Chapter 27 The Hidden Trial

Yet the range of influence is only regional. The world is not negatively affected, and so are the countless lives and the environment from othe regions.

But a chaotic effect is as such: The harmless action of killing a single exotic bug within a forest, can result into a pandemic that negatively affects the world. And ultimately leading to the death of all life.

Yet the cause of such a sever matter, was the action of seeminglessly stepping onto a bug. An unknown creature. Insignificant to the human mind, yet significant to the existence of life.

Or in simple terms, "Its like saying a single butterfly can cause a tornado across the world, but if thousands upon thousands of butterfly did the same, at the exact same time..."

"Would be devastating." He finished my sentence and I nodded at him. We were now waiting to verify if any other trials could appear, or if five trials really was the limit.

"To what extent do you think your descent might have affected everything, if this really is a chaotic effect?" I suddenly thought, my eyes blinking at him with curiosity.

"At minimum, mostly us. At maximum..." He then paused, as he looked ahead, the environment changed once again to resemble a forest.

"At maximum?" I also followed his gaze, looking ahead as there, we could both see a giant red bear that stood at five meters tall when it stood upright.

"...The whole structure." He sighed, and it seemed like his guess inched closer to the latter option, for... his sixth trial was about to ensure.

I sighed, and we continued our treacherous battle against these trials.

From the red giant bear, we next fought a large bird within the valleys, which represented big brother's seventh trial.

Later it was a golden earth mole which we fought underground, his eight trial.

Followed by a group of seven to eight large wolves, each at Level 9, being quite powerful and fast, yet we succeeded.

The last trial we had so far was that against tens of zombies that rushed at us with inhuman speed and might, and also having terrifying defenses.

Each with different Abilities.

This was what caused big brother to go rabbid, as without leveling up, he for once, went all out and unleashed his Bloodline and childhood training to release the slaughter machine humanity carefully forged.

"..."

I wonder... is something still coming even after this? Is this still even a trial?

Or an unprecedented error?

*** Narrative ***

Damien stood at the top of at most ten corpses, looking down at the results of his rampage with apathy and no emotions.

He could feel his blood boiling hot, so hot that he felt like he was going going burn. Yet at the same time, his mind was frozen, no thoughts flashing within.

The current him was no different than a zombie himself, for he had no thoughts, and was driven by instinct, intuition and his blood.

"..."

Reason? Intelligence? Rationale?

All these were thrown out, and as he was just a killing machine. Worst of all, he was still himself. He was still Damien Gray.

He was more than aware of that.

Yet at the same time, he was aware of his nature. To kill. Of his current purpose. To kill. Of his next action. To kill.

Far from him, Juliette only watched as she felt like something was wrong, yet her intuition did not respond whatsoever.

Even her heart was calm, showing that her soul did not feel any threat from the killing machine in front of her.

"..."

And as the young maiden stared at the tall figure of Damien, The Primordial Source reacted and sent out a notification to both of them.

[ TING!!! ]

[ You have made history, and succeeded throughout all ten trials ]

[ You have triggered the hidden stage: The Final Boss ]

[ This is not Trial related, and every participant has every right to pull back. Yet... if you stay and fight, you can reap great rewards, and unforseen treasures ]

[ You have ten seconds to make your choice. Would you like to leave the trial grounds? ]

[ YES ] [ NO ]

Juliette read through everything and looked towards Damien, who did not react whatsoever to the new notifications.

Instead, he turned his head towards a certain direction. A direction she deemed to be threatful from her intuition, and natural born instincts.

She even trembled from just following his glance, even though nothing could be seem from where she stood.

[ 5 ]

[ 4 ]

[ 3 ]

[ REPEAT: Would you like to leave the trial grounds? ]

[ YES ] [ NO ]

[ 2 ]

[ 1 ]

Juliette did not agree, and just watched as the count down finally reached its end. And with that, more notifications followed after.

[ 0 ]

[ TING!!! ]

[ TING!!! ]

[ TING!!! ]

Three notifications, colored blood red flashed in front of her eyes, slightly making her hold her breathe, and focus on what was to follow.

[ You have been trapped within a Draconic Mana Zone ]

[ You have been affected by the "Discouraged" status effect. All Stats decreased by 20% ]

[ You have been affected by the "Fear" status effect. All stats decreased by 25% ]

[ You have been affected greatly by the Mana Zone due to being weak. "Will Break" status effect has been automatically applied. All stats have decreased by 30% ]

[ Your stats have been overally decreased by 75% under the effects of the Draconic Mana Zone ]

[ You have been affected by the "Mana Explosion" effect due to being weak. Mana absorption has been increased by 200% until the Domain is deactivated ]

[ As someone favored by Mana, the effects have double specifically for you ]

[ ... ]

"..."

Juliette could not believe her eyes no matter how much she read through everything. When she checked her stats, they were so low, she felt weak once again.

There was no way she was going to survive what was to come. At least, not like this.

She then looked up at Damien, and he stared back at her, his apathetic gray eyes flashing briefly before he spoke. His words were melodic, yet his tone extremely cold.

"Stay still and focus on absorbing Mana. You should be able to absorb four times more than normal with all your status effects." He concluded.

"..."

Juliette pursed her lips at his tone, but obediently did as he suggested.

Thanks to being the first to manually learn Skills, she was aware with the boost of absorbing 200% more Mana than usual. Then her "Pioneer of Mana" Epithet gave her 100% increased Mana absorption.

Throughout the twenty seven minutes that they had been fighting for after that battle with the Void borne spirit, she used two thirds of it absorbing Mana.

And now, her Mana was quite vast. Over half way to what normal Apprentice had.

Unfortunately, Damien was unaware that she could actually absorb seven times more Mana instead of just four.

And she was not going to tell him. She was dissatisfied with the attitude he gave her. Yet deep down, she did not dislike it. But still dissatisfied nonetheless.

"..."

She pouted cutely, then crossed her legs to slowly begin to absorb Mana. She wanted to go over the limit of one hundred units that Apprentices had!!

Meanwhile Damien did not give her much attention. He just stood before her, and set his gaze towards the direction where he felt a threatening presence looming over.

In the mean time, he mentally commanded The Primordial Source to Level him up all the way towards the peak of mortality, and into the level of Apprentice-hood.

[ TING!! ]

[ You have leveled up ]

[ TING!! ]

[ You have leveled up ]

[ TING!! ]

[ You have leveled up ]

[ TING!! ]

[ You have leveled up ]

[ TING!! ]

[ You have leveled up ]

[ Congratulations for becoming the ninth ever Combatant to reach the peak of mortality. You have been awarded with 100 units of Life Essence, 1 free Stat Point and 1 free Ability Point ]

[ Note: The Stat point can be distributed evenly among your base stats. Ability points can be used to Level up Abilities, and possibly, evolve them to the next level ]

[ From here on forth, every level up increases all attributes by 0,1 Stat Points. With a class, the distribution might differ ]

[ Due to becoming a First League Combatant, an extraordinary being, you can now absorb Mana to be capable of unleashing skills and inhuman feats ]

[ Due to becoming a First League Combatant, you have awakened your three extraordinary stats; Intelligence, Wisdom and Affinity ]

[ Due to becoming a First League Combatant, you can officially equip a Class/Sub-class (Note: Wait until you have succeeded your trials) ]

[ Once you have succeeded in absorbing Mana, you can view the information of your weapons, resources and materials while still within the Trials ]

Damien skimmed through everyone. The reward was the same for all the top ten to first Level up. So he did not put much focus to it.

What he was interested in was the fact that either than his small family of three, plus Juliette, there were actually five more people who went through their Trials, and became First League Combatants.

Either through the Trial, or somehow outside, after they went through their Trial.

After all, Damien and Juliette have been her for over 45 minutes now. That was a lot of time if one carefully thought about it.

"..."