–

  When the Trial completed, Ryan didn’t take the exit immediately. He could teleport whenever he wanted and he expected Fighting Fancy to have taken it first. What he didn’t expect was for a member to have still been in the Safe zone when he entered it,

  “Well, well, well, look who it is. If it isn’t Artigan. Big bad monster got outplayed by us, Fighting Fancy.”

  Lars the [Rogue] of Fighting Fancy stood there waiting for him. The safe zone of a Trial was a shared place, everyone that completed the Trials would end there. It was why he normally waited until everyone had left. Apparently, Fighting Fancy had a very different idea. They had probably taken turns waiting to enter so they could taunt him in a safe zone.

  Ryan came face to face with the consequences of his own actions, and he really didn’t know what to do. Lars went up to his face, emboldened by the silence, sticking his tongue out at him.

  “Cat got your tongue, Artigan? Look, we already cleared the room of all the food so you get nothing.”

  The safe zones were a bit of a respite reward area that had increasingly personalized luxuries as you continued the Trials.

  “Those were some great fucking burgers and sushi. I dunno which one was yours but damned, some of the best I ever had.”

  Ryan was looking forward to eating whatever burger the Trial System would create. He stepped forward. They were face to face at eye level and Lars wasn’t frozen or stepping back in fear. The Trial System protected him here and he knew it.

  Ryan grinned.

  “”

  “Pass what?”

  “Congratulations. You’ve made it on my shitlist. Yonas Hersi’s your name right? You have that multi-stage pulse searching skill that you lied to the Guild about right?”

  The color drained from Lars’ face. This was a skill Gamielle mentioned that Fighting Fancy might have had in passing. Ryan figured out who had it later. It wasn’t something that anyone could’ve or reasonably known about and that scared the shit out of the [Rogue].

  “You better keep that skill up when you’re in The Realm. Who knows when I might just .”

  “You don’t scare me, we’ve already won. Killed that demon king and helped the others escape from you. We know Zedart and the others got away.”

  Ryan chuckled. Then he stepped around the now unnerved Lars and plopped himself down on the couch. He put his feet up and started going through his skill list. Lars turned around, having gathered his wits.

  “Hey! You hear me?!”

  Two levels in [Aura of Unrelenting Intimidation] compared to one level in his Trial three. It went to show that you gained much more levels from higher realm upgrades than lower ones. There was also the argument that S+ was a catchall for any achievement above S. With just how many levels he was getting here was a good chance that Ryan deserved an S++ or whatever there should have been above an S+.

  “I know you can hear me!”

  This was how people that speedrun the Trials could maintain their pace. Higher achievement grades leveled him up what would have been years of training.

  In the case of Epics? Ryan understood now that each of those levels were worth their weight in gold, and they’d just both just hit the minor level 5 boundary. He grinned, trying to the difference in the skill size.

  Unfortunately, that was still beyond him. He could barely feel the power of his arm after all. It was like staring up at a shrouded mountain. How the hell was he supposed to know how much bigger it had gotten?

  Ryan’s eyes went wide as he summoned his soulsword into his hand, Lars flinched but didn’t run away. He felt something working on the sword as the Trial System began to change it.

  It was like it was all of those things and so much more… He just hadn’t noticed it before because he’d never been trained to notice it until now.

  The sword was more of a jagged dagger at this point. Most of the blade had been worn away. Even the handle had hairline cracks that threatened to destroy it entirely.

  First the hairline cracks began to fill with red. The entrenched aura began to fill in the gaps, bleeding out then hardening. It no longer felt like the handle would shatter if Ryan held it too hard.

  Then the blade portion of the sword began to reform in front of his very eyes. The Trial System retrieved every piece of his scattered soulsword and combined it back into the original blade. Except it didn’t fill in the gaps. It was still in pieces. Runes started forming on each piece of the blade, smaller pieces attached to larger ones as they started interlinking with one another. Connections made with runic writing.

  Except the runes weren’t written with mana, it was written in his aura.

  Ryan didn’t even know aura could be formed into spells like this.

  The blade was still in multiple broken parts, yet they held stronger than ever.

  He cycled his aura into it. The sword fragments split apart, held by an invisible white line in a larger shape of a blade. His aura flooded the gap between the pieces. It was like a perfectly contained sea of red with twinkling white stars of metal contained within. Linked together with white lines. Like a constellation.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  There was a pull from his side and he turned to grin at the slack-jawed Lars. When the [Rogue] turned to him Ryan gave him a smirk.

  “You jealous?”

  “N-no. Not as jealous as your mom was last night.”

  It showed the kind of person Lars was when he was flustered that he went with a ‘your mom’ joke. Ryan narrowed his eyes, seriously contemplating whether to punch the idiot in the face. Technically, you could hit someone in a safe zone, you’d just get kicked out and the Trial System would force an option for you…

  “Ah, You’re trying to get me to hit you so the Trial System kicks me out. ”

  The expression on Lars’ face said it all. Sector Four was unusually small compared to other Sectors. When the Trial System forcefully ejected you, there would be a fifty percent chance of it choosing an exit portal or random portal. With only two exit portals in Sector Four they could really organize an epic ambush.

  Lars was actually putting his life on a fifty fifty chance to force him into an ambush. Completely fucking respectable in Ryan’s opinion.

  Still, he had to keep up appearances.

  He got off the couch. Grinning at the [Rogue], his sword growing larger and larger, the amount of aura going through it was insane. Yet contained.

  “Do you want to know how many Epics I have in my skill offerings? Do you think they’re ready for me at Gravenmarch?”

  Lars took one look at the ocean of red that the celestial matrix was containing. He disappeared in front of Ryan, having taken the exit portal option from the safe room.

  “Smart.”

  It was likely that Lars hadn’t just fled in fear. There was no point in risking his life when he already knew Ryan had figured out his plan. Plus bringing back information about Artigan’s new sword was the right play.

  “And Gamielle called you all mediocre. She doesn’t know shit.”

  Ryan moved on.

  For a brief second, Ryan wondered what upgrading his soulsword would do. He couldn’t really imagine it getting any stronger than it was right now. It was an idle thought, not a serious one.

  For the first time he contemplated taking the option to experience and practice a skill in a dilated time chamber. Ryan was certain that he only scratched the surface of [Aura Command] and an S+ experience wasn’t anything to scoff at.

  Yet it would technically three S+ reward. Meanwhile the additional Trial skill alterations would pretty much be the same no matter the realm.

  He picked the obvious choice first.

  Ryan was moving too fast in the realms to sit down and learn skills. He’d learned a lot of skills but stacking Epics was how he was going to stay ahead for now. Sooner or later, he’d have to slow down but until then…

  There wasn’t a need to check the description. Ryan immediately picked the top skill.

  There once was a Settler named One-Eyed Rick. One-Eyed Rick was a dick. He was a monster of a [Mage], the kind who killed as he pleased and was one of the very few examples of a [Mage] working purely solo in history.

  Teams, nations, even Realmers had tried to take him out. All had failed. The Tyrants themselves admitted to hunting him down after they had hit the tenth Realm.

  The implication was chilling if you thought about it.

  Either they feared facing him while in the same realm as him… or they feared him ascending and meeting them as an equal..

  One-Eyed Rick carried an Epic that nobody else had claimed since.

  One of the few Epics that could grow powerful enough to bend the fabric of reality itself. It was said that One-Eyed Rick used a long preparation ritual spell to annihilate an entire base of Settlers and Realmers. The first to exceed the power boundary between the ninth and tenth realm. All aided by a skill unclaimed since then.

  [Resource Overdrive: Mana]

  Now looking at the conditions he had gone through to be offered this skill, Ryan wondered if One-eyed Rick had increased his realm before he completed the Trials. That would explain how he managed to survive solo and stay stronger than anyone else.

  How strong would Rick have been if he had hit dragonslayer? Could the Witch Tyrant bring him back using [Remembrance of the Fallen]?

  The idea sent chills down his spine.

  Ryan couldn’t help but get distracted by such a ridiculous skill name.

  Lu Baizhen was the cultivator that had come with Sector Twelve. The one that the Passive Tyrant had killed in a duel.

  Despite being the most ridiculous skill name that he had ever heard of, the hierarchy of, his skill list put it behind even [Savage Mockery], which was sort of insulting to the entire name. Plus that skill name…

  Ryan liked to say skill names in his head when he used them. He was sure thinking about the name would distract him too much in a life or death moment. Imagine telling someone you had the skill, It was embarrassing to even say out loud.

  Plus he liked swords.

  The list of Rare skills went on and on. This time, there were just too many options. All his new Epics had barely any issues with mentality and he had the confidence of holding back any mental influence from all of them.

  [All Against Me!] was the Epic upgrade of [One Against Many]. This one didn’t have scaling issues and it provided bonuses against stronger foes too. It didn’t just increase his physical stats but every single one of his metaphysical bonuses.

  [Savage Mockery]...

  Ryan hadn’t heard of this one before. He’d heard of Rare versions of mockery and taunt skills but an Epic version?

  As far as Ryan knew, there were no examples of an Epic taunt skill being chosen. Rare taunt skills were enough for most beasts and if you were given an Epic taunt skill then you were likely given other Epic skills that took priority.

  Besides, he didn’t like he needed the skill.

  He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little tempted. Technically, this was also a presence skill which would boost his aura…

  [Parallel Processing] was ridiculously strong for his build too. It let him split his mind and was regarded as superior to the more [Mage] equivalent, [Threaded Thoughts].

  A mindsplit skill would help him control his aura tendrils. Right now he could only manage a single tendril at a time, or shape his aura into something familiar like a hand or a knife. His root circulation system along with his [Aura Command] were capable of so much more, but he just didn’t have the mental bandwidth to control multiple threads at once.

  Unfortunately his skill list didn’t stop there

  [Blink Step] was crazy too, Ryan was tempted to lock that skill in just to increase the likelihood of being offered the Epic version in his future Trials…

  [Flurry Stab] and [Aerial Maneuverability] were one of the advanced skills of [Double Stab] and [Instant Dodge]. The list went on and on.

  And…

  “Fuck, I want them all! Why isn’t there a reward above S+? Where is the S++? Stupid advanced civilization my ass. Couldn’t you think of a grade higher than an S+?”

  Ryan swung his sword in frustration, not taking into account the extended size the celestial matrix had given him. It sliced into the fancy couch of the fourth Trial’s safe room.

  “Oops.”

  Then he looked around. The room was much fancier than the previous safe rooms. A fancy tea table by the couch, the table in the middle of the room was an ornate dining table made of walnut with comfortable seats around it. Then he shrugged.

  “I feel like it’s tradition at this point.”

  Ryan decided to vent some of his frustrations on the furniture.

  –

  The [Mage] of Fighting Fancy appeared in the safe zone. This had been their plan, for each of their members to take turns waiting out the safe zone’s timer. Artigan would show up in one of those times and they would bait him. At worst? One of them might lose their safety life for nothing. At best? They could enrage him and get him kicked out into an exit portal where an ambush of a bunch of Fourthers and Realmers were waiting for him.

  “Hey Lars–”

  Reya stared at the devastation in the safe zone. Every single bit of furniture had been destroyed. She cheered.

  “Attaboy Lars! That’s our [Rogue] baby! Probably ragebaited Artigan so hard that he lost his mind and started destroying everything around!”

  She took out her phone. Recording wasn’t allowed when there was a boss around, but in a safe zone? That was fair game.

  Levels are based on either training them yourself of accomplishing difficult things with those skills and having the Trial System level it for you as a reward. Lower rarity skills level faster as shown here.

  reon is

  23 chapters ahead!