"So, this was the plan of which you spoke so proudly, Sam?" Liam asked her. There was a judgemental note in his voice she chose to ignore.

"I think it's rather neat," Enith commented.

"The ability is all messed up now," Granderel grumbled. "And what was the purpose for unlocking his E rank racial ability?"

Sam shrugged, not showing any signs of guilt. She had known he could do it. But to fight calamity beasts in such pain. Yeah, their apprentice was going to be just fine heading into the multiverse.

"I hoped we could combine the storage skill with the racial ability. Or maybe, even more ambitiously…"

"You wanted a void affinity racial ability, didn't you?" Liam asked.

Sam only shrugged again. "Is it possible? Can he get two abilities from this?"

Liam looked at her for a moment. Then he turned his head slowly to Enith.

"I see this was not part of your calculations," he said after a long while. "No, I doubt he will be getting an affinity racial ability."

"But—"

"And that is not necessarily a bad thing," Enith interrupted Sam. "After all, he does not want to use magic at this stage of his development. The ability would be a waste."

"But…still," Sam couldn't help but be disappointed on Rafe's behalf. He had mutilated his soul, and the pay off wasn't going to be worth it, it seemed.

"Don't worry," Liam chimed in. "If we are right, then perhaps that racial ability could turn into something even more scary."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sam turned toward him, but found him frowning at Enith.

She turned to her too, and found the woman holding a large mottled red egg. Half of it was greyish, showing its age and signs of decay. Sendriel was standing up for the first time in a while, staring at the egg with uncharacteristic intensity.

"So, this is why you nerfed his tower rewards then?" She had Noid ask.

Enith put the egg into a patterned box, turning to study four other boxes now laid out in front of her.

"Maybe he could use it," she said uncertainly. "Maybe it could help with—"

"The egg will not hatch, Enith," Sendriel said, her voice the least bit venomous. "It did not hatch even when you exposed it to the primordial flame."

"It is still precious enough that exchanging it for all his other rewards was an acceptable trade," Enith said after almost a whole minute of silence. "At least he could use it to gain a new physique or something. Keeping it here is just a waste."

Sendriel wanted to argue something, but Sam saw her visibly restraining herself. Sam had questions about their previous topic, but she supposed she could wait to have her questions answered after Rafe finished the trial. After all, he still had three chances to fulfill the minimum condition for the god's intervention.

But just then the random challenge set, and Sam released a frustrated breath. Make that two more chances.

****

Rafe distributed all his stat points before the next fight. He put a stat point to strength, two to agility, and his mental point to wisdom. Then he distributed his spec points equally this time.

And with a breath he waited for his next battle.

'Ding' A Calamity beast, The Infinite Storm, approaches.

It has been set to level 24. This image of the storm just swallowed a black hole, therefore it pulls everything towards its centre.

"What the?" Rafe tried, but then he felt it.

A type of spatial mana he hadn't seen yet. He had seen Aska's. And Lupa-stione's, but this was something else.

It was cold and perpetually violent. He didn't need his mana sight to see the piece of violent space move toward him. A dark orb nestled in the centre of the storm.

"Shit!" Rafe cried out.

How the hell was he supposed to fight something like this? It didn't seem to have any kind of solid body. It was a mana construct through and through.

"Damn it! How do I… huh?"

It was an elemental. Some kind of mega evolved calamity level elemental, but an elemental just the same. So he needed to find its core.

And that was when the situation got from bad to worse. This image of the beast, as the system had just informed him, had a black hole protecting its core.

Rafe drew his sword. He took a breath and stared at the approaching death. Where it touched, the air seemed to be wiped out, turning into a vacuum. Even the impossibly hard ground seemed to lose its lustre and start flaking. Thawing in real time.

"I will not be intimidated!" Rafe yelled. But he already was.

After taking one more heavy breath, knowing he would not be breathing again once the storm reached him, Rafe dived in.

He might have blacked out the moment he made contact with the first layer of the storm. It was sentient, and Rafe could feel it focus on him for an instant when he fought off the freezing effect of the outer layer of its…existence.

Rafe swathed himself in his blade intent and started going through sword motions, using every ounce of mental and will power to move through the first layer.

The second layer had him struggling with ever shifting gravity patterns. In one moment, his body was too heavy to carry, and in the next he was launching himself skyward with a single step. Then there was a layer in which he had to navigate debris and meteorites flying every which way. All while being blown around himself.

The beast had turned its attention away from him a long time ago. Not having to bother fighting him directly. And then he started to feel the suction.

He opened his eyes but the violence around him promised he'd lose them if he tried to keep them open for even a microsecond. He was forced to close his eyes. He let go of his aura and his racial ability. It was testament to how much he'd modified his aura skill for veiling purposes that once he released it his body started to break down under the barrage of violent energies in the storm.

He needed to study the area in the eye of the storm. He needed to find the core before he entered the area. Because he would have to fight against the pull from the black hole for just enough time to reach the core and destroy it.

His attention fell onto a solidified piece of essence a little away from the black hole. Rafe knew what he had to do.

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Only, the moment his attention landed on it, the beast seemed to become aware of him again.

He shot toward the core with his movement technique, using one of the many meteorites to launch himself. He got ready to destroy it with a heavy blow.

But then a lance of mana shot toward him from behind. He dodged but then the normally safe eye of the storm became the centre of unhinged madness.

Rafe was in a race to destroy the core before he was sucked into the black hole. It had always been a long shot, and it would have been too easy if that was all it took to win.

Still, he had to admit this calamity beast was at once stronger than all the others, but also that much weaker.

Because he had techniques to push all the attacks it sent towards him back, or at least to scatter them for a bit. And then he was next to the core, and he was swinging his blade with all his might and his heavy blow skill applied.

And he hit it. And he bounced off. For the first time Rafe could remember, his low stats had absolutely cost him. He was sure if his strength was at the level of that challenger he'd fought on the first landing of the fourth floor, he would have succeeded in destroying the core. Or at least succeeded in cracking it a little.

As it was, his body was battered and broken and he had no way to fight against the devouring might of the black hole.

'Ding' Your class warrior has reached level 9. Stat points obtained. Spec points obtained.

Your pseudo-class skill Mimic has reached level 9. Stat point obtained. Spec point obtained.

Your race human has reached level 9. Free stat point obtained.

The first thing Rafe did after waking was to ensure the wound on his soul hadn't been healed by the trial's mechanisms. It turned out the wound was too severe for the trial to completely heal, but always there was an attempt.

On this occasion the hole was tinier than before, and the mish-mash of runes that was the skill structure was almost detached from his soul, and there was a coating of unaligned essence on it now. Trying to bandage it up like his racial ability had been. For that matter, his racial ability was also in the process of being covered up again.

He couldn't let that happen. Injuring his soul again, he reflected on his life. Mutilating his body wasn't enough anymore. Now he had to go around torturing his soul?

More importantly, he had reached level nine, and he was already a quarter of the way to level ten. Where he would, hopefully undergo his first class evolution. And he still had two fights against calamity beasts.

He distributed his specs equally this time. Then he distributed his stats, starting with his racial stat into coordination. Then his physical stats he put into strength this time, although he felt sick to his stomach to change his strategy now. He put the mental stat into wisdom as usual, and the spec into mana density.

'Ding' A Calamity beast, Lupa-stione of starry nights, approaches.

Rafe found himself smiling wide. Wider as more information came in.

"Huh, did I say I have two more fights? My mistake really."

The beast is set to level eight.

Rafe saw the approaching light, and he sighed. For the first time ever, he was stronger than her, or it, or whatever. Yet when he felt its aura, he did not have the confidence to beat it.

"That said, I will not lose this time. At least not easily. Maybe I'm not ready to challenge calamity beasts yet, but when I am, you will fall first."

He had history with the star bear. Calamity beasts were an existence above his own currently. They borrowed power from the future to challenge him, an F-grade human. And if he was being honest, he loved fighting them, compared to hunting regular mobs.

"Maybe I will become a calamity beast hunter? Or maybe there are other unique beasts I can hunt to level up and then I will be ready for the calamity beasts? But first…"

He rolled his neck around, heard a few satisfying pops.

The beast landed a few metres from him and got ready to roar.

"Oh no you don't," he yelled as he engaged his Dash skill and his movement technique.

He had fought it enough times to know the beast was a hybrid kind of fighter. Unfortunately, when it came to ranged combat, he was the weaker of the two of them by a mile. He was still probably weaker in melee, but at least he was relevant.

The trance took him. Rafe's whole vision was a blur of claws and steel and sparks. He heard the impacts of metal on indestructible bone, and sometimes the impacts reverberated and rang through his entire body. And sometimes he was sent flying but he always closed the distance again.

He deflected the beast's attacks easier as time went on, and as he settled into the advanced realm of his newest sword technique. He also landed more pot shots as the beast failed to track him on occasion due to the attack function of his phantom technique. Its defensive functions were nothing to scoff at either as Rafe got more and more experience with them.

He mostly used them when he activated his Puppeteer's Rubber Body to regenerate stamina. He didn't count, but he ended up taking about six stamina potions all told. Taking into account the potion cooldowns, Rafe knew he had succeeded on this occasion.

And he managed to cut through its hide more than once this time. He did not win, but he made the calamity beast try to gain space more than once to use its ranged options. He didn't let it.

The fight wasn't easy on him in the least. These beings had a lot of skills. And he realised that even though the beast had seemed impatient during their first meeting, using a lot of its mana skills, it hadn't exhausted every avenue.

It kept escalating its melee skills the longer they fought. And Rafe was sure it wasn't learning new skills. It was just unleashing stronger skills the harder Rafe fought.

It was quite discouraging. It meant the Mecha Primus he'd fought had defeated him in its most basic form. And the infinite storm as well.

Then there were six Lupa-stiones before Rafe could blink. And all six were running away from him, and he was unsure which one was the real one. He was unsure which one to chase after.

He made a decision and tried to go after one. But then a seventh came from his shadow. Surprised, Rafe was slow in responding to the ambush and for the thousandth time found himself being flung deep into the ground. He dug into the concrete floor of the tower with his own body.

He had a health potion in his hands before he'd even settled, and he was drinking it and watching his health tick up before the beast attacked again. It did not.

Rafe flung himself out of the very deep hole he'd dug with his body, and that was when the room lit up.

"Oh, come on," he complained at the beams coming in from every direction.

Thick with mana and very hot and undodgeable. Rafael Kingsley died again. But he had succeeded this time.

'Ding' Your class Warrior has reached level 11. Stat points obtained. Spec points obtained.

Your pseudo-class skill Mimic has reached level 11. Stat points obtained. Spec points obtained.

Your race human has reached level 11. Free stat points obtained.

You have gained +2 strength, +2 agility, +5 endurance, +3 vitality.

Your skill Aeon's Sword Mastery has grown to level 780.

Your skill Aeon Warrior's Trance has grown to level 125.

Your skill Parry has grown to level 226.

Your skill Heavy blow has grown to level 260.

….

And there were even more notifications.

Side quest failed.

Objective: Defeat a calamity beast.

Floor objective passed.

Hidden objective completed.

Rafe had spent himself too much in that last battle to try and fight again, and it seemed the trial had considered this. His climb had effectively ended. He only got four out of the promised five rounds, but he had done well indeed.

Special Quest completed.

The Enchantress' training Tower: All star climbing records.

1st place.

Rewards: 100 quest points, 100 credits, audience with the gods of Skyholm.

And then they were there before him. For one final moment the gods surrounded him, but Rafe could not speak with them.

Not because of some mechanic of the trial this time. But because of the pain and the exhaustion and everything. He was so very tired. Luckily, he was going back home to rest.

'Ding' You have gained a new ability 'Void vault'.

That had him stirring a little. An ability? Though it wasn't a racial ability, hmm?

He was too exhausted to consider it anymore.

You have gained a new blessing: Chosen of Skyholm (Guardian)

You can only have one blessing active at a time.

Your blessing, Mark: Noid of the Sword has evolved.

Totem of the Wilde Sword God (rare, growth):

+40 agi, +35 coord, +30 str, +25 end, +20 vit, +15 wis, +10 int. +60 off, + 5 def when holding a sword during combat

You can only have one blessing at a time.

Error! Error!...

An Appeal has been made.

A second blessing slot shall be allocated as compensation for lack of the title system.

Calculating effects of second blessing: Chosen of Skyholm (Guardian)....

Yeah, Rafe would go through everything once he could open his eyes again.

'Ding' You have completed a special quest.

You used the enchantment in a piece of equipment to create a skill.

Your racial ability humanity's creativity (E) has evolved.

You have completed a quest.

Objective: Climb the Enchantress' training tower.

Calculating rewards.

Rafe tried to hold on to his senses for a while longer. To see what was going to become of his racial ability, to see his other rewards, but there were just so many.

And then he was yanked out of the void and into a familiar yet more structured spatial mana than he remembered.

The last of his awareness left him as Rafael Kingsley left the legacy trial behind.

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