‘Greater chance of success…’ Ambrose took a deep breath. ‘I need health. Lots!’
Seeing that he had sixty stat points to use, with a determined face, he put them all to Vitality!
[VIT: 40 -> 100]
His vitality stat reached 100!
He then waited while the crowd grew anxious, wondering how this outsider would do in this test.
As the tension in the air grew, Ambrose opened his eyes and saw a familiar glitched message in front of him.
[Vit%4&&//&¤ Ad¤%&” Re”¤&”&]
‘It came…’ His heart began pounding about the possibility.
Has his disease, Humanoid Imperfecta, been cured?
He wanted desperately to find out, but he pushed those thoughts away and put his focus on the task ahead.
As the incense candle burned, Ambrose slammed his eyes open, and the tense atmosphere erupted!
The Wisdom King and all the Honorables opened their eyes wide, not wanting to miss a single moment.
They realized that Ambrose was going to begin the test!
“Self-Possess!” Ambrose screamed and stepped one meter forward.
A single dart appeared from the ground and flew straight towards Ambrose’s head.
However, then he shouted again.
“Ability: Phasing!”
The dart flew straight through his head and towards one of the villagefolk’s houses.
Crack—the dart flew through a window, landing in someone’s living room.
The crowd exclaimed as they expected the dart to kill this young man, but somehow, it went straight through!
The Wisdom King’s eyes squinted. ‘So, this is your ability? Impressive, but it won’t save you.’
After the time started ticking, Ambrose shot forward and crossed the three-meter mark with a simple leap.
Thousands of small holes appeared in the ground, shooting thousands of darts.
The darts flew straight through his body and into the sky.
‘It is working!’ Ambrose laughed inwardly and entered the four-meter mark.
He had already passed his previous best!
After stepping into the five-meter mark, all sorts of axes, spears, and swords impaled the ground around him, but they all went straight through his body.
The crowd was amazed.
Somehow, this young man seemed to be invincible!
Six meters.
Seven meters.
Eight meters.
Nine meters.
He effortlessly crossed almost one-third of the way without even sweating!
However, Honorables and the Wisdom King still wore calm faces, as the test wasn’t just dodging projectiles.
It was much worse.
Ambrose charged forward, his foot slowly landing on the next tile, finally reaching the ten-meter mark.
‘This is so goddamn eas—’
His thoughts stopped as he came to a freezing halt.
“U…. ugh!” Ambrose coughed and looked down at the ground.
The next five tiles were frozen, and so were his legs!
His legs were entirely frozen; even his bones were encased in ice.
“What the…” Ambrose felt a bone-chilling coldness that numbed his entire body.
He didn’t feel pain, but he expected that if he could feel pain, he would be screaming in agony.
However, he was feeling coldness… Immense coldness that seemed to come straight from the depths of his soul.
The older members of the crowd inhaled cold air.
They had seen this trap end many tests before.
However, they often see them screaming in agony when encased in ice, but this young man seemed rather fine except he was completely stuck!
The Wisdom King crossed his arms. ‘How will he overcome this? It will take around twenty minutes to half an hour for this incense stick to burn completely. When it is finished burning, the test is over, and if he hasn’t crossed the finishing line by then, he fails.’
“Ugh, damn it!” Ambrose shouted and tried to move his legs further, but they weren’t listening to him.
If he didn’t do anything, he would spend the entire time struggling to get rid of the ice!
‘I can’t chop off the ice. It takes too much time!’ He thought and came to one conclusion.
In the crowd, several villagers whispered.
“What do you think he will do?”
“There is nothing he can do. His legs are entirely frozen.”
“The Honorables seated on the platform managed to overcome this trap by moving so quickly that the ice didn’t affect them.
“Unfortunately, this young man is too slow!”
“He will never be able to escape.”
“What a disappointment.”
“Unfortunately, the Wisdom King loses a little face for allowing this young man to take this test.”
“He is unqualified.”
“Aaaaargh!”
But then they all heard screams and turned in shock towards the platform.
They were wondering why the young man didn’t scream in pain before, but now they realized he was just holding it in.
They shook their heads and expected the test to end soon.
The young boy next to his mother looked at the scene with wide-eyed curiosity.
His innocent mind had a feeling that the scream wasn’t one of pain.
Everyone watched as Ambrose lifted his swords high in the air.
“Hah!” He then screamed and slashed his swords down.
Spurt—to everyone’s shock, he slashed through his thighs, separating his body from his two frozen legs!
Everyone’s eyes bulged in shock.
“What the hell is he doing?!” One of the Honorables screamed and stood up.
Fang’s and Zhen’s mouths opened in shock.
Only the Wisdom King watched with a calm smile.
Ambrose crashed to the frozen ground, now missing both his legs.
His naked upper body started to get frozen in the biting cold.
Realizing his peril, he knew he had to escape the cold area as quickly as possible.
He stabbed his Black Swords into the frozen ground, and using them, he pulled himself forward while leaving a blue trail behind from his two bleeding legs.
“H-he is insane!” One of the Honorables shouted.
Stab, stab—using the swords like a pair of ice axes used for climbing, he reached the fifteen-meter mark and escaped the cold trap!
However, after reaching the fifteen-meter mark, his head crashed into the ground with a thud.
It looked like he headbutted the ground, but instead, the gravity somehow increased tenfold!
The next trap was the gravity trap!
“Ngghh…” He groaned loudly and tried to reach towards his inventory to pick up Restoration Gel to recover his feet, but he couldn’t!
‘Cursed!’
He couldn’t lift his sword-wielding arms anymore; thus, he let them go and started using his nails to crawl himself forward.
Long scratches appeared on the ground as he dragged himself forth.
However, because of the increased gravity, he moved incredibly slowly!
“Come on…”
Seeing the young man’s impressive determination to become Honorable, many of the villagers started changing sides and began cheering for the youngling.
They never expected this young man to be willing to give up his own legs to become part of the Honorables!
An outsider no less!
It was a true display of loyalty and sacrifice.
On the nature-made viewing platform in the nearby mountain, Julian watched with slack-jawed eyes.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
‘He cut his legs without any hesitation…’ Julian looked down at his legs. ‘I do have Restoration Gel… If he managed to do it, I should be able to do it also.’
He stood up and drew his long sword.
As he lifted his sword and looked down at his legs, his arm started slightly shaking with uncertainty. 𝑶𝑣xt.𝑶𝑀
It was usual for any human being to be afraid of cutting their own limb, even if this was a video game with basically no pain.
‘Damn…’
Cold sweat dropped down Julian’s forehead, and in the end, he sheathed his sword.
“Unbelievable…” Julian looked at his trembling hands and clenched them into a fist. “I am lacking the courage. No wonder Zhen spoke so highly of him. He is indeed impressive!
“Very well, you shall become my rival, Ambrose.
“I’ll surpass you!”