MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Hearing the name of the trial that he would have to go through, multiple possibilities appeared within the young man's mind as there were many ways to interpret the last two words. "Myriad Aberrations… since a myriad is equivalent to 10,000, would I need to fight against 10,000 aberrations at once?"

"Perhaps I would need to survive through a myriad number of waves made out of aberrations." Saying these words, Valyr's body faintly shuddered in fear. If that was the Gates of Enlightenment's interpretation of those two words, then it was more or less a given that he would fail the trial. Even though he was confident he could fight for hours on end, his stamina could only go so far.

"Or perhaps I would just need to kill 10,000 aberrations in total." Allowing more and more possible ideas on how the trial worked to surface in his mind, the young man began to think from a more optimistic standpoint. Fortunately, it did not take long for his multiple hypotheses to be verified as the voice resounded throughout the barren space once more.

'The Trial of Myriad Aberrations is considered one of the more difficult tribulations a preliminary candidate has to face before becoming truly eligible to enter the Gates of Enlightenment.'

'During this tribulation, the candidate has to fight against multiple aberrations at once, the quantity and quality of which would gradually increase the more aberrations the candidate has killed.'

'Once the preliminary candidate successfully survives against the ever-increasing strength and number of the aberrations, only then would they be deemed worthy to enter the Gates of Enlightenment and gain the truths it holds.'

'You have been given five minutes to prepare.' Hearing these words come from the disembodied voice, the young man went silent for a bit as he internalized the information he had received.

"So, if I'm getting this right, then the Trial of Myriad Aberrations is a battle of attrition," muttered the young man to himself as he sat down on the ground. Closing his eyes for a bit, he began to compose himself, adjusting his physical and mental state to peak condition for what was to come. "However, unlike the battles of attrition I've hypothesized, it's more similar to the thoughts I had at the end rather than those at the beginning."

Letting out a faint sigh, he stood up and looked at the horizon before him with an expression of intense determination, firmly gripping onto the magic scepter in the process. After finding out during their second foray against the aberrations that the curse could not affect the scepter in any way, a bit of confidence welled up within the young man, feeling that there was a considerable chance for him to complete the trial and move onward.

"Then again, I have no clue whether or not there's a limit to how much the aberrations would grow in strength during this trial." With this thought in mind, Valyr gripped onto the scepter even tighter as the disembodied voice resounded throughout the area one last time.

'The tribulation begins in 3… 2… 1…'

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

At the very instant the disembodied voice was finished counting down, 10 pillars of golden light appeared around a hundred meters away from Valyr. Gazing at the beings that had appeared within those light pillars, the young man took in a deep breath and used [Greater Analysis] on one of them, sensing that their auras were considerably stronger than the ones found in the plains.

Ding!

[Aberration (Legendary Elite)] (Level 66)

Class: Aberration (Uncommon)

HP: 18,368/18,368

MP: 12,320/12,320

Stats: 574 VIT, 671 STR, 601 AGI, 565 DEX, 385 INT, 340 WIS, 302 PER, 176 LUK

Skills: [Intermediate Regeneration], [Intermediate Physical Damage Resistance], [Basic Physical Damage Nullification], [Basic Magical Damage Resistance],...

Remarks: Remain vigilant for they shall grow ever stronger with the passage of time.

'Two levels higher than the ones outside.' Getting a better idea of what kind of enemy he was up against, Valyr faintly nodded as he activated [Offense Aura+] and pushed [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] to the limit. In the meantime, the aberrations looked around their surroundings for a fair bit, their actions showing that they had been transported to the barren space out of nowhere.

However, as if they had been given an order from someplace else, the ten aberrations all looked in the direction where Valyr stood at the same time, only for them to go berserk as they madly charged at the young man.

"[Crimson Blade Torrent]!" Unfortunately, before the aberrations could even cross half the distance separating them from the young man, [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] had already revealed all of the weak spots Valyr needed to aim, deciding to go for a blanket approach as he sent out a barrage of blazing crimson blades at the aberrations.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Grwwaaaggh!!!" With the momentum and force behind the crimson blades, as well as the fact that Valyr had intently manipulated a great portion of them to head towards the weak spots he had identified, the ten aberrations swiftly fell to the ground like trees felled by an axe.

'That makes it ten kills.' Noticing that the vitality within the ten aberrations began to gradually slip away, the young man quickly had a feeling that 10 pillars of light would appear after some time, with the aberrations making up the group being slightly stronger than the group that came before it.

Well, he was partly right.

"Graaaagggghhh…" Instead of golden light pillars appearing in another part of the large barren space he was in, the ten aberration corpses instead glowed a faint gold as vitality gradually returned to their bodies. Eventually, the vitality that contained within their bodies reached a level that was akin to what Valyr felt from their bodies before…

Only for it to go beyond that by a slight margin.

"Grwaagghhh!!!" With the distance between them being halved and their strengths slightly empowered, Valyr was forced to retreat for a bit as he identified the aberrations once more with [Greater Analysis]. Taking a quick look to see what had changed about the aberrations, the young man eventually stopped in his tracks and shot out a barrage of crimson blades once more, rendering the 10 dead yet again.

"They leveled up." With a solemn expression on his face, Valyr looked at the ten corpses as he noted that his kills had now reached 20. Now somewhat understanding the mechanic that the trial operated on, the young man distanced himself from the corpses, only for them to revive slightly stronger.

With each revival, the group of aberrations grew by one level. In fact, it did not take long for the aberrations to reach the peak of Rank 4 at Level 75, only needing the young man to kill the group of aberrations nine times in a row. Though, after he had killed the group of aberrations the tenth time, bringing up his kill count to 100, something different happened.

Whoosh!

Out of nowhere, the aberrations had doubled in count, all of them gradually getting off the ground as they radiated the might of a being at the peak of Rank 4. However, after sensing that their strengths had undergone a significant increase when compared to before, the young man quickly activated [Greater Analysis] on one of the aberrations once more to find out what was going on.

It was there that he found out that the aberrations weren't Legendary Elite tier monsters anymore.

They were Mythic Elite tier.