Death... and me

Erfalis continued, "As you know, we use our Soul Power mostly to support our techniques that use Divine Energy. It makes Divine Energy easier to control and makes it more effective since Soul Power is directly connected to our soul. This next test will check exactly this. Come with me."

Erfalin then brought everyone to another side of the testing room. There, everyone could see a big formation with a black and blue orb inside it. However, the orb was not attached to the formation. Surprisingly, it could be moved around.

"This test is very simple. The orb inside the formation can be manipulated with Divine Energy. However, the formation beneath it will try to block your flow of Divine Energy into the orb. To protect against the formation's power, you will have to 'mix' your Soul Power with Divine Energy. That way, the formation will find it more difficult to intervene in your manipulation," Erfalis explained the mechanics. "Simply put, the higher your synergy between your Soul Power and Divine Energy, the easier it will become to control the orb."

"However, what you need to do with the orb is the key of this test." Erfalis then activated the formation. Soon after, many rings began to float around the formation, seemingly having some kind of barrier that prevented anything from passing through them. "Your objective is to make the orb pass through those rings."

Everyone could already imagine what the barrier inside the rings meant. Nevertheless, Erfalis explained, "As you probably expect, the barriers inside the ring can only be overcome when the orb is filled with both Divine Energy and Soul Power. The more perfect the synergy between these two energies, the easier it is to make your orb go through them."

"Last but not least, the score is determined by how many rings you can pass through. As you can see, the rings are flying at different altitudes and speeds. We have a total of 100 rings that are worth 100 points each! Yes, that means everyone still has a chance of winning this challenge if their synergy is high enough."

Of course, no one was idiotic enough to think that they would be able to pass through all rings. Even if there were 10000 points up for grabs, would they really be that easy to take? Not a chance! Otherwise, what would be the point of this test? Sure enough, the reason for that appeared after that.

Erfalis smiled before concluding, "Now then. You will only have one minute to go through this trial! No more, no less. Once time is up, we will calculate the number of rings you cleared and add it to your final score."

Everyone immediately understood. One minute meant that you had to go through each ring in less than a second. Naturally, they made it impossible to reach all 100 of them. Even Rean knew that he wouldn't be able to achieve such a perfect score. 'Well, if it wasn't like that, it wouldn't be fun. I wonder how many I can pass through.'

"Oh, right! Before I forget, you must stay in the center of the formation at all times. Anyone who takes as much as a single step outside will be immediately disqualified," Erfalis added. "Also, anyone who tries to intervene in the test will be pulled out of the assembly altogether. Not to mention it would be useless since we will allow the candidate that was disturbed to try it again from the start."

Erfalis then took the list of participants before calling the first one. "Lafei Susunari, come forward."

Lafei came out of the crowd and stepped into the center of the formation.

"Ready...start!"

Lafei immediately used his Divine Energy and Soul Power to grab the orb. Obviously, the formation below him tried to disrupt his flow of Divine Energy, which he had to cover up with Soul Power. Only then did Lafei understand how hard it was as he took almost ten seconds just to succeed in levitating the orb.

Eventually, he got a hold of it and sent it through the first ring...just for it to block the passage of his orb. Everyone understood that Lafei's synergy of both energies was too lacking for this test. It wasn't before twenty seconds had passed that Lafei finally passed through the first ring.

The next ring was obviously somewhere else, moving at a different speed.  Lafei controlled the orb while trying to maintain the balance to pass through it. As one could expect, the distance and speed difference made Lafei's life even more difficult. Nevertheless, the test continued.

"Time is up!"

As soon as Erfalis's voice echoed throughout the room, Lafei's orb returned by itself to the center of the formation. Erfalis nodded, seeing that before announcing, "Lafei Susunari, four rings. He gets four hundred extra points."

Lafei couldn't help but sigh as he came out of the formation. He knew why he was called first. Erfalis's list was basically following the ranks from bottom to top. He had the worst score among all participants, so he was the first one to try.

"Next, Frosk Yizimole, come forward." Sure enough, the second to last was called right after.

"Start!"

Frosk did quite better than Lafei, though. He got his orb to pass through six rings before his time was up.

As always, Erfalis announced. "Frosk Yizimole, six rings. He gets six hundred extra points."

"Next..."

And just like that, the competition continued. Because the last ones in the rank had both Soul Power Strength and Control issues, most of them didn't go through more than 8 rings. Of course, there were exceptions, but those didn't go much further, with the highest getting twelve rings.

Although each competitor only had a single minute in the test, one must remember that there were over 4400 of them. Naturally, this last test took a lot of time until it finally reached the higher rankings. It wasn't before the top 100 started that people decided to pay real attention to the test. It was time to determine who would take the Silver Low-level Divine Vein for themselves.