Chapter 44: The Last Trial
Chapter 44: The Last Trial
HAH... HAH... HAH...
Ragged, shallow breaths echoed endlessly across the boundless white void.
Sigrid stood in the center of the infinite space, his shoulders slumping under a mountain of invisible weight. His physical body was no longer that of the weak, malnourished street urchin who had pressed the button on the obsidian cube. His arms were corded with lean, densely packed muscle; his posture was rigid, balanced, and lethal; and his grip on his iron arming sword was as natural as breathing.
Yet, beneath his hardened exterior, his eyes were hollow. His dark pupils were dull, devoid of light, reflecting the profound, crushing fatigue of a soul that had been dragged through a endless gauntlet of violence.
(How long... how long have I been trapped in this place?) Sigrid thought, his mind feeling completely numb. (Months? Years? Decades?)
He had lost count after his hundredth death. He had fought swarms of goblins, packs of shadow wolves, towering stone golems, armored skeletal knights, and soaring manticores. He had been impaled, incinerated, crushed, poisoned, and torn apart only for the cold, unfeeling system to reconstruct his body, reset his wounds, and thrust him back into the slaughter.
A few feet in front of him, a massive, thirty-foot-wide Wyvern lay thrashing on the polished glass floor.
Its dark green scales were shattered, one of its massive leathery wings was violently torn from its socket, and dark crimson blood pooled around its thrashing tail. The wounded beast let out a weak, desperate hiss, its reptilian eye locking onto the human boy approaching it.
Sigrid didn't feel triumph. He didn't feel pride. He felt nothing.
"Haah..." Sigrid exhaled, dragging his boots across the floor until he stood directly over the Wyvern's massive snout. "I've died so many times... resurrected so many times... slaughtered so many of you... I'm just so tired."
He raised his iron sword high above his head with both hands. The blade, which had been chipped and broken thousands of times across endless resets, gleamed with a cold, sharp luster.
"When... when does this nightmare finally end?" Sigrid whispered softly.
SLASH!
Sigrid brought the sword down in a clean, vertical execution arc. The iron blade severed the Wyvern's thick neck, slicing through bone and sinew with terrifying, effortless precision. The beast's massive head rolled across the glass floor before its entire body dissolved into a blinding cloud of golden-blue light particles.
DING!
A radiant, golden-blue holographic prompt materialized directly before his eyes, breaking the silence of the void:
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SLAIN 1x HIGH WYVERN!]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED! LEVEL UP!]
[ Level 48 ➔ Level 49 ]
[Notice: Non-Player Conversion Active.]
[Stat points have been automatically allocated according to your chosen class: SWORDSMAN.]
[Physical attributes, reaction speed, and stamina reserves updated.]
Sigrid stared blankly at the glowing screen. A subtle wave of warm energy surged through his body, reinforcing his muscles and sharpening his senses once again, but it brought him no joy.
He looked down at his own hands, then raised them to count his fingers, his mind struggling to grasp the concept of real time.
"Great..." Sigrid muttered, his raspy voice trembling slightly. "Level 49... I'm Level 49 now. So... can I go home now? Please?"
He looked up at the empty white sky, his hollow eyes suddenly welling with a mixture of desperate anger and profound homesickness.
"My sister... Aurelia is waiting for me," Sigrid choked out, clutching his chest. "In my head... it feels like I've been fighting in this hell for years. I don't know if she's hungry... I don't know if she's safe... I don't know if she's crying all by herself in that filthy alley! I've done everything you asked! I've fought every monster! So please... just let me quit! LET ME GO HOME!"
DING!
The blue screen flickered neutrally, completely indifferent to his emotional plea. A new line of glowing white text materialized beneath his level count:
[CURRENT OBJECTIVE: REACH LEVEL 50 TO COMPLETE THE TUTORIAL.]
[FINAL TRIAL INITIATED.]
SNAP.
Something deep inside Sigrid’s psyche finally shattered.
The months of accumulated trauma, the agony of a hundred brutal deaths, and the suffocating anxiety for his sister’s safety exploded in a single, unbridled burst of rage!
A thick blue vein bulged across Sigrid's temple. His jaw clenched so hard his teeth groaned under the pressure.
"YOU...!" Sigrid roared, his voice echoing violently across the infinite dimension.
In a fit of pure, unadulterated fury, Sigrid reared his arm back and hurled his iron arming sword straight at the floating blue holographic screen with all the physical force his Level 49 body could muster!
SWOOSH!
The iron sword flew like a streak of silver lightning
PASS!
only to pass straight through the translucent light screen without causing a single scratch. The weapon skittered across the smooth glass floor, sliding helplessly until it came to a rest nearly fifteen meters away from where Sigrid stood.
"HOW MUCH LONGER ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE ME PLAY YOUR DAMN GAME, HUH?!" Sigrid screamed at the screen, tears of frustration streaming down his face. "I SAID I'M DONE! I'M DONE! FUCK YOU! FUCK THIS PLACE!"
HUMMMMMMMMM...
The white void suddenly began to tremble.
A suffocating, dark pressure unlike anything Sigrid had experienced in his previous forty-nine levels descended upon the dimension. The pristine white floor beneath his feet turned an eerie, pitch-black hue, pulsating like a dying heart.
Sigrid’s anger instantly froze. His instincts, forged through endless battles, screamed a dire warning.
Swirling, pixelated particles of obsidian light began to condense five meters in front of him. The light materialized from the ground up first forming clawed, black-scaled boots, then long, muscular legs, followed by a broad torso draped in dark, ornate bone armor.
Finally, the head materialized.
Standing before Sigrid was a humanoid entity. Curving backward from its forehead were two sleek, obsidian horns. From its upper back sprouted two massive, leathery bat wings that unfurled with a sharp snap, fanning out a wave of thick, pitch-black mist.
An eerie, suffocating aura a dense mixture of pure malice, ancient destruction, and overwhelming mana flooded the space, making the very air feel heavy as lead.
Sigrid stumbled back half a step, his breath catching in his throat. His eyes widened in absolute shock.
"W-What...?" Sigrid stammered, cold sweat instantly drenching his back. "It can't be..."
DING!
[FINAL TRIAL: DEFEAT THE REPRESENTATIVE OF CALAMITY.]
[TARGET: HIGHER DEMON.]
[SLAY THE TARGET TO REACH LEVEL 50.]
[GOOD LUCK.]
Sigrid’s heart hammered against his ribs like a panicked drum.
Demons.
Even as an uneducated tailor’s son from the lower slums, Sigrid knew the legends. Demons were not mindless, feral beasts like goblins or wyverns. They were humanoid, highly intelligent, and inherently gifted in catastrophic magic. A single high-ranking demon appearing in a mortal city was classified as a walking disaster a calamity capable of wiping whole noble houses and armies off the map in a single night!
The demon slowly opened its eyes. Its pupils were slits of glowing, luminescent gold.
It raised its clawed hands, looking down at its own pale fingers, then turned its head to inspect the vast, empty white void surrounding it.
"Where... is this?" the demon spoke.
Its voice was smooth, deep, and echoing with multi-layered resonance completely different from the guttural screeches of wild monsters.
The demon touched its own chest, a look of genuine, profound bewilderment washing over its sharp, handsome features. "What is this body...? Who... who am I?"
Sigrid froze, completely stunned.
The blue screen hadn't just created a mindless illusion; it had materialized a living, conscious entity from scratch. The demon was standing there, looking like a newborn child trapped in the body of a terrifying warlord, entirely ignorant of its own existence.
Sigrid glanced sideways, his eyes darting toward his iron sword.
(Damn it!) Sigrid cursed bitterly in his mind, panic surging through his veins. (I threw my sword away! It's fifteen meters behind me!)
He deeply regretted letting his anger get the better of him. Facing a High-class demon barefoot and unarmed was suicide.
Sigrid slowly began to shift his weight, stepping sideways in a subtle arc, trying to circle around the demon while keeping a safe distance, attempting to maneuver himself closer to his fallen weapon.
The demon’s golden eyes flicked toward Sigrid, tracking his movement.
"Why are you so guarded around me?" the demon asked, tilting its head in genuine curiosity.
Sigrid paused, keeping his feet planted in a low, defensive stance. He decided to play along, using dialogue to stall for time as his mind frantically calculated distances.
"What do you mean?" Sigrid asked back, his voice tense.
The demon raised a hand, tapping its chin thoughtfully. "I mean... you are the first living being I see in this white place. Can you please explain what is going on? What is this location? And why do I exist?"
Sigrid swallowed hard, taking another subtle half-step toward his sword. "I... I don't really know where we are either. It's a space created by a-"
Before Sigrid could finish his sentence
"KGHK?!"
The demon suddenly clutched both sides of its head with its clawed hands! Its body bent double as a violent, unnatural spasm convulsed through its spine!
THROB! THROB!
Veins of dark crimson light bulged beneath the demon's pale skin, running up its neck and into its temples. Its face twisted into an expression of pure, agony-driven madness as its brain was violently overwritten by the cold parameters of the system!
DING!
[NOTICE: ENEMY HOSTILITY PARAMETERS FORCIBLY ENGAGED.]
[DEFEAT THE DEMON TO REACH LEVEL 50.]
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The demon let out a terrifying, earth-shattering roar! The golden luminescence in its eyes shattered, replaced instantly by an absolute, bloodthirsty crimson glow. All confusion and intellect vanished from its posture, replaced by pure, murderous intent locked entirely onto Sigrid!
Sigrid didn't hesitate for a single microsecond.
(NOW!)
Sigrid kicked off the ground with explosive power, activating his full Level 49 physical speed, dashing in a blur toward his fallen sword!
However
SWOOSH!
The demon didn't run. It simply vanished!
It moved at a speed that defied the laws of physics, appearing directly in Sigrid's path like a ghost teleporting through space!
"What?!" Sigrid’s eyes dilated to pinpricks.
Before he could even raise his arms to form a proper guard, the demon pivoted its torso, throwing a lightning-fast, brutal side-kick straight into Sigrid’s ribs!
BOOOOM!
"GHK!"
An explosive shockwave erupted upon impact! The sheer physical weight of the strike shattered the air, sending Sigrid flying horizontally across the glass floor like a cannonball!
SKRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!
Sigrid crashed hard against the floor, tumbling multiple times before skidding to a halt. He violently coughed up a splatter of blood, clutching his left ribs as a sharp, agonizing ache throbbed through his torso.
(Damn it... that kick was absurdly heavy!) Sigrid thought, gasping for air.
However, as he pushed himself up onto his elbow, his hand brushed against something cold and metallic.
Sigrid looked down. Resting directly beside his right hand was the leather hilt of his iron arming sword! The demon's brutal kick had inadvertently launched him straight to the exact location where his weapon had skittered!
Sigrid’s fingers closed tightly around the hilt.
He slowly pushed himself up to his feet, wiping the trace of blood from his mouth with the back of his left hand. The dark, hollow exhaustion in his eyes was instantly replaced by a fierce, blazing fire of ultimate survival.
He raised the iron sword, pointing the gleam of the tip directly at the demon standing fifteen meters away.
"At first... I thought you were going to be a friendly guy," Sigrid said, his voice dropping into a low, deadly calm. "I guess I was wrong."
Across the void, the demon lowered its stance, dark crimson mana flaring around its body like a blazing inferno as it bared its sharp fangs.
Sigrid took a deep breath, setting his stance firmly into the glass floor.
"Come on then," Sigrid declared, his eyes locked onto his final wall. "Let's finish this game."