I grabbed my sword that lay covered in blood and fat. Swinging it to remove the excess wasn't really effective.
The fat and protein in blood were too sticky for all of it to completely come off. Damn, how did they do it in anime?
[15:13:21]
So that's how long it took them to bring my health down and for me to fully regenerate?
It's been so long since I have been in a war but let's try it. I held the sword out in front of me. I felt the dampness of the cave, the solid ground beneath my feet and finally the handle of the sword I gripped in my hands. The world seemed to become silent with only the heavy breaths of the goblins to occupy it. One by One the goblins started to approach me again. I couldn't be as careless as last time. Remember it, How to kill.
{Passive Skill Gained!: Sword Mastery}
I jumped once more. The frontline goblins stabbed forward with their spears. I threw my sword while In mid-air at the goblin closest to me. The goblin dropped its spear as I used that gap to sneak into their formation. Quickly grabbing the sword that embedded itself in the head of the goblin, I beheaded the goblin to my left and right in one swing. I ducked under a sword slash from a goblin and grabbed the shield that a goblin once held. I shield barged the goblin that had swung the sword. I grabbed the edges shield and jammed it into the neck of the goblin, like a makeshift guillotine. I grabbed the sword that looked like a gladius, from the goblin's corpse. I moved to kill the next one.
[31:16:01]
It had taken me a while but I had finally managed to kill every single one. My armour was now barely visible and my clothes in tatters but I didn't care, I don't remember the last time I felt so 'Alive'.
The clock, however, didn't stop ticking...I wasn't stuck here, right? "HEY! STOP TICKING PLEASE???" Was I going to have to live here for the rest of my life? Surely the timer would have stopped after I killed all of them. Maybe one was still alive...Do I have to go stabbing all of them one by one?
The ground started to shake.
Another Teleportation?
A large Pig walking on 2 legs wearing armour and a large butcher's knife. Its head was...Damn...Its head was too big for the cave. It was head was breaking down the top of the entrance as it walked.
Okayyyy...
It loomed over me, it must have been at least 10 feet/ 3 meters in height, maybe twice that in width.
"GYAWWWWWWW"
It let out an inaudible shout as it swung down its knife. I was gonna parry, then I realised I am not a complete idiot.
I strafed to the left and spun adding momentum in my swing as I slashed just above his knee. The sword in my hand broke off into the leg of the pig causing it to kneel.
I could see the name tag above its head:
{Calamity: Correction}
Before I had a chance to realise what it meant a fist struck the side of my body. I was sent spinning into the ground, the air in my lungs was forcibly removed.
I was about to lose consciousness but somehow I have managed to hold on.
Grabbing the sword closest to me I stood once again with it as a cane.
[5300/11000]
One hit managed to shave off 5700 of my hp.
The sword felt like my only ally in a situation where I was all alone. No matter who left me, the skill of using the sword was always there.
{Sword Mastery Rank-UP}
I felt the sword become less of an ally and more of a limb. I focused on that feeling, forcing it to go further, to remember the bloodshed I caused many years ago.
{Sword Mastery Rank-UP}
The pig, I assume is an Orc had cut off its own leg...
"GYA GYA GYAAAAA" It threw its now ripped off leg towards me. Ducking under it, I realised that it had already grown a new leg. I wonder how many times it could do that. Is it hyper regeneration or the same undying ability as me?
After I gained the sword mastery ability I can now see what seems like guiding lines whenever I'm about to be slashed at or whenever I'm about to swing my sword. Of course, I'm not exactly going to use them as it will make me too reliant on them.
CLANG!
I let it slash slide off my blade and used the opening to strike its eyes. Can it repair sensitive organs like the eyes? It let go of its giant knife and quickly grabbed onto its own eyes as it howled in pain. I dashed behind it and in succession I attacked. Above its ankles, back of its knees and finally its ears. The last strike caused my sword to break. This time I picked up two weapons. It had already healed but I was faster. Same positions once again, but this time the sword did break. I jumped up and came back down spinning and aimed for its neck. A large gash appeared where my sword had struck, the tough skin once again broke the sword I used to strike, but this time I grabbed the blade that had broken off and shoved it into the open wound. With the other sword, I tried stabbing its leg into the ground, of course, that didn't work and the blade just broke and jammed into my own arm. I backed away pulled the sword fragment out my own arm and watched the Orc try and heal.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
It yelled as it seemed like its cells had to force out the blade from inside its neck. The place it came out from? Its eyes.
I grabbed another sword and without giving it a chance to stand up I attacked the same places again.
----------------------------------------
[39:10:55]
It had taken me a while but the Orc was finally on the ground and wheezing. Countless blade handles and broken blades lay around me. The Orc was now much skinnier.
"Where do you think the energy to heal your body comes from"
I grabbed its large butchers knife-like blade. It was heavy. Incredibly heavy. I required both hands to lift it up before finally letting it go, separating the Orcs head from its body. If the head is the stem of the body, then It doesn't have the required energy to heal its self. The blade also blocked it from reconnecting it to its original body.
[39:12:03] The clock finally stopped.
As If to remind me that I had succeeded...
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{Congratulations!}
{Congratulations!}
{Congratulations!}
...
Damn...I was so mentally tired but my body has never felt so alive.
{Trial Completed!!!}
{Congratulations For Being The First Of Your 'Earth' Kind To Complete The Trial fully-'Pathfinder' Tree Has Been Unlocked}
{Congratulations On Being The First Of Your Kind To Kill A Calamity! 'Pathfinder' Tree Enhanced, 'Blood Saviour' Tree Unlocked}
{Congratulations On Killing A Calamity During Trial!-Points Accumulated-Enhancing Gift}
{Timer Limit Surpassed, Point Over-Accumulation-Enhancing Gift}
{Titles Unlocked}
{Titles Gained}
{A Legend}-[Gained By Learning A Legendary Skill]-[Increases Speed Of Learning Legendary Skills]
{Beyond Man Lies Myth}-[Gained By Learning A Legendary Skill]-[Increases Speed Of Learning Mythical Skills]
{Goblin Hunter} -[Gained By killing Over 500 Goblins]-[Increased Damage Against Goblins, Goblins Feel An Innate Fear Towards You, Goblin Kings Feel Innate Hatred Towards You}
{Sword Wielder-Trainee}-->Evolved-->{Sword Wielder-Swordsman}-->{Sword Wielder-Sword Knight} -[Gained From Understanding And Wielding A Sword]-[Increased Damage and Utility When Using A Sword]
{Blood Thirsty}-[Gained From Drinking The Blood Of An Enemy] -[Increased Damage When Blood Drinking, Immune To Status Effects Resulting From Foreign Blood]
{Adaptable}-[Gained From Using Fallen Weapons To Kill]-[Quicker Adaptability To New Terrain]
{Berserker}-[Gained By Killing 10 Enemies Within 15 Seconds] -[Increase In Damage Per Increase In Enemy, Sanity May be Affected]
{Suicidal}-[Gained From Fighting Despite Having 1 Health Point Remaining]- [Increased Damage The Lower The Health]
{Calamity Slayer-Rookie}-[Gained From Successfully Killing A Calamity] -[Increased Attributes When Against A Calamity]
The world around me turned to bright white before finally turning back to the grass plains I was in before. This time though, I wasn't alone there were 4 other men stood In front of me that looked exactly like each other and exactly like...me.
{Commencing Demonstration}
With the starting flare that was the system's voice.
The man on the very right opened his hand wide, and above his palm, lightning formed in the shape of a ball and crackled, the lightning then travelled along his arm and soon circled his body. In the blink of an eye, he travelled a few hundred metres back, and In the next blink, he returned. He punched the ground he originally stood on and caused a large fissure to form. The fissure was longer than the distance he travelled. The ground soon repaired and he returned to his original position.
The man to the left of him materialised a bow in front of him and at the same time, 3 flies randomly appeared and started to float about. The man pulled out an arrow out the quiver and docked it on the bow. In rapid succession, he fired the bow and hit all 3 flies. If that wasn't proof enough of his ability, he managed to only clip the wings and nothing else. The bow disappeared and he returned to his original location.
The next man materialised an entire graveyard with maybe 100 or so graves. He held out his hand and green aura erupted from them. As if lifting a heavyweight the man struggled to hold his hands up, and from the graves came out skeletons and zombies with rotting flesh, some with flesh ripped off from coming out the ground. Less obviously, the next forced the dead to join together, forming a muscular behemoth that had slightly less rotten flesh. Even less obviously, The man then forced himself to merge with the muscular behemoth...replacing its head with his own and causing the muscles to no longer be rotting and instead become just a muscular behemoth in the image of the man. The chest of the behemoth opened up and out popped the man, the green aura disappearing from his hand. The behemoth collapsed and the man returned to his original position.
The last man caused my eyes to open in shock. As if to spite me, the last man materialised a dagger...and slit his own neck. It was a clean cut causing almost all of his head to come off...and in the next second he returned to normal. I couldn't help but want to kill whoever came up with this gift. After he finished his body copy of a worn-out joke, he returned to his original place, the blood just magically disappeared.
{Choose Your Gift}
Well, I didn't really know much about the place I would be placed in so I just went with the one I liked the most.
"The One with the lightning"
The men all disappeared, the one with the ability of lightning instead turned to dust and flew into me.
{Passive Skill Gained!: ThunderClad!}
{Title Gained}
{From The Heart rises Spirit, And From The Spirit Rises Heroes}-[Gained From Learning A Heroic Skill] -[Increases Speed Of Learning Heroic Skills]
{Point-Over accumulation-Gift Evolving}
[Passive Skill Gained!: Thunder Origin}
{Point Further Accumulation-Gift Rank UP]
[Thunder Origin (Legendary)-Rank-3]
I would have time to check my ability when I entered the other world. I also want to know what [Sacrficial Wheel] but that can wait.
{Walk Through Gates To Enter Phase 2 Of Integration}
With that, I walked through the gate with more excitement flowing through me than before.