Chapter 75: Unyielding!

"Within a limited period, you must withstand waves of increasingly powerful energy impacts while protecting the core behind you from destruction."

Silas’s expression gradually hardened.

"This is the purest and most direct test of defense. There are no tricks. No shortcuts." Aiden’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Only your ability to endure."

"If you succeed, your proficiency with Unyielding Battle Body will increase dramatically. You may even awaken characteristics that are currently dormant within your class."

He paused.

"But if you fail..." Aiden’s expression became serious. "At best, you’ll suffer severe injuries. At worst, the damage could extend to your class itself."

Silas stared at the ancient arena displayed on the terminal. His breathing gradually grew heavier.

The moment he saw that place, memories buried deep within his mind came rushing back like a violent tide.

The endless battles, the pain, the humiliation and the countless times he had collapsed beneath overwhelming attacks.

But those memories carried something else as well. Something far more important. The will forged through every defeat.

The determination that had been tempered each time he fell, only to rise again.

Silas had once thought the Gladiator Arena represented the worst period of his life.

Now, looking at it again, he realized something. It had also been the place where he had learned what it meant to endure.

His fists slowly tightened. Then, abruptly, he raised his head.

The confusion and perplexity that had filled his eyes moments earlier were gone.

What remained was pure determination.

"I’ll go." His voice was firm. "Sir Aiden, please let me take this trial!"

He was no longer afraid of the land that had once brought him so much pain.

Instead, he saw it as another battlefield. A battlefield where he could break the shackles that had restrained him.

A battlefield where he could fulfill the promise he had made to himself.

He wanted to become stronger. Strong enough to stand at Aiden’s side.

Strong enough to become the most unbreakable bulwark in front of his companions.

And strong enough that, no matter what came from ahead, nothing would ever reach those standing behind him.

Aiden looked into Silas’s burning eyes.

He knew the time was right. "Good."

He stood up. "Prepare yourself."

His gaze shifted toward the darkened entrance of the parking lot.

"We depart immediately."

Deep within the ruins of the Ancient Arena, Aiden and Silas passed through a hidden portal.

The portal required a specific token to activate, one Aiden had prepared long ago.

The moment they stepped through, the scenery around them changed.

They found themselves standing in a strange, boundless space.

It wasn’t a physical arena. Instead, an endless white platform stretched beneath their feet, seemingly constructed entirely from pure energy.

This was the evolved form of the Modern Gladiator Arena.

The same arena Silas had once fought in for money and survival, long before Eclipse Online merged with reality.

But the arena he remembered was no longer the arena standing before him.

When Eclipse Online merged with reality, countless locations across Earth were fundamentally altered. Some remained relatively unchanged, while others were transformed beyond recognition. Certain locations from the game overwrote their real-world counterparts, while others fused and merged with existing geographical features.

In some places, entirely new regions appeared where none had existed before.

Cities, dungeons, ruins, monster territories, and other locations that had once existed only within Eclipse Online became part of the real world.

As a result, the current map of Earth was no longer the Earth humanity had once known.

Although many familiar countries, cities, and landmarks still existed, they now coexisted with countless foreign and previously nonexistent locations like dungeons etc...

The exact size of the new Earth remained unknown.

What was certain was that it was several times larger than the planet had been before Eclipse Online merged with reality.

And the Ancient Arena was one of the locations that had undergone the most drastic transformation.

The ruins visible on the surface were merely remnants of what had once been the Modern Gladiator Arena.

Its true interior had evolved into something far beyond what Silas remembered.

The portal they had just passed through led directly into that hidden space.

There were no walls. No ceiling. No visible boundaries. Only an endless white platform stretching into an equally endless white void.

The entire space seemed to have been constructed from pure energy, giving it an almost unreal quality.

At the center of the platform floated a crystal radiating a soft, steady light.

The core. That was what Silas had to protect.

A cold, mechanical voice suddenly echoed throughout the space.

[Guardian’s Trial initiated!]

[Challenger: Silas]

[Class: Unyielding Battle Body (B-rank)]

[Trial Content: Protect the core from destruction for 30 minutes.]

[Warning: The intensity of the energy impacts will increase with each wave. Please act according to your abilities!]

Silas took a deep breath then stepped forward and slammed his resolute tower shield into the ground directly in front of the core.

His massive body stood behind it, completely blocking the crystal from view.

From behind, the core seemed to disappear beneath the towering figure of the shield-bearing warrior.

Silas glanced back at Aiden. Aiden gave him a slight nod before retreating toward the edge of the platform.

The trial began.

Whoosh!

The first wave arrived almost immediately.

Several pale-blue arcane missiles tore through the white space, shooting toward Silas with enough force to threaten an ordinary level 4 monster.

Silas barely reacted. He raised his shield.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The missiles slammed into the tower shield and exploded against its surface.

Silas didn’t move, not even an inch.

The second wave followed.

Then the third.

The attacks gradually changed. The pale-blue arcane energy deepened into crimson flames. Then dark-green streams of poisonous energy joined the assault.

With every wave, the number of attacks increased. So did their power. Soon, the attacks had reached the level of level 5 and level 6 elite monsters.

Yet Silas remained like an immovable mountain. His tower shield swept from side to side, intercepting attack after attack.