‘It’s over,’ Kyle thought as he saw an x and a y.
Kyle’s pupils widened, and an entire equation appeared in front of him.
The numbers no longer flashed around and just hovered in the air.
The equation was long.
Too long.
‘Fuck! How does math work again?!’
‘Eh, let’s start with the 18 to the power of 7 first, I guess?’
’18 times 18 is 324 times 18 is 5832 times 18 is… huh… that is surprisingly easy. Didn’t know I was that good at calculation shit.’
In just three seconds, Kyle got the answer.
‘612220032,’ Kyle thought in surprise. ‘Okay, I was not that good at calculating stuff when I was in high school.’
‘Why is this so easy?’
Then, Kyle facepalmed.
‘Right! Mind and stuff! The mind is one Aspect of Power, and everything was upgraded in that weird Satan ritual or whatever.’
‘Guess I’m just very good at calculating shit now,’ he thought with positive surprise.
Another interesting part was that Kyle wasn’t even looking at the equation anymore.
The entire thing was just in his head.
He remembered everything.
‘Wow, I’m like… super smart now!’ he thought.
Kyle went to the next set of numbers and just solved them.
‘It’s actually not that complex. The numbers barely interact with the variables. I can solve all the numbers without looking at the variables.’
After around a minute of solving calculations, Kyle was left with a simple equation.
‘x + 4 = y + 4,’ he thought. ‘Isn’t that just x = y?’
‘All that shit just for x = y?’
Kyle recalculated everything and came to the same conclusion.
x = y.
That was it.
‘Huh?’ Kyle thought as he saw something new in the fire.
It was just a diagonal line.
The equation had vanished, and he could only see the line now.
‘What? How does that work?’
‘Fucking magic land, I swear. Also, why is that shit written in American?! Isn’t this supposed to be magic land with magic ass Sandspeak?’
He just looked at the line for a couple more seconds.
‘I guess that’s the answer.’
Kyle scratched his head a bit more before jumping out of the pit.
He calmly walked over to the plate and put his finger on the bottom left corner.
The plate was made of some kind of sand that mostly stayed in place.
Then, Kyle just moved his finger from the bottom left corner to the top right corner.
A second later, the gate started to shake before opening.
‘Huh, guess that was the answer. It was easier than expected,’ he thought.
“Congratulations, entrant number 69,” the golem said.
Kyle kept his fresh and original joke to himself.
“You may proceed to the last trial,” the golem finished.
“Thanks, I guess,” Kyle said. “Oh, right! How many people got past this trial?”
“Eleven people have undertaken the fourth trial, and two passed. You are the third.”
‘Eleven? Wasn’t it 14 earlier?’ Kyle thought.
Then, he remembered the 15 gates and seven exits.
‘Guess three people chose incorrectly during the preparation. Hah! Dumbfucks!’ Kyle thought with a prideful smirk.
‘Also, nine out of eleven people failed the fourth trial? Were they also allergic to math?’
Kyle looked back at the fire, and his newly improved smarts made some connections.
Instinctually, Kyle just spun his hammer once in the air before catching it again.
‘The fire was pretty toasty, but I could bear it. My body is pretty strong, and I needed to enter the fire to see the numbers. Everyone else probably also needed to enter the fire.’
‘What if it was much hotter for them because their bodies were weaker?’
‘I mean, if I couldn’t enter the fire, I might not have seen the entire equation. I saw a couple of numbers jumping around, but that was it.’
‘Also, how did I even see the numbers? Do they just appear in the air?’
As Kyle looked at the flames, he saw a very noticeable diagonal line hovering in the middle of it.
Despite no longer being inside it, he could see the line clearly.
‘How did I miss that the first time? It’s super obvious!’
‘The Soul improves one’s connection to the world or some shit like that, right? Is my Soul the reason why I can see the numbers?’
‘Also, I’m a bit hungry now. As far as I know, my hunger is related to my Ether storage or something like that. I would assume the Ether in my Center improved my defenses to fire, and I used up a bit.’
Then, Kyle thought about the last part of the fourth trial.
The equation.
‘How do you even calculate 18 to the power of 7 in your head? Big brain is big important for this trial.’
Slowly, a picture emerged in Kyle’s mind.
Someone with a weak body and Center couldn’t enter the fire at all.
Someone who strengthened one of these two parts could probably stay in the fire for a bit.
Someone with a weak Soul probably wouldn’t even have seen the numbers.
And someone with a weak mind wouldn’t have been able to solve the equation.
It needed at least three of the four Aspects of Power.
‘If I had something to write, I might have been able to solve the equation with my old brain.’
‘If I only strengthened one part of my body or Center, I might have been able to slowly decipher the numbers while jumping in and out of the fire.’
‘Only the six regular career paths and the allrounder path are correct. I would think that the two people who passed before me improved their Souls and either their Bodies or Centers.’
‘Body and Soul would be a Paladin. Center and Soul would be Conjurers, Beast Tamers, Priests, and all that shit.’
‘Or they were like me and just chose everything.’
Kyle looked at the hallway leading to the last trial.
‘Well, I got to the last trial. I just have to get through that, and I will be done.’
‘I did way better than expected.’
‘Although, the trial was also easier than expected.’
‘Some mining. A quick fight. Some more mining. Some toasting in the fire.’
‘Wonder what the last trial will be,’ Kyle thought as he stepped into the hallway.