William knew just absorbing one core was enough to take him through the silver grade, getting him towards the gold grade at last. But it wouldn't come alone, as he'd experience another round of trials, one that he was waiting for.
Yet unlike his expectations, he was going to suffer a different set of trials than the one he experienced before. And that was the first great variable that would change the entire game.
"Agh! That hurts like hell!"
Once the core turned into dust, the spirit power stored inside gushed into his body. He knew he'd suffer from this, but it felt weirdly more hellish than before.
But like before, such a violent torture didn't last for more than couple minutes. Then he felt like he was taken out from fire and got thrown into a deep pool of cold water.
He felt his body getting soothed and cleaned, getting cooled down and refreshed. William took in a deep breath, knowing that he finally stepped into the gold grade realm.
This realm was special for the activation of spirit sense. It was such a great tool to scan everything around, scout for enemies and monsters, see far beyond one's eyes could reach.
But before he'd absorb the entire spirit power from this core, he saw the world around rumbled. Long and scary looking cracks appeared, before he finally saw the entire world shatter in front of his eyes.
He knew he overcame the hallucination effect of that grand formation. But he was going to welcome the trial of the black fox.
Yet unlike what he expected, he found himself returning back to the real world, not that foggy weird world of the black fox.
"What's going on? Hey black fox, aren't you supposed to give me a trial or something? Aren't we supposed to meet?"
William returned to the real world, finding himself standing at the same spot he was at before entering into the hallucination. When he looked around, he found everyone standing still, with weird black clouds surrounding their heads, masking their faces.
"It's indeed the hallucination formation…" He confirmed his earlier doubts. But before he'd move a muscle, a black fog appeared with the grand body of the black fox showing up in the next minute.
"Yo, long time no see," the black fox said in greetings, seemingly a bit amused by something.
"Why didn't you take me into your trial world? Will I skip the trial this time or what?" William got more unsettled by seeing the black fox appearing in front of him in the real world.
The two were supposed to meet, but not before taking the trial and winning it, not inside the real world but in the black fox trial world.
Everything pointed out that something was off. But William kept little hope that he didn't need to go through any trials this time.
"What? Do you expect to get the grand power of me without getting tested? No little one, I'm here to tell you about your upcoming trial."
"Won't it be like before?!!!" William got the hidden meaning behind the words of the black fox. And couldn't help but ask in worry and doubts.
"I won't test you the same all the time," the black fox rolled his eyes. And William couldn't help but notice something different.
"Why do you look happy?" This was obvious the more the black fox spoke. He greeted him in a friendly way, and even laughed once in the middle of his talk.
This wasn't like the last time he met with the black fox. The latter kept complaining about how useless humans were, how weak he was, and kept talking to him in such an arrogant tone that left William speechless for many times.
William didn't think just by rising up one grade was enough to let the black fox change its attitude. And that meant there was something else that made this fox a bit excited.
"Isn't it obvious? Two of you who have my spirit are fighting right now… Hahahahaha! I'm too excited to see who is going to win."
"It's me of course," William said as if this was something granted and set in stone.
"Nothing is guaranteed," the black fox seemed to know something that William didn't, "anyway, let's speak about your trial. In this entire war, you need to keep the master forces you brought with you intact."
"This…" William paused, not believing what the black fox just said, "this is a war! You don't expect me to babysit and take care of everyone! How can a war be one without fierce casualties?"
"Oh, you got it wrong," the black fox was indeed in a good mood to even laugh again, "I said intact, not without losses, got it?"
"..." William didn't understand what the black fox wanted. And so he kept looking at the fox, while the fox laughed for the third time.
"You need to win this war, while having at least one of the four forces alive by the end. I'll see how many are out there in each force, and just having ten percent in the end is enough."
"Ten percent? Do you expect me to lose ninety percent of them? No way!" William didn't believe what the black fox said, and the latter didn't explain anything.
"You'll understand later on. Anyway, it's time for you to start working hard. Your foe already finished his preparations a long time ago. And now you have to prove to me that you are worthy of my support. See you at the finish line, human boy."
Before William would get what was really going on, the black fox vanished the same way it appeared first. William stood in the middle of the grand army of masters, feeling like he was totally alone.
"This… It's really going to be hard," William took in a deep breath. He got ideas before about how hard this adventure was going to be. Yet he never expected it to turn into such a weird situation.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l