After around an hour, the liquid vanished. Gravis quickly cleaned off the remaining moisture from his body and the room with his lightning. "Well, seems like this trial is done too. I guess it's time for waiting again," he said while cracking his neck.
The stele in the middle of the room vanished, but the door didn't open. "Waiting it is then," Gravis said. "The beginning of the Heaven's Trial was rather exciting, but everything since then was just a bother or boring. I would have expected more out of you, Heaven."
No answer came.
After that, Gravis summoned the body tempering pills that he had gotten from Manuel earlier and started consuming them. After eating all of them, his body reached 33% of the Self Stage's requirements. After that, it was back to training. Just like with the last trial, Gravis spent his time trying to control the output of lightning with the will-sphere, dodging lightning bolts from the Growth, and fine-tuning his control over his strength.
Like this, eight months passed.
CRRRR!
The door opened, and Gravis opened his eyes. "Finally," Gravis said in exasperation. "Honestly, are you trying to bore me to death, Heaven?" Gravis asked. "I already spent over a full fucking year in this Heaven's Trial, and what happened during that time? I fought a guy. That's all."
Gravis stepped through the door, which quickly closed behind him. 'I'm about 93% of the way to the Tree Stage. In total, reaching the Tree Stage would have taken around 15 months. Reaching the Self Stage would probably also take around 20 months or so. At that point, I could reach the Unity Realm whenever I want. So, I would barely be 22 when I return to my homeworld. Six years, huh?'
After a while, Gravis reached another small hall. Like before, his group was already waiting for him. Joyce jumped forward and hugged Gravis. "You're still alive! Thank goodness," she said. "Thank you so much again for your training. Without it, I wouldn't be alive anymore."
Gravis was a little taken aback by the sudden hug, but he quickly pushed her gently away. "As I said, it's nothing. Don't mention it."
Joyce pouted a little when Gravis pushed her away, but she didn't really care. Her pouting was more playful than angry. Now, Gravis finally had time to inspect the group. Joyce's Will-Aura had become more powerful, and she was already in the process of concentrating it. She probably could only compress it to about 97% or something, but it was a start.
When Gravis saw Manuel, he smirked. Manuel had also managed to condense a Unity Will. He was an Ascender's Talent, and he had already been close to condensing one before. Together with two trials that had been perfectly tailored to him, condensing a Unity Will wasn't anything special to him.
Claude, the lightning disciple, had a fully condensed Will-Aura now. Only a little more tempering, and he would also condense a Unity Will. The darkness disciple was still a bit off from a fully condensed Will-Aura, but his Will-Aura was powerful enough to reach the Sapling Stage.
Of the group of four, two would already be able to reach the Self Stage, while one would be able to reach the Tree Stage. This was very impressive for a group. Apparently, Heaven really treated the group kindly. Those three would probably become the most powerful group of ascenders that this world had ever produced.
"So, what was your trial?" Gravis asked.
Manuel wanted to speak up, but he was interrupted by Joyce. "It's totally like you said," Joyce said with a chirpy tone. "The second trial was way more difficult than the first one, but not impossible. We had to fight a lot of cultivators."
Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "Cultivators?" he asked.
"Oh, no," Joyce said like she remembered something. "They were not real people directly. They were more like puppets. We had to fight one-on-one against each puppet and then again in teams in every possible configuration multiple times. All the puppets had different fighting styles and elements. To top it all off, they were really good at fighting. We also felt them becoming more powerful as the trial continued."
Gravis rubbed his chin. "So, Heaven gave you a lot of different opponents with different strengths. When you became more powerful, the enemies also became more powerful. I think it's impossible to find any better tempering in this world," Gravis said.
Gravis also saw a connection to his practical exams in his homeworld again. Those beasts had also had different strengths and weaknesses, but there was still a significant difference between the two types of tempering. The difference between the trial and the practical exams was the enemy.
It wasn't the fact that one featured puppets mimicking humans and the other featured beasts, but that the puppets were just that, puppets. They lacked the originality, will, drive, and emotion of a living thing. They were great at the beginning, but Gravis was sure that he would find common weaknesses across all puppets after some time. After a prolonged exposure to that, the cultivators might get used to these weaknesses.
So, all in all, the tempering he had received in his homeworld had been even better than this. The more tempering Gravis went through, the more he realized how lucky he had been to be born with such a background. Saying that he had achieved everything by himself would be a lie.
Yes, Gravis had achieved nearly everything by himself as soon as he reached this lower world, but without the preparations beforehand, he wouldn't have been able to achieve such power. 'Background is also a kind of strength. It can give you the best possible start,' Gravis thought.
Poke!
Gravis regained his focus as someone poked his forehead. "Hey, you're spacing out again!" Joyce said. "Is something wrong with you?" she asked.
Gravis shook his head. "Sorry, no. I was just lost in thought," Gravis said with a bit of embarrassment.
Joyce put her hands on her hip and then sighed helplessly. "You've been doing this ever since I met you again in the Core-Continent. Are you really sure that everything's alright with you?"
Gravis rolled his eyes. "Yes. I am just lost in thought sometimes."
The group watched all this happen with amused grins. This was just how Joyce was. She always said what was on her mind. Some people might find that attitude rude and invasive, but they thought it was charming.
"Well, it can't be helped if you're just slow in the head," Joyce said with a smile.
Gravis furrowed his brows. "I'm not-"
"Yes, yes," Joyce interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand. "So, how was your second trial?"
Gravis wanted to say that he wasn't slow in the head, but then he saw her smirk. Then, Gravis sighed and also smirked. 'Okay, she got me. It's not easy to rile up my emotions.'
Then, Gravis started speaking of his trial, and immediately, the whole mood in the hall changed. It changed from relief and lighthearted amusement to anger, frustration, and disgust.
BANG!
Joyce punched a wall in anger. "How dare this-"
WHOOM!
"JOYCE!" Gravis shouted threateningly while activating his Will-Aura. He was using just enough of his Will-Aura to stop them from moving. "Be careful what you say! You don't have my background! If you insult Heaven, you will die! You are not powerful enough to resist it."
The group had stopped breathing for some time while Gravis was talking to them. After waiting for some more seconds, Gravis deactivated his Will-Aura, and everyone took deep breaths. "Sorry, but I don't want you to throw your lives away like this," Gravis said.
Heaven might not be allowed to strike them down directly under the watch of the highest Heaven, but it could still steal all the Karmic Luck of a cultivator. Something like this would doom a cultivator.
Joyce breathed hectically and was red in the face from anger. Yet, her eyes not only showed rage but also fear. Due to her emotions, she had nearly committed involuntary suicide. What had she thought when she had shouted these words? Her rage had nearly cost her her life!
"Thank you," Joyce said silently after a while.
Gravis nodded. "That is why I suppress my emotions," Gravis said. "Emotions can make you do illogical things. When blinded by rage, you will make mistakes. Remember this experience."
Joyce sighed again. "You're right, but I just got so mad when I heard what happened to you. How can Heaven do such a thing?" she said as she got riled up again. At least, she had herself under control now.
"Because it has power," Gravis said. "That's the only truth. It can do whatever it wants, as long as there isn't something more powerful interfering. Theoretically, Heaven could create a whole world where everyone feels unbearable pain as long as they are alive, and as long as something more powerful doesn't intervene, there's nothing anyone can do."
"But that's wrong!" Joyce said.
"Yes, it is," Gravis said, "but it happens either way. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. It will just happen."
Joyce shook a little in frustration. After some seconds, she averted her gaze. "This thought is just too cold and depressing. I don't want something like this to be real."
Gravis sighed. "I'm also not a fan of that, but it's reality. You can only change reality if you are powerful enough, but as long as you're not that powerful, you have to live with it. Only with power can you change anything you want."
The rest of the group had kept themselves out of the conversation, but the last couple of statements from Gravis also resonated with them. A lot of elders had told them the same thing, but it was different when something actually happened that proved this. Gravis' second trial was proof enough. This changed a logical argument into reality.
The group remained silent for a couple of seconds as they thought about the current situation.