“I just hope the new unique skill I get at Mythic rank is more useful.”
Immortal was useful.
Its upgrades were not.
After completing his ascsion, he checked the time.
“It’s midnight.
“I guess I’ll go meet Paimon before tomorrow’s classes.”
Neo decided to another shower to cleanse the impurities stuck to his skin.
The impurities were expunged from him during his breakthrough.
They smelled bad.
After taking the shower, Neo lay on the bed.
He activated the Death skill.
There was a shift and Neo appeared in the Underworld.
Neo oped his eyes and found himself sitting on the sofa.
He was in the same room as the one he had be the last time.
“Welcome back, child.”
Paimon was waiting for him.
“You took longer than I expected.
“I take it as you have found your answer?”
“Yes, I did.”
Paimon could see the maturity behind Neo’s gaze.
He had grown.
It was clear to her Neo gained the understanding of emotions.
“What is the answer?”
“Emotions….”
Neo recalled the first vision.
It was a perfect life.
He had a happy family, good frids, loving wife, people who respected him, money.
There was not a single problem.
But wh he left the vision, he was angry at that life.
He hated it.
He never wanted to lose it.
Instead of being happy that he got to experice such a life and moving on, he was filled with rage.
He tried to go back to that fake life.
Because he was led by his emotions.
“Emotions are a burd.
“They hinder the ability to think rationally.”
Paimon smiled at his answer.
Neo continued.
“Emotions…”
In his second vision, he was a doctor.
He thrived during the war.
His business boomed due to it.
Still, he hated the war.
He hated seeing people dying or being injured.
He was a patriotic person.
Yet, he saved a soldier of the emy kingdom and fell in love with her.
His emotions made him do everything what he was not supposed to do.
“Emotions are chains.
“Once they bind you, they won’t let you go.
“They’ll pull you down and make you do their bidding.
“And all we can do is follow them.”
“So emotions are a bad influce?” Paimon asked.
“No.”
Neo never regretted falling in love.
“They are a good influce.”
“Is that so? Your earlier words say otherwise.” Paimon chuckled.
“Yes, and I still stand by my words.”
Neo smiled.
“Emotions are evil….”
In the third vision, he became Dios Kingsley.
He murdered his zombified family with a smile on his face.
He killed anyone who harmed his sister, no matter if they were wrong or right.
Dios was the evil created by the emotions.
Still, Neo would not call him wrong.
Neo would’ve done the same.
“They are a necessary evil. That’s what emotions are.”
He gave his answer and waited for her judgemt.
“It was a beautiful answer.”
Paimon placed the flag post on the table betwe them.
“Congratulations.
“You’ve passed the third trial, child.
“Not just passed, your answer was one of the most unique I’ve ever heard.”
She placed another flag post on the table.
“I’ll give you a bonus reward.
“Originally, I was just meant to give you this. But I’ll give you a hint for your fourth trail.”
Neo picked the flag posts.
He inserted the flag in the first flag post.
It was inserted and the flag post glowed, signifying the completion of the process.
He tried to put the flag in the other flag post and realized something was wrong.
The flag won’t ter.
“The fourth trial is to surpass yourself.
“Unless you do that, you can’t use the fourth flag post.”
Neo nodded.
He stored the flag and flag posts.
While he was drinking the tea Paimon prepared for him, he asked.
“What was the purpose of the third trail?
“I know understanding my emotions help me remain calm and resist the voices of Darkness.
“But was that all?”
Instead of answering him, Paimon posed another question.
“What is your currt mastery of Darkness?”
“Adept.”
“How close are you reaching you to Expert mastery.”
Neo became silt.
He answered a few seconds later.
“I don’t know. Unlike before, where I could sse how to increase my mastery, I can’t feel anything similar.”
“That’s the point of your third trial. It will become the foundation of your mastery over Darkness.”
“….?”
“To go from Adept to Expert you need to conceptualize your Elemt.
“The trials are meant to prepare you for the future.”
Neo’s face harded.
Only a handful of demigods could apply concepts to their Elemts.
Conceptualization was the dividing line betwe those who would use their talt to reach the apex and those who were talted but failed to achieve anything.
He had to attain conceptualization if he wanted to become the strongest.
“Your currt trial will help you gain the concept of emotions.
“With it, you’ll be able to gain immse power wh you sacrifice your emotions.”
“Sacrifice…”
It was not a word Neo liked.
“It might seem like a bad trade to you. But it is not.
“The concept of Emotions is the strongest among all concepts to use with Darkness.”
Suddly, Neo recalled something.
The Sphinx had asked him if he truly believed the Darkness demanded sacrifices.
Its words bugged Neo back th.
It was as if the Sphinx wanted to say they were misunderstanding Darkness.
“Paimon, is true the Darkness demands sacrifices? Do all concepts of it need us to give up on something?”
“Yes, I’ve never se a concept of Darkness that does not demand sacrifices.”
‘Strange…’
‘Was the Sphinx just messing with me?’
‘No, that can’t be true. The Sphinx cannot lie.’
‘It means there is another concept no one has discovered.’
Neo became excited.
He wanted to know what the unknown concept was.
“I’ll be taking my leave.”
“Are you going to start searching for the forth trial?”
“Not right now.”
The third trial took a lot out of him.
He wanted a short break and focus on the other tasks he had be ignoring until now.
Besides, what the fuck did surpassing himself mean?