Novak had never imagined it.
Who would have thought that the abyss contained such a variety of bizarre professions?
And these strange professions all possessed remarkable abilities, even at just level 10!
[Twelfth floor of the abyss: Fallen Magister]
[Fourteenth floor of the abyss: Demon Executioner]
[Sixteenth floor of the abyss: The Silent One]
Novak even encountered the father of the so-called demon prince he had previously killed at the Abyssal Well.
On the seventeenth floor of the abyss, the demon lord was a Kou Tao fish demon, belonging to a profession called "Ocean Guardian Yaksha." Its real level was around that of a level 40 demon lord.
There was no doubting the power of these strange-sounding professions, and almost none of the battles with these demon lords lasted less than an hour.
Despite that, Novak had to admit that, in terms of overall physical capabilities, these demon lords paled in comparison to him.
His four-dimensional attributes—strength, agility, stamina, and mental power—were exceptional, and no demon lord he faced at level 10 came close to surpassing him in that regard.
However, the sheer number of professional bonuses and peculiar abilities they possessed was overwhelming.
For example, on the sixteenth floor, the Silent One had an ability that nullified sound, rendering Novak unable to speak, breathe, or use skills. Even though the Silent One had no real skills of its own, the moment Novak instinctively opened his mouth, he would suffer serious damage.
Even with his time-reversing ability, he had barely avoided being killed.
And then there was the Ocean Guardian Yaksha, the demon lord of the Kou Tao fish demons. Its abilities were manageable, but the battlefield was set underwater!
Though there was some land at the edges, the demon was extremely cunning. Unlike other vicious demons, the moment anything unexpected occurred, it would retreat back into the water. This infuriated Novak to the point that he almost spent his evolution points on unlocking a liquid-based virus to fight it directly.
But he restrained himself.
Evolution points were far too precious, especially in large quantities. The Plague Sect from the Plague Chemical Factory could assist with this, but gathering enough points to unlock other evolutionary directions was no easy feat—it was a slow process.
Novak did have some evolution points in reserve, but he kept them for critical moments.
Luckily, though, the Ocean Guardian Yaksha's abilities had limits, and Novak's flu virus proved effective. During the fight, he also discovered some of the demon's weaknesses.
For example, it had a vulnerability to fire—any flame could deal significant damage.
This made it one of the rare demon lords that Novak could defeat without relying on time regression.
But this was only the beginning.
Novak still didn't know how many layers the abyss had. It hadn't crossed his mind that the abyss would contain so many demon lords.
Even when there were no current inhabitants, the phantom versions of the demon lords from the abyss's history were far stronger than he had anticipated.
Yet, the power of time regression, paired with Novak's own abilities, had allowed him to face these formidable foes without fatal danger.
In the process, he even caught glimpses of their personalities.
With experience under his belt, Novak found that in some of the later battles, even against stronger demon lords, he no longer needed to rely on time regression at all.
Novak had encountered countless demon warriors in the abyss.
As the most common profession in that dark realm, demon warriors were everywhere, swarming like locusts. However, with his growing experience, Novak had developed a precise and effective method for dealing with these types of demon lords.
Even when facing an elite demon warrior on the seventy-second floor of the abyss, he could dispatch them effortlessly. Like a butterfly flitting through flowers, he gracefully navigated the battlefield without suffering a single injury. With a swift strike from his biochemical disaster, he pierced the demon's weakness, killing the phantom lord—whose true level was likely around sixty—in less than ten minutes.
Novak's combat skills and tactical wisdom were exceptional. Despite the powerful abilities these demon lords had at their disposal, he had faced and slain too many of their kind to be intimidated.
At this moment, Novak seemed more like a demon hunter—an actual hunter of demon lords. His resolve and efficiency in eradicating them were almost second nature now. If this was the test set by the master of the abyss, then perhaps it wasn't so difficult after all.
A slight smirk played across Novak's lips.
As the waves of enemies continued to surge from the abyss, Novak's proficiency only grew. His familiarity with their tactics and his evolving strength made the challenges seem easier, almost routine. Yet, he knew that an ordinary person would have likely perished by the tenth floor of the abyss. The only reason he could handle these battles so gracefully was due to his time-reversal ability, granted by the hourglass of time.
This power granted him the luxury of trial and error, with an astonishing margin for mistakes. Each time he cleared a level, he could recover fully, negating the impact of injuries that would have crippled any other fighter.
Without such abilities, even someone far stronger than Novak might have fallen amidst the relentless battles and slaughter of the abyss.
His understanding of the abyss deepened—its vastness, its power.
Here, there were no clear boundaries. Only strength mattered. To survive, to establish oneself as a true force in this endless darkness, one had to be the strongest.
The demon lords were all powerful.
Even their phantoms at level 10 possessed power that startled Novak. Each battle revealed just how formidable these beings were.
...
Novak exhaled deeply, bracing himself once again.
A notification from the abyss appeared before his weary eyes:
[Ninety-ninth level: Six-Armed Snake Demon, Feathered Serpent Warlock Cecilia. You have passed the ninety-ninth trial. You may choose to recover for 20 minutes.]
The Six-Armed Snake Demons were a terrifyingly powerful race among demons, but to Novak, they had become almost routine foes. Though challenging, they no longer required much time or effort to defeat.
As he mentally organized the information he had gathered about the demon races and their professions, the abyss once again delivered a new message:
[Current demon lord on the 100th floor of the abyss: Inferior Shadow Sword Demon, Gilbert-100. Level 10 phantom. Prepare for the trial!]
The world around him began to shift and distort.
The one-hundredth floor!
A surge of adrenaline and excitement coursed through Novak as he prepared for the challenge.
The inferior demon race was the most common in the abyss—Novak had encountered them countless times and had no reason to fear them. But this was a Shadow Sword Demon, and its profession was unfamiliar to him.
Novak's curiosity was piqued. As the illusory world settled, his eyes landed on a figure—a gaunt, almost skeletal demon, less than two meters tall. It wasn't armed with a massive axe or broadsword like many of its counterparts. Instead, it wielded a sleek and sharp longsword.
Before Novak could analyze the demon fully, the scene solidified, and in an instant, the figure disappeared.
Novak's world plunged into darkness.
A split second later, he saw it—a headless corpse. It wore a dark green robe, and emerging from the shadow behind it was the very demon he had just dismissed as an inferior opponent.
The Shadow Sword Demon had struck.
In that moment, Novak finally understood:
He was dead.