[You have defeated ‘Soulayer, The Bearer of Souls’!]
“Woohoo~”
“Good job, kid!”
“Damn, and I bet that he would die…”
This victory received many reactions, but they didn’t have the time to say anything else as all their screens disappeared, and the connection was interrupted, meaning they couldn’t see Stark anymore.
The boy had tried his hardest to hide his most powerful skills, and he had succeeded in that regard, but it still felt like a loss regardless as he still revealed some of his attacks, and also his weapon.
But before he got any other kind of notifications…
~DING~
[The ‘Second Domination Trial’ starts in five minutes!]
[Buckle up your seats and gather everything you need, there is no going back after this, and I can guarantee you that it is gonna be a tough and long one =)]
And…
[5:00 minutes remain before ‘Domination Trial’]
.
[4:59 minutes remain before ‘Domination Trial’]
‘Fair…’
Stark needed to be quick, and so he instantly opened up the panels that HE wanted to see.
[You have slain ‘Soulayer, Bearer of Souls lv100’, gained 2,750,000EXP!]
‘…!’
And this could only mean one thing…
[Experience: 728312/843000]
~DING, DING, DING, DING~
He heard four notification sounds, then was surrounded by the thick golden aura that always felt warm.
[Your level has increased to level 40, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Your level has increased to level 41, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Your level has increased to level 42, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Your level has increased to level 43, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Experience: 2312/907000]
Stark’s smile grew wider, he could FEEL the crimson power inside of him become more powerful, and it was a feeling that brought him endless pleasure.
[3:38 minutes remain before ‘Domination Trial’]
In addition to that, he had yet again crossed another threshold (level 40), which could only mean one thing…
[Level 40 Reached: please pick a card].
Three purple cards materialized in front of Stark, but in opposition to last time, they didn’t have any feature that could help him pick one out, meaning that it was back to luck.
While closing his eyes, Stark reached for one of the cards and picked the one to the far left.
And when he turned the card, the image displayed on it was that of a figure being in one place, then after using the skill being moved to another spot right next, an after image between the two showing it was instant.
‘…?’
…
[Skill: Crimson Ball Transmission]
[Type: Epic]
[Description: To teleport to a specific location while fighting, first concentrate on creating a small ball from your aura, then send the ball to the desired location, but note that this action alone will not teleport you there.
The location the ball hits simply marks the destination for the teleportation, if you need to quickly escape an attack, snap your fingers in the direction of the ball to activate the teleportation, and you will be sent there instantly.]
[Note: You only have one ball, and it takes five minutes to recharge]
…
These were all the panels that appeared before him once reaching level 40.
But… he wasn’t done yet.
[Skill Points: 16 Available]
Yeah… he had enough skill points to upgrade a skill to the max if he felt like it.
But this would be dumb: getting multiple perks from different skills would be far more efficient than getting three perks from a single one, isn’t it?
‘Hm…’
[2:11 minutes remain before ‘Domination Trial’]
[You should finish whatever you are doing fast!]
It wasn’t only Stark that was rushing around, gathering all the stuff he needed, but all other participants as well: they took the domination trial very seriously.
The first trial was always new to all of them as they didn’t know what it was about, but once you complete it and reach the second, you know enough to actually begin to take everything into account.
All of them had seen people dying closely to them from monsters in the trial, and they refused to go down either.
It was one of the reason this trial was much harder than the first: experience and knowledge.
‘No time to really think, just use your instinct to upgrade the skills you FEEL will be useful to you…’ Stark mumbled as he opened his skills window.
…
[Skills:] Spatial Inventory; Class Wheel; Perception; Domination lv15; Focus lv10; Aura Smash lv10; Clone Frenzy lv10; Invincible Dodge lv5; Double Assault lv5; Crimson Spears lv1; Heaven’s Wrath lv1; Alchemist lv3; Potion Crafting lv3; Target Manipulation lv1; Dodge Control lv1; Crimson Ball Transmission lv1
…
‘Okay, I know now.’
[You have upgraded ‘Focus’ to level 15 (Bronze-Tier Max)!]
[You have upgraded ‘Heaven’s Wrath’ to level 5!]
[You have upgraded ‘Clone Frenzy’ to level 15 (Bronze-Tier Max)!]
And so he was only left with one skill point that he kept in case he needed it later.
The reason of his choices was as followed: [Focus] is possibly the best skill he had yet, and although it didn’t seem strong in the grand view of things, it was the skill that allowed him to see attacks come and to dodge them, upgrading it to its MAX is just as important as [Domination] itself.
[Heaven’s Wrath] is an extremely powerful skill, and in addition to that the other participants didn’t know of it, so having it in a better version of itself could always be good to take huge amounts of enemies, or a giant one, in one beam.
As for the last, he hesitated between upgrading it or [Aura Smash] to the max, but then he remembered that the latter, although only being an [Uncommon] skill, was still one of his strongest skills, and so that meant that upgrading it could result in the chance of him not being able to fully utilize the perk as it would be like with the level 10 one, which he couldn’t control well until getting used to it.
‘I do wonder if [Aura Smash] is going to rank-up in type as it does seem weird it is only uncommon…’ Stark mumbled.
As for the other skills he didn’t upgrade, he just had a gut feeling that he didn’t really need to do that for now, or more like, that the ones he upgraded would save his life in due time.
But of course, reaching a threshold for these skills also meant… NEW PERKS!
And powerful ones at that since the skills in themselves were really strong.
[1:00 minute remains before ‘Domination Trial’]
‘Oh shit… need to be quick,’ Stark hurriedly opened the new panels that appeared before him, and began reading what the new perks he got were.
