After a while, Aren finally gathered some energy. He opened his eyes, his head throbbed a lot.

"Ouch, that was really something," he muttered under his breath, pulling up the system screen again. He was so busy with the special rewards for several level ups, so now he wanted to check the others.

He had the rewards for killing a divine being. That was what he wanted to check out now.

[Dagger of Jotnar: Soul Weapon.]

When he read the name, his interest immediately piqued.

[Dagger of Jotnar: Unleashes destruction in every attack, the soul within craves chaos]

That was all the description. It gave nothing extra, just that it unleashed chaos. There was no special skill, no cooldown, nothing of that sort.

Curious, Aren summoned the blade, and it appeared on his palm.

It was a beautiful, one-edged curved dagger, with a foot-long black blade, a black handle, and golden accents. Runes were engraved in it with a golden design.

He gripped the dagger. It fit right into his palm.

"This is pretty good," Aren said, standing up. He allowed his soul energy to flow into it, and the runes immediately lit up, and instantly something rushed from the blade into his arm and then to his eyes.

Instantly, he saw everything in black and gold rather than normal colors. Everything was black, and there were some golden lines of energy and points floating around.

Instinctively, he felt like slashing right at the golden points, and he did. The moment he did, an explosive force rushed out of the dagger and slammed right into the point.

BOOM

RIP

There was an explosion first that shook the air and his side of the castle, before a rip followed and there was a massive tear in the sky, with a void of chaos behind it.

Instantly, it started pulling things from the ground right into the void, destroying them on impact.

"Oh shit, oh shit," Aren cursed as he saw what was happening. He looked at the dagger and then the rip in the sky again.

"I'm guessing this is your fault," the butler spoke.

Aren turned to his side and saw the butler standing right there. When he appeared, Aren didn't even know.

"I didn't plan to, it just kind of happened," Aren said.

"Not to worry, I'll deal with it," the butler said, then looked at the rip. He rubbed his chin for a few seconds as if thinking, then climbed onto the balcony edge. He spread out his hands, and a magical circle formed under the rip, shining with a silver light.

The circle started spinning as silver chains shot out of it and latched onto the edges of the rip, forcing it back together until the sky sealed itself and everything was back to normal.

The butler dropped his hands and the circle vanished. He jumped down from the edge and looked at Aren.

"You are pretty lucky I had something to deal with the issue," the butler said.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Aren said, scratching the back of his head with a nervous chuckle.

"It's nothing to worry about," he said as his eyes moved to the dagger. "That's an interesting soul weapon, a very high tier to add," he said.

"What? Soul weapons have tiers?" Aren asked.

"Of course they do. Everything has a tier or ranking system. Not all soul weapons are the same," he stated, then walked to the chair that Aren had there and sat down.

"The ranking system is pretty delicate, as soul weapons grow and are not fixed, especially when they have finally awakened.

It takes some special hidden requirement for a soul weapon to activate, and only then do they get a true ranking.

But as for this dagger in your hand, if the soul within awakens, it's only going to be very high level," the butler said.

"Can you tell me what the levels are?" Aren asked.

"Well, they are," he was speaking, and then he paused, like he was hearing something. Then he looked at Aren.

"Lady Elton is back, and she wants you to come as well," he said and got to his feet.

"Hmmm? Alright."

The butler stepped forward and placed a hand on Aren's shoulder.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

Aren nodded.

In an instant, they vanished from the balcony and reappeared inside Elton's throne room.

Elton sat calmly on her throne. Standing within the room were about ten individuals. At first glance, Aren could tell they were awakened, four girls and six men. Among them was someone he recognized immediately.

Athena.

Seeing her there, Aren frowned slightly, wondering what was going on.

The butler walked forward and bowed deeply. "I have brought him, as you instructed."

Elton nodded, her gaze resting on Aren for a few seconds before she looked away.

Aren moved closer to Athena, intending to ask why she was there, but before he could speak, Elton's voice echoed through the hall.

"All ten of you present here are special exceptions of the second trial," she said. "For one reason or another, you can no longer compete in it. Each of you has been removed and has effectively ended your own trial."

She paused, letting her words sink in.

"That said, based on the order in which you were removed, that position will determine your standing once the overall trial ends. In other words, the first ten positions for leaving the trial will be occupied by the ten of you."

She rose from her throne.

"You will be granted maze points in equal proportion, allowing you to meet with the remaining participants and claim your rewards."

She turned away.

"That is all."

Before anyone could respond, Elton vanished from the throne room.

Immediately she was gone, Aren walked to Athena.

"Athena, what happened? What are you doing here?" he asked.

Athena turned her head, and when she saw Aren, her eyes lit up for a moment, but then went dark after. She bowed her head again, looking at the ground.

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