Gacha Sovereign

Seeing his attempt failed, Alex analyzed the reason by observing the transparent barrier.

"Hmm…It's like an array that will stop any physical things from entering. In that case, it means I am not required to face all these ceilings that will drop to me. And since I am sealing my power to only a Martial Saint, I won't be able to pass the speed of the drop.

"In that case, there is something more to this challenge. The problem is what kind of thing I need to send to hit that red button." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Since physical won't work, I guess Spiritual Energy or something?"

When Alex thought about this, he suddenly figured it out.

He raised his hand and waved it to the front, sending a wisp of Spiritual Energy. To his surprise, the ceiling went down again, blocking the Spiritual Energy from passing it.

"Hmm." Alex became confused again before a wild idea came into his mind. He never tried this as a standalone, but he had done it so many times in a fight. Since the first stage was to open the path using his Sword Qi, he thought it would be something like that.

Hence, he planned to send an attack toward the button but only with his Sword Qi.

"This is not strength, but speed." Alex smiled. He pulled out his sword and swung it down. Since he wouldn't be able to send them with these two alone, he infused the Spiritual Energy into the technique.

The Sword Wave flew at a slower speed than the spear, but it managed to avoid every obstacle and steadily made its way toward the red button.

However, what he got was another failure. The barrier blocked it again.

"Should I just use my Divine Strength to destroy that red button?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Well, there must be something going on that I can use to pass the stage. I just couldn't find it yet."

Suddenly, six other red buttons appeared. Some were on the ground, some were on the wall, or some even stuck on the ceiling.

Alex found this a challenge because he realized that the last attack wasn't exactly a failure. According to his Spirit Eyes, these six red buttons were connected to the main red button, so he came up with two ways to deal with this.

The first would be speed. He would hit each button one by one in succession, and the barrier might open at that time. As for the second method, it was Control. He needed to control his strength and sent six attacks at the same time.

Contemplating for a minute, he chose to do both.

"Let's try the first one. The consequence shouldn't be that harsh, right? I mean, even the last one is not that bad." Alex thought and prepared his sword.

He sent the same sword strike to hit those six red buttons in succession. He didn't do anything special, so he had no problem using it continuously.

What surprised him was the fact that the button would return to its original state when another button got hit.

This strengthened his belief in the second option.

"It seems I need to hit them at the same time." Alex smiled and took out another sword. He aimed all those six buttons and sent the Sword Waves flying.

The ceiling wasn't a problem anymore, so the Sword Waves managed to hit all six buttons at the same time. This made Alex happy and feel excited about what would happen when he succeeded.

His expectation was betrayed because nothing happened. The six buttons were indeed successfully hit by the Sword Waves and didn't return to normal, but there seemed to be no visible change like the appearance of the six buttons.

Remembering what happened earlier, he decided to wait for ten minutes to see if there was any change like earlier, but nothing still happened.

Since he couldn't see what this stage wanted him to do, he just needed to overpower it, albeit he stopped after activating his Spirit Eyes again.

The ground and ceiling might still be an obstacle, but there was no more barrier that would stop him. Because of that, Alex threw another Rank 1 Spear as hard as he got and smashed that red button.

Crank.

He felt something was breaking inside the wall and the wheel inside the wall seemed to be undone. Some sort of machinery inside started doing something, and a path finally revealed itself.

There was nothing wrong with this path, not even energy, so Alex never thought there was a path behind the wall. Next to the main red button, he could find another door that just opened.

"It seems taking this path is the way to go." Alex thought and proceeded inside the tunnel.

His Spirit Eyes remained active to see the change of this maze. Nonetheless, he had beaten two challenges already, so the progress was good.

When he arrived at the other side, he noticed another door, similar to the one he saw on the first floor. This was no doubt the gate to the third stage.

Alex now wondered whether he would become famous because of this. And if it were broadcasted to many people, he would soon get too famous for him to hide his own ability. Leaving this planet would also make those people begin investigating him.

But the time limit appeared again, signaling him to enter within five minutes. Without much choice, he opened the gate again, traveling to another dimension.

What shocked him was not the place. The look was still the same, but this time, Eve had come out of her sword.

"Eve? What are you doing?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows.

"I am sorry, Master. I don't know why but there is something calling me. And it forces me to stay in this form. It feels weird." Eve explained her action.

Alex also became confused and recalled the third riddle. "Trust your weapons…"

"Trust me?" Eve tilted her head in confusion.

"Yeah. It seems to be that way. Let's look at it from another perspective. Unlike you who have a form like this, the others only have consciousness…Wait. In that case…" Alex suddenly took out another weapon.

When he channeled his energy inside, he felt something was responding to him, asking him to move to his left.

Because of this response, Alex asked Eve. "Where is the thing calling for you?"

"It's this way." Eve pointed at his front, different from the one that the other one showed him, disappointing a bit because he didn't know what to do.

However, Eve added another explanation and pointed to his left. "But I believe this is also a maze, and we need to take this path. I believe this is the only one that will allow us to reach that place."

"!!!" Alex widened his eyes, confirming that both of them told the truth.

It seemed the energy around here was telling the real path, and since the test told him to trust his weapon, Alex instantly trusted Eve without any explanation. "Can you lead the way?"

"Yes. But are you sure this is the right way?"

"I believe so." Alex nodded.

"I understand. Let me show you the way." Eve nodded and started walking inside the maze.

Since it was a rare walk with Alex, she decided to slow down her pace and walked beside him instead of in front of him. It might be due to the favor Alex had given to her this whole time or she just got used to having stayed beside him all the time, considering she was always in his waist during the trips.

Either way, she followed the track and arrived at the first hurdle.

Alex narrowed his eyes and found many huge spikes in the area. However, there seemed to be a path between them, allowing them to move on.

To his surprise, Eve suddenly stopped and looked at one of the spikes with a confused eye.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"I don't know, but something is telling me to ask you to stab your own hand to this spike." She pointed at the middle spike out of the three spikes.

Alex didn't doubt her and immediately slammed his palm into this spike until it pierced him.

Eve's body shook as she never expected Alex would do it without hesitation. This showed how much Alex trusted her. This wasn't the level of the riddle. After all, it was normal for humans to not trust their tools that much, especially one where they would meet pain.

Yet, Alex did it.

The blood started flowing to the metal, turning it red.

"Master…It's enough. Please raise your hand." She worriedly asked him to stop.

"Is that enough?" Alex smiled.

"…" She hesitated for a few seconds until she felt another order. Only at that time, she finally nodded her head, and Alex raised his hand.

It was painful, but Alex had experienced something much more painful, so he could keep his calm to not worry Eve too much.

As soon as his hand was free, the Spiritual Energy around instantly recovered him and regenerated his body as if nothing happened. The blood was still there and activated the hidden mechanism to retract all spikes in the area.

Alex let Eve take a look at his hand and smiled. "See? I am fine."

Eve nodded with a serious expression. She continued leading Alex through the maze until they found the second obstacle.

The same as the previous obstacle. This one needed blood to be spilled.

Alex had no hesitation and injured himself.

However, the wound this time didn't regenerate like last time, leaving a hole in his palm.

"This…" Alex widened his eyes and looked around with his Spirit Eyes, trying to see whether the mechanism was still running smoothly or not. If it were not, there would be a chance for him to die in this stage.

"Master…Are you alright?" Eve started worrying about him because she felt there was something wrong with this stage.

However, Alex forced her to lead him until everything finished.

The third obstacle was a single path with armor on it. It was full body armor, except for the sleeve part. In other words, his arms would be exposed.

When he saw the holes on the wall, he figured out what would happen if he crossed this.

Even Eve became suspicious and wanted to stop him, but Alex only asked. "What is the quest?"

"It's to cross this path and have the arrows hit you." Eve clenched her fists.

Alex nodded and started walking across the path without hesitation. Once again, Alex trusted her completely.

If it were a normal person, when their weapons asked them to sacrifice their lives, they would surely throw them away.

However, it was very different for Alex. As soon as he decided to take in Eve, he considered her a family even though she was only a Sword Spirit.

He wouldn't betray the trust that easily.

Alex walked across the path, and the arrows started flying one by one while Eve waited on the same spot.

The arrows began piercing his arms, and blood started to get spilled.

He must be experiencing pain that she couldn't imagine.

Unable to see him like that, she clenched her teeth and decided not to obey the order that had been echoing in her mind.

She planned to use herself as a meat shield to protect Alex, but surprisingly, all arrows pierced through her as if going through a ghost.

In the end, she was only a Sword Spirit. Her main body was a sword, and this was just a mere astral body, so the arrows kept hitting Alex.

"Master…"

"Is this a part of the mission?" Alex asked with a soft tone, but she clearly noticed his shaking voice.

She clenched her fists and shook her head. "I just can't see Master like this…But I can't even protect you during a time like this. This must be a fraud."

"You don't need to care about that." Alex smiled. Even if he failed this one, his relationship with Eve had improved, so it wasn't a loss. This would improve their coordination as well.

Ultimately, Alex smiled at her and asked while holding her hand. "Want to cross this path together?"

Even though no arrow would hit her, Alex still asked her that question. She obviously felt something new that she never had this whole time.

'So, this is what it feels to have a master that will trust you no matter what…I am very lucky to have such a master.' She held his hand tightly and nodded.

"Let's go together then."

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