be constantly trying to crush her so she must find a way to either dispel that pressure or redirect it.

  Furrowing her brows, Aarim racked her mind for an answer but nothing came up.

  If she used magnetic force, the pressure would still crush her. If she used gravitational force, it wouldn’t affect the pressure in the chamber.

  Thinking back to the moment where Shiro completed her task, Aarim tried her best to remember what her mana barrier looked like.

  ’it was like a cocoon. The barrier wrapped around her body and dispelled the pressure from all sides. How can I recreate this……’ Aarim thought to herself but time had run out.

  Suddenly, a crushing pressure descended on her body as she immediately felt like her ribs were about to break from the impact.

  Collapsing onto one knee, Aarim gritted her teeth and tried her best to stand back up but the pressure was unrelenting.

  ’What does Shiro always tell us to do?’


  Gritting her teeth, Aarim closed her eyes.

  As a mage, multitasking was a must have skill as they needed to make sure they can keep an eye on the battlefield while casting their spell. Especially for a mage like her, where she had to learn how to cast her spells without the use of the system, she needed to be focusing on two things at once.

  Thinking back to the cocoon like mana barrier once more, Aarim felt like time had stopped as a faint figure appeared in front of her and mouthed a few words.

  Remembering this sensation to be the same one where she obtained inspiration for her other spells, Aarim focused on lip reading as much of the information as she could.

  ’Combine forces. Spring and Sliding Friction force. Redirect and rebound.’


  Taking a deep breath, Aarim opened her eyes and tried her best to imagine what this will look like.

  Unfortunately for her, the pressure exceeded her barrier’s threshold and turned her to paste.

  Respawning next to Shiro, Aarim had a frustrated expression on her face.

  "Damnit, I had an idea at the end too!" She complained as Shiro laughed.

  "Care to share?"

  "So you know how I’m a force mage yeah?" Aarim asked.

  "Yep. It’s a rare class where you can control forces such as gravity." Shiro nodded with a knowing smile. Understanding what was happening next, she created an illusion and stopped their conversation from being heard from the outside.

  Seeing this smile, Aarim understood that Shiro knew how she should have attempted the Super Hard difficulty.

  "If I combined the two forces, Spring and Sliding Friction, I can allow the pressure to compress my Spring force before rotating the barrier with Sliding Friction, allowing the Spring Force’s rebound to redirect the pressure away from me. Normally, if I just use the Spring Force on it’s own, it would crush me as it is fighting against the pressure while Sliding Friction has a much lower tolerance than Spring, meaning it’ll snap quickly. Therefore, I needed to combine the two together. So that I can create a cocoon around me." Aarim explained as Shiro grinned.

  "It’s not easy, you know? If the timing is wrong, the whole thing will collapse on you. If the Sliding Friction is too slow, the Spring wouldn’t have enough leeway to rebound. If the Sliding Friction is too fast, the Spring wouldn’t have enough time to rebound the pressure. Everything needs to be timed like a well oiled machine you know?"

  "Mn, I know. But you didn’t give me a 10% chance of victory for nothing." Aarim chuckled.

  Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head with a smile.

  Controlling the digital world, she sent a private message to her.

  [Well done. I’ll make you a personal simulator later so that you can have as many chances as you want to achieve this.]

  Seeing this, Aarim nodded her head and sat down next to Shiro.

  For Silvia’s attempt at hard, there were a few cracks in her barrier but she managed to pull it off while Lyrica completed Above Average without too much difficulty.

  With everyone completing their trials, they left the digital world only to be greeted by a crowd who were starting at Shiro intensely.

  "What? You like what you see?" Shiro asked with a grin and flipped her hair.

  This caused a few people to look away but a lot of them still focused on her.

  "How did you complete the Hero Tier? Is there a trick to it?" A voice called out.

  Looking towards the source, Shiro saw that it was the ’genius’ who barely completed Super Easy.

  "Have you not seen the tutorial video? Just improve your mana control." Shiro replied nonchalantly while glancing towards her nails.

  Seeing her dismissal, the man couldn’t help but feel like a vein is about to burst.

  "Now if you don’t mind me, my other friends need to complete their trial too."

  Just as she was about to walk past the crowd, the man stuck out his arm and blocked her path.

  "I don’t see how a level 200+ like you can complete Hero Tier. Did you cheat?" He glared at her as Shiro only rolled her eyes.

  "The trials focus on technique and not level dipsh*t. Why don’t you go back to elementary school and relearn your mana control." Shiro rolled her eyes before using mana to push his arm away.

  Gritting his teeth, he was about to lash out towards her when swords surrounded his body.

  Lyrica, Lisandra and Chen Yu surrounded the man as Athera backed off slightly.

  If one was to think that they’re protecting Shiro, they’re wrong. The three of them were doing this so that Shiro wouldn’t kill this man. After all, it would be troublesome if she did.

  Seeing this, Shiro’s smile twitched slightly but she continued back to the rest of the group, allowing the three of them to sigh in relief.

  "Right then. Next is Yin, Lisa, Lil’ Chen and Madi. Yin, you can probably do Normal, Lisa is Hard since I’ve taught you about mana barriers before. Lil’ Chen, stick with Super Easy for now as I haven’t had time to properly teach you yet. As for Madi, I believe you should be able to do Hard easily but the chances of you achieving Super Hard is slim. No offence." Shiro smiled.

  "None taken. I’m just happy that I’m not abnormal to the point of your standard just yet." Madison sighed.

  After all, if she could do Hero Tier, it means that she’s as abnormal as Shiro and that was the furthest thing from normality that Madison can think of. At least Super Hard was a tier beneath Shiro’s standard.

  "It isn’t that bad being me you know?" Shiro pouted.

  "I’d rather not live everything feeling like I’m about to have a heart attack around every corner." Madison retorted as Shiro had nothing to say back.

  After all, she wasn’t wrong. Normal people would have long died if they had to go through what she had experienced.

  Most of them were able to complete their trial with Chen Yu completing Super Easy without a problem which surprised Shiro a little. However, after looking at his barrier, she could tell that he would definitely fail Below Average. After all, he was an assassin who avoided most of the hits rather than tank them head on.

  Helion was the same and completed Super Easy without any problems but would struggle with anything harder.

  With everyone completing the test, Shiro had a general idea on how well they could control their mana and how she could improve their training.

  In addition to this, their actions seemed to have spurred the adventurers on as they focused their best on completing the trials.

  Leaving the buildings, Shiro took a deep breath.

  "We’ll stay for another day just to make sure everything is ok. After that, we’ll leave for Japan since I need to go meet my parents after such a long time away from home."