Chapter 409 - Start of the 3rd Trial (Patreon)

POV Black Tower

Something moves on the edge of our detection web and I quickly send a signal to the headquarters and reposition to another balcony with stronger defenses. Mieru already waits there.

“What did you see?” he asks me quickly.

“I don't know yet, but headquarters already knows.”

After a while, a signal comes back with a declaration of danger level 5, the lowest one. It seems they think it might be a monster.

“Did you get scared of a tiny little monster? Did you…” Mieru doesn't finish his words and disappears from my sight.

I turn to the right and there is his body, head pierced with a javelin and stabbed deep into the reinforced wall. Something like this shouldn't…

Whistling noises sound and something like a crack of lightning and then the world turns black.

***

POV Black Tower

The signal indicates a danger level 2, just a few seconds after it was declared level 5. Very serious, most likely another group attacking us.

“What the hell!” someone shouts and points with their hand.

I follow the direction and there high in the air, a few huge stones float. Each of them is as big as a building but they look as if they weigh nothing.

Then they start falling down at a speed that continues to increase.

“Barriers!”

“Someone shoot them!”

“Activate defenses!”

Multiple orders are given at once but it's for nothing, because of inertia and sheer weight the stones break through the hastily set-up defenses, breaking multiple walls and buildings.

After them, a rain of blue flames starts falling down.

The only thing they burn is people, causing no damage at all to anything else.

“Where are the guards? Why are barriers not activated? Why…”

Out of the rubble, a single woman steps out. Her expression is very calm even as she walks surrounded by all this destruction.

Beautiful blue armor surrounds her body and in her hand a blue sword made of mana forms, over her shoulders a few javelins, and in her other hand a small shield. All are made from mana.

Practiced, a few guys work together and a disrupting wave crashes against her to no avail. She just shakes it off.

With the same expression on her face, the armor turns darker blue and she disappears out of my sight, the floor cracking under her feet.

The world around me spins and I watch as my body falls to the ground while the woman already attacks someone else.

***

POV Black Tower

“What’s happening here? Where are the barriers? Why…” I freeze and look around.

The control room is completely trashed, barely anything is in one piece. It's as if something exploded inside and the bodies of the assholes that had to defend it are all thrown around. In the middle of the room, a single creature stands.

It is small, barely reaching my knees, and is it wearing clothes?

I manipulate my mana and spikes pierce the ground, made of the densest earth I can make, and behind me, I can hear others rushing in, as surprised as me.

Purple mana surrounds the creature and it turns to us.

An astounding amount of mana radiates from it and moves to a single point where it compresses into an orb that turns white. The last thing I hear is someone calling me an asshole.

***

POV Black Tower

“I would start running away.”

“Yes, you dickhead, run away.”

“Shut up, both of you!” I scream at the twins. Unlike other prisoners, they keep giggling while this chaos ensues.

“Oriel, what’s happening?” one of the good-for-nothings working with me asks.

“Fuck if I know, we are under attack. The danger level is 1.”

“Isn’t that really bad?”

“Of course it is bad, you dumb fuck, now shut…”

The doors open and I redirect my weapon, but the newcomer is Kelen, who was guarding just outside.

“What are you doing here? Any further orders?” I ask her.

She shakes her head and looks at the annoying twins. She even smiles for a while and then takes a few steps towards me.

“What do you want?” I let mana seep into my body.

As she puts her hand on me I look down at her. Why are her eyes a different color than usual?

Before I can react, a gray mana flashes out of her and then there is nothing.

***

POV Black Tower, Champion candidate

The wave of mana encompasses the entire building with a speed that surprises even me and it starts interfering with defenses.

Out of the windows, I see flashes of lightning, and any one of our men who tries to escape gets pinned by lightning-fast javelins. They move at such speed they break through any defense. They even come from so far yet no one was able to detect them.

The control room for the defensive array is destroyed, I'm getting no signal from guards on the walls. Everything is a fucking mess.

“Defend the entrance, I will activate the array and we will go. Plaid, go and take emergency rations and as much as you can from the treasury.”

I turn away and start working on the array leading to Bone Fortress. These scaly midgets will surely make me eat it, but it's better than the other option.

While working on it I notice that something seems to be wrong with the array. It still works and we can move to Bone Fortress but the teleport from Bone Fortress to here seems to be disabled on their end.

Weird.

“Why are you not fucking moving…” I turn back to the room as I do not hear them working on the evacuation. Even the treasury and emergency rations are still locked.

As if frozen in time, all of them stand with their eyes wide open. All ten of my strongest men.

Then, one after another, they start killing themselves.

One grabs a dagger and stabs it into his eye. Another one explodes a fire orb near his face. Another starts tearing pieces of his neck with his bare hand, the blood flowing like a waterfall.

Plaid seems to try to fight against it but even he is unable to and I watch as he grabs his head and starts twisting it until his neck breaks.

Then I feel the pressure reach toward me. I find myself unable to move, and at the same time, lightning pierces through one of the walls—something that shouldn’t be possible.

My skill activates, and dozens of my invisible mana arms move, slowing the lightning down and defending me against another attack from behind.

I protect my mind and, with a lot of effort, push that presence away. What is a mind mage even doing here? I thought they were all locked in their goddamn city in the central region.

Ignoring the items or rations I jump through the activated array and destroy it so they can’t follow me.

Appearing in the Bone Fortress I stop in shock.

Most of the room is melted and destroyed, there are remains of the scaly midgets I knew and all of them are very dead.

My senses encompass the entire fortress but almost no one seems to be alive. The buildings all over the fortress are destroyed, cut cleanly, and evaporated, and just a few presences hiding in the city, are left alive. All seems to be done with extreme cold-blooded efficiency.

And it was done by the man in the room with me. A man with his back turned to me and near a rib bone that makes the one wall of the room.

Next to his feet is a pile of cut-off pieces of bone. The amount of would take the entire fortress weeks, maybe months to get. An immense wealth.

And that man ignores me and continues to cut with a dagger made out of mana.

“Just a moment and I will get to you.”

Too shocked to react I continue building up my defenses.

He has some sort of crown but I can't identify which, but it doesn’t matter. In one versus one combat against someone within my reach, I don't think I will lose.

“Thanks for waiting,” he finally turns around.

His eyes are brown and gray and his expression is very calm, barely bearing any emotion.

So, a concentration skill user as well?

“You know, it's rude that you destroyed the array right after you used it. I get that you did it so they can't follow, but it's annoying.”

My attack crashes against the barrier he creates and then another and another one. He blocks all of them while keeping that same calm expression on his face.

His mana also moves and hits the barrier I make, immediately followed by the most powerful attempts to disrupt it I felt in my life. I barely endure and face it with my own counterattack, contesting his attempts until they nullify each other.

From him, a dozen projectiles shoot and I weave the air around me, making them miss and crash right behind me.

I reach for the amulet and break it, an immense amount of mana I was storing flooding around my body. A hundred invisible mana arms I create out of it reach through the air. Some of them tear the ground and throw it at him, others attack him directly. The arms are impossible to see with bare eyes and I know how terrifying they are.

I aim at his neck, some of the arms turning sharp and stabbing towards it, and others go to grab his limbs. They cannot be seen, they cannot be sensed and they cannot be disrupted.

It's the skill that earned me the title of Champion candidate from the Champion who was teaching me.

In the man’s eyes, golden circles appear and in an instant, multiple layers of dark blue barriers surround him, creating a spherical defense.

I create disrupting orbs and shoot them as well; they splash against the barrier and stick to it, slowly corroding it. It’s only a question of time as I get to him as my arms also pummel against the barrier.

“That’s surprising, I can’t even see or sense your attack. What’s the name of that skill?” he asks.

Ignoring him, I push further and break another amulet, more mana surrounding me and powering the arms.

Good, in terms of the amount of mana, I should…

The air shakes and reverberates. The barrier around him crumbles as if under immense pressure and the crown over his head disappears as well, making even more mana radiate from him.

He lifts his hand and a small orb hovers over it, the amount of mana it contains sending a shiver down my spine. That mana is quickly compressing with astonishing speed and control.

The orb turns pitch black and even from where I am, I feel my mana being pulled away. I find myself unable to move at all, held by some skill of his.

My mana arms disappear at shocking speed, the mana they contain sucked towards the orb as it hungrily devours it all. There is no stopping it.

The barrier on my skin cracks and gets sucked in as well, the remaining amulets on me breaking and mana from them absorbed.

With a final surge of effort, I use what remains, trying to disrupt the orb, but it’s futile. The orb absorbs everything, leaving me utterly depleted. My vision blurs, the edges darkening as the last of my mana leaves me, only bits remaining inside my body.

He doesn’t even look at me, instead observing the black orb he made.

I feel a thud in my chest and looking down, half my body is missing. Falling to the ground, my eyes stay on the ceiling until it blacks out.

***

Nathaniel’s POV

After dealing with the dude, I watch the array, but no one comes through, which confirms my suspicion that he blocked it before he came here.

He couldn’t be the Champion candidate, right? He was terribly weak and other than the invisible attack that would be nice as a party trick and the orbs capable of corroding my barriers, he didn’t show much. Lissandra would never allow someone like him to be declared Candidate.

I open the community.

Sset (Hell, group 4) - you got him? Champion candidate escaped and he also destroyed the array.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - I got the guy, no problems here. Your side?

Sset (Hell, group 4) - everything is fine. NotAaron and NotDennis are safe and Knight and Grumpy are taking care of the rest. I did have Soph check the array, but she doesn’t think she could fix it.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - that’s fine then. Say hello to the others, I will be doing the 3rd trial as planned.

Sset (Hell, group 4) - will do so. Take care.

I close the Community and turn my attention to the black orb. I still don’t plan to use it for a while as even I realized that I relied too much on that black mana. Even so, I wanted to test it before the 3rd trial to know what to expect in case I will be forced to use it.

And it exceeded expectations. The amount of mana I used was a lot, even by my standards, and it was easier to create and control than before.

It also, within seconds, dealt with all of that weak guy’s mana, with no trouble at all, pulling it from a greater distance than before and even from the skin.

Lissandra said that if I relied on black mana then any mana user would be at a huge disadvantage to me, and it is getting more and more confirmed.

When I glance at the corpse of the man, I can’t help but feel disappointed.

A Champion candidate. Are there weaker and stronger ones? Wouldn't Tess, Sophie, or Lily be at the level of the man and capable of winning a 1v1 fight if they leveled up a bit more?

Was he that weak, or are they strong? Was the Champion declaring him one of the weaker ones? 

Heh, weaker Champion. There is no way you could call a Champion weak. Even the rookiest of all Champions would be able to wipe all of group 4 out of existence with ease.

I move near him and search his body.

Finding a few epic items on him, I quickly sell them to the shop and then find a pocket very deep under the ground. There, I store all of my items with the exception of Flamebearer, some supplies, my epic water storage vial, and a few less valuable stuff.

Waiting for a while, I let my mana fully replenish and then I use the token.

The world around me spins until the surroundings change to a jungle-like area. Each of the trees surrounding me is towering high towards the sky, the trunks as thick as buildings. The gravity around me increases, pressing me against the ground and the air is hot and humid, my body sweating immediately.

In the sky, the flashes of flying monsters are seen and the screeches sound from everywhere around me.

Welcome to the last trial, after which you will be able to enter Beyond.

I check the quest and reward.

Beyond’s third trial quest: Hunt the king of the forest

Quest Rewards: Beyond Three-Day Stay Token


***

Next Chapter

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Author's Note copied from RR:
Hey, just a warning!

Around August 13th, I will be stubbing Book 2 for Amazon - chapters 102-207 - so you can check them out until then. Book 2 will be professionally edited and published. Around that time or a bit later, there should also be an audiobook for Book 2.

As some of you know, Book 1 did very, very well on Amazon. For a while, it reached rank 94 - it was the 94th most read/bought book on all of Amazon for a while. Some authors said to me that it was the best Book 1 launch since He Who Fights with Monsters, which is crazy.

Its success has allowed me to rethink my situation, and soon I will be quitting my full-time job and take this more seriously. I already have a few ideas on how to use that increase in "free time".

So yeah, thank you to everyone who bought / downloaded / reviewed / rated Book 1 on Amazon when it launched. It helped a lot, and I love you all for that! :)