Chapter 228 228. CHAIN REACTION
"I guess there isn't any need to do anything then," Noah shrugged but kept his river of chains casually floating below him. The presence of his chains was enough to keep the experts away.
"What do you mean?" Eric asked furrowing his brows.
Heaving a deep sigh Noah focused his gaze on Eric, his mouth opening to voice his thoughts.
"There's no need to keep fighting since we don't have anything able to help us accomplish our goal," Noah explained.
"So are we going to settle for five instead of only the both of us?" Eric asked sweeping his gaze on the faraway experts, they looked to be having their conversation too. For some reason, they weren't fighting each other.
'I've burnt too much essence there really isn't any going back,' Noah sighed watching Eric's mouth move, but he didn't manage to hear the word, even if they were arm's length from each other.
'He should use his mental waves,' Noah thought wondering what to do next. Glancing at his stats he saw that only a bit over 10,000SE remained. Every second in that depth burnt essence and moving around further tasked his core.
The same could be said for the others, though none had really burnt too much essence fighting, since they usually attacked in unison. Rather, the resistance against the ponds push tasked their cores more.
"What's the point of all this?" Noah suddenly yelled, startling everyone. Empowering his voice with a bit of speed-essence, he allowed his voice to travel through the water comfortably. Enough for the experts kilometers away to hear.
"It would be far much easier if five of you were to simply leave this place," Noah continued, his words putting a frown on Eric's face.
"However if you don't, I'll simply eliminate you. So please choose," he announced feeling nostalgic. Recalling bozolom's last events almost made Noah's mood drop, but he managed to keep himself upright.
"What are you doing?" Eric sounded behind Noah. His voice couldn't radiate his displeasure any better, as even his countenance had already fallen.
"This isn't what we agreed," Eric complained right beside Noah's ears, further aggravating his already bad mood.
"What do you expect me to do?" Noah barked, the urge to kill the nobleman arose in his head, and he almost listened to it.
"You don't expect us to heed your words so easily do you," Nathaniel's voice rang out before Noah could go back on his promise to Eric.
"If you don't, then we'll simply have to kill each other until only five of us are left," Noah replied getting annoyed. Tightening his grip on both hands, Noah caused his chains to crackle loudly.
"I liked you when we found you but it seems you are more trouble than you're worth. You are a fool, Eric, for siding with him! Your decision will be your downfall!" Nathaniel declared loudly, immediately turning serious.
An armor made purely out of electrical energy appeared on the man's figure, and a sword possessing an obsidian black handle appeared in his hands. A series of inscribed circles materialized around the expert, and he immediately entered a stance even if he continued to float.
The other experts prepared to go all-out on the duo, and soon their offensives were revealed.
Gazing coldly at the group of eight experts about to attack him, Noah grit his teeth at his low energy level. Lightning crackled behind him, as a livid Eric prepared to move forward,
'He has so much confidence in my power,' Noah thought shaking his head and feeling helpless. His armor blazed with power with that thought, and he didn't hesitate to shoot forward first.
With his chains following closely behind him, Noah understood that his opponents would be cautious of them, so when Nathaniel dashed forward without any plan of stopping, an alerting sight, Noah prepared himself for a real battle.
Sending his chains forward, Noah opted to watch the man's reaction to them. He heard Jon's advice echo in his head at his decision.
Seeing the river of chains obstruct his view of Noah's figure. Nathaniel raised his sword while still swimming forward. His weapon lit up with red inscriptions, and he didn't hesitate to perform a vertical slash, only that his one slash produced five, all carrying the same power.
Five slashes blazing with middle-stage power brimming with mana quality of a spherical stage yellow core individual shot forward.
The slashes looked tiny compared to Noah's river of chains. But they cut through them anyway, and still retained enough power to fly a few hundred meters before dispersing.
The battlefield seemed to go silent at that display, as Noah and the others felt shocked to witness that scene. A smirk cracked on Nathaniel's face at his victory and he immediately continued to swim forward.
"Thank you for effectively reducing the crowd!" Nathaniel taunted entering the range of Noah's consciousness.
Noah couldn't help but see that blatant display of courage as a hint that the man had something else up his sleeve, after all, he hadn't utilized the inscribed circles still floating around him.
Casually browsing through his skills, Noah continued to bombard Nathaniel with his chains. Although he could cut through them, they simply continued to regrow. At the expense of more energy of course. Though Noah could only create about 100 to reduce the amount of essence he burnt, and it took Nathaniel a few seconds to cut through them.
'I don't have many skill,' Noah complained realizing that another of his unused skills would have to be revealed. 'A storm wouldn't do much unless i conjure lots of them,' Noah casually contemplated. For some reason he remained unfazed by Nathaniel's show of power. Rather it angered him.
"Your spell isn't much trouble as long as i see it coming!" Nathaniel announced creating seven slashes at the river of chains trying to wrap themselves around him. "Give me something else!" The expert yelled without losing the excited smile on his face.
'I guess lightning flakes it is,' Noah thought helping Eric fight against the other seven experts, who could only run about dodging spells. Their plan to force the duo out of energy was so obvious it became annoying to Eric who could only chase them around, while also having to remain inside the range of Noah's consciousness.
[Lightning Flakes[Active]: Cover the radius of your mental consciousness with hundreds of floating flakes made of highly condensed lightning. What ever that comes in contact with these flakes triggers their explosion, capable of tier 3 power. Costs: 1000SE, Duration: N/A, Cool-down: 30 minutes]
Expanding his consciousness to its max, Noah stopped the urge to voice a shout due to the anger he kept beneath the surface. Rather, he activated his spell, and watched his opponents tremble.
A magical circle deep-yellow in color expanded out from Noah's figure covering the area within his consciousness. The loud sound of a bell ringing spread out with the appearance of that magical wonder followed by the materialization of bright yellow flakes, no bigger than a tennis ball.
Hundreds of such flakes appeared to fill the space within Noah consciousness. Surprisingly the flakes didn't pulse with any energy, simply floating around quietly.
Noah could immediately understand how destructive things were about to become. He tried to call Eric to his position, but before the man could respond, an explosion of intense power boomed out in all directions, immediately followed by a second and third one.
Someone had come in contact with his flakes, and their actions caused a chain reaction of powerful explosions fueled by that put even Noah in danger.
Chapter 229 229. EVALUATION
'Crap crap crap crap!' Noah screamed inwardly, trying to escape the blinding explosions happening below him by swimming upwards.
'Why do my spells have to hurt me,' Noah complained, feeling his feet experience heat. Even with the amount of speed, he swam at; although it wasn't anything groundbreaking, he found himself losing against the velocity of the almost one hundred explosions happening below him.
The "Lightning Flake's" spell proved to be something of a force to reckon with, and unlike his chains, he had no control over them, apart from being able to move them. But the flakes could exist by themselves, even with his mental consciousness not overseeing their activities.
Having retracted his consciousness due to the ache his head felt from the explosions, Noah understood why the tier 3 expert in the Holon family mansion, hadn't been able to capture him. Explosions within the range of his mental waves forced them to crumble, sending waves of pain to his mind.
The water around Noah had begun to boil at some point, and due to his low energy, he could only bear it. Thankfully, moving upwards wasn't much of a hassle, since the ponds upwards push helped him.
However, even at that, he couldn't give total control to the pond's power, since he would most likely suffer injuries, and find himself barreling towards the sixth stage. Noah felt positive that he would be disqualified if such happened.
Beating the water with his feet, Noah continued to swim upwards, even if his paddling almost did not affect his moving speed.
Not until a whole minute had passed did the explosions, capable of killing anything at Noah's level, and injuring anyone in the middle-stage die down. A sigh escaped Noah's mouth and he quickly turned around to look downwards. The pond's push continued to slam into his figure, but a wave of essence had quickly encased him in its power-filled glow.
The water below and around him looked cloudy, as bubbles were abundant in almost every direction. It looked like a white disk had appeared inside that pond, and continued to expand. Noah had swum about four kilometers up, allowing him to witness that scene.
"Damn," Noah couldn't help but mutter.
His surrounding still felt hot, but the lack of explosions to refill the heat allowed the surrounding water to mix with the upward-flowing pond. Each major movement made by the experts forced them to battle the pond upward flowing water.
Narrowing his eyes, Noah tried to search for any survivors and felt his heart begin to palpitate with excitement when he found no one, not even Eric.
Unfortunately, his excitement vanished when he laid eyes on an orange barrier of sorts at the edge of the now clearing foamy and slowly approaching disk. The barrier looked to have multiple layers, as the upper one looked like it would fall apart at any time. The other layers were made from other elemental properties.
Noah could tell that the perpetrator, had been none other than Nathaniel. And when the barriers dispersed to reveal a few experts, Noah's hunch proved correct.
Unfortunately, Eric wasn't among the six experts down there. This of course didn't sadden Noah, who felt glad about that outcome even. But seeing as his very dangerous spell had been survived by the very individuals he wanted gone, a deep sense of hopelessness arose in his heart.
Although the experts hadn't escaped unharmed, as all of them looked almost completely naked, and their bare skin featured burnt patches, and missing fingers or toes, Noah didn't feel satisfied.
All of them looked exhausted, as only their helmet and a few patches of their latex swimming suits remained. How they kept that glass material in one piece baffled Noah, but seeing as he too had his in one piece at least ignoring the various cracks, he could only give up on that topic.
The experts looked to scan their surroundings, and excitement seemed to appear on their faces at least from Noah's point of view.
Needless to say, they began to look upwards, and their expressions turned dark.
Noah too had a dark expression but simply stared at their figures in the distance. None of them moved from their spots, not even Nathaniel, who already felt the desire to quickly end that struggle.
In their minds, Noah had become un-killable, and pointlessly chasing after him would lead to their elimination. This of course caused them to look at the other person and plans to eliminate each other appeared In their heads.
Noah could immediately understand what was going through the minds of the exhausted experts, and he could only watch them eat each other up while evaluating himself.
'I'm powerful,' Noah started staring blankly at the water below him, while the lights of spells flashed in his eyes, followed by muffled explosions.
'But I lack proper training,' he continued. This evaluation was a more or less obvious situation. In total, Noah had spent only a bit over four months, maybe five in Creagar. This period for its denizens was too short to gain proper experience, and develop suitable battle techniques, or sense.
In reality, Noah remained a newbie cultivator who simply had enough power to overwhelm experienced experts. If not for the special state of his existence, he would have long been dead.
And from the looks of things even his power would soon begin to become useless in the face of both monstrous and experienced experts. 'I definitely won't have to wait for gods to get into real trouble. And if I remain this way, I'll die immediately I lose the protection of the bracelet,' he thought.
'I need a real teacher or my learning would be too slow, even if I am supposed to learn things quickly,' Noah concluded feeling his heartache weirdly. His situation felt dire since death didn't look far away anymore. It was only a matter of time before he ran out of luck.
The Lightning flakes spell had been powerful, but he needed a proper understanding of its pros and cons to effectively utilize it in a battle with battle-experienced individuals. Not even the knowledge gained from the first time activation of skills could create effective battle plans. For that, he needed testing, which meant getting into fights frequently.
The battle between the six experts ended, when a male expert among them who found that he would be the next to be eliminated after two experts had eliminated one person; activated the "Finish" function available to him.
This caused a respledent explosion of golden light to wash over them, but it didn't carry any destructive power. A series of green magical circles and purple inscriptions immediately appeared before the experts irrespective of their positions.
"CONGRATULATIONS!" The familiar mechanical voice boomed out, but they were all too tired to acknowledge it.
A ring appeared to float out of the inscribed circles, to land on the outstretched palms of the cultivators.
Immediately the rings landed on their palms, the magical circles behind the inscriptions washed over their figures, and the five of them immediately vanished from the pond.
Chapter 230 230. REWARDS
Opening his eyes to a familiar environment, which of course was the room lady Edna informed them about the events that would take place in the different stages. Noah felt himself cringe at the sight of that environment.
For some reason, he disliked the lighting in that room.
The room was filled with experts, and to his and the surprise of the other five, they were teleported to a different spot in the room, an odd sight for the others who sat solemnly, waiting for that phase to end.
'Finally,' Noah thought walking forward, away from his previous opponents. He felt unready for the awkwardness that was the fact that he literally tried to get rid of them merely a few seconds ago. He couldn't just begin to talk to them after that.
Feeling multiple gazes land on his figure from almost all sides in the room, Noah felt unfazed by them. The gazes mostly came from experts that had witnessed his raw power, or the ones that had left before the battle began.
Picking an empty spot in the room, Noah sat alone, before casually sweeping his blank gaze on his surrounding. Though he behaved like this mostly to disperse the tense feeling he didn't know his mind harbored.
Fortunately for him, no one walked closer to him, at least apart from Ariana.
A sigh escaped Noah's mouth when he saw the busty young-looking woman begin her walk toward him without a shred of emotion on her face.
"I'd rather be alone for now," Noah spoke through his mental waves; almost immediately halting her steps. Their gazes locked for a moment and she quickly understood how serious he was about his words.
Nodding her head, Ariana continued her steps, only this time towards a different spot in the room. Seemingly as though she too wanted to be alone.
Experiencing a tinge of guilt, Noah vanquished that emotion as soon as it appeared. He needed his alone time, and there was nothing wrong with it.
Sweeping his gaze on his figure, Noah got reminded of how bad he looked. The latex suit had disappeared upon their teleportation, leaving only his black garment. Which already barely hung on his figure without revealing some of his blemish-less skin.
"I need to do something about my clothing situation," Noah muttered, heaving another helpless sigh.
The room had many above 800 individuals, but Lady Edna and her fairy were nowhere to be seen. However, the aspirants understood the reason for her non-presence was that the time limit for the second trial had not ended.
The battle between Noah and the over forty experts which eventually ended n the experts ganging up on themselves had taken about half an hour in total, and a whole day remained. There could be experts still on their way to the seventh depth stage, even if their chances of actually succeeding would be next to zero.
A miracle would be needed for such aspirants to reach the desired depth stage, and the rewards had already been claimed too.
Thinking about the rewards, Noah felt reluctant to check what the black and golden colored ring contained. But he did so anyway.
Sneakily wearing the ring on his finger, Noah sent his mental waves forth to inspect its contents. And an area space of about 700m radii appeared in his mental sight.
'Large,' Noah thought raising an eyebrow. He could immediately tell that the large space of the ring was part of the reward. However, he couldn't tell if that space was something groundbreaking since he hadn't interacted with dimensional rings much.
In the center of the brown space, were a few items. They were more than just "a few" items.
Moving his consciousness to the center spot, Noah got able to see what the items were. He sighted an attire, mainly black, a series of mostly red and orange glowing objects numbering more than fifty. Noah felt shocked to realize that he had been given mana cores. Not to talk of the orange mana stone, even though it stood at only 2ft in height and around 4ft in width.
At the center of the heap of mana, cores were surprisingly a sword. A heavily inscribed one at that. Noah immediately zoomed in on the weapon, picking it up with his mental waves.
The sword radiated power at the beginning of the middle-stage, nowhere near as strong as the sword Nathaniel wielded. It would be important to note that Nathaniel's sword radiated a peak middle-stage aura. Which allowed for his show of skill. Noah had a bad habit of overlooking such details, during battle.
The silver yet brown blade shining with brown inscriptions, had a black and golden handle shimmering with inscriptions etched into its material. At the mid-section of the swords, the handle was a light orange mana-stone, only around 2 inches in size.
'This is already a lot,' Noah thought fascinated by the thought of gaining a new weapon. There was also a scroll beside the heap of tier 3 mana cores, and Noah immediately picked it up to see what it contained.
To his surprise, Noah found a series of intricately webbed drawings, featuring a series of symbols, that he surprisingly understood. The scroll carried a vague meaning that communicated with Noah's consciousness, informing him of the spell. Needless to say, a panel popped up in his eyes.
[You have come in contact with a lightning-based spell]
[Lightning golems]
[Elemental Affinity: Lightning]
[Tier: 3]
[Current power output: Middle-stage]
[Rank: D]
[Do you wish to learn it]
[Yes/No]
Picking yes, Noah made sure to not have his hopes up. Honestly, he doubted the actuality of its functioning.
[Commencing integration with User…]
[Error!!…...]
[Spell needs to be reworked to match Users unique energy]
[Reworking Tier 3 lightning-based spell]
[Error!!.....This function is currently locked]
'As expected,' Noah thought, shaking his head at the system's annoying method of starting things that it wouldn't finish. 'Though I would have loved to read its description' Noah thought heaving a sigh.
His eyes fell on the rest of the panel, and he couldn't help but get curious about the rank of spells, seeing as the system never showed him what rank his spells were.
"Why do you always leave out such details," Noah complained to the every listening system. "Firstly you never show me how much damage I take from every attack, unless I manually check, now this," Noah spoke, mentally glaring at the system.
[[Such details are unnecessary, and will prove bulky if they were all listed on your stats]]
[[About the damage notification, from my calculations I realized you don't need them due to your ability to regenerate]]
"What about the ranks of spells? I only knew weapons and armor had grades, but not spells," Noah complained.
"Explain to me," he added.
[[The ranks of spells are simply based on how intricate and powerful of an effect the spells will generate when conjured. All your spells are ranked at B, any higher and you would kill yourself upon activation]]
[[Not only do higher-ranked spells have more spectacular activations, but they also cost more energy, and would need to be highly optimized to allow experts such as yourself cast them]]
'So in essence they are like the various colors of the mana core. Even if it was a higher tier spell; compared to the same spell but of a higher rank, the feats achieved by the higher-ranked spell would be greater," Noah pondered ignoring the last sentence the system made.
[[Affirmative]]
'I guess that's the real difference between me and the others,' Noah thought momentarily exiting the ring to gaze at the resting cultivators.
[[You can turn on the feature to see the ranks of spells aimed at you, and also activate the damage notification]]
"Nah, I'd rather not. Though it would be useful if you notified me when a spell as high as a B rank is launched at me or anywhere around me. That might be the difference between life and death," Noah explained focusing his gaze on the last package in the ring;
A small bag containing exactly 25 small gold coins.
Noah almost ran mad at its sight.
Chapter 231 231. LAST PHASE OF THE DAY
"This is insane," Noah muttered trying to keep his joy under control. No one apart from the other four experts and the ones that quit had to know that he had won some of the rewards. After all the real plan was to travel to the 10th depth stage, an incredibly long distance, the others that had left had such thoughts, even though the fact that five individuals were teleported back at the same time was weird.
'I'm as rich as a small noble family,' Noah thought grinning inwardly. From the items he received, Noah figured that his efforts had been worth it.
Glancing at himself again, Noah wondered what to do about his ragged state. It didn't bother him, since most experts there had similar looks, but he desired to do something about it anyway.
Muillix's black and metallic material surfaced on the space below his legs, keeping his groins safe.
Noah sat in his position for a bit over an hour but no other expert showed up during that time. And Noah knew the second test of the day had ended when Lady Edna returned to the small pulpit at the center of the room.
Everyone arose at her arrival, and she didn't hesitate to sweep her gaze on the youngsters.
"I'm sure it's been a long seven hours for you all," she started, allowing a smile to appear on her face. Unfortunately, the aspirants were too tired mentally to be fazed by her charming smile. Most just wanted it all to end, and the fact that they still had three days to go saddened them beyond reason.
However, those who had participated in the battle for the rewards understood that things could change. Whether it would be for good or bad they didn't know.
Understanding their mental state, Lady Edna moved to drop comforting words. "The last test of the day would be the shortest and most likely the easiest," she started, and for some reason, they trusted her words.
"It's one of the tests we had during my time, so it won't be too tasking. The planners figured that anyone that managed to succeed in the first two tests had proved their ability to survive under harsh situations. Another difficult test would simply be overkill," she explained, putting sighs of relief in the mouths of many.
'For the last test of the day based on the body stage, you'll be required to lift objects for the required time to succeed in the stage," she announced. "It's more of a physical strength test, but that aspect is also part of the body,' she shrugged waving her hand to conjure a magical circle.
Many shrunk in fear when the magical circle appeared to fall on their figures, but their soul cores felt no pain during the teleportation.
A wide room appeared in their sights an instant later, and the first detail that caught their eyes was the tens of masked individuals, in tight-fitting clothing. The second was the metallic nature of the room.
A series of large metallic objects filled the room's space, and everyone could notice the inscriptions that shone on the large objects.
The room was actually in the shape of a dome, but the sky couldn't be seen, a feature Noah found slightly amusing.
"Thanks to your small numbers this phase can easily be finished, but I'll need your participation," lady Edna started walking towards one of the over fifty large metallic balls.
"All you have to do is lift it until the required weight has been reached. It doesn't matter that you used both your hands or one, as long as your strength isn't aided by mana then you pass," she explained grabbing one of the large balls, around 5m in height and probably double that in width.
In the blink of an eye, she lifted the ball of seemingly pure metal, and immediately, the masked individuals around her started working on illusory screens.
A series of inscriptions; sky-blue in color, lit up at that action, and very soon a mechanical whirring sound could be heard.
"You are required to lift this until you reach the fourth weight grade, which is only a bit heavier than what the average middle-staged cultivator can lift," she explained as the whirling sound continued to intensify. A few seconds passed and the inscriptions suddenly turned green. After which she placed it on the ground, with a heavy thud of course.
'That's simple' Noah thought at that demonstration. 'But what about lower-stage cultivators like me,' he thought, wondering if there would be a twist in the rules again.
"You'll take turns of sixty individuals per batch. There are exactly 864 of you left and the test is supposed to last five minutes, that is if you last throughout the duration required to pass," she explained while the masked men sorted out the first sixty batches.
"Don't forget to yell stop, when the weight gets unbearable. Your life is in your hands, you can always join another guild as long you survive," she advised with genuine care.
In less than a minute the first batch started their tests, with the others watching with disturbing attention. The first minute passed and no one yelled the required words to end it.
The third minute eventually came, by this time the spectators were already relaxed. However, when the time hit the fourth minute, meaning the fourth weight grade had begun, someone yelled stop, and that simple action placed everyone on edge.
Before the now tense audience could remove their gazes from the downcast man who had begun to be escorted to an empty area in the room, the sound of a yelp, and the sickening sound of a muffled bursting, spread in the room.
Blood flew everywhere and those who had been lined for the next batch got stained.
In mere seconds that test had become akin to a death sentence.
Most hoped that there would only be one death, but two loud bangs followed by the sound of bursting spread in the room before the fourth minute could be complete.
A series of yells occurred at that point, this time, real and bone-chilling fear set in the minds of many watching, because by the time the five minutes were complete, 10 in total had been brutally crushed by the metallic balls, while 25 had quit. Less than half of the first batch had succeeded! What hope did they have?
Chapter 232 232. HEAVY
The next batch for the test was sent forward, as a heavy mood dwelt in the room. Uncertainty had quickly become the order of the day, but those who felt determined didn't let the deadliness of that situation get to them. The life of a cultivator was one filled with many near-death situations, and that test wasn't any different.
With that quick reset in mindset, the second batch placed their hands on the metal ball they were assigned to, and immediately lifted it when the masked men gave the go-ahead.
No grunts or whimpers were made since the base weight of the balls were pretty light for middle-staged tier 3 experts. However, things changed when the sky-blue inscriptions on the ball lit up. A mild sense of added weight pressed itself on the hands of the cultivators, but the first minute was the least bit tough.
Once again things changed when the inscriptions lit up on the ball again, this time signifying the weight change. The artificial weight of the ball was now double what the ball weighed in the first grade, but once again it didn't matter to the bodies of the experts, which stood strong for the second minute of the test.
The third minute arrived with another flash of the blue inscriptions, only in that grade did the experts begin to feel like they had an object on their palms. Soon struggle began to appear on the faces of some, while others casually passed it.
Panic tried to appear in the minds of those struggling with the third grade, but most decided to wait and see what the last stage, which would last two minutes would hold.
During this seemingly long period of them, the remaining about 700 experts continued to watch with pin-drop silence, some had friends they had made during the first two tests participating in that batch, it was normal that they hoped no evil befell them.
Noah found his eyes falling on Veronica's figure, she had survived everything so far, and he wondered if her luck would work for her again. In truth, he held no attachments whatsoever to the woman, but he hoped that she didn't die anyway.
Many of the faces he saw at the start of the test were nowhere to be found, he understood what had happened and wished the same did not happen to her.
The fourth minute arrived and for the first ten seconds, nothing happened. However, even with that steady flow, no one had high hopes since there remained a long while before that test was done. And soon enough someone yelled for the test to be stopped for them.
Another person did the same, and the panic of the remaining individuals shot through the roof, that metal had become heavy, so heavy that hard breaths had begun to exit the mouths of many. The fourth weight grade wasn't slightly above average in terms of how much it weighed, it felt like something someone about to spill into the higher stage should be lifting! Outrageous.
Just according to expectations, the first person was crushed, and it happened to be a man. His arms had snapped, effectively giving way to the ball's weight. The man's figure burst under the weight of the metal ball, and many could still see his bloodied face due to how he fell to the ground.
Shaking his head in a mixture of emotions, Noah felt his gaze land on Lady Edna, who silently floated above them. Her fairy wasn't with her but that wasn't the reason for his action. He felt constantly lied to, but really couldn't do much since hundreds of others were facing the same issue.
Unfortunately for Noah, his gaze lingered for too long, and the extremely powerful woman felt it and glanced at him straight into his eye. Her gaze was emotionless, yet not hostile. She didn't have the condescending gaze Noah remembered elder Malachi to have. But he could tell that she was stronger, not to talk of her fairy.
The two alone would be able to terrorize whole nations on Earth, but the existence of stronger experts wouldn't allow that on Creagar.
Their locked gazes lingered for a second or two, but Noah promptly performed a head bow in respect.
Her gaze softened at that sight and she nodded at him, before returning her attention to the struggling experts.
The fifth minute arrived, but the majority remained. However, seven individuals had died and two more had quit. But from the looks of things, the second batch would come out with a larger number of successors.
The required time eventually ended, and 46 individuals remained. Noah could visibly see that they were shaken and felt pity for them. The third batch was called forward, but he wasn't among. There would be around fourteen to fifteen batches in total, and due to his position in the room, he reckoned he would be in the sixth one, so he simply waited.
The batches quickly started and ended, with more individuals succeeding. it seemed the first-timers were the unlucky ones. Things were different in the fifth batch though, with only 20 individuals exiting it successfully. Twenty-three individuals had died, and the remaining seventeen quit. It had been a massacre.
The sixth batch came but Noah wasn't part, instead, Ariana was. Those chosen for batches were picked at random, the closer you were to the front, the higher your chances of being chosen. Needless to say, aspirants began to stylishly move backward in fear of being chosen.
At some point, Lady Edna had to disapprove of that act.
Noah found himself being chosen for the tenth batch due to the trouble caused by the cowardly aspirants. He looked to be in a good mood since Ariana had succeeded, same with veronica.
Standing in front of his assigned metallic ball, Noah took a deep breath, he felt confident in his strength, but after almost one hundred people had died, it was normal to get nervous.
The two masked individuals on his sides tinkered with an illusory screen each, and soon one of them raised their hands. Lady Edna floated towards the trio at that point, and the individual highlighted the issue.
"He's still in the lower stage," the masked individual now identified as a man spoke.
Feeling the gazes of everyone present land on his figure, Noah kept a cold expression while listening to what the tier 4 expert would say.
"I received information from the higher-ups that we should test him like everyone else," Lady Edna announced, allowing all in the room to hear.
'Giving a lower stage something that those already halfway into the middle stage would struggle at!' many muttered, shocked. Even individuals like Nathaniel who had succeeded and were waiting for his batch to be led to their rooms felt shocked.
Noah had been terrific during the fight with middle-stage experts, but that battle had been mostly based on ranged spells. He simply had an abundant reserve of mana, and enough powerful spells to allow himself to come out mostly unscathed. Things would have been different if they were in close combat.
Noah on the other hand felt his world stop immediately after Lady Edna's words reached his ears. He very well knew his physical limits, and even his instincts spoke only uncertainty, which of course gave rise to more nervousness.
Chapter 233 233. SLEEP
A frown appeared on Noah's face at the once again dangerous twist. He honestly had expected that the test to be tweaked to fit his seemingly low power, but once again the planners, or as Lady Edna put it, the higher-ups had moved to change things.
"It seems they've taken a liking to you," Lady Edna said to Noah utilizing her mental waves. "I also saw your battle with your fellow aspirants, and I'm impressed," she added immediately floating upwards.
An even deeper frown shone on Noah's face, but he had already come to terms with his situation. He wasn't allowed to empower his body with energy, but his healing wouldn't be counted as empowerment.
'Fifty thousand points in strength. I hope it's enough,' he thought heaving a deep sigh before his face went expressionless. He could feel the gazes of the masked individuals beside him, as they had begun to consider him a dead man, as he was unlucky enough to fall into such a predicament.
Noah consoled himself with an exciting thought though, 'The higher-ups already have interest in me,' he mused, lifting the metallic ball when given the go-ahead.
The ball of metal felt extremely light to his body, but there wasn't any excitement since an added weight fell on his palms signifying the beginning of the first grade.
Every individual present carried the ball in an overhead position since it remained the best way to keep their balance.
The second grade arrived and Noah felt only another slight press, nothing else. The watching experts were in shock, but it remained only those that hadn't seen his monstrous prowess were fazed.
The third grade came, and Noah had to get relatively serious, as the ball's weight had tripled maybe more. The one-minute time felt like hours to Noah even if he wasn't struggling, at least to his focused mind he wasn't.
Eventually, the fourth weight grade arrived, and someone yelled to be relieved of that weight. Noah however, felt his confidence rise. He could immediately confirm that he would succeed in that test since even though the weight of the ball had increased drastically, he felt his joints lock in place, and felt compelled to crouch his knees and slide his leg backward to properly distribute the weight of the ball. A good sign of his resilience.
A few individuals had died during that period, but Noah couldn't listen to them, only his pride and goal of surviving sounded in his ears. At some point during the two minutes his bones cracked and his joints quivered, his skin tore, and his palms bent unnaturally, but he healed almost as fast as the injuries appeared. This of course tasked his already almost empty core.
The ball suddenly lost all its weight at some point, and Noah felt it get raised from his hands. His focus fell on his environment, and the first thing he noticed was the metallic smell of blood, but also the lack of silence in the room.
The room was filled with the sound of clapping coming from over one hundred individuals. Needless to say, Noah felt surprised to find that he was being clapped for, then again, he realized how he was on his knees and blood stains were all around him. The weight of the ball had caused him to kneel, and the experts watching had seen his struggle, but he succeeded. A lower-stage had succeeded in a test meant for middle-stages, this reality inevitably riled up the next batch, and for the next five batches, only 10 individuals in total failed.
For the first time since he arrived in Creagar, Noah had a positive effect on his audience, and because of this; he gained his first genuine respect from powerful individuals that mattered in that nation and guild.
*
*
*
"You did great today," a young-looking man, who had the attire that spoke of his identity as a member of the Divine lightning guild, smiled at Noah just before shutting the door on his face.
Heaving a light sigh, Noah turned to face the room. This of course was the room he and the others that had been recommended stayed, and to his non-surprise, it looked scanty.
The eyes of his still existing roommates fell on him, but there wasn't any happiness in them. He had sighted them inside the sphere, but their interactive situation wouldn't allow them to talk to him.
'Only five of us,' Noah thought in disappointment, walking deeper into the now seemingly really spacious room. Their eyes followed his movement, but no words were thrown at him.
Arriving at his designated bed, Noah climbed onto its top, immediately laying on it. They only had a bit more than six hours till the next day began. It wasn't much but was still something.
Seeing as it would be focused on their minds, Noah didn't hesitate to sleep, but not after reviewing what had happened during the trial he had just overcome.
'I had to go on my knees to remain alive,' he thought blankly staring at the ceiling. He almost had no recollection of how he had gotten on his knees since his mind had been focused on keeping his arms in place and maintaining his balance. In essence not dying.
Having already evaluated his strength in the pond, Noah found it no surprise when he continued to realize how weak he was in the myriad of monsters dwelling in that world.
However, even if he remained really strong, he felt unable to settle for being a local champion. The tiny portion of his mind that had stepped into the realm of the speedlings wouldn't allow it. Nonetheless, he was grateful for the strength he had. Which caused an internal conflict of trying to find the balance between his desire for more and appreciating what he had, since most did not have it.
Noah found himself heaving sighs during his moment of reflection. 'I sigh a lot,' he giggled, experiencing a strong sense of melancholy.
In truth, he felt tired of his lack of knowledge, and the desire to change it had gotten immensely stronger during the second test of the day, or rather the over a week in total he spent in them.
'Hopefully, the next trials don't have such time differences,' Noah thought slowly drifting from the topic of his sad situation.
'How do they even achieve such wonders,' he pondered, 'Is time an affinity,' he continued, ' But no one ever mentioned it.'
And so, Noah continued falling into topics that got him curious, but even the multiple thoughts and inner discussions merely lasted a minute. His mind continued to move faster than normal, but he wouldn't notice it.
Noah eventually drifted into some well-deserved sleep, he hadn't slept throughout his journey in the pond, nor did he sleep when in the different realm. In essence over a week had passed since he last slept.
A knock on the door immediately pulled Noah out of his sleep, the ears of experts at his level had been fine-tuned enough for such ease.
His eyes fell on Lady Sophie, and he immediately wondered why she and her team had disappeared after the first test.
'It's time," she announced to the now twelve experts in the room. More of them had survived.
Noah hadn't spoken to them in a week and didn't plan to do so anytime soon.
However, before Noah got off his bed, a series of clothes appeared on his bed at the wave of his hand, and he didn't hesitate to wear them.
The attire that had been inside the ring consisted of a tight-fitting black body suit, featuring a turtle neck, and an overall jacket reaching his heels.
The midnight black jacket featured a series of golden-colored inscriptions, and Noah immediately understood that the material wasn't just any type of fabric. 'Definitely from a magical beast,' Noah thought admiring how great the material felt.
On the heart side of the gold-embroidered jacket was an orange gem. Obviously a mana stone. And to Noah's surprise immediately he wore the black heel-high boots, the full attire caused a reaction to the system.
[You have equipped attire: Crackling Overcomers]
[Set: Bodysuit, Jacket, Boots]
[Stat: Def: 9,999]
Immediately that panel appeared in his eyes, a golden glow shone on his figure before dying down.
'I'm ready,' Noah grinned.
Chapter 234 234. BELL
Walking down the adorned hallway used on the first day, Noah stood at the forefront of his group again, and the lesser amount of aspirants couldn't be more obvious. The hallway was silently traversed by the experts who could only think thoughts to themselves. For obvious reasons, the last trial had been the most nerve-racking trial, at least for the tier 3 category.
They eventually arrived at the end of the hallway, and into the same massive room. However, this time around the veiled man wasn't atop the large pulpit, only Lady Edna and two other individuals both men. Noah could immediately tell that they were far above tier 3 in terms of strength.
Of course, he could only notice these details after getting in front of the pulpit. Thankfully, they had been allowed to run towards it, since walking would take them a whole hour.
The three categories of present for the trials were eventually fully gathered, and all were neatly separated from themselves to save them the trouble of grouping later on.
"Good day aspirants," one of the males present started. The man had short black hair neatly combed in curly backward waves on his head. He looked to be in his mid-thirties and stood at around 5"6 in height. His clothes Looked just like the ones worn by the experts guiding them, only that they had a golden cape draping down his back, and an extra amount of zig-zagged stripes.
The other male in the room looked to be in his early fifties and had a bald head. The man for some reason had a mean look on his face which ruined his likability. His gaze felt condescending and aloof, but no one really cared anyway, they had their focus on the other man talking.
"I congratulate you all for succeeding on the first day, as it's always the hardest. And for that I ask that you feel proud of yourselves; for over half of your fellow aspirants were disqualified yesterday.' he paused, casually sweeping his gaze on their stern faces.
"Today; as I'm sure you've been informed will be based on your minds or soul cores. And because of this, there'll be only one trial required of you to pass."
"This test would be something general, even if it would be split to fit your different categories of power," he continued.
"The main goal is to keep your mental fortitude intact, as you'll be taken into a chamber which has a special effect on the soul core. The effects are either illusions, mental pressure, or both. You'll most likely experience your deepest fears, whatever they are. Or experience crushing mental pressures. However, the truth is that you remain in control of the outcome."
"Whether you choose to see through the illusions or you remain unfazed before the crushing pressure is up to you.
"As I said earlier, all you have to do is keep your mental fortitude intact. We'll know you've failed when we see you passed out or acting out. And yes, we will be watching over you," the expert explained, stopping.
"Thankfully you won't be allowed to die, but if your soul core suffers too much damage you'll immediately be ejected," Lady Edna started immediately after her colleague ended.
'The trial will last for merely twelve hours, but they might feel like days of mere seconds depending on what you experience," she explained making sure they understood what they were stepping into.
"I'm sure you all understand, so let us get to it," lady Edna announced spreading her arms, but before she could conjure anything the expert that had addressed them first, raised his hand, halting her actions.
Sweeping his gaze on the various experts, his eyes finally fell on the tier 3 category his target audience.
"I'm well aware that many of you won't be able to gain full entry into our guild," he stated, "But for those who would, I will owe you a personal conversation; where you can ask me about the fourth tier. As for my name, get into the guild first," the expert announced, and gasps almost immediately exited the mouth of everyone listening. Apart from his colleagues of course, and a few special individuals.
It was clear his words had been directed to the tier 3 experts, which made the lower-tiered cultivators burn with envy.
Excited murmurs rose in the room as the experts looked ecstatic. Notwithstanding, Noah on the other hand failed to understand why that announcement was exciting to the ears of his fellow aspirants.
A series of ideas welled up in his mind at his wonder and what felt like a suitable reason gained clarity within him. 'I guess they'll need such insights for their rise into the fourth tier,' Noah concluded.
Shaking her head with a big smile, Lady Edna glanced at the bald man beside her, wondering if he too desired to talk. Unfortunately, he shook his head in objection.
"With that done, let's get on with this, For real this time,' Lady Edna announced spreading her hands in front of the crowd numbering a bit over only five thousand!
A crimson magical circle expanded below the experts and their white lighted environment twisted and turned before the scenery changed to something utterly different.
A large room lit with deep red lights unfolded in the sights of the experts, and before the aspirants noticed any other thing, they realized that they had been spaced from each other. Every person was a minimum of 5ft from the other person.
Noah's eyes fell on the black mat below him, and he immediately understood that they were supposed to sit on it.
Doing so immediately, Noah also noticed how hot that location was. There were large red pillars adorned with golden rings spread out in all directions in the room, keeping the red-painted ceiling over 40m in height in place.
There was also a barrier that separated them from the weaker experts, even if they could see through its whitish-gray color.
Further inspecting the room since none of the tier 4 experts could be seen, Noah noticed the gigantic bell at the end of the room. The golden bell shimmered with different colored lights and stood on a black pulpit around 7ft in height.
The redness of the praying room as it would seem, gave off a foreboding feeling, as the more experienced cultivators understood that it had an effect on their minds, and was more of a prelude before the real thing started.
"You are all to close your eyes and meditate immediately I sound the bell. The bracelets on your hands will notify me if you do not follow suit and you will immediately be disqualified," Lady Edna explained, abruptly appearing on the pulpit, while the male experts floated above them.
Only at her words did the aspirants notice the item on their left wrists. It looked transparent and felt weightless which caused their late notice of it. At least for most of them.
No one had time to inspect the bracelet, since before they could an incredibly loud ringing sound barreled out in all directions within the room.
The aspirants immediately shut their eyes in fear of being disqualified, but immediately they did, they felt a wave of relaxation sweep their very souls. And although the bell remained loud, every aspirant fell into meditation almost instantly.
It didn't matter that they were tier 1 or tier 3; none could disobey the soothing effect the bell generated. After all, it was a quasi-tier 4 item.
With the sound of a bell, the second stage of the trials to gain entry into the Divine Lightning guild began. What a bone-chilling and memorable experience it was for them all.
Chapter 235 235. CYCLE
Noah felt his consciousness get whisked away by an irresistible power, causing his head to ache.
His natural defenses tried to battle the power but brutally lost before even an instant could pass.
The force felt akin to the might blow of a violent wind, or the unstoppable force of a freight train, and it succeeded in doing whatever it wanted to Noah's consciousness since Noah found himself standing in a completely dark environment.
'What the heck,' he muttered feeling unable to blow up in the fury he desired to have. Sweeping his emotionless gaze on his surroundings, Noah felt unfazed when he noticed the water beneath his boots.
To his confusion, he found that immediately after he noticed the water, a white light lit up on his figure.
"What is even going on," he wondered, 'Where are my?"
However before any more of his curiosity-based questions could continue, a deep rumble vaguely in the sound of a voice boomed in the entire place, troubling the shallow water, beneath him, and in less than an instant, Noah found himself inside a raging ocean!
Feeling all his emotions return with the force of a blizzard, Noah experienced fear in what felt like its rawest form.
The deep flash of yellow lightning brightened up the night sky of that environment, quickly followed by what could be considered a catastrophic rumble of thunder.
Noah continued to struggle in panic, deep down he knew he could comfortably overcome it, but the fear he felt blinded his reasoning, and he quickly began to sink.
Noah felt the fear of death grip him so hard he lost his breath, coupled with the ever getting louder sound of the thunder seeming trying to rip the sky open.
Noah soon found himself inside the water, helplessly struggling to swim up, but all his efforts proved naught. The water around him seemed to feature hands pulling him towards the bottom of that ocean.
Feeling the stored oxygen inside his lungs get squeezed out, Noah felt petrified to notice something swim past his side vision, but before he could panic any longer, his environment turned into a mess of white and black lines, and he appeared in a desert.
Gasping for the newly available air, Noah coughed multiple times, but nothing exited his mouth, only blood, black one!
He tried to stop it, but the blood simply poured out without much of his ability to do anything. Pain suddenly flooded Noah's senses, but so did clarity.
Having his emotions back allowed Noah to wonder how what had happened so far was linked to his greatest fear. That simple question seemed to make the blood stop, but his environment quickly twisted again, and Noah found himself standing at the top of a building.
Glancing down its edge, he felt his heart contract in emotional pain. Right there he could see an individual gasping for breath as he hung halfway down a pole that had punctured his chest.
Noah almost didn't recognize the young man, since it had been a long while since he saw the face he had on Earth!
Before he could do anything, his view of that also familiar environment changed, and Noah found the sun's light smiting his face, followed by an intense burning sensation like he had never felt before.
Blinding pain flooded his mind, as he tried to gasp for breath, but the metallic object sticking out of his chest stopped his diaphragm from contracting and expanding, effectively cutting his oxygen supply.
Noah re-lived his death on earth with shocking accuracy and lividness. However, he felt unfazed by that happening. He had more or less prepared for it after the tier 4 expert had mentioned illusions, so once again Noah saw his environment go dark, and he arrived in front of a green mountain in front of a forest.
"What is this even supposed to mean," Noah muttered with dead coldness.
What felt like a few seconds maybe hours passed, before anything happened. The mountain suddenly split in two, the sky turned dark, and the winds blew violently as trees were torn out of their roots. A bolt of lightning split the dark clouds suddenly crashing into Noah's unfazed figure.
Unimaginable pain flooded Noah's mind as his figure turned to ash, but he felt himself continue to exist rather than vanish. Still feeling his existence in that location, Noah watched his ashes get scattered into the forest.
Immediately after that event ended, large trees sprang up, and the whole forest turned lush and magical, but after what felt like years passed the forest had dried up. Compared to what he remembered, Noah felt disgusted by what that place had become.
Shockingly everything rewound, the forest reverted to its lushness, then all the trees began to return to their normal state. Noah saw all his ashes return and the large lightning bolt returned to the sky after un-striking him, and the mountain merged back together.
"What is even going on," Noah tried to shout, but he found that his emotionless state had returned.
A few minutes of wait happened, and to his non-shock, the mountain suddenly split in two, and the clouds turned dark. The winds blew violently, but he remained unmoved by those natural events, a large yellow bolt of lightning exited the dark clouds to land on Noah's emotionless figure. Why he hadn't moved remained unknown to him.
Once again blasting pain ravaged his mind as he was turned to ashes. Then the wind blew the ashes into the forest behind him, and everything turned fantastical in the scenery. That place quickly became a scene one would only find in the most magical of environments.
However, after a while, everything dried up and turned ugly just like the first time. Once again after a while, everything began to revert to how they were before, and before he knew it Noah found his body back to normal.
Noah felt beyond stunned at what was happening for he had gotten his emotions back, needless to say, worry, fear, and confusion rose in his mind when the mountain before him split in two again.
The same events as the first two times occurred but ended with him back to normal. The cycle had to repeat itself twice again before understanding dawned on Noah.
"Can't I stop the bolt of lightning," he muttered glaring at the rumbling cloud. A bright yellow flash brightened up the sky, and a bolt of lightning the size of small buildings fell from the sky directly towards his un-moving figure. However, before it could arrive on his body and end him for the sixth time, Noah exerted his control over the lightning element on that mass of incredible energy.
Instead of smashing into his figure and incinerating him, Noah caused it to float above his head and manipulated it to surround him with a protective barrier.
The world trembled at that sight as the whole forest suddenly turned lush and beautiful. The black clouds cleared and the split mountain turned into a sculpture. Of Noah.
"What does this even mean," Noah muttered frowning deeply, none of the events that had occurred were related to his greatest fears, if he even had one. They felt like a message, but he couldn't comprehend it.
Before he could sigh in helplessness, Noah felt the world around him experience another drastic change.
Suddenly he found himself on what resembled a battlefield.
Shock filled Noah's mind when he saw craters so immense he felt one hundred percent sure that cities would fit inside each one of them. The world looked to be in turmoil, as smoke able to cover multiple cities rose to the red sky.
Bodies littered the surrounding areas and he could only notice all this because of how high he was in the sky. 'What in the world is going on!' Noah thought feeling his heartbeat rise in speed.
As if listening to his words, Noah felt the world zoom in, and he arrived in front of two blurry individuals.
Even with his closeness, Noah remained unable to tell what gender both were, but that didn't matter, since for some reason he felt his gaze lock onto their glitchy figures, an unfathomable amount of fear, sadness, and helplessness welling up in his being.
One of the two individuals was on their knees, with the other was standing above them. A burst of hysterical laughter suddenly exited the standing individual, to resound throughout the entire continent, carrying waves of power that shattered the ground beneath Noah's feet, even if he remained in position.
The laughing individual looked to raise his sword and quickly brought it down with the force of a meteorite.
The person kneeling split in two, dead. And for reasons unknown to him, Noah fell to his knees and wept profusely.
___________________________
Authors note: I know this chapter is late but at least I made it. I really appreciate your concern Uncledemon and of course your support. And a big Thank You to the others who don't say much but are supporting the story. Because of you all, I'm driven to write more.
Honestly, I know last month wasn't the best, as the story didn't progress well due to my inconsistent schedule. So I want to make it up to you all reading. From this coming Sunday onward, there'll be two chapters each day.
Chapter 236 236. MASKED INDIVIDUAL
Noah wept and wept, so hard that he seemed to run out of tears. For reasons still unknown to him, he felt heartbroken, and the cold grip of emptiness permeated his consciousness. The world seemed to have shattered around him as deep pain, an emotional one, flooded his mind.
Noah began to tremble violently at some point, as fury and even more, pain burnt inside him, he began to act out on his environment but failed to see that every one of his attacks kicks, or punches at the air; caused incredible damage to his surrounding.
After the death of the kneeling person; both glitchy figures had disappeared as though they never existed, to begin with. Yet Noah knew that the emotions he experienced were real, but why that scene had impacted him so much remained incomprehensible to him.
Eventually, Noah felt too weak to do anything, not even cry, and he felt uncaring about the constantly changing scenery around him. "I don't want that again," Noah muttered gazing listlessly at the now blue sky above him.
The sun's radiance tried to hurt his eyes so he closed them, "Did I fail," Noah wondered recalling the trial they were to overcome after what felt like decades had passed, maybe minutes.
Sitting up, he swept his gaze on his surroundings and found that he sat on a cliff. Nothing existed outside of the cliff only the blueness of the sky that seemed to encase him in a spherical structure.
Noah stared at the blueness without so much as a flicker in his expression, he felt so devoid of everything, that he failed to generate any emotion at that wondrous and also terrifying scene.
It seemed the world tried to express how he felt. Alone and empty.
'This is an illusion,' Noah thought, "But why does it feel so real," he muttered holding the side of his chest, where his heart stood. Even that organ had lost its energy, limiting itself to beating slowly.
A crack, however, appeared in the sky around him, and Noah found himself gazing into thick darkness. Something about that outrageously strange sight appealed to him, and he failed to realize it when he stretched his hand towards it, desiring to touch it.
The cliff below him crumbled at that action, but Noah felt too empty to fret, he understood that he wouldn't die from simply falling. Even the healing ability he had would fix all damages before they could last longer.
A suction force applied itself to Noah's figure, and he found himself slowly drifting inside that darkness. Nothing existed inside it, not even time, so whether he had spent decades or mere seconds in there, Noah remained uncertain.
At some point down the line, Noah heaved a sigh, "I'm tired of being empty," he muttered sweeping his gaze on the nothingness around him.
At his words, a bright white light appeared in the distance, and he began his journey towards it. Eventually arriving in front of the blinding light, Noah felt himself hesitate to cross it.
Cold fear gripped his mind as the images of the person's death replayed in his mind. Reluctance based on fear and uncertainty appeared inside him, and he turned his back on the light.
Slowly drifting away from the light Noah continued to drown in self-regret, unable to do anything but die inside. Notwithstanding, the thought of leaving that place crossed his mind several times, but the person's death replayed in his mind every time such thoughts appeared.
At some point during his aimless floating, a voice rang out behind Noah. "You'll have to leave at some point," the male voice said.
Turning to face the individual without the slightest bit of fear, Noah lay eyes on a man featuring a purple mask.
"Who are you?" He asked blankly, "Go away," he concluded the conversation before it even started.
"The darkness isn't a place for youngsters such as yourself," the man said in a tone exuding genuine compassion and care.
"Who are you to decide that!" Noah lashed out, experiencing a deep sense of familiarity with the individual.
"I'm no one really," the individual replied adopting a cross-legged position, with his regal attire draping below him. The individual had his hair hidden inside the weird faceless mask, but the long garment he sported consisted of mostly fine linen, red and gold.
"I'm just someone who's been in the darkness long enough to know when someone shouldn't be in it," the individual explained calmly.
Noah remained silent at those words, but his desire to be alone forced him to speak again.
"It's none of your concern, you can leave," he said turning his back on the man. Something about the masked individual felt familiar, too familiar.
"You are saying that because you want to be alone," the individual said tilting his head to one side. 'I understand because when I first got here I also did. But the darkness is uneventful. You'll get bored at some point," the individual explained.
"Then why haven't you left then," Noah asked glancing at the blinding white light in the distance.
"I simply can't forgive myself enough to," the man sighed. "I'm sure you see me unworthy to advise you now," he added glancing at the light too.
"No," Noah casually replied, "I don't care. I just want you gone," he stated coldly. His first emotion in what felt like ages.
"Then I'll leave then," the individual responded straightening his position and immediately beginning to float away.
Noah blankly watched the individual vanish in the thick darkness that clothed that endless place.
A sigh escaped his mouth, and he continued drifting in the darkness for decades or hours. But the passage of such long periods felt like seconds to him. He remained too engrossed in his dilemma to care about the passage of time.
"Hello," a familiar voice pulled Noah out of the flashing images of the individual's death.
"What?" Noah asked, his voice dripping with vileness. The urge to kill the man before him rose and went off the charts, but the individual's next words quenched it.
"You want to kill me? Me too," the man sighed, "Unfortunately you can't. You're too weak for that," he explained.
At those words did Noah notice his inability to sense the man's power.
"What do you want?" Noah muttered feeling embarrassed.
"You know what I want Noah," the man replied glancing at the white light that had become a dot due to how far they were from it.
"How do you know my name," Noah asked both shocked and tired.
"We both know how," the individual responded without removing his gaze from the whiteness.
'What the fuck is he talking about,' Noah thought, massaging his eyebrows.
"You should leave already. This isn't the place for you. Not after all I've done," the individual spoke focusing his gaze on Noah, who felt his gaze tear through all his barriers to gaze into his very soul.
"You don't know me but you do," the man continued gaining Noah's full attention.
'Isn't this supposed to be an illusion,' Noah thought feeling the urge to escape the man.
"It is...but also isn't," the individual replied Noah's thought freaking him out. A moment of silence passed before the individual spoke again.
"You should leave. If that light escapes your sight then you'll fail the trial," the individual explained looking at the far away light.
Noah immediately frowned at those words. At this juncture, he felt utterly confused about what was going on. How did the individual know his name, how did he know about the trial, and that only the light was the way out.
"If you don't move then I'll have to throw you out myself," the individual declared straightening his position.
Noah frowned again, but also straightened his position. He understood how powerless he was compared to the individual.
"Okay," Noah replied beginning his flight towards the light.
"Can't you go any faster," the individual complained without leaving his spot.
"I normally can, but my abilities aren't here....." Noah's complaints faded out immediately after sparks started to exit his body. Memories flowed into his mind at that point, and his reluctance to leave vanished at the thought of failing the trial.
His figure turned into a streak of deep-yellow light, and he arrived in front of the light after a few seconds. And to his shock, the individual was already there.
'Not bad," the man nodded.
"How?..." Noah muttered shocked.
"I'm stronger than you of course," the individual seemed to smile.
"But there isn't any need for an explanation Leave, I want to have this place to myself," he added.
Narrowing his eyes in annoyance, Noah felt helpless. "I'm leaving," he said moving closer to the light.
However, images of the individuals death flashed in his eyes, and his gaze went cold. Hesitation rose in his mind but the masked man quickly spoke to comfort him.
"It's not your fault, he said, "It was never your fault. So move. You don't deserve this place. You barely knew what happened."
"I know it isn't, but it hurts really bad for some reason," Noah replied downcast.
"Then move. You should get used to deaths," the individual ordered.
A sigh escaped Noah's mouth at that point, and he stepped into the light. However shock filled his mind at the realization of the individuals words. Unfortunately before he could speak the man shook his head effectively stopping his question.
"Find me out there. I'm somewhere dying of un-forgiveness. Find me and free me," the masked man suddenly spoke.
"We've literally spoken on only two occasions, and you are already asking for favors," Noah snorted, but the masked man made no response at his remark.
"How will I even know you," Noah sighed feeling a powerful force grab hold of his consciousness.
"You will; when it's time that is," the individual responded somberly, and Noah's environment changed before he could complain.
Noah quickly found himself in his soul realm, sitting cross-legged beside his core. Everything looked and felt normal, a calming sign.
A closer look at his core allowed Noah to spot something odd, but before he could dive deeper into his inspection, the sound of a bell woke him.
"Welcome back. You succeeded!" Lady Edna's boisterous voice rang out in the red room.
Chapter 237 237. ISSUE
Exhaling in relief, Noah remained seated while thinking back to what happened in the illusion. 'Was that even an illusion,' Noah thought feeling his heart skip a beat at the memory of the death of the blurry figure. Nothing about that scene was familiar to him, yet it felt real enough to momentarily break him.
In truth the whole event felt outrageous, how would the death of someone he didn't even know hurt you bad enough to place him in depression.
'It was supposed to show me my greatest fear and I was supposed to overcome it. But I didn't overcome it alone. Neither did I know it for it to be my greatest fear,' Noah thought, thoroughly confused. He had never felt so lost in his entire life.
The death of the blurry figure felt familiar yet unknown at the same time. Not to begin with the first visions he saw before it, and lastly the mysterious man within the darkness. They all felt real enough to force Noah in second-guessing his existence. Especially the man. Yet none of the events connected to give him any clues of what exactly was going on.
'Who was that even,' Noah thought, The person looked to have a personality of their own, even power. Such didn't seem possible to be generated by an illusion.
'He said I should look for him,' Noah recalled unsure of what to do with that favor. 'Why didn't he come out himself,' he continued to ponder, but there were many questions but no answers.
A sigh of deep helplessness exited Noah's at his growing frustration. Placing his focus on his red environment, Noah struggled to not feel safe at its sight. Years or even decades seemed to have passed in his illusions, an extremely long time, however, it was a situation he had begun to get familiar with.
Many of the individuals in the tier 3 category were nowhere to be found, but Noah understood why. In honesty he felt his test; if it even was, had been easy. He did not experience any crushing pressure, and the real situation that could jeopardize his entry into that guild was vanquished by the masked man's orders.
'My luck is incredible.' Noah giggled inwardly while scanning the room for anyone with blonde hair. He found a few individuals that fit the hair color description of Ariana, but whether or not they were her, remained unknown to Noah.
Lady Edna seemed to give them a minute to rest since she simply floated above them with the remaining two. They seemed to be in a discussion. A weird sight since Noah knew that show wasn't necessary, their mental waves would be enough.
"You can arise," Lady Edna eventually announced, "If you can," she added, her tone that of uncertainty.
'What does she mean by that....' Noah thought getting up. However, his thoughts were cut short by the incredible wave of dizziness that slammed into his consciousness. Noah saw and felt his world spin on him, and the last thing he remembered was the sound of his body hitting the ground, then everything went dark.
*
*
*
Snapping his eyes open, Noah sat up, awake. Unfortunately, intense pain filled his mind at that simple action.
Grabbing his head in pain, Noah felt his head ache so badly he thought it had been split in two. His environment turned blurry every once in a while, forcing the closing of his eyes while gritting his teeth.
Quickly sending his consciousness into his soul realm to understand the issue, Noah found that he arrived inside a storm!
Lightning bolts crackled everywhere, as a strange wind blew within that place, and the environment looked to experience extreme cold.
This of course were signs of his elemental affinities acting up, but he had never experienced anything like what he stepped into.
With his soul core at the center of the storm, Noah could immediately understand why he felt that much pain on the outside. Or so he thought,
'How do I get there,' Noah wondered, but that simple thought process caused him pain, lots of it.
Feeling his consciousness flicker dangerously, Noah had to keep his peace to retain his focus on that unique environment. Taking a step forward, he felt his island try to fight against his will. However, Noah enforced his authority over it, momentarily calming the storm.
This action, however, caused enough pain to allow him black out.
Slowly reopening his eyes, Noah felt his mind buzz upon his awakening, memories of what he experienced rushed into his eyes, and he couldn't help but panic.
Slowly sitting up, he scanned his environment and felt shocked to find only four other persons in that room. However, he pushed the matter to the back of his mind, since emotions currently hurt him.
Returning to his soul realm. Noah found an even bigger storm. Notwithstanding, he remained calm, and took a step forward.
His island fought against his movement, but he remained calm. Surprisingly, he found that although the world as it would seem, tried to repel his movements, it literally couldn't touch him.
A few more steps forward while remaining calm, was all Noah needed to confirm his thoughts, after which he dashed forward, but blacked out again.
Groaning awake, Noah sat up again. No thoughts flowed in his mind due to how chaotic it was, so his face remained emotionless. Or he tried to.
A frown appeared on his face at his situation, but he quickly returned to his soul realm.
Immediately arriving inside his special environment, Noah found that his view of the world before him was blocked by the immense tornado ravaging his island, yet leaving it unscathed.
"So no running," he muttered experiencing pain at his words.
Taking a large step forward, Noah began his slow walk towards his core. His instincts assured him that the solution to his problem lay there.
What felt like an hour or two passed, but Noah understood that lesser time than what he experienced had passed. His soul realm ran on his speed essence, allowing for a different flow of time.
During his journey towards his soul core, Noah tried utilizing Speed Essence in fixing that issue, but rather than doing anything, the mass of liquid-like Energy simply hovered above his undamaged island.
With his only viable option to quickly fix that issue out the window, Noah had to settle for walking to his core.
Eventually arriving in front of his black core, Noah felt all the ideas he had painfully developed go down his mental drain.
"What the actual fuck...." Noah muttered wide-eyed; when he lay eyes on his soul core. Its spherical structure had been split into two perfect halves.
Chapter 238 238. SHOCKING
Noah's eyes flickered multiple times in a second, as he took a step back in pure horror. His breathing seemed to get heavier, as the reality of the sight he laid eyes on struggled to sink.
His core floated in two halves, strings of multicolored lights holding both halves in place. A detail Noah felt certain was the only reason he hadn't died yet.
Anger tried to rise in his mind at the planners of the events he currently participated in, It felt wrong to suffer that much damage simply because of a game to join the guild.
However, knowing what would happen if he flared up, he bottled up his anger and tried to think.
A constant stream of pain entered Noah's mind during his contemplation, and he immediately noticed his inability to think too many thoughts without almost fainting.
Unfortunately, nothing within his range of knowledge felt able to cause that damage apart from the bell.
A feeling of loss filled Noah's consciousness at his inability to generate any solutions. Speed essence felt like his only solution, but it did absolutely nothing, simply floating above him. As if waiting for something.
The only entity Noah thought he could gain answers from, was of course the System, But he feared that leaving that place would cause him to restart his journey towards that area, so he opted to look at the sky above him.
Gaining visuals of the immense black box floating above his soul realm, Noah tried to call on it, but nothing worked. He willed his stat panel to be shown to him, and it appeared, but differently than he expected. A blue-black floating screen featuring his stats appeared in front of Noah, and he felt able to touch it, which he did.
Noah's curiosity was piqued by that sight, but he had to return his focus to what he currently needed, help.
"What am I experiencing?" Noah questioned the system, hoping that topic wouldn't fall under the classified banner.
[[This is as a result of the events that occurred within the trial of your mind]]
pαndα,noνɐ1,сoМ [[Your mind, as a result of the conflict, has gained split ideals. On one side is your drive to grow stronger and live while enjoying life. On the other side is the darkness that is encroaching into your heart. Due to the amount of time you spent in that fake environment, your soul core failed to differentiate which experiences were real, causing the higher concentration of the darkness within you, thereby generating the clash]]
Needless to say, Noah felt shocked by the system's words and the fact that it gave such an in-depth explanation of his issue.
"In essence; this is my fault," Noah sighed, feeling a pang of pain prick his senses.
The floating screen or panel was left empty at Noah's words, but he didn't require the system to answer his words of realization.
"How do I even fix it?" Noah asked.
[[You'll have to make both sides agree to coexist, or your death is at hand]]
A cold expression appeared on Noah's face at those words. He had guessed that the situation would be dangerous, but the possibility of death changed things.
'How do I do that?" Noah enquired of the system, feeling grateful for its already big help.
[[You will lead yourself]]
An exasperated sigh escaped Noah's mouth, but no air came out. His eyes landed on the strings of multi-colored light and they gained deeper importance to him.
Moving closer to his stationary core currently split in two, Noah felt compelled to lay hands on it. And he immediately did so.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom
Nothing happened upon contact with one of the halves, but immediately after he placed his left hand on the other half, a violent wave of power flowed through his limbs and nearly shattered his consciousness.
His island trembled violently, but the storms reduced in size since the violent power his core produced was being channeled into another medium.
Blood poured out of Noah's unconscious body, as he convulsed and shook violently. However, his body remained okay at the same time.
Thankfully his roommates were fast asleep going through whatever backlash the trial had brought upon them.
Memories came and went, as intense emotions, ones that Noah had never thought he could produce ravaged his ethereal state.
For the first time since he became a tire 3, Noah understood that although the soul core currently wasn't always directly needed in a battle; with all the power stored up inside its structure, it would be potent enough to fatally damage his foes.
Noah had to keep his consciousness intact to not return to square one. But after a minute of witnessing the battles between the two ideals and experiences, he started to doubt his ability to even do anything.
The storms around him continued to reduce in size, which meant more power was flowing through his ethereal state of existence.
Deep mental pain ravaged Noah's deepest depths. But he very quickly became numb to it, while he tried to place his focus on basically conversing with himself, seeing as his soul core was still him.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do much apart from trying to keep his consciousness intact, an ever-increasingly difficult task.
Noah had to let go at some point, and immediately after he did so, the storms exploded forth with full power, as they even felt more vigorous than before. A very nerve-racking detail.
Noah knelt, as deep pain ravaged his existence, causing his consciousness to flicker dangerously. He threatened to lose consciousness as rends opened on his figure. Fortunately, he felt no pain from that event, only fatigue.
What felt like half an hour had to pass before Noah could stabilize himself. His ethereal figure still featured tears, but he couldn't do much about them, since only exiting his soul realm and returning could fix them. A refresh basically.
Allowing his gaze to fall on his silently floating core, Noah shook his head at that deceiving sight.
His soul core contained enough power to wipe him out if he didn't play his cards well. And during that instant, Noah wondered if fuels termed "Soul energy" existed, but he pushed the topic to the back of his mind before he could get engrossed.
He hadn't achieved anything since he gained the idea of his problem, so he immediately started to listen intently to his instincts, and it of course recommended the use of Speed Essence in that situation.
However, rather than forcing the mass of essence on his island, which remained almost totally undamaged by the storm; he empowered himself with it.
In less than an instant, Noah called upon the power of the minute portion of Essence floating above his island.
The mass of deep-yellow essence, liquid-like in nature, flowed down toward Noah, and a shocking transformation occurred soon after.
Immediately the Speed Essence came in contact with his ethereal figure, Noah felt an awesome wave of pure power fill his existence; pure ecstasy rushing through his senses. His formerly colorless figure, almost transparent, quickly turned deep-yellow.
Not only that, but immediately the mass of energy completely merged with his figure, he ballooned up in size, and soon his figure became as large as his over 5km radius island.