Karl turned the group toward the rest of the Hill Giants, which were forming up for a charge on the humans now that Rae had blocked their boulder barrage. They weren’t going to sit and wait for the humans to compile a full attack force like the last time they were here. So, they charged, but so did Karl, which forced the end of the line to turn and face him instead of the pike line.
He could feel the power building in the air as he attacked, but Karl dismissed it as something that the Hill Giants were working on. If he could kill enough of them, the group spell would collapse, and that would be the end of it.
With [Haste] activated, Karl left the rest of the group behind, except for the Spider Golems, which accompanied him into the Hill Giant lines. The trio hacked limbs off the Ascended Giants and left them wounded as they headed for the Commanders.
It was the same tactic that the Spider Golems had used, but plus Karl, and the Hill Giants still had no good answer for it.
They threw up spikes of stone, but they moved too slowly, and Karl either stepped around them or cut them down as he passed by. They threw stones, but Ascended Rank attacks only bounced off his barriers if they even hit their target.
The rest of the group was shouting something, but Karl couldn’t make it out over the sound of combat. They were close, and his peripheral vision said they were holding their own with nobody injured. He would just slow down a bit and let them regroup.
Then Rae was beside Karl, adding a fourth member to their team, and making him jog to keep up with the tide of casualties caused by the trio of spiders.
[You couldn’t hold back any more, could you?] Karl laughed.
[They stopped throwing rocks.]
In the distance, the Hill Giants broke and ran as another group charged forward of the line. It looked like Karl’s aggressive tactics were rubbing off on some of the other Commanders, and the Hill Giants were not happy about it.
But even though the Hill Giants were retreating, the sense of growing power around Karl wasn’t subsiding.
“Karl, stay exactly where you are and don’t move.” One of the Magic Knights warned.
Karl stopped, wondering if he had triggered some sort of magical trap, maybe a landmine.
But when he did, he saw what the others had been trying to warn him about while he was fighting.
There was a swirling in the air, a distortion caused by some sort of magic, and it wasn’t anything that he recognized.
The effect was beginning to condense, making it impossible to see out of the distortion, but from Hawk’s information he knew that there was a small group of Commander Rank Giants rushing their way.
Even if he was trapped in this spot for a second, the Golems could handle that in under a minute.
Then, reality seemed to twist, and Karl felt like he was falling, being thrown through a void that none of his enhanced senses could penetrate, a space where even time didn’t seem to exist.
Then it all stopped, and he found himself looking at his own image standing in front of him, perfectly lifelike, but frozen in time.
[Welcome to the First Advancement Trial. Please select your desired reward.] Appeared in the air over the mannequin of himself.
It was creepy. The image even had the small tear in his white cloak and the fresh blood that he had gotten during the fight.
Six boxes appeared on the ground around his image. Three of them silver with diamonds, two larger golden boxes studded with rubies, and one tiny closed chest made of rich purple crystal. That one was wrapped in black chains that gave off a soft shadow, as if actively restraining the contents of the chest.
Karl circled the ring of chests to see his options.
The three silver chests all contained simply bound skill books sitting face down on stacks of coins.
The golden chests both had multiple ornate skill books with their spines up, so Karl could read them.
[Divine Nullification Barrier] [Titanic Wrath] [Tectonic Shift] [Rebirth]
Each of the spell books was an upgraded version of a spell that either one of his beasts or someone in the group specialized in.
Under the books were bundles wrapped in cloth, and hints of golden coins and gems.
There had to be a catch. Nobody would choose a lower reward without an excellent reason, so why give the choice?
Karl got the sense that he was being watched as he stepped up to the last box. It was pretty, but tiny. What could it contain that needed to be chained up like that?
He definitely shouldn’t want that reward. He didn’t even know what was in the box.
But if he didn’t know what was in the box, it could be anything, right?
The announcement overhead said that this was called the First Advancement Trial. So, the rewards should be related to improving the power of the System, and advancing his skills.
Which made it seem a bit odd that the rewards didn’t seem to be for him. They were mostly for his group members. Perhaps he was choosing for everyone on the team? Trials and Dungeons were supposed to be grand group adventures, where everyone got rewards, but they were done as a team.
Karl had never heard of them listing rewards in advance, but most of the real information was classified, and what was spread was rumours and bard stories.
If he was choosing for the whole group, then none of the chests was perfect as an option. Five of them didn’t contain enough for everyone to get an equal share, while the last one had unknown contents.
“Is there some sort of guide? Can I learn if I’m picking for everyone or just for myself?” Karl asked, speaking aloud in the strange staging area, but nothing answered. Well, there wasn’t anything else to go on in here, so Karl closed his eyes and focused on the mental flame in the void, as Brother Chen had taught him to meditate and clear his mind. Once he was certain he was thinking clearly, Karl opened his eyes again and examined the boxes once more before rubbing his dragon scale pendant for luck and touching the purple crystal chest.
[Choose Tier 3 Difficulty for Epic Rank Reward?] Y/N
The words in the air helped set Karl’s mind at ease. Perhaps the rewards weren’t a direct choice, but a representation of what you might get upon completion.
That meant that there were three difficulty levels to the test, and this should be the highest.
“Yes.”
[Beginning Stage 1: Epic Rank Individual Trial]
The scene changed again, and Karl was standing on what looked like the battlefield that he had just left, only both armies were gone, and it was just him plus his beasts.
Thor stomped around the battlefield, happy to be returned to Karl’s side after an extended stay in the void, while Rae quickly summoned her Golems and prepared for a fight.
Randomly showing up in new places had to mean a fight. It wasn’t like she needed to be rescued, so it must be a reward for being the killiest.
[I don’t think that is a word.] Karl informed her.
[It should be.]