Ethan watched as his men dealt with the monsters, effortlessly destroying every enemy in their path.
Blood mixed with the sound of bones breaking, with the pain and subsequent pleasure of another victory.
On the ninth wave, this scene became routine as these waves were easy, even too easy, considering the amount of equipment they had.
Every few dozen monsters were equal to a new item from Mimic, so with every kill, they became stronger, in some way.
Each of the several hundred people had some gear, even if they couldn't buy anything in the Dimensional Market.
Ethan was no exception either, and he had picked up two quite rare items, even though it was technically only one.
'Well, hopefully, I can use it.' Ethan pondered, looking at the two rings on his left hand. One was black with a white stone, and the other was white with a black stone, like yin and yang.
Then, his gaze shifted to the white orb. He took one core from the two Commander Monsters that were killed during the sixth wave.
Their tower was brightly illuminated by the sunlight since the next day had already arrived. The break between each wave was getting longer, especially between the eighth and ninth wave, which lasted seven hours. That was enough to get a good night's sleep on a cold night.
'I haven't had time to think about it, but the messages said I had to absorb the core in the next three days if I didn't want to destroy my Warp... Well, how do I get into this space?' Ethan was puzzled, so he decided to use the proven method.
Ethan opened his mouth wide and swallowed the core.
At the next heartbeat, the bright sunny day changed to cool darkness that engulfed Ethan in a powerful stream, bringing his mind into another space.
The White Sphere, or Warp, was still the source of the white stream flowing forward and disappearing into the dark mist.
[You have absorbed the Small Corrupted Core!]
[Your condition has stabilized!]
[It will take a day for your body to absorb all the energy!]
[At the end of this process, your ??? will be 35-40% revealed!]
There were no more messages, so Ethan could just enjoy the soothing sight of his River.
After a while, next to the river, Ethan saw a gray egg.
"Agh...?"
To his surprise, a few pieces broke off from the egg, but even so, he couldn't see what was inside since it was hidden by darkness. For that, he had to absorb a few more cores.
An amber eye emerged from the egg, meeting Ethan's gaze, then he returned to the real world.
Ethan shook his head with a bitter smile, "I'm interested to see what happens next, but for some reason, this egg scares me, or rather the way I feel about it... It's like we've known each other for a long time, even though it's made me feel terrible pain several times already."
"Ethan!" Sara exclaimed, approaching him. She had already recovered from the sixth wave, and looked even better than before, full of energy and strength.
"Hmm?" Ethan looked at her in a puzzled manner.
"Something happened to the tree and Mimic! The chest has stopped, and the tree is starting to dry up!" Sara pointed to the side.
Ethan nodded, "Well... The Fifth Trial is coming to an end, so they have already accomplished their task. The Tenth Wave will be our last trial, and even though we've used all our resources, I'm not sure we're ready."
Sara nodded with a serious expression.
They had defeated the ninth wave more than thirty minutes ago, but there were still no messages.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
Suddenly, the ground shook like a massive earthquake. It wasn't just an effect, as cracks began to crack through the damaged parts of the academy and it looked like it was about to turn into rubble.
However, the shaking quickly stopped and a bright light came out of the center of the academy.
Ethan quickly dashed toward the academy. He had to see what was happening as soon as possible.
Upon reaching the center square, Ethan's eyes went wide at the unique scene.
A mechanical sphere was spinning rapidly, emitting a bright light and gradually sinking towards the ground.
Slowly, the mechanical sphere buried itself into the ground like a seed, and very soon something began to grow right from the center of the main square.
"What the hell...?" Ethan muttered in a disbelief.
Right before his eyes, something was rising, it wasn't a plant but more like a tall spire or a twisted tower pointing straight up to the sky.
The tower was made entirely of dark glass, through which one could hardly see anything, but it reflected the bright sunlight.
Only when the tower became twice as tall as the academy did it stop expanding, then its top became wider and wider, turning into a huge disk or an arena for a future battle.
"What's going on...?!" Someone exclaimed from the east side of the academy.
Suddenly, the same glass towers began to appear from the ground all around the academy, but they were much smaller and had wide disks in their centers.
These disks worked as magic mirrors through which one could see what was happening on top of the main tower.
[Attention!]
[Your Area has come to the end of the Fifth Trial, Four Princesses!]
[Protect your Kingdom and defeat the strongest monster that will appear at the top of the Glass Tower in thirty minutes!]
[Warning!]
[Only ten people can enter the tower! Princesses must be present or you will lose all your bonuses because the arena is a special territory!]
Ethan frowned as he bit his lip.
"Shit... Only ten persons...? I thought we'd use all our equipment and just overwhelm the enemy with numbers. Well, I guess we have a team." Ethan thought, heading towards the tower.
In front of the tower was a glass altar with ten specific keys on it. They were needed to open a door with ten locks.
"Agh... I could be wrong, but most probably from the Princesses, only Maris is a combat unit. In that case, we'll only have seven fighters." Ethan scratched the back of his head, "I think we can handle it."
Ethan took one of the keys.
A few minutes later, more and more people were heading towards the main square, as well as those who would soon be fighting in the arena for everyone's lives.