The first thing he did was reset the conditions of the fight. He didn’t like his position and needed to change it. That was why he used a hefty amount of mana and his crown to throw up a giant wall of flames. They were only somewhat effective on the creatures, but it was enough to stall them for an extra second.
He made sure to use that extra second wisely and finally pushed back the pressure enough to complete the activation of [Void Step]. Once he was able to complete the spell structure, the force wasn’t able to keep hold of him any longer. It could interfere with his own mind and focus, but it couldn’t change or manipulate the void.
He didn’t go far, appearing at a large courtyard with a fountain in the middle of it. The courtyard was abandoned and completely wrecked. Almost everyone in the area had fled as fast as possible. The only ones left were those who were too scared or the people who were injured and were stuck in the rubble.
He tried to avoid them as best as he could, but the courtyard was a much improved place to fight these creatures. They must have sensed his teleportation quickly because they immediately headed straight toward him, their murderous intent not hidden in the slightest.
He welcomed it, and while they dashed towards him, that same oppressive field tried to smash down on him again. He was more prepared, though, and was able to ignore most of it. The mental attack that followed was more dangerous, and he was forced to reinforce his mind several times. He tried to rip it apart with his ruinous aura, but it wasn’t as effective as he hoped it would be.
He didn’t just sit back and let them come at him, though. He’d been taught to have manners, and so he charged his body with kinetic energy, meeting them halfway. He slipped underneath the first one and jumped up to slam a knee into the face of the other. [Void Strike] was packed with as much mana as he could gather within a short period.
The monster tried to block him with its arms, but he ripped them away with another pulse of kinetic energy. It didn’t get another chance to recover, and the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the courtyard when he cracked its face open.
He threw a spike he’d been preparing over his shoulder straight down its exposed neck. The explosion did even more damage, but unfortunately, it was still alive. He wanted to finish it off, but had to take care of the other two monsters. They were moving quite quickly, but compared to the Tier 5 ants and Erek, they were too slow. Now that he had the momentum and didn't have to deal with attacks from several fronts, he was able to dance in between these strikes with uncanny precision. His spatial skills allowed him to calculate each of their movements and react accordingly.
A few liberal strikes full of kinetic energy and [Void Strike] pushed them back. He also threw in several dense waves of ruinous flames to keep them from dogpiling him. And eventually, he found himself an opening.
He rushed forward, taking a hit on the side of his face, but it was worth it. He slipped between the two healthy creatures and pounced on the injured one. He jumped up and grabbed its face. He poured as many ruinous flames straight down its throat as possible, while simultaneously brutalizing it with his own skull and aura.
The monster didn’t stand a chance and was shattered after several vicious headbutts.
When its dead corpse fell to the ground, he jumped up, avoiding the limb about to spear him in the chest and teleported behind them. He struck it in the chest with his fist and started to unleash his aura.
Now with only two of them left, he felt a lot more comfortable about using his aura to pressure them. One less opponent made a big difference, and sure enough, they weren’t able to withstand the sheer power he brought down on them. He collapsed their aura defenses and used his superior willpower to crush them.
Their mental attacks, which had been constantly assaulting him, were disrupted, and he was able to push even more power into the constructs over his shoulder. Two spears pulsed angrily as he flooded them with ruinous flames. He infused them with [Void Strike] as well. The skill didn’t work as well with his constructs as his fists, but it still added to their destructive capabilities.
They seemed to realize the danger of these spears and tried to get away. But he wasn’t about to let them get away so easily. He brought down his kinetic energy on them with every ounce of willpower and Authority he could muster. They staggered to the ground and were too slow to dodge the spears racing towards them.
They threw up whatever defenses they could, but it was for naught. His spears pierced everything and went straight into their chest before detonating with an explosive bang. Several buildings near them were blasted apart. He covered his face from the debris and broken pieces of obsidian that flew at his face.
Once the dust cleared, he walked over to them and nudged their shattered bodies with his toe and made sure they were dead.
When he was satisfied, he nodded and inspected his notifications, which had been piling up since he entered this realm.
[Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 24 -> lvl 25]
[Void Step lvl 22 -> lvl 23]
[Void Strike lvl 19 -> lvl 21]
[Field of the Shattered Will lvl 20 -> lvl 21]
[Phoenix’s Mark lvl 7 -> lvl 8]
[Harmonic Balance lvl 7 -> lv 8]
It was a good number of levels. His other high-level epic skills had stalled, but that didn’t bother him. They were already at the precipice of epic rank, and until he improved his soul strength, he wouldn’t be able to evolve them anyway.
After he checked things over, he looked over at the alleyway to the side.
“Satisfied?” he called out flatly to the person he sensed watching. They hid well, but during that last blast, he felt a small surge of mana from that area, and that betrayed their stealth.
Thorik, the grumpy dwarf strolled out of the shadows with a smirk on his face. That same mug full of ale was in his right hand.
“Interesting… you know, that’s one hell of a perception skill you got there,” the man calmly mentioned, not at all bothered by the destruction all around them, and took a sip out of that never-ending mug.
Julius glared at the dwarf but ignored him for the moment. Rather, he went over to a nearby building where he’d sensed someone hiding out and broke open the wall separating them. He spotted the terrified young dwarf staring up at him, his leg a mangled mess and blood smeared all over his face. The young man must have defecated himself, too, but Julius didn’t pay it any mind. Instead, he leaned down and healed the injured young man. He flinched when Julius approached, but he was too weak and injured to get away.
Within a few seconds, Julius had healed the young man and even helped clean him up before going back to Thorik.
“Do you think it's really wise of you to waste your mana like that?” Thorik asked him when he approached.
“Who said it's wasteful?” Julius retorted, bending down to inspect the broken pieces of obsidian.
When he wasn't able to find anything interesting about it, he looked around and walked over to the half-demolished fountain. He laid his blanket over the stained stone and took some food out of his lunchbox. He shrugged when he saw it was some simple sandwiches, nothing too special, but he couldn’t always get something special. Still, they were tasty as usual.
“You do realize that they aren’t real, right?” Thorik commented and joined him, sitting down.
Julius continued to shove his mouth full and shrugged. “And?”
“And doesn’t it seem useless to spend mana on healing people who aren’t real when you could use it to heal yourself or save it for when you have to face more of those monsters?”
Julius shrugged again. “What about you? Are you any more real than them?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
“Do I? I have a suspicion, but honestly, I have no idea how this space or realm works. For all I know, you are a figment of my imagination or an illusion like these dwarves are.”
“So you do believe they are illusions.”
Julius remained silent and focused back on his much more interesting sandwich.
If this bothered Thorik, the man didn’t show it. “So my question remains the same. Why are you saving so many of them when you don’t have to?” Thorik asked with an annoyed but curious grumble.
“Perhaps because I don’t enjoy seeing people being eaten alive. It’s not exactly a pleasant thing to see over and over,” he said flatly.
“You want to know what I think?”
Julius glanced up with a bored expression, “Not really.”
Thorik didn't acknowledge him. “I think you like helping them out. Even if you know they aren’t real, I think you enjoy the feeling of healing them and saving them.”
“And if that’s true?”
“Then I find that behavior quite admirable.”
“Why do you even care?” Julius asked with a sigh.
“Because out of the six people who made it to this floor. You are the only one who decided to help them. Even ones like that girl you met earlier didn’t go out of their way to help them, prioritizing their own safety. They’re not outliers either. Out of the dozens of people who’ve come this far, only a small handful chose to help out my people. The rest all thought of them as irrelevant occupants of the trial, and whose only value was as bait.”
“Well, they aren’t exactly wrong. For creatures as dangerous as those Obsidian Horrors, it is the optimal way of taking them out,” Julius pointed out.
Thorik scoffed. “Yeah, it's the optimal way to go about it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Julius shook his head and sighed. “What do you want?”
“I wanted to talk to you,” Thorik said and sat down next to Julius. His legs barely touched the ground, and he reached over to grab a sandwich.
Julius didn’t allow that, though, and quickly slapped the man’s hand away. Thorik didn’t seem to mind, though, and took a big swig from his mug.
“Well, I’m not interested in talking with you,” he shot back with an annoyed scowl.
“Why’s that?”
“I don’t like it when people mess with my mind, not even someone as powerful as yourself,” he replied with a dark glare at the man.
It had taken him far too long to come to the conclusion that his rage and hatred towards the creatures was a hundred percent natural. Sure, he found them revolting, but the feelings he experienced were pretty extreme even for him. It was only after some time had gone by that he realized someone was doing something to him on purpose. And it was clear that the person was Thorik.
Or rather, people would know him better as the Lord of Obsidian.
Thorik didn’t even try to deny the thing about messing with his mind, either. The rugged dwarf smirked and waved away Julius’s words, acting like it wasn’t a big deal.
“I wanted to see what you were capable of. And I needed you properly motivated. You can’t really hold that against me, can you?”
“I’m a pretty petty person, so yeah, I can,” he said bluntly.
“I did give you some tips for your crafting, though. Do you know how many people would love to learn from me?”
“Was that on purpose?”
“What?”
“The whole scenario where I was running around the city looking for someone to teach me, only to get rejected by all of them. Then magically, you are the only one who accepted my request.”
“Truthfully, I was going to reject you, too. I just wanted to see how you would deal with the constant rejection. But then you cut off your limbs like a maniac and well… I always had a soft spot for idiots and weirdos.”
Julius tilted his head curiously. “Which one am I?”
“One is not mutually exclusive to the other.”
“Oh, lucky me.”
“The good news is that you still passed.”
“I passed?”
“Yes.”
“How? What were the secret requirements?” Julius asked.
“There weren’t really any requirements in the first place,” Thorik said with an uncaring shrug.
“Wait, there are no requirements? What about the notification about killing as many Obsidian Horrors?”
“A bunch of bullshit. I wanna see how people act when their only motive is to kill. While you still have to demonstrate the strength to kill them, the only other thing I require is that they actually try to save some of the people. If you use them as bait, then I automatically disqualify you. That’s a big reason why nobody has passed since those greedy little sects found this place.”
“But you said that there were some people who tried to help the dwarves,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, but they were too weak to actually do anything. Most of them were only able to take out two or three before giving up. You, on the other hand, showed both integrity and strength.”
“Does that mean I get whatever inheritance at the end of this trial?”
Thorik laughed boisterously. “Hell no. You aren’t a good candidate to inherit my legacy.”
Julius didn’t find that as funny, and rather than laughing alongside the dwarf, he stared at him flatly.