Chapter 601 Four Pillars: The First Thousand



Ding!

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[Aberration (Mythic Elite)] (Level 75)

Class: Aberration (Uncommon)

HP: 23,520/23,520

MP: 16,160/16,160

Stats: 735 VIT, 895 STR, 790 AGI, 650 DEX, 505 INT, 455 WIS, 418 PER, 218 LUK

Skills: [Intermediate Regeneration], [Intermediate Physical Damage Resistance],... other skills have been omitted.

Remarks: Remain vigilant for they shall grow ever stronger with the passage of time.

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"And here I thought I'd be up against aberrations at the beginning of Rank 5." Taking in a deep breath to calm himself down, Valyr swiftly pushed his body to its very limits, activating [Feather Steps+] to increase the distance between him and the enlarged and empowered group of aberrations.

With how the aberrations' strengths increased by a level every time he killed them, the young man had more or less expected the aberrations to reach the peak of Rank 5 at some point, perhaps even go past it as he had a feeling the Gates of Enlightenment might do something like that.

Though, after running around for a bit to move away from the group of aberrations madly charging at him, the young man eventually thought that whatever the Gates of Enlightenment had planned was still far better than experiencing the wrath of aberrations at the uppermost limit of Greater Beyond's level system.

Nevertheless, with the new group's strength being increased by a tier rather than a level, Valyr was forced to change his train of thought on how the overall trial would work, with his current hypothesis being the fact that every 10 consecutive kills he did on the group, the group would grow in size, and their strengths would grow alternating between level and tier.

"At the very least they don't seem like they'd be able to pick up Intent Seeds anytime soon," muttered the young man to himself, only to briefly regret it soon after as the Gates of Enlightenment might be actively controlling the trial from someplace else.

Letting out a wry chuckle at the thought that popped up in his mind, the young man swiftly stopped in his tracks and sent out a barrage of crimson flames once more, relying on [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] to make sure that he dealt the most damage possible. With how the group of aberrations he had to kill had doubled in size, Valyr was forced to execute the barrage a bit longer, sighing in slight relief as he began to move away from the pile of corpses.

'That was close.' Taking out a mana potion from his spatial bracelet, Valyr downed the entirety of its contents before opening up his status screen to take a look at the state of his mana pool. 'Thank the heavens I was able to kill all of them in time. Some of them were already close to landing a hit on me.'

Though Valyr did not have much of a problem with getting hit from a damage standpoint, he did have a problem with it from other standpoints. After all, in terms of numbers, he was on the losing end, the only reason he could decimate them even with their greater strengths being his stats and [Hunter's Tracking Eyes].

As long as one of them was able to land a hit on him, the entire group would be able to gang up him, which would eventually lead to his expulsion from the inheritance. However, if the Gates of Enlightenment did not consider this scenario as grounds for him to fail the quest, then that would only mean the thing he did not wish to happen the most.

Death.

"Grraaawwwgghh!!!" With their bodies flashing a golden light, the group of aberrations rose from the ground with renewed vigor as their sights frenziedly looked for Valyr's whereabouts.

"[Crimson Blade Torrent]!" Already prepared for what was to come, the young man swiftly sent out a barrage of crimson blades at the revived group, pushing more and more mana into the spell until all of the aberrations laid flat on the ground once more.

"That makes it 140 kills." With a slightly heavy breath, Valyr thought about the group of aberrations he had just killed, noticing that they hadn't grown stronger whatsoever. With that, he wondered whether or not the Gates of Enlightenment made it so that he would have to kill 10 more groups before something about the aberrations changed yet again.

'If that's the case, then I more or less know what to expect up to when I reach 300 kills,' thought the young man to himself, faintly nodding as he sent a message to the party chat to ask how the others were doing. While briefly browsing through the chat as the group of aberrations revived once more, the young man inwardly let out a wide sigh of relief once he received a message from Loreina, telling them that she was still standing, but was tired after facing the first trial.

As for the others, they took a while to respond to his question. Though, from what he could infer through their words, it seemed like they were faring well against the trials they were facing, which prompted Valyr to focus his attention back on his own trial.

"[Crimson Blade Torrent]!"

...

For the remaining groups of 20 that Valyr had to face on his road to reaching 300 kills, there were a few instances where the young man had a close call to saying goodbye to the inheritance while facing against the aberrations. Even though he had the aid of the scepter in replenishing his mana, as well as a plethora of mana potions to restore it, he still ended up running out of mana by the time he was around 280 kills, giving a couple aberrations a chance to land a solid hit on his armor.

Bang!

To no surprise, the armor slightly caved in from the strength of the aberrations, while Valyr was sent flying for over a dozen meters. Though he had a lost over a thousand HP from the hits he had taken, it was nothing he could fix up with a quick healing spell from his arsenal.

Swiftly regaining his footing, the young man then tapped into his scepter's second skill before firing a short barrage that took care of the stragglers, allowing the remainder of his journey to 300 kills to be more or less the same as it was before the mishap.

"Finally killed another 10 groups." Taking a few deep breaths as he recalled the earlier mishap, the young man took out his hammer from his spatial bracelet as he stared intently at the aberration corpses strewn all over the barren space over a couple hundred meters away from him. Removing the armor pieces that were hit by the aberration, Valyr inwardly thanked his past self for picking up a skill that sped up the repair process.

"What kind of change is going to happen next?" asked the young man to himself, only for his eyes to widen in slight terror as he felt the auras emanating from the aberrations slowly surpassing the strengths they exuded before. Hastily wearing the armor pieces he had just fixed up, he increased the distance separating him from where the group of aberrations as he continued to watch on.

"Their numbers increased by 10..." Seeing that the group of aberrations that had increased in size now stood on their feet, the young man went ahead and used his identification skill to find out the things that weren't there before. However, the very moment he did so, he looked up at the sky above him before letting out a string of curses in anger.

"Oh, for fuck's sake..."

"Why'd you have to increase their fucking tier to Ancient Elite?"

"Grwwawaaggghghh!!!" With their sights quickly locking onto the spot where Valyr stood, the group of 30 let out cries filled with the intent to battle, frenziedly running through the barren space as their bodies moved at even greater speeds. Inwardly sighing as he wondered whether he would even be able to kill 10,000 aberrations, the young man was left with no choice but to empower his stats, activating [Rage of the True Wyvern] to somewhat even out the playing field.

Though the difference between Legendary Elite and Mythic Elite tier monsters was a 25% increase in stats, the difference between Mythic Elite and Ancient Elite was even more than that, with the system Greater Beyond had in place improving the rarity of the monster's classes to Rare once they reached Ancient Elite tier.

With that, Valyr knew that he had to pull out all the stops if he wanted to survive against a group of Ancient Elite tier aberrations at the peak of Rank 4, much less having to kill the same group 10 times in a row while facing a gradually increasing disadvantage in terms of numbers and stats.

If fighting an Ancient Elite tier Shadow Serpent had taught him anything for his current situation, it was the fact that he would have to exploit the ever-living hell out of all the weak points he could see from the aberrations, whether it came from [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] or from the multiple tips and tricks he had picked up in his past life.

...

"600... kills..." Gasping for air as he sat down on the earth-colored floor, Valyr blankly stared at the group of aberrations half a kilometer away from where he stood, faintly wondering to himself whether the Gates of Enlightenment would return to increasing the aberrations' strengths by a level. At this moment, he would greatly prefer to fight against a group of Ancient Elite tier aberrations at the beginning of Rank 5 rather than a group of aberrations at the peak of Rank 4 that was one tier higher.

'They really did a number on me.' Catching his breath as he reminded himself he was nowhere near to finishing the trial, the young man took a brief glance at his current condition, wryly smiling at the multiple areas where his armor was bent or misshapen. To no surprise, the aberrations had been able to land hits on him more often thanks to their increased strength, with some of the exposed areas on his body drawing out blood from their heavy-handed strikes.

"They really didn't give me enough time to fix my armor, huh." Just as he had opened his spatial bracelet to grab his hammer for some quick fixing, the young man let out a long sigh as he stood up and grabbed a health and mana potion from his spatial bracelet instead, topping his reserves as the aberrations began to stand up from the ground once more.

"At the very least their numbers only increased by 10 again." Muttering a few words to himself, Valyr kept his eyes peeled for any changes regarding the aberrations, focusing most of his attention on the auras they were emanating. Sensing that their auras had substantially increased in power, the young man swiftly activated [Greater Analysis] to obtain more information about the matter, only let out a string of curses once more as he punched the ground.

"Fuck me, man." Valyr sighed.n-)0Velb1n

"How the hell does the Gates of Enlightenment expect me to come out on top against a group of Divine Elite tier aberrations?"