Chương 212

[You have reached Level 300!] The system messages started flooding his vision. [You have reached Level 300 and achieved the third stats awakening!] [For every point of Stamina, Health will increase by 25 and Defense will increase by 0. 9.] [For every point of Strength, Health will increase by 7 and Attack will increase by 0. 6.] [For every point of Intelligence, Mana will increase by 6 and Magic power will increase by 1. 2.] Then, a completely different, unique prompt chimed loudly.

[One of the Staff Saint's hidden pieces 'Sealed Ability' has been acquired.] [Skill Acquired: Physical Manifestation] [Physical Manifestation] [Passive] [The peak of a Saint's physical control. You can now strike non-physical entities.] Rudra stared at the prompt. He read it three times to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He swung Extortion lightly through the air. The blue lightning trailed behind the dark metal.

"I can hit magic," Rudra whispered. He couldn't help the massive grin spreading across his face. Mages were usually the biggest problem for close-combat classes when they the mages held some distance because you couldn't block a fireball with a staff. Now? He could just bat a fireball away like a baseball. He could literally beat a ghost to death with a blunt object. It completely broke the normal rules of combat. It was perfect. He swiped the skill window away and opened his main system menu.

He wanted to see where he stood. He pulled up the global leaderboards. Kraugel - Level 305 Zibal - Level 304 Chris - Level 303 Red - Level 302 Rudra - Level 300 There it was. His name, sitting comfortably in fifth place. The gap between him and the top four was incredibly tight. Only five levels separated him from Kraugel.

If it weren't for the fact that Rudra's experience bar was several times there's since he held 2 legendary classes, he could have already reached the 1st ranking by now, but he didn't care that much, since even with this handicap he was already broken. And not to mention he would catch up soon enough. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Rudra smiled quietly and closed the leaderboard window.

"Hey," Rudra called out. He reached into his inventory, pulled out a thick, heavy piece of salted monster jerky, and tossed it toward the beach. Kratos stopped staring at the red crab. The giant lion leaped into the air, caught the jerky in his massive jaws, and landed gracefully on the sand. He chewed happily, swallowing it in two bites.

"Eat up," Rudra said, resting his dark metal staff on his shoulder. He walked over to Chief Thalassa and High Priestess Neria. They were looking at him with quiet respect. He had just dragged a giant boss out of its own element and beaten it to death in three minutes.

"Five down," Rudra said casually, adjusting his black trench coat.

"Ten to go. Let's head to the next island." The group pulled up to a small, jagged rock formation. There was no beach here. The sixth temple was carved directly into the side of a sheer, black cliff. The heavy stone doors stood slightly open.

"The Echo of Despair," Neria said softly, looking at the dark entrance. Her voice trembled just a bit.

"This temple does not test your muscles, Challenger. It tests the mind. Many warriors have walked into that room and never walked out."

"No monsters?" Rudra asked, stepping off the boat.

"No monsters," Chief Thalassa confirmed.

"Only ghosts of the past."

"I can hit ghosts now," Rudra smiled, tapping his dark metal staff against his shoulder.

"I'll be right back." He left Kratos on the boat. The giant lion was more than happy to stay away from the creepy cave. Rudra walked up the rocky slope and pushed the heavy stone doors open. [You have entered the Sixth Trial of the Orca Archipelago!] He stepped inside. It was a completely empty, dark stone room. There was no water on the floor. There were no hidden traps, no explosive coral, and no boss waiting in the center. It was just an empty square chamber. He took three steps forward. Clack.

Rudra turned around. The heavy stone doors were gone. Not closed. Gone. The wall behind him was completely solid rock. A new set of system prompts flashed rapidly in front of him. [The trial has detected the presence of the Deep Sage.] [The trial's parameters are being modified by the Ocean God.] Before he could even process the text, the dark stone walls melted. The environment violently shifted. Rudra wasn't standing in an empty room anymore.

He was standing at the absolute bottom of a freezing, dark ocean trench. The water pressure didn't crush him, but the sheer cold made his breath hitch. He wasn't alone. He was looking through someone else's eyes. He felt a deep, profound sense of panic that wasn't his own. He looked up. Fifteen glowing figures floated above the trench. They radiated a blinding, golden light that pierced through the deep-sea gloom.

"You thought you could hide from the Gods, Lyra?" one of the golden figures spoke. The voice echoed from every direction at once.

"Even the deepest trench cannot shield a Titan from the eyes of Asgard." Below them, standing in the mud, was a woman. She had tired eyes and dirt on her hands.

"We seek no war with your heaven," Lyra said quietly, looking up at the glowing figures.

"If Asgard only knows destruction, then you are no true gods."

"For the good of the heavens, Titan Princess," another figure said coldly.

"You shall sleep." The fifteen gods raised their hands in unison. They cast a seal. Golden runes poured from their hands with immense, ancient Wisdom. The chains of Wisdom wrapped tightly around Lyra, pulling her down into a casket of hard light. The casket slammed shut. It locked with a heavy, final boom that echoed through the water. Then, the pressure hit him. It wasn't physical water pressure.

It was a massive, suffocating wave of divine aura from the fifteen gods, mixed with Asterion's absolute, crushing despair. It was pure helplessness. It felt like a mountain was dropped directly onto Rudra's brain. Rudra hit his knees. His vision instantly started to go dark at the edges.