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"Huff. Huff."

A young man clad in silver armor, with a silver sword that had a black handle gripped tightly in his hands, took slow yet steady steps as he journeyed up the mountain.

His body shivered at times as if he had caught a cold, yet this youth still managed to keep himself from falling. At times, he supported his frame with the sword in his hand, taking periodic breaks to catch his breath.

In the somewhat open area of the second section of the mountain, his figure was visible even from afar.

"Finally."

The young man breathed out at last before falling to his knees as he tried to recuperate from the exhausting trek.

All around him was a light red mist that covered the entire area. It acted as a type of rejuvenating gas, aiding the young man in the recovery of his stamina and energy while at the same time, healing his injuries.

"Who knew this mist would have such properties." The young man thought out loud with an exhausted look on his face.

This young man with a weary expression was Sato.

After hours of hiking accompanied by intense battles some of which almost made him lose his life, Sato had finally reached the designated stop on the mountain. Sato had finally completed the first challenge of the Main Trials; making great progress to the goal of inheriting the Caventry\'s knowledge.

[[System notification :

First Challenge : Reach the designated stop on the [Staircase to Zolstice] within 48 hours.

Challenge Progress : Completed.

Calculating rewards...

]]

"I wonder what my rating is..." Sato absentmindedly wondered as he stared at the notification.

The rating for each challenge would determine the quality and quantity of rewards he would get at the end of everything. If Sato performed badly in this challenge, while he still would get his rewards, he most likely wouldn\'t get much of the good stuff and would be stuck with the basics. But if he managed to get a nice rating, the rewards Sato would receive would surely be enough to rile the envy of a super guild. After all, the rating of the mission wasn\'t simple, to begin with.

"Congratulations challenger, on passing the First Challenge of the Main Trials."

The booming voice from earlier that had introduced the challenge to Sato, spoke up once again.

"You took exactly 28 hours, 36 minutes, and 28 seconds to do so, out of the allowed 48 hours."

For the first challenge of the Main Trial, Sato had taken a full day plus 4 hours just to go through a 2+ kilometres distance. If anyone were to hear of this, they would wonder what took Sato so long. Some might even consider him to be on par with a sloth. But Sato couldn\'t be blamed for being so slow.

Rather than saying he had taken so much time, Sato\'s pace could be said to be quite impressive. After all, he still had less than 20 more hours on the clock.

To deal with the pressure from the mountain while at the same time, facing off against tough monsters and a boss creature like the Nightmare Devil, surviving till this point was already good enough while doing so with 20 hours left was admirable. It wasn\'t an easy task after all.

Sato however, knew that a majority of his achievements was due to that cavern he had rushed into with the Nightmare Devil\'s Xue Yan form. Thanks to that, he had avoided a lot of monsters on the way up and though he took quite a lot of time, he still made it much higher than he would have if he trekked from the top.

Another reason was also the fact that he had barely encountered any other monster after defeating the Nightmare Devil. It might have been possible that the Nightmare Devil happened to be the ring-leader or the spawn lord for the phantasmal creatures and so, killing it would in turn eliminate the rest.

"Your rewards and score have been calculated and would be made known to you at the end of the trials. For the next challenge, you will be granted a rest period of 6 hours before it will officially begin."

"That\'s good." Sato sighed with relief.

The entire journey towards here was filled with danger and peril, and worst of all was the fact that his body couldn\'t heal as quickly as it could in the outside world. Not a single step up was made without Sato having to carve the path with blood and sweat, so having finally gotten the opportunity to take a break, Sato couldn\'t help but want to enter a repose. Even with the mist\'s effects, he would still need to take a break here for a while to get back to his peak.

During the period Sato took a break, he opened up his interface and went through his inventory.

Due to the specialty of the Main Trials, which was its ability to isolate own in an entirely different world, Sato couldn\'t communicate with anybody neither could he check up on the trending events of IR, hence, he was left in the dark about the Kobold King\'s advance.

In the scenario where he couldn\'t get any source of information or entertainment, Sato went through his inventory and skill list, reminding himself of all his consumables, equipment, abilities and available skill options. At times, he also thought of skill combinations and motions that would help him take down an opponent quicker than normal.

All in all, Sato tried to make use of the interlude between the two challenges to not only recover but also come up with better strategies for facing illusory enemies and other unexpected monsters. The first challenge of the Main trials had succeeded in widening his vision and expectations, hence, Sato had decided to adopt a different approach to the challenges.

He decided to prepare for any and possibly, all eventualities, whether expected or unexpected. In other words, Sato tried to develop a battle style that could enable him to take down monsters stronger than himself much more efficiently while at the same time, without using any of his trump cards.

While it was true that Sato had done something similar before even the Entry trials, he discovered that that wasn\'t enough. Having gotten a taste of the real challenges, it became easier for Sato to do so.

Slowly but surely, with each second that went by, the 6 hours break ultimately came to an end.

"Prepare for the second challenge."