Chapter 60: Rank B Lucian stood alone in the room once more.
But the silence didn’t settle. The system didn’t close.
[Optional Advancement to Rank B Trial Available.]
[Special Requirement Met: Solo Completion with Perfect Efficiency.]
A slow breath left his lips.
"...Alright."
He closed his eyes, and when they opened again, the light inside them was different.
"Begin."
[ADVANCEMENT TRIAL – RANK B]
Trial Tier: Extreme
Restriction: No system help. No rewinds. No anchors. Just you.
[Commencing...]
Everything shattered.
The room disappeared in a blink, not like before—this time, it was ripped from reality, torn and sucked into a black spiral of collapsing space. The world reassembled itself around him in pieces. Broken stars. Drifting stone islands. Lightning made of ink streaking across the void.
Lucian found himself standing on a floating obsidian platform, cracked and bleeding light from its center. A faint pulse echoed under his feet.
"This one’s different..." he muttered.
The void above twisted, and something fell.
No announcement. No countdown. Just a scream that didn’t come from any mouth—a psychic pressure that cracked space itself.
A monster landed—no, a king.
Taller than a building. Skin like armored glass layered with stardust veins. Six arms, each one armed with a different weapon: blade, hammer, lance, bow, whip, and claws made of nothing but bending gravity. Its face... wasn’t a face. Just a sunken hole, and inside it, shifting galaxies burned.
Lucian didn’t move. Didn’t flinch.
But his system had been locked out. This was raw.
No buffs. No boosts. No safety net.
Good.
He clenched his fists. The energy coiled under his skin like a beast breathing.
"Let’s go."
The creature launched first—too fast.
Lucian barely bent sideways before the hammer struck the stone, sending a shockwave that ripped part of the platform into shards. He flipped mid-air, landed on one hand, spun, and pushed off with a fold step—aiming straight for the creature’s back.
But it twisted, mid-swing, and launched the whip.
Lucian caught it—barely. It wrapped around his arm, burning into his skin.
He pulled.
The monster didn’t budge.
But Lucian grinned. "Didn’t ask you to move."
He spun, pulling himself toward the beast like a tethered comet, and unleashed a spinning kick coated in spatial distortion—his foot cracked open part of the creature’s chest.
Glass skin splintered. Cosmic blood leaked.
The monster roared. Not in pain—but in joy.
It raised all six arms and fired.
Bow launched a thousand energy spears. Hammer caused gravity to shift. Lance extended through dimensions. The claws bent light into blades.
Lucian warped again—but not fast enough.
A blade grazed his cheek. Another tore through his side. The whip slammed his back mid-air, sending him crashing into another floating island.
He coughed, blood staining his lips. The pain wasn’t simulation pain. This was real. Raw. Alive.
"Shit..."
He sat up, wiped his mouth, and stood.
Then smiled.
"This body can keep up."
He clenched his hands again.
Space twisted around him. Even without direct access to Cael, his instincts let him control the laws around him. He bent the gravity, slowed time in a bubble, then compressed his energy into his core.
He didn’t need help. This was his power. His to wield.
He darted forward—faster than before.
He blinked through reality, each Fold Step now a violent crack of displaced space. The monster reacted, lashing out with claws of gravitational force. Lucian ducked low, then leapt over the incoming lance, flipping mid-air to slam his knee into the monster’s eye-pit.