Leon spent two weeks in Gate City, every day he strolled the city and if he found some magical plants and herbs, he would buy them. He had already copied the knowledge in the network, but he didn't find any suitable resources for the material body of his soul artifact. He also wasn't in a hurry to create a material body for it.

During his stay in the city, the door didn't show any signs of opening, but the people in the city increased instead. He also didn't encounter Casper or Locke after their argument. He didn't know what they were doing in the city and he didn't care.

Leon also got his clothes that he ordered and the saddle of Hermes. Aside from that, Leon lived very monotonous life in the city. Even now he was riding Hermes in the city while he was window-shopping, Leon was a well-known figure in the city. It wasn't because he showed his might or fight with anyone, it was because Hermes. Leon was known as "young master griffon", people in the city thought that Leon didn't have any ability but he had a griffon as a companion. They all thought Hermes was gifted by Leon's elders to protect him while he was away from home. They didn't say that to Leon's face, so Leon shouldn't know that. But Leon knew about the misconception, he just didn't care and didn't correct it.

While he was strolling a loud gong noise came. It was deafening and people on the streets covered their ears with their hands to lessen the noise. Leon and Hermes were also affected by the noise, Hermes crouched down and tried to cover his ears with his front legs which was like an eagle claws. Leon wasn't prepared for Hermes' crouching, so he almost fell down, but he didn't and closed his ears with his hands too.

After the gong noise passed, a sacred tune drifted around the city. It was really an addicting tune, and people were enchanted by it. Leon wasn't affected much, but he also felt that he wanted to listen this tune for eternity. When he noticed that, he called upon his titan heart to dispel that feeling in him, he also sent his mana to Hermes for dispelling the enchantment of the tune.

["I shouldn't look down to domain stage old monsters."] Leon looked towards the gate while he was thinking with a bit of fear in his eyes. He already guessed that the tune was a "miracle of gods", and they might use that tune to plant seed of faith to the people who was going to enter their trials. It was a close call for Leon, he didn't want to turn a religious person for this domain stage old monsters.

After the enchanting tune was gone, a halo of light descended to the gate from the heavens. Leon was sure that this was the signal for the start of the trials. He wasn't in the hurry to go to the gate, he slowly went over with Hermes. He also didn't look for Theo and others, he knew that the first stage of the trails was individual tests, and after he passed the first test he might have a chance to see them in the trials.

Leon might not be in a hurry, but the others weren't the same. Leon could see a lot of people were running towards the gate with hurry, somewhere galloping with their horses and some of their own.

When Leon finally arrived in front of the gate most of the people were already there and waiting. The gate wasn't supposed to open, it was more like a symbolic place to gather around. Area of the gate was clearly drawn and the people inside of the drawn area would teleport to trial ground which was a sub-space. Leon was still on Hermes, waiting for the teleportation.

Nearly everyone in the city was in this area were waiting for the trials to start. They didn't wait too much, The gate started glowing in white color. At first it was faint, but as the times past, it became dazzling and made impossible to look at the gate with naked eyes.

Leon and Hermes was also in the same condition, Leon closed his eyes because the light became so intense. When he reopens them, he wasn't where he was. He didn't even understand how he was teleported, at least he still had Hermes with him. That at least showed that, the system didn't separate companions, as it should be.

Leon looked around and saw that he was at a place that didn't have any plantation or any life so to speak. The sky and the ground were all gray and was looking like infertile land. There wasn't sun in the sky, but Leon could see without any problem.

Leon didn't know how his destiny would be tested or it was already tested. The inner mechanism of the test wasn't known, so Leon didn't have any clue what to do, or he should do something. While he was mulling over that, a screen which was around ten meters high showed in front of him, Leon looked Hermes and noticed that Hermes could also see that.

Leon looked at the screen which started to show something, but it was blurry at the start, he could ruffly see that the one who was on the screen was him. After about ten minutes he could see crystal clear.

He could see himself in a lava filled area fighting with monsters. His and monsters movements were unnaturally fast. It was like watching a movie in fast-forward. Leon understood that the screen was showing him his future, that must be the test of destiny. Seeing one's future was a great harvest whoever might be. So Leon didn't even blink while he was watching.

He killed the monsters and cleared the dungeon, but it didn't show what he got from the clearance. Leon also didn't care, he already guessed what he could get from three dungeons. What he was looking for wasn't the treasures, but his breakthrough from Life & Death stage.

The screen showed him that he cleared all three dungeons and went to a village and started to live there. He noticed that he was starting to age and wrinkles showing on his face. Leon was looking for immortality, one should guess that Leon should be frustrated, but Leon was smiling ear to ear. Leon on the screen aged as the time passed and gradually became an old man he didn't have someone accompanying him, he was alone as he was staying at home. As time passed, he didn't have much power to do anything and he mostly passed his days in bed. Finally he gave his last breath, the villagers who noticed that he didn't show his face, got curious and entered his house.

When they entered, they saw him lying on the bed without any movement. The villagers organized a simple funeral and buried him in the cemetery.

Leon was looking at his tomb, but there wasn't any sadness or frustration on his face but anticipation. His tomb didn't change as the seasons passed, but bit by bit his tomb became forgotten and there wasn't anyone taking care of his tomb. As time passed his tombstone started to crumble, even reading his name wasn't possible, but Leon was still looking with anticipation to his tomb.

He didn't know how much time passed, but eventually his tomb trembled and a hand with wrinkles pop up. The hand started to get younger as time passed. As Leon saw that he didn't even need to see what came after.

["Passing death calamity would take too much time, huh."]

Leon wasn't frustrated because of that, he already knew that he was going to pass through the death calamity upon reaching perfection in Life & Death stage. Titan body tempering was based on body, first he needed to reach to perfection in Yin-Yang stage, upon perfection, he would have a yin-yang diagram in his heart. That means he could change yang attributed energy to yin attributed energy. In Life & Death stage he needed to change death to life and life to death upon perfection, this was death calamity. After doing so, he could reap death and turn it to his life-force.

He didn't know what his destiny, but he was sure that he was going to pass his death calamity. He just didn't know how much it would take.

"Hermes you would be alone for a long time, you shouldn't waste your time and train while I'm passing my death calamity."

Hermes cawed as a response.