He saw the HP bars on the two mannequins had lost around one quarter. Peniel was right, with the help from mana sensing and his newly learned martial art, this trial didn't seem that difficult. If he had taken the trial like he originally planned before meeting his grandfather, he probably would have failed.
Jack felt an epiphany in the fight. He relished in it. He felt that it was a pity if he ended the fight early. Fighting with these two was much more beneficial than either his shadow training or his spar with his grandfather. He decided to change tactics and went for a prolonged fight. He only clashed with their swords without hitting their bodies. He was using them to practice his sword style.
When their swords clashed, none of them suffered any damage. At basic class, when an attack met another attack, the stronger attack would be reduced by the weaker attack, but the weaker one still suffered excess damage. But at advanced class, such an occurrence was less..
Peniel had explained that at higher grade class, body durability increased. When advanced class players clashed attack against attack, the stronger party needed to have 200% more damage than the weaker ones to receive spillover damage. For example, if the stronger player deliver an attack with 250 damage value, the weaker party clashed with his own attack of 100 damage value. The weaker party would only receive 50 damage instead of 150.
While for the Elite class, Peniel explained the stronger party would need to exert 300% more damage before the weaker one received spillover damage. Jack thought this made sense. In this way, players did not just rely on their attributes. As long as the damage value was not too far off, it was not impossible for weaker players with better martial techniques to survive a clash with stronger foes.
As Jack continued clashing swords with the mannequins, he lost track of time. The space here had no sunlight nor cycle of the day, hence there was no telling how long he had fought these two mannequins warriors. His Formless Flowing Sword style underwent huge improvement. He could perform it very naturally now, he might still need a little more time to break through to the next phase.
Despite not using the burst attack of his sword art, he still felt fatigue gradually building up due to using the flowing style non-stop. He didn't know how long he had been inside this space, but he thought maybe he should leave. He needed to rest before the battle with the coalition. Also, if he pushed himself too far and allowed himself to get too tired, he might end up failing this trial instead.
With the resolution to complete the trial, Jack no longer held back. Each of his slashes now hit the mark accurately. The two mannequins were helpless as Jack used mana sense to locate weaknesses in their moves and then followed up with slashes from his sword art.
Damages after damages piled up on the two mannequin warriors. Jack thought at first the two mannequins would be using some kinds of death struggle skill before their death, but they don't. They continued to rely on standard attacks until they fell to the floor.
'I see, this trial is mainly targeted to test one's dual-wielding skill,' Jack thought. Without access to battle skills, the most likely way to pass was having sufficient dual-wielding technique in dealing with attacks from two sides.
The two mannequins on the floor vanished. A bright light illuminated the entire space as a booming voice of notification informed Jack that he had passed the Blade Dancer trial and was now officially an Elite class.
"Yes, finally!" Jack uttered with elation.
When becoming a Warrior class, Jack only got one inherent skill, but the notification just now notified him that he had received several inherent skills due to becoming a Blade Dancer. He quickly opened his status window to check out those inherent skills.
All damages inflicted by sword-type weapons +10%
Critical chance of all sword-type weapons +10%
Dual-wield expertise: Off-hand weapons no longer suffer a penalty
Every successful hit grants 1 blade orb. Each blade orb increased damage by 1%, to a maximum of 20%. Not attacking any target with a sword within 10 seconds will reset the orbs. Missing a target, getting parried or blocked will reset the orbs.
Additionally, he received two skills. One was a standard skill when one became a Blade Dancer, Cross Slash. While the other was an exclusive skill for passing the trial on his first try.
Cross Slash, level 1/20 (Active skill, melee, requires dual-wield swords)
Slash at the area in front with two swords, dealing 250% physical damage to all within the area.
Cooldown: 1 minute
Stamina: 50
Blitz Slash, level 1/20 (Active skill, melee, requires dual-wield swords)
Travels in a linear path with 800% movement speed, enemies caught within the path will suffer 3 slashes that inflict 100% damage. 20% chance to cause Bleed.
Range: 10 meters
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Stamina: 60
The cross slash was a heavy upgrade to the Fighter class' Swing skill. It hit a wide area while inflicting damage even higher than level 1 Sword of Light.
Now that the trial had ended, a door of light appeared inside this space. The notification had informed him to leave through the door to go back outside. All his equipment on his body had also returned. He took out his Storm Breaker and another rare sword in his left hand. He had prepared this spare rare longsword to be used with his Storm Breaker once he became the Blade Dancer class. He had also upgraded this sword to level 40 as well.
Whirlwind Falchion, level 40/50 (rare one-handed sword)
Physical damage 230
Attack speed 2
Durability: 70
Dexterity +6
Attack speed increased by 30% for 3 seconds upon successful hit (cannot be stacked)
Jack had several rare swords already by now. Courtesy of all the grinding and using the Transformation Prism to fuse them. Sadly it was still far for him to fuse the rare swords into a super rare grade. He needed sixteen such swords for that.
He had picked this Whirlwind Falchion for his off-hand sword because of its ability. The attack speed increase was especially fitting with his Formless Flowing Sword style.
With the two longswords in his hands, he tried executing Cross Slash. Two wide energy waves followed his sword swings as they crossed each other, creating an X-shape.
The area inflicted was even larger than Swing. Considering the damage it inflicted in such a wide area, even a standard skill was already such a killer move. This elite class was truly something else.
He then used Blitz Slash. He crossed a ten-meter distance with high speed. It was even faster than his Shooting Dash skill. Sadly, there was no dummy for him to try the slashing effect though. He could only check it later in a real fight.
Now that he had become an elite class, there was no need for him to keep saving his skill points. He still had 6 skill points he could use for the melee class. He spent them equally on the two elite skills which now rose to level 4. Cross Slash now dealt 310% damage. Blitz Slash delivered three slashes that inflicted 115% damage.
He also used up all his saved up 14 free attribute points, all into Dexterity, bringing it to 149, not yet including buff from equipment. He would need to be in his best shape for the coming fight.
Finished with his preparation, he walked to the door of light. He came back out into the hallway with the sword replicas. The man in armor who had given him entry to the trial was there at the side. The man looked at him, knowing that Jack had passed the trial, he nodded in respect, "Congratulations, sir Blade Dancer."
Jack responded with a polite nod as well. "Thank you for your help." He then headed to the exit. When he opened the door, sunlight poured onto his skin. He was stunned for a moment. Sunlight? He remembered it was getting dark when he entered.
"You finally come out! You know how long we have been waiting?" Jack turned to the familiar voice and saw Peniel and his grandfather coming over.
Domon Fei (Weapon Master, level: 31)
HP: 960
Guild: Everlasting Heavenly Legends
"You succeed?" Jack asked his grandfather. A rhetorical question since he had Inspected Domon.
"He succeeded in less than an hour. How useless are you? You spent an entire night on the trial. It's a good thing that you passed, if you still fail after spending so long a time, I don't know what to say anymore," Peniel chirped.
"Entire night?" Jack was flabbergasted. He did spend much time inside practicing, but he didn't expect an entire night to have passed.
Domon sighed, "Afei, you really need more training. To think you have difficulty in such an easy trial."
Easy? Did his grandfather think every class trial was the same? It was not that he had difficulty in his trial, he simply got too absorbed in training his sword style. He could have finished the test early if he wished.
From his grandfather's comment, he knew his grandfather didn't receive a hard time in the trial as well. "Anyway, what was your trial?"
"I was asked to fight nine opponents, one by one. Using a specific weapon type that was the same as my opponent. They were pretty skillful, but not enough. Perhaps if the nine of them attacked at the same time, then it will be a challenge," Domon answered.
"It was the nine types of melee weapons," Peniel informed. "Sword, axe, polearm, Spear, Mace, Club, Hammer, Dagger, and Fist weapon."
"What about two-handed and one-handed type?" Jack asked.
"They count as the same. Weapon Master is free to use whichever style they want, either one hand, two-handed, or dual-wield."
"Rather than talking about that. I have been getting a lot of messages from someone called Jeanny and John," Domon said. "Are they your friends?"
"Yes, they are," Jack replied. He also received ping notifications on messages, but he had not yet checked them. He decided to just send them a message. John replied first.
"Where the hell are you? Didn't you say you will help us with the fight?" John said.
"Fight? Have it started?" Jack asked.
"It's already started one hour ago! They assaulted once the sun was up," John replied.
"What?! How is everyone holding?"
"Just get here ASAP!"
