บท 29: New Trials
Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also give your opinions on something I should change or add
Note: Chapter might look a bit weird and have more errors, since I haven't had access to a PC these few days and had to write this on my phone
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[Gryphon] (Elite Rank)
Level 50
HP 500,000/500,000
"Aight, lets clear this thing." Feng's expression remained indifferent as he stood up and patted the dust off his butt.
He unhurriedly unsheathed Abyssal Blade and slashed it in the Gryphon's direction.
Thundering Flash!
Three streaks of green thunder flew out of the Abyssal Blade, reaching the Gryphon instantly. Before the Gryphon could even screech, the streaks of thunder pierced its body.
-31,097, -41,981, -56,675
Instantly, almost 30% of the Gryphon's HP was gone. However, Feng was unsatisfied with the situation. Not because of the damage he dealt, but by the fact that the fight would have been over if him and the Gryphon were Level 20.
Although his attributes increase more than the Gryphon's with levels since he had the Heavenly Dragon's Breath, their increase wouldn't be much different. After all, the Gryphon was a Primordial Beast. Thus the damage Feng dealt would be similar to now.
The problem was that the Gryphon's HP was much higher than it was at Level 20, otherwise, a single streak from Thundering Flash would have been enough to kill it.
'Whatever, it's just a few more slashes.' Feng stopped caring about the time it took to clear the trials and used Silent Steps, appearing behind the Gryphon, who has just recovered from his Thundering Flash.
Sending a Chop at the Gryphon's wing, a huge tear appeared as the wing was almost cut off, meanwhile the Gryphon received a damage of over 40,000. Feng followed up with a Double Chop taking away another portion of the Gryphon's HP.
Within a few seconds, the Gryphon had less than half of its original HP. Although it tried to retaliate with both regular attacks and skills, Feng just clung to its back and kept dodging while chipping away at its HP with casual slashes from the Abyssal Blade and whatever skills came off cooldown.
During this time, Feng only used the Abyssal Blade, knowing that the Purgatory's Shadow wouldn't be able to do much. Although it's been upgraded to Level 30, against a Level 50 monster, not to mention a Primordial Beast like the Gryphon, its strength would be limited.
The only reason Abyssal Blade was as effective as it is even though it was only Level 20 was because of its high attack power and attributes. Its current strength is comparable to when it was at Tier 2 Level 50 in Feng's previous life.
Less than ten seconds later, the Gryphon fell.
System: Gryphon defeated. First trial completed. Rewarding 100,000 EXP and 5 Free Mastery Points. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 50 points.
System: First trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Feng immediately clicked "Yes" to start the next trial, not even bothering to sheath the Abyssal Blade.
---
In the throne room, the powerhouses watched Feng's performance in surprise
"He cleared it, and with such ease as well."
"Not bad. Although he hasn't yet officially become a Tier 1 Swordsman, his combat power is already at the peak of that tier. It is only natural that he is able to kill the Gryphon."
"If this continues, he should be able to get through the first nine trials without any problems. From the 10th trial onwards, however, things won't be as easy anymore."
"That's right. The Twelve Trials would undergo a change in level once every three trials. The monsters would also receive a huge increase in combat power between levels. The 1st to 3rd trials will be basic level, while the 4th to 6th trials will be intermediate level, the 7th to 9th trials will be the advanced level, and the 10th to 12th trials will be the peak level. My bet is that the kid will hit his limit once he reaches the 10th trial."
The people within the Eternal Throne thought they had seen through Feng's power, not knowing that Feng was merely brute forcing the kill without bothering to put in much effort or use any combat techniques, as he found it unnecessary.
---
The stage for the 2nd trial was a sylvan setting, and Feng's opponent this time was the Moon-howling Silver Wolf. Inside a forest, this monster was an alpha predator. Similar to the Gryphon, the Moon-howling Silver Wolf was a Level 50 Elite monster with 500,000 HP. Although it, too, was a Tier 1 Primordial Beast, unlike the Gryphon, the Moon-howling Silver Wolf was much stronger on land. Its physical attacks were much more powerful, and its reaction speed was also much faster than the Gryphon's.
However, the Moon-howling Silver Wolf's speed was incomparable to Feng's, and its HP was quickly depleted within ten seconds.
System: Moon-howling Silver Wolf defeated. Second trial completed. Rewarding 300,000 EXP and 10 Free Mastery Points. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 50 points.
System: Second trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Feng took a moment to increase his one-handed sword mastery. With the Free Mastery Points he previously had and the fifteen he just got, Feng become an Advanced Sword Master after putting all his points into one-handed sword mastery; now dealing +50% weapon damage.
Soon after, Feng clicked "Yes" and started the next trial.
The scenery around Feng changed, and he appeared inside of a dark cave. The 3rd trial's monster was a Blue-eyed Spider. Similar to the previous two monsters, it was a Level 50 Elite monster with 500,000 HP.
However, the Blue-eyed Spider was much stronger than the Moon-howling Silver Wolf, though not in terms of Attack Power and Movement Speed. Instead, the Blue-eyed Spider had its highly potent venom and its tough and sticky silk. It also possessed superb eyesight. Even if its surroundings were pitch-black, the Blue-eyed Spider would still be able to see clearly, as if it were daytime. Moreover, its eyes also provided it with a 360-degree field of vision without any gaps in between.
Although Feng's surroundings were dark, he didn't really need his eyes. With Feng's senses, he could perceive everything around him, including the creepy Blue-eyed Spider who was watching him, easily. Thus, the pitch black environment didn't effect him at all.
Starting the fight the same way he usually does, Feng slashed in the Blue-eyed Spider's direction with Thundering Flash, lighting up the dark cave and temporarily blinding the spider, whose numerous eyes were used to the darkness.
Feng followed up with his other skills, once again ending the fight within ten seconds.
System: Blue-eyed Spider defeated. Third trial completed. Rewarding 1,000,000 EXP and 10 Free Mastery Points. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 100 points.
System: Third trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Feng immediately clicked "Yes" to start the 4th trial.
Soon after, Feng was teleported to a grassy plain. Feng immediately discovered a lion with a golden mane lazily sprawled across a large boulder, its stout tail swishing around in a leisurely manner.
However, Feng's arrival had obviously alerted it.
When this golden-maned lion stood up, its height exceeded five meters. A chill flashed in the lion's silver eyes as it raised its eyelids. In the next moment, the lush, green grass beneath its paws was frozen solid.
The grassy plains had also been instantly transformed into an icy hell, the green landscape turning snow-white.
[Silver-eyed Lion King] (Special Elite)
Level 50
HP 1,750,000/1,750,000
The difficulty of the 4th trial was clearly much greater than the 3rd trial.
Though, it didn't matter much. The Silver-eyed Lion's higher defense and HP merely meant it would suffer more; nothing else.
As for its environment changing... Feng merely activated the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, and the icy hell instantly returned to its original state. Just like that, the Silver-eyed Lion's environmental advantage was easily vanquished by Feng.
---
Inside the Eternal Throne, the many apex powerhouses there had been slightly surprised by Feng's use of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame.
"That was a Tier 2 Mysterious Flame, the Ice-Blue Devil Flame. It seems that the kid is still hiding his strength."
"It seems he won't have much trouble clearing the 6th trial. Based on his current strength, from the 4th trial onwards, he should be facing intermediate level Tier 1 Primordial Beasts. In terms of combat power, the kid is already at the peak level of Tier 1. Since the Primordial Beasts that would appear in the 6th trial will be at the Peak of Intermediate Tier 1, he should be able to easily defeat it with his current combat power."
The big shots sitting in the silver thrones unanimously acknowledged Feng's potential.
---
Although the Silver-eyed Lion had lost its environmental advantage, its innate Strength and destructive power was still high. With a swipe of its paws, a large pit was formed in the grassland and gravel flew all over the place.
Contrary to its expectations, the shockwave it sent at Feng merely brushed past him like a gentle breeze.
Feng raised an eyebrow in response, seemingly asking 'Are you serious?'
The Silver-eyed Lion King roared to cover up its embarrassment, before abruptly pushing against the ground with its robust and powerful legs. Like a violent gale, its body shot forth directly at Feng.
Just as it arrived in front of Feng, the power of thunder and flame gathered on the Abyssal Blade, before exploding on the Silver-eyed Lion's face, sending it into a Fainted state. Feng leaped up, and used Thundering Flash which just came off cooldown as he landed on the Silver-eyed Lion's back.
He then followed up with his other skills. The Silver-eyed Lion immediately awoke from its Fainted state. It tried shaking Feng off its back, but Feng held onto its fur with his left hand while stabbing the Silver-eyed Lion's back with the Abyssal Blade, leaving deep gashes in its skin below the fur, which had already been dyed red.
Seeing that it couldn't throw Feng off, the Silver-eyed Lion used one of its skills. Frost abruptly started spreading on its fur, causing the temperature surrounding the Silver-eyed Lion to drop. It clearly intended to force Feng off under the threat of being frozen.
However, a deep blue flame appeared and spread across Feng's body, instantly melting the frost that appeared around him, while also rendering the dropping temperature useless. Feng had 20 points in Ice Resistance anyway, so it wouldn't have effected him regardless.
Now, the Silver-eyed Lion not only had to endure the pain of getting stabbed, slashed and its flesh getting peeled off, which the human on its back seemed disturbingly experienced at, but also getting burned alive.
The Silver-eyed Lion ran around and roared in pain for a bit, before it seemed to have thought of a solution for the predicament it was in. It dropped to the ground and started rolling, intending to squish the small human clinging onto it.
Feng was at that point forced to jump off. Before the Silver-eyed Lion could rejoice at finally getting the human off its back, another Thundering Flash reaped away the rest of its HP.
System: Silver-eyed Lion King defeated. Fourth trial completed. Rewarding 3,000,000 EXP, 20 Free Mastery Points, and 10 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 300 points.
System: Fourth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Feng clicked "Yes" again without hesitation and started the 5th trial.
The stage of the 5th trial was set in a desert. Meanwhile, the Primordial Beast that would serve as his opponent in this trial was a monstrosity that had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and a snake as its tail.
The moment this monster noticed Feng's entry into its territory, its crimson red eyes immediately squinted, a hint of excitement leaking out from them.
[Chimera] (Special Elite)
Level 50
HP 2,000,000/2,000,000
Feng simply rushed towards the Chimera and used his regular attacks. Considering the annoyance of the Chimera's poison gas, Feng used Nine Dragons Slash and had the phantom Abyssal Blades pin the snake head tail to the ground while it was pointed opposite of Feng.
After that, Feng kept draining away at the Chimera's HP with casual attacks and any skills that came off cooldown, while dodging its attacks and the occasional flame breath. Even though the Chimera had tried attacking Feng in any way it could think of, all of its attempts were rendered useless.
And as the Chimera's snake head tail was pinned to the ground, not only could it not use its signature poison breath, its movements were also impeded. Although the Chimera had attempted to break the swords that were immobilizing its sneak head, Feng always intervened, causing its attacks to just slightly miss the phantom Abyssal Blades.
When Feng used a third Thundering Flash, followed by a second Thunder-Flame Explosion, the duration of Nine Dragons Slash ended, freeing the snake head. However, very little remained of the Chimera's HP.
The snake head immediately turned towards Feng after being freed and spat out a cloud of poison in the area. Feng merely jumped back out of the poison cloud's range and threw the Blazing Meteor into the cloud of poison.
When the blazing needle entered the poisonous fog, the vivid green fog instantly turned into a dark green. Immediately after, an explosion occurred. The explosion promptly sent the Chimera, which was still standing inside the poisonous fog, flying; while reaping away the last of its HP.
System: Chimera defeated. Fifth trial completed. Rewarding 6,000,000 EXP, 20 Free Mastery Points, and 10 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 300 points.
System: Fifth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Feng tapped "Yes" on the system interface and started the next trial.
The stage for the 6th trial was a cave of lava similar to the Flame God's Cave. However, the fire-type mana here was far purer than in the Flame God's Cave. Feng currently stood inside this cave, and the molten hot lava around him was making bubbling sounds as it flowed through the cave. If Feng did not possess 20 points in Fire Resistance, allowing him a certain degree of immunity to heat, he would have long since been cooked by the scalding hot temperatures. Any average player that came here might already be half-dead before they even started battling.
Suddenly, gigantic flame-covered snake over twenty meters long emerged from the molten lava.
[Balrog Serpent] (Special Elite)
Level 50
HP 2,500,000/2,500,000
Feng chose to directly charge at the Balrog Serpent, which was the exact opposite of what he did in his previous life. Seeing that Feng was charging at it, the Balrog Serpent immediately widened its mouth and sent fireballs flying one after another at Feng.
Instantly, Feng's feet moved, his body leaving behind an afterimage as he effortlessly dodged these incoming fireballs. The Balrog Serpent wanted to fire another volley at him, but Feng suddenly accelerated and arrived in front of the Balrog Serpent.
Before the Balrog Serpent could react, Feng slashed at it with a Chop, dealing over 10,000 damage, following up with a Double Chop. Only after being struck by the Double Chop did the Balrog Serpent react, sending its tail swiping at Feng.
Naturally, Feng welcomed the challenge and slashed at the Balrog Serpent's tail with the Abyssal Blade. As the tail and sword collided, the small sword won the exchange and knocked back the giant tail, while leaving a large gash in it and taking a bit of the Balrog Serpent's HP.
The Balrog Serpent must be insane if it thought it could overpower Feng. The attributes and combat power of the Balrog Serpent were merely at the Peak of Intermediate Tier 1. Meanwhile, Feng's attributes have already reached Tier 2. His current attributes were comparable to a lord of the same level, let alone a creature at the Intermediate of Tier 1.
Even though Feng has been dodging the monsters' attacks all this time, that didn't mean he couldn't beat them in a direct clash. The only reason why he dodged was that, at his standard, he could dodge and attack fluently at the same time.
If he always clashed with the monsters' attacks, his own attacks would lose a bit of power, and that would needlessly waste his time. The monsters would be preoccupied with trying to land a blow on him, while he could effortlessly avoid and counter attack at the same time.
Seeing that its power was weaker than the human's, the Balrog Serpent tried to distance itself from Feng while shooting fire balls at him.
Its attempts, however, were futile. Feng immediately closed in on the Balrog Serpent after activating Wind Blade and continued slashing at it. Though, Feng was quickly reminded of an annoying trait the Balrog Serpent possessed, which was that, unlike other monsters who regenerated 1% of their HP every five seconds, the Balrog Serpent's HP recovered every second.
Although it didn't recover a full 1%, it was currently recovering 8,000 HP every second.
Alas, that would only serve to prolong its suffering. As soon as Thundering Flash's cooldown ended, the Balrog Serpent was struck by three streaks of thunder.
With Thundering Flash's damage amplification, Feng's casual attacks were much higher than the Balrog Serpent's recovery. Within thirty seconds, the Balrog Serpent's giant body collapsed.
System: Balrog Serpent defeated. Sixth trial completed. Rewarding 9,000,000 EXP, 20 Free Mastery Points, and 10 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 500 points.
System: Sixth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Feng clicked "Yes" and went to the 7th trial.
---
"As expected, the 6th trial wasn't much of a challenge for this kid."
"At this rate, he'll quickly pass through the first nine trials. However, he'll definitely slow down after that."
"Indeed. The monsters on the peak trials are on an entirely different level than the rest. He won't be able to clear them with such ease. I believe he'll fail at the 11th trial."
"The 11th trial? If the ancient records are correct, that gigantic thing is the guardian of the 11th trial. Hopefully he manages to get to it. I've always wanted to see one of their kind"
The lords of the silver thrones unanimously acknowledged Feng's potential. However, in regard to Feng's managing to pass the complete trial, they held no hope. The reason being, the monsters on the last three trial were many times more powerful than the monsters before them; especially the guardian of the final trial.
The lords of the golden thrones, however, were quietly watching Feng's projected image. They all seemed to have something on their minds.
---
The stage for the 7th trial was an ancient coliseum.
Feng looked at his own figure gradually appearing at a corner of the coliseum, his face remaining completely indifferent and unbothered by seeing that his opponent looked just like him.
[Mirage Beast] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 50
HP 4,000,000/4,000,000
This Mirage Beast was capable of replicating the appearance and skills of an enemy. However, unlike players, it had a frightening amount of HP. In a one-on-one situation, players would find it extremely difficult to kill the Mirage Beast.
However, it didn't replicate the opponents attributes, and stayed on advanced Tier 1 regardless of what kind of attributes the thing it was replicating has.
Feng casually approached the Mirage Beast with one hand wielding the Abyssal Blade and the other in his pocket.
Meanwhile, the Mirage Beast had charged at Feng, and sent a Chop at him.
Seeing the charging Mirage Beast, Feng felt that he gave too much credit to its intelligence. Despite only being at Advanced Tier 1, it charged at Feng, who had Tier 2 attributes, without even bothering to stop and observe him for a moment.
Though, even under the condition that Feng's and the Mirage Beast's attributes weren't worlds apart, Feng would still be able to clobber the Mirage Beast to death with his Half-step Beyond Domain realm.
As the Mirage Beast arrived before Feng and slashed at him, Feng merely moved the Abyssal Blade in front of the Mirage Beast's attack, and its sword harmlessly slid off the Abyssal Blade. Feng then slashed at the Mirage Beast's neck.
The next moment, before the Mirage Beast could react, it was decapitated, and its head sent flying through the air. The Mirage Beast's 4 million HP instantly dropped to zero.
System: Mirage Beast defeated. Seventh trial completed. Rewarding 15,000,000 EXP, 30 Free Mastery Points, and 10 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 800 points.
System: Seventh trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Although when cutting of a monster's head it wouldn't normally die immediately, and instead would lose a lot of HP and become heavily injured, the Mirage Beast had taken the form of a human; which, surprisingly enough, can't live without a head.
At least not in the lower tiers. Once players reached a high enough tier they could survive having their head's chopped off; they'd just become crippled afterwards until they regenerated a new head.
Of course this applied to monsters as well. Only they could survive without a head and other vital parts at a much lower tier.
Although the monsters in the twelve trials weren't apart of that group since they were only Tier 0, their bodies were immensely large, and cutting through their necks and decapitating them would be a pain in the ass; while taking too much time. Which was why Feng opted to simply drain their HP.
Considering that the fight ended instantly, Feng had no need to rest; so he immediately clicked "Yes" and went to the next trial.
Feng felt really curious towards the unknown trials which he gave up on challenging in his previous life. He decided not to kill the trial monster instantly, so that he could see what's it capable of.
The scenery around Feng changed. He seemed to be standing on a golden colored cloud, somewhere in the infinite sky. Floating around at different distances and heights in the surroundings were other golden colored clouds.
The cloud under Feng's feet seemed to be unaffected by his weight, as his existence didn't disturb it. It merely continued floating like the rest of the clouds.
Feng looked around, trying to find his opponent among the clouds. His eyes stopped on one of the larger clouds floating near by.
The cloud looked the same as there rest of them, however, there was bulge in the middle of the cloud. When Feng looked closer, he noticed that the bulge was a golden colored, human sized fox laying with its tail wrapped around itself
[Sky Fox] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 50
HP 5,000,000/5,000,000
The Sky Fox seemed to have not noticed Feng, as it continued sleeping peacefully. Since the fox hasn't woken up yet and won't come to him, Feng decided to go to it.
Jumping from one cloud to another, Feng soon arrived on the Sky Fox's cloud. But even after standing thirty yards from the Sky Fox, its eyelids remained shut as it slept; seemingly oblivious to Feng's existence.
Naturally, Feng wasn't going to walk up to it and politely shake it awake. Instead, Feng decided to say good morning with a Thundering Flash.
Even as the streak of green thunder arrived in front of the Sky Fox it remained asleep. However, when the thunder streaks collided with the Sky Fox, they seemed to pass through it without doing any damage. Meanwhile, the Sky Fox's body dispersed into golden gas, similar to what the surrounding clouds were made out of.
'A dummy clone? Or is it an illusion?' Feng wondered as he watched the Sky Fox's body evaporate. As he was used to having the Omniscient Eyes and other observation skills in his previous life, he had forgotten that he only had Observing Eyes now; which could only see through and identify some basic things.
As Feng was reminded that he wasn't as OP as he thought he was, he suddenly sensed danger. Reacting immediately, Feng activated Gravity Liberation and dashed from his current location; towards the nearest floating cloud.
Right after Feng moved from where he was formerly standing, nine lightning bolts pierced from the bottom of the cloud; collapsing it in the process and sending cloud fragments flying everywhere.
Running on the collapsing cloud and weightlessly jumping on its fleeting fragments, Feng safely reached a cloud near by and landed on it. Only then did Feng turn around and look at his sneaky assailant.
It was the same Sky Fox Feng had previously seen sleeping that was currently floating in mid air while observing him. The only difference was that, instead of one furry tail, the Sky Fox now had nine of them coming out of its backside. Feng also finally got to see its eyes.
Similarly to the rest of its body, the Sky Fox's cunning eyes were completely golden. Even its eyeballs were golden; only a darker shade than its bright gold pupils.
The Sky Fox observed Feng with annoyance in its eyes. It seems it had been hoping to either kill the human that invaded its territory with that sneak attack, or send him falling to his death. Unfortunately, it had met Feng.
The human and fox observed each other for a moment, before attacking at the same time. The Sky Fox pointed its nine tails at Feng and shot lightning bolts out of them; meanwhile, Feng took out the Blazing Meteor and threw it at the Sky Fox.
Since the Sky Fox was not only flying far from him, but also over the cloud it previously destroyed, Feng couldn't reach it by jumping. Thus, unless the Sky Fox came to him or he uses Rocket Boost, Feng could only resort to attacking from afar with the Blazing Meteor.
As the nine lightning bolts the Sky Fox fired from its tails got close to him, Feng moved. Despite the Sky Fox shooting the lightning bolts in a way that sealed all of Feng's escape routes, he effortlessly saw through its attack and slipped through a small gap; escaping completely unharmed.
On the Sky Fox's side, despite predicting and trying to avoid the needle's trajectory, it found that it had somehow surprisingly flown straight into the Blazing Meteor, getting hit and scorched in the process.
Enraged at getting injured while all of its attacks missed, the Sky Fox fired more lightning bolts at Feng while flying in unpredictable patterns. Alas, all of its attacks were dodged, while all of Feng's thrown Blazing Meteors accurately landed on their target.
The more time passed, the more enraged the Sky Fox became. Similarly, Feng wasn't too happy. Even though all of his attacks landed, the total damage he did barely outpaced the Sky Fox's passive recovery.
At this rate, it'll take quite some time to kill it. Of course, that was under the condition that the Sky Fox doesn't simply turn around and fly away once its HP gets low, then come back after it has recovered. After all, Feng was the one who had to kill it to pass the trial, not the other way around.
Inwardly, Feng was feeling glad that he gave up in his previous life when he did. Otherwise, with his standards and strength at the time, he would have quickly been defeated. Regardless of whether or not he could have escaped the sneak attack, he would not have been able to dodge all of the lightning bolts the Sky Fox was firing, while also being unable to hit it with the Blazing Meteor; which might not have done enough damage to the Sky Fox even if his throws were successful.
While Feng was thinking of counter measures, the Sky Fox's patience was reaching its limit. It had simply been chilling in its territory, when this human interrupted its peaceful slumber. From that point, it was already enraged at being woken up, so, it had tried to instantly take care of the intruder in order to quickly go back to sleep.
After its first sneak attack failed, it resorted to using a barrage of lightning bolts; only for all of its attacks to miss, while it kept getting hit over and over again.
Now it was fully awake.
After nearly a minute of getting constantly bombarded by the throwing weapon, the Sky Fox abruptly stopped after Feng had already thrown the Blazing Meteor again, knowing that the human was aiming for where it would fly to, and intending to use a powerful skill before the human could attack it again.
However, contrary to the Sky Fox's expectations, Feng had seen through its intentions and threw the Blazing Meteor at where it just stopped. Only, this time it wasn't a regular throw.
As the Sky Fox's expression changed to one of shock when it realized that the damn needle would hit it again, it was already to late to avoid it.
When the flaming Blazing Meteor collided with the Sky Fox, it exploded in flames, dealing nine times of its usual damage. This was none other than the Blazing Meteor's skill, Flame God's Fury; which Feng rarely used nowadays.
That was the straw that broke the camels back. The Sky Fox was now royally pissed. Just as it was about to use its most powerful skill, it discovered that the human had disappeared.
Suddenly, nine pitch black chains wrapped around it, immobilizing the Sky Fox and forcing it to fall. The Sky Fox felt three streaks of lightning hitting its back, followed by another three.
From the moment Feng used Silent Steps on the Gryphon in the 1st trial, to the moment he arrived at the 8th trial, not even three minutes had passed. Only after being in a shoot out with the Sky Fox for nearly a minute did the cooldown for Silent Steps finally end.
As Feng appeared behind the Sky Fox, he immediately chained the fox down with Abyssal Bind, before using Phantom Kill and sending volleys of Thundering Flash at its back.
After applying the maximum damage amplification possible, Feng was about to finish the Sky Fox off with Flame Burst, but it suddenly turned into golden gas.
After getting out of the Abyssal Bind's confinement, the golden gas gathered and consolidated into the Sky Fox, who had used its life saving skill to escape Abyssal Bind. The moment the Sky Fox's form consolidated, a Thunder-Flame Explosion greeted it.
However, the Sky Fox seemed to have predicted that it would be immediately attacked. It fired lightning bolts from its tails to offset Feng's attack. The result from the clash of skills sent the Sky Fox flying, but it had avoided getting sent into a fainted state; which would have signaled the end of the 8th trial, as Feng had planned to Flame Burst it.
Using the momentum from the explosion, the Sky Fox ran in the opposite direction of Feng. It had seen from the human's previous attacks that their attributes were worlds apart. Thus, it had decided on a different strategy.
Feng immediately chased after the Sky Fox, with the doppelganger following behind him. The Sky Fox which was being hunted seemed to have lost its ability to fly, since it only ran along the golden cloud before jumping onto another close by cloud in order to get away from Feng.
Just as Feng jumped after it, the Sky Fox's nine tails lit up, before lightning bolts flew out of them; targeting Feng who was in between the clouds. The Sky Fox clearly intended to shoot down Feng while he was trying to cross over the clouds.
Moreover, it didn't simply shoot all nine directly at Feng; instead the lightning bolts blocked his sides as well, so even if Feng managed to change his air trajectory, he'll still be hit by some of them. The only option was to block the lightning bolts with his sword. In either case, he'll get slowed down; allowing the Sky Fox to make some distance from him.
At least, that's what the Sky Fox thought would happen.
Feng merely moved to a place where the least number of lightning bolts would collide with him, and activated Defensive Blade. At Defensive Blade's current level, it could completely block five melee attacks and ten ranged attacks. Thus, even if Feng took on the Sky Fox's entire barrage, he'd come out unscathed.
After landing on the golden cloud, the chase continued. With Feng's attributes, it should have been easy to catch up to the Sky Fox and kill it, however, the cunning fox kept changing directions and switching clouds, shooting lightning at Feng every time to try and slow him down. Despite the Sky Fox's efforts, Feng was still much faster, and was quickly gaining on it.
Just as Feng was about to get close enough to attack the Sky Fox, the creature jumped onto a golden cloud high above them. Feng naturally jumped after it. But when the Sky Fox was about to land on the golden cloud, it suddenly turned around, its tails lighting up again. Unlike previously, however, the lightning bolts it shot out weren't golden colored, and were orange instead.
Moreover, the Sky Fox didn't stop at firing only once. It shot another two volleys before landing on the golden cloud.
The moment the orange lightning bolts were shot out, they seemed to have locked onto Feng. They clustered together as they flew towards their target.
'Homing lightning?' Feng was surprised to see the Sky Fox using this orange lightning.
This wasn't the first time Feng has seen Homing Lightning, which had the ability to lock onto a target like a guiding missile, however, it was usually a skill only Tier 5 Legendary monsters and above possessed. So it was a surprise to Feng to see a mere rare special elite use the skill. It's as expected from a Primordial Beast.
Though, possessing such a skill won't help it much.
When the first volley of Homing Lightning was about to collide with Feng, he switched places with his doppelganger, which has been following behind him this entire time. The doppelganger used Defensive Blade, and the nine Homing Lightnings were blocked.
The other two volleys of Homing Lightning immediately switched targets from the doppelganger to Feng, who had just jumped after the doppelganger.
Before the second fired round of Homing Lightning could completely change their trajectory, the doppelganger used Thunder Flame Explosion, destroying the nine Homing Lightnings in the process.
Though, the doppelganger's jump was interrupted by the aftermath of the explosion, losing its momentum, and falling.
As the doppelganger was falling to its death, the real Feng stepped onto its head, using it as a springboard towards the golden cloud above.
If the doppelganger had any feelings, it would have definitely been insulted at being used in such a way.
The final barrage of Homing Lightning flew towards Feng, who was trying to get to the golden cloud that the Sky Fox escaped to, making it impossible to avoid a head-on clash with the orange lightning bolts.
Just as Feng and the Homing Lightnings were about to collide, Feng's right foot seemed to have stepped on mid air, allowing Feng to jump over the approaching lightning bolts.
Bronze Footwork Technique, Treading Cloud![1]
This was a footwork technique that allowed the user to leverage off the air once.
Although the technique is useless for higher tiered players, since they could just use their own strength to achieve the same thing or even better; while Tier 4 players could just fly, it can be useful to players like Feng in certain situations. For example, this one.
Even though Feng had avoided the Homing Lightnings, they simply did a U-turn, now targeting his back. Before the Homing Lightnings could get any closer to Feng, twelve phantom Abyssal Blades appeared and collided with the stalking lightning bolts.
Feng was uninterrupted by the collision and safely landed on the golden cloud. He frowned slightly. Using Treading Cloud had consumed more stamina and concentration than he thought it would.
In reality, Feng had other ways to avoid the Homing Lightning, but he had chosen to try out Treading Cloud in order to see how well he could currently use Bronze Combat Techniques. As he expected, his physique was still inadequate to properly use a Bronze Combat Technique.
Of course, the only reason Feng was even possibly able to use one with his current physique was because he's at the Beyond Transcendental realm, able to execute a Silver Combat Technique with his every movement as long as his physique and attributes allowed him to.
If another player who mastered Treading Cloud used it with his current physique, they most likely would have failed in the process; and even if they succeeded, all of their stamina and concentration would have been used up.
Before Feng could check his surroundings after landing in order to find where the Sky Fox went, nine Sky Foxes attacked him from all directions.
These nine Sky Foxes only had one tail each, however, the aura they all gave off was the exact same as that of the Sky Fox.
As the nine foxes commenced their sneak attack, Feng couldn't help but smirk. The Sky Fox really chose the wrong opponent to try this on.
Even a regular Domain realm expert would be tricked into believing that all of the foxes were real, and even if they did somehow figure out that eight of them were illusions, they'd be unable to tell which one was actually real.
Feng, however, with his Half-step Beyond Domain realm, could naturally tell real from illusion. Of course, even if he couldn't, he could still easily tell which one possessed an actual threat, as his danger prediction was comparable to that of an actual Beyond Domain realm expert.
The Sky Fox was probably planning to confuse Feng and try to deal damage in the chaos, then retreat and conduct guerilla warfare. Unfortunately for the Sky Fox, it had simply handed itself on a silver platter.
The Abyssal Blade lit up like a miniature sun, as Feng slashed at one of the foxes on his right.
A painful yelp sounded, and the fox Feng slashed at was sent flying. A huge gash appeared on the fox's face, along with burns, as a damage of -1,385,902 appeared above its head.
Simultaneously, the other eight Sky Foxes who were attacking Feng disappeared, and the one that was sent flying by Feng suddenly had eight extra tails.
The Sky Fox no longer seemed interested in attacking Feng. It merely turned around and started escaping once again.
Naturally, Feng wasn't going to let it get away, so he chased after it while activating some of his equipment's skills to boost his speed.
Feng quickly caught up with the escaping fox, but before he could finish it off once and for all, it jumped off the golden cloud. Feng leaned over the edge, to make sure he won't just jump down to his death while the Sky Fox goes back to flying; and it being unable to had just been an act. Frankly, he wouldn't put it past the cunning little thing.
After all, he had heard some things about the Sky Foxes while in the Greater God's Domain. The Sky Foxes were incredibly cunning and sneaky creatures. According to legends, they could even trick gods. Feng had once heard that one of the oldest Sky Foxes had tricked a Primordial God into losing an incredibly powerful Divine Artifact. After that, the Primordial God ensured a large scale hunt on all Sky Foxes.
This was the reason they were so rare nowadays. Though, what happened to that specific fox, was never found out.
As Feng looked down, he saw the Sky Fox land on a cloud much lower, before it continued running without looking back. Seeing that, Feng jumped down without hesitation. But when Feng was close to landing, his expression changed.
'Cunning little shit.' Feng's prediction wasn't too far off the mark. Despite being only a little above the golden cloud, his senses told him that there was nothing below him. Thus, Feng summarized that the golden cloud below him was just an illusion, while the Sky Fox pretended to walk on it while flying.
Moreover, there were no lower clouds near by, so it was impossible for Feng to get to a solid landing even if he used Gravity Liberation.
When Feng looked at the Sky Fox, he saw it turn to look at him with a smug grin. As soon as Feng saw that grin, he felt an overwhelming urge to wipe it off the Sky Fox's furry face.
As the Sky Fox expected the human to fall through the illusion cloud, and then to his death, flames started coming out of Feng's boots; boosting him towards the Sky Fox.
The Sky Fox's expression immediately warped to one of horror. The Sky Fox started to fly at its fastest speed, but it was already to late.
With Rocket Boost increasing his speed, which was already faster than the Sky Fox's, Feng reached it within three seconds.
The Sky Fox abruptly turned as its tails turned crimson red. The tails fused together before shooting a blood red lightning bolt as a last ditch effort for the Sky Fox to save itself.
Feng merely slashed with the Abyssal Blade in response. The blood red lightning bolt was instantly cut apart, and Feng arrived before the Sky Fox, who was too exhausted from using that move just now, in the next instant. Brandishing the miniature sun in his hand four times in a single breath, with all of them landing at the same point.
Four Extreme Slashes!
The remaining HP of the 8th trial's guardian was instantly wiped away.
System: Sky Fox defeated. Eight trial completed. Rewarding 21,000,000 EXP, 30 Free Mastery Points, and 10 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 800 points.
System: Eight trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Feng didn't immediately proceed with the clearing, and instead called out the system interface. As Ucarus had already opened up the Exchange System of the War God's Temple's treasury for Feng, he could now directly exchange his merit points through the system.
He filtered the window to display only Epic ranked items, then to only display ornaments, before searching for the Seven Luminaries Ring.
Since he cleared the 8th trial, Feng received 6,400 merit points; now having a total of 12,700. So, he could finally afford the Seven Luminaries Ring, which costs 8,000 merits points. Although buying it now meant that he would make a loss of merit points, as he currently doesn't have any War God's Temple reputation points and won't get a discount like he would after the trial, Feng didn't really mind that.
After the fight with the Sky Fox, Feng realized something. The trial monsters weren't as simple as he had thought. Feng felt that he might have underestimated the might of Primordial Beasts.
Although the Sky Fox's attributes weren't that high, even slightly inferior than what he remembered from the Mirage Beast, with even its most powerful skill, the blood red lightning, being only at the Advanced of Advanced Tier 1; the Sky Fox's intelligence and behavior slightly concerned Feng.
Previously, even when he was dominating the trial monsters, they would never run, and instead stayed to fight until their death; unlike the Sky Fox, which quickly chose to retreat and not fight Feng head on.
Moreover, it highly used the terrain, which it was unaffected by since it could fly while Feng was inconvenienced by the threat of falling to his death at every step, to its advantage. While some of the previous trial monsters did benefit from the environment of their trial space, they didn't really attempt to take advantage of it in order to have a higher chance of beating Feng.
Feng was unsure if the Sky Fox was unique to this, or if that's how the trial monsters at the Advanced Tier 1 are. In his previous life the Mirage Beast didn't have a need to run, as it thought it could defeat him, while it was immediately decapitated this time around. So Feng had no way to be sure until he goes to the 9th trial and fights the monster in it.
However, considering how cunning the Sky Fox is, even if the other monsters aren't like it, they might have their own annoying gimmicks.
If a player was weaker than the Sky Fox, they'd be crushed. If the player has the same, or slightly higher, strength as the Sky Fox, they'd be toyed to death. If a player was much stronger than the Sky Fox, they'd be played to death; like Feng almost was.
Only if a player had high combat standards and similar or higher strength than the Sky Fox could they beat it. And only a player like Feng who had both very high combat standards and strength much higher than the Sky Fox's could play around with it.
Naturally, Feng could have instantly killed the Sky Fox from the beginning by using a combination of Rocket Boost and Flame Burst, without the need for the shoot out and all the chasing around. But he had chosen to first see all its cards in order to get a clearer picture of what to expect for the rest of the trials.
Of course, Feng only dared to do this because, from the moment he saw the real Sky Fox, he knew it didn't have any way of killing him. Any of its attacks could be easily countered or dodged. The only way for Feng to die was to fall to his death. However, since he had the Rocket Boots, that wasn't a concern.
It was that, and the fact that he could instantly kill the Sky Fox with Flame Burst, that gave Feng the confidence to play around with the Sky Fox. Though, if Feng didn't have the Rocket Boots, the Sky Fox would have died the moment it was trapped in Abyssal Bind.
The fight helped Feng realize that, if he was caught within certain conditions in this trial, he might actually die. Thus, he had decided to buy the Seven Luminaries Ring, which could help in many situations.
Feng soon spent 8,000 merit points, and the Seven Luminaries Ring appeared in his hands.
[Seven Luminaries Ring (Replica)] (Ring, Epic Rank)
Level 20 - Level 80
Equipment Requirement: Strength 200
Attributes will be adjusted according to user's level. (Level 50)
Strength +115, Agility +105, Intelligence +84, Endurance +90, Vitality +92
Damage +10%
Maximum HP +15%
Ignore Levels +10
All skills +2 Levels.
All items level requirement reduced by 10 Levels.
Additional Skill-
Seven Luminaries Aura: There are seven different Auras: earth, water, wind, fire, time, illusion, and space. Only one Aura can be used each time, and there will be a Cooldown of one minute when changing between Auras.
[Aura of Earth]
Level 1 (Requires 1,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
Defense increased by 30%.
Damage taken reduced by 20%.
Activatable Skill-
Absolute Defense: Provides immunity to seven attacks.
Cooldown: 1 minute 30 seconds
[Aura of Water]
Level 1 (Requires 1,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
Received healing increased by 30%.
Cast Consumption reduced by 20%.
Activatable Skill-
Life Bloom: Heals selected target for 10% HP every second for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 1 minute 30 seconds
[Aura of Wind]
Level 1 (Requires 1,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
Movement Speed increased by 20%.
Attack Speed increased by 20%.
Agility increased by 15%.
Activatable Skill-
Wind Rider: Enables temporary flight and Movement Speed increase of 100% for 15 seconds.
Cooldown: 2 minutes
[Aura of Fire]
Level 1 (Requires 1,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
Damage increased by 30%.
Target's Defense reduced by 20%.
Activatable Skill-
Firestorm: Inflicts 500% damage within a range of 10*10 yards for 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
[Aura of Time]
Level 1 (Requires 2,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
Cooldown of all Skills reduced by 20%.
Enemies within a 100-yard radius will have their Movement Speed and Attack Speed reduced by 20%, and Cooldown of Skills increased by 20%.
Activatable Skill-
Absolute Time: Prevents enemies within a range of 50*50 yards from using any skills or tools for 20 seconds.
Cooldown: 3 minutes
[Aura of Illusion]
Level 1 (Requires 2,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
All Attributes increased by 20%.
Enemies within a 100-yard radius will have all their Attributes reduced by 20%.
Activatable Skill-
Fantasy World: Immunity to all Magic Damage and 10% of Magic Damage received will be converted to healing to recover player's HP for 10 seconds.
Cooldown: 3 minutes
[Aura of Space]
Level 1 (Requires 2,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
Immunity to all control and restricting effects.
Activatable Skill-
Space Movement: Instantly move to any location within a radius of 300,000 yards.
Cooldown: 10 minutes
"You have no idea how hard life has been without you." Feng felt a bit emotional as he equipped the Seven Luminaries Ring. Only after losing the Seven Luminaries Ring did Feng realize how convenient of an item it really is.
From increasing your defense and making you invincible, to instantly regenerating your HP, increasing your speed and allowing flight, increasing your damage and reducing someone's defense, reducing the cooldown of skills, placing your enemies in a silenced state, overall increase your attributes, become immune to magic damage, become immune to control and restricting effects, and teleportation.
Even in the Greater God's Domain, Feng had never came across an item with so many possible effects and abilities. Although the effects of the Seven Luminaries Ring diminish with higher tiers if you don't level them up, and even if you do there's a limit, the mere fact it could have so many uses is incredible; especially when used in the lower tiers.
Not to mention, after Feng managed to upgrade the Seven Luminaries Ring to Legendary rank in his previous life, it became even more powerful.
As he checked the Seven Luminaries Ring's description, Feng decided that it was about time he got rid of his extra levels. Thus, he started pouring EXP into the Seven Luminaries Ring's auras.
Immediately, Feng upgraded the Aura of Fire, Aura of Wind, Aura of Earth, Aura of Time, Aura of Illusion and Aura of Space to Tier 1, which in turn upgraded Firestorm, Wind Rider, Absolute Defense, Absolute Time, Fantasy World and Space Movement to Tier 1. In the blink of an eye, Feng fell to level 40.
As for the Aura of Water, Feng didn't bother with it. He never takes damage, so there was no need for the Aura of Water to be upgraded. If it ever did become necessary, its current level would suffice.
Feng then upgraded the Aura of Fire one more time, dropping to level 23, and unable to level up the Auras any more.
[Seven Luminaries Ring (Replica)] (Ring, Epic Rank)
Level 20 - Level 80
Equipment Requirement: Strength 200
Attributes will be adjusted according to user's level. (Level 23)
Strength +45, Agility +35, Intelligence +35, Endurance +30, Vitality +30
Damage +10%
Maximum HP +15%
Ignore Levels +10
All skills +2 Levels.
All items level requirement reduced by 10 Levels.
Additional Skill-
Seven Luminaries Aura: There are seven different Auras: earth, water, wind, fire, time, illusion, and space. Only one Aura can be used each time, and there will be a Cooldown of one minute when changing between Auras.
[Aura of Earth]
Tier 1 Level 1 (Requires 2,000,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Tier 1 Level 2)
Defense increased by 80%.
Damage taken reduced by 60%.
Activatable Skill-
Absolute Defense: Become immune to all damage for 5 seconds and gives immunity to all allies within 15 yards for 3 seconds.
Cooldown: 1 minute 30 seconds
[Aura of Water]
Level 1 (Requires 1,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Level 2)
Received healing increased by 30%.
Cast Consumption reduced by 20%.
Activatable Skill-
Life Bloom: Heals selected target for 10% HP every second for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 1 minute 30 seconds
[Aura of Wind]
Tier 1 Level 1 (Requires 2,000,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Tier 1 Level 2)
Movement Speed increased by 80%.
Attack Speed increased by 80%.
Agility increased by 65%.
Activatable Skill-
Wind Rider: Enables temporary flight and Movement Speed increase of 300% and increase the damage of the next attack by 500% for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 2 minutes
[Aura of Fire]
Tier 1 Level 2 (Requires 2,400,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Tier 1 Level 3)
Damage increased by 100%.
Target's Defense reduced by 80%.
Activatable Skill-
Firestorm: Inflicts 1,500% damage within a range of 50*50 yards for 6 seconds.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
[Aura of Time]
Tier 1 Level 1 (Requires 3,000,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Tier 1 Level 2)
Cooldown of all Skills reduced by 60%.
Enemies within a 100-yard radius will have their Movement Speed and Attack Speed reduced by 60%, and Cooldown of Skills increased by 80%.
Activatable Skill-
Absolute Time: Prevents enemies within a range of 150 yards from using any skills or tools for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 2 minutes
[Aura of Illusion]
Tier 1 Level 1 (Requires 3,000,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Tier 1 Level 2)
All Attributes increased by 60%.
Enemies within a 300-yard radius will have all their Attributes reduced by 60%.
Activatable Skill-
Fantasy World: Immunity to all Magic Damage and 40% of Magic Damage received will be converted to healing to recover player's HP for 40 seconds.
Cooldown: 3 minutes
[Aura of Space]
Tier 1 Level 1 (Requires 3,000,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Tier 1 Level 2)
Immunity to all control and restricting effects.
Activatable Skill-
Space Movement: Instantly move to any location within a radius of 600,000 yards.
Cooldown: 3 minutes
After Feng checked the leveled up Seven Luminaries Ring, he decided to sit down and rest for a bit. Using Treading Cloud had consumed more stamina and concentration than he initially expected it, but at least now he knew what he was currently capable of doing; which was the entire purpose of trying it out.
Although players couldn't use items such as potions or scrolls in the Twelve Trials, they could still consume food made by Cooking. Thus, Feng took out some of the steaks he kept in his bag and started eating them.
After about ten minutes of resting, Feng stood back up and called up the system message; tapping on "Yes" to go to the next trial.
Feng appeared on top of a stony cliff that overlooked an ocean. The clouds in the sky were gloomy, and rain started to pour a moment after Feng arrived.
Guessing that the trial didn't have an ocean just for him to fight a land monster, Feng looked towards the murky waters, waiting to see if something will come out, or if he'll have to swim.
As expected, a few moments later the water started moving as waves formed, clashing against the stone cliff Feng was standing on.
Nine large, serpent heads came out of the water at the same time, followed by long necks which all connected to a giant body.
[Hydra] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 25
HP 375,000/375,000
Since the Twelve Trials scale according to Feng, the trial monsters level would drop along with his, rounding to the closest. As Feng was level 23, the 9th trial's monster became level 25.
However, Feng felt that clearing the trials would be much easier than on higher levels, which was also one of the reasons he chose to buy the Seven Luminaries Ring as soon as he had gathered enough merit points to do so.
Although both Feng's and the trial monsters' attributes would drop together with levels, Feng's would have a much smaller reduction. In fact, even though he dropped down to level 23, his attributes haven't fallen by too much. Moreover, the Seven Luminaries Ring on which he had spent so many levels also gave him some attributes, along with its many abilities.
As for the Hydra that was currently staring him down, although it was at the Peak of Advanced Tier 1, its attributes were slightly higher than the Sky Fox's. However, its HP was many times lower in comparison. In fact, even though Feng was two levels lower than it, he felt that he could kill the Hydra with one slash of Flame Burst.
It was unknown whether the Hydra could sense the threat Feng possessed, or if it was just impatient, but it opened its nine mouths as soon as it surfaced, shooting water beams from them.
Feng, who currently had the Aura of Wind selected, ran along the stone cliff and avoided all nine of the water attacks. Out of curiosity, Feng switched to the Aura of Fire, before slashing at the Hydra with Thundering Flash, sending three streaks of green thunder towards the monster's body, of which only half was out of the water.
As the thunder streaks hit the Hydra's body, damages of -59,690, -80,581, -108,785. Instantly, over 66% of the Hydra's HP was gone, just like that.
Seeing that he almost just killed the Hydra, Feng decided to stop fighting back, and simply avoid the Hydra's attacks in order to see if their was anything special about this trial monster.
Although Feng had never personally fought a Hydra, he had once seen others fighting one in his previous life, so he had some information on how the Hydra fights. However, that was a high tiered Hydra, in the Greater God's Domain, where the fighting is a lot more realistic. Moreover, only one system update has happened at this time, so there were bound to be differences.
After around ten minutes, Feng felt that he had seen enough. Although the Hydra was powerful for being at Tier 0, even stronger than most High Chieftains, and it had higher intelligence, too; that was about it.
Feng guessed that the Hydra was limited by its low tier, and unable to display its full potential. As its tier grew, it would put up a much bigger fight, and you'd be able to see much more of the difference between Primordial Beasts and regular monsters.
Moreover, Feng had realized that the Sky Fox was indeed unique in the way it fights. Even though the Hydra knew from when Feng used Thundering Flash that it was no match for him and that it would most likely die, it still stood its ground and fought valiantly; unlike the Sky Fox, who ran like a little bitch the moment it started losing.
When Feng though he had determined the extent of the Hydra's abilities, the cliff he was running along suddenly collapsed.
"So it really was aiming for that." Feng mumbled to himself as he fell towards the water.
He had previously noticed that the Hydra was shooting water beams, along with using other skills as well as basic attacks to break certain parts of the stone cliff, causing some of the areas to collapse. However, he hadn't really paid much attention to it, and thought that it was just the Hydra attacking him.
But now he saw that it had been conducting a tactical destruction, causing the entire stone cliff to collapse and forcing Feng into the water; inside its territory where it would have an advantage.
Unfortunately for the Hydra, Feng just activated Wind Rider before even reaching the water and flew at it.
In truth, with Feng's current attributes, even without Wind Rider he could simply run on water, so it wouldn't have affected him much; the only advantage the Hydra would get was being able to attack Feng from all directions.
With the speed provided by Wind Rider, Feng quickly reached the Hydra. Abruptly, the Abyssal Blade in his hand lit up like a miniature sun.
The Hydra's pupils contracted when it saw the blazing Abyssal Blade. Immediately, it dived underwater, going all the way to the ocean floor.
Despite not being able to see how deep the Hydra went, Feng could still sense its aura getting further away, and his lips curled into a smile.
"You think the water can save you?" Feng immediately flew down after the Hydra.
When he reached the ocean's surface, he pointed the Abyssal Blade downwards, causing the water within five yards to evaporate from the heat Flame Burst produced.
Feng continued flying deeper as the water in front of him disappeared, while the water behind him was unable to catch up. A few moments later, Feng could finally faintly see the Hydra on the sea bed.
'It can use that skill as well?" Feng though to himself when he noticed the Hydra's heads all gathered together with their mouths open. In front of the heads, a giant dark blue ball was rapidly consolidating. All of the water mana inside the near by area was gathering towards the dark blue ball.
The Hydra seemed to have sensed Feng, as it hurried its preparations. When Feng arrived within 50 yards of the Hydra, it was finally done gathering enough mana.
From the center of the dark blue ball, a beam shot towards Feng. [2]
Tier 2 Spell, Ocean's Breath!
Feng knew of the spell, but was slightly surprised to see the Hydra using it, as it could normally only be used by Tier 2 and above sea monsters.
This was one of the things that made Hydras extremely powerful. They could combine the attacks of all nine of their heads to increase the attack's power; often crossing one or two tiers. Feng had heard that if a Tier 4 Hydra was powerful enough, and its bloodline pure enough, its attacks could even reach the lower Tier 6 standard.
Another thing that made the Hydras tricky to deal with was that, if you don't have the power to sever all nine of its heads within three seconds, or less depending on its tier, the Hydra's only vital part is its heart; which is a bit difficult to attack with its giant body.
There were other things that made Hydras powerful, especially in and on water, but this one was completely incapable of displaying its prowess in front of Feng.
This includes its current attack, which should have been dangerous to a tier 0 player.
With a single slash of the Abyssal Blade, the Ocean's Breath spell was cut in half; its remaining effect going in two directions beside Feng.
However, Feng didn't stop there. He continued flying downwards, towards the Hydra, and continued parting the Hydra's strongest attack in two with slashes.
By the tenth slash, Feng had reached the dark blue ball and destroyed it with a cut; before reaching the Hydra. As the Hydra's nine heads stared at Feng in disbelief, its full HP was instantly wiped out.
System: Hydra defeated. Ninth trial completed. Rewarding 30,000,000 EXP, 30 Free Mastery Points, and 10 Gold Coins. Proficiency of all Skills increased by 1,000 points.
System: Ninth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
As the Hydra fell and the system notification sounded, golden glows surrounded Feng. He had instantly reached level 25, and wasn't far from level 26.
Feng didn't proceed to the next trial immediately, but first chose to increase his one-handed sword mastery. From clearing the third to ninth trial, he had obtained 160 Free Mastery Points. Feng put all of his points into his one-handed sword mastery, and upgraded it to Basic Sword King; now dealing 80% more damage.
System: Congratulations! Your One-handed Sword Mastery has reached 460 points. For becoming the first player to upgrade your One-handed Sword Mastery to the Basic Sword King, you will be rewarded with the title of Swordsmanship Master.
Feng examined the Swordsmanship Master title.
[Swordsmanship Master]
When using sword-type weapons, Attack Speed increased by 20%. When attacked by sword-type weapons, Evasion +20.
(You may only use one title at a time. Effects will not stack with other titles.)
He then waited for two minutes for Flame Burst's cooldown to end.
Anyway, he had learned something helpful from the battle with the Hydra. Since it could use Tier 2 skills, even if it was with the combination of all nine heads, the monsters in the next trials might be able to use them as well; even if they don't have the same characteristic as the Hydra.
---
Inside the Eternal Throne, the silver thrones conversed after Feng passed the ninth trial.
"Although I knew that he would pass them, I never expected him to do so with such ease."
"Indeed. He even learned such a powerful skill despite not even being a Tier 1 swordsman. If he had gone all out from the beginning, he could have cleared the 7th to 9th floor within a minute."
"With his current power, he might be able to pass the 10th trial, but I still think he'll fall on the 11th."
As the silver thrones debated over Feng's chances of clearing the next floors, a man sitting on one of the golden thrones suddenly turned towards the other golden thrones and spoke.
"If he's capable of passing the 10th floor, shall we summon Lord Temple Lord?"
The Eternal Throne suddenly turned deafly silent.
The people on the silver thrones stared at the man who spoke in disbelief, but the people on the golden thrones seemed to be considering the man's words.
"I suppose we should. Even if this kid can't pass the 11th trial, the Lord might still decide to lend him a hand. After all, it's been a long time since someone has managed to pass the 9th trial."
"Indeed. Either way, the Temple Lord should be notified that someone managed to get this far in the Twelve Trials."
The people on the golden thrones unanimously agreed. Although they didn't think Feng could pass the 11th trial, let alone the final one, the Temple Lord might take a liking to him and help him out regardless.
---
After two minutes passed, and Flame Burst's cooldown ended, Feng clicked "Yes" to go to the next trial.
The gloomy clouds in the air disappeared, and were replaced by the bright blue sky and rainbows.
The scenery of the 10th trial could be described as a dreamland. There was a grass plain, lush forests, lakes, rivers and waterfalls; and tall mountains could be seen in the distance.
However, there were no creatures, unlike what one would expect from such a beautiful place... None except for one.
Grazing on the healthy green grass, a pure white horse, with a rainbow colored mane and tail, stood alone on the giant plain.
The size of the pure white horse was the same as a regular horse. In fact, except for its unusual color, the only difference between this horse and a regular horse, was the golden horn on its head.
[Unicorn (Realm Lord)] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 25
HP 1,000,000
Feng raised an eyebrow as he looked at the Unicorn.
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1. Idea for technique from novel "Super Gene". It's a good novel I recommend to read if you have spare time. But don't read the manga. It ruined the novel even more than in rssg's case.
2. Imagine a dark blue Kamehameha Wave, but bigger.
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