"Hateful moooortallll..." roared the Undead King as its core behind the strong ribcage was destroyed with an ice arrow.
Followed by the disappearance of the undead, Mark dropped to his knees as his vision blurred. He took heavy breaths with sweat covering his entire body.
"Ha..." "Ha..." "Ha..."
"It's just a fuc*ing 9-circle one and yet, so exhausting... cough cough"
From the start of the trial, Mark has been fighting against the swarm of the undead for almost 6 hours straight before he finally faces off with the undead king who is virtually immortal without the destruction of its core.
While the undead were weak individually, there were mages hidden in those thousands of undead that could buff them up and even revive them constantly. On the other hand, there is a law placed on this place where his ether energy recovery rate is null. Even his inventory space was locked by the law, prohibiting him from taking out any robots or weapons to use against the undead.
For a noncombatant like Mark, it proved to be one of the worst nightmares he ever faced in his life. Even the Saint Realm expert probably gave him less headache than this mere test given by Ouroboros.
However, the test isn't over yet.
As the undead king fell, Mark received a voice from the sky, congratulating him on winning the trial but due to his underperformance, it spoke there will be another trial to prove his worthiness. He got six hours of break for the next trial and the laws removed so that he may recover his ether energy and stamina.
Mark couldn't help but curse a thousand times as he lay on the ground to rest.
"Damn, I should have just gone to the Netherworld instead and tried my luck with Demon King Bael instead. He would have given me the appropriate solution to save my sis.
No, this is the fault of Xin Rui.
Just you wait, bi*ch. Once I come out of this, I will skin you alive... Calm down, Mark. Save your energy. Who knows what kind of trial the next one will be..."
As he took a nap and slowly drifted into dreamland, a figure materialized in the sky, a cute-looking rabbit that wore clothes and a top hat. The rabbit had a frown on its face as it mumbled, "I don't see anything special in this mortal. Why is her grace interested in him?" After a brief pause, it stretched his hands toward the ground, "regardless, it's an order from her grace.
Let's do the job and return."
Its palms glowed, shooting a beam of silvery-white light and striking Mark while he was still asleep. He didn't feel anything amiss as it didn't hurt him at all.
Roughly around an hour later, Mark slowly opened his eyes and stretched his body, "Man... that was a good sleep. I wonder how long it passed."
"Ark, how much time do I have?" He asked in his head.
"Ark, open skills list"
Mark scrolled down a bit and clicked on the skill that wouldn't cost him a bit or have any cooldown time period.
*Ding! Eyes of Truth skill has been activated, Master.
During the past few months, Mark did work out on Eyes of God, with the help of artificial intelligence.
Through this, he created a couple of skills, more like variations of the skill.
One of them is the Eyes of Truth which focuses more on illusions.
As Mark's eyes glowed, the scenery before him changed, instantly revealing the truth.
The beautiful snowcapped mountains changed to erupting volcanoes, the grassland changed to dark land with cracks everywhere, and the river streams changed to Lava Rivers. As for the animals and birds, they changed to fire-type demonic beasts. Roars of the beasts filled the entire area as if they were either in deep agony or in rage, forcing Mark to shut his ears.
Fortunately, it only lasted a moment before everything came to a standstill and the voice returned once again. "That fast? Now, this is something I haven't expected mortal. It looks like while you lacked strength, your perception in distinguishing reality and illusion is indeed unprecedented. No wonder, you are favored by Milady.
But, it is still a surprise that you could break the illusion in a matter of seconds. To see through this illusion, one should be above the..."
Mark raised his head to look at the clear sky and interrupted the speech given by the voice, "I'm sorry but can we proceed with the next trial, mister? You can spare me all of those praises once I am done with it." His voice had a hint of impatience and his face looked all serious.
"Mister?" The mysterious being appeared as if he was surprised for a second before letting out a chuckle of amusement, "It's been the first time one addressed me that way. Fine, everything is the will of the Three Pure ones."
Followed by the muting of his voice, the surroundings once again changed. The landscape returned to the barren land. But, the opponent is slightly different.
A shadowy figure appeared in front of Mark's eyes.
"Defeat yourself and it will be the end of tests," The voice told him as Mark's opponent slowly took the appearance of Mark.
Everything is an exact copy of Mark from head to toe, except for its eyes, which are scarlet in color with no visible pupils.
"Good luck..."
As soon as the voice from the sky ended, heavy gravitational suppression appeared in the area, all of a sudden.
Mark was instantly forced to his knees; his eyes widened his realization, "Gravity Dome."