[The eighth trial is over. All surviving players are qualified to enter the 9th floor.]
[Please select your reward.]
[You have taken 30 lives during the trial.]
[You are ranked 42/562: Reward x2.]
[Reward Option 1: 2 Challenge Tokens]
[Reward Option 2: 2 Ignore Challenge Tokens]
[Reward Option 3: 2 Extra Lives (valid in PvP trials)]
Sora frowned at the rewards, sensing the increasing complexity of the choices.
'What kind of rewards are these? Challenge Tokens and Ignore Challenge Tokens… These two must be connected sohow. Maybe it's a way for players to take each other's rewards, giving an edge to the powerful and high-level players. The Ignore Challenge Token might help players who are weaker in duels.'
He understood that he couldn't beat every player who might challenge him. However, he didn't yet know if such challenges were mandatory or what consequences they had, leaving him hesitant to engage in challenges for now.
When he examined the last option, his frown deepened. This reward seed designed for the more dangerous PvP trials ahead, giving extra chances to players confident they wouldn't need the other rewards.
Weighing his options carefully, Sora made his choice.
[You have obtained 2 Ignore Challenge Tokens.]
[Ignore Challenge Token]
[Description: After succeeding in a trial, you may ignore one challenge from another player seeking your place in the Ascension Tower.]
Sora's eyes widened as he realized the implications of the token. 'Don't tell players who fail a trial can challenge those who succeed. That's so unfair!'
He glanced at Emily and Kara, who were slowly fading from view, and gave them a quick wave as they disappeared.
[Liang He has sent a friend request]
[Salim Msakni has sent a friend request]
[Rahim Khlif has sent a friend request]
Without hesitation, Sora accepted all the friend requests and summoned his familiars. Checking Hiyoko's progress, he smiled, pleased with her improvents. Netsu, however, seed downcast after several battles where his contribution had felt insignificant.
Using the ti he had before entering the next floor, Sora focused on [Condensing] and [Crystallizing] his mana, pushing his limits and refining his power until the last possible mont.
The 9th trial began with Sora selecting extre difficulty, aware that his opponents would use elental attacks. Protected by the tower's barrier, his enemies were untouchable, and his task was purely to survive their assault.
Relying on his exceptional elental resistance, Sora easily cleared the first ten rounds. By the 11th round, he summoned his [Elental Nexus], eager to test its potential.
The [Elental Nexus] proved to be an ideal tool for countering his enemies' elental attacks, allowing him to manipulate and turn them to his advantage once released. However, his confidence was shaken in the 16th round when he encountered an enemy specializing in the [Spatial Elent].
Unlike the basic elents, the [Spatial Elent] overwheld his resistance and defenses, leaving Sora struggling for survival. His lack of understanding and weak resistance to this elent made him suffer severe injuries. Sure that each elental body would prove ineffective against this unique and unpredictable power, he relied on his [Adaptative Regeneration] to recover from the damage.
Desperation pushed him to think creatively. Guided by [Mana Customization], he shaped the [Elental Nexus] around his hand like a glove and achieved so success in defending himself. Using more energy, he succeeded in forming a small shield from the [Elental Nexus], which he used to block the unending [Spatial Elent] attacks.
When the 17th wave arrived, featuring a group of three enemies controlling familiar elents, Sora sighed in relief. Though exhausted, he pushed through to the final wave, surviving against the combined might of the five basic elents in the 20th round before exiting the trial.
[You have survived 20 rounds in the 9th floor trial, Solo mode, Extre difficulty.]
[Total points accumulated in the trial: 1.330,790 points.]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Remaining candidates in the 9th floor trial: 2]
After a while, he checked the ranking.
[Floor 1: Rank 1/4320]
[Floor 2: Rank 122/3456]
[Floor 3: Rank 6/2592]
[Floor 4: Rank 1/400 (Group Rank)]
[Floor 5: Rank 3/1500]
[Floor 6: Rank 52/1125]
[Floor 7: Rank 1/843]
[Floor 8: Rank 42/562]
[Floor 9: Rank 3/422]
Surprised to see himself ranked third, Sora frowned. 'Maybe an elental race player or an Elental Specialist took the top two spots… Damn it, I thought this trial would let claim another first place.'
He dismissed the disappointnt, focusing instead on the five levels he had gained. The surge in power was undeniable, and he used the remaining ti in the waiting room to refine his strength further, accumulating different forms of mana and honing his abilities to the limit.
Sora stepped onto the 10th floor, only to be greeted by an unexpected announcent.
[Welco to the Challenge room.]
[Players who have been eliminated can challenge soone who has passed the trial on the previous floor.
Use Ignore Challenge Token to ignore such a challenge, and proceed to the next floor]
Looking around, Sora saw hundreds of players gathered, but silent. A strange phenonon prevented anyone from speaking, casting a strange silence over the crowd.
Across the room, Sora noticed over a hundred players staring intently at the survivors, himself included. 'They must be the ones eliminated,' he thought, scanning the crowd for familiar faces.
Sora quickly spotted several he recognized: Kim Dong, Brodus, Sollmunn, the Dark Elf specialized in Telekinesis, and others he had encountered in earlier trials.
Turning his attention to his side, he was relieved to see many humans among the qualified players. The Elental Race had also perford exceptionally well, gathering in significant numbers. However, he noticed only one qualified Orc, so Dwarves and a pair of Werewolves among the survivors, which made him glance back at the challengers.
The overwhelming majority of Dwarves, Orcs, and Werewolves among the eliminated was striking. Many of them had been stronger than him back when he was level 133.
'This tower isn't ruthless after all,' he mused. 'Talented players can be eliminated because of a single weakness… But the tower still leaves a backdoor for their return.'
'Lower level players like will eventually be dood in direct confrontations though. This feels unfair.' He thought. Looking at the crowd of potential challengers, Sora shook his head. 'It's shaful but I'm not confident in winning if I were to accept a challenge. There's no need to stay here!'
Without hesitation, he tried to activate the [Ignore Challenge Token] and prepared to move on.
...
...
After several failed attempts to leave the [Challenge Room], Sora sulked in frustration.
Bored, he scanned the room and spotted Kara and Emily on the winners' side, waving enthusiastically at him. He waved back, their presence a welco relief.
'We're almost halfway to the top, Sora,' Kara's voice echoed in his mind through their [Soul Link].
Following a brief exchange with Kara, Sora received a challenge notification from a level 169 Werewolf. Activating his token, he chose to ignore it, and remained in the Challenge Room, watching as the battles unfolded.
The Tower seed determined to make these fights a public spectacle. Because Sora didn't particularly enjoy remaining idle, he took the opportunity to analyze the combat styles and weaknesses of the fighters.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he was permitted to leave the [Challenge Room] and move on to the next trial.
[Welco to the 10th floor of the Tower.]
[Trial: Alternate Dinsion – Talents need ti to grow.]
[In this alternate dinsion, you will be given 5 years to grow.]
[Players will be provided with an environnt suited to their needs, with the option to adjust the settings every month. This trial will be your reward.]
[Your level and familiar levels will be frozen for the duration of the trial! Good luck.]
As Sora finished reading the notifications, he was stunned. 'This is… heaven! This Tower is fair!'
For a while, he had been deeply frustrated. Despite his overwhelming talent, his low level and lack of proficiency in certain areas had often left him struggling. On the 8th floor, he had been outmatched and even bullied by other players, forced to rely on Kara's help and the support of allies just to make it through.
His competitive spirit had been pushed to its limits ever since entering the tower. Seeing dozens of players ahead of him in so trials had only fueled his dissatisfaction.
'I'm not the fastest, I'm far from having the best ntal defense and there are too many things I'm not proficient at.' He thought.
He was no longer content with simply being good at things he tried. 'It's not enough.'
Now, with five years ahead of him, he finally had the chance to bridge that gap. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Sora began organizing his thoughts, reviewing his strengths and weaknesses to make the most of this extraordinary opportunity.
[Prestige] was his innate skill, though he had no idea if he could further develop it.
He had absorbed all the [Soul Power] contained in his [Soul Pearls], reaching a [Soul Level] of 1000, and had reserved 200 Soul Pearls in case he needed to craft specific items beyond his bow and sledgehamr.
[Mana Evolution] had refined his mana to such an extent that his regular mana now matched the strength of his [Condensed] mana from around level 120. He was beginning to see the potential here, realizing that with more focus on evolving his mana and perfecting his [Crystallized] and [Condensed] forms, he could push himself to new heights.
He needed only a few minutes of focused thought to create a new skill tailored to his needs. From conversations with Kara, he'd noticed that this wasn't common—it seed to be tied to his high talent level and peerless mana control and understanding.
It was also the key to working on the elents. He had access to the Dark and Light elents for a while, but he hadn't bothered learning them—barely having basic mastery over them. With [Elental Nexus] and his new [Spatial Elent], he already had enough on his plate.
[Eternal Body Craft] was his other Supre Skill, and the key to his overwhelming power. Combining it with [Mana Evolution] had been the key to reaching his current maximum potential.
When considering his weaknesses, Sora acknowledged that he had many.
His ntal power was an area where he was vulnerable, and he knew it. He wanted to develop a Supre Skill focused on ntal power, sothing that could be used for attack and defense. Without it, it would be impossible to overwhelm all opponents.
The amount of low-level skills he had was also holding him back, and he wanted a way to improve his fighting style and develop variations to defeat all kinds of opponents.
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