An hour later, Ashton was prepared to face the next trial. With his new body, he had attained a boost of confidence. However, he did not get complacent as the trial was still one of the upper six trials in difficulty.
This ti, the trial ground was located near a mountain range. The soil underneath was pitch black, as was the sky above. The visibility was pretty bad as well, however, thanks to his eyes evolving, Ashton could see everything around as if it was a bright day.
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[Objective]: Complete the Trial of Ursa.
[Task]: Find and destroy the apple tree of misfortunes.
[Progress]: 0 out of 1 tree destroyed.
[Reward]: Random Skill x1, Random unallocated skill points.
[Mission Commissioned by]: Planet Euphoria [Only an Administrator can view this info: Euphoria is a Xyran AI]
[Priority Level]: 1 (The host cannot ignore the mission, the mission needs to be completed as soon as possible and within two attempts.)
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"Lumberjacking. Nice. Let see if I have an axe or sothing in my inventory."
[While you're at it, look for so brain cells as well. You'll need them.]
Ashton sighed. If Astaroth was calling him stupid, he must have missed sothing. Fortunately, it wasn't true this ti and the administrator was just pulling his leg. However, Ashton did end up finding sothing a bit... unsettling.
"Are those... skeletons?"
[Looks like it. What did the Xyran queen do to Ursa for her to beco so vengeful?]
"You tell . Your kind always seems to cross the boundary when it ca to committing heinous cris."
[... I would have mocked you, but I know you probably already have another verbal shot prepared, so I'll keep my mouth shut for now.]
"If your Zorbak or whoever that asshole was, could keep his schlong in his pants, I wouldn't have to shoot 'verbal shots' at you."
Either way, Ashton turned to look around to grasp the situation. The place was like an unkempt graveyard. Thousands of skeletons and other mortal remains were scattered as far as his eyes could see.
Oddly enough there were so clean piles of corpses as well. It almost felt as if soone was cleaning the place, or at least trying to.
It was especially surprising because according to the managent, no one had attempted the trial in well over a century. But judging from the fresh corpses, quite a few people must have entered the trial grounds.
That would have been the most obvious conclusion. But Ashton was well aware of how strict the managent was on Euphoria. The only way to enter these zones was through the portals managed by trial managent. Therefore, it was impossible that they were unaware that over a hundred people had entered the trial grounds in the last couple of weeks or so.
"Sothing feels odd about them though..."
Ashton wasn't being fooled. He knew what his eyes were seeing, but what his senses were telling him was completely different. Being a necromancer, he had a special connection with death and the dead. That very connection was sohow telling him things weren't as simple as he was seeing.
"Hm.. if they are dead, then it serves well." Ashton raised his hands, "And if they aren't dead, well... then we'll know sothing is amiss."
Ashton tried resurrecting them as skeleton soldiers to help him look for the apple tree. But none of the bones even flinched. He tried a couple more tis before coming to a conclusion. The bones weren't 'real'.
They could have been so sort of simulation. Probably made by the Xyrans to scare away any 'curious' idiots from wandering inside. But if that was the case, Astaroth would probably know about it, however, his silence was telling Ashton that wasn't the case.
"How could I forget about it!?" Ashton yelled and imdiately jumped backwards.
There could have been another reason why he wasn't able to control the skeletons. They were already under soone's control and this ti his guess was correct. A mont later, the neatly piled corpses exploded. Simultaneously, the corpses and skeletons around him rose up to fight the intruder.
Thousands of undead creatures had him surrounded in an instant. It was at that mont, that Ashton got to know why the trial was impossible to clear.
"It doesn't make any sense though!?" Ashton blurted out while calling forth Balmond, "Otiga said the trial had sothing to do with Anna, which ant it had sothing to do with succubi. This isn't related to succubus at all!"
[We can figure it out later. For now, take care of these undead.]
Ashton nodded and charged straight into the horde. No matter how many undead there were, he could take care of them. With a single slash of Balmond, over a dozen heads went flying. But a mont later, he realised fighting them like that was the worst decision he could have made.
As soon as the undead were killed, they exploded, just like the ones from earlier. Even though Ashton wasn't injured thanks to fire immunity, he lost his balance due to the shockwave. This was enough for the undead to bite into him.
It wouldn't have mattered if one or two or even a handful of undead had bitten him. But as soon as he fell, the undead overran him. Dozens upon dozens of those bastards bit him.
"Get off of !" Ashton roared at the top of his lungs.
A sudden stream of fire erupted out of his hands, at the sa ti, he used the wind manipulation ability to distance himself from the horde. There were nurous wounds on his body. All of which were surprisingly shallow and got healed instantly.
[You got lucky.]
'I know.' Ashton panted.
Had it not been for his [Draconic Physique], Ashton would have received a lot more wounds than he did now. However, the fact that the undead managed to hurt him even with such a body, ant he shouldn't be underestimating them.
These undeads were unlike the ones he had fought on earth. They were stronger, more intelligent and knew when to attack. Using the thod Ashton had used on earth wouldn't be sufficient to end them swiftly.
"Thanks to those annoying explosions, I can't fight them head-on. I'll have to make use of the distance between us and take care of them safely." Ashton mumbled, "Either that, or I could find the darn tree and get this over with."
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