The Tales of Draconic Warlock

The scenery changed. This time it was not barren land nor a desert but a forest full of huge trees. I mean they are pretty huge both in size and height.

Hmm, I thought that the creator of the trials didn't add beautiful scenery to the landscape because he might have thought that it was a waste of time but that doesn't seem to be the reason.

Did I miss something?

Roar!

Roar!

Survive the monsters for ten hours to complete the trial.

Huh, it looks similar to the trial of endurance but at the same time different.

There are multiple roars confirming that there are a lot of monsters but the announcement didn't say how many. So I was supposed to survive ten hours. Is that the mission?

I suppose after I defeat them, I probably have to waste ten hours it seems. Let's get on with it.

Match starts in...3...2...1...START.

Once the Start signal was given, monsters started to run towards me at an unimaginable speed. I don't need to know what these monsters are to know that they belong to agility-type monsters, as I see a lot of cat monsters in the horde.

Let the culling begin.

I started to kill them and run away at the same time, trying to not get caught in their hands.

---

Ten hours later...

Ha-ha-ha-ha...

I didn't think that the trial would run for a full ten hours. I thought I could clear the monsters that appeared and the trial would be over. After that, I would get the rewards but I was wrong.

You have cleared the trial by surviving for ten hours killing more than ten thousand monsters, creating a new record.

You have been awarded 100x Agility as the trial of agility reward.

You have been awarded a 100% Agility bonus as the new record creator. You would be the sole holder until you die.

Note: One can gain the extra reward if they either equal or cross the previous record.

The notification came and the rewards were distributed and absorbed by my body.

--

(AGI): 1,978 >> 197,800 (+100%)

--

The reward was the same as the previous two trials.

As before after I got the rewards, two portals appeared, one white and another red. The mechanical notification followed as before.

Please enter the White portal to the rest area or the Red portal to proceed to the Trial of Soul.

I need to rest. Unlike the first two trials, where I could eliminate the monsters and move on, this trial was a bit different. I have to survive. No matter how many I killed, they kept respawning again and again.

I have to run through that forest, where there are trees everywhere. I can't run in a straight line. It became a problem. I not only had to dodge the monsters but also the trees that stood in my path.

Though it gave a reward that I was hoping for, it also drained my energy to stand.

So this time, I am taking the white portal and have to rest for a bit.

Though I already know what the next trial is, I don't want to put too much stress on my body.

---

After I entered the white portal, I returned to the white room but now there was an extra bed, probably for me to rest a bit.

I don't need to sleep, though I am a bit sleep-deprived. If I fell asleep now, I don't think I would be able to wake up in time. After I entered this trial tower, I was placed under a lot of restrictions.

I couldn't speak with my fox and demon. I could feel them but I can't communicate. So if I fell asleep for too long, there would be no one who could wake me up.

So I decided to meditate to recover my lost energy and at the same time think about the next trial.

When I saw the names of the three trials before, I could vaguely understand what they were about. Going through the first one just confirmed my thoughts but this one is different, I feel it.

The first three are Strength, Endurance, and Agility. As the trial name suggested the monsters belonged to the three attributes and so were the rewards.

This one is said to be the Trial of Soul and that means whatever the test might be, it would be testing my soul or would there be some soul monsters or something?

I have no idea but maybe once I complete this trial, I could get some answers about the soul. With my secondary profession related to the soul, I need a lot of information about it.

In all the information I read at my family library and the academy, there was no mention of the soul attribute but I can tell that after reaching a certain stage, people can open that attribute in the status panel and I believe that should be probably at Tier-7 or above.

So the information is out of my reach. The only way I could get could be at places like this. I need to pass the next trial whatever it takes and for that, I need to be in the optimal state.

---

This looks different.

There are stairs, a lot of stairs. I wonder what they are for.

Ascend the stairs as much as you can. Rewards are based on how many steps you can take.

Oh, it looks like there are no monsters but the stairs here are the trial itself.

I remember such scenarios in many novels. I believe that for every step taken, the pressure on my soul would be increased. I said soul because that's the trial's name.

So let's begin.