What Dyon didn't know, was that in the outside world, people were breathing sighs of relief. To them, while the first two trials mostly relied on one's intelligence, the third trial was entirely based on fighting prowess and battle sense.
Martial world beasts were always stronger than humans of their cultivation levels because their bodies were so strong and their defenses were near impenetrable to those around their level. So, while many were shocked about Dyon's performance in the first two trials, they expected him to have mediocre results for the third and fourth trials – this was because a mediocre result in the third trial guaranteed a poor result in the fourth because they were connected. The fifth trial however… Many preferred not to think about it due to the shivers of cold that sped up their spines when they did.
That said, no one believed that a genius like Dyon would die in the trials. No matter how biased they were toward their own clans and their own selves, they weren't stupid. Anyone who could place first in any trial was a genius among geniuses, they wouldn't die in a trial. So, everyone could hardly wait for the day this Demon Sage Dyon Sacharro stepped out of the 5th trial.
Those geniuses he had bumped down the rankings had their battle intent firing and as such, they cultivated harder than ever before, while spectators couldn't help but look on excitedly. It had been too long since a new contender stepped into this little game so they couldn't help but look forward to the future.
The truth was that all of the geniuses were already hundreds of years old, yet they were all still saints. This wasn't their fault, but rather because they had all spent centuries within their trials and only came out recently.
Although the trials provided ridiculous amounts of benefits, often times, geniuses couldn't make full use of them until they exited. This was why those geniuses seemed old, when in reality, they had cultivated for roughly the same time as Dyon.
The problem they were facing now, though, truly troubled them. This was because Dyon had taken the two trials that should have taken the longest, and blazed through them. Many took centuries to complete the first trial, while although time was accelerated in the second trial, one's soul age still increased at the same pace, meaning those who spent decades in the second trial, still aged by decades.
This meant that there was a good possibility that Dyon would exit the trials, barely 30 years old, while they would be hundreds of years older than him. It truly pissed them off when they thought about it, making them train even harder.
That said, the third, fourth and fifth trials were also meant to take a long time. However, unlike the first that relied on you finishing as quickly as possible, those last three trials actually relied on you lasting as long as possible. This was true of the second trial as well, until Dyon obliterated that notion.
The reason that the geniuses didn't think Dyon would spend long in those trials despite the rewards being larger the more time you spent within them, was the same reason as before. How could one person possibly be good at everything?
**
Dyon looked at the rhino that was approaching him.
It actually wasn't too large, only about 2 to 3 meters in length and about another 2 meters tall. The intimidating part about it was its large metallic horn that was half a meter long itself. Other than that, it also had large metal sheets coating its body, but it seemed that those metal sheets weren't worn armor, but rather an actual part of the beast.
This size was about normal for a martial world beast. Because of the nature of Dyon's universe and how all of its vitality was being stolen by the entity at its center, although Dyon didn't know it, it was difficult for it to produce martial beasts. In fact, the only martial beasts Dyon had heard of were the deer that lived on the Focus Academy crescent island. But even then, he had never seen them.
Also, Dyon knew that the Elvin Kingdom's forest had many martial beasts within it, and their presence was actually part of the trial for Focus Academy, but he was lucky enough to have never run into them. Well, he technically had when he saved his little sister Lyla from the Grimbold family scum, because at the time that red-headed fool was riding a crystal toothed tiger, but he had scared them away fairly easily.
That said, the only reason the crystal toothed tiger was so easily intimidated was because it had become a domesticated pet, and thus lost much of its fighting ability and edge. This rhino before Dyon, was clearly different. It radiated killing intent, in fact, its stomps were clearly meant to intimidate Dyon.
By now, Dyon was tired of waiting for this rhino to close the distance, it was still hundreds of meters away, but insisted on stomping over slowly as though it was sure that Dyon was too scared to move.
Dyon flashed forward, appearing before the metallic rhino and swinging his rusted great sword toward its shining horn without reservation. Dyon didn't care about looking for its weak point, he just wanted to crush the rhino before him.
His Presence erupted, causing the once enraged rhino to collapse to the ground, shivering in fear.
The sudden movement caused Dyon to miss his initial target, but he didn't seem to care. His sword violently smashed against the forehead of the shivering rhino, causing a dent of massive proportions to appear on the metal plate protecting its forehead.
For a moment, there was no blood at all except for the eruptions of skin on Dyon's arm from his over-exertion whilst being injured. But then, the rhino's forehead began to drip with a disgusting purple liquid.
By this point, the reason was clear. The dent in the metal plate had been so forceful that the rhino's skull was completely crushed.
Dyon retracted his broadsword, holding onto its long handle as he rested it on his shoulder. But, that was when something unexpected happened.
The rhino suddenly turned into motes of lights, swarming his large sword.
After a few moments, the lights disappeared, and it seemed as though nothing had happened, but Dyon's Perception was sharp. He noticed that his weapon's weight increased by a fraction of a jin, and it seemed slightly less rusted now. In addition, he felt that he could use slightly more of his power now.
Dyon had entered his trials completely blind, not knowing anything about any of them. He could have probably asked his grand teacher about them, but he wanted to apply the most pressure to himself, so he felt it was better to not know anything. So, this sequence was actually quite a surprise to him.
Within his master's memories, there was a bit of information about Life Stealing weapons that could grow stronger as they defeated enemies, and even share a portion of that power with its owner to also improve its wielder, but these weapons were exceedingly rare.
For one, materials capable of Life Stealing were extraordinarily rare, so rare in fact that even the Energy Core hadn't produced any. If something on the level of the Energy Core couldn't produce them, one can imagine just how ridiculous such materials were.
Secondly, this applied even for the lowest ranking Life Steeling materials.
But, what was even more shocking was the fact that this third trial had brought out weapons with this ability? And, if Dyon was right, every weapon along that ten-mile-long rack was capable of this very ability!
For the first time, Dyon began to wonder just what kind of treasure this Epistemic Tower was. It was supposedly his grand teacher's creation, and quite clearly had his legacies within it, but from everything he knew and understood, when did the owner of a legacy ever place his own techniques on the bottom floor? By all logic, shouldn't his grand teacher's legacies be on the top floor?
Dyon remembered the very first time he walked into the Epistemic Tower. He found a round room with 10 doors around its edges, in addition to an oddly shifting golden statue at the center. According to his grand teacher, those rooms held his 5 legacies, there being two entrances for each.
At first glance, that didn't seem odd at all, but the more Dyon thought about it, the odder he found it. And when he thought about how the entity was supposedly his grand teacher's second disciple, Dyon only found everything even weirder.
Just as Dyon was about to become lost in his thoughts, two more metallic rhinos showed up, charging toward him ferociously.
Although Dyon knew that these martial beasts could only barely count as Earth beasts, he could tell that not only were there more to deal with, their auras were also slightly stronger. It seemed this trial would only get harder as time passed.
