บท 42: Endurance Trial

"The first trial, the Endurance Trial shall begin in five minutes. Suggesting the inheritor to prepare to counterattack at maximum power once the enemies attack."

Hearing this suggestion from the disembodied voice that resounded throughout the green jade hall, Aurus couldn't help but say, "Well that's fucking obvious."

"[Spirit Energy Ascension]."

Whoosh!

In an instant, a good chunk of his SP was siphoned and transformed into a silver flame that rose to a height of a few meters, covering Aurus' body as it gradually turned more and more corporeal.

Around two minutes later, a notification screen appeared in front of Aurus' field of vision as he was trying to guess on how the Endurance Trial, which was said by the disembodied voice, worked.

Ding!

'[Spirit Energy Ascension] has leveled up.'

'The exchange of SP into power has reached its limit, boosting the user's power by 120%'

'The necessary requirements have been met. The skill [Spirit Ascension] can be activated.'

"Oh, it leveled up. Neat." Looking through the notification screen, he noticed that the skill he would use a lot has leveled up, allowing him to attack with more power. He then looked at the last statement written on the notification screen, mumbling to himself, "I should save this skill for later. I don't even know how long this Endurance Trial lasts."

He didn't know how much time he had left before the trial started, so he made sure to change half of his specialized Animas to recover HP, while the other half stayed the same, recovering his SP.

Coincidentally, at the moment when he finished changing his specialized Animas, the disembodied voice started to speak once more.

"The five minutes of preparation time is now up. The Endurance Trial shall now begin. There are ten waves of enemies, with each amount of enemy doubling every wave."

"Please take note that the enemies the inheritor shall face might have obtained a small portion of the skills of the inheritor."

Listening to the last statement given by the disembodied voice, Aurus couldn't help but curse. "Well shit, this might be harder than I think."

"Or is it easier?"

Aurus believed in the saying 'Knowing the enemy is akin to winning 99% of the war' or however it went. Since he would fight against himself, of course he knew how to fight against himself. He knew how powerful he was, with him being able to one shot kill an S-grade to bits. Can any other A-grade do that? Of course not. Only he could.

"The first wave is starting," the disembodied voice said. Not long after, a branch that looked like him materialized in the middle of the hall, a few tens of meters away from where Aurus currently was.

Looking at the branch that materialized out of thin air, he commanded the system to identify its stats and skills.

Ding!

________

[Aurus]

Existence Level: Inanimate (B)

Level: 3/5

HP: 10/10

MP: 25/25

Stats:

[Toughness]: 13

[Thickness]: 11

[Nut Hardness]: 17

Skills:

[Roll++ Lv. 1], [Infused Nut Shot Lv. 2]

________

"Hm, it actually does have some of my skills," Aurus couldn't help but say. "As for the stats, it's pretty much natural that they've been boosted by a bit since it's an enemy that's designed to protect the inheritance."

As Aurus was still talking to himself, a walnut infused with SP was shot towards where he was. Sensing that something was coming at him, Aurus snapped back to reality and dodged the walnut with ease. With his movement speed being over 270 meters per hour, how could he not dodge a slow walnut?

"I should take time to raise my movement skill later," Aurus muttered as he transformed one of the floating Animas in his body into a Spirit Spear and shot it out towards the cloned Aurus.

"[Spirit Spear: Denial]."

Whoosh!

Bang!

With the help of his SP being inclined to the Wind element, and him having the [High Wind Affinity] skill, the Spirit Spear he shot darted through the space, easily piercing the cloned Aurus' body. The cloned Aurus couldn't even dodge it at all as it was just too fast for it.

Poof!

After having all of its HP drained, the cloned Aurus gradually turned into dust that spread into the air. Aurus looked at this dust and felt that it was gradually heading towards his way. After heading towards his way, the dust stuck to his body as a notification screen appeared in front of his field of vision.

Ding!

'Wave 1 has been cleared.'

'Experience +10'

'1 Genesis Point has been obtained.'

"Ah!' Aurus couldn't help but shout out. He didn't expect to obtain a Genesis Point through this inheritance. In his memories, the only thing it rewarded was experience, allowing him to level up quickly. But to think that it gave Genesis Points?

Genesis Points in ISE gave the player access to the Genesis Tree, which either held passive skills that allowed the player to become stronger, or perhaps active skills that were extremely broken in their own right.

"Well...I guess I can rush through the 5th layer of the Genesis Tree in one go if I also kill the boss of the Lesser Experience Haven," Aurus said to himself. That was his plan all along, to gain Genesis Points in order to get access to the Genesis Tree. The bosses of certain places gave out Genesis Points, which the boss of the Lesser Experience Haven was also included.

"I should also check out the Greater Experience Haven if I have the time." As Aurus was reforming his plan to add the inheritance as a variable to his plans, the disembodied voice resounded out.

"The second wave is starting."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In an instant, two clones of Aurus materialized out of thin air at the same place the first cloned Aurus appeared. Giving the two clones a quick scan, they had the same stats and skills as the first cloned Aurus, allowing Aurus to relax a bit.

Forming another Spirit Spear with a floating Anima, Aurus instantly had a question form in his mind. "So far, I've tried the Spirit Spear's Acceptance and Depression and they haven't disappointed me. As for Denial, I've used it just now but I don't really know how effective it is since that Aurus was killed in one go."

"Hence..."

"I'll just use the consecutive forms," Aurus decided to play around while the cloned Auruses didn't really have any threat to him in the meantime.

He remembered that using the five forms of the [Five Melancholy Spirit Spear] skill consecutively would gradually allow the skill to grow stronger and stronger. Now, he was going to try it out.

Whoosh!

"[Spirit Spear: Anger]."

Bang! Bang!

Rather than killing off a single clone, the Spirit Spear Aurus shot out split off into two, easily killing the two at once.

"Eh?" Aurus didn't know how that happened...only for a notification screen to pop up.

Ding!

'[Spirit Spear: Anger] has been used after [Spirit Spear: Denial], allowing the former to have its properties boosted.'

'[Spirit Spear: Anger] has been upgraded to [Spirit Spear: Rage], turning into a skill that hits at most 5 enemies with a 100% hit rate.'

'Note that this upgraded form only activates once [Spirit Spear: Denial] is used before [Spirit Spear: Anger]. If not, the normal effects of [Spirit Spear: Anger] apply.'

...

In another green jade hall...

"The first trial, the Illusion Trial shall begin in ten seconds. Suggesting the inheritor to steel their heart and considering everything they see as lies."

"I wish the inheritor good luck."

Herellia, who heard the disembodied voice, was surprised to hear a voice come from nowhere as she snapped herself back to reality.

"Eh? An illusion trial? What's an illusion?" Herellia couldn't help but ask. Although she had been an X-grade Inanimate for over a year now and had even learned secrets from the Animates through a place she discovered, but she still didn't know what an illusion was.

While she was still troubling himself by trying to figure out what an illusion was, the disembodied voice resounded out once again.

"The ten seconds of preparation time is over. The Illusion Trial shall now begin. The inheritor shall go through ten illusion worlds, where the inheritor must break through each illusion one by one."

"Of course, the difficulty of breaking through the illusion worlds grow harder and harder as each world is broken."

"The first world, Nihility, has been casted."

While the influx of words passed through Herellia's sense of hearing, her field of vision was instantly taken over by an extremely pitch black darkness that could even be said to be equivalent to the darkness chuunibyous feel in their hearts.

Looking around her, Herellia tried to move around and noticed that she could, but whatever she did, she had no gauge as to how far she went as everything around her was pitch black.

Setting the problem of what an illusion was aside, she let out a sigh and said to herself, "I should break from this illusion thingy first."

"Then, I'll quit this inheritance thingy and apologize to Aurus."