Chapter 201: Second Stage
Just when the spell creation was about to fall through, he pulled out a level up card from his inventory.
[ Use Level Up Card: ]
[ YES ] × [ NO ]
"Yes..." Ezran quickly confirmed his choice.
He had been saving this up for the perfect moment and now was a perfect time than any since he didn’t want his team to fail.
[ Player Has Leveled Up ]
Ezran suddenly felt his mana channels expand...
His trembling arms stabilized as he drew hands signs across the air...
In the next moment, a fireball erupted from his palm, identical to the one displayed.
"Perfect."
The trial was complete.
...
...
Meanwhile, Aleman found a labyrinth assembled around him in a heartbeat.
The walls were black that it seemed as though they drank light.
Floors were inlaid with razor-thin silver wires, pressure plates like sleeping eyes, and, further down, the intermittent whisper of someone else’s breath.
Other lanes ran parallel... staggered sight-lines where assassins and rogues ghosted through.
Across one slit in the wall, Aleman glimpsed a familiar insignia: a violet stitch tucked at a cloak’s hem.
Obsidian Six... He was sure he had seen this somewhere before but he couldn’t pin point where exactly.
"Hmm," he breathed suspiciously.
[Trial: Silent as Death]
[Objectives: Reach the heart chamber; do not trigger more than 3 alarms]
[Alarms triggered: 0/3 | Timer: 09:27]
The moment the go ahead to start was given, he let Perfect Veil fall over him like ink.
His outline softened as his presence vanished. He counted with breath, mapped with fingers as he stepped forward.
On the third turn he flicked a pebble into an invisible thread; a razor wire sang and scissored air where his neck had been.
[Trap Disarmed +50]
A strange shadow suddenly bloomed from the wall, phasing into a man-shaped smear of night with eyes like coals.
He sidestepped and trails flowed from his body like liquid shadow.
His movements were almost like an illusion and what made matters worse was that it could see August.
It lunged at him and thrust a palm forward like a blade.
August slipped to the side, causing the thrust shadowy palm to stab straight through the wall behind.
When the shadowy man turned again, Victor sent a fist forward with Phantom Blitz activated.
The moment, his fist collided with the shadowy being chest, it phased through but as soon as he released a jolt of electricity, his body burst open.
August found a core within and stabbed his dagger straight through. The shadowy being vanished like breath on glass.
Up ahead, an Obsidian Six assassin paused at a junction, listening. Aleman waited, watching calmly.
The assassin moved to a plate, not noticing the outline of a springwire.
August didn’t stop him.
The plate sank and the ceiling vomited poisonous darts.
The Obsidian assassin flipped forward and twisted with impressive economy, evading most of the darts but one dart scored his calf.
He grunted under his breath as Aleman slipped past without a word.
At the heart chamber five lanes converged.
A circular room, a silver pedestal, and a warden... there was no shadow this time but a dark statue with a mask of mirrors.
Players flitted in and out of cover, testing its responses. It tracked motion. It stored reflections.
Aleman crouched behind a column and watched it for a full ten count. Mirrors. Reflections. Not eyes. Angles.
He palmed a coin and let it slide along the floor in an arc. The warden twisted toward the glint and spat a bar of light that cored the tile. [- someone else’s HP ] yelped two lanes over.
Aleman stood watching for a bit, the mirrors all over the statues body seemed ordinary.
However, Aleman realized that every angle it was positioned in, the statue seemed to be able to react to any movement from those angles.
Which was why even sneak attacks from other players didn’t work.
August proceeded to reach out with his telekinetic grip which unfurled like an invisible hand, palming the mask’s edge.
"Shatter," he whispered while sweeping his palm forward.
The mirrors all over its body blasted apart and the statue reeled.
Suddenly it couldn’t see motion any more and fired attacks blindly at echoes.
Aleman stepped in and put a dagger where the glowing seam pulsed.
[Path of Shadows – Cleared]
[Bonus: +10% Movement in darkness (temporary)]
...
...
In another location, Lilo entered a vast canyon filled with floating targets.
A system message appeared.
---
[ Objective: Hit all 20 moving targets within 90 seconds. ]
---
She smirked while drawing her bow.
The targets zipped and weaved, but her ranger’s instincts took over.
She fired one arrow, then another, then another.
Each hit its mark.
She moved gracefully, adjusting for wind resistance and speed.
At the last second, she fired her final arrow—hitting the last moving target dead center.
The trial was complete.
Her challenge happened to be very simple and easier than the others.
She was done even before a lot of them reached half way mark of their challenge.
...
...
On anothdr other hand, Reiner stood alone in an empty chamber.
Then, chains wrapped around his body.
A system message flickered.
---
[ Objective: Endure 30 minutes of mental and physical torment. ]
---
The pain came instantly.
Illusions of his worst failures flooded his mind.
His body was crushed under immense pressure.
Most players screamed, gave in, or collapsed.
Reiner?
He endured.
Sweat poured from his face, but he stood tall.
When the timer hit zero, the pain vanished.
He had passed.
---
Gregarious entered to a room full of tiles. Some were carved with numbers, some with animals, some with arrows pointing in contradictions. Ten feet ahead a statue of a woman held a golden cube on a tray and regarded him with expressionless stone kindness.
The walls bristled with slots that looked suspiciously like arrow mouths.
"Hello, puzzle," Greg said. "It’s me. Your enemy."
[Trial: Solve Before Doom]
[Objective: Reach the cube; traps escalate with mistakes]
[Timer: 07:10]
He made two wrong steps immediately and a swarm of darts stitched the air where he’d been. He dropped flat and laughed breathlessly. "Okay! Love the enthusiasm."
He watched. The numbers weren’t a sequence, they were weights. The animals weren’t totems, they were directions—tortoise meant slow, hawk meant high, fox meant diagonal. The arrows lied unless you read the floor’s faint grain; then they were honest.
Greg wanted to rush but he did not. He talked to himself, old habit, but his hands didn’t shake and his feet didn’t trip where they would have three months ago. He used his sword like a lever to depress a plate at a distance; a blade sang up in front of him and kissed air. He stepped around it, hummed something obscene, and winked at the statue.
Past the last tiles, a wall block slid without warning. He jammed his blade into the seam, wedged his shoulder, made a growl he’d deny later, and shoved. The block yielded an inch, then more. He squeezed through, scraped and panting. The statue watched, unimpressed.
"Lady," he voiced, "I am trying."
He reached, hand hovering, and read one last inscription on the tray’s rim: TAKE WITH EMPTY HAND. He looked down at the glove on his right hand, at the sweat, at the way his fingers wanted to clutch because he was scared he’d drop it. He peeled the glove off. He took the cube with an empty hand, palm bare to gold.
Nothing stabbed him.
"Ha!" he gasped, then straightened and bowed to the statue like a gentleman at court. "As promised: comedy. Also hardship."
[Path of Hardship – Cleared]
[Bonus: +8% Puzzle Insight (temporary)]
---
[ Round Three Complete – Only 250 Players Remain ]
---
As the entire group completed their challenges and met up once again in the giant arena, Boris smirked. "Damn, we make a good team."
Lilo nodded. "Yeah... But I have a feeling the next round won’t be so easy."
Aleman looked at the glowing scoreboard.
The tournament was far from over.
And things were only getting harder.
The Colosseum buzzed with anticipation as the crowd roared in excitement while the remaining 250 players stood ready for the next challenge.
The massive holographic screen above the battlefield flickered, displaying the new rules.
---
[ ROUND FOUR – THE FREE-FOR-ALL BATCH MATCHES ]
[ Objective: Eliminate as many opponents as possible. Only 125 players will advance. ]
[ Matches will be held in separate batches. Each match will contain 50 players. Only the top 25 from each batch will proceed. ]
Ezran exhaled. "This one’s going to be rough."
Boris cracked his knuckles. "Finally, a real fight. No more puzzles, just beating the hell out of people."
Lilo narrowed her eyes. "Be careful, though. We won’t all be together this time."
A loud gong rang out as a randomized system message appeared before every player.
---
[ Assigning Players to Batches... ]
---
Names began scrolling rapidly, separating competitors into five different batches of 50.
Aleman quickly scanned his batch.
His eyes hardened.
Among them, three names stood out—dangerous players who had appeared on world announcements before.
1. Kael Nightbane – A level 52 Berserker, known for his brutal fighting style and sheer resilience.
2. Saphira Windsong – A level 50 Spellblade, infamous for her deadly combination of magic and swordsmanship.
