Eryndor stood silently within the endless Trial Space, staring at the notification floating before him, [Talent recognized.], and although the Tower had finally acknowledged the existence of his Talent, something about the result still felt wrong, because the ability he had discovered should not have been possible, at least not according to the memories he carried from the future.
He looked at his hands, then slowly opened and closed his fingers, testing the strange sensation moving through his body, but there was no obvious change, no surge of overwhelming power, no dramatic transformation, only the faint awareness that something within his soul could reach toward another Talent and reproduce its pattern.
Copy.
That was the name the Tower had given it.
A simple name for an ability that could become extraordinarily dangerous.
Eryndor remembered people in the future possessing abilities that could imitate techniques, steal skills, borrow powers, or reproduce certain effects, but none of them had possessed something quite like this, because Copy did not simply imitate what someone else did, it reached toward the underlying expression of their Talent and attempted to reproduce it within Eryndor’s own existence.
Yet there was a limitation.
A very important one.
Copy could reproduce the pattern of another Talent, but it could not give Eryndor the comprehension required to master that Talent, nor could it grant the other person’s Race, Bloodline, Core, experience, or Authority.
In other words, Copy could give him a weapon, but not the skill to wield it.
Eryndor considered that for several seconds before smiling faintly.
“That makes sense.”
Power without understanding had always been dangerous.
The future had taught him that much.
A notification appeared.
[Trial continues.]
The landscape changed.
The endless grey plain vanished, replaced by a vast stone chamber with towering walls and a ceiling that disappeared into darkness, and unlike the previous trial, this environment immediately felt hostile.
Eryndor took one step forward.
The floor beneath him lit up.
A circular formation appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Three different patterns spread across the chamber, each one connected to a different energy signature.
The Tower was testing his ability to understand his Talent.
Eryndor remembered something similar from his previous life, although his memories were incomplete, and he couldn’t remember exactly what had happened.
He knew only that the Tower did not care whether a person had a powerful Talent.
It cared whether that person could understand what they had been given.
A weak Talent used perfectly could surpass a powerful Talent used poorly.
Eryndor approached the first formation.
The moment he touched it, a voice appeared inside his mind.
[Talent expression detected.]
A scene appeared before him.
A young man stood within a forest, his body surrounded by flames, and with a single movement, he transformed those flames into a spear.
Eryndor recognized the Talent.
Flame Manipulation.
He had seen similar abilities countless times in the future.
The Tower was presenting him with an example.
Eryndor reached toward the image.
The pattern entered his mind.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then a small flame appeared above his palm.
Eryndor stared at it.
The flame flickered.
It was weak.
Far weaker than the original ability he had witnessed.
But it was there.
Copy had worked.
He tried increasing the flame.
It immediately became unstable.
The flame vanished.
Eryndor frowned.
“So I can reproduce the pattern, but I don’t understand it.”
The Tower responded.
[Correct.]
Eryndor looked toward the empty air.
“You could have told me that earlier.”
No answer came.
He sighed.
“Of course.”
He tried again.
This time, instead of forcing the flame to become larger, he watched it carefully.
The flame moved according to the copied pattern, but Eryndor didn’t understand why.
He could reproduce the effect.
He couldn’t reproduce the understanding.
That distinction became increasingly obvious.
The more he tried to force the Talent, the more unstable it became.
Eventually, the flame disappeared again.
Eryndor sat down.
He had expected Copy to make everything easier.
Instead, it had created another problem.
If he copied every Talent he encountered without learning how they worked, he would eventually possess countless abilities that he barely understood.
That would make him powerful in appearance but weak in practice.
The thought reminded him of someone from his memories.
A man who had possessed hundreds of techniques yet had never truly mastered any of them.
Eryndor couldn’t remember his name.
But he remembered how that story ended.
He didn’t want to repeat it.
He looked at the flame pattern again.
This time, he stopped trying to make the fire stronger.
Instead, he asked a different question.
What was the Talent actually doing?
The answer didn’t come immediately.
He watched the flame.
It moved.
It responded to his thoughts.
It consumed energy.
It changed shape.
The pattern wasn’t simply producing fire.
It was controlling the relationship between his energy and the flame.
Eryndor slowly raised his hand.
The flame appeared again.
This time, it remained stable.
Small.
Weak.
But stable.
A notification appeared.
[Basic comprehension achieved.]
Eryndor smiled.
The Tower wasn’t giving him mastery.
It was forcing him to discover it himself.
He stood.
The second formation activated.
A different Talent appeared.
Water gathered around a person’s body, moving like a living serpent.
Water Manipulation.
Eryndor copied it.
Water appeared in his palm.
Again, the result was weak.
Again, he studied it.
This time, the understanding came slightly faster.
The Tower wasn’t merely teaching him how to use Copy.
It was teaching him how to learn.
The third formation activated.
This Talent was different.
The air around the displayed participant distorted, and the person disappeared from sight.
Concealment.
Eryndor copied the pattern.
His body blurred.
For a brief moment, he disappeared.
Then he reappeared.
Eryndor frowned.
The Talent was useful, but his understanding was incomplete.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
He eventually realized that the Talent wasn’t simply making the body invisible.
It was altering how existence was perceived.
The moment he understood that, his body disappeared again.
This time, he remained concealed for several seconds.
[Comprehension improved.]
Eryndor nodded.
He was beginning to understand the purpose of the Trial.
The Tower didn’t want him to collect abilities.
It wanted him to understand them.
A sudden tremor shook the chamber.
Eryndor turned.
The three formations disappeared.
The walls began moving.
The enormous chamber narrowed.
A new message appeared.
[Trial phase changing.]
Eryndor stepped backward.
The floor opened.
Something emerged.
It wasn’t human.
It had four legs, a long body, and a head covered in dark crystalline plates.
A beast.
But not a living beast.
A construct created by the Tower.
Its eyes opened.
Eryndor immediately sensed danger.
The creature charged.
He moved.
The beast’s claws struck the stone where he had been standing.
Eryndor rolled aside and raised his hand.
Flames erupted from his palm.
The attack struck the creature.
It barely reacted.
Eryndor frowned.
The copied flame was too weak.
He moved again.
The beast attacked.
Eryndor dodged.
Another strike.
He jumped backward.
The creature continued advancing.
He needed something else.
Eryndor copied the water pattern.
A stream of water appeared.
He redirected it toward the beast’s legs.
The creature stumbled.
Not because the water was powerful, but because Eryndor had used it differently.
He immediately understood.
The Tower wasn’t testing whether he could overpower the creature.
It was testing whether he could combine what he had learned.
Eryndor created a thin layer of water across the floor.
Then he copied the concealment pattern.
His body disappeared.
The beast looked around.
Eryndor moved silently.
He appeared behind it.
Fire gathered around his hand.
Instead of throwing the flame directly, he compressed it.
The flame became smaller.
Denser.
More stable.
Then he struck.
The creature staggered.
A crack appeared across its crystalline armor.
Eryndor stepped back.
The beast turned.
Its eyes locked onto him.
Then it roared.
The entire chamber shook.
Eryndor smiled.
“Finally.”
The battle became faster.
He stopped relying on a single Talent.
Fire became distraction.
Water became movement control.
Concealment became positioning.
None of the copied Talents were truly his.
Not yet.
But he was learning how to make them work together.
The creature attacked again.
Eryndor dodged beneath its claws, created water beneath its front legs, vanished from sight, and reappeared behind it.
Fire gathered in his hand.
This time, he didn’t force it.
He understood it.
The flame expanded naturally.
Eryndor struck the crack in the creature’s armor.
The construct shattered.
Silence returned.
The Tower spoke.
[Trial objective completed.]
Eryndor breathed slowly.
He expected another message.
Instead, the chamber remained still.
Then something appeared in front of him.
[Talent evaluation.]
Several lines formed beneath it.
[Talent: Copy.]
[Grade: Unknown.]
Eryndor’s eyes narrowed.
Unknown?
The Tower continued.
[Standard classification impossible.]
His expression became serious.
He remembered the Talent grades.
F.
E.
D.
C.
B.
A.
S.
SS.
SSS.
EX.
Every awakened Talent belonged somewhere within that system.
So why couldn’t the Tower classify his?
Another message appeared.
[Talent expression exceeds available evaluation parameters.]
Eryndor stared at it.
For the first time, he wondered whether Copy itself was hiding something.
Not merely because it could reproduce other Talents.
But because the Tower couldn’t understand where its limits were.
The mirror pendant grew cold again.
Eryndor touched it.
A strange sensation passed through his mind.
For an instant, he saw an enormous mirror floating in darkness.
Behind the mirror was something vast.
Something that felt older than the world.
Then the vision disappeared.
Eryndor stood silently.
He didn’t know what the pendant was.
He didn’t know what was hidden behind his memories.
He didn’t know why the Tower couldn’t properly evaluate him.
And he certainly didn’t know what Copy could become.
But he understood one thing.
The Talent was not going to give him victory.
He would have to earn it.
The Tower began preparing the next stage.
[Trial continues.]
The chamber disappeared.
A new environment formed around him, vast and silent, with no visible enemy and no obvious objective.
Eryndor looked around.
This time, he didn’t immediately move.
He waited.
He observed.
He listened.
And somewhere deep within the Tower, ancient systems continued analyzing an existence they could recognize, yet could not understand.
Eryndor had entered the Tower searching for answers about the future.
Instead, the Tower was slowly teaching him how to become someone capable of changing it.