"Shit... why now of all times?" Leon kicked the ground. "I find a hobby, things start to go well, then suddenly shit happens..."

It was weird, Leon felt like it was night, but he couldn't see any lights around, but the temple could be seen as if it was in the middle of the day. Considering that, Leon was supposed to see several things, but he couldn't. He could only see the temple... when Leon turned around, he saw a shadow around it as if some shadow had covered the entire planet. As if that wasn't weird enough, the sky looked far more beautiful and, at the same time, ominous. The stars were shining stronger than the ones Leon could see even at nights on Ilyana's planets... for a moment, Leon thought he was in a world with no atmosphere.

"Hey, Leon..." Celsius hesitated. "What is that on your left arm?"

Celsius's question made Leon wake up from his daydreaming, it wasn't the time or the place to admire the surroundings, but Leon couldn't help but do so. Regardless, Leon saw a weird tattoo on his forearm, it had the shape of a square, and it was an emitting a light blue glow. It was made of mana, and even though he never tried to feel her mana, it was clear that Ilyana had created that.

When Leon touched an interface similar to the one he could find in dungeons appeared. However, unlike the ones he could find in the dungeon, Leon found some status requirements in weapons and tomes. Leon found one skill he wanted to learn at some point and found the details about it.

Summon Corrupt Tree of Mana tome

Cost: 15000 mana

Cooldown time: 10 seconds

Requirements: 15000 Intelligence, 7500 Control, Lv 350 Water Creation Lv 350 Earth Creation.

Cost: 0 and 20000000 coins. (Since you are stupid, I know you will spend your coins.)

Leon frowned at first, but soon he understood that rune connected to some sort of spatial place controlled by Ilyana. Most likely, he would buy or even take for free things from her vault. That became clear when Leon saw the prices.

"That is insane... she created a smaller version of the assimilation system," Leon said in shock. "She probably knows that I wouldn't accept anything for free, but considering the actual situation, she also gave me the option to accept all the tomes for free... Just what the hell is going to happen here?"

Leon thought that he would only spend a few days in the worst-case scenario to complete the trials of the three remaining spirits. Still, by the look of things, Ilyana made preparations as if she imagined that Leon would only succeed after many years.

"She could have at least gave me some pointers..." Leon sighed. "Damn it... I'm instinctively relying on her too much."

There was no point in dwelling about what happened. Leon had to hurry because soon, Earth would reach the fifth stage of the assimilation. Leon started to walk toward the entrance of the tremble, but it didn't take long for him to notice that something was off. Although his legs were moving, he couldn't see or feel the entrance getting closer. After a few minutes, he concluded that there was some sort of illusion trap around the temple... Leon expanded Mana Dominion to feel the range of it, but even though he could sense powerful mana around him, he couldn't discern its whole range.

Congratulations! The skill Mana Dominion has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Mana Dominion has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Mana Dominion has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

...

"It looks like the trial already started..."

Instead of walking, Leon used Transfer, but even though his mana was being used and moved toward the place he was seeing, the temple didn't get any closer. Time was something Leon couldn't waste now, but it looked like time was essentially the test there...

"The spirit of time... Sekundez," Leon said.

Leon didn't know if that spirit test would be the hardest, but Leon was expecting a lot from its power. If he could master it, perhaps he could even bend time to his will and return to Earth at the moment the harvesters decided to put their plans in action... maybe, he could even turn back on time to the moment his parents died and prevent their deaths.

"You shouldn't think about this, Leon," Undine said in a severe tone. "Considering your accomplishments so far and your talent despite having just a few years in mana use, perhaps you can accomplish what you want... but you will have to pay a very large price."

"I know... returning nine hundred years in the past will cost a lot of mana," Leon said.

"That is not the point," Undine added. "Even if you manage to obtain enough mana to return to the past, even small changes will greatly influence the world. I'm sure that you are well aware of the term time-paradox."

"Yeah..." Leon nodded with his head down.

"What already happened, can't be changed so easily," Undine explained. "If you just move in a single instant to the point of the time you want to change, you will just move to another dimension where that thing didn't happen yet. You will be able to prevent some tragedies, but you will end up essentially abandoning the current Earth and your friends. The second option may help you achieve your goal, but it is physically impossible."

"Can you please explain my second option?" Leon asked.

"If you try to use the power of the spirit of the time to undo time, you will retrace your steps up until the point in time you want," Undine explained. "The cost of mana will be even higher, but I doubt that you reach your goal because you will lose everything along the way, your status, your mana, and even your memories."