Born In Ashes: The Enigma

Inside a completely white space that stretched endlessly to the horizon, a woman with long black hair, black eyes, and dressed in black leather armor stood with a calm look on her face.

(Evaluation of your performance in the trial is in progress...)

A notification flashed before her. Then, more and more notifications appeared one after another.

(You have killed every single monster in your trial. Your evaluation score has increased greatly.)

(You have killed four elite monsters higher than your level during the trial. Your evaluation score has increased greatly.)

(You have completed your trial in just one day. Your evaluation score has increased tremendously.)

(You have reached level 10 during your trial. Your evaluation score has increased.)

(You have completed the Nightmare-Level Trial in just one day. Your evaluation score has increased greatly.)

(Calculating...)

(Congratulations, you have received a perfect evaluation in your trial.)

(Rewards for perfect evaluation in Nightmare-Level Trial will be distributed...)

(You have re—)

(Error????)

(Traces of the ancient relic— Pocket Watch have been detected on the trialist.)

(Your reward has been changed.)

(You have received—The Heart of Darkness.)

(You have received—Artifact— The Skull Staff.)

Alicia stared at the notifications before her, a dumbfounded look on her face.

Since she had used the Nightmare-Level Token in her last life as well to enter Eonrift's Trial Ground, Alicia already knew what kind of trial she would receive and how to complete it.

As a result, she had completed her trial perfectly in just a single day.

Because she had also experienced the reward process of the Eonrift's Trial Ground in her previous life, she remained calm upon seeing her evaluation.

However, when she saw the final few notifications, her expression changed drastically, and she subconsciously reached for the pendant hanging around her neck.

'Pocket Watch... Is this notification referring to that strange watch that brought me back into the past…?' Alicia wondered and as she read the next messages, her eyes widened in shock.

Having reached a very high level in her previous life, she was well aware of just how precious the Heart of Darkness was.

Last time, she had used a slightly above-average Source Item to activate her power of Darkness.

Even then, due to her strong compatibility with the Darkness element and her high Affinity with it, she received a Supreme Class—The Witch of Darkness upon completing her class advancement ritual, despite not using any class item at the time

That alone showed how incredibly high her Affinity with Darkness was.

And now, she had just received the Heart of Darkness, which could raise that Affinity even further.

Not only that, but it could even grant her one hundred percent resistance against the Darkness element.

The shock of receiving such a reward was so great that, for a moment, Alicia even forgot about the strange circumstances she was facing.

'If I use the Heart of Darkness to activate my powers and gain 100% resistance to the Darkness element, wouldn't I be able to go to that place much sooner than I had planned…?' She thought, her eyes flashing.

For a brief moment, the tattoo of the red spider lily flower on the back of her left shoulder, hidden beneath her leather armor glowed faintly, as if responding to her thoughts.

Alicia didn't care much about the second reward, which was the artifact, and instead fell into deep thought.

She wondered what the reason could be for Eonrift to grant her the Heart of Darkness as a reward.

It was a Nightmare-Level Trial, yes, but even so, this kind of reward was so rare that it was nearly impossible to obtain even from a Hell-Level Trial.

'I should ask Darling about it. Since it's related to that strange watch, he must know something…' She thought, feeling slightly disappointed that she hadn't seen Azrael before entering Eonrift.

But it was understandable. The number of participants in the trial exceeded ten million, and they were scattered across the vast landscape.

Because she had only met Azrael much later in her previous life, she didn't even know where to start looking for him on the Solkara Planet this time.

She had searched for him everywhere, but when she failed to find him, she resolved to meet him after the trial ended.

After all, she knew he would be joining the Galaxy Academy just like her.

As Alicia was lost in thought, two items materialized in front of her: a black crystal heart and an eerie-looking wooden staff with a small skull embedded at the top.

Alicia's eyes gleamed as she saw the Heart of Darkness, and she quickly stored it inside her storage ring.

'I need to be very careful while using this… and make sure no one finds out about it,' She thought seriously, then reached out and grabbed the Skull Staff.

As soon as she did—

(You have completed your Eonrift Trial.)

(Rewards have been distributed.)

(You will no longer be able to enter the Trial Grounds of the Eonrift.)

(Sending you out of the Eonrift...)

A final series of notifications flashed before Alicia's eyes— and then she vanished from Eonrift.

*****

At the same time—

A woman with long silver hair, striking golden eyes, and slightly pointed ears like those of elves also stood in Eonrift's white void, staring at her evaluation screen after completing her trial in just one day, like Alicia.

'This trial was a lot easier than I expected…' Aurelya thought to herself.

(Calculating...)

(Congratulations, you have received a perfect evaluation in your trial.)

(Reward for perfect evaluation in Nightmare Level Trial will be distributed...)

(You have re—)

(Error????)

(Traces of the ancient relic— Pocket Watch have been detected on the trialist.)

(Your reward has been changed.)

(You have received—Source Item: Reality Pearl.)

(You have received—Artifact: The Mind Necklace.)

Similar to Alicia, Aurelya had remained calm while watching her evaluation process.

But as soon as she saw the final few notifications, her expression changed noticeably as she hadn't expected anything like this to happen.