As he faced the 4 wooden puppets, Leiu couldn't help but wipe the invisible cold sweat on his forehead, just thinking about what was to come made him feel anxious.

While gritting his teeth, Leiu stood there, waiting for them to attack, although they gave him 30 seconds between each fight, it was not enough to restore a lot of stamina, so while thinking about that guess, he decided to let them attack and use the least strength he could to get rid of them.

He must preserve and save as much stamina as possible, because if his guess was correct, and it definitely was, then he was going to need a whole lot more Stamina.

The wooden puppets didn't stand still and watch him, they rushed at him simultaneously. Their relied on their wooden limbs to launch kicks and punches, which were slow and relatively easy to dodge or parry.

With accurate and fast strikes, he avoided an incoming punch and cut a wooden puppet in half, then he side-stepped yet another straight punch aimed at his abdomen while chopping down with his steel sword, finishing another puppet.

There were two remaining, one flying down at him with a kick, while the other did a Brazilian kick, they really used dangerous martial arts, but Leiu didn't let himself get hit even once while throwing his sword at the flying puppet.

He met the Brazilian kick with a kick too. He wasn't a martial artist, but he had enough Strength to block that hit.

As for the flying puppet, it was cut by the flying sword.

Leiu then jumped to catch his sword and waited for the last puppet, which was sent flying 3 meters or so by his kick.

The wooden puppet got up and rushed at him again, its leg was barely functioning, yet it didn't mind and attacked Leiu again, but its fate was obvious as it was easily finished off.

..

Like this, Leiu kept getting rid of the wooden puppet. Their number escalated to 8.. 16.. 32.. he didn't move from his position, trying to limit needless movements.

Dealing with 32 puppets was not easy, no matter how strong he was, he still got hit and lost 4 Health points.

Fortunately, the puppets were all fighters, so they were either crushed or cut by his Steel Sword until he was the only one standing in that empty space.

As he hit the 64-mark, wooden puppets appeared one after another, but this time, there were some abnormalities.

'I knew it! It couldn't be this easy since the first Trial was hard!'

Seeing that his second guess was also correct, Leiu didn't feel happy, quite the opposite, in fact, he felt stressed, as, amongst the 64 wooden puppets, about 10 of them held swords and a small shield on their other side.

Since they had swords now, only standing would be a bit of a problem, he had to get rid of these wooden puppets first.

Leiu kicked the ground and rushed at them, dashing in-between them and aiming for the armed targets, which he deemed were the most troublesome.

His speed was decent as he appeared in front of an abnormal wooden puppet in just 10 seconds.

Without hesitation, he thrust his sword toward the wooden puppet, which didn't stay still, of course, as it held its shield to obstruct the incoming sword.

The Steel Sword and the small shield clashed, the latter managed to hold off for a second before it was destroyed, but the sword was bounced off too, Leiu then kicked the wooden puppet, finishing it off and jumping in the air to avoid the incoming attacks of the other wooden puppets.

They might be mere puppets, but they weren't dummies, which stood still and simply got hit. While Leiu dashed between several of them and finished some, they all ganged up on him, throwing punches and kicks, as a result, Leiu used one of them as a momentum and jump in the air.

The ground was littered with them, even so, Leiu crashed down onto one of them, brutally pulverizing its faceless head. After that, he spun around and hacked down with his sword, which went through the easily-cuttable wooden targets.

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..

By the time the 63 puppets were dead, Leiu wasn't completely exhausted but he still felt a lot of physical fatigue.

The reason he didn't kill the last one, which was a fighter puppet, was because Leiu came up with a clever plan. As the puppet came rushing at him, Leiu skilfully cut off its legs and then restricted its movements.

The idea he had was keeping a single weak puppet and use it to buy time... time to recover Health and Stamina. The System didn't give him an rules related to this Trial so he assumed he could do whatever he wanted as long as he won.

13 minutes or so later, Leiu stood up and finished the dismembered puppet, his Stamina was fully recovered, so was his Health. Fortunately, his idea worked

128 wooden puppet appeared, this time, even more types were added, they held wooden bows and had a set of arrows at their back, Leiu's gaze turned serious as he gazed at them, his previous happiness seemed to disappear and his face turned uglier than it already was.

'How is this fair? At least give me a companion or a pet!'

While leaping at the enemies, he tried to limit the contact between his sword and their shields, so as to not drop its durability even more, but even despite that, it already dropped to 3, some cracks appeared on it, Leiu was sure it would not hold on much longer.

While using some of the wooden puppets bodies to cover himself from the rain of arrows, which managed to kill some of them; he dashed at the archer wooden puppets and finished them one by one, he only relaxed a bit when they were all gone. The next problem were the ones holding swords.

His Level already rose, considering every puppet gave 2% then he obviously leveled up, moreover, the archers and sword wielder puppets gave a bit more, not a huge difference but it was welcomed, nonetheless.

20 minutes, that's how much time it took him to finish 127 puppets, unlike the last one, he was panting excessively, only 7 stamina left, and this time, there was much more sword wielder puppets, which were troublesome to deal with, even more than the archers.

Leiu left the last puppet dismembered and did the same thing as before. However, just as he sat down, his Steel Sword shattered into pieces.

As he was going to curse his luck, a message popped up.

Due to not having a weapon, you will be given a standard weapon of choice.

'Give me a one-handed sword.'

As he said that, the space distorted for a bit before a Steel Sword fell on the floor, unexpectedly, it was exactly the same as he has been using.

Leiu equipped the sword and rested to regain his Health and Stamina.

After half an hour of resting, he fully recovered so he finished the poor wriggling puppet, a 30 seconds 'resting' time was given, though something appeared which contradicted Leiu's guess, it wasn't an army of 256 puppets, but something else.

To be honest, him dealing with 128 puppets was already too difficult even though they were easy enemies. If the puppets weren't killed in one-hit, he wouldn't have succeeded in killing 32 of them, much less 128.

Maybe they made it easier for him because he is low leveled, but it's a class quest for the love of God, so no matter how difficult it is, it shouldn't be impossible for players.

Leiu smiled helplessly as he gazed at what's in front of him: 5 meters in height, rusty metallic armor and a huge black axe in its hands... it was a big wooden puppet with a big helmet, shoulder and knee guards and a full armor that covered its torso.

'Of course, it's a boss...'

Wooden puppet Lord(Boss 'D): Lv20

Invisible Strike(Rare) levelled up! Lv1 => Lv2 :

You can slash a second time with a fast speed naked to the eye, an invisible attack : the attack would deal 130% the damage of the first slash.

Cost : 3 Mana / Cooldown : 15 seconds

Showing flawless movements and exceeding humans limits, from countless fights and experiences, you managed to surpass what others called unsurpassable : Strength +1 / Intelligence +2 / Dexterity +2