[1 x Fang Of The Grey Wolf]
[1 x Rossen Flower]
Buying the two items, Eldric instantly evolved his skill. And the moment he did, a warm current similar to before overtook his entire body.
However, this time this feeling lasted for a long time before subsiding. After what felt like an eternity, Eldric stretched his body, trying to feel the changes. But, Alas!
Other than the newly added skill in his panel, there were no other changes. His attributes seemed to be stuck at the value of one, regardless of how powerful his skill got.
"Is there any other way to increase these attributes?" Eldric was sure that only after completing the trial and going through his first evolution, would he be able to see changes in the attributes. However, he still wanted to know whether it was possible to increase the attributes or not.
"Forget it." There was no use thinking about things that he had no control over, Eldric let out a sigh and looked at the newly evolved skill.
[Thunderous Barrage: Channel your strength into a series of thunderous strikes that create shockwaves upon impact, capable of stunning and disorienting opponents.] +
"Huh!?" This was the first time Eldric saw such a long introduction to the skill.
Without wasting another second, he walked in front of the Wooden Dummy and activated his skill.
But unlike before when he would get a feeling of weightlessness in his arms, he didn't feel anything.
'Damn it.' Eldric suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.
Punching the Puppet in front of him, his eyes widened in disbelief as he realized that unlike before when he could punch more than five times in a second, now, he could only throw one punch every second.
But to his horror, it didn't end there. Instead, a new value popped up above the dummy, showing the damage that he did.
[65]
Although it was a bit higher compared to the previous one, his pre-evolved version let him hit four more times, ultimately resulting in far more damage.
With every passing second, the expression on Eldric's face grew darker and darker. It wasn't until ten more minutes passed did he stopped using his skill and sat on his bed in silence.
The only redeeming quality about this newly evolved skill was its duration and cooldown.
He could use this skill for fifteen seconds and then use it again after one and a half minutes.
Though, in his eyes, this wasn't exactly the evolution he was hoping to see.
His eyes were now looking at the skill description, especially on the sentence "capable of stunning and disorienting opponents".
Now he could only hope that it actually worked the way he was thinking.
"Take a rest or go to the next difficulty?"
After hesitating for a long time he ultimately decided to take a rest. It took him an entire day to complete the 'Hard' difficulty. And with the newly evolved skill which seemed to be even weaker than the previous one, he wasn't exactly in high spirits.
Shaking his head, he decided to take a rest. Still somewhat disappointed, he didn't even think about checking the materials required for the next evolution of the skill.
.
.
.
.
Waking up the next morning, Eldric was still feeling a bit tired. It took him a while to get his mind straight before memories of yesterday became clear.
"Ugh..."
Heading to the food court, Eldric looked at the handful of people eating there in silence. Most of them had a look of giving up on their faces.
Sitting in his usual position, Eldric began to eat while listening to the conversation behind him.
"Is there really no hope?"
"I don't know...
I have tried hunting with a party, but it is hard to reach the second floor of the 'Hard' difficulty, much less complete your evolution there."
The voice seemed to be completely unwilling to give up.
"Perhaps we can try again? Maybe we will get lucky." The other boy didn't seem to give up.
"Just don't...
Today is the last day and the minimum requirement for the University is to gain more than five hundred points.
Even if we want to go to the bottom tier universities, we need to complete our evolution in the Hard difficulty."
The more he spoke, the lighter his voice became.
"How the hell would they know where we completed the trial?
Can't we just complete our evolution in the ordinary difficulty and tell them that we did it in 'hard' mode?"
Listening to this question, Eldric nodded in agreement too.
"Not possible. Before joining any university, they will check our results through god knows what.
Thus, don't even think about it ."
"But why the time limit?"
"They say, if one is not able to complete the trials in the first three days, chances are... They are never going to be able to complete it.
At least not in higher difficulty. And, they certainly don't want people who took weeks to complete the 'Ordinary' difficulty trial."
Listening to them, Eldric sat there in silence for a long time. Just because he could kill the beasts doesn't mean others can too.
If not for his evolved skill with which he was able to instant kill any opponent, he too would have been like them.
After all, he had an ordinary class of 'Brawler', making him unable to hunt with this ease.
With his initial skill of a 'Brawler', he would have gotten tired after using it ten times.
As for whether he could kill a creature in those weak ten punches was an entirely different story.
So, the only option was to join teams, complete the 'Ordinary' difficulty trial, and rush sneakily through the 'Hard' difficulty trial to complete the evolution. Just like how the boy behind him explained.
But thankfully, since he was able to evolve his skill, he didn't need to go through so much trouble. Before his aim was only to earn more tokens but now...
He just sat in silence while lost in his train of thought.
.
.
.
.
Reaching back in his room, Eldric took a deep breath and selected the trial before disappearing from there.
Opening his eyes, Eldric once again stood in an empty white space with the option of four difficulties to choose from.
[Ordinary] [Hard] [Hell] [Nightmare]
He had already completed the ordinary and hard difficulty trial, and since he could not go into the nightmare difficulty, Eldric touched the only remaining option of 'Hell' difficulty.
And as soon as he selected his difficulty, Eldric found himself standing in front of a large three-story tower.
Before he could ponder why there were three floors, a new window popped in front of him, listing his missions.
[Kill 10 Creatures on the first floor: 5 Tokens]
[Kill 10 Creatures on the second floor: 5 Tokens]
[Kill 5 Creatures on the third floor: 5 Tokens]
"What the..." Looking at the new missions, Eldric narrowed his eyes, but instead of being happy, he grew more wary.
If the mission was asking to eliminate a small number, then it could only mean that the enemies were much stronger.
And with his newly evolved skill which seemed to become weaker, even Eldric was not sure whether he could win.
After staying silent for a while, quietly looking at the tower, he took a step forward and walked through the pitch-black door leading him to the first floor of the trial.
As soon as Eldric regained his senses, he realized how different 'Hell' difficulty was from the previous two.
Instead of the usual grasslands, Eldric at this moment was standing inside a lush green forest with giant towering trees whose height had reached almost more than five hundred meters.
The trees looked like Pine trees but with a smoother trunk and the absence of any brach. Only at the top, could Eldric see the branches and the leaves of the tree which were blocking almost the entire sunlight.
A few sun rays that were passing through the branches to the ground were dimly illuminating the forest around Eldric.
"Wow." This was the only thing he could say at the moment. Standing in the middle of the forest with lush green plants, chirping of birds and insects along with a few butterflies dancing in the thin sunrays falling through the scattered branches. It almost made him feel like he was in the middle of a fairytale story.
Eldric almost forgot about the trial after looking at the scenery in front of him. Those wild colorful flowers, those yellow fruits, those glowing red eyes...
"Wait, red eyes?" Narrowing, Eldric took a step back, looking at the bush which was in a somewhat dim place.
He could see two glowing red eyes looking at him.
"What the..." Taking a step back, Eldric readied himself for the fight that was about to happen. He didn't think it was going to be easy.
And just when Eldric was carefully looking at the bush, he felt an intense tearing pain in his left leg.
"FUUUUCK."
Crying out in pain, Eldric wanted to see what just happened, but before he could even react, he felt an incredible force pulling at his legs.
This sudden force made him lose his balance as Eldric fell to the ground, hitting his right shoulder on the small rock.
This sudden turn of events stunned him. So much so, that for a moment Eldric didn't even know how to react.
Trying to gather his strength, he wanted to activate his skill to punch whatever was biting his leg, but before he could activate his skill, a familiar sensation of intense pain overtook him.
This time, the pain was coming from his right hand. Someone was biting his hand and pulling it apart as if wanting to tear it from his body.
The force applied from both sides was so strong, that Eldric's entire body was lifted from the ground into the air.
With an arm and a leg still flinging in the air, amidst the intense pain, Eldric finally saw the creature that was grabbing his leg.
It was a giant red wolf almost twice the size of a fully-grown lion. It was clenching on Eldric's leg so hard that one could hear the sounds of bone-crushing.
"AAAAAHHHHHH..."
Eldric couldn't help but cry out in pain as he watched the wolf hiding in the bush rush out with an incredible speed, open its mouth, and bite Eldric on his waist, just beside his stomach.
It then yanked its head with an intense force, tearing away a large chunk of flesh from Eldric's stomach.
Coupled with blood, one could even see the intestines as well as the internal organs that were hanging in the air.
Eldric who was slowly losing his vision looked helplessly as more and more wolves walked out of the forest towards him, completely tearing him apart.
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.
.
"Aaaahhh... FUCK."
The first reaction of Eldric was to activate his skill and punch around aimlessly when he opened his eyes.
It wasn't until a few more moments passed that he realized where he was.
Looking at the empty white space around him, he couldn't help but touch his leg and stomach.
He felt like he could still smell that rancid smell and feel the pain from before.
It took a while for him to get back to his senses. Eldric didn't continue but chose to exit the trial.
Inside the room, he sat on his bed in complete silence with hands which were still trembling.
For the very first time after coming to this world, he felt fear and helplessness.
For the first time, he didn't know what to do...