The battle itself was not impossible. Four Kuipers walked over casually while being vigilant, but they could never have expected to deal with a freak of nature like Draco with multiple laws. Once again, they were hit with the old one-two combination of Mind Blast and Sinister Shot.
「Congratulations on completing: Divine Trial First Level Hell Mode
Time elapsed: 0:0:17
Enemies Killed: 4/4
Assessment: EX
Reward:
500 Divine Trial Score.
2000 Divine Essence. (Note: This is the base amount. The extra reward from the level provisions will be added later.)
25 Divine Trial Tokens. (Note: This is the base amount. The extra reward from the level provisions will be added later.)」
Draco's eyes lit up immediately. This score was far higher than what he got previously and he couldn't help but finally feel a bit smug. After all, he was competing with all True Gods of all levels and still managed to come this far.
Unable to help his curiosity, he returned to the lobby and checked the leaderboards immediately for all the floors he had cleared so far.
「Divine Trial Leaderboards
Level 1 Moderate Mode Rankings:
1. True God Moro
2. True God Eternal Slumber
3. True God Lysis
4. True God Leo
5. True God DarkFire
6. True God Parkinson
7. True God Damian
8. True God Daru
9.True God Sylvester
10. True God Nightingale
———————————
9976. True God Draco
9977. True God Liam
9978. True God Loathe
Rewards will be privately sent to each True God accordingly upon refresh.」
「Divine Trial Leaderboards
Level 1 Hard Mode Rankings:
1. True God Eternal Slumber
2. True God Moro
3. True God DarkFire
4. True God Parkinson
5. True God Lysis
6. True God Leo
7. True God Sylvester
8. True God Damian
9. True God Daru
10. True God Nightingale
———————————
3209. True God Draco
3210. True God Porlov
3211. True God Truth
Rewards will be privately sent to each True God accordingly upon refresh.」
「Divine Trial Leaderboards
Level 1 Hell Mode Rankings:
1. True God Eternal Slumber
2. True God Moro
3. True God DarkFire
4. True God Parkinson
5. True God Sylvester
6. True God Leo
7. True God Damian
8. True God Daru
9. True God Nightingale
10. True God Lysis
———————————
504. True God Draco
505. True God Superser
505. True God Lifender
Rewards will be privately sent to each True God accordingly upon refresh.」
Draco nodded with satisfaction, he did not expect to suddenly be among the top ten, but his steadily climbing position made him understand that he definitely had plenty of room for growth as long as he stuck to the bit and kept doing what he did best.
He looked at his Divine Essence and Divine Token boosts that were now awarded since he returned to the lobby. The bonus was basically a percentage of your Divine Essence depending on your score.
Draco got an S for Moderate Mode which gave him 100 Divine Essence, and the boost came out to be 50% for S. This meant that his 100 Divine Essence became 150 in total.
On Hard Mode, Draco achieved an SS and got 300 Divine Essence as well as 15 Divine Trial Tokens. SS was equivalent to 70%, so his Divine Essence gains increased by 210, making it reach 510 in total while his Trial Tokens increased by 10, making it 25 in the end.
On the recent Hell Mode, he got 2000 Divine Essence of which the bonuses for his EX score was 100%, which meant double basically. As such, his Divine Essence gains became 4000 and his Trial Token gains became 50 in total.
All of this was split 3 ways by him, Eva and Shuangtian, meaning they each had about 1,555 Divine Essence. Draco also had enough Divine Trial Points to level up one of their laws to intermediate grade each or upgrade three of his own laws to that level.
But he chose to stick to it like this and entered the Nightmare difficulty which was the penultimate for each level. Draco once again appeared in the very same small realm, faced by five Kuipers who eyes glinted with cation while its body became taut.
However, Draco didn't have the chance to feel apprehension or curiosity because his expression became black as a pot as he glanced at the rules for the floor.
「The First Level (Nightmare Mode) – Origin Quest
Description: You have undertaken the Nightmare Mode difficulty of the Divine Trial's First Level, Noble God. Prove yourself worthy. Defeat your allotted foes within the time frame and according to the limitations placed on you.
Limitations: Item, ability, skill and equipment usage are banned.
Provisions: Increased Divine Essence and Divine Trial Token rewards. Reduced time penalty. Slight increase in Divine Energy recovery speed.
Rewards: Divine Trial Score.」
Looking at this, it was clear why Draco was extremely unhappy. He had only gotten so far by abusing the player's Divine Point system as well as his powerful skill that when multiplied by the power of his laws, became extremely potent.
Now, his skills had been stripped away?!
God, how did the AI expect any player to survive this?!
Ah wait, its Nightmare mode. Its precisely supposed to be a nightmare mode to complete for the average player, so yeah, it did kinda check out. Draco glanced at the five Kuipers who had surrounded him with a deep frown.
He could only sigh and activate three laws on his Law of Attack Velocity and Movement Velocity. With his body up to par with Extreme speed, he immediately launched an attack by charging forward and unleashing a punch towards on Kuiper.
The wolf's eyes narrowed as it sensed and danger and dodged using its own more complete Law. This allowed the other Kuipers to take advantage of the opening and rush in to take Draco down.
This would have worked since they were all roughly of the same speed now, but Draco quickly activated a third law on his body. It was the Law of Damage Avoidance from his Evasion skill from his Dragorugio Greaves.
Having an actual law of 'Evasion' and dodging made Draco's movements as he was attacked rapidly at all angles look like he was within the legendary flow state of martial arts, or as the banal plebeians called it, Ultra Instinct.
He easily weaved through the attacks like something was pulling him to the safest path. It wasn't elegant like the flow state, but more crass and it was obvious enough that something was causing him to achieve this ability, but it was enough.
With a sufficient dodge or parry came counterattack, and Draco did not hold back as he attached the Law of Malevolent Darkness and the Law of Damage Enhancement to his fist and struck the gut of one of the Kuipers.
The giant wolf's eyes widened greatly as it yowled in agony, sent flying into a nearby tree as its torso deformed greatly. It lay on the ground, weakly coughing blood and internal organs as the malevolent darkness began to encroach on its life force.
The other Kuiper's expressions changed, and they created a bit of distance. The left their brother to die with cold faces, but they were now twice more vigilant. Draco saw this and couldn't help but smile wryly.
This was why, even though it seemed cheap, he always used his stun on the enemies before clearing them out. Even if he had a great ploy to take down foes that would work each time, once there was someone else to witness, they would be on guard against this method.
Draco then decided to use his trump card he had been hiding. He glanced at one of the Kuipers and flicked a finger. The giant wolf glanced at Draco with confusion, wondering what that measly flick was supposed to do.
However, its got its grim answer as its innards exploded into a towering flame, covering the rest of its body and causing it to scream in untold agony. The giant wolf got down to the ground and began thrashing around to try and eliminate the burning flames, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the others were in shock. Was this a skill belonging to Draco? If so, then it was extremely fierce to cripple one of their own so easily.
However, that was not the case. This was not actually a class or system skill, but rather a set of techniques he gained the ability to use anywhere in Boundless after becoming the successor to the Tittled Mage God.
Subjective Magic!
Luckily for Draco, the titles he had did not fall into the implication range of the limitation 'abilities'. What he had now was neither bloodline nor tricks, just his raw prowess that had somewhat been overlooked.
The spell he used on Kuiper was Flamepillar. It was an AOE skill that rose from the ground and burned upwards like a pillar, continually roasting whatever was in range for a set amount of time. It would not have done much if Draco had not imbued two Laws into it once more and also fueled with with Divine Energy.
As such, it became completely capable of making a genuine True God suffer, and all of Kuiper's still unharmed body doubles instill distanced themselves rather than try to save any of the two suffering wolves.
Eventually, the Flamepillar came to an end, making all parties hiss with fear as they saw that their ally was charred black and stank like a fresh oriental meal served at a restaurant. As for the first Kuiper who was punched, it was now mostly shriveled up and breathing sparsely.
It would honestly prefer to be dead than die slowly like this, but it did not even have the energy to commit suicide. The three remaining Kuipers' expression changed once more and now paid attention to Draco's every movement.
If they detected that Draco was about to use a move, they would react accordingly. They also activated their Law of Extremespeed and had it coat their bodies completely in a form of defensive film. This caused their Divine Energy consumption to skyrocket exponentially, but they did not have a choice lest they be one shot.
Draco was not in a good mood either as he had to permanently keep the Law of Attack and Movement Velocity active just to be on the same playing field as Kuiper's agility wise, so whether it was for that reason or for his own score rating, he had to use the shortest time possible.
Draco then made an overt move and generating a whip of water that was fashioned using Divine Energy and the various laws he needed to give it power imbued immediately. Since it was not a single attack and rather a manifestation, it consumed Divine Energy per second to maintain.
Draco did not waste time and attacked one of the 3 remaining foes with the whip head-on while rushing closer. After all, a whip user could frankly stay back and attack, but it was best to get close and apply pressure.
The wolf he targeted immediately used its active law to try and dodge. However, the whip was used by Draco in an ingenious way, and no matter where to dodge to, it was soon cornered and struck.
The laws clashed and Draco's prevailed since his laws were stronger offensively due to their nature and higher in quantity. This Kuiper's law coating shattered like glass and it was hit head-on, bisected at the waist by the sharp water whip.
Meanwhile the other Kuipers had not been farting about, using the time where Draco was assaulting one of their own to attack him and leave behind some wounds. Or that was what they would have liked to do if Draco had not activated the Law of Damage Avoidance once more.
So even as Draco was aggressively chasing down his target, he was smoothly evading the attacks of the other two as if he had eyes at the back of his head. This would have been normal for Draco with control active, but without it, he had to rely on this law to achieve a similar effect.