Chapter 33: Tribulation ended, Klaus's Transformation

Klaus stumbled backward, struggling to keep his balance. The fear and pain were almost too much to bear. His sword was barely staying in his grasp, and his breaths came in ragged gasps. The snake's reltless attacks were pushing him to his limits.

"This is not how I fall, I refuse to believe this is how I fall" Klaus shouted lifting his own spirit as he faced off against the lighting snake.

Just wh it seemed like Klaus might collapse, something inside him began to change. A surge of ergy started to build within him, and his vision cleared. The pain was still there, but it was now accompanied by a fierce determination.

Klaus's grip on his sword tighted. His bloodied hands gripped the hilt with rewed strgth. He felt a strange, powerful force flowing through him as if his very soul was igniting with a new power.

The snake lunged again, but this time Klaus was ready. He roared defiantly, his voice echoing through the area. With a powerful swing, he unleashed another ice arc, but this one was differt. It was sharper, faster, and coated with a faint gold ergy.

The ice arc met the lightning snake with a resounding crash. The creature's roar was cut off as the arc sliced through its body, freezing parts of it solid. The lightning snake convulsed and writhed, its attacks faltering.

Klaus was delighted so he pressed the advantage, unleashing ev more terrifying attacks. His strikes were precise, and the snake's movemts became sluggish. The ice arc continued to cut through the creature, reducing its lightning power and weaking it.

"My turn now, you monsters" Klaus's confidce surged as he began to regain his footing. His attacks grew more intse and erratic. The ice arc emanating from his sword became significantly stronger and more lethal.

"Is this what it means to understand the will of the sword?" Klaus muttered, clearly relishing the battle. If he could defeat the lightning snake, he would pass the tribulation. Determined, he spared no effort in his assault.

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Away from the tribulation zone, the lady watched in awe as Klaus unleashed devastating attacks on the monster.

"Heavs, to think he is on the track to awak sword aura this early. This kid is a monster," she exclaimed, astonished by Klaus's power.

"This kid must be protected before the great families get their hands on him. I need to report this to the higher-ups," she thought, scanning the battlefield. But th, she frowned.

"He clearly needed privacy, which is why he came here. Reporting this will only draw more atttion. I'll just keep an eye on him for now," she decided. Despite her resolution, she was deeply unsettled by what she had witnessed.

Back in the tribulation zone, Klaus had finally managed to destroy half the lightning snake. Now that he was in control, he made sure to inflict great damage knowing that the Snake was not alive. But to release stress, he made sure to torture it.

"You can die now," Klaus muttered. With a fierce roar, he delivered a decisive blow. His sword cleaved through the lightning snake, slicing it in two. The monster dispersed into runes and merged with Klaus.

As the clouds parted, revealing a clear sky, Klaus collapsed. Exhausted, he fell onto the g, his body battered with brok bones and wounds.

As fatigue set in, Klaus felt a surge of ergy erupts from within him. Everything wt black. As he lost consciousness, a icy mist burst from his body, cocooning him in a dome of ice.

Not far away, the lady in appeared, her gaze fixed curiously on the ice dome.

Stat Points: 700

"Looks like I've gained 0 points in every attribute, plus an additional 00 after breaking through to the Ascded stage. This is good, really good," Klaus murmured, smiling slightly as he observed his stats. His strgth had increased several times over.

"Tier 4 monsters won't pose much of a threat to me, ev if they come in hordes," Klaus said to himself. "Maybe I should find a team and join temporarily so I can start tering the Forbidd Zones."

The Forbidd Zones were areas off-limits to most people, especially those like Klaus who lacked significant backing. These places were home to stronger and more dangerous monsters. It was said that these monsters possessed a Core, which, once obtained, could be used to hance one's strgth.

Experts claimed that the spiritual qi in the Forbidd Zones was much dser than in normal forests. Because of this, the monsters there were able to form cores. This also meant that a Tier monster in a Forbidd Zone could be as powerful as a Tier 4 monster in an ordinary forest.

But these places are off-limits to ordinary people. To ter a Forbidd Zone, one must be part of a registered team, and that team must gain permission under strict regulations. If Klaus wanted to vture into these zones, he would need to join a team first.

"I guess I'll have to go see Uncle Ziggy and see if he can hook me up," Klaus decided. With that in mind, he checked his progress board.

[Next Level Up: ,000/,8,800 ]

[Remark: After each level up, ,000,000 will be added to the next EXP requiremt.]

"Fuck, This is cheating!" Klaus cursed in frustration. "If the heavs want me stronger, why are they making it so hard?"

But his complaints were heard by only two people—himself and the lady who had be secretly watching him.

"Adding a million points after each level-up is just cruel. But I guess it's better than the previous times wh it doubles after each level," he muttered to himself. Normally, after ascding, the EXP requiremt only increases by 0,000 to 500,000 with each level. For Klaus, though, it was a staggering million.

"Huh, strange. Why isn't there a new skill added to my list?" Klaus muttered with a frown. During his battle with the lightning snake, he had ssed a new skill awaking within him. But strangely, it wasn't showing up on his skills list.

"I can remember the feeling of the skill, but it's not here. Where did it come from?" Klaus wondered aloud, but with no answer in sight, he turned away, gripping his sword ev tighter. "Maybe it'll show up once I truly learn it," he decided.

Klaus took a deep breath and focused his mind. He closed his eyes, recalling the ssation he felt during the fight—the surge of power, the connection with his sword, the intse focus.

Suddly, Klaus's sword began to glow red, and the temperature a him started to rise rapidly. He could feel the intse heat surging from the blade. "This feeling... it's the Moon Slash, but differt," Klaus muttered.

As the sword continued to glow, Klaus's spiritual qi surged, amplifying the heat ev further. The power within the sword was growing by leaps and bounds, far beyond what he had ever expericed before.

"Huh, what is this gold ergy in the flame?" Klaus wondered as he noticed a distinct gold ergy swirling within the flames that veloped his sword. It seemed to be hancing the strgth of the attack, making it ev more pott. Excited by this newfound power, Klaus grinned. "Let's see what you're made of."

He turned his gaze toward a cluster of towering trees in the distance. They were thick and sturdy, their bark nearly impervious to normal attacks. But Klaus was confidt that this new power would cut through them like butter.

He took a deep breath, feeling the power build within him, th slashed his sword diagonally. With a loud boom, a powerful arc of pure red flames, coated in that strange gold ergy, shot out from the sword.

The arc of flames tore through the trees, slicing through them as if they were nothing more than paper.

"So, this is the true power of the Moon Slash," Klaus muttered and th burst into a resounding laughter.