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Ding!
[You have entered the Second Class and Subclass Rank Up Trial!]
[By choosing the Path you want to take, your Class and Subclass will evolve differently.]
[Each Path has been designed by the Divinities that desire to sponsor you in one way or another. It is your choice to pick which one you want to take.]
[Once you enter the Trial Building, you’ll have to prove your strength, intelligence, ingenuity, and various other talents to obtain the privilege of Ranking Up your Class and Subclass even further.]
[While your mind is within this Mindscape, time goes incredibly slow, so take your time to decide! Good luck!]
Vlad glanced at the diverging paths in front of him and the message that had popped up right afterwards. It seemed that whichever path he took, he would go through some sort of challenge or trial and then gain a special “power” to evolve his Class and Subclass.
Meaning that he had to take what “divinity” he wanted to infuse into his Class and Subclass so they would evolve even further towards this divinity’s direction.
This made it so even when he had already chosen some other god before, he could choose yet another one.
Of course, there was also the option of choosing none of them.
Aside from each castle, temple, or ruins belonging to every one of them, there were three other castles, ruins, and temples belonging to no one.
These had only three paths, and once he looked at them, messages would appear telling him what they were about.
[Crimson Castle Trial: Path of the Blood Demon]
[Phantasmal Temple Trial: Path of the Death Eater]
[Blazing Ruins Trial: Path of the Burning Soul]
There was no more additional information than that though, and it was pretty much the same for the other gods.
Not all Seven Evil Gods were present this time; there were only four of them remaining, which belonged to some of these Gods.
Of course, the largest was the Evil God of Gluttony; then there was the Crimson Moon Goddess, the Evil Goddess of Lust, and lastly, the Evil God of Greed.
These were the remaining gods that were interested in him, and they each offered their own unique paths that Vlad had to consider too.
[Starving Castle Trial: Path of Gluttony]
[Crimson Moon Temple Trial: Path of the Crimson Moon Priest]
[Ruins of the Depraved Trial: Path of Lust]
[Golden Castle Trial: Path of Greed]
“Hmm…”
Vlad wished they could at least tell him a bit about what they offered, but everything was very vague!
“What do I do?”
He asked the Heavenly Demon, the only one he thought might have some sort of idea about what he could even do in this situation.
“Hmm…”
The Heavenly Demon crossed his arms, sighing.
He looked contemplative, as if he knew what to say—he knew an answer!
Vlad felt relieved with his calm demeanor; he knew that as long as this bastard was around, he could get things done.
“No idea.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly Vlad glared at the Heavenly Demon with eyes full of hatred.
“The hell do you mean you don’t have any idea?! Use your powers or something to see through this!”
“I have, but it’s vague… Hah, well, I’ll give you some clues.”
The Heavenly Demon pointed at each trial.
“The Path of Gluttony will enhance your attack power the most,” he said. “But it’ll make you hungry, perhaps. It might twist some of your powers into strange abilities too.”
“Ah…”
“The Path of Lust will increase your ability to control magic, especially illusions, mirages, and other things,” the heavenly demon explained.
“Oh…”
“The Path of Greed will give you the power to take energies, life, and stats from foes while fighting them… interesting one,” the heavenly demon nodded.
“Yeah, sounds good.”
“The Path of the Crimson Moon Priest will enhance your Crimson Moon sorcery, or whatever it’s called… It will give you more holy power based on the moon goddesses. Maybe more healing and support powers.”
“Hm, kind of mid.”
“And the others seem simpler,” the heavenly demon explained. “The Path of the Blood Demon will help you improve that transformation; maybe gain something else related to that. The Path of the Death Eater seems like it’ll increase your affinity with the undead and also by being one. And lastly, the Path of Burning Soul strengthens your soul and fire elemental powers.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Okay, that’s nice to know,” nodded Vlad. “Still confusing to choose from… What do you recommend?”
“Hm…” the Heavenly Demon remained in silence. “Your greatest weakness is your overreliance on equipment due to your Curse. The Curse won’t go away no matter what we try, only through eating monsters. Choosing the Gluttony Path will only worsen this aspect, as it’ll make you crave more. So let’s scratch it, despite how tempting more power could be. We could probably work on other things that could help you abuse loopholes within the system. The Path of Greed could be a good choice. If you can steal stats or skills from foes while fighting them, even if to a limited extent and perhaps temporarily, it would give you an incredible advantage.”
“You’re not wrong…” Vlad nodded. “Maybe I could choose that one. I was considering the Blood Demon Path myself; if it’s related to my strongest transformation, it could also enhance my stats a lot, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, perhaps… It’s up to you at the end, my foolish reincarnation; whatever you do with your life is for you to decide,” he said, looking rather bored, as if trying to dismiss this already. “I am rather frustrated though; why isn’t a trial about me?! I could manifest and even affect the entire Trial before, but it feels like the System is directly stopping me from doing that now.”
“I mean, it sounds fair; you’re technically dead,” said Vlad. “What happened back then must’ve been an error, which they fixed already in the newest update.”
“That’s bullshit; I should be allowed to guide you through the path of the Heavenly Demon!” he said angrily.
“You’ve already done so for a while now; calm down,” said Vlad. “For now, let’s focus… I guess… Greed or… Blood Demon. Hm…”
After some time thinking, Vlad quickly made his decision, walking forwards towards the direction of the trial he had chosen.
To do this, he had to be careful though; the path was made of floating stones, and he had no idea what falling from here could even do to him.
One jump at a time, he reached the large castle.
He walked towards the stairs leading to the entrance and then touched the door, which opened on its own with a loud creak.
And then Vlad found himself standing in the middle of a lugubrious and large castle, made out of cold gray stone, decorated with torn apart red fabric flags across the walls.
In the floor, aside from the cracked gray stone making it, there was a large red-colored circle with a demon-shaped head in the middle, with two red jewels as eyes.
There were also stairs leading to the second floor right behind this strange circle.
Ding!
[You have entered the [Crimson Castle Trial: Path of the Blood Demon]!]
[In the Crimson Castle Trial, you must prove you’re a true Blood Demon and unleash your wrath and rampaging bloodthirsty destruction as you please.]
[Step into the Blood Demon Circle for the Trial to begin. Once it begins, you will have 30 Minutes to complete it.]
“Only thirty minutes?”
Vlad felt annoyed with the little time he was given, but he decided not to overthink it. However, he didn’t get there immediately, instead exploring the castle.
He considered that this trial had to do with battling, so he wanted to get some advantage in here; after all, in here he had no equipment at all; it was his bare body and his skills, maybe.
He looked around, ultimately finding some old black armor lying in an abandoned, destroyed-looking room, which he quickly equipped.
It barely had some stats on it, but it was better than nothing.
“Hey, I found something over here!”
The Heavenly Demon called for him as Vlad moved to another room upstairs, finding out another item that he could grab, or well, many items.
It seemed to be some sort of storage room where soldiers placed their weapons. Most armor here was destroyed though, nothing of value.
But there were weapons inside of barrels, most of them oxidated and broken, but there were a couple still working.
Vlad grabbed a spear, a sword, and a shield, unable to use his inventory here; this was all he could carry with his own hands.
Equipping the shield on his left arm while holding the spear with the left hand and the sword with the right hand, he walked downstairs, having finished his exploration.
“Alright, this is about all I could find… Let’s go.”
Vlad stepped forward, touching the circle in front of him and stepping over it.
FLASH!
The two jeweled eyes of the demon inside the circle flowed brightly as it started moving up into a third floor that Vlad had not been able to enter.
“Is this a freaking elevator?” he wondered.
“What is that?” asked the heavenly demon angrily. “Stop saying nonsense. Focus, the trial will begin now.”
“Ah, yeah,” nodded Vlad, looking at the front.
Suddenly, he realized he was surrounded.
There were ten other beings around him, all resembling skeletons, but their bones were red, and they had large horns coming from their heads.
They were wearing rusty black armor in some areas of their bodies and holding broken, rusty weapons.
They were standing there in silence, and Vlad couldn’t move either, as a new message popped up.
[Prove to the Ancient Blood Demons that you’re worthy of inheriting their true legacy.]
[Fight as many of the Ancient Blood Demons while not using Skills or Magic, using your stats alone.]
[Because of this trial, your Stats had been restored to their original numbers.]
[Objective: Slay as many Ancient Blood Demons as possible. The more you slay, the higher your score.]
[Duration: 30 Minutes.]
“So I have to kill without Skills or Magic, with these weapons I found?” wondered Vlad. “Fucking hell, this got interesting now.”
As the system message faded away, the skeletons, which seemed dead and inert a second ago, started moving, creating creaking sounds as their bones hit one another.
“The one that cannot prove themselves…”
“Must be eliminated…”
“You cannot inherit our legacy…”
“Without being a true demon yourself!”
The skeletons even spoke, with phantasmal, resentful voices! Jumping towards Vlad and swinging their weapons against him.
Vlad noticed Blood Runes activating around their bodies too, which strengthened their attack power and movement speed!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
He evaded three consecutive blows, moving away as quickly as possible.
It was quite refreshing; he could move however he wanted without the Curse eating away at his body and negating his movements.
"If you think you can just escape…! You are… mistaken!!!”
Three more skeletons jumped from behind Vlad, all three of them swinging their spears against his body, which he barely managed to avoid by placing his shield in front.
CRAAASH!
“Ugh…!”
He was sent flying away, hitting the ground and rolling over it, groaning in pain.
“Are you going to just let them hit you?! Aim at their joints! Destabilize their bodies!” the Heavenly Demon said angrily. “You’re my reincarnation! Show them who’s boss!”
Vlad smiled as he heard him loud and clear, nodding. And then a large black axe swung down, almost cleaving his body into two halves.
CLASH!
As it hit the ground and created a small crack, Vlad quickly used this opportunity to hit the skeleton that attacked him, using his sword to slash and break the joints of its unprotected legs, making it collapse into the ground.
Still, the skeleton was resilient, trying to fight even on the floor. Vlad was quicker, however, crushing the skeleton’s skull with his foot and destroying it into dozens of tiny pieces, revealing a glowing red crystal inside.
“What is this?”
Vlad grabbed it rapidly before invading more blows, realizing it was something unique to the trial!
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[Ancient Blood Demon Crystal Core]
The crystallization of a dead Blood Demon’s powers, often times found inside the undead blood demons that had been slain using physical blows and no magic.
If you’re compatible with the Blood Demon’s Legacy, absorbing it will allow you to strengthen your foundation and awaken more of the power of a Blood Demon.
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“I think I get how this trial works!”
As Vlad evaded more blows, moving gracefully as if he were as light as a feather despite wearing armor, he quickly let one of the blood demons hit his back with a sword, his armor gaining a few cracks but protecting him.
CLAAANK!
As he endured the hit, he quickly punched the blood demon’s skull with his armored fists, destroying the skull and tearing out the core; the skeleton instantly collapsed, dead.
CRASH!
Then Vlad opened his mouth, eating both tiny crystals and swallowing the small fragments once he triturated them with his sharp teeth.
FLUOSH!
A powerful crimson aura surged from his body as he noticed the faint trace of the Blood Demon Runes appearing through his body.
“Alright, let’s keep the pace…!”
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