- ‘Isn’t this happening on a too big scale?’
Val thought while looking at the big maze in front of him. But it seems acceptable when consider for whom it was held for.
Val sighed and Zelos waited for his reply.
- ‘Well, whatever. Let’s get on with it.’
He gave a nod to Zelos's projection and started stretching his hands. Val had already stopped his mana breathing before leaving the monastery and kept his temple rank suppressed to Arch-Priest.
He also choose to not use his mana because he don’t wanted Asvaldur to find out about his true strength by understanding the nature of his mana.
- “May Goddess watch over this trial. The first stage of trial begins. Release the beasts”
On Zelos order, beasts were released and their roars were heard. Picking the smell of meat, their hunger aroused and they ran inside the maze with ferocity.
In the fancy room, Zelos stood watching Val directly through the glass window while the other family members observed him from their seats through the magic screen. They were closely observing his every actions, trying to find out his intentions.
Val's past behaviour was unlike him. He suddenly gained power unlike any other, not to mention, in a very short time frame. The alarming part was that, they failed to find out the reason behind it.
They don’t want him to cause trouble with his newfound strength. If they find him threatening the peace of Kelnar, they’ll eliminate him surely and discreetly. But that was all on the surface, deep down they don’t wanted a seedless to destroy their belief system.
The spectators were also watching everything on the magic screen, nervously.
- “Why his grace walking so slowly? His grace needs to rush toward the center”
- “Yes, it’ll become problematic if those beast reach the center first”
- “Maybe his grace got afraid. After all, it’s the first time for his grace to encounter such feral beasts”
Val leisurely walked toward the maze while unsheathing his sword, and the Sky-Piercer shone as it reflected the light.
The sword didn’t have a cross-guard, the blue crystal blade and the hilt was joined with a thick circular ring, which had a marquis shaped mana crystal attached inside it, giving it a shape of an eye.
That crystal shows the amount of mana stored inside the blade which a user can use, only to activate sword’s enchantment. It was emanating a sparkling blue glow that meant it was completely filled.
- “Let’s not waste any time. Show me how sharp you are”
Val said to the Sky-Piercer after reaching close to the wall of maze. In truth, it was easy for him to reach the center without getting lost in the maze using his innate abilities, but he had different plans.
Val activated the enchantment of Sky-Piercer using full amount of stored mana, and the crystal blade started emanating a whitish-blue glow and a trail of blue aura.
- “Hoo~”
He took a deep breath, felt his raw strength-which was increased after climbing the temple rank-and with a slight delay, he made an absurdly fast but powerful vertical swing at the wall.
BOOM~!
With a big explosion, dust cloud rose up and shrouded the scene. The tremors traveled through the whole arena, subtly felt under everyone’s feet. And when the dust cleared up, everyone was left speechless.
Two layers of maze wall were cleaved through, and Val was seen crossing the second wall, seemingly unaffected by the destruction.
- “I-Isn’t his grace is a seedless like us? How did his grace gain so much strength?”
- “Oh goddess, his grace is blessed”
- “A-Amazing, to think that his grace will cut the walls to reach the center”
- “With this much strength, does his grace even need that potion?”
- “Just who is the beast here?”
The last commentator was get punched by others.
That one swing depleted all mana of the blade, so Val took advantage of the dust cloud and absorbed the mana from the atmosphere to replenish the crystal blade.
The increase in mana calibration allowed him to use nature’s mana to some extent. So, Val used it to replenish the sword, which concealed his direct use of mana.
- ‘As long as I hide it well, it’ll appear like the sword is absorbing mana from the surrounding, rapidly’
Thought Val before reaching in front of the third wall. And then, he swung his sword again.
BOOM~!
After that, he kept repeating the same process 3 more times until reaching the center of maze. There, he found a circular platform where a vial and 3 pieces of meat floating in the air, under a blue light.
***
In the fancy room, Zelos’s eye twitched in disgust after seeing Val cutting through the maze.
- ‘T-That scoundrel is not even using his full strength, just what is he up to?’
Thought Zion while biting on his nails in frustration and resentment. Eira also had an unpleasant look on her face watching Val.
- “. . He didn’t even use his mana in the slightest, and just what’s wrong with that sword? How can it store this much amount of mana?”
Zelos commented with a look of disgust while keeping an eye on Val. Eira turned to Asvaldur which was sitting beside her for the answer, but she was taken back by a slight annoyed look on his face.
- “W-What’s the matter your holiness?”
Asked Eira nervously, but it garnered everyone’s attention.
- “His action and his existence is akin to a rebellious act, it seems like he is born to defy the very rule of nature”
Said Asvaldur after fixing his expressions.
***
Taking the vial, Val drank the potion, and he felt a sudden boost in his physical abilities, instantly. After that, the maze started submerging into the ground, and all 3 beasts became visible.
The beasts, who were just few meters away from Val, spotted him and started running toward him. Val waited for them to come in his range while activating the enchantment of Sky-piercer.
But as Zelos said, they were intelligent. Upon seeing the Sky-Piercer emanating a horrifying aura, they started encircling Val.
- “Should I come to you then?”
Val took a dashing stance, focused all his strength into his ankles, and shot toward the beast in front of him.
Swish!
His figure blurred while leaving a blue trail of his sword behind.
Fwip!
In just 2 seconds, a head of a beast rolled over the ground, and Val was seen standing in front of the headless beast.
- ‘The strength enhancing potion is working quite well, I can even slay them without activating the enchantment’
The enchantment was still active and it didn’t even take 1/4th of mana of the sword to cut the beast.
Suddenly, one of the beast who came close to Val, lunged at him. While the other beast took that opportunity to run toward the meat to feast upon it.
- “Fool”
Val said coldly. With a swift but fast movement, he crouched down below the lunging beast at a precise moment, and lent a powerful punch to its stomach, which sent the beast flying above his head.
Then without any delay, Val threw his sword at the beast who was running toward the meat. And just before touching the meat, Sky-Piercer passed through that beast’s neck in circular motion, making its head roll over the ground.
Seeing that he hit his mark, Val started walking leisurely toward the sword. But after few steps, the previous beast came crashing down on the ground behind him.
The impact caused dust clouds to rose which then spread and shrouded Val between his walk.
The whole arena was left speechless by Val as how easily he dealt with the beasts. But everyone remained dead silent, still keeping their attention to the end.
Val gradually walked out from the dust cloud with the same pace and indifference. He picked up his sword, and found its blade covered in green blood.
He was thinking of cleaning the blood, but he heard the crashed beast growling at him as the dust cloud cleared up.
Grrrr
The third beast survived but he was weakened greatly. His legs were shaking and he stumbled few times as he tried to stand up.
Sigh
Val turned around with a sigh, he didn’t want to drag the first stage of his trial.
So, he activated the mana of sword, and instantly from the bottom of blade, brutal ice spikes grew up and covered the entire blade.
Kirikkkkk~
Without any delay, he quickly swung his sword toward the half-dead beast. Several shards of ice flew from the blade and pierced the neck of beast, killing it in an instant.
- ‘Finally’
Thought Val while sheathing his sword. He just want to finish this trial quickly to leave Kelnar as soon as possible.
After few seconds, the whole arena broke into loud cheers. Val’s irregular actions betrayed everyone’s imagination, but after witnessing him overwhelming the first stage of trial, the whole arena was extremely hyped up for the next stages.
- “Although in a barbaric manner but Val has cleared the first stage, well done”
Said the projection of Zelos apathetically, and the arena cheered up again.
- ‘Barbaric? What a hypocrite. Trying to teach the creator of this world about the way of this world?’
Thought Val, finding it little amusing. Zelos proceeds the trial
- “Continuing the trial, lets proceed to The Second stage, which is called the Ordeal of Dread. This stage will test your willpower in face of despair.”
- ‘Despair? What you’re going to throw at me, now?’
Val thought and Zelos answered
- “You’ll face an enemy much powerful and experienced than you. Magic is forbidden in this duel, so both challenger will wear the mana restricted handcuffs. Your challenger will analyze your skills to the extremes, and then he’ll decide if you deserve to challenge the final stage or not”
Zelos paused for a moment to let Val understand the said conditions. While the arena became noisy as everyone realized the absurd difficulty of this stage.
- ‘I don’t care about the conditions as long as you are not scheming something against me’
Thought Val while looking up at the fancy room with cold eyes.
- “Do you understand?”
Zelos asked and Val gave a nod.
- “So be it. The second stage begins here, and your opponent will be Sir Edric, commander of the 5th Knight Order of Kelnar, The Darkfrost.”
Spectators gasped upon hearing that the opponent will be a commander of knight order.
When Zelos finished announcing, two deacons came to Val, and put the mana restricted handcuffs on him while excitedly praising him and trying to cheer him up for the second stage.
- ‘Even if you don’t put these cuffs on me, I don’t have any plan of using my mana. Though, I can still use mana from the surrounding’
Val thought while looking at the cuffs. Soon, he saw a man dressed in black shirt tucked in black pants entering the arena, carrying a katana, from the opposite side.
- “Edric Orsla, Commander of Darkfrost Knight Order, greets his grace the third”
Edric bowed and greeted elegantly. He stood 40m away from Val and yet, his voice was clear and strong. Edric was a handsome young man, who appeared to be in his late 20s, with a slim yet muscular body of a knight.
- ‘This aura... He’s a Bishop-Knight. More accurately, a knight, who holds a temple rank of Grand-Bishop. Well, this explains why he don’t have an armor on. But his eyes?’
A peculiar thing that Val noticed about him was his eyes. His eyes were like a blue jewel similar to a Siren, yet his hairs were black in color. Which only meant
- “As you’ve already notice, I’m a half-breed. My father was Horaen and mother was a Siren. That’s why, I feel very honored to be an overseer of this trial.”
Edric was talking very firmly, his voice itself exudes the authority of his rank. While Val only stood there, expressionless.
- “To honor this duel, I shall regard your grace as both an opponent and an equal”
Edric said like asking for understanding, so Val simply gave a nod. But suddenly, the atmosphere around Edric, shifted. His expressionless face broke into a big bright smile.
Feeling the abrupt change in Edric’s demeanor, Val got goosebumps all over his body. Either through his intuition or instincts or may be both, but Val understood that Edric was not a normal person.
- “Aah! I was so nervous”
Edric exclaimed.
- “His grace must be nervous as well. Please don’t worry, I’m certain his grace will do well. By the way, I must say, I came to like his grace’s sword, I guess it has an enchantment of sharpness. Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed the previous trial. When his grace cleaved through the walls to reach the center.. hahaha... It’s like his grace is denying the very order of things... hahaha... I LOVED IT”
Edric’s personality took a 180deg turn. His eyes were sparkling as he spoke excitedly and rapidly like a hyped up flower boy while laughing hysterically in between.
- “Not only that”
Edric continued, barely containing his excitement
- “His grace overwhelmed the entire trial with unwavering expressions and brutality... hahaha.. His grace had never slain a beast before, and yet, severed their heads with clean cuts ... hehehe.. His grace must be a genius. Like I sai-”
Sigh~!
- ‘He’s a battle maniac. What a great pick, brother’
Val sighed after figuring out Edric’s personality from his ramblings.
- “Oh no! His grace may have found me boring”
Edric remarked upon hearing Val’s sigh
- “But don’t worry, your grace, I shall make this duel an exhilarating experience for all”
Said Edric excitedly, and Val closely avoided sighing for second time with his sheer willpower.
- “Shall we begin then?”
Edric unsheathed his gleaming white katana, causing the arena to erupt in cheers once more.
- ‘I need to focus. He’s not ordinary’
Val also unsheathed his sword, and put his mind to a high alert. But his instincts already started screaming when Edric raised his katana to take a stance.
- “Here I come”
Edric announced with a creepy smile
Yet, before the echoes of his warning even subsided, Edric already appeared right before Val with his katana viciously surging forward, straight at Val’s face in a tremendous speed. He closed the distance between them in an instant, almost as if he was teleported.
Caught off guard by the overwhelming speed and unavoidable attack, Val’s mind went blank for a moment.
However, in the very nick of time, he instinctively reacted with lightning reflexes, and narrowly dodged Edric's deadly strike by tilting his head to the side.
Swish~
- “You actually dodged that?... hahaha... Well, I dodged it too”
Edric chuckled, his gaze shifting towards his own abdomen. Val blankly followed his gaze, and his eyes widened in realization.
- ‘Did I subconsciously tried to stab him while dodging his katana?’
Val belatedly realize that his hand had subconsciously moved while dodging. His sword was stretched, attempted to stab Edric’s stomach. However, Edric effortlessly evaded the attack by turning his body.
Regaining his senses, Val quickly jumped backward to create some distance between himself and Edric. While Edric just relaxed and smiled, finding Val’s retreat amusing.
- ‘W-What’s with that speed? Or did he just teleport? N-No, the important thing is that maniac really tried to kill me’
For the first time, Val’s expressionless face broke. A sense of uneasiness starts growing in his chest, and his heart started to race.
Thump~! Thump~!
The sound of his own heartbeat echoed loudly in his ears, drowning out all other sounds. Something is happening to him.
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