Mila
Trial XII, the last trial of the first section of the Trial Tower, was effectively a dungeon dive. They were underground and had to go through multiple chambers. There were traps, which their detection skills made easy to spot, and there were mobs in most rooms, weak monsters Aalam killed as soon as he spotted them. Then there were also magical puzzles, of the type Aalam seemed to love; elite mobs, powerful E rank monsters with F rank Perception they were obviously supposed to hide from, which Aalam just killed; and boss monsters, weaker E rank beasts a skilled level 36 F rank would likely be able to beat, all of which died almost immediately.
The time limit given was 12 days, but they beat it in about half an hour, not having had to take any breaks and Aalam moving at full speed while bringing her along with Telekinesis.
This gave them 12 days of preparation time, which they used to the fullest of their abilities, coming up with more detailed battle strategies, getting used to the new equipment they’d found throughout the trials, and improving the plagues they’d made with the higher grade materials they’d stolen, especially those Aalam had found during trial VII.
Then it was time for their first fight with other cultivators instead of just System generated enemies.
Congratulations!
You have completed the first section of the Trial Tower and it is now time for you to compete with your peers.
Battle Royale I is starting.
You and 126 other trial takers will be randomly placed in an isolated subspace around 32,000 square kilometers in size.
For every one of your competitors you kill you will gain 1 royale point and, when you die, half your points will be given to your killer.
The three trial takers with the most points at the end of 1 standard hour, no matter if they were killed or not, will move on to the next round and the trial taker with the most points will have his or her trial points multiplied by 1.25.
Mila found the translation provided by the System interesting. In Universal Standard, the name for the type of trial translated to English as Battle Royale would more strictly be Free For All Kill For All, but the Japanese film, followed by the Hunger Games franchise and multiple successful video games had entered the phrase battle royale into the English Lexicon, so, even though the type of trial they were in was not strictly a battle royale, as the winner wasn’t necessarily the final survivor, that is still how the System decided to name the trial in English.
As she was thinking about this, Mila then also came to the realization that the origin of the 24 hour day on Earth almost certainly came from the wider universe, as, while most cultures on Earth operated on base ten, most in the universe operated on base 12. Just giving it a little thought it was obvious, what with what she knew about how Earth’s human population came to the planet, but she hadn’t considered it before.
During the battle royale, all she had to do was stay in stealth and avoid all other trial takers, so her extra minds had time for these thoughts.
Meanwhile, Aalam tried to kill everyone in their immediate vicinity in as loud a way as possible and, at the same time, spread a fast acting plague designed to work on pretty much all cultivators which would first act as a paralytic before becoming deadly.
The goal was pretty simple. First, the loud noises would cause people to either approach Aalam or move away, both cases making it less likely they would immediately try for points by killing those around them. Then the plague would spread to the entire area of the trial, affecting everyone other than them, who had the antidote, or those with the ability to notice and block the disease.
Ideally, Aalam would kill everyone himself, earning all the royale points and thus getting her the max trial points multiplier of 2. But, if someone managed to kill another trial taker, even if Aalam and the released plague managed to kill everyone before the 1 hour deadline, that multiplier would go down to 1.5. And, if someone managed to kill Aalam, they wouldn’t gain any points as Aalam wasn’t a trial taker but a familiar, and Mila would try to stay alive for the entire hour, gaining them a stat multiplier of 1.25 so long as Aalam and the plague had killed enough people.
Whatever the case, so long as Aalam and the plague managed to kill enough early, even if Mila died they’d likely still get to go to the next round, and that was what was most important.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
They’d appeared in what looked like a European forest on Earth, the leaves of the many trees in the process of changing colors, and Mila could briefly sense two other cultivators nearby as she started slowly walking while staying within the range of Aalam’s overpowering aura, the steps required to activate Shadow Stride.
While she did this, Aalam used Telekinesis to rip out trees and started using them to bludgeon other cultivators to death as four needles of the Left Hand of the Runescribe flew out of the subspace and started drawing runes. The space element needle helped draw a space rune Aalam then connected to other simpler runes created through the use of his domain skills to teleport the plague all over the subspace. Meanwhile, the other three, representing the wind, fire, and lightning elements, made a combined set of runes which just made a really, really loud noise.
Then, as Aalam started flying all over the place, returning the needles to the Left Hand of the Runescribe and using Telekinesis on actual weapons to kill everyone he could find, Mila just stayed in the same general area, slowly walking around the mostly destroyed forest.
Ten minutes later, she confirmed she had 126 royale points, but she maintained stealth anyway as Aalam made sure to collect all the bodies of their opponents, the artifacts the trial takers had brought in things they could use throughout the rest of the Trial Tower.
Aalam got 36 new Legendary grade weapons he could use his Telekinesis on as well as a Heroic grade defensive robe which he started wearing, even though it looked incredibly gaudy, all bright yellow and electric green. He also gained a powerful untriggered necklace which would unconditionally defend him against a single attack below C rank from someone who’d died from the plague, probably his best find.
Then, after the one hour was done, the first battle royale finished.
Congratulations!
Battle Royale I over. Calculating rewards.
You had the most royale points.
You were the only living cultivator remaining. Hidden Achievement I received.
You were the only cultivator to earn any royale points. Hidden Achievement II received.
Reward: Total Accumulated Trial Points X 2
Current Total Accumulated Trial Points: 579,646,762,433,056,968
They were given a day of rest before the start of the second battle royale, though they still couldn't interact with the outside world.
The System was feeding them, though, so there wasn’t much of a problem, Mila not having to hunt for lust filled souls.
During the downtime they also got to make use of the better environment on Hira than in most of the Trials, even while they felt like they were still in the subspace where they’d just won the first battle royale, and this enabled Aalam to have a few breakthroughs, his Law Larvae of Ionization and Ionic Conductivity both rising to middle grade, Mila immediately making use of the free stats the breakthrough generated.
Then the second battle royale started, and this time it was much harder. Of their 133 opponents, every single one had gotten in the top three of their previous royale and they were all quite strong. At least half were being boosted through outside forces, that boost represented in their body in the trial space, so Aalam was effectively up against 71 E rank warriors and mages.
Still, with upper D rank Spirit and the skills to make use of it, along with way too many Legendary grade detection skills, Aalam was able to find and beat everyone, especially given only five individuals had a way to block the plague. He wasn’t, however, able to kill everyone before they killed others, so the results were a bit worse, though he did find several other useful artifacts, including an even better stealth increasing robe for Mila and an artifact to make feeding mana blocks into the usage of higher rank formations and talismans quicker and stealthier.
Congratulations!
Battle Royale II over. Calculating rewards.
You had the most royale points.
You were the only living cultivator remaining. Hidden Achievement I received.
Reward: Total Accumulated Trial Points X 1.5
Current Total Accumulated Trial Points: 869,470,143,649,585,452
Aalam was inspired by one of the cultivators he’d fought against and managed to raise his Law Larva of Antimatter to middle grade during the day long break, and this then left only his Law Larvae of Passion, Tranquility, Storm, Fission, Fusion, Bonds, Severing, and Vacuum still at early grade.
Battle Royale III then started, the final one according to the System, and the opponents were even tougher, everyone equivalent to an E rank instead of just half. The plague still went out though, and, even if people were defending against it, most had to concentrate to do so and that made it easier for Aalam to kill the first couple dozen.
Then, however, through the use of his Heightened Senses skill, he spotted a woman with silver semi-translucent hair and pure black orbs for eyes slicing three cultivators to death with what looked like spatial slices, an annoyed expression on her face.
She was over twelve kilometers away from the cultivators she’d killed and Aalam was about 100 kilometers away from her, over half the distance of the subspace, but, even when watching her from that distance, the ripples of the Law she’d infused into her attack helped Aalam’s Law Larva of Vacuum instantly break through to middle grade.
“Aalam, avoid her and kill as many other cultivators as possible. You can try fighting her when there is no one else left,” Mila sent.
She had been watching through Aalam’s senses with one of her minds, and she didn’t need Nana Xara’s commentary to tell the silver-haired woman was someone they likely wouldn’t be able to beat. Even from 150 kilometers away, she could feel the ripples of the Law the woman used and it was like nothing she’d ever sensed.
When she did hear Nana Xara’s commentary, however, she completely gave up on Aalam having any chance of beating the woman, and Nana Xara had only said six words.
“That is not a Law Larva.”