As I awoke from that uncanny dream, I found Lucius on the entrance of the Perception Passage. He was training with his spear by stabbing it forward continously then stopped.
As soon as he spotted me awake, he then wiped his sweat with his shirt and stretched to cool down his body.
"Finally awake. You ready now?"
He asked me as I groaned and got up from the ground. I recalled the dream that I had but some of it were omitted. I only recalled the Beautiful Lady rejecting to give me tips on how to learn her techniques. After that, I remembered nothing. I also felt that trying to recall it will be bad for me.
Shaking my head out of those thoughts, I strapped Flesh Eater by my waist and put on my now torn robe as I stood beside Lucius.
"Yeah. Let's go"
I replied as we both then entered the Perception Passage.
—————
As the duo entered the Perception Passage, the same trap appeared. An arrow shot out and then following that a spear came out from the wall to pierce them. They already knew it was coming prior to experience so they easily dodged it. Then there came the following challenges.
The two of them, Heightening their senses to its limit. They sensed the incoming traps that are hidden underneath their noses.
The ground started to sink, but despite not being able to see...Roanoke was able to react on time as he swiftly moved to the other side to dodge the sinking trap.
On the other hand, Lucius...he was unable to react as swiftly as Roanoke so he barely managed to dodge the sinking trap and now he is currently hanging on the ground where Roanoke was standing in.
"Haha loser"
Roanoke chuckled at Lucius whereas the other guy pulled himself up and dusted himself off while glaring at Roanoke. Not that he can see the guy in this dark place.
"I should have poisoned you"
Lucius retorted to Roanoke's teasing with a sigh as the two of them went on deeper into the passage. Surprisingly, the deeper they went, they did not encounter any traps which greatly unsettled Roanoke, he felt that there was something odd on their current situation.
And he was not wrong. The first one to notice the trap that they are currently experiencing right now was Lucius. He was able to smell something off in the air as he thought that they are being poisoned with a slow acting poison.
"This is [ Angel's Scent ]....an odorless Poison. It is called that way because it kills people slowly and without them knowing, usually used for Euthanasia"
Lucius explained to Roanoke who eagerly listened as he covered his nose and opened his pouch for some herbs and also gave Roanoke a mask.
"Woah, you sure know your stuff....but how did you smell it if it's odorless?"
"I have great nose"
Lucius grinned as he picked a herb from his pouch and handed it to Roanoke.
"Chew on it....it's [ Devil's Tango ], used to stop the spreading of the Angel's Scent poison and prevent death. Do not spit it out until I say so."
Lucius once again explained to Roanoke as the latter listened to his advices and started chewing onto the herb that Lucius just gave him.
While chewing onto the [ Devil's Tango ], the two of them then continued to explore the passage as they headed deeper.
"Come to think of it, I am starting to notice something"
Lucius uttered while they were exploring deeper, while Roanoke just walked ahead and did not stop. He replied to Lucius though with a questioning hum.
"Hm?"
"Perception might not be about strengthening our senses"
"Thanks for that obvious answer, Mister. Perception is obviously being spatially aware"
Roanoke chuckled towards Lucius' ramblings whereas the latter couldn't help but roll his eyes and continue on his analysis.
"No, I mean. We started this trial together and if we were to look at our Mana Cores, I am obviously stronger than you are. You are at Pristine Red Stage while I am Elite Orange stage, yet you are more adept at being perceptive than I am...."
"That's because I am a Prodigy"
Roanoke once again chuckled quite cheekily as the two of them dodged an incoming rain of arrows that came from the ceiling. The two of them were hit by one arrow on a part of their body as they both resorted to parrying instead of dodging, since a hundred was raining down on them.
Once they were out of that rain of arrows, Roanoke was hit by three arrows and Lucius was grazed by one and had two arrows stuck on his back. It was painful for the both of them.
"Yet you did not sense the Poison Earlier"
"I did sense it was....of...ff"
Then once Roanoke replied to Lucius' rebuttal about not being able to sense the poison earlier, he suddenly trailed off his words as he had a realization.
"Yeah....come to think of it, Spatial Awareness is different."
Roanoke muttered as the two of them were pulling out the arrows stuck on their body while wincing in pain. They received this much damage but they weren't that out of breath yet. They think it is bearable.
"Right? I was able to sense the Odorless Poison earlier but that's because of my heightened nose. I can also sense most traps yet it is you who can dodge most of it despite being lower rank than me. Does the Mana Core levels relate to this? Right, you can spit the tango out now by the way."
"I don't think Mana Core levels matter now."
"It does, I mean does it even make sense on how you are so good at training despite being at lower rank?"
"I once fought a group of Orange individuals despite being a Red ranker. I tell you, Core ranks don't matter"
The two of them talked to each other as they were able to nonchalantly dodge the spear from the ground trap and destroy it.
"I mean, I know that but what I mean is that.....do Mana Cores relate to a person's physical body? Does our bodies also get stronger the more our Mana Cores grow? Or does our Mana Core also grow the stronger our body becomes?"
"..."
Lucius kept on rambling which made Roanoke pause on his words and take the info in.
"You are a Physical Fighter and you are asking that?"
"I mostly enhance my body with mana and my blessing"
But the two of them went on deeper anyway, nonchalantly destroying traps. They both had questions in their head but Roanoke was able to grasp the answer faster than Lucius.
'Master did say that he overwhelmed others with physical strength, so I know better that Physical and Mana Cores aren't related at all. They do not affect each other. A frail person can possess a Violet Core and never crumble from its might. It was also the reason why I can go toe to toe with the orange rankers in the factory last time. It was because I have better Physique than anyone there from training underwater, plus there is also the body strengthening Ki. Although it is a different story if they have a powerful blessing plus a good physical capabilities like the wolf'
Roanoke rambled inside his thoughts, while Lucius just kept quiet while they were exploring and dodging the traps. He was in deep thinking.
'But....the guy said something about perception. It was honestly intriguing, although we did trail off from our main topic'
He sighed as the two of them reached a place with luminous crystals lighting up the place.