"[Tide of the Dark Night]!" Tightly gripping onto his spear for the nth time, Valyr gazed at the large group of aberrations madly running to where he currently stood. With a solemn expression, he redirected the Shadow Energy lingering within his body to the tip of his spear as he empowered himself with a series of buffing skills.
Whoosh!
Without hesitation, the young man swung the spear upwards, giving the wave of dark energy he had conjured enough space to expand and engulf the group of aberrations as a whole. However, rather than stop there, he then took out the magic scepter he had upgraded from his spatial bracelet whilst affixing the spear onto his back.
"[Crimson Blade Torrent]!" Not long after, an inordinate number of crimson blades accompanied the wave of dark energy, killing off all of those that remained standing against the destruction brought about by his initial attack. Manipulating the crimson blades to the limit of what his mind could handle, Valyr let out a low sigh of relief as he had finally downed the 10th and final group of 200 aberrations, bringing his kill count to 3,000.
'At the very least, I've finally gotten a better grasp of fighting against a large group of enemies that have greater strengths than me.' With his breath ragged, the young man briefly admired the massacre he had just caused as he took out a stamina and mana potion from his spatial bracelet. Downing both potions in one go, Valyr distanced himself from the field of corpses as he faintly smiled, a thought promptly surfacing in his mind.
'Congratulations on reaching three thousand kills on the Trial of Myriad Aberrations. Through your display thus far, you have shown that your strength and willpower is unmatched, surpassing even the realm of geniuses. You have shown the Gates of Enlightenment that your foundation is made for a peak that people rarely touch, turning you into an infallible being even in the darkest of times.'
"I was waiting for the voice to start talking." Letting out a slight chuckle as he listened to the words of praise the disembodied voice was giving him, Valyr briefly took a look at his current self, bitterly smiling soon after.
At the moment, the majority of his armor set looked to have been crumpled under the heavy-handed strikes of the aberrations, while the skin that had been exposed by the broken armor set had taken on a shade of dark purple. If anything, the young man looked as if he had returned to the time where he purely relied on magic to fend off against the aberrations, being overwhelmed due to his lacking combat power.
'The heavens really wanted me to learn those things the hard way, huh.' Taking out the Hammer of Beginnings from his spatial bracelet as the voice continued to shower him with more words of praise, the young man decided to repair his armor set after consuming a health potion, recalling the mishap that caused his current appearance.
Beginning to mend his chestplate, Valyr thought back to the fifth group of 200 that he had fought against. At that point, he had already found his groove in fighting against the large group of aberrations, relying on [Tide of the Dark Night] as his opening move while he would support it with magic attacks on the side.
Unfortunately, whether it was due to overconfidence or negligence, he had forgotten to consume a couple of mana potions before the round began, thinking that he had enough mana to take care of the group. Naturally, it went without saying that it had brought Valyr an inch away from his death, having to rely on [Breath of the True Wyvern] to give himself some leeway to recover his mana.
Wryly smiling as he finished recalling the thought, the young man softly shook his head just as he began to mend the next armor piece. 'Not taking a rest for quite some time has finally taken a toll on me, that's for sure.'
'It doesn't help either that I only have a few of the vials Faulus gave all of us to keep ourselves awake.' Letting out a slight yawn, Valyr swiftly mended the remaining pieces he had yet to mend before downing one of the few vials of rousing he had left.
'As you have successfully achieved a total of 3,000 kills, the Gates of Enlightenment shall allow you to obtain another portion of the power you'll earn through your own merits in the future in advance.' Closing his eyes for a bit to give the potion some time to take effect, Valyr raised his eyebrow in curiosity as he heard the voice finally talk about his reward.
Whoosh!
All of a sudden, Valyr felt he had been transported to a world of darkness. Even opening his eyes did not help in that regard, with the sight that existed before him a vast and empty void. Fortunately, just as he was wondering whether he had been transported to a void by the Gates of Enlightenment for no reason, an object appeared within the void, being a sphere that emanated a feeling that made the young man think he had seen it somewhere before.
'The Black Star!' Finally recalling the exact thing the object in front reminded him of, Valyr attentively watched as the sphere gradually expanded in size, the feeling it gave off earlier growing in intensity. Then, as if it had reached a turning point, the sphere burst into a great amount of dark energy, causing him to close his eyes in the fear of being engulfed by it.
However, rather than being engulfed by the burst of energy, the young man instead felt like his connection with Shadow Energy had become deeper and more detailed all of a sudden. Slowly opening his eyes, he was soon greeted by the sight of the entire void being filled with Shadow Energy, causing the gears in his mind to madly turn as he automatically began to grasp concepts behind the energy like a madman.
And then…
Click.
As if everything had finally fallen in place, the sight before him had taken on a different perspective under his vision, sensing that he had formed a different connection because of it. Tracing this connection back to its roots, Valyr's eyes slightly widened in surprise when he found out that he had formed a connection with the world itself, only to soon understand what was going on.
Ding!
Hearing a notification sound echo in his mind, Valyr went ahead and brought up a screen before him as the sight in front was gradually replaced with the training ground he had been in earlier. Though he was slightly disappointed that he could not engross himself in the feeling for longer, the notifications he had gotten somewhat made up for it.
[Your understanding of Shadow Energy has reached a culmination point. The world has taken notice of this, allowing you to borrow a portion of its nigh-infinite power.]
[You have awakened the Intent Seed of Shadow Energy.]
