Conquest rewards have been processed. Assimilating a skill obtained by conquest requires one skill point.
Secret quest updated: [Conquest of Lords]
[Conquest of Lords]: You have defeated the King Jaeger, the lord of this terrestrial plane pillar. The proud lizard king boasted immense strength and size due to its consumption of a root of the world tree several years ago, granting it an ability to enlarge its body more than twice its size.
A new conquest skill has been synthesized.
[King Jaeger's Giant Transformation (legendary)]: The lizard king's pride lied with his stature and his large belly. Grow to a gargantuan size and terrorize the biome with the enormity of your inflated body. Size growth is based upon proficiency with the skill. While under the effects of transformation, constitution will increase up to twenty times based on size, but agility will be halved. Increases passive health regeneration. Additional effects may be discovered as proficiency with the skill is increased.
Do you wish to spend a skill point to obtain [King Jaeger's Giant Transformation (legendary)]?
Hell yeah. It was the King Jaeger's trump card ability, and a legendary skill to boot. There was no way that he would pass this up.
New skill obtained.
Next came the absolute deluge of level up notifications.
Ding! [Enigmatic Bulwark Knight] class has leveled up to level 20. Strength has increased by 1. Constitution has increased by 2.
Ding! [Human] race has leveled up to level 20. All stats have been increased by 0.1.
–Many similar notifications later–
Ding! [Enigmatic Bulwark Knight] class has leveled up to level 32. Strength has increased by 1. Constitution has increased by 2.
Ding! [Human] race has leveled up to level 32. All stats have been increased by 0.1.
He ended up as level 32 after taking down the level 62 King Jaeger lord by himself, which was quite an impressive amount of experience gained. Marcello had no idea just how precious experience had become in the tutorial back in the regular third trial area.
By reaching level 32, he received a skill point for level 30 but spent it to obtain the conquest ability. Normally there would be a skill point every five levels so he was missing a skill point for level 25, but that pace ended at level 20 for the enigmatic bulwark knight class.
As an advanced promotion class, the bulwark knight class had the characteristics of such a class, including the skill growth and stat multipliers that accompanied it.
Anyway, moving on to the other immediate rewards for killing the King Jaeger. Strangely enough, Marcello saw that his profession of Carpenter (novice) had turned into Carpenter (practiced novice).
That reminded him. Didn't the description of the wooden platform he made allude to some special bonus if it served its purpose? Something about becoming a historical piece? He walked over and used identify on the now shattered wooden platform.
[Platform of the King's Downfall]
A historic piece constructed by an unknown carpenter. This broken platform marks the descent to oblivion of the mighty lord once known as the King Jaeger, felled by a lone knight of the Empire. Although the workmanship of the construction was poor, it was enough to serve its purpose.
Grade: Fine Creation
Those who admire the Platform of the King's Downfall will have their base health and vitality increased by 20% for one day.
Warriors that view this piece will have their damage against large monsters increased by 10% for one day.
Characteristics: Broken, structurally unsound.
Now this was new. It seemed like the carpenter class was a lot deeper than it first appeared. His creation now conferred stat bonuses. How wild was that?
New to his personal status screen were two timed buffs ticking down at the peripheral of his vision, one marking the base health and vitality increase for the day, and the other marking the large monster damage bonus for the day.
So anyone that visited the structure would get those temporary bonuses conferred to them, he thought. Hah, maybe he could've even sold tickets for visitors to the platform, and set up a whole tourist site.
Kind of tragic that he built the platform in place neither he nor any other human being would be able to come back to. He would've loved to have twenty percent extra health and ten percent bonus damage to large monsters on a consistent basis.
Marcello peered down through the broken platform one last time, staring into the depths of oblivion below that lay beyond the splintered wood, as the winding pillar he stood on now was one amongst many that simply extended downwards ad infinitum.
He felt a sense of uneasiness from the height, and took a step back while letting out a sigh of relief.
Maybe checking his status would take his mind off how precariously high he was on this biome's pillar. With a flick of his wrist, he gave into his urge to check out his new status screen.
Status
Name: Marcello Vivaldi
Current status: Impossible trial candidate in the Terrestrial Plane
Class: Enigmatic Bulwark Knight (level 32)
Profession: Carpenter (practiced novice)
Race: Human (alive) (level 32)
Health: 282/282
Mana: 112/112
Stats
Strength: 69
Constitution: 74
Agility: 13
Endurance: 27
Vitality: 33
Perception: 13
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Presence: 11
Sense: 100
Skills
Despair Intuition (inheritance), King Jaeger's Giant Transformation (legendary), Giant's Roar (rare), Sundering Blow (uncommon), Identify (unique), Bear Trap (upgraded), Quiet Footsteps (basic)
Titles
Breaker of Skulls, Lord Slayer, Tenacious Woodcutter
With a new skill and title in tow, Marcello felt better than ever looking over his status screen.
Oh yeah, and he even received another lord kill for his Breaker of Skulls title, increasing his strength gained from that title to +10. That was the equivalent of a hundred base human levels!
Although… maybe it wasn't the best to measure things relative to base human levels anymore. Classes, professions, and titles gave so many more stats than just the base human modifiers anyway, and the fact the Enigmatic Bulwark Knight was an advanced promoted class only amplified those stats to a ridiculous degree compared to his previous class.
People with rare classes and professions, especially advanced promoted classes, were inherently stronger than those without them, although with an enterprising mindset and enough hard work, snapping up good titles could make up the difference somewhat.
The class promotion system kind of reminded him of that old video game from back on Earth, where classes could use a seal to transform from a base class to an advanced class, and then from an advanced class to a prestige class, with each promotion offering a massive stat increase. The class progression was also gated behind class trees, so an archer could see themselves promoting with an advanced seal into a sniper or a horse bowman but not a heavy knight, for example.
Anyway, it was time to get out of here.
But first, he'd try to store some more wood into his spacial inventory. He tried to put a whole log that he felled into his inventory, but sadly it wouldn't fit. Marcello wasn't entirely sure about the principles of how storage worked, but there seemed to be a storage limit or at least a limit on the size of things that could fit.
So, he had to settle with bringing a few blocks of wood and planks along. He wouldn't know the next time he'd get to work with high quality lumber from the terrestrial plane again.
And with that, it was time to go. Marcello packed up his belongings and took out the tutorial scroll of pathfinding, as he made his way back towards the King Jaeger's lair.
The hot sun shone down on the grass that stretched toward the roaring central river like a blanket of pale gold in the early evening, as the lone knight's boots crunched into the soil, parting the grass with each step.
He had walked for a while now, and noticed that something was following him. Actually, two things.
The classic enemies of this biome were here once more in their full glory, as if to give him a sendoff from the terrestrial biome. With their fangs bared and patchy fur adorning their faces like gauze masks, the two giant mole rats bore savage, intimidating glares at the human knight in full plate mail armor. From their drooping heads to their bulbous bellies, the bloated beasts circled around Marcello.
[Level 30 Mole Rat]
[Level 31 Albino Mole Rat]
Marcello smiled. He had been expecting them to show up at some point. Having spent the last week after Frosty's destruction hiding from the creatures of the pillar that grossly outleveled him, now that he was level 32 he had a newfound confidence to face them in a straight up fight.
And plus, he still had time left before the end of the trial. Time to collect some experience on the final day of the impossible trial.
A shimmering steel longsword with a curved crossguard appeared in the knight in blue gambeson's right hand, flickering in the sunlight as dangerously as when he first encountered it.
"Bring it on."
The two mole rats charged toward him with their fangs and claws bared.
But this time, Marcello had a new trump card up his sleeve.
"Giant!" he shouted, eager to try out his new conquest skill.
Marcello's body grew in size, expanding up and outwards in a terrifying display of force as his armor and sword scaled up in size with the rest of his body. He felt himself surge up to twice his original size, now standing at the height of a large red barn, as even the mole rats hesitated in their tracks for a moment when they saw the bulwark knight in his full glory.
He felt powerful, larger, and more threatening than ever, and that feeling was only amplified by the realization that his control over this skill had not fully matured.
Before the lead mole rat could run away, the barn sized knight seized it by its tail and stabbed downwards with his longsword, the blade greedily drinking the mole rat's blood as it penetrated into its hide with a disgusting squelch.
The giant knight in a suit of armor sank his longsword further into mole rat's body as the mole rat squirmed, the knight twisting his cursed longsword's blade around its heart as he slayed the beast like he was skewering piece of chicken liver over a barbecue.
As to be expected from a legendary skill, the transformation ability actually changed the size of his entire equipment set as well including his rare longsword, which was kind of a high-key overwhelming show of force.
The second mole rat ran away with its tail between its legs, but Marcello was not interested in chasing because his agility stat was halved during his transformed state.
Speaking of the transformation, he found that the effect was already beginning to wear off. With his current mastery over the skill, he could only hold the transformed state for a brief while. A surge of fatigue washed over his body as his body began to shrink back to normal size, his longsword still bloodied with the gore of the slain mole rat.
You have slain [Lvl 31 Mole Rat] - You are the sole contributor to this kill, and have received bonus tutorial points for the kill.
Since he was higher level than it, he did not receive the usual bonus experience for killing a higher level enemy.
Marcello tried his best to wipe away the post transformation fatigue as he kicked the mole rat's corpse to the side and continued onwards on his journey to the King Jaeger's lair.
After a bit of a trek, he finally reached the basin of water at the base of the waterfall once again. Marcello took a quick bath in the biome's rejuvenating waters, rinsing off the dirt and grime of his previous combats while also clearing his mind of an intense impossible trial. He came far closer to death than he would have ever liked this time around.
"Ahh…" he sighed contently, stepping out of the waterfall basin in complete nude, before equipping his newly washed clothes and armor. It was time to head into the King Jaeger's lair.
Marcello walked over just a few yards to the dark cavern opening, musing that this was where the King Jaeger spent its time sitting like a mother hen. Finally, it was time to put this impossible trial to a close.
He stepped into the rather shallow cave, which consisted of a simple dark room. To the left in front of him was a shining silver door glowing with foreign mana, which the tutorial scroll of path finding pointed towards as the exit.
And to the right of that, there was a golden treasure chest, alongside a silver chest and two bronze chests. More loot for passing this hell hole of an examination. Marcello gladly accepted this good turn of fate, as whatever spoils that could be carved from the King Jaeger's body itself were lost to the depths of whatever lay at the bottom of the terrestrial plane.
The golden chest was glowing with a yellow golden aura, just ready to be opened and relished. Marcello walked over to the golden treasure chest and laid his hand on the wooden finish of the lid. He cracked open the chest triumphantly, as the velvet interior nestled a single pair of flamboyant pants.
More chapters at patr eon.com/herebetreasure