Online Game: Starting With SSS-Ranked Summons-Chapter 559: Trial of Comprehension [1]

"Soon, Master. Once your body fully adjusts to the second-order transformation—usually within minutes of achieving level 25—the trials will activate automatically. You’ll be pulled into a separate dimensional space where time flows differently. Hours may pass in the trial while only moments elapse in reality."

The Winter Beast’s eyes reflected something that might have been sympathy.

"Prepare yourself, Master. The trial of comprehension is not a battle you can win through strength or tactics. It’s a test of understanding, of accepting truth, of looking into the fundamental essence of your power and truly seeing what it means."

Arthur felt his body beginning to tingle with strange energy, a sensation that suggested the transformation was already beginning. His attributes had stabilised, his mana reserves had deepened, and now something else was stirring—a pull toward something beyond normal reality.

"Master? You’re glowing a little bit!" Aether observed with wide eyes as faint light began emanating from Arthur’s form.

"Wait, I’m glowing too!" Aether said, as he felt his own body glow.

Aether and Arthur weren’t the only two who felt their bodies glow. But the cackle queen, mane king, bloom and all of the other summons on earth had the same phenomenon.

Arthur immediately spread the message among his summons, making sure that they took advantage of the trial of comprehension to gain their own domains.

The trial was beginning.

Arthur closed his eyes, centring himself mentally as he prepared to face whatever test awaited him in the realm of comprehension.

Four SSS-rank talents. Four potential domains. Four trials to overcome.

Let’s see what fundamental truths my powers want to show me, Arthur thought as the world around him began to fade.

The journey into true second-order power had begun

Across both worlds, Arthur and his summons all teleported simultaneously. Those fighting demons on distant battlefields, Neko who stood beside Jasmine and Charlotte in village #419, and those closest to Arthur, each vanishing in pulses of light as they were thrust into their own trials to awaken their domains.

The separation was instantaneous and absolute.

...

Arthur found himself suspended in white space.

Not empty space. Not void. Just white, stretching infinitely in every direction, featureless and vast.

No ground beneath his feet, yet he stood. No sky above, yet he existed within something.

Before him materialized a translucent screen, its surface rippling like disturbed water before solidifying into clarity.

[Domain Awakening Trial Initiated]

[Select a talent to form your domain]

The list of his talents appeared, cascading down the screen. Each talent he’d acquired through his summons, displayed in neat rows with brief descriptions.

But Arthur’s eyes immediately locked onto one entry near the top.

[Primordial Summoning]

The talent that had started everything. The ability that had allowed him to call forth creatures from beyond, to form contracts, to build the foundation of everything he’d become. Without it, none of his other talents would exist.

His hand moved without hesitation, pressing against the screen where those words glowed.

The display shifted.

[Warning: Confirming this choice will establish Primordial Summoning as your domain]

[Once a domain is selected, no additional domains may be formed]

[Other talents may still be comprehended as laws and cultivated independently, but cannot manifest as separate domains]

[Do you wish to proceed?]

Arthur stared at the notification, his mind processing the implications.

He couldn’t create four different domains. The possibility he’d entertained, the idea that his multiple high-tier talents might allow him to cultivate separate domains for each, was wrong.

He had to make a single choice of one domain. Everything else would remain as comprehensible laws, abilities he could still develop and strengthen, but never elevate to a domain.

His space talent would remain a law he could comprehend. His luck talent and other talents that he might gain in the future, all of them could still evolve and grow in power. But they wouldn’t receive the qualitative transformation that came with domain formation.

It was unfortunate. He’d truly believed the multiple domains path might be possible, given his unique circumstances.

But Arthur didn’t dwell on what he couldn’t control.

His Primordial Summoning talent wasn’t just any talent. It had proven itself time and again as the foundation of his strength. Every summon brought new possibilities. Every contract opened new paths. The versatility alone made it invaluable, but beyond that, it felt right in a way the others didn’t.

This was his core. Everything else was supplementary.

Arthur reached forward and confirmed his choice.

[Domain Selection Confirmed: Primordial Summoner(SSS-Rank)]

[Beginning domain formation process...]

The white space around him began to change.

Arthur found himself plunged into darkness so complete it felt physical, pressing against his skin like a living thing. Not the simple absence of light, but a darkness that seemed to consume even the concept of illumination. His eyes strained uselessly, finding nothing to focus on, no reference point to orient himself.

Suddenly, and out of nowhere, Arthur heard noises that sent chills down his back, which surprised him. At his strength, these voices were merely the voices of beasts that he would slaughter without even exerting an atom of strength, but they made him...afraid.

The sounds of breathing and snarling were accompanied by the scrape of claws against stone.

Sounds emerging from every direction, layering over each other until the darkness itself seemed to growl.

The first beast lunged from the void without warning.

Arthur twisted instinctively, but teeth still grazed his shoulder, tearing through fabric and skin. He couldn’t see it. Couldn’t make out its shape or size. Only felt the impact, the weight, the raw malice in its attack.

He reached for his space talent, trying to teleport away from the attack.

But to his dismay, nothing happened.

Arthur’s heart stuttered. He grasped for his shadow manipulation, his summoning talent, any of the dozen talents or skills that had become as natural as breathing.

All of them were gone.

The beast came at him again. This time, Arthur was ready, throwing himself sideways and lashing out with his fist.