The Second Test

There wasn't much excitement on Luis' face. He turned to Lumine and asked. "How much time has passed?"

"Around 3 minutes," Lumine replied with a smile. When she heard the mysterious voice say that Luis would despair, she was worried. But looking at him, it seems he is alright.

Luis nodded and turned his focus on listening to the mysterious voice again.

{You have stood bravely and didn't let your mind get broken. You even broke the illusion, which may even break down people with the strongest of hearts. Good work [Challenger].} The mysterious voice sounded very excited and happy with Luis' performance.

{For passing the first test, a reward is given to the [Challenger].}

Luis' eyes shone brilliance as he expectantly waited for the voice to continue. 'It should be that, right?'

As if answering to his doubts, the mysterious voice said.

{It's a skillbook called Mental Fortitude (A)}

The next moment, a green light fell from the sky, easily passing through the barrier and stopping in front of Luis. A dark green book appeared, floating in front of him.

Getting the reward he wanted, Luis excitedly touched the book and channeled his mana. The book disappeared and a green light entered his body.

Luis felt that his mind was suddenly refreshed and his heart became calmer. 'Are these the effects of this skill?'

In the second game, this Mental Fortitude skill's use was that the player had resistance towards fear status and the combat ability won't decrease even in the critical condition, with some resistance to debuffs, and mind attacks. Also, the decrease in fighting abilities due to poison, paralysis, or other debuffs was a little restrained. As per the true nature of this skill, it could never be used thoroughly.

Inside the game, it was just an auxiliary skill with some benefits. But in real life, this skill is priceless.

In a game, the player controls the character, so the character's mental condition doesn't affect the gameplay much.

But in the real-world things are different, facing those dangerous enemies with powers to bring calamities. Having a calm heart and being able to analyze that dangerous situation is very important.

Luis knew there would be many benefits to this skill that weren't mentioned in the game, which he will slowly discover. He knew this skill was indispensable for him.

Seeing that, Luis was done using the skillbook. The voice sounded again.

{Now the [Challenger] gets ready for the second test.}

Without any explanation, the voice announced. {Let's begin.}

And the next moment, Luis disappeared from the arena.

This time Lumine panicked. Although she knew this was something related to the test. But not being able to see Luis made her heart restless.

"What should I do?" She mumbled.

Alicia beside her thought of something and shouted. "Can we watch the Challengers test? Isn't it better to have an audience?"

Lumine looked at Alicia, surprised. She didn't expect her to come up with something like this. But even after waiting for some time, there was no response.

Her eyes became dull in dismay. But the next moment, a huge screen appeared in the middle of the arena.

"It's Luis."

Alicia smiled with a soft sigh, while Lumine's heart relaxed a little.

On the screen, they could see Luis taking the test. But the next moment screen shifted and the contents of the screen made them gulp in horror.

"Is that real?" Alicia mumbled with a disbelieving expression.

"I think so." Lumine nodded and, with a serious expression, uttered. "They are evil spirits."

***

Opening his eyes, Luis once again found himself in an unfamiliar place. A creepy mansion in front of him stood tall with dark surroundings and dim light.

The deserted mansion with no presence of life made his scalp tingle. Fortunately, his vision adjusted itself to the surroundings and gradually he had no trouble seeing in the dark.

'Thanks, Dad.' Luis thought gratefully. If he didn't have the [Perception] Skill things would have been troublesome.

This time he was certain it wasn't an illusion, rather he was teleported somewhere.

Luis looked around, and outside the perimeter of the mansion, there was nothing. Only darkness. He wasn't sure if it was related to the Darkness element or not. But the repelling force made him certain he can't go outside.

Shifting his focus on the creepy, dilapidated mansion in front of him, Luis made his move.

As he got closer to the mansion, he found a few dark shadowy figures moving around the mansion, curious about the unfamiliar entity that approaching them.

Soon he heard the mysterious voice speaking to him.

{The second test has begun. Purify all the evil spirits and source behind that evil energy.}

Normally in the game, the protagonist had Holy Magic with him. Because of that, he wasn't affected by the evil spirits and easily cleared the test by purifying them.

But Luis doesn't have Holy Magic in his arsenal. Furthermore, the requirement for clearing this test is not to eliminate the evil spirits, but to purify them.

It was unfair to him. But Luis had a slight smile on his face as he thought, 'Fortunately, the test is the same.'

Luis took out a torch burning with the green flame from inside his Pocket Space. As soon as the torch was taken out, the chill Luis was feeling decreased and his tensed nerves relaxed. All the shadowy figures escaped.

'Now I won't be affected by the evil spirits.' Luis thought as he approached the mansion.

Entering the mansion, and with his Perception, he found an evil spirit in no time. The evil spirit launched a dark energy attack at Luis. His nerves tensed, but the next moment, the dark energy was sucked into the green flame. Not harming him in the slightest.

Luis smiled and saw that the evil spirit was ready to escape. He immediately rushed and threw that torch at the evil spirit.

The evil spirit screamed, burning in green flames and at the next moment, only a white shadow was left, which slowly disappeared from his sight.

Luis picked up the torch and smiled cheekily. "So what if I don't have Holy Magic? I'll use Ghost Fire."