The white screen popped up in front of Darian again.
[Time Achieved: 140 minutes]
[Grade: B]
He scoffed — the standards for this trial were seriously high. If he'd figured out that technique before stepping in, maybe he would've nailed the top score again.
[Reward Acquired: High-grade Lightning and Fire Crystal]
[Next Floor Unlocked]
Suddenly, another stone door opened. Darian took a deep breath — this was the third floor, the same one Rhea had failed in the past. Now that he was here, he had no choice but to go all the way.
As he stepped through the gate, he found another massive arena — even bigger than the last. The murals of Beasts on the wall lit up... this time, 25 of them appeared!
These Beasts were no more than three meters tall. Smaller in size — otherwise, ten of them would've been enough to fill up the whole space, leaving no room to fight. Still, their power was clearly a step above the last batch.
Roars echoed everywhere. There were tigers, leopards, wolves, and lions… or, at least, they looked like those. In reality, they were more like terrifying monsters than actual animals. All of them came charging with cold, murderous eyes. No one would believe these were just illusions created by an Array.
How the hell was a regular human supposed to pass this test? Darian thought. But the answer came right away: this Array wasn't made for humans. It was built for the Chromaraic race.
Since humans had originally come from the Chromaraics, they could try the trial. But once a human became a High Human, that gap with the parent race either widened or vanished — which meant they lost access to this place.
*ROAR!*
*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Darian blinked out over and over, dodging nonstop — but there were too many enemies, and they were all way too fast, chasing him like predators.
He felt a cold sweat trickle down his back. Tempest Blink alone wouldn't cut it.
'I need offensive power, but fire and lightning is a totally out-of-control combo… I need something swift and clean to kill…'
After nearly getting hit, a thought hit him: 'Maybe… wind and fire.'
He made his decision fast, manipulating those elements around him.
Thanks to the book, Darian knew the pros and cons of each element — even the possible combos. The author had gone into great detail about stuff like this.
He called on the wind runes, imagining a blade.
Then, the fire runes joined in, forming a floating blade in front of him. It glowed a deep red, with strong gusts of wind swirling around it.
*ROAR!*
"Fuck!"
*BOOM!*
A deafening blast shook the space.
Darian took a direct hit and was slammed against the wall. He felt his insides shift and heard some ribs snap. Blood shot up his throat and his vision blurred.
But…
His body suddenly heated up as the seven stars inside him grew stronger. At the exact moment of impact, the Beast attacking him had been sliced down by the elemental blade.
'This is kinda rough... I gotta lean more into the wind than the fire — fire's too damn aggressive.' Darian got up fast, spitting a mouthful of blood.
The Beasts locked eyes on him right away.
*Whoosh!*
But his control over Tempest Blink had improved so much that he managed to dodge and fall back. Even surrounded by that many enemies, he found a gap.
"Now!"
He shouted. The wind and fire merged again.
*Slash!*
This time, the strike was clean — slicing one of the giant Beasts in half. Hitting something that big was easy, even for an amateur like him.
'Now we're talkin'. I'm calling this Whirlwind Flare!'
Darian cheered internally. But right then, the remaining 23 Beasts closed in and came at him with fury.
Now he had precise and subtle offensive power. Before that, the only way he could fight them was by blowing everything up with lightning and fire. And besides how dangerous that would be, the ring's limited power would burn out fast — he'd need to use a ton of energy just to blow them all up at once.
Darian was beyond excited. He dodged when there was an opening; when there wasn't, he struck a Beast to make one.
*Slash!*
Ten had already been killed after just half an hour!
Those two techniques were simple and efficient. Unfortunately... he could only use them because he was inside this epic Array, with all those high-level elements working together.
He was like a bolt of lightning piercing through the Beasts. Every few minutes, he found an opening. Wherever he aimed the Whirlwind Flare, a Beast would die.
After killing that tenth Beast, Darian felt like his whole body was on fire.
"Level three!"
When he advanced in the Seven Elemental Stars Physique, his control over both techniques naturally got better. A fierce energy burst out from him. Even the Beasts nearby had to back off, intimidated.
"No need to hold back. The feeling of breaking through is seriously amazing!"
He roared and charged. Even though he was still more of an Array master, now with way more power, he was like a wolf among lambs.
Another half hour passed, and the last Beast was dead.
His body was steaming like a volcano… and that wasn't a metaphor — his body was so hot the pain was unbearable.
But it didn't last. He smiled. With all 25 Beasts dead, he reached the fourth level.
'I really surpassed Rhea…'
Darian was breathing a little heavily. Even though he'd won and gained a lot, using those two techniques had burned through most of the ring's energy. There was barely anything left…
His eyes narrowed. He had more ring energy left than he should. Not a lot, but definitely more than half of what he expected.
[Time Achieved: 65 minutes]
[Grade: SS+]
[Max reward acquired: Celestial Solar Bow]
[Next floor unlocked]
'Max reward again… guess my curse, combined with what I got from that book, really is kind of a mildly broken cheat…'
The wall slowly opened, but Darian didn't step in right away. Looking from outside, he saw it was another massive arena. The difference this time was that there were even more sculptures of Magical Beasts inside.
If that was all, he would've been relieved. But suddenly, the door started closing.
Darian jumped in at the last second. This Array wasn't going to let him rest. Even though he had a full minute to move on, just standing and staring from outside could've actually gotten him disqualified.
He had just made it inside when the murals lit up.
A roar echoed in his ears as he found himself surrounded by over a hundred Beasts. There were one hundred and twenty-five in total… five times more than before.
This was the fourth floor out of five. How many people from the empire had made it here? Probably fewer than he thought.
Darian looked ahead, a little nervous. He was sure of one thing: he had enough power to reach the end of this Array. What he lacked was the technique and ability to actually use that power.
He was like a little kid holding a machine gun. His curse and everything else he'd received — every time he uncovered more, it always turned out to be absolute.
"..."
With a quiet breath, his mind entered a state of total focus.
Being weak wasn't a sin — the real problem was staying that way forever. And now, he was breaking through that, step by step.