Chapter 712 Four Pillars: One Man's Ingenuity
"Now how am I gonna make it so that I'm always at an advantage when it comes to positioning?"
Preparing his arquebus for what would possibly the longest time he had used the weapon so far, Valyr stared at the thousand primitive humanoids in the horizon with a slight frown.
With how far away he was from where the primitive humanoids were, the latter group more or less stayed where they were, walking about in random directions every once in a while.
Then again, there had been a couple of times so far where some of the primitive humanoids would begin to walk in his direction, causing him to slightly panic.
After all, with their incredibly high AGI stat, it wouldn't take long for them to close the gap.
Fortunately, those primitive humanoids would eventually turn around to head back to the main group, allowing Valyr to continue with his preparations in peace.
Moving the items needed to arm the arquebus to the side for the meantime, the young man decided to walk in a circle from where he stood around the primitive humanoids, wanting to get a feel of how they were distributed.
"[Intermediate Lightweight]."
"[Weightless Steps]."
"[Serpentine Sprint]."
Whoosh!
Casting a series of skills on himself that boosted him general movement speed, Valyr zoomed forth, making sure to maintain a far distance from the primitive humanoids while scouting them.
"If only the primitive humanoids were as far away from each as the quadrant leaders were at the city ruins, that would've been nice," said Valyr at some point, thinking about how he faced next to no difficulties in killing the quadrant leaders with his arquebus.
While thinking about his few skirmishes with the quadrant leaders, Valyr eventually recalled that he had done something else before using the arquebus to end the quadrant leaders' first phases.
"Should I summon them?" muttered Valyr.
"Hmm..."
Frowning as he pondered over whether or not to use the tactic during this trial, the young man continued to scout out where the thousand primitive humanoids were currently positioned, taking note of which spot had more of them in place. n/-O--V./e--l-/B-(1(-n
By the time he had finished getting a general grasp of which areas would allow him to have an easier time fighting against the primitive humanoids, Valyr had also come to a conclusion regarding his previous thought.
"Though it would've been nice to have the help of the five boars..."
"Even raising them to Level 100 wouldn't be enough to bridge the gap in stats."
At those words, the young man faintly shook his head as he sighed.
"If I were to force myself to still use them, they could only be used as temporary distractions towards a greater cause."
"And I'd rather not have that, to be honest."
Returning to where he previously stood, Valyr sat down for a bit and thought more about how he would go about killing the primitive humanoids.
While doing so, he thought about how nice it was that he did not need to worry about any sort of time limit while taking the trial.
"If there was, I would've already used my ultimate moves at this point," said the man, letting out a bitter chuckle as he imagined himself doing so.
Of course, there was no doubt in his mind that the attack would definitely remove a considerable chunk of the primitive humanoids in one go.
However, the problem was that there was a long cooldown between each usage of the skill.
In other words, he would not be able to keep dealing a high level of damage too long, which meant that he would instead be giving the primitive humanoids the opportunity to kill him instead of the opposite happening.
Valyr let out a low sigh. "If only the gun I had was a modern sniper rifle instead of an arquebus, I probably wouldn't even be thinking of problems like these."
"Too bad my Technology Tree only goes up to the Early Middle Ages when it comes to the Innovation branch."
"Well, I could also use a bow and arrow to achieve the same thing," said the young man soon after.
"But I don't really have something like that with me, nor do I have experience in using such a weapon."
"Hmm..." Closing his eyes for a bit as he continued to think about how he would kill the primitive humanoids, Valyr thought back to the fight with the quadrant leaders once more.
After all, compared to the other fights he had been in thus far, those were the closest he could reference when it came to his current situation.
"I can't use the boars to lure away the other primitive humanoids since they would die in an instant," muttered Valyr as he thought out loud.
"As for the arquebus, I've decided that I would be using it to quickly kill the primitive humanoids without getting injured, especially with the newly gained [Extended Charge]."
"Hmm... what else?"
Continuing to turn the gears in his mind as he sought ideas from his fights against the quadrant leaders, a flash of inspiration eventually sparked in the young man's mind as he looked at the barren land before him.
"I don't know..." Mulling over the sudden thought he had, Valyr scratched the back of his head. "It might not even be possible."
Though, not long after, his expression grew determined as he let out a low sigh.
"Then again, if it does work, it would save me a lot of headache."
"[Intermediate Earth Manipulation]."
Planting both arms towards the ground, Valyr began to infuse mana into his hands as he coaxed the ground to move upwards.
Rumble...
In response, the ground began to madly rumble, which caused some of the primitive humanoids to move about from where they stood.
Seeing that the primitive humanoids were moving, with some even heading to where he was, Valyr felt that his idea would probably end up being futile.
Yet, for some reason, he continued with it.
Rumble...
In total, there were four elements in total that allowed Valyr to fight against the quadrant leaders without much problem.
The first element were the boars that deprived the battlefield of any other obstacles.
The second element was the insane repertoire of skills he had under his belt that allowed him to deal massive damage to the quadrant leaders.
The third element was the arquebus he had used to swiftly end the quadrant leaders' first phases.
As for the fourth and last element, it was the element that allowed the advantage the arquebus had to come into full blossom.
A definite height advantage.
Crack! Crack!
Noticing that the ground beneath was beginning to crack apart, a faint smile appeared on Valyr's face as he infused more and more mana into it.
Thankfully, it did not take that much longer for his efforts to finally pay off.
Whoosh!
In the midst of Valyr pushing more mana into the ground, the ground finally began to respond to his will, moving a part of itself above the barren field that made up the training ground.
Seeing that it was receptive to the infusion of more mana in exchange for a higher ground, the young man's smile grew wider as he began to infuse yet more mana into it, taking out a few mana potions from his spatial bracelet in the process.
"Now we're getting somewhere!"