Jack thought it through, and then decided to go through with the selection. He had been using a sword this entire time, so it made no sense to switch weapons at this juncture. He picked up the sword from the stand, and watched in surprise as the sword automatically resized itself to become longer, exactly the same length as his previous one.

The other four weapons vanished the next instant, the process being so fast that Jack couldn’t even track it with his eyes.

“As expected,” he muttered, not surprised. Moving on to the next item in the agenda, Jack walked over to the Legacy Technique, really hoping that it would increase his chances of survival, since he was still a little hesitant to approach the crumbling scroll.

Jack reached out to grab the book, feeling the soft texture of ancient animal hide meet his skin. The next moment though, something unexpected happened. An electric current rippled through the contact, and the next moment information far greater than the system had ever offered him flowed through his mind. It was as if thousands of fragments of information had been fused together to form one greater whole, one greater truth, that Jack could now utilize- utilize a power that he could not even begin to fathom. It was true to his name- a legacy technique that even a mortal like him could use without having almost any exposure to the cultivation world.

Jack stared at his right hand in disbelief while the tome that had given him the mystical power turned to ash and scattered over the stone slab almost immediately after.

“Is that even possible?” Jack asked out loud, in almost complete disbelief. He felt as if his horizons had significantly expanded, just to know that it was possible for a human to accomplish such a feat.

Slightly dazed from the new power he felt at his finger-tips, Jack walked over to the last stone slab. Jack was terrified at the prospect of being rewarded even more: it only made him wonder what kind of monster he would be forced to face.

He gently reached out for the scroll, and the moment he made contact the scroll unfurled on its own, floating in the air. Words of golden radiance were scrawled over the scroll, but Jack could tell that it was incomplete- a chunk of parchment ripped off from the bottom, and he was unable to tell how much was missing.

Jack looked impressed as the golden words that looked like intangible squiggles made without any discernible pattern turned tangible, floating in the air with actual density to them. They formed four concentric circles with Jack as the center, and started rotating clockwise with increasing speed until they were a blur.

Jack could hear the sounds of some unknown entity chanting in a voice that carried the weight of a world within, or at least that was how Jack felt- Each word that the entity spoke in his language weighed down on Jack as if an additional boulder had been placed on his shoulders, the sensation along crushing him without any weight. The circles started spinning faster, and the number of people chanting increased, from one to ten, ten to a hundred, hundred to a thousand.

If it had lasted more than a few seconds, Jack would have gone insane from the pressure. Panting, Jack took deep breaths and tried to calm down. It felt as if the worlds had been encoded, or rather branded in his “soul”, if the concept existed in the cultivation world. But try as he might, he couldn’t recall the foriegn words they had chanted- his increased thought processing offering no assistance in that aspect.

‘Snap out of it’.

Jack shook off the lingering psychological effects the experience had caused him, going back to a state of alertness. He had claimed the items the entity had rewarded him with, perhaps for surviving this long. It raised another question- was the Earth Orc Titan a guardian appointed by the system, or an entrance test by the entity?

But Jack was sure of one thing- the circular layout could only mean one thing…. This place was an arena, and the two shards were guarding the exit on either side. If so, where was his foe?

He looked around,trying not to gaze at the entities directly lest he get burned, but there was nothing but eerie silence all around, especially since the entities stopped ‘manufacturing’ more monstrosities. A minute passed in silence, before his sensory stat picked up a vague pinprick of danger coming from behind him.

Jack, armed with a new sword that he found much sharper than his original one, even in its damaged, rusted condition and nigh endless reserves of Qi that were being charged into his off hand, turned around instantly, ready to counter anything that moved.

All he saw was a sea of crimson grass, a fitting decoration for this grim island. Until he realized that he was looking at the wrong place for his foe. He turned his gaze to the sky, and he involuntarily ended up flinching.

‘Of fucking course.’

The undead creature Jack had escaped from walked in space, its bare feet creating small platforms made of the black miasma-like substance it had utilized to increase its speed earlier, which dissipated as soon as the creature moved to the next platform. The creature displayed no emotion, no urgency or effort as it walked on an even space, it’s sharp black claws sending a cold chill down Jack’s spine.

‘Why didn’t he think of it before? Why would the entity create a new monster if it already had a perfect candidate waiting?’ Jack thought to himself, even though the thought of him guessing the motives of a higher entity seemed implausible, to say the least. Maybe it was his frayed nerves acting up, based on his hypothesis earlier. Could the creature really learn? Or was Jack just imagining things earlier?

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He raised his left hand up, in an attempt to see if he could lob his Qi at the creature while it was still in space. A reddish-black tendril appeared in front of his right hand, thankfully maintaining a safe distance from him.

Jack sighed, knowing that it was a longshot to begin with.

He took a deep breath, and started preparing for what he knew to be the most difficult challenge of his life. There would be no running from this one and no tricks or subterfuge would save him this time around.

Jack was afraid. But this time, instead of choosing to channel his anger or fear, he chose to remember. Remember the moments where he had gone fishing with his father on a warm, sunny day. Remember the day when his mother cried as she hugged him, because he was accepted into the animation college he wanted so desperately. He remembered the day when he’d first met Luna, a small baby kitten that could fit in the palms of his hands,who had brought him joy and happiness even on the darkest of days.

‘Remember why you fight’.

With burning determination in his eyes, Jack steeled his nerves- ready to explode into combat the moment the entity allowed.

The undead creature landed with a thud the next instant, easily thirty meters away from Jack, but within the bounds of the arena.

Two bursts of radiance occurred on either sides, and the next second a dome enveloped the circular area, that was half and half in the respective colors of each entity, with a divider in the center.

Jack could hear the sound of his own heart beating, as the divider in the center disappeared the next moment. For an opponent that Jack had previously fought, no matter how he tried to view the situation from an objective purpose, experience brought expectation.

Jack expected the undead creature to charge at him without any strategy, like it had two times before. Unfortunately for Jack, expectation brought predictability. He found himself staring at its soulless red eyes with perplexion. The undead creature didn’t move, but instead opened its jaw to show it’s sharp, jagged and uneven teeth.

Jack felt his heartbeat quicken as he realized the creature was smiling at him, before it's third eye opened.

A wave of black miasma exploded with the undead creature at the epicenter, sending miasma flying in every direction of the energy dome Jack was trapped in with the creature. His eyes watered at contact with the miasma and he felt nauseous, but he had locked his gaze on the undead creature’s location.

Which was why Jack was horror struck when he saw the undead creature meld into the black miasma, before being completely enveloped by him. Jack figured it could switch between a miasma like state and a solid form, which did not bode well for him.

The enemy could strike from any direction, so Jack maintained a constant state of vigilance- constantly changing direction and examining any disturbance in the miasma that had covered the entire arena’s floor by now.

Jack sensed a disturbance ten meters away from him, towards the right and he immediately switched stance to face it. The ghoul materialized from the black miasma within a matter of seconds, perplexing Jack- it had the perfect chance to ambush him, why didn’t it take it? Jack knew now that it was not learning or evolving in their previous bout, but feigning weakness. Perhaps its purpose was to lead him here, for it definitely could have killed him if it used that skill before.

The danger sense that had saved his life so many times before went haywire when he gazed in the direction of his opponent, pinpointing the threat towards its dark yellow third eye.

“Shit, Shit, Shit!” Jack bellowed in panic, knowing that he had fallen for a trap. He had figured that the third eye’s purpose was to unleash the miasma, but the undead creature had intentionally given him that impression.

He felt his gaze locked on to those yellow pupils, entranced for half a second before he broke free from contact. Though Jack’s expression was even gloomier, because he knew the damage was done. Instead of one undead monster, Jack now saw twelve, arrayed in a semi-circular formation- all of them identical in size, shape and even even the light growling sound they made.

Jack knew that they were just empty constructs, a figment of his mind’s imagination. The undead monster had used some kind of ocular ability on him, but which one was the real body?

He barely had time to think any further before they all charged in unison, with their sharp claws pointed right at Jack’s throat. Out of time, Jack picked a direction and ignited the qi he’d channeled towards his footsteps, holding his new sword out front. In merely a few seconds, Jack pierced through one of the twelve silhouettes, not surprised when he met no resistance. Tumbling for a few meters before he stabilized himself, Jack turned around with haste to see a total of eleven remaining silhouettes.

He braced himself for the second wave, finding his impromptu strategy more effective than he expected. The silhouettes once again arranged themselves in a semi-circular formation with haste, instead of directly charging at him like he expected. Jack was getting ready to channel Qi and escape once again, when he felt a sharp pang of pain erupting from his abdomen.

Jack felt a liquid-like substance flow up his throat, before he puked a large mouthful of blood. Horror stricken, Jack angled his neck downwards, only to see a sharp, blood stained claw protruding out from his abdomen. Jack felt lightheaded, but he immediately understood what happened- this was not just cunning, but plain insidious. This creature enjoyed toying with his foe, Jack now understood that. The creature had ensnared him with its ocular vision, while it blended into the miasma and let him believe the real body was among one of the clones.

The wound Jack felt was unmistakably fatal, but due to his increased physical constitution he wouldn’t pass out just yet. Instead of a dread for his impending doom though, Jack just felt an overwhelming, rising primal anger that he would no longer try to hold back.

From the moment Jack had stepped into the Wilderness, the World had treated him like prey. He was bruised, battered and forced to participate in the games of beings whose objectives he could not understand.

He would not be prey any longer.

If this was what the world wished him to be, then so be it.

He would become the predator. The predator that hunts down the worst among his kind.

Jack felt his condition worsen, but he remained unfazed. He only spoke two words as he felt his consciousness slipping:

“Deny Time.”