He was flying across the wastelands. Going much faster than he had been going with Kora and her group. He didn’t bother to hide his kinetic energy, he wanted to go check out the weird energy from before.

He didn’t use his wings either. They were too bright in the dark and honestly, he didn’t need them anymore. He was a little disappointed that he couldn’t use them, but sacrifices must be made.

He eventually got back to the location and noticed that something must have come through here. There were several marks in the ground that indicated another fight or something of the like had taken place.

He also sensed the same energy from before. If it hadn’t been clear before, then he was more certain now. He had sensed the same kind of corruption as that rift he cleansed before. But what was it doing in a place like this?

He extended his senses far out, but wasn’t able to pick up anything. So instead, he went the old-fashioned way and flew around the area, searching every nook and crevice. He wasn’t able to find anything nearby. But he remembered the direction he had sensed the corruption had gone earlier and headed over that way.

Tier 4 allowed him to fly so much faster than before. It was insane to compare the difference. The time it took him to walk around with Kora’s group seemed painfully slow now. When he arrived, he was surprised to see a huge hole in the ground. When he got closer, he realized that it wasn’t just a hole, but a massive gorge, and he could see nothing but darkness down it. He did sense a lot of mana and, more importantly, faint traces of corruption.

He doubted he would have been able to sense the corruption, but ever since he took care of that rift, he felt like his sensitivity to corruption had increased. Not only that, but his life mana diametrically opposed it, so it was even more stark.

He lowered himself down to the gorge and leaned over the edge to see if he could spot anything. His spatial senses didn’t pick up anything, but the hole was clearly much larger than his skill extended.

So do I jump down the ominous hole, or do I go back and report it to Elder Huan? He pursed his lips as he contemplated his decision.

He was still thinking about what to do when he felt something stir in his soul. He immediately delved inside to investigate, looking for what was going on. What he saw made him freeze with bewilderment.

It was the Trial Key he had gotten from the rift. It was inside his soul space, and it was shaking like a leaf.

He didn’t try to take it out of his space, but the thing had a mind of its own. He could do nothing as it appeared in front of his face, glowing with a golden light.

Trial Key activated…

“Hey, what the hell! I didn’t activate shit!” he shouted at the key, trying to grab it out of the air, but his hands went straight through it as if it was intangible.

His words shockingly had no effect. He could do nothing as something reached out and grabbed hold of him. It was an indomitable force, and he tried to yank himself away, but it was futile. It felt like Cain himself was dragging Julius by the leg. He blasted his ruinous aura out, trying to get away.

He even exploded his soul a little bit, but still wasn’t able to sense any feedback. It was like there was no will to whatever was pulling him. Almost like gravity itself was dragging him.

He held out for as long as he could. He dug his feet in and slammed several constructs into the edge of the gorge, desperately trying to hold himself in place. The force of the pull was so powerful that he felt his body start to rip apart from the stress on it.

He soon realized that fighting it was only tiring him out. He didn’t think he would be able to pull away, and so instead of fighting back, he went along with it. He quickly ensured that all his skills were active and that his body was at maximum capacity before he let go. The gorge grabbed hold of him and sucked him into its dark abyss.

The last thing he saw was the stupid key glowing as it hovered in the air above the gorge. He wanted to shout curses at the dumb little thing, but remained calm as he was dragged down.

He might not have a choice in this matter, but he would still be prepared to meet anything that greeted him with a fist full of mana.

***

He got pulled down for a long time, so long that he was starting to get worried that he would get splattered on the ground before he got the chance to fight anything.

Fortunately, he sensed his body pass through some kind of field and was finally able to halt his rapid descent. Or rather, the force that was pulling on him was no longer influencing him. He was still falling, but some kinetic energy took care of that. Now that he wasn’t falling, he hovered in the gorge and looked up. He couldn’t even see the sky. He had no clue how far he had dropped.

He flew upwards and tried to leave the gorge, but he was stopped in the same field that stopped the gravitational pull. No matter what he tried, he wasn’t able to figure out a way past it. He even tried to teleport past the field, and it worked to some extent. For some reason, the distance he was able to reach was heavily restricted. The skill wasn’t meant for long range in the first place, but now he was barely able to teleport more than ten feet without feeling backlash from his skill.

And ten feet was far from enough. Once he was past the field’s protection, the heavy pull once again dragged him down. With nothing to hold him in place other than his kinetic energy, he was quickly sent down again.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He cursed and accepted that he was stuck for the time being. He had heard from Cassandra that Trial Keys were unpredictable, but this was a bit much, wasn’t it?

At least, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. In all fairness, he had been asking for some kind of exciting adventure, and this was the most exciting thing he had come across since he got to Corvus. He might as well see what this Trial Key had in store for him.

He felt his skin shiver with excitement and embraced that feeling. Deciding to explore the gorge a little bit, he lowered himself down. The lower he went, the more the gorge expanded outward. What had been a crack less than fifty feet wide had slowly become a massive, expansive cave.

Additionally, the corruption was even stronger than before. It was practically clogging up his nose, and he was forced to rely on his aura to wipe away any corruption from infecting him. He continued to make his way down, and eventually he reached the bottom of this enormous gorge. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how deep it was.

However, he was a little concerned about the heat. He had a strong resistance to heat and a sturdy body, but he was starting to feel his skin burn from the sheer heat. There was no fire visible, but the heat was immense. And the rock acted like an oven.

Just as he was beginning to wonder if there was anything in this gorge, he found himself picking up movement up ahead of him. It was actually quite a lot of movement. He suspected that it was more than one creature.

He prepared himself and removed his new axe from his soul space. The axe didn’t feel that good in his hands, but he still needed some practice with it. So he might as well use it as much as he could.

Yet, as these creatures got closer, he flinched back from the stench assaulting his nose. It was pure corruption rippling forth like a tidal wave, and his nose hairs burned as it wafted towards him. Making a quick decision and perhaps saving his sanity, he swiftly created two nose plugs and shoved them up his nose.

The general feeling of corruption was still awful, but at least one of his senses was spared from its nasty influence. He was also able to see what kind of corrupted monsters he would be facing.

To his surprise, he was greeted with the sight of ants. Very large and very scary-looking ants, but still just ants. He didn’t get a powerful feeling from them; in fact, the corruption was the main threat he sensed from them.

They didn’t waste any time and flooded toward him, moving quite fast. Their bodies were completely black and hard to see in the low light of the gorge, but thankfully, he didn’t rely on his eyesight alone.

He burst into action, taking his axe and swinging it in a wide loop, generating as much momentum as he could. When the axe slammed into them, he was a bit surprised at how hard their shells were. It was like they were wearing heavy plate armor, thankfully his new axe was technically pretty sharp and he put a lot of power behind his swing, so it didn’t matter.

They were cut in half all the same. They were quick little buggers, though, and he was forced to side-step one particularly aggressive ant that tried to use its pincers on his face. They were around the size of a human, way larger than any ant had any reason to be.

He booted another ant away and swung his axe once more, cleaving into three more ants. However, he frowned when he spotted them surviving despite almost being cleanly in half. Tendrils of corruption leaked from the wounds, but it was as if the energy was staunching their injuries and keeping them alive.

Hell, he didn’t even know if they were still alive. There was almost as much corruption in them as actual blood.

Thankfully, these ants didn’t have any authority or weird skills he needed to worry about. At least, not that he could tell so far. But they had a few things going for them. For one, they were pretty fast for how large they were. They were also pretty tough; their shells offered good protection. Furthermore, the corruption appeared to give them alarming amounts of vitality.

A very dangerous combination. But the most problematic issue was that there were so many of them. He had been about to dismiss them as a threat, but then he sensed even more ants converge on his location. Some of them let out shrieks of their own and called over their brothers.

Julius could only stand by and watch as hundreds of ants appeared all around him. Most of them were Tier 3, but a significant number were Tier 4. Even for him, that was a lot of monsters to handle on his own.

He felt his heart start to pound and his hands tremble slightly as the reality of his situation set in. However, the excitement overrode his anxiety, and he realized he was finally going to get a fight worth his while.

He hadn’t been pushed in a while, and definitely not since he had gotten to Tier 4.

So with a laugh, he dropped his foot back in his stance and pulled the axe behind him as several constructs of fire wove over his shoulders. He also formed several plates of armor over his limbs. The amount of power he was getting from his life technique was pumping through his veins.

His crown appeared over his head. It had been mostly inactive since he arrived at Corvus, and finally flared back to life. Blue flames of ruin washed over the crown and fed into his constructs. The crown was just as excited as him it would seem.

Then, in an explosion of mana and aura, he launched himself to meet the ant's head on. Sending several spikes at the horde quickly approaching him.

The spikes detonated, shaking the gorge as they split several ants in half. His axe was the next thing that greeted them. He roared out as he spun his axe like a whirlwind of death. He didn't rely on any fancy techniques or forms; he just started swinging.

Each swing of the blade killed a couple of ants, but that wasn’t enough. There were so many of them that they swarmed on top of him. They didn’t seem to care that their brethren were dying in droves, but piled on top of him, doing their best to pull him apart with their pincers and legs.

He quickly found himself buried underneath a heavy pile of ants. Their strikes were powerful too, strong enough that his constructs were unable to hold out forever. They shattered from the strain, and while he did his best to repair them, he wasn’t fast enough.

Several strikes landed and pierced his body. His healing skill activated straight away; he didn’t even have to pull from his reserves, though. Drasil was already feeding his own life mana into the skill. Julius sent gratitude to the little spirit's way. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

He was forced to use his aura as well. The corruption from their bodies was seeping out and trying to burrow into his flesh, and only his aura was effective in removing all traces instantly.

Still, he was quickly finding himself in a bad position. He was getting buried by sheer numbers and with no leverage.

He found himself grinning under the pile of ants and finally activated [Field of the Shattered Will]. A blast of the accumulated kinetic energy he gathered rippled outward. The shockwave blew away the ants on top of him and allowed him more space to swing his axe again.

Unfortunately, that didn’t deter them, and they kept on coming, not caring about their lives or getting hurt.

The anxiety and worries had already faded. His mind had sharpened to a razor, [Sage of Savagery] honing and refining each movement he made. His perception of time slowed down to a crawl as he lost himself in the carnage. A savage grin appeared on his face, and he truly let himself go for the first time in a while.