"GRRRRRRR....."
With a loud roar, the creature which has now grown to the size of a small building ran towards Eldric, hoping to crush him into a pulp.
Eldric on the other hand kept on running away. He didn't dare to stay too close to this monstrosity. Other than his increased agility, the rest of his attributes were stuck at [1] which means that once he was hit by this monster, he would be dead instantly. Even though he couldn't really die in the trial, he didn't want to waste too much time fighting these monsters once again from the very beginning.
He kept on running around aimlessly, waiting for the effects of the skill to wear off. Skills like these definitely have a limit and a long cooldown.
Now the only thing was whether the skill effect would last long or the rune.
Moments passed and seconds turned into minutes. With every passing second, Eldric was getting more and more anxious. He had already spent more than one and a half hours in this 'Hell' difficulty trial. If possible, he didn't want to waste another second. But unfortunately, the effect of the creature's skill didn't seem to be wearing off.
It kept on rampaging behind Eldric, leaving large holes and a trail of destruction behind it. If not for his increased Agility, Eldric would have died before he even had the chance to see this all.
It wasn't until ten minutes passed that the beast suddenly began to slow down and its body began to shrink.
"Finally." Almost crying tears of joy, Eldric turned around and looked at the beast which had reverted to its original appearance.
After it was back to its initial form, there was no suspense. It couldn't even hit Eldric once before when it was stronger and faster, much less now when it was back to its original strength. And with the disappearance of its four underlings, no one could stop Eldric from hitting him like a football.
Soon, after stunning it with the skill, Eldirc kept on hitting it. And after punching it almost thirteen times with all his strength, he was finally able to kill it.
"Finally..." Panting, Eldric looked at the golden door standing in the middle of the ground. If he wanted, he could go through evolution and finish the trial.
But after going through so much and dying countless times, how could he be satisfied with just this?
"How much time do I have left?" Eldric asked this question.
Even though he was standing alone, he knew the girl would be watching him. And sure enough, he received a reply.
"Ten minutes at most."
It was a short sentence, but it was enough to chill his heart. With only ten minutes, it was an impossible task to complete the 'Nightmare' difficulty trial. After all, just the hell pitched him against powerful creatures. Who knows what types of monster he was going to face in the final difficulty trial?
Taking a deep breath, Eldric looked at the panel in front of him in silence.
[Points: 1300]
[Tokens: 15]
Clearing every floor gave him a hundred points and five tokens.
"Not possible to upgrade the skill." Without even looking at the materials needed to evolve the skill, Eldric already knew the fifteen tokens weren't enough.
But these tokens still filled his heart with a sense of security. Even if he failed to complete the nightmare difficulty trial, he would be able to give it a try one more time with the help of the rune.
With a relieved smile, he finally chose to give up the 'Hell' difficulty trial and disappeared from there.
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"Remember, this is an illusory realm, and the place where you all will be arriving after completing your trials and going through evolution."
In a dreamlike city with innumerable small orbs of white light flowing in the air, a middle-aged woman was talking to the group of teenagers behind her.
"This doesn't look like an illusion though." A young girl in her teens kept on touching the ground beneath her and looking around with curious eyes. "Teacher, are we sure we are in an illusory realm?"
From the solid brick road under their feet leading towards the marble fountain in the distance to the numerous buildings on both sides of the road and some magnificent palaces whose tops could be seen from a distance, everything around them was as real as possible. If not for the fact that there was no sun or moon or stars above them and the only source of light was those small orbs of light illuminating the entire city into a hazy moonlight, they would have thought that they were standing in the real world instead of an illusion.
"Not entirely an illusion." With a smile, the middle-aged woman began to explain in a gentle voice. "There are a lot of theories about whether this city is an illusion or not. Some call it an illusion while others believe that this city actually exists in the real world. But, we are not here to ponder about this, are we?"
"Our goal here is to get you all familiar with some things before you go through evolution." With this sentence, she slowly began to introduce many things to the students behind her.
It wasn't until they stopped in front of a giant hall that she stopped. The hall was just an empty building like an old Roman temple with numerous pillars to support from the front with a single large empty hall behind them.
Inside the hall, there were numerous torches lit up on the walls, and at the end of the room, were three stone steles of different colors quietly floating there. The first stele was giving off a dim white light with numerous names on it. The second stele was giving off gold light with names and the third and final stele was purple with color with names etched in gold.
"Teacher, what's this?" Pointing towards the three steles placed inside the hall, one of the boys could not help but ask. Till now, he had never heard of something like this from anyone.
Hearing his question, the middle-aged woman let out a smile before explaining slowly.
"These are the Honour List." With a brief pause, she continued further "The names you are seeing there are of people who were able to finish trials in the shortest amount of time throughout the countless years.
The white list is for completing the 'Ordinary' difficulty trial. The Golden list is for the 'Hard' difficulty trial and the purple one is for the 'Hell' difficulty.
Every list can only have one hundred names in it. And those whose names are there receive special privileges."
"What privileges?" A curious girl asked.
"You will know about it after passing through the trial."
Speaking till here, the woman added further "The guest tickets will only last for half an hour, so be sure to roam around and see things by yourself. Try not to cause any trouble."
Dispersing the students, the woman kept on looking at the stele with a hint of awe. Each list in front of her had a hundred names. There were even a few names which were on all of them.
"Why isn't there a list for the 'Nightmare' difficulty?" When almost all of the students were gone, one frail-looking girl asked with some confusion. From what she had learned, there were four modes of difficulties, but there were only three steles in front of her, listing the first three difficulties. She looked around, but just couldn't spot the stele for the 'Nightmare' difficulty.
"No one knows." The woman shook her head. "There had been rumors that the stele exists in some powerful cities, but those are just rumors."
"Let's go, we are getting late." Leaving behind the hall, the two of them soon walked away from there.
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Inside the trial space...
After completing the 'Hell' difficulty trial, Eldric stood in silence as he looked at the screen in front of him. After clearing the first three difficulties, Eldric could finally choose the last difficulty.
Without wasting any other second, he chose the 'Nightmare' difficulty before disappearing from the white space and appearing at an empty arena.
There was no tower, there were no floors. There was just an empty arena, where he was standing. Looking around, he didn't see any other living being. There were only empty seats and the worn-down walls of the arena which looked like they were going to fall any moment.
While he was wondering what the trial was or how he was going to complete it, a new window finally popped up in front of Eldric with lots of text of rows in it.
[Checking information...]
[Solo: Confirmed]
[Completed all the missions in the previous difficulties: Confirmed]
[Checking Profession...]
[Ordinary Profession Brawler]
[Analyzing Result...]
[Choosing Opponent...]
[Creating a new mission...]
Eldric looked as the screen in front of him flickered for a while before everything disappeared and a new small window opened in front of him.
[Defeat the opponent in the Arena: 100 Tokens]
Before he even had the time to celebrate the luxurious reward of one hundred tokens, a figure suddenly dropped in front of him from thin air.
"What the..." Startled by this, Eldric took a few steps back while looking at the newcomer with narrowed eyes, ready to attack at any moment.
Standing in front of Eldric was a human figure with no face or hair. For a moment, the first thought that came to his mind was that it was a puppet. But seeing how the opponent in front of him was stretching its body like it was preparing for combat, Eldric threw out this thought.
Eldric was already low on time, so without wasting any other second, he took a step forward before appearing in front of the opponent and activated his skill. But before Eldric could hit it, the opponent suddenly tapped its foot on the floor and the moment it did, long spears made up of earth suddenly appeared under him in a circular area and shot upwards.
"Shit." If not for his increased agility, Eldric would have been skewered there. He didn't expect the opponent in front of him to use a skill.
But since the opponent already used the skill, it definitely couldn't use it again in the short term.
Thinking like this, Eldric rushed towards it, hoping to punch it again. But just like the last time, the moment he reached in front of it, the opponent waved its hand and suddenly a layer of ice formed in front of it, making Eldric unable to take a step forward.
"What the hell." Looking at the second skill, Eldric almost cursed out loudly. Till now the majority of the opponents that he faced didn't even have one skill, much less two. Even the strongest creature, those humanoid rhinoceros had one skill.
But looking at the opponent in front of him which waved its hand again, shattering the layer of ice, Eldric went silent.
"I don't believe you have any more skills." Gritting his teeth, Eldric rushed forward, hoping to end it, but unlike the previous two times where the opponent just defended, the opponent this time lifted its hand, and a small fireball formed on top of its hand.
"FIRE?" It was already rare for a creature to use two skills, not to mention three. But this was not over yet.
The opponent then lifted its other hand which was covered by a wind cyclone.
Suddenly, it brought both hands closer and completely merged the two together, forming a small fire cyclone.
And just when Eldric was stunned by this display of skill, the figure once again waved its hand, uprooting a chunk of earth below its feet.
Under Eldric's eyes which were filled with disbelief, it then merged the earth piece into the fire cyclone, making it a lava cyclone.
Before Eldric could even react, it waved its hand, throwing it towards Eldric. Eldric tried to dodge, but even with [2] Agility, he couldn't escape the area of the skill.
With his vitality still stuck at [1], and the absence of any other skill, there was no way for Eldric to survive the hit, even if it hit him lightly.
Within moments, Eldric melted into a pool of flesh before everything disappeared and he found himself once again in the white space with four difficulties to choose from.
[Please select your difficulty]
[Ordinary] [Hard] [Hell] [Nightmare]