'This ‹Hell› mode doesn't seem like it was meant for a solo challenger, well whatever,' Kale raised his hand at the leg of the goblin warrior with a stone hammer in his hands.
'Wooden Thorn'
A sharp green spike was shot out from his hand and pierces the thigh of the goblin warrior, the goblin warrior screamed but before he could react, another spike shot out and hit the same spot making it worse.
..Thud…
The goblin warrior fell on one knee, he used his hand to stop the blue blood coming out from the wound as he gave a hateful glance to Kale, the other goblin warrior quickly walked in front of him and called out for mob goblins.
Kale didn't stop his advance and only changed his advancing path to the right, he shook his hand and one end of the «Wild Vine» on his wrist swirled around the handle of «Fallen Sakura».
Suddenly, he turned around and fiercely waved his hand towards the second warrior goblin, the vine extended like a whip with a knife connected to its other end.
The goblin warrior instinctively raised his hand to defend the attack, but this time it wasn't a Mortal-Rank Common-Grade knife, the knife slashed leaving a deep cut on his arm.
Although the cut was deep, it wasn't highly lethal for a goblin warrior, but unlike their normal self, the goblin screamed in agony like his soul was cut in the attack, he stopped focusing on Kale and rolled on the floor while screaming painfully.
'So the soul curse works here too, I already used it several times, if my estimation is correct I can only use it around six more times, the number will change if the opponent is of higher lifeform level,' Kale thought as he moved towards the first goblin warrior who was looking at the second goblin warrior in shock.
He wasn't sure if the soul curse ability implanted on the knife would work on the monster in the tower but it worked which was a good thing, if later on, the situation unexpectedly gets worse, then he could use it again to gain an advantage.
Kale retreated as he took out another six knives, three in each hand, and threw them at the injured first goblin warrior, the goblin warrior raised his hammer to defend but then he realized that not a single one of the six knives was aimed at him.
Three knives flew to the left and the other three to the right, just when he was still confused he felt something touching his body from the sides and noticed the thin black threads attached to the ends of every knife.
The goblin warrior saw that the threads were being released from the gaps between Kale's fingers, the transparent «Synthetic While Plastic Gloves» were preventing the «Black Plastic Thread» from harming his fingers. The goblin warrior had a bad premonition but it was already too late for him to react.
'Arachne Thread Controlling Art'
Kale shook his hands with a jolt, Battle Qi passed through his hands, the straight threads made waves, his fingers closed tightening his grip on them, as a result, the trajectory of the knives began to change, the knives on the right moved to the left and the knives on the left moved to the right. In an instant, they spun around the goblin warrior, binding him in thin but strong threads.
The goblin warrior panicked, he could feel the sharp thread-making cuts on his skin, he tried to use brute force to break free from them but his actions only resulted in tightening their grip, making him bleed from all over the body.
..Sccrrthhcc….
Kale saw the other goblins approaching him, he ran to the left side, moving around the second goblin rolling on the floor, he kept changing his direction of running, purposely moving around the two goblin warriors to trap them using threads. Kale only stopping when both of them were bounds in threads from head to toe with all their limbs firmly trapped.
At early stages, his high-grade martial techniques couldn't show their true capabilities but even so, they still provided him quite the versatility in fighting style during combat.
Once he was finished with it, the two goblin warrior had lost their battle power, the first goblin warrior's continuous attempts at freeing himself only injured both of them further.
The threads were thinner but were stronger as steel and sharper than the edge of the blade. The goblin warriors lacked the intelligence to plan and free themselves, their futile resistance only pushed them towards their doom.
The remaining four goblins were already heavily injured, their heads were bleeding because of the wounds from the knives earlier, four slashes from «Fallen Sakura» was all it took to finish them off.
After killing the normal goblins, Kale didn't kill the two immobilized goblin warrior struggling in pain but instead used this opportunity to recover his lost mana and Battle Qi.
Due to the threads binding them, the goblin warrior couldn't easily move, they could only bleed and wait for their deaths while Kale meditated on their opposite side of the arena.
The goblin warriors struggled for around two hours before they died due to loss of blood.
Kale wasn't greedy enough to finish them off early on to try and meet another hidden condition, he was very patient, he knew the limits of his current body, being hasty wasn't a good thing in his eyes.
Once all the goblins died, the countdown for the third wave started.
Kale stood up and quickly collected all the knives and threads on the ground. 30 seconds weren't enough to put together all the threads, in the end, he gathered it all on the side to not get obstructed by it.
The countdown ended, and the third wave arrived.
A single magic circle shined on the floor.
It was only one magic circle, meaning there was only one monster but this didn't make him happy, instead, he frowned.
Until now the focus of the trial was on quantity but only one monster meant, that the quantity will be turning into quality. The monster is bound to be strong.
A humanoid silhouette appeared from the magic circle, it was a male, he looked more humane compared to a hobgoblin, he had greenish-grey skin, yellowish eyes, pointed nose, the rest of the appearance matched any other normal human, he was wearing a black robe covering most of his body, the second he appeared, he calmly looked at Kale then took his battle stance.
'A rare goblin evolution? If my memory serves me right then, it should be a Fighter-Type Elder Hobgoblin,' Kale thought, his worry lessened by a big margin, he retracted his hand from the knife handle and switched to his battle stance.
The goblin narrowed his eyes, he took a step, grey Battle Qi surged out from his skin and formed a membrane around his body, from the aura alone it was obvious that this goblin was an Enlightened Mortal-Rank lifeform, the goblin then rushed towards him.
Kale clenched his fist, he also urged his attribute less Battle Qi and covered his body before rushing forwards to confront his opponent.
The goblin punched at him, Kale blocked it and followed it with a kick to counter but surprisingly the goblin blocked the kick with the other hand and used an elbow to try and hit him, Kale bent his knee avoiding the elbow attack then gave him a headbutt.
The goblin took a step back then engaged in another exchange of moves.
The goblin was slightly faster in speed compared to him but due to his rich battle experience Kale was able to predict his moves in advance, although the goblin was at Enlightened Mortal-Rank, Kale had cultivated ‹Snake King Body Toning Art› to Master level and whether it was in terms of lifespan or wisdom, goblins were at a lower lifeform level when compared to humans.
The goblin also used fairly good martial arts while fighting but compared to Kale's they weren't worth mentioning.
In fact, in a way, the intelligent Elder Goblin was more capable and dangerous compared to the previous wave of monsters, but it was his bad luck that he, who was a Spirit Monster/Beast and used Battle Qi like a Martial Artist, met Kale who is a reincarnated Martial Venerable.
The goblin was in a situation where he was trying to melt the ice with cold water. The thing that could have been his biggest advantage towards others became his greatest disadvantage when facing Kale.
Within two sets of moves exchange, Kale successfully evaluated his opponent's battle strength.
'If I use a knife then I can finish him in the next exchange but…' Kale thought about it and decided to engage in hand to hand combat instead, it was a good opportunity for him to get used to his body in fighting against humans.
Half an hour later….
"Huff... Huff... Huff.." Kale controlled his heavy breathing as he looked at the lightly panting goblin in front of him.
Right now, whether it was the goblin or him, both had purple-purple bruises on their body caused by heavy beating, moreover, Kale had more bruises on his body but if a veteran fighter observes them they would realize that the one at disadvantage was the goblin because although he had fewer bruises, they were all present at his vital points like neck, elbow joints, nose, and eye slots.
'My stamina is drained, he won't let me recover it, looks like this is my current limit,' Kale thought. He has learned ‹Mana-Resilience Cycle› but it wasn't at Ethereal level, as a result, he would need to concentrate on it when using it and that's why he couldn't use it right now.
In the next second, he took out «Fallen Sakura» and dashed at the goblin.
'Falling Meteor Blade Art: Second Fall'
The goblin was taken by surprise, due to rushed breathing he couldn't dodge in time and raised his hand to defend.
Kale displayed his blade art together with his Knife Intent but this time it was used at the Grand Master level.
The goblin was intending to block the knife with one hand and attack with another but when the blade fell, he saw an afterimage of the knife blade parallel to the first one, following behind it, he got confused, he used both of his hands to block both knives.
Suddenly, at the last moment, both the blades merged into each other, their speed increased by twice then it turned blurry disappearing from his vision, the next second when the blade appeared, Kale had already finished the slash.
The goblin kept looking at him without moving, a blue line appeared on him starting from the area between his eyebrows, to his neck, then chest. A pressured stream of blue blood spurted out from it, the goblin fell backward making a 'thud' sound with the ground, and died.
[Congratulations! You have completed the 1st-floor trial at ‹Hell› mode.]
Once the notification appeared, the familiar green magic circle also emerged and restored his health.
[Issuing rewards…]
[Please choose two of the following options as your rewards:-
1. Full analysis of your mutant traits and data on their next possible advance routes.
2. Records of a Tier 1 Wood Mage advancement to Tier 2 Wood Mage.
3. Tier 1 Legendary-Grade Martial Arts.
4. Tier 2 Epic-Grade Martial Arts.
5. Six hours in special cultivation room.
6. 1st-floor redeem the pass.
7. A random Tier 2 equipment.
8. Tier 1 Epic-Grade Foundation Pill.]
Kale looked at the list, there weren't any details on the option provided in the list, their names were the most information provided by the tower. After sorting out all the options, the ones that intrigued him most were the 1st, 5th, and 8th options.
He didn't lack martial arts, redeem pass looked good but he wasn't sure if it would let him get into ‹Hell› mode, and even if it did who knows if the rewards of next time would be the same, everyone knows the rewards in tower changes for every challenger.
Kale thought about it and chose 1st and 5th at last, he wasn't sure how effective would be a foundation pill but he was interested in a special cultivation room, unlike his peers he could easily sit and cultivate for six hours straight. 1st option was a necessity because he lacked knowledge about his mutant traits, he wasn't from a mutant family and didn't know much about his mutant traits as a result, the only way to know about them is either figuring it out slowly or buy the records of someone with similar traits but it was neither easy nor cheap to get his hands on such records.
Before coming to the tower, he had no idea that mutant traits can be analyzed like that or their advancement routes can be predicted, if it was that easy then Riyan and others could have long figured out that it wasn't because of ‹Auto-Photographic Memory› that he matured so fast.
With his position, it was impossible for Riyan to not know about these things but he didn't mention them which only means they aren't common outside.
Kale submitted his choices, the second he did, two white magic circle appeared around him, one above his head and another under his feet, both of them moved closer to each other passing through each other and burst into a brilliant light on touching each other.
When the light disappeared, countless fragments of information flooded in his head. It took a while for Kale to arrange this information but once he did, this information brought a great surprise to him, the analysis report wasn't just about ‹Bone Manipulation› but also ‹Auto-Photographic Memory›.
He realized how beneficial the traits really were, while he was still thinking about them, a new magic circle appeared below his feet and he disappeared from the spot.