Infinite Realm

(AN : Edits would be made once I'm done with today's papers.)

[Linear Strike]

[Critical Hit]

-312 (0/2000 Blood king Varg's HP)

[[ System notification :

Congratulations Sky Blade. You have defeated the guardian of the first sector; Emperor of carnage and bloodlust, [Blood king Varg].

]]

Seeing the notification together with the hulking 7 metres body that had stopped breathing, Sato left out a sigh of relief.

He didn't know the conditions for self-heal for the Blood king and suspected that it would occur once its HP went below the 10% mark. However, this would take a second or so to take place and so, there was but a tiny window of opportunity for one to defeat the Blood king. Of course, the condition to pull this off was that one would have to be able to deal at least 200 damage points to the monster after its defensive abilities have been factored in to the count.

Currently, no player has been publicly recognized to be able to deal that much damage in one hit against a level 9 monster much less a level 10 Elite. Worst part of all was that the monsters in the trials were a lot stronger than the ones in the outside world. This was especially so for Varg. All its skills made it an all-round fighter with impressive offense skills. If another player were in Sato's shoes, they would have died before they could even shave off 10% of the boss' health.

'If I didn't have this skill, things would have been a whole lot harder.'

Sato sighed as he felt the effects of [Gratitude of Races] deactivate, with the skill entering its cool-down phase.

[Gratitude of Races] was a skill Sato had gotten after defeating Sygrart just before it transitioned to its final form. While the notification back then had congratulated him on stopping the descent of an evil god, which Sato still didn't know the full story of, the skill was rewarded to him for his endeavors.

Ever since he had gotten the skill, Sato was too reluctant to use it after all, the cool-down was extremely long; the longest he had seen so far in IR, taking 3 days of Real time, which is converted to 6 days in IR. Because of this long cool-down, Sato made this skill his ultimate trump card, only willing to use it when there was no other option which was exactly what had happened back then. Varg had managed to push Sato to the wall and unless a miracle had occurred, Sato would have died if he didn't use the skill. But even so, he didn't regret using it.

"My rewards from this kill should be pretty impressive. Sadly, my Experience bar didn't increase." Sato said with a bitter expression.

Though his time here had helped him refine his skills, Sato's strength hadn't increased much. On the contrary, he was slowly falling behind as other players were slowly catching up to him.

'If things go on like this, the reward for reaching the city first might not go to me.'

Unbeknownst to Sato, the level 10 checkpoint was a large wall to all players. The developers of IR had set fixed points as checkpoints in the game. These checkpoints were certain levels that were purposely made harder to reach for the first set of players closing in on them but would become easier for the majority after the hurdle had been cleared.

The first one was the level 5 checkpoint that was previously difficult for players to reach but after Sato, Fudo and a bunch of other players had crossed it, the difficulty dropped by more than half after the upgrade and became a whole lot easier for other players to reach this level.

The current checkpoint was now level 10, which stalled a lot of level 9 players like Sato and Fudo. This was especially so since the novice villages barely had any map with a ton of level 9 and level 10 monsters. Since hunting monsters with a much lower level than the player only gave little Experience points as reward, when added with the restriction from the level checkpoint, even grinding monsters for a week(IGT) might not aid one in reaching level 10.

While this feature seemed unfair, it was actually a form of regulatory balancing by the developers. As for the purpose of this, it was to enable low leveled players catch-up to the high leveled players quickly. This was to eliminate the advantage the rich and influential players had because Infinite Realm held a secret that would affect the lives of the entire world's population. The upper echelons, influential figures and powerful businessmen all knew this and had already begun sending their own set of players into the game. Big guilds had even started their migration over to the game but the average players and populace who knew nothing didn't react as such. Until the news was made official, the developers planned to give the average players a hand in the contest and enable them get a foothold in the game as much as possible. This was to level the playing ground for everyone and minimize advantages due to wealth and power as much as possible.

"Hmm?"

Sato noticed as the Blood king's body began to fade away, a grey coloured paper remained behind on the spot the Blood king previously stood at.

Sato was surprised at this because ever since he started the Main Trials, no equipment, weapon or any object was left behind after the death of a monster. At best, only a measly amount of Experience points would be granted to him but with no loot. So it was normal for him to be surprised at this discovery.

Rewind a few seconds back…

"Finally. It's over."

A sigh rang out.

Saimon was pleased that Sato had managed to end the life of the Blood king and a satisfied expression could be spotted on his aged face.

The voice that spoke up then didn't come from Saimon though but from the space in front of him.

Before the two was the same screen that displayed Sato's progress in the labyrinth.

"Praised be to the Grey god. With this young man's success, his chances of passing the [Labyrinth of Helios] has increased by far." Saimon said with an elated tone.

It should be recalled that the Great Hall of Grey Chaplains has been without an owner for centuries. The knowledge of the Caventry had just been gathering dust and their existence had been wiped away from the annals of history. In the current world, the amount of people that actually knew about the Caventry could be counted on one's hands. No matter who, no one would like to see their race forgotten and extinct.

Because of this, Saimon had been silently rooting for Sato and Xue Yan to pass the trials and inherit the entire place, that way, the Caventry's wisdom and accumulations could be put to use and their history be brought back to limelight. Originally, Sato was the one with the highest chances of success but after seeing Sato being sent to the [Labyrinth of Helios], Saimon's hope in him waned since it was extremely difficult to pass the challenge. However, everything changed now with the death of the Blood king.

"The condition to pass the [Labyrinth of Helios] challenge is to find the entrance or at the very least, approach a certain distance away from it. However, for a majority, the exit is only a concept, existing in a separate space and time thereby being impossible to reach. Unless one possesses a heaven-defying luck or high level mastery in spatial magic, it would be impossible to find it. So, the next best thing is to come within close range of it and pass the trials through the second method." Lord Worrus spoke up.

The second method was made by one of the ancestor-level figure and a previous leader of the Caventry. It required the participant to complete a few tests and with each one passed, a reward would be given to the participant that would bring them closer to the exit. Apart from that, they would also be rewarded with 'rating points' which were special tenders that could improve one's overall rating for the [Labyrinth of Helios] challenge. The guardians of each sector were one of the tests left behind by the ancestor figure and they gave out more rating points than the other tests.

Defeating the guardian of the first sector, the Emperor of carnage and bloodlust, [Blood king Varg], had rewarded Sato with a bunch of rating points. Also, the piece of paper left behind after its death was the reward that would bring Sato closer to the exit of the labyrinth. It was an incomplete map of the labyrinth.

While it was incomplete, the map held one very valuable information that would bring Sato a step closer to success. It directed him towards the location of the guardian of the second sector. With this, Sato wouldn't be like a headless fly; searching around pointlessly. He would now have a goal and a clear direction towards it.

"Sadly, he's not the second sector's guardian's match." Saimon sighed.

"If recall correctly, it should be the projection of a blessed son of the Titan race?" Lord Worrus asked.

"Yes." Saimon nodded with a heavy heart.

"*sighs* In that case, he has already lost. However, reaching the hall of the second sector's guardian would till reward one with a few rating points. Added with the ones he already has, he should be able to barely clear the challenge." Lord Worrus sighed.

As a moderator of the Main Trials, he knew the strength of each sector's guardian like the back of his palm. Even though the guardians' strength would be adjusted to correspond with the challenger's, they were still not bosses anyone could easily beat. This was especially so for the last 2 guardians.

"It's too bad he can't make it to the third sector. Otherwise, his rating would have been quite high. If he could even beat the guardian there, then that would have been amazing." Saimon glanced at the screen in front of him.

Defeating one guardian would reward one with a map to the next but defeating all 3 guardians would reward one with the map to the exit which in turn meant a perfect rating. However, ever since the challenge was made, no one in the history of the Caventry had been able to achieve such.

The reason was simply because of the strength and identity of the third opponent.. It was the projection of an avatar of the demon god's son; the very being sealed within Black Grill's Cave.