In a random alley somewhere, a man wearing ragged and dirty clothes woke up, hungover from the drinking session that he had yesterday.

When he woke up, he looked at his clothes and where he woke up, alarmed by the situation that he was in. "What the fuck? Did I get robbed or something?"

"Damn, unlucky..." Standing up, he scratched his head as he walked out into the street. "Well, I'm gonna need some new clothes."

As he walked to the nearest clothing shop, a man holding a bag filled with clothes suddenly tripped, landing on the ground head first and getting knocked out from the impact. The bag that the man had been holding flew in the air and landed in his arms.

He smiled as he took a look inside the bag. "Haha, lucky."

Changing into his new clothes which luckily fit him perfectly, he went into the Adventurer's Guild building and took a look at the leaderboard.

"Russel! My man, what happened to you last night?" a voice behind him asked which he identified as his friend.

"Robbed... I think... Oh yeah, do you have a cigar on you by chance? Hangover's killing me."

"Yeah, for sure." The man pulled out an unlit cigarette and gave it to Russel.

Russel grabbed the cigarette, thanking him as he put it into his mouth, the cigarette's tip catching on fire from an unknown source.

"I see there's a new guy on the leaderboard. Tai Zenith?" he said, puffing out a cloud of smoke.

Global Leaderboard - Sorted by level 6. Tai Zenith - Lvl. 300 - Rank A

"You think he's gonna finish his trial?" Russel asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. I've heard some of the UEE soldiers talking about him as I broke into their base. Superiors ordered the soldiers in his city to keep an eye on him."

"Interesting. Let's hope he's lucky enough to pass his trial."

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As Tai arrived at the familiar trial room, he looked to the side expecting the same two men that conducted his 1st trial but found a floating, yellow ball with eyes and a mouth, and beside it a man with black skin that almost seemed to be pitch black with a pair of small horns atop his head.

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"Hey, isn't this the guy that those two were talking about?" the ball said.

The man nodded. "And he seems to be partially merged with his element. Not bad."

"The sloth has also taken a liking to him..."

The man nodded and stood up, ready to explain the trial and start. "Tai Zenith, your trial will consist of multiple parts, and unlucky for you, the system has told me not to give you any details of the trials, but just know that they will help you. I like it this way anyway. Explaining is annoying, now start!"

Tai was a bit annoyed that the trial wasn't going to be explained to him in detail but he didn't mind.

In the middle of the circular platform, a black orb that seemed to be made out of marble was floating in the air.

"What do I do with this?" Tai asked as he looked at the orb, but the two beings at the side just looked and didn't answer.

"Do I touch it?" Approaching the black orb, Tai placed his hand flat on its surface and felt a pinching sensation all throughout his body. The orb also became transparent as a red substance started filling up the orb.

Oh, I see. I just fill the orb up with this red thing?

The pinching sensation slowly increased and Tai soon found out that this was a trial of pain. The pain went from tolerable to feeling like his body was being ripped apart over and over again and the orb wasn't even halfway there.

Tai tried his best to keep his hand on the black orb as his Pain Resistance leveled up multiple times in a row.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts...

Tai shook on the ground as he barely grabbed onto the orb, the pain ever increasing. Even with all this pain, the orb had just reached the halfway mark and he could barely hold on.

After a few more seconds, Tai couldn't handle the pain and let go of the orb as he shook on the ground. Not only did it feel like his body was splitting apart, it felt like every bone in his body was being broken. He even felt the sensation of drowning, and being burned alive at the same time.

The red liquid in the orb disappeared as soon as he took his hand off and returned to its initial state.

Tai had figured out what this part of the trial was. He had to keep his hand on the orb until it was full of the red liquid which he guessed was pain.

Taking a deep breath, he stood up once again, preparing himself to take in the horrible pain that he had just experienced.

Think Tai, think. What can I do? ...That's right! Pain Transferal.

With his new plan, he touched the orb again, feeling the same pinching sensation. He took a deep breath and sat down, crossing his legs as the pain increased.

The pain rose and rose and before he knew it, the orb was halfway full again and he was experiencing the same pain form last time that left him shaking.

Ok, let's transfer the pain to the ground

Tai wasn't even sure if it would work, but he had to try and to his surprise, it worked. The pain became bearable, but it still wasn't over. He could still feel the pain and it increased as he reached the 3 quarters mark.

Just a little more. Just a little more.

Once again, the pain was unbearable and Tai knew that if he didn't have his Pain Transferal skill active, he would've most likely passed out by now.

After a few seconds of excruciating pain, he finished the first part of his trial and fell down to the ground.