Daily Rewards! Transmigrating into a novel as a side-character!

I found myself slightly out of breath, but that was primarily because I had deliberately tried to finish the fight as quickly as possible rather than conserving energy. The aggressive approach had required more overall expenditure, but it had prevented the guardians from adapting further to my tactics.

Silence...

The shrine fell completely silent for the first time since I had activated the trial. Five valuable crystal cores now rested in my storage ring.

After I destroyed all the statues, I waited in the sudden silence, expecting the trial to conclude and the Royal-rank secret art to reveal itself. Minutes passed, but nothing happened.

Confusion and growing worry began to gnaw at me. This was supposed to be the end of the trial according to my knowledge from the novel. I should have received the footwork technique by now.

Silence...

The shrine remained eerily quiet, offering no indication of what I was supposed to do next.

A terrible thought struck me - had someone already claimed the secret art before me?

But who could have possibly possessed the strength to defeat eight peak Elite-rank guardians and successfully complete this trial? And if they had, it must have been before we even entered the examination area, because the stone guardians had clearly been active and renewed. The academy wouldn't have been able to restore the statues during an ongoing examination.

Perhaps I had missed something crucial? Or maybe the novel's author hadn't fully explained the complete trial process, simply giving Kyle the technique without detailing all the required steps?

I began examining everything around me with meticulous care - the walls, the floor, every carved detail and potential hidden mechanism.

The walls revealed nothing unusual, just stone covered in faded runes. The floor showed only the scattered remains of the destroyed guardians and the glowing pathways that had activated during combat.

None of it appeared to hide secret chambers or contain anything obviously out of place.

Hmm...

My eyes finally landed on the altar where I had originally dropped my blood to begin the trial. I walked toward it with renewed focus, studying its surface more carefully than I had initially.

That's when I noticed them, small, precisely carved holes arranged in a specific pattern across the altar's surface. They were barely visible unless viewed from the correct angle, blending seamlessly with the stonework.

My eyebrows furrowed as a sudden realization struck me. I retrieved the power crystals I had collected from the destroyed guardians, examining their size and shape against the mysterious holes.

Clink!

The first crystal I tested actually fit perfectly into one of the holes, sliding into place with a satisfying sound. The moment it settled, the crystal began shining with brilliant light.

"It seems like I'm not destined to have these crystals for myself," I muttered aloud with mild disappointment, realizing that the valuable crafting materials would need to be sacrificed to complete the trial.

Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink!

One by one, I placed the remaining crystals into their corresponding holes, each one adding to the growing illumination.

RUMBLE! SHAKE!

When the final crystal was positioned, the entire shrine began trembling violently. The altar itself started opening with the grinding sound of mechanisms activating after a longer period of dormancy.

CRACK! SLIDE!

The stone surface split apart, revealing a hidden underground chamber that had been concealed beneath the altar all along.

I descended carefully into the hidden underground chamber, my footsteps echoing off stone as I made my way down stairs that had been carved. The air grew cooler and more stagnant the deeper I went, carrying the musty scent of stonework.

Eventually, the stairs led me into a dimly lit corridor illuminated by torches mounted on both sides of the passageway. The flames danced with an unnatural steadiness, the flickering light created dancing shadows across the walls, giving the entire area an distinctly eerie atmosphere.

My boots against the stone floor created the only sounds as I moved forward through the corridor, alert for any additional traps or guardians that might be waiting.

At the end of the passageway, I found myself facing a split in the path. Two separate doorways led in different directions, but what caught my attention was a message carved into the central wall between them.

[Congratulations. If you have made it this far, that means you have beaten the guardians of the shrine and successfully figured out the mechanism behind this doorway. This shows your strength, courage, and treachery...]

A smile formed on my face as I processed these words. Whoever had written this message had probably made this place himself. They understood that reaching this point required more than just raw combat ability.

Indeed, not many people would have the combination of skills needed to make it here. The strong, talented challengers who were able to even beat those statues, might destroy the power crystals inside the statues rather than preserving them, either out of ignorance or by accident during the heat of battle. Others might lack the thinking required to figure out the altar's hidden mechanism, even if they did collect the crystals properly.

I continued reading the inscription with growing curiosity.

[You have a choice. Either pick the left path and continue to eventually face the final guardian, a Transcendent-rank monster, and claim the ultimate reward of this challenge, or pick the right path and receive your reward for completing the first part of the shrine, which is a transcendent-rank secret art.]

Pause...

My mind raced as I processed this unexpected development. The message had revealed that there was actually another prize which was a Transcendent-rank technique for completing the initial trial. The true ultimate reward, the royal-rank secret art, required facing an even more dangerous challenge.

A Transcendent-rank monster was going to be difficult to fight off even with my current capabilities. Even with all my enhancements and techniques, that level of opponent could kill me if I made many mistakes.

Despite the fact that I had killed a transcendent rank being, the ant, that was because I had injured it previously and I had regained my health and gained more power whilst it didn't. Still, the potential reward for taking that risk was worth it.