She swung her sword with enough power to decimate the entire temple surrounding her. However, surprising her once again, the temple remained normal as the walls that were crushed from the intense pressure of her swing restored themselves back to their proper state.

Of course, the lizardmen that were in the middle of all that didn't survive, left with their bodies bisected and disappearing from sight.

The way the bodies disappeared into particles of magic motes reminded her of how the body disappeared after looting the creature. But to have it done instantly was easier for her to handle as there was no looting to be had in this virtual landscape.

In this fake world, she could hunt as much as she wanted, but she should've expected that the threat level was a snoozefest. It was created by a rather unique Journeyman Runist, and from another world at that.

Still, her heart beat faster as more hordes tried to ram at her, each one overcoming one another in a tussle to see who gets to kill the warrior maiden first.

With another swing, she decimated another few dozen lizardmen, only to find even more coming after her. One of them got close enough to attack her, but her energy wings flew her up, getting away from the horde as she traversed across the temple.

What truly astounded her is that she must have crossed miles in a few seconds at this point, yet the temple continued to extend further and further. It was at such a level that she knew that their shitty Runists couldn't compare.

Hell, they didn't even have the imagination to go this far. To create an entire world for combating monsters was something she always wanted, yet knew the limitations of humankind. It was hard to do, especially after noticing the intense mana cost behind this structure.

She grinned, going from room to room and taking out each and every lizardmen she could find. None of them acted like real monsters on the prowl. Rather, they seemed autonomous at best, making them perfect fodder for the newbies the Runist's group is taking care of.

To hear that this tower was the ones that the otherworlders came from, she was a bit disappointed.

The temple reminded her of the times she spent on a pilgrimage through several temples to receive a particular skill she wanted, and each one was as grand and fancy as this one. In the end, once you've seen a temple, you've seen them all.

"At least the monsters are making things interesting."

She muttered, swinging her sword again. As another swath of monsters died out, she yelled out to the Runist.

"Hey, Zeke! Can you make it a little harder? It's impressive, but I'm starting to get bored here!"

…..

Zeke's brow twitched slightly at Cerulean's comment on the dungeon. He was putting everything he had into it, and it would've been an awesome experience for the otherworlders.

But of course, the Master Mage wanted to try it out first, and of course she would be disappointed at the trial run of the first level he designed. He knew she could breeze through with ease, but to hear her say how bored she was made him… antsy.

As the otherworlders marveled at how a Master fought against the lizardmen which would've killed them in the first second, Zeke asked Cronus who stood by his side watching with interest.

"Cronus, do you mind if I raise the stakes a little?"

Cronus looked at him with a raised brow. "Are you seriously asking me that? If you don't, I'm certain my daughter would be disappointed."

"Alright. Just making sure."

Zeke commented, not noticing the side-look he received from both Cronus and Mikella.

If Cerulean wanted something more of a challenge, then he'll happily obliged–even if it went beyond the training that both Zeke and Mikella couldn't handle.

"Cerulean?" Zeke spoke out to the Master behind the screen, grinning. "You're gonna get your wish."

…..

Hearing Zeke speak like that was giving Cerulean a pause. He was certainly cheeky, if she was honest.

Weirdly enough, he didn't give off that kind of impression when she saw him earlier. Then again, who would be normal if they made something like this nearly on their own?

But before she could gather more of her thoughts about the kid, the entire atmosphere suddenly turned upside its head.

Her head, shoulders, and soon the rest of her body felt the intensity behind the pressure building on top of her–or rather, on top of everything.

It wasn't as common as gravity itself pulling her physical body down. It felt as though it weighed on her very soul. Her soul has advanced enough to the point where something like this wouldn't bother her at all if she was absolutely serious.

But she wasn't, so she was caught off guard when a very familiar, powerful presence took over the atmosphere, nearly pushing her down enough to bend her knees a little.

This fucker…

Despite her thoughts, a massive grin showed on her face as the pressure kept building and building, as if trying to squash her into the ground. Of course, she never relented, instead picking herself back up to stand against the rising pressure.

Eventually the pressure stabilized, but it continued its heavy weight on top of her. Was this going to continue on throughout the rest of the fight?

Just when she thought she couldn't be more impressed, the hordes of lizardmen came back to her, and with a sudden surprise added in.

There were multitudes of giant lizardmen that stood over the smaller version by a feet or so, and each one carried a large spear capable of piercing steel.

Even more surprising than that, all of those giant lizardmen disappeared. Hints of cold entered the scene as frost covered some of the temple's walls and floors, proving that they were of the ice affinity.

Cerulean chuckled, her breath becoming vapor as the supposed invisible lizardmen came over to try and strike her down. Clearly, these were above the normal lizardmen trying to get at her in droves.

All the while, the pressure never seemed to bother them at all–only herself.

She grinned. How long has it been since she's gotten this excited?

…..

If he was honest, he thought he went overboard this time. He already activated every mechanism available in the simulation room to not only increase the pressure by a few hundred fold, way stronger than he ever could against himself and Mikella, but also summon not just the normal mob lizardmen but adding in the Mini-Boss from the temple tower that can turn invisible with frost magic.

When he spotted Cerulean actually bending forward a little from the pressure, he panicked. He thought the pressure was enough to keep her down, but now monsters, not affected by the pressure thanks to his design, were coming after her. He honestly thought he screwed up and was actually about to kill Cronus' daughter.

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Thankfully, that never happened. In a way, he was glad that Masters were a lot more powerful than he expected. Cerulean exploded throughout the temple, slashing and killing every single lizardmen, no matter how small or big, in her way. This time, she activated more of her skills, making her sword glow brighter thanks to her combat skills on full blast while also shooting bolts of compressed mana that might as well be comets shooting from the sky straight at their targets.

It was incredibly flashy to watch, and he even tried to stabilize the screen when the power within the simulation room was almost causing the transmission feed to buzz about as though it was losing connection. It was starting to make the otherworlders nervous, but also just stare blankly at the amazing sight in front of them.

"Zeke, is this…?" Cronus stated, this time staring at the screen with an intense gaze. "Your attunement?"

"Yeah," Zeke nodded. "I incorporated my attunement into the design, and Tir made good use of it. Though it's still a work in progress. I still have no idea what else I can do with it."

"Fascinating," Cronus said, rubbing his chin. "Very fascinating."

"Holy shit, that guy is actually interested in this," Mikella whispered to Zeke, and honestly he felt the same way. "But, uhh… is Cerulean gonna be okay? That pressure really looks intense."

"Yeah, that would've killed us twenty times over."

"...Why did you say it like that?" She asked, raising a brow.

"We can handle five times as much pressure ourselves," Zeke said, gesturing between the two of them. "She's going through a hundred times that pressure."

"Dude!" She whisper-shouted. "You didn't think that would kill her?"

"Actually, no," Zeke answered honestly, surprising her as he continued. "That's the amount of pressure I'm planning on using to prepare us to face that asshole from the Trial. Granted, obviously not in our current state, but you know…"

Zeke made his hand float in between them, tilting it left and right for emphasis. Mikella nodded slightly, frowning at the hand, but nodding regardless.

"Okay, good point."

"And, she's a Master. I wanted to see exactly how much a Master can handle."

"Oh… oh, good idea," Mikella nodded more enthusiastically.

"And look, she's still doing great," Zeke said, this time his little bitterness was seeping through. "Kinda makes me want to bring out more monsters…"

"Why not add in some traps?" Mikella added with a shrug, and an idea popped into his head.

"That's it! Mikky, you're a genius!"

Before Mikella could say anything else, Zeke went ahead and tapped the block turned keyboard to add more environmental changes.

Zeke decided to add in the famous arrows shooting from the walls trap as well as floors and ceilings made of spikes that tried to crush and pierce her. While the otherworlders gasped and nearly shrieked at Zeke's brutality, Cerulean easily dodged or just ignored the arrows hitting her, the projectiles just tinging off of her armor and her very skin. For the pit traps, she just swung her sword and destroyed the damn ceilings and floors that tried to crush her.

Zeke lifted his hands up in frustration before blowing out fuming air through his mouth. "Damn, thought I had her."

"Are you trying to kill my daughter?" Cronus asked, raising a single brow at him.

"No," Zeke answered, not even caring at what he was thinking anymore. "I'm just trying to trip her up."

Despite the accusation, Cronus just laughed it off. It was such genuine laughter that it disturbed Zeke a little. He was trying to trounce his own daughter and he just took it in with glee.

Apparently it was enough to raise the mood a little, considering that no matter how often Zeke tried to destroy Cerulean with the simulation room, Cerulean would just crush everything in her way. It was becoming to the point where the power remaining in the current simulation was running out according to the screens showing in front of him.

"Oh, so there's a limit here too," Mikella said, her lips pursing. "But you're not just gonna leave it here, right?"

"Damn straight," Zeke said with fire burning in his eyes. "There's one more thing left to try."

…..

Cerulean would have never imagined going through such an intense dungeon-dive in all her life, all right here in her hometown.

Granted, it was clear that Zeke was trying to do everything he can to put her down with those sudden traps that were completely off-kilter and easily planted to try and stop her, but that only got her more excited as she trounced them. All the while, she could feel her body's limit as the pressure never once left her.

The pressure was something she never felt before, even after facing tough monsters and people beyond her level. There was a weight beneath the pressure that reminded her so much of her attunement that she knew then and there that Zeke has the same type of attunement.

The attunement from the high-realms.

She got giddy as she sensed the power of this fake dungeon fading, eventually reaching the end of the simulation. But then she stopped her flight throughout the temple, finding herself right in front of twin metal doors that were quadruple her size.

She smirked, knowing the classic boss room more than anyone else as she pushed the metal doors with her hands, pushing them forward with her massive Strength. The doors screeched and whined before eventually getting her into the room where, unsurprisingly, another lizardman rested.

This time, it was bigger, meaner, and carried a large sword. It roared at the incoming presence of an invader, mana of the water aspect flowing throughout the giant sword as well as its surroundings as it readied to strike her.

This one was stronger, faster, and probably more adept in fighting as far as she could tell from its stance and demeanor as it swung its massive sword at her, getting her to dodge out of the way. She also knew that the pressure didn't affect it at all, while her movements were now slower than before thanks to being under the pressure for so long.

Her eyes twinkled as the sword flashed forward, droplets of water hitting her like rain and for once, actually cut her cheek and drew blood.

When she saw her own blood for the first time in possibly the past decade, she couldn't handle it anymore.

Power swelled inside of her as she roared, mana pouring out of her veins, throughout her skin, and all the way out to the physical world. The temple shook from her own pressure as she let it all hang loose.

It might put her father through another wringer of cleaning up her mess, but she couldn't help herself.

She wanted to show off and unveil her power for all the world to see.

…..

"Oh, no…"

This time, Cronus spoke with a nervous tone, and when Zeke looked at him, he actually looked pale after watching Cerulean's power dominating the entire room the final boss was in.

The screens in front of Zeke started flashing bright red, even getting Zeke to panic as he tried to stabilize the simulation room to handle the power, but before he could even do anything, it flashed and sparked with power before the screens and the block used as a keyboard exploded, making him yelp in surprise from the sudden outburst of power.

"Zeke?!" Mikella shouted, her hand on his shoulder for support.

"I, uhh… I think we should move. Now!"

After his words, pretty much everyone except Cronus moved away from the simulation room. Their feet scattered away, mild shrieks of fright filling the air following along the sudden bursts of energy rampaging within the small compartment.

Mana-based electricity kept pouring out in sudden spouts, burning and evaporating any part around the compartment before Zeke went ahead and conjured several barriers worth around the simulator. However, much to his despair, his barriers kept breaking one after another, the amount of power generated from within the simulator too much to handle for his Journeyman-punk ass.

Eventually his fear became reality as the simulator broke apart, and a pillar of pure energy exploded upwards. Zeke decided to ignore everything else and covered everyone around him inside his barrier, but to his surprise, the impact of the incoming explosion reduced significantly when another barrier, much more profound and powerful, covered around his own. Once again, his ineptitude caught up with him as Cronus went ahead to protect them all from the massive explosion that would've been equal to a tactical nuke.

As they watched the explosion flow like rivers of energy cascading upwards, he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He knew it was nobody else but Mikella as she spoke softly.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, just… disappointed."

Honestly, he stopped caring about his hard-worked simulator being destroyed by the Master mage. Instead, he got depressed that his barrier wasn't powerful enough to handle whatever the hell Cerulean pulled out. As the power ceased, the surroundings became easier to see now as their eyes adjusted to the flow of mana flowing everywhere, the barriers pulled down as everyone watched the scene occurring in front of them.

The field was completely decimated, the ground left completely barren and darkened from the power output. But at the same time, it didn't affect the surrounding buildings and even the emergency housing near them. Only two people were there, with one stretching her back by bending it backward while the other shook his head, his palm hiding his face.

"Cerulean…" Cronus' words were a mixture of disappointment and frustration.

"Sorry, Dad. Couldn't help myself," Cerulean said, turning back to her father with a cheeky grin.

Seeing the scene in front of him, a smile escaped his lips as Zeke whispered back to his girlfriend, ensuring nobody else would listen.

"Now we don't have to worry about owing Cronus a favor. We can just say his daughter messed up everything around us."

Mikella looked back at him with widened eyes. After a few seconds of realization kicking in, she giggled before slapping his arm.

"You fucking evil genius," Mikella laughed. "That's so good!"

He was glad that after all of this, there was at least one good thing heading his way. He won't be treated like some kid anymore by these two.

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