Magnus came closer, his face was completely neutral...

Raising his hands, he dropped them on both Sera and Elira’s shoulders.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!"

The group stared anxiously at his roaring laughter.

Honestly, it’s been a damn long time since my blood pumped this much! What a fun workout!"

He leaned forward, tilting his head as he locked eyes with Lucian. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Don’t think I didn’t notice the black-haired kid swiping my badge! Gutsy move! So, I can proudly say you have all proved your mettle! And you are completely worthy of heading to the next floor! You have my permission! You lot are... Team R, right?!"

A few seconds passed. Everyone just stared at him in silence.

"What? Why are you all looking at me like that?" he boomed, staring right back without a hint of shame.

"Umm... sir, if you already knew... you could’ve just let us go from the start," Kaelen asked nervously.

"Gahaha, you’re right... though I really like your guts! So how about it? Why don’t you all become my direct pupils?!"

He totally dodged Kaelen’s question.

With cynical expressions, the entire group immediately turned around and started walking toward the exit.

"Hey, hold on! You are breaking an old man’s heart here, you know that..." Magnus called out from behind.

Sera turns around with a deadpan face and says,

"We barely managed to break your armor even after using our full strength... So your heart definitely isn’t breaking that easily, we know that much."

Elira silently nodded along to her words too...

No one stopped. They just kept walking.

"Alright, alright, see ya! Clear the third floor, but definitely think about my offer!"

Only Kaelen turned back to give a polite wave. But right at that moment, he remembered something super important.

"HEY GUYS! Where is Zeri?!"

Everyone turned around. Their eyes shifted slightly past Magnus, landing on Zeri, who was already fast asleep... again.

A collective deadpan expression washed over the group.

"Kaelen, do the work," Lyria ordered flatly.

With a completely lifeless expression, Kaelen opened a portal right beside him and shoved his staff inside. A second portal popped open right next to Zeri’s head, the tip of the staff poking out.

BZZZZT!

"GAAAH!"

It didn’t even take two seconds. Zeri jerked awake, instantly realized what was happening, and stepped through the portal to rejoin them.

"Yaaawwwnnn... Kaelen, why did you do that again?"

No one said a word. They just turned and headed for the third-floor stairs.

"Hey! Don’t leave me behind! I already knew about the whole badge thing, that’s why I took a nap!" Zeri yelled, hurrying after them.

Nobody bought it. They just kept walking.

Further down the hall, Sera was still marching with an annoyed scowl. Lost in thought, she accidentally muttered out loud. "Ugh... Honestly, what is wrong with that guy?"

"He’s hot-headed. Just like you," Elira replied flatly.

"H-hey, you little..." Sera sputtered, instantly triggered.

Their bickering faded out along with their footsteps as they pushed through the gate and descended the stairs to the third floor.

As they walked, Lucian’s thoughts drifted. The realization hit him hard.

Magnus... so that’s the true strength of a True Stage. If he hadn’t let his guard down from the start, we would’ve never had the advantage to beat him. Even with a combined combat power of over 150k, we barely pulled off a win.

He clenched his fists. Now I get it. Raw strength means nothing if you don’t have the experience to use it properly. We need a lot more combat experience to get stronger.

I have to get stronger. And I have to drag these girls up with me. It’s the only way I can dodge the massive ’Fate Correction’ events coming our way.

"Lucian?"

He was still deep in thought.

"Lucian," Lyria called out again.

"Huh?" He snapped back to reality.

"Are you okay?"

"Hmm. I’m fine."

He looked ahead toward the source of the light. "Let’s finish this floor together."

Lyria just offered a serene smile.

A little while later, following the direction of the light, the whole group reaches the other side... and the next they saw what was next in front of them, everyone’s eyes dynamically started roaming around the entire area in pure amazement...

It was a massive white cube. The ceiling stretched almost two hundred feet high, and the room spanned a distance of nearly five hundred meters.

White walls, white ceiling, white floor—everything was stark white. In the dead center hung a massive screen displaying a countdown, with large text flashing beneath it.

Lucian narrowed his eyes as soon as he saw that it wasn’t just his team alone there... There were already twelve more students present — Zenith’s team and Eryx’s team...

The condition of all those students was pretty similar to theirs too, everyone had bruises and scratches on them.

In the center of that cube’s wall, at a slight height, a big timer clock was being displayed...

[Test timer will begin in 14:57... 14:56... 14:55]

[Work together to kill the Boss Monster that will be summoned when the timer ends.]

[You all have already passed.]

[This test is strictly for your experience.]

Lucian frowned. What’s the point of having us fight... damn those geezers, are they betting on us or something?

"Hey guys, I think we should sleep for a while..." Zeri mumbled, immediately curling up on the stark white floor and passing out.

Kaelen also puts his staff down and sits on the floor, leaning against the wall... taking a little rest, he opens a portal and brings out some water bottles and steamed buns...

"Umm... guys, I think we should eat something..."

"Ohoho!" Sera immediately pounced on the food. "Kaelen, you are the best!"

"Heh... it’s okay, you can eat however much you want, I can get more..." he said with a smile.

Elira quietly shuffled over, sitting down next to them.

"Please do not mind me then..."

"HEY! Don’t hog all of them at once!" Sera barked while putting two already on mouth.

"Sera, how could you forget how hard I worked to save your ass from Magnus!"

now she had already stuffed 3 more buns into her mouth. Whatever she was trying to say, only pure gibberish was coming out...

"Mmahmm... ymhh... tmhhh..."

Lyria chuckles at their banter and Lucian just smiles...

Both of them sit down as well and enjoy the steamed buns...

After eating for a while, Lucian notices that from across the cube, two glaring eyes were constantly staring right at him... Without even turning, Lucian knew it was none other than his brother, Adrian. For whatever reason, he had just been staring at him this whole time...

Lyria feels this tension too and finally brings up the question...

"Lucian... your brother has been looking at you in such a ’sweet’ way for a while now. Looks like you two share quite a lot of memories from the past..."

Lucian had barely swallowed his bite when...

Pfttt—!