"A ritual?" Lily repeated with a slight frown. "Isn't it a little mean of them to expect fresh students to perform a ritual? I can't even imagine how Rose performed a ritual…"

[It could be a relatively low-level ritual or one dependent on your natural talent or bloodline since this world seems to be obsessed with those. Not every ritual needs to be some cosmic-level performance; even some simple ones just help crops grow stronger and faster.]

"I see…" Lily mumbled, silently admitting that she might have glorified the word 'ritual' too much. "In that case, I want to attempt this myself. If Rose could do it, then I want to do it too."

[Good, I was going to suggest it myself if you hadn't. I'm glad you are still willing to put in the time and effort yourself.]

Lily blushed a little before nodding. She still really enjoyed being praised for her deeds.

With her immediate concerns out of the way and her curiosity over the bag's contents satiated, she opened the book. Before reading it earnestly, she paged through it quickly to see if she could glimpse any initial meaning from the book.

Lily's first discovery was that the book was shorter than she expected. Large portions of the pages included illustrations and accompanying descriptions. Furthermore, when she got roughly halfway through the book, the pages suddenly became blank.

Is the book incomplete?

Lily wasn't entirely sure, but she decided it would be foolish to jump to conclusions after barely skimming through the book. Instead, she went right back to the first page and began reading.

Lily found herself immersed in the pages and only stopped when a knocking came at her door—Oz had come to check up on her as she hadn't come down for lunch.

After some awkward apologies and promises that she was okay, they had a meal. Oz, as expected, tried to pry some information, but Lily had to refuse him, saying she was sworn to secrecy.

Lily was hesitant to keep Oz unnecessarily occupied, so she told him that she had the utmost confidence in passing the test and that he was free to leave. She even explained, "Rose passed, so I'm sure I can too," which caused the young man to chuckle.

"I'll be here for two days at minimum; that's when the next batch of merchants is leaving, so you've got a safety net," he replied cheerfully.

"Okay, then I'll confidently send you off in two days!" Lily declared.

When Lily returned to her room, she eagerly grabbed the book again and picked up where she had left off reading. Honestly, she was still confused, as there had yet to be any hint of a test or what she was supposed to do, as this early section of the book had done nothing but mention the properties of various ingredients.

According to the book, certain plants contained Mana with inherent base properties, which extended to monsters, ores, and even gemstones. One example was that a ruby has a link to fire, so it would be coveted for any fire-based enchantments.

It didn't take Lily long to realize that the book was giving her information on identifying all the random items in the bag and what type of Mana she could expect from them.

Do they want me to identify each item's specific type of Mana? Is this test some sort of matching game?

Those were her first thoughts, but it seemed too simple for a test with such a strange secrecy surrounding it. The other elephant in the room was Rose—Lily couldn't imagine her sitting down and slowly labeling items using a reference book.

And so Lily continued reading. The book continued discussing types of Mana and extrapolated that certain animals, monsters, or even entities were attracted to certain kinds of Mana. Lily found the whole thing very odd and hoped to find an answer soon. She quickly turned the page and gasped out loud in shock—the next set of pages only had one page of content, and she'd reached the section of the book with nothing but blanks.

There's no way this final page will have enough answers! Did I really get a defective book? I'll need to go see Pete tomorrow!

Lily sighed as she was jumping to conclusions. She finally looked at the final page and was initially confused about what she was looking at. There were lots of rectangles and squares arranged around the page. Then, a few of them were colored in and then circled with red ink.

Lily was dumbfounded as she tried to decipher what this was. Was it a glyph? Was it some type of code? She let out another sigh and rubbed her eyes; she was feeling some fatigue and brain fog. She decided to get a bit of fresh air as she headed to the window and opened it, staring outside and basking in the setting sun.

Lily lazily stared outside at the differing buildings and people milling about, heading home. She couldn't help but smile. It seemed like quite a pleasant town, with extremely friendly residents—a stark difference from her initial impression.

"Hang on?" Lily whispered to herself, then rushed back to the book.

She looked at the strange drawings and then looked out the window again.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Is this a map of the city?"

The more she looked at the picture, the more she believed it.

"So it's not a matching test; it's a scavenger hunt?" Lily wondered aloud.

She then looked at the last remnants of the sun on the horizon and sighed. It was too late to go out now, and in agreement, her stomach grumbled in protest.

And it's dinner time. I better go meet Oz.

After dinner, Lily spent a quiet evening revising some of the book's previous sections, hoping to understand how they related to the map.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find anything linking the two, so she eventually called it a night and decided the location must have the answers!

***

Lily wandered around the town the next morning while consulting her roughly made sketch. She was trying to find one of the marked locations on the map and soon found herself in front of a rather colorful-looking building.

Lily knocked on the door, but there was no answer. She reached for the door handle but was perplexed when it was locked. Feeling frustrated, she looked at her sketch again and was doubly sure she had found the right place.

Lily pulled the book out of her satchel and was about to open it to look at the real map when the gem on its cover shimmered, and the door opened itself.

Guess this is the right place!

Lily placed the book in her satchel and quickly entered the building. She noticed the door closed behind her. She let out a little yelp as suddenly dozens of candles lit themselves and fully illuminated the entire room, which, from Lily's perspective, seemed to encompass almost the whole building.

There were only two little rooms off the side, one containing a small bed and couch and the other a bathroom. Lily was baffled at the purpose of the building, but as she walked around, she noticed that a large circle was fully engraved on the floor of the surface.

"A magic circle!" Lily cried out in joy.

It was massive, forming a perimeter around the entire room, but the center was utterly devoid of anything— a blank canvas awaiting its paint.

It looks like Arakil was right. They do want me to do a ritual… but I don't see any books or notes or anything. Besides the candles, bedroom, and bathroom, this place is a ghost town!

Lily pulled the book from her satchel again and wondered if it held the answer. The gem on the front was still softly glowing, but as much as she poked and prodded it, it had no visible effect. She opened the book, wondering if the difference would be inside, and was surprised to see that the remaining pages were no longer blank!

"I guess I can only read the rest of the book in this building?"

Lily had to assume it was another form of security and was willing to bet that if she left the building, the pages would become blank again.

"So I need to read and do the ritual here… which is probably why there's this big magic circle here," she continued to muse aloud. "I'm tempted to try deciphering this myself, but I should probably read the book first."

Lily smiled and walked over to the couch. She jumped backward and sank deep into the cushions before opening the book and turning to the page where her reading had previously been cut off.

To her relief and surprise, the very next page actually had some instructions and warnings for the test—finally, she was going to get answers!

[To pass and qualify to enter Regarth, you must perform the minor ritual described in the later pages.

Discussion of the ritual during the testing process will result in immediate disqualification.

No one is permitted to enter the same building as you and your supplied book is your only key—do not lose it. Attempts to breach this will result in immediate disqualification.

The ritual must be strictly performed in one of the designated buildings and can only be performed in the supplied magic circle. Key components of the defined ritual will be missing and will not function without the circle provided—this is for your own safety.

Attempts to replicate or distribute the circle to outsiders will result in immediate disqualification.

Discussion of the ritual is only permitted to official students and staff who have accomplished it. Mentioning it to outsiders will be punished depending on the severity of the breach.

The ritual can be accomplished through effort or talent, so do not be discouraged if you think your bloodline is holding you back. With enough determination, you can still pass.

Finally, good luck. May you prove worthy of gracing the great halls of Regarth!]

"Wow! There are so many ways to achieve 'immediate disqualification,' they really aren't kidding around. Also, they mentioned effort or talent, so I'm guessing that's why Rose passed with flying colors. Although maybe her help with our ritual gave her some pointers?"

Lily was brimming with curiosity as they had still not said what the ritual did. At the moment, she still felt the need for secrecy far too overblown, but she wouldn't criticize it too much until she saw the whole picture.

If anything, I'm just upset that I don't know what I'm working towards.

Curiously, Lily turned to the final page and hoped it would say something, but there was just an illustration of what looked like a strange water glyph.

I guess it's reading time.

Hours seemed to fly by as Lily continued to read. Similar to the final page, each one was occupied mainly by a glyph relating to a specific element with an appropriate designation. Lily was curious why they were just listing glyphs seemingly at random.

Her confusion didn't end there, as she started getting odd-looking glyphs that she couldn't identify. Her initial impression was to call them false as they seemed so bizarre and misplaced. If that wasn't bad enough, the description below the illustration simply said "reptile," "canine," "feline," or other animal classifications.

Are these demi glyphs? Is that why I don't recognize them, because Arakil doesn't know about demis? But why is there no human glyph?

As she read deeper, Lily got somewhat of an answer. The book had an inscription template that held spots for up to four glyphs to be added. Reading further, Lily discovered that she would need to pick up to four glyphs from the list and place them in those spots along with an accompanying resource that matched the glyph, as that would empower it.

As Lily wondered which four she would pick, she read the final line on the accompanying page of the inscription.

[Pick only the ones that resonate with you. This is a personal choice, and the outcome is ultimately determined by you and you alone. There is no right or wrong answer.]

"It's determined by me…" Lily mumbled as she thought what four would best suit her. "I bet Rose picked fire, probably picked fire four times!"

When Lily turned the page, a note seemed to have been added after the fact as a hint or tip, saying that the drawing didn't need to be a perfect replica. It suggested that you could overcome any blemishes with a powerful bloodline or additional offerings, but if you wanted to save resources, you could focus more on the drawing.

"It doesn't need to be perfect?" Lily scoffed. "That sounds like lazy talk to me!"