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The village began to be enveloped in a faint golden light. The village then saw a massive change as the ground began to sprout crops that used to have trouble growing. People lying on the streets were slowly feeling rejuvenated. The sick children and elderly in the village began to feel a surge of strength. While the village was going through a joyous occasion, Alex was not. His body was becoming more and more attuned to the Purgatory Fire. This process was accompanied by a sudden burst of pain. Alex couldn't even move his body, nor his mouth. The pain, and then the constant ringing of system messages, was slowly breaking his mind.

[ You've been exposed to the flames of Purgatory! ]

[ You've been exposed to the flames of Purgatory! ]

[ You've been exposed to the flames of Purgatory! ]

…

...

[ You've been exposed to the flames of Purgatory! ]

Alex didn't believe he was going to be able to fully complete this trial, when through a twist of fate, the pain subsided.

[ You have overcome Purgatory's second trial ]

Alex had overcome the second trial by luck, and he had no plans on challenging the next one anytime soon. There were 14 trials in total, corresponding to the 7 sins and 7 virtues. The trials could be completed in any order; however, the first trial was always the same. The reason for that was because you are exposed to Purgatory Fire when you first arrive. The first trial tests your purity. It tests whether your soul's purity and cleanses any impurities you might have. The second test Alex had just completed was the virtue of charity. While he didn't know which trial he would challenge next, he didn't believe he would be able to make it.

Alex looked around him and noticed the villagers were staring at him. He was confused; however, the next moment he heard cheers. The villagers were cheering for an unknown reason to Alex. He understood more when he heard some of their shouts.

"He challenged a trial and came out on top!"

"Wooo! A great challenger has appeared!"

"He must be an outsider, well an outsider with some guts!"

"Hahahah! That's how you youngins should be!"

Alex had a few guesses about everything. Of course, he wasn't going to fully trust these guesses until he had received some kind of confirmation. While Alex was watching his surroundings warily, an old man walked up to him. The old man had an expression of gratitude and said,

"Thank you, young man, for your help. I'm the village head, and I wanted to ask if you wanted any kind of reward?"

"That's alright, no reward is needed. Although if you could give me some basic information, that would be very much appreciated."

"Haha! Alright, follow me and I'll explain anything you're curious about."

The old man led him to his house. The house was a simple wooden building; however, Alex was not naive enough to be tricked by this. Moreover, his instincts were telling him this house had more than meets the eye. The inside was simple with wooden furniture. When Alex went inside, he saw a waiting room with couches, tables, and a collection of books. Alex followed the old man's lead and sat down on one of the couches. The old man then explained the basic structure of Purgatory.

He explained that Purgatory was divided into multiple areas. In each of these areas, there were powers. The area he was currently in was called the Outermost East, and was ruled by a single power. It was ruled by the Challengers. Of course, Alex knew that the Challengers were, in fact, a guild of players, although these players were from a different dimension than him. Although Alex had gathered a lot of information concerning Purgatory, this information didn't include anything about ruling powers. He also learned the Challengers were very proactive in completing trials. Their leader had even completed 8 trials. The reason no one had completed all of them was that not everyone knew the conditions for each trial. Although to get what he wanted, he would need to complete all 14 trials, and even worse, this place didn't have time dilation. This meant he was losing the advantage of having future knowledge. Of course, he had already formulated a plan to counter this. He was going to set an anchor point in Purgatory and travel between the two dimensions when significant events happened. That meant he would need to find a base of operations in a week, as you can't change an anchor point once they're set. Well, you couldn't normally, however, it's extremely expensive. Although Alex didn't know the stone had the anchor function, he had seen the function before. A guild had paid a Grandmaster Engraver to change their anchor location. The total amount was unknown; however, through analysis, it was determined to be around 350 million gold coins. Of course, Alex had nowhere near that amount of money. Hell, he had never even seen that much gold coins!

Of course, Alex felt that instead of paying to do it, he could do something different. He either wanted to try to become a Grandmaster Engraver or have one in his guild. Although it might take a while to complete this goal. That's when he remembered and realized where he had activated the dimensional stone. He started to become depressed thinking about where he had used the dimensional stone and in turn set his anchor point. He thought to himself bitterly,

"I guess I know where to make our headquarters in the Scholar Empire."

Alex had finished talking with the village head and was beginning to leave the village. He had already looked through the maps in his head and found a good place to set his anchor point. Of course, the place wasn't even in this area and was instead in the Outer East. The place was near a city and was home to various products that would sell well. Although he wanted to have more people in Purgatory, he was unable to do it. He needed to get to his destination in a week. The reason for this was because of a major event happening in the main dimension.

The event was the Dimension Auction that would be happening for the first time!

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A/N

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter! Have a good rest of your day or night!