Chapter 411 - 3rd Trial (Patreon)

Beyond's 3rd trial is dangerous, very much so. There are powerful monsters constantly attacking me, the king of the forest somewhere around - probably an even more dangerous opponent. Some attacks are a surprise to me even now, and plenty of monsters attack on the ground.

Even so, for me, it's something akin to formality.

I know the system most likely adapted the trial for me as the previous ones, but after all of the training with Lissandra and the increase in my strength, I don't think I will fail.

Sure, the system is an asshole and could try to pull something. There might even be some Rulers messing with me, but I still think it will be somewhat fair. The system just won't give me too difficult a 3rd trial - just the trial around the level of an “average” Beyonder. Probably.

A few wounds are expected, but with my new passive I barely get any from physical attacks; instead, they literally make me stronger by replenishing my mana.

Mana-based attacks are dealt with by disrupting, and then I can teleport or create a barrier, I can fly, and I can move quickly by flooding my body with kinetic energy.

It could be said I'm a goddamn sneaky little jerk and very difficult to kill.

I also discover that absorbed kinetic energy can’t turn into mana and overfill the reservoir. If the reservoir is full, it just absorbs the damage, and there is no mana.

So I solve it by saving up my body mana and mostly reaching into my reservoir first. That and also by constantly sending mana into my crown to keep my reservoir depleted by 20-30%.

To deal with monsters, I also try to set the forest on fire. Inspired by my Avatar from the event during the tournament, I put in a lot of effort and burn multiple trees and other vegetation. I try it in different places with bombs, flames, and radiating as much heat as I can.

There is some flame, but in the end, the extreme humidity doesn’t allow my flames to spread. They can burn for a while, but when the mana I used to make them depletes, they die off, with no other source keeping them alive.

Currently, I'm surrounded by massive armor, allowing me to face the huge monster before me. It's made out of earth, with vegetation all over it. Its figure is similar to a human's, but there are no details, no fingers, and no eyes or similar organs.

[Vine Golem - lvl ??]

My intention is to try to expand my passive to work even if something hits the massive mecha mana armor I made and absorb kinetic energy to turn into mana. Such a thing would allow the armor to be activated nearly indefinitely while in combat. Of course, only while getting constantly hit.

So as I face the golem, I do not dodge any attacks and keep trying even though it doesn’t seem to work. The passives just refuse to be used similarly to active skills. It seems to be only possible to deactivate them if I want, and other effects must follow the “setting” of the passive.

Disappointed, I destroy the golem and look around.

Jungle forest as far as I can see, and standing down on the ground makes me feel so small, even surrounded by massive armor. As I deactivate it and land on the ground, I feel even smaller. It also puts me in awe. Such a weird feeling of being surrounded by this alien place.

I take a deep breath in and then out. And another one.

The trees creak under the wind, monsters scream somewhere in the distance, and I feel presences all around me. The flowers and plants around me are often taller than me, colorful, and a lot of them poisonous.

Some of the trees have a bark that secretes a white liquid that is extremely sticky, even trapping some of the monsters. Swaying in the wind, some of the leaves are very tough, with plenty of attacks not even piercing them. Others, when they get damaged, bleed an extremely mana-corrosive liquid.

As with many of the places before, I also etch this one into my memory.

Then I head towards where I feel the group of monsters.

The system didn't say how much time I have to hunt the king of the forest. So let's try to get some cheeky level-ups.

***

A day passes, and the crown has a nice amount of mana in it. The passive is working amazingly well, only at the cost of part of the damage dealt to me. The bones will grow together, right, so why should I worry?

I also learn more about the body upgrade that I just went through and that seems to be nearly fully applied.

My bones are tougher in comparison to before, surely it’s not something akin to free Constitution, but I would say the base is better.

That probably also means the moment someone with a high Constitution will get to this body upgrade, their body will become much stronger, probably a significant boost.

The cellular regeneration part straight up means increased regeneration. It's not to the level of healing skills, but my wounds now regenerate slowly even if I don’t use my passive to do it.

I wonder if it would be able to regrow my limbs. Probably not, but I could try cutting off a finger just to see.

The muscle efficiency part is the weirdest out of them all, but I would say my mind-to-muscle connection is better while all effects of strengthening my body improve.

Overall, this upgrade straight up seems a massive improvement for someone relying a lot on physical stats. Tacita comes to mind.

Still, there is a thing for me as well; when using my skills to a higher level, it's easier, especially the ones over level 50 or very close to it.

It is also confirmed that my missing body upgrade and not reaching level 250 made it much harder to get a skill to level 50. It seems I leveled them up way too quickly, and usually, they shouldn’t be at such a high level.

But that's a good thing.

[You have defeated Mesmerwing - lvl 306]

[Lvl 251 > Lvl 252]

It seems like my attack from earlier - with the compressed javelin, really hit that damned bird flying high in the air. Most likely wounding it enough to die or to get killed by another monster.

This place is quite unforgiving.

***

Two more days pass, and I think I have located where the king of the forest is.

I know the direction towards an area that no monster enters; they just straight up refuse. There is no other information confirming it, but I think there is a really high chance I'm right.

So I just turn around and head in the opposite direction.

The crown contains a nice amount of mana, most of it put there from the reservoir I keep replenishing by letting monsters hit me.

A few times I also try to fall from higher heights to see if even that sort of kinetic energy turns into mana. It does, but the amount isn’t that high, unfortunately.

Other than that, most of my mana gets fueled into a thermal orb I made that follows me.

Out of boredom, there are two evil orbs I continue to train with.

I can once again go a week or two without sleep and make preparations and level up. It's a situation similar to what I just went through, and I find it quite funny. I think if I went there before training with Lissandra, I would be much more careful and tense, but getting here stronger also has advantages.

So I wonder.

How much thermal energy do I need to store in my orb to be able to set the forest ablaze?

***

A week has passed since I started the third trial.

The access to Community is cut off, but I have leveled up twice. Some skills also leveled up, most notably [Mana Crown] by two levels.

I am also more used to my unique passive, and it works really well, but mostly in melee range combat or against huge monsters.

A few times, I got into powerful storms, trying to absorb kinetic energy from the wind to store it as mana. It did work but not as well as I had hoped.

Fighting monsters, I continue to use Mana Cycling to keep my mana under control. At this point, that technique runs in the back of my mind nearly nonstop, a part of my mind constantly using it.

I think it’s one of the reasons why my control over mana keeps increasing and why my body wasn’t torn apart because of stat imbalance. I still remember the times before Lissandra showed it to me. And now there are improvements to it. These improvements make it more difficult to use, but at the same time, they are needed as lately I felt the original version stopped being enough.

There is also a king of the forest hunting me.

It's a funny twist to my situation, and that monster either does it because of the system having enough of me using the 3rd trial as private leveling grounds, or the monster senses my thermal orb and the amount of energy it contains.

Somehow, it makes sense that the king of the forest would try to stop me from setting it ablaze.

Well, just a day or two, and we will see.

***

Two days later, I think I'm ready.

There are multiple anchors placed over as big an area as I can manage. The limitation is in the [Tether] as I can’t use the skill over too long a distance. The sites I placed anchors on are the driest I found in this goddamn humid place. I swear most of what I breathe is water and not air.

I also created as sprawling a web as I could, the threads meant to be used for the delivery of thermal energy, nothing else.

The king of the forest is somewhere far behind, as I used plenty of kinetic energy to put a distance between us.

[Focus] activates, and my mind splits into multiple parts, each taking care of a different task. Then I start using [Infusion] and [Redistribution] to send my thermal energy through the web and to my anchors.

The distance is so big I can’t even see some of the explosions, but I know they are happening.

Five of my anchors receive a huge amount of golden thermal energy, and the flames explode to the skies, the heat drying up the air and setting the huge trees on fire.

And more.

The orb near me starts depleting at a huge speed as I channel all that thermal energy through my web to try to dry out the big area and to anchors to feed the fires more.

I also take the wind into consideration and time it so it blows the fire towards the direction where I scouted most of the monsters.

And like that, all the thermal energy depletes, leaving me waiting.

Then the notifications come.

[You have defeated Thornbeast - lvl 306]

[You have defeated Dreadroot - lvl 301]

[You have defeated Thornbeast - lvl 301]

[You have defeated Mosslurker - lvl 303]

[You have defeated Dreadroot - lvl 304]

…

It looks like there are plenty of slower plantlike monsters that are also highly flammable. Just not as many as I would have liked.

Taking a step towards where I was running from, I form a javelin over my shoulder and extend it to twice my height. Then I start making it as dense as possible, the projectile gaining weight. My domain expands into the area, and the pressure that was about to disrupt my projectile clashes against the domain made stronger with my Pride subclass.

The king is coming.

I let kinetic energy flood into the javelin to give it more piercing force and store a huge chunk to power for the launch.

And the forest keeps burning.

[You have defeated Shadowvine - lvl 303]

[You have defeated Mireprowler - lvl 303]

[You have defeated Mireprowler - lvl 302]

…

[Lvl 254 > Lvl 255]

[Lvl 255 > Lvl 256]

It took me days to level up once or twice and now I'm leveling up in a matter of minutes. Not bad at all.

I boost my body away, and a stream of water as thin as my finger cleanly cuts through the tree I stood on and then multiple trees in its way as the beam follows me.

The trees, as tall as skyscrapers, start falling, and I absorb their kinetic energy, making them slow down until they seem like they are stuck in the air.

A lot of my mana disappears because of that, replaced by absorbed kinetic energy that now flows into my body and toward the projectile I made.

The king of the forest moves closer, its not that big, an unassuming-looking monster with three orbs made of water following it. I think it also fights against my fires and tries to put them out, even from such a distance.

Good, that should make it more difficult for the monster to face me with its attention split.

[Flood Tyrant - lvl ???]

A creature with a streamlined, eel-like body covered in dark, wet scales. It has a sleek appearance and four nimble-looking legs.

All three orbs shoot at me at once, thin streams of water cutting the barrier I create as if it’s nothing, and only Flamebearer is able to block one of the streams, the weapon vibrating in my hands as it does so.

When another two streams reach me as well, I fight against the pressure trying to stop me and teleport to one of my anchors, the javelin I was preparing moving with me.

For a while, I keep dodging and avoiding while the notifications from the burning forest sound, but after a few minutes, they slow down. The presences of many monsters rush closer.

[Lvl 256 > Lvl 257]

What a weak king, calling for help before we even started. But the fight should be over even before they get through what is left of the fire.

The three water orbs of the Flood Tyrant turn into one, and the water shoots at a speed I'm unable to track, a hole as thick as a pencil appearing on the damaged part of the ax I hold.

Through that hole, an attack pierces through me, destroying my shoulder bone.

The monster shoots again, this time aiming for the heart, but the stream hits the undamaged part of the axe, and with immense energy contained within the attack, I'm thrown back.

I attack back, a concentrated stream of thermal energy burning the monster but not damaging it. Instead of damage being caused, the monster turns to water that seeps into the ground.

My senses shoot into the area to detect the monster, but another attack of concentrated water burrows into my chest and tries to move diagonally to cut me apart.

I teleport before it happens and immediately another attack cuts into my leg, trying to do the same as before. Blocking the attack with my ax, I teleport away and lift the ax again.

As expected, the monster is tracking my anchors, and another attack crashes against my ax, one more following that cuts through the dense barriers I create.

I create as many anchors as I can and keep my mind sharp and eyes wide open, looking for the monster. There are multiple presences it created all over the forest, but only one of them is the real body.

More wounds are created on my body, and the attacks are extremely quick and impossible for me to block with anything other than the ax.

My heart is beating wildly, the forest loses its colors and sound, and everything is only black and white as I slide into my skill. Only mana keeps its beautiful color.

I fail to detect the original and am punished by another hole in my foot.

My use of the anchor is too slow, and my finger gets cut off.

The ax in my hand moves too slowly, and a deep wound is cut into my side.

And then I detect the original.

I block the first attack with my ax.

I tilt my head to avoid the second stream and then duck under it when it swings back. The trees behind me are cleanly cut through and falling down, and I absorb a bit more kinetic energy, adding it to what I already had.

Before the third attack is sent, I'm ready with my aim and release the javelin I made, boosting it with the entirety of the kinetic energy I absorbed into a single powerful push.

With a loud boom, the javelin disappears, piercing through everything in its way.

I don’t even see the flight, and neither does the Flood Tyrant. The only result is the fist-sized perfectly round hole bored through the length of the monster’s body and a similar hole behind it, who knows how deep.

A powerful disrupting wave is sent from me, directed at the monster and preventing it from turning into water or whatever it did before. Through my eyes, I do it perfectly, making the monster unable to use the skill I already saw it use once.

Even so, the monster tries to move, the flesh around the wound bubbling up and regenerating when I use [Tether] and the anchor I left on the javelin to pull it back.

It flies from much deeper in the ground than I thought, but it dislodges itself and burrows through the body of the monster, and as it does so, I release the kinetic energy it still has inside, and it explodes.

The explosion cuts through the forest, the threads that made the javelin untangling and cutting through the trees. The highly compressed kinetic energy tears everything to pieces as the shockwave is sent through the area.

[You have defeated Flood Tyrant - lvl 339]

Congratulations, you have successfully completed Beyond’s 3rd Trial and you can enter Beyond!

You can now, within the system shop, buy Beyond Stay Tokens. They will also now be included as rewards for certain floor or side quests. You can also earn Beyond Stay tokens within Beyond itself.

After entering Beyond, you will receive more information and will be assigned your handler.

Well done!

***

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