Chapter 27: 12 Trials
After stepping through the portal James appeared on a plateau surrounded by cliffs. He didn't have long to admire the surroundings though, because his first opponent was already coming towards him, a Gryphon was flying straight at him at the moment.
[Gryphon] (Elite Rank)
Level 20
HP 35.000/35.000
James didn't bother using any skills on this weak monster. He just dodged the first dive attack and delivered 2 quick sword slashes now that the Gryphon was close, thanks to James's extremely high physique and agility the Gryphon couldn't even comprehend what was going on until it was over.
[- 25.000]
[- 25.000]
System: Gryphon defeated. First trial completed. Rewarding 100,000 EXP and 5(10) Free Mastery Points. Proficiency in all Skills increased by 50 points.
System: The first trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
"yes"
The next monster that came out was a Moon-howling Silver Wolf, all in all not much stronger than the Gryphon, so James just waited for it to attack sidestepped it at the last moment, and delivered 2 lethal sword slashes without it ever realizing what hit it.
System: Moon-howling Silver Wolf defeated. Second trial completed. Rewarding 300,000 EXP and 10(20) Free Mastery points. Proficiency in all skills increases by 50 points.
System: Second trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
"yes"
A blue spider was the third trial, unlike the 2 monsters before it, it didn't directly jump at James. It circled him a few times instead. James, who didn't really have the patience for this just dashed at the spider, it wasn't really that much stronger than the monsters before it so killing it was nothing.
System: Third trial completed. Rewarding 1,000,000 EXP and 10(20) Free Mastery points. Proficiency in all skills increases by 100 points.
System: Third trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
"yes"
Appearing on a grassy plain James immediately noticed his next opponent, a golden lion with silver eyes staring him down from the high grass.
[Silver-eyed Lion King] (Special Elite)
Level 20
HP 100,000/100,000
Seeing that it had some more HP than the last couple of enemies James decided to use some skills with low cooldown time to have some fun with it. He blitzed in front of the lion so fast that it only noticed him when he was standing right before him. James activated [time absorbing slash] giving the lion even less of a chance to retaliate.
[-50,000]
Half of the Lion's HP was gone with that one attack, and with him being slowed it took less than a second for James to deliver the 2 final blows needed to finish him.
System: Fourth trial completed. Rewarding 3,000,000 EXP and 20(40) Free Mastery Points. Proficiency in all Skills increased by 300.
System: Fourth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
"yea, start it."
The next opponent was a chimere.
[Chimera] (Special Elite)
Level 20
HP 120,000/120,000
The Chimera's attack pattern was faster and more chaotic than the Lion's, so to normal players, it would be a big challenge. James, however, could take it out with the same combo he used on the Lion, he only needed to add one more slash at the end.
System: Fifth trial completed. Rewarding 6,000,000 EXP and 20(40) Free Mastery Points. Proficiency in all Skills increased by 300 points.
System: Fifth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
"yes, move on"
The next trial was located in a cave filled with lava, with a big serpent as its protector.
[Balrog Serpent] (Special Elite)
Level 21
HP 150,000/150,000
As soon as it saw the intruder the serpent shot a furry of fireballs toward James, and not one of them managed to come close to hitting him. He just weaved through them while sprinting toward the serpent who was getting more furious by the second.
Alas, it only took James a couple of seconds to finish the serpent when he got in close range where the serpent was at a disadvantage.
System: Sixth trial completed. Rewarding 9,000,000 Exp and 20(40) Free Mastery Points and 10 Gold coins. Proficiency in all skills increased by 500 points.
System: Sixth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
At that moment James had leveled up to level 23 and like usual he didn't spend any free attribute points, it would be taken away anyway after he set himself back to level 20 by spending EXP to level up skills.
"Start the next trial."
The next moment he appeared in an ancient-looking coliseum, at the other end of the arena stood a copy of himself.
[Mirage Beast] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 23
HP 200,000/200,000
This sounded like a rather tricky situation for someone as strong as James, but in actuality, it really wasn't. The mirage beast couldn't copy his stats thanks to the fact that they were ridiculously high for his level, it also didn't copy his combat standard so even if it had his stats, it didn't stand a chance.
When James launched himself toward the beast it seemed to have noticed that it didn't stand a chance and it immediately activated [holy aura] and charged up his blade with lightning and was preparing to stick it in the ground and use [Lightning discharge].
Before he could do so, however, James slid under the blade.
[Parry]
The lightning-clad blade deflected into the air and lost its effect stunning the mirage beast for a second, James didn't waste this opportunity and landed a flurry of attacks on the beast, resulting in a quick death.
System: Seventh trial completed. Rewarding 15,000,000 EXP and 30(60) Free Mastery points and 10 gold coins. Proficiency in all skills increased by 800 points.
System: Seventh trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
James contemplated for some time whether he should buy some items with the number of points he had collected so far, but eventually decided against it. He could clear the 12th trial without it, so why bother?
"Start the next trial."
The next moment he appeared on a small rock formation in the middle of a violent ocean, and a few seconds later a Hydra came roaring out of the water.
[Hydra] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 26
HP 250,000/250,000
James didn't really have a big plan for the hydra so he just went in and started attacking, it wouldn't take long anyway to kill it that way, the only notable thing that happened was that the lightning effect on [Killing Ray] triggered 2 times in a row dealing most of the damage of the fight. Around 120.000 in 2 hits.
System: Eighth trial completed. Rewarding 18,000,000 EXP and 30(60) Free Mastery Points. Proficiency in all skills increased by 800.
System: Eighth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
With this James Leveled up to level 29, and just like last time didn't distribute any attribute points.
"Next challenge."
The next second James appeared before a giant tunnel, out of that tunnel a Goliath with a big wooden club slowly walked out.
[Goliath] (Rare Special Elite)
Level 29
HP 300,000/300,000
The Goliath was truly a step up from all the monsters before, not really in terms of stats, but mainly in terms of intelligence. It could tell how dangerous James was and stayed out of his reach while attacking him, the giant club reached way farther than James's sword after all.
James really didn't have the time, however, to play these silly games so he rushed in before Goliath could back away and imbued his sword with a rich yellow flame.
[Summon Lightning]
A lightning bolt flung out of [Killing Ray] and struck Goliath straight in the chest, dealing an immense 200,000 damage. Within the next 2 hits with the flame-covered sword, the beast was dead.
System: Ninth trial completed. Rewarding 21,000,000 EXP and 30(60) Free Mastery Points and 50 gold coins. Proficiency in all skills increased by 1000 points.
System: Ninth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
Outside of the trial space, the once empty purple throne now seeded a rather omnipotent-looking man. His name was Zaeus, a Tier 6 God, and also the head and creator of the War God's Temple. He was called by one of the elders on the Golden throne after James easily cleared the 7th trial.
"It was indeed a good idea for me to spectate this, this young man has potential beyond my imagination."
One of the elders on the golden Throne just snickered after hearing Zaeus giving him that much praise.
"Don't you think you're overestimating him sir Zaeus, he has high stats, but that is about it. He seems to fight solely on intuition, not using any of his senses in the slightest. That might work now that he is fighting weaker opponents but when he comes across equally matched individuals he will be in for a rough time. "
Zaeus just laughed when he heard one of his elders say such an arrogant comment.
"I think you are underestimating him; he isn't only using his intuition because he can't make good use of his senses. He just hit the limit on his senses already, in other words, he has transcended the use of his senses. His combat intuition can give him a faster and more accurate grasp on the situation than his senses ever will."
The arrogant elder from before could do nothing but stare at Zaeus, it took him a couple of seconds before he could mumble a few words.
"Does that mean he reached THAT realm already?"
Zaeus just gave a light smile.
"That's right, in terms of those realms he is even superior to me. That is not all though, he seemed to have a decent understanding of the realms of truth as well, in that he isn't that accomplished though."
All of the members couldn't help but gulp at Zaeus's words.
"Calm down everyone, let's just watch the show and see what other tricks he has up his sleeve."
Back in the trial, after waiting 5 minutes for the skill [summon lighting] to come off cooldown. James was facing a giant Hippogryph.
[Ravenous Hippogryph] (High Chieftain Rank)
Level 29
HP 1,000,000/1,000,000
"Finally, a little challenge."
Now that he had come to the last couple of challenges he didn't need to use his skill's so sparingly anymore, he would still keep the once with a longer cooldown time for the 12th trial, but the once he could wait out for the cooldown to reset he was just going to use to his heart's content.
So, he charged at the Hippogryph before it could take flight, using his Soul fire on [Killing ray], and using as many skills as he could.
[Lightning discharge]
-72.000
[time absorbing slash]
-71.250
[Summon Lightning]
-200.000
Now stunt thanks to [Lightning discharge] and slowed due to [time absorbing slash], the Hippogryph had no way to retaliate, from the beginning to the end of the fight, it didn't even have the opportunity to take flight.
System: Tenth trial completed. Rewarding 30,000,000 EXP and 40(80) Free Mastery Points and 50 gold coins. Proficiency in all Skills increased by 2,000 points.
System: Tenth trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
With those rewards, James got to level 34, and just like last time he waited for the cooldowns of his skills to be over before accepting the next trial.
After accepting the next trial James appeared in a valley with lush greenery and many small rivers, opposite him stood a tall and angry-looking Centaur.
[Berserking Centaur] (Lord Rank)
Level 34
HP 1,500,000/1,500,000
James sighed in relief, strong land mobs he could deal with if a strong flying monster could take flight before he could deal damage to it, he would be in for a long battle. This was due to his lack of many skills.
The Centaur immediately noticed James when he entered its valley, it was about 3 times as big as James and was wielding 2 Fire red axes. His strength was clearly leaps and bounds above all the other monsters James had faced before, but this berserker-like strength came with a price, its intelligence was so low that the only thing it could think of was attacking, for a Beyond Domain Realm expert like James fighting someone that was like reading an open book. It was for that reason that it wasn't a surprise that the Centaur couldn't land a single hit.
Every time the giant axe of the centaur missed James could get in about 5 hits before it regained its composure and swung the other one, James was planning on using skills here but he quickly realized that this wasn't necessary in the slightest. It only took James about 2 minutes to fully ship away all of the centaur's health, the whole time the centaur, thanks to being constantly enraged, didn't make a single attempt to protect itself.
System: Eleventh trial completed. Rewarding 36,000,000 EXP and 50(100) Free Mastery Points and 100 Gold coins. Proficiency in all skills increased by 3,000 points.
System: Eleventh trial cleared. Do you wish to start the next trial?
James leveled up to level 37 and even though he didn't have to wait for any skills to come off cooldown he still waited a couple of minutes before starting the next trail.
After those few minutes of rest, James calmed himself and started the final trial.
When James appeared in the final arena it looked totally different from what he had imagined, it looked like the combination of all previous trials. All previous opponents were there next to each other looking at James with anger in their eyes, each one of them was a Lord with 2,000,000 HP.
James didn't wait for a second longer and started activating skills while rushing toward them, it would be more beneficial to him if he could deal as much damage as possible before they started to coordinate their attacks.
[Thunder God's Descent]
[holy aura]
He also made sure to coat his sword in soul fire to give that extra damage.
Once he got close the centaur roared, using a control skill now that it was a higher rank. Luckily James's [Thunder God's Descent] made him immune to all control-type skills.
Now safely in the middle of the pack of monsters, James launched skill after skill coupled with shooting out arcs of holy light between skills.
[Lightning discharge]
-150,000
[Summons lightning]
-200.000
[time absorbing slash]
-135,000
Time ticked by and James kept throwing sword arcs at all the monsters, not one of them managed to hit him thanks to his incredibly high physique and agility. Before he knew it every single lord had been totally destroyed without a chance to retaliate.
System: Last trial complete. Talk to Zaeus for your reward.
James didn't know who this Zaeus was, but he was sure he would figure that out in a little while since he was getting teleported back toward the throne room right away.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone