In a lush forest a group of three people were wandering.
There were two girls and one boy.
One of the girls stood out the most. Her pink hair and red eyes were especially attractive.
She walked at the front of the group.
Behind her, another pink-haired mage, Seles.
And then there was Ron. ssy blue hair with a lazy expression.
"Hey Ella, do you think that boy would have been eliminated?" Seles asked curiously.
"No... I don't think so." Ellas answered, "The sovereign wouldn't have gone to pick any weakling… So he must be strong."
"Hah, no way," Ron scoffed. "That guy looked weak as hell."
Then Ron stopped, sensing sothing.
His eyes narrowed.
"Ella." His voice was low.
She understood imdiately.
As they took their weapons out. Seles moved back, whereas Ron and Ella stood at the front.
From the trees, six figures erged.
Their leader, a burly man, stepped forward.
"Well, well… What do we have here?" He spoke with a smirk.
His lust-filled eyes were locked onto Ella. Scanning her body like a predator.
Ella's fingers twitched as she felt his gaze.
Disgusting.
"Why don't you hand over your stuff?And maybe…" His eyes were still on Ella. "We'll be nice…."
"Gross."
Ron clicked his tongue.
"Let's just kill them."
"Agreed." Ella answered with a cold voice.
Ella knew the battle would be hard, but she was confident in defeating the enemies.
But just as both of the sides were about to engage in battle.
The sound of footsteps echoed.
The sound was slow and deliberate.
Both of the groups turned their eyes towards the newcor.
A black-haired boy was walking towards them casually with a mischievous smirk. His blue eyes were as cold as ice.
"Woah, I found all of you in one place." He spoke with a smirk. "Thanks for making it easy for ."
"I love easy things."
The boy was walking as if he owned the place.
The burly leader snapped. "Who the f*ck are you, kid?"
"Oh, so you want to go first? I see, I see." The boy responded mockingly.
Then–
He vanished without a trace.
The next mont, the head of the burly leader rolled on the ground.
For a mont, the leader's body stood still. A crimson arc erupted from his severed neck.
Then, it collapsed to the ground.
The boy now stood behind the fallen body.
"Big talk for soone so weak." He spoke in a lazy voice as he eyed the other mbers of the group.
The remaining five mbers of that group barely had any ti to react.
Because, in the blink of an eye, they were all dead.
Five heads rolled across the forest floor.
Silence.
Ella's group wanted to run away, but their bodies refused to move.
She had recognised the boy.
"W-what are you doing here?" She spoke horrified.
The boy turned to her with a charming yet terrifying smile.
"Silly, I am here for trial too, see?" He chuckled.
He showed the ring on his hand that all candidates had received.
Before she could say anything else, the boy vanished again.
This ti reappearing behind Seles, the mage of the group.
Before she could employ the protection shield, he pierced through her skull with his dagger.
The blood sprayed on his face, but he didn't care.
He still had a crazy smile on his face.
"NOOO, SELES…" Ella and Ron scread at the sa ti.
But Ren didn't care.
He attacked Ella next, but his dagger was blocked by a shield that appeared suddenly.
"Hmmm, a protective artifact perhaps?" He spoke with amusent.
She was the heir of her clan after all, hence she had been provided with the highest rank protection artifact unlike Seles.
But Ella's eyes were bloodshot.
"I'll make you pay…" She said before her body vanished.
She channelled mana through her ring, indicating her resignation from the trial.
She knew she couldn't defeat him.
Ron also followed soon before Ren could focus on him.
Ren watched them disappear, his smirk never disappearing.
"Man, that was anticlimactic."
He lightly tapped on his ring as a screen popped up in front of him.
He looked at the screen.
[Candidates: 2]
"Only one left, huh?" He said with a smile. "I hope you will be a bit interesting."
__
In a dark cave a black-haired boy was sleeping without a care, as he had already sealed the cave to avoid any interference.
His expressions were relaxed, as if dreaming of sothing nice.
It had been only a day since the trial started, and Alden didn't do much except laze around.
Why would he even do anything?
Gretta had said the boss monster would only reveal itself when less than ten candidates were remaining.
So he just did nothing and waited for the number of candidates to go down.
With a yawn he woke up from his slumber.
He stretched his body a bit as he took out so water from his storage ring and washed his face.
He tapped the ring on his finger. The one given before the start of the trial.
A small screen popped up showing the remaining number of candidates.
[Candidates: 11]
'Huh?'
What the–?
His brows furrowed.
That was fast. Too fast.
Alden had thought it would take at least a few days for the candidate's number to go down. Especially since the dungeon is so vast.
But it seems he had miscalculated.
Just as he was looking at the number…. it dropped and not by one but by many imdiately.
[Candidates: 10]
What the heck is happening?
The number continued to drop instantly.
[Candidates: 9]
.
.
.
.
[Candidates: 7]
.
.
[Candidates: 4]
[Candidates: 3]
And within less than ten minutes, it finally dropped to only two.
[Candidates: 2]
Sothing was wrong.
Alden could feel it.
He imdiately exited the cave as another notification appeared.
[Number of Candidates: 2]
[Boss Monster is revealed.]
Just as the notification appeared another one appeared within five minutes.
[Soone has killed the Boss Monster]
[The location of the Chaos Art is being revealed.]
As soon as the words popped. The whole space began to shake.
It felt as if it would break to pieces.
A large door appeared in the middle of the forest.
Alden imdiately knew that was the location of the chaos art.
He rushed in that direction.
Shadow stepping in quick succession.
His mana was draining rapidly, but he ignored it for now.
He had many mana potions stocked up in his storage ring.
He soon arrived at the location in less than a minute as he quickly took out a mana potion and gulped it in one go.
He felt his mana recover instantly.
It was a high-level mana potion after all, but he couldn't use it again for so ti now; otherwise, his body might suffer from mana overdose.
He looked at the huge door as soon as he arrived.
But he was late.
There was already soone.
Standing casually with a carefree look as if bored.
His jet-black eyes were reminiscent of the dark sky, and his blue eyes looked like a serene lake.
"Hey there, friend." He waved at Alden casually… "Nice to et you."
"I am Ren R—."
He stopped mid-sentence.
"Oops, sorry, my father had warned against revealing my family na to anyone." He said in a playful voice. "I hope you can understand that."
Alden looked at the boy, Ren, calmly.
His gaze scanning him.
The boy looked similar to soone Alden knew.
Nyx.
The features of the boy were eerily similar to hers.
But that was impossible.
'Must be a coincidence.'
Alden dismissed it, thinking it must be a coincidence.
Having similar faces doesn't an they are related…
Right?
Pushing the thought aside, he focused on the real issue.
"Why didn't you go inside?" Alden asked cautiously.
He knew the boy had arrived ahead of him and could have gone inside to claim the chaos art.
But he didn't.
Why?
There must be so reason.
"Well, my friend, I tried." Ren said as a chilling smile appeared on his face. "But you know what? I can't go inside unless I am the only one remaining."
"This stupid trial is designed that way."
"I was bored waiting for you. So I killed the boss monster ahead of ti thinking I would get the art, but nope."
"They had to make it difficult." Ren's voice was playful, but the worlds were anything but that.
"Well, that doesn't matter now that you are here." He said as a pair of daggers appeared in his hands.
Alden's body tensed.
He quickly activated [Spirit Domain] as well as [Eyes of Supre].
All his senses were going off crazily.
The boy vanished suddenly.
Alden's [Spirit Domain] picked up a disturbance in the air from behind as he reacted.
He quickly activated [Shadow Steps]
His body lted in shadows as he appeared a few tres ahead.
'Fck, what was that?'
Alden's pulse quickened.
That wasn't speed.
That was teleportation.
If not for the Spirit Domain picking up the small disturbance in the air, he would have been dead without even able to react.
Well, it was not entirely due to Spirit Domain either.
He had felt sothing else as well that helped at that mont.
He had felt disturbance from the nearby mana. He instinctively understood it was due to [Monarch of Mana].
'It seems after advancing to Initiate Rank, so hidden effects of skills are also unlocked.'
But now was not the ti to think about it.
He looked at the blue-eyed boy who stood there amused.
"Well, well, I didn't expect that." He said, "How did you dodge?"
"Why don't you try guessing?" Alden answered him.
"Woah, is it because of luck?" Ren said dramatically…
"Perhaps? Or perhaps not?" Alden spoke with an excited smirk of his.
He was excited to see a strong enemy.
Alden himself felt puzzled by his excitent.
But he didn't care about it at the mont.
Unbeknownst to him, his supre ability had already influenced him.
His ability was Limitless Ascension.
It signified limitless growth by breaking through limits and fighting strong enemies.
And Ren was strong. Even after his realm was suppressed, he was stronger.
Alden's supre ability was reacting. Eager to break through the limit by defeating Ren.
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