Devas and System seemed to follow a similar style of grading.
So, level 6 1/6 in Varian’s status was equivalent to the first stage. But there were only 6 locks.
On the other hand, the golden room had 10 stages!
While it seemed paradoxical, it actually wasn’t.
“Prove your worth!”
A voice sounded in Varian’s mind and a large creature appeared in front of him.
It was similar to a horse, but its entire body was covered by white fur, and it had a scorpion tail.
“…”
Varian cursed the aesthetics of devas and teleported.
Kaa!
The place he was standing in was occupied by the horse beast.
‘Space Path.’ Varian narrowed his eyes and raised his hand.
Zap! Zap!
A spear of lightning condensed in his hand.
“Roar!” The horse beast’s body wriggled and its tail tripled in size, almost as tall as a person now.
“…Morpher Path?” Varian narrowed his eyes and the beast’s actions confirmed his suspicions.
Bubbling green liquid shot into the air and reached Varian.
As he tried to teleport away, the space around him tightened and started breaking down.
Varian covered his fist with lightning and punched out while using telekinetic force to strengthen his punch.
The space binding broke easily and he teleported away.
Ssss!
The liquid splashed on the floor and the floor started to melt. Moreover, a strange smell began to spread in the room.
‘Poison!’ Varian held his breath and carefully observed the floor.
Even though it could withstand 6/6 level 6 attacks, it was useless in front of his venom.
However, the venom by itself wasn’t that dangerous.
But when combined with the beast’s ability to bind him in place, it was terrifying.
“I see!” Varian understood why this beast was the opponent for the seventh stage.
This thing would kill even most peak level 6s. Varian was able to escape easily thanks to his space path that messed with the beast’s space interference and his combination of other path powers.
“Prove your worth!”
The voice sounded again, this time, with more solemnity.
‘Is it talking about the prize?’ Varian drew his foot back and clenched his fist.
The space around his fist solidified and it was then covered by a lightning gauntlet.
“Haa!”
Varian kicked the ground and his body shot forward.
“Roar!” The horse beast roared and the space around it fluctuated.
It was about to teleport.
“Stay.”
Varian said and locked down the space around the beast.
His interference caused a delay, but the beast easily broke through his space block.
If it went on like this, Varian would be too late.
He could teleport there, but by the time he did, the beast would’ve already gone.
In very short distances, his speed was faster than teleportation. He was at such a distance.
‘That’s why…’
Varian’s body in mid-air suddenly accelerated as if he was pushed by someone.
And he was—by his own telekinetic power.
Boom! Boom!
Air blasted and shockwaves spread out as Varian reached the beast just before it could teleport.
Kacha!
His fist connected with the beast and it disappeared.
Boom!
As the beast disappeared, Varian directly crashed to the ground, and broke apart the tough alloy tiles.
Thankfully, he blocked space around him and used telekinetic power to slow down at the last moment or he’d have received significant injuries.
Shuaa!
Varian bent abruptly and a lump of green acidic venom passed right where his head previously was.
Ssss! Sss!
‘If it really hit, I’d be dead.’ Varian looked at the melting metals on the floor and thought.
Then, he turned around and saw the beast.
Half of its body was gone and the other half was on the verge of collapse.
Even though it was a beast Morpher, it was as good as a mind awakener in terms of physical defense.
“Tch.”
Varian’s figure blurred and he appeared in front of it in the blink of an eye.
The creature tried to resist but was killed by a single punch.
Thud!
As it collapsed onto the ground, a bright light flashed.
The corpse turned into specks of light and the damage to the room was restored.
Whoosh!
A ball of light shot out from the corpse and entered Varian’s body. Unlike the previous golden orbs, this one was a red orb.
Varian sensed it and smiled.
The aura in it was fundamentally on a higher level compared to the golden orbs.
He also looked at his golden orb stock. Except for the first one, he didn’t absorb any.
So, he currently had one red orb and twenty golden orbs.
‘Absorb’.
Varian closed his eyes and unleashed the aura in all the orbs.
The aura was massive and active as it entered his own aura. But like a river joining an ocean, it assimilated without a hitch.
Varian felt his divine paths progress. As if the wall blocking them was slowly breaking.
Ten minutes passed and Varian opened his eyes.
“Haa!”
‘Status’
[Body Path Level 6: 3/6 (+1)
Space Path Level 6: 4/6 (+1)
Lightning Path Level 6: 3/6 (+1)
Morpher Path Level 6: 3/6 (+1)
Telepath Path Level 6: 3/6 (+1)
Telekinetic Path Level 6: 2/6 (+1)
Water Path Level 5: 2000/2000 (+1950)]
There was a huge improvement in all paths.
The twenty golden orbs roughly equaled half of the red orb’s effect.
‘Other than the unconquered tenth stage, there is an eighth and ninth stage. That should give me five more red orbs.’
Varian furrowed his brows and thought.
Five red orbs were enough to reach 6/6. But for advancing to level 7?
‘I should reach level 7 here no matter what.’
He knew of many places that he could explore and have an edge on. But all of them needed him to be at least level 7.
In a way, this golden room was an oddity.
Firstly, any person could only challenge it only once in their lifetime.
Their age, level, and paths didn’t matter.
The results depended not on absolute strength but on their relative strength visa vis their level.
It was as if…
{You have the potential of a general. Do you wish to continue the trial and challenge higher potential?}
The ethereal voice sounded in his mind again and Varian sighed.
Golden room…used to be a place to determine potential deva leaders.