He let out a sigh of relief after he made sure no more monsters were coming. He collapsed to the ground and let his wound heal. Using his new life technique posed several issues. The largest and most important one he needed to address was the unfortunate side effect of it killing him.

He liked the technique, he really did. But it was hard to use when the technique did as much damage to him as he did to his enemies.

On the bright side, he could feel several notifications waiting for him to review.

While still making sure that he was still aware of his surroundings, he checked them out real quick.

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 27 -> lvl 28]

[Sage of Savagery lvl 29 -> lvl 30]

[Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin lvl 26 -> lvl 27]

[Void Step lvl 14 -> lvl 15]

[Void Strike lvl 11 -> lvl 12]

[Spirit Fortification lvl 22 -> lvl 23]

[Field of the Shattered Will lvl 7 -> lvl 9]

He immediately sat up and stared at the notification, his breath shallow and his heart rate rapidly increasing.

[Sage of Savagery lvl 29 -> lvl 30]

Finally.

He honestly didn’t expect something like this. He had been expecting the last level to take a lot longer. At least until he got some of his other skills up to level 29. But seeing the skill finally reach level thirty made his heart soar with joy.

He had to hold himself back from jumping up and shouting in joy.

On second thought, why should I not enjoy this moment? He asked himself with a shake of his head, then started to remove several items from his storage space.

He first used a bunch of aura and fire mana to clean the vicinity. He wiped down or outright burned anything that smelled or looked gross. Then, once he was satisfied, he placed a nice thick blanket on the stone ground. He smoothed it out carefully and removed several more items.

He got himself a nice candle and wove together several bulbs of light. He changed their color to mimic the warmth of sunlight and had them hover over the little blanket. Drasil must have sensed something was going on and came out of his soul space, with Seraphyne right behind.

Drasil seemed to already know the drill; the little guy crawled over in Julius’s lap and nestled in. He looked up at Julius and opened his mouth, pointing expectantly. Julius nodded and formed a compact ball of mana, offering it to the gluttonous spirit. Drasil let out a grateful coo and held the orb in his hands. But he didn’t eat it quite yet; he was waiting for Julius.

With a mirthful smile, he poked Drasil in the stomach. “Thanks for waiting, buddy.”

Drasil giggled, slapping away the hand with a grin.

Then, while rummaging through his soul space, he felt Seraphyne toddle over to him. “What are you doing? I know you don’t follow conventional rules, but you know this isn’t exactly the best place to start a picnic, right?”

“I’m celebrating,” he told her with a grin.

“Celebrating?”

“Yeah, one of my skills got to level 30.” 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

She slapped him with one of her flippers. “Congratulations! Have you checked what your test is yet?”

“Test?” He asked with a confused frown.

She shook her small head. “You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”

He didn’t know what to make of her words, but finally found what he was looking for. With an excited giggle, he removed the espresso chocolate cake he had saved for moments like this. He had been scared that the cake hadn’t held up after so long in storage, but he was glad to see that it looked every bit as amazing as when he first got it.

It was the same cake he had once shared with Reinera all that time ago, and it was something he always wanted to eat after a big accomplishment.

He carefully cut out two slices from the cake, then put them back in his storage space and handed one to Seraphyne.

“For me?”

“Of course, Drasil won’t eat it, but you can eat real food, right?”

“If I feel like it, yeah,” she replied with a curious look at the cake.

He also passed her a glass of cold milk. “Don’t forget this.”

She nodded and waited patiently for him to take the first bite. He smiled at her for doing this and slowly pierced his fork into the cloud-like cake, right in the corner. He brought it up to his mouth and placed it onto his tongue. The chocolate was already melting on his palate, and the faint taste of espresso coated his mouth wonderfully.

It was only then that Drasil and Seraphyne dug in. He heard Seraphyne let out a cry of delight when she ate the delicious cake. He grinned, took a sip of his ice-cold milk, and sighed. He looked out at the absolutely destroyed cavern and laughed.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She was right. This was one hell of a place to celebrate. He shook his head with amusement and sat back, letting himself enjoy the moment.

***

Only after he finished his cake did he finally review the rest of his notifications.

[Sage of Savagery] has reached the threshold. Would you like to evolve the skill?

He rubbed his hands together and accepted the prompt.

Appraising requirements…

Relevant skill level... satisfied.

Comprehension of skill… satisfied

Related Concept… satisfied.

Relevant Seed of Authority… acceptable.

Latent potential of Seed of Authority… satisfied.

Congratulations. Requirements for skill evolution have been met.

Skill evolution test generating…

Error… Trial Key currently active.

Reassessing…

Notice: Would you like to accept a modified version of your Trial? Warning: Acceptance results in an increase of difficulty.

He stared blankly at the notification as several thoughts tumbled around his little head. What did all this mean? He knew that Cain and Freya told him that gaining a legendary required a lot more than other skill evolutions, but they didn’t seem the least bit worried about him. They were confident that he had met the requirements.

He also didn’t expect anything like this. In fact, he had no idea what this was.

He was more worried about the part that said it would increase the difficulty. That last battle had been pretty difficult, even to his standards. He really didn’t want to find out what could be more difficult than that.

He must have killed over a hundred Tier 4 ants. There were so many that he lost count.

He shook his head and was about to reject the message, but he couldn't wait to evolve his skill until after he finished this trial.

At least, that was his intention; unfortunately, fate had another plan for him. Another notification popped up on his face.

Error… Decision overrode… Modified version granted.

“Hey! What the hell is this? I didn’t accept anything!” He shouted angrily. His words had no effect, and he could only watch as more notifications started flooding in. This was just like what happened with the Trial Key.

Congratulations, a new modified Trial has been generated in place of your skill evolution test and the previous Trial.

Objective:

Investigate the source of corruptionSurvive and escape the gorge.Reward:

Legendary skill evolution of [Sage of Savagery]Skill Optimization TokenUnique ItemAdditional Skill SlotHe was still cursing the Words of the World or whatever system that controlled this world when he read the rewards he was being offered. His eyes immediately widened, and he reread the notification several times before bowing to the heavens.

He had no idea what a Skill Optimization Token was, but he had a feeling that it was only being offered because of his legendary skill evolution. The odds were high that it would help him evolve it and the process of obtaining it.

The unique item was nice too. He had learned his lesson and began to appreciate unique items granted by the Words of the World. Almost every one of them was useful to him and something he used every day.

Hell, he would be happy if he got a flask that paired with his Fledgling Phoenix’s Lunchbox.

However, it was the last reward that sealed it for him. The additional skill slot was not something he could get anywhere else. The only way he knew to get one was through a soul evolution. This meant they were among the rarest of rewards and among the most valuable. He hadn’t chosen [Harmonic Circulation] because he didn’t want to take up one of his last two slots, but now that might change.

He calmed down and stood up, wiping the crumbs from his pants. He now had some motivation to clear this trial.

He had a feeling that he was getting played at the moment. That Trial Key had been the first clue; it was almost like it had been planning for him to find this gorge, waiting to drag him down into its depths. The fact that it was related to corruption was another warning sign.

He also couldn’t help but wonder if reaching level thirty in his skill was really a coincidence. Was it all in the hopes that he would be given a modified trial?

He didn’t know what game the Words of the World were playing at, or if it was the source of this in the first place, but he clearly didn’t have much of a choice. It sucked, but he needed to escape from here anyway, and he would probably find out some things about the corruption on his way out.

He grinned and looked out into the dark abyss of the gorge. There was no time to waste then.

***

Elder Huan POV

He couldn’t find him. He had searched the entire camp and wasn’t able to find Julius. He’d come all the way out here because he’d forgotten to talk to Julius before he left on this mission.

He wanted to ask if Julius could help another team on a very important mission that required someone strong enough to handle it. And Julius was the only one freely available.

But no matter how hard he looked, Julius was nowhere to be seen. He immediately headed over to Kora and her team to see if they knew where the boy had run off to.

“Elder Huan, can we help you with something?” Kora asked with surprise, wiping the sleepiness from her eyes. The sun had barely risen, and she was just getting up.

He didn’t waste any time. “Do you know where Julius is?”

She stood up straighter, suddenly alert. “No, why? You can’t find him?”

“No, I haven’t been able to find him. Do you know where he might have gone?”

“Not a clue. He might have been on patrol last night. I don't know where he might have— ohh.”

“What?”

“He might have gone looking for something.”

“Explain,” he ordered.

“We came across that weird mana phenomenon, the one I mentioned in my report, but I noticed that he was quite curious about it.”

“Yeah, I think he knew more about it than he let us believe,” Thomas added, approaching from behind Kora. Elder Huan glanced over at the young man. Thomas was one of Grand Elder Koenn’s hopefuls. Apparently, the boy’s analytical and sensory skills were unmatched in the sect for Tier 4. He was hoping to gain core discipleship after his mission and, if he was lucky, be personally picked up by the grand elder.

“Did you sense anything that might give you a hint of what he might have gone looking for?”

Thomas shook his head. “No, the area was purged of any evidence, and whatever was left was so chaotic that it was impossible to decipher without specialized instruments and a powerful diviner to help.”

He bit back a curse. Why did that boy have to go off exploring on his own? There was already so much to deal with, he didn’t have time to make sure Cassandra’s precious guest didn’t get himself killed.

She might be understanding of it, especially given the nature of the wastelands, but she also might not. He didn’t want to take the chance of the latter.

But he also realized that he couldn’t afford to send more manpower to find Julius. Everyone was busy with establishing an operating base and working with the Inferno Array Sect at the moment. They needed to prepare for the next airship arriving soon, and time was running out.

They already had several issues. A large team of inner disciples had been ambushed yesterday by a large group of flame ogres. They managed to escape, but one died, and three more were critically injured.

He needed to trust that Julius would be able to handle himself for the time being. The young boy had clearly gone out fully aware of the wastelands' dangers. It would be up to him if he survived.