Infinite Realm

Taking that next step, Sato finally left the range of the abyss as well as the brown stone bridge, arriving within the premises of the black altar that held the treasure.

Almost as if he had entered another world, Sato suddenly felt lighter and more comfortable than before. This wasn't because the new field was cozy or anything. On the contrary, it had a gloomy feeling to it. It was almost as if Sato had landed in a land of hopelessness; a world of despair. The reason for the loosed and relax feeling Sato got was that the gravity had returned to normal. Having been accustomed to an environment with almost 2 times the usual gravity, Sato's body would inevitably feel a moment of euphoria and comfort as it returned to an area with normal gravity.

'So the source of the pressure must have come from the stone bridge.' Sato deduced.

While this new setting did lack the pressure on the stone bridge as well as the black winds that came from the abyss, it had a glum ambiance and was eerie silent that it became spooky for anyone there.

After pausing for a while to adapt to the setting, Sato began his journey towards the top of the altar.

Unlike the pristine white altar in the third and final challenge of the Main Trials, this black altar was circular and was made up of multiple little layers that also functioned as stairs. Simply put, one could proceed towards the top from any direction. Another way one could put it would be that the altar was a huge circular staircase.

Sato advanced towards the top, taking one step at a time as he cautiously scanned the entire area. He didn't believe that the trial would simply end with the stone bridge so Sato decided to keep his eyes out for any surprises.

Gradually, he began to faintly hear screams and sounds resembling the faint mumbling of insecure individuals. These added with the creepy nature of the entire place would make one feel insecure.

Sato frowned at all of this and despite him trying to see so, he couldn't spot the origin of the noise. It was as if it was all in his head and not real.

'I'm close to the top. I shouldn't be so easily bothered now.' Sato thought as he glanced ahead of himself.

The altar originally wasn't that huge and reaching the top alone from the bottom would take less than 10 minutes, from the distance that was seen from the bottom that is.

Having resolved himself to keep going, Sato ignored the noise and kept advancing towards the top. However, he didn't totally ignore it as a part of him made him suspicious of the sounds.

As Sato continued up the altar, the space around him began to slowly change. At first, the changes weren't so noticeable but with time, Sato was able to spot them after all, the altar was originally devoid of any decorations.

'Plants?' Sato stared at a small patch of green grass a couple of greet beside him. He was pretty sure that the altar didn't have such when he glanced at it from afar. Even the topography of the altar didn't look like something capable of breeding any plant.

Even as he saw the patch of green grasses though, Sato didn't choose to check them out. Some part of him seemed to warn him that if he did so, things might end drastically for him. This altar started with a creepy vibe and with the current development of things, Sato didn't doubt that he could die mysteriously without knowing. To prevent this to the beat he could, Sato decided to curb his curiosity and keep his mind focused on the goal at hand.

With each step Sato proceeded forward, the changes increased and became more noticeable. There trees spawning around her and there, and the original altar began to lose its void look. Luckily, the altar still existed so Sato was still able to proceed without a hitch.

Eventually, shadows began to fleet across the trees, as if something was moving around there. The first time Sato spotted one, he stood rooted in the ground and he prepared for battle. Strangely though, nothing charged towards him and even the faint mumblings in the background had stopped too. It was only after he began walking that the entire place resumed its creepy form.

'If someone without much of a liver was here, they would feel weak at the knees and maybe even pass out.' Sato examined the strange happenings.

While the black wind from the abyss didn't blow here, a similar wind did. It was invisible just like air but it also has that chilling ability that the black wind possessed. Apart from that, it seemed to breed fear within one, making them feel weak and leaving them unable to resist as they drown in their weakness. If a level 9 player were to experience this breeze, they would find it extremely difficult to move and would just stand frozen in one spot.

When combined with the strange environment, the breeze made one feel scared and distressed while numbing one's senses, and in such a situation, one's ability to judge things clearly would be severely affected.

Luckily for him, Sato's physique was that of a level 10 player and his attributes were much higher than one. He was able to resist the effects of this wind by a degree but to improve the effectiveness, Sato used another 5 attribute points; placing 3 in [Endurance] and 2 in [Willpower].

'I'm not a mage, neither am I a Tank, yet, my [Willpower] is quite impressive.' Sato didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Normally, he would have used these attribute points to improve either his [Strength] or [Agility] and [Dexterity], but the situation had forced him to make such a decision. Luckily though, it was worth it as Sato could proceed forward without much of a hitch. This made Sato feel happy because if he had allocated all his attributes points from the very start, he would find it very difficult to survive here.

As Sato went ahead, the scenery slowly began to change. At first, this change wasn't much but once he was at the last few 'steps' away from the top of the altar, the change became abrupt.

From the original forest setting with a bunch of fleeting shadows and faint mumbling, it instantly switched to a war zone. The previous trees were nowhere to be seen and in their spot were corpses, of different races and species, scattered all over the place like grass on a field. Like trees in a forest, broken weapons were scattered all around, with a part of them being stabbed into the ground. Blood dyed the ground red with some places even spawning rivers of it. Rather than a war zone, this place looked more like a land of blood and death.

'Where is this?'

While Sato could still see the top of the altar and from there, identify that he was still on the black altar, a part of him felt like this place was real. It was as if he was in a different world from the outside world.

Sato glanced around but apart from the strangely shaped corpses, broken weapons, and glistening red blood, there was nothing but else here.

As he quietly stood in this strange world, Sato felt despair. He could almost feel the last few moments of the warriors who had died here. It was as if he was in a battle with the other corpses but at this moment, there were still alive. Their opponent was just one man, or rather, one creature. Yet, they didn't have much hope of winning. Everyone was scared as they faced off against this one individual and this included Sato, who had mysteriously stepped into this dream world. Despite outnumbering the opponent 1:100000000, no one felt that they could win this war. On the contrary, they felt more like cannon-fodders, sent into war to tire the opponent. But even though they knew this, they didn't shy away from the battle.

However, once the battle truly began, they saw as their comrades died in such an unjust manner. Before anyone could make a move, they had all died. All the opponent did was to wave a hand and yet, hundreds, if not thousands, had fallen at that point. There was only one word that could be used to describe the opponent; strong, insanely strong. At the same time, there was one word that could be used to describe the soldiers' feelings at that point; despair, despair at the fact that they couldn't even achieve anything as they began dying in large numbers with every move of the opponent.

Before Sato knew it, he too had died in battle, to just a wave of the hand of that powerful figure. At the last few moments that he did so, Sato felt unwilling to die so easily, yet he despaired at this because he knew he couldn't change his fate.

"Ha. Ha. Ha."

Sato suddenly woke up from the illusion. His back was wet from sweat as he panted heavily.

'That felt all too real.' Sato couldn't help but wipe off the sweat on his forehead.

The illusion was all too real, similar to the one he experienced in the Entry Trials or even greater. The very second he had entered it, he couldn't differentiate it from the game's reality and he even forgot that he was in a game during that time. It felt exactly as if that was his life, his real and original life.

'The heck? This game is all too real and that's dangerous.' Sato couldn't help but complain a bit.

When a VR game becomes too real, it could potentially affect the psyche of the gamers, making them forget that they're were even within a game. The danger of this was that due to prolonged gaming, the health of the gamer could be affected severely but as they were still stuck in their 'reality', they wouldn't feel affected nor bothered. Some might even believe that they died once they do in the game, and as the brain works in mysterious ways, their body could actually imitate such an act in reality and send the player into a coma.

This was why modern VR capsules and helmets had an auto-off sequence when a player remains online for more than the suggested period that was safe, otherwise, their health could be affected and this would lead to the game having bad reviews and a drop in sales.

As Sato was cursing the game for being all too real at that point, he realised that he had already appeared extremely close to the top of the altar. Just a few steps away from him would be the top and from here, he was able to see what was there.

It was a black sword that stood out even in this dim environment. The craftsmanship used in making it was very impressive and could be rated 5 stars at the very least. What made the sword special though, wasn't simply the craftsmanship or the design or the intricacies in its structure.. It was the aura the sword exuded, an aura that bred fear just by glancing at it.