Chapter 154: Final Push
The final two days of the trial turned into a brutal, non-stop meat grinder.
Without the cushion of a breakthrough, Zara struggled heavily against the escalating danger of the inner zone.
The beasts roaming this deep into the zone were Level 25 and Level 26 monsters. If not for the nature of her spatial magic — utilizing localized singularities to redirect lethal strikes and dodge critical hits — she wouldn’t have survived the push this deep.
Even though she was used to fighting above her level, the Nascent Realm beasts were a completely different monster. Uhtred handled most of the fights, while Zara focused on supporting him.
Crossing into the Nascent Realm had fundamentally altered Uhtred’s combat output. The difference between Level 24 and Level 25 was a massive, qualitative leap.
Because he had already created sub-cores back in his Mortal Realm days, he didn’t experience the shock of adjusting to a split core formation for the first time.
Instead, his sub-cores now operated at their true, intended capacity. He could feed raw, refined Nascent-tier essence through his body without experiencing internal friction, allowing his strikes to deal vastly more damage to high-level beasts.
They carved a bloody path through the deep interior, storming and claiming three high-density Grotto Heavens over the course of Day 6 and into Day 7.
They didn’t stop to rest. They didn’t pause to sleep. They were the sole human force operating at this depth, acting as the primary flag-bearers for their entire species.
By the late afternoon of the seventh day, with barely an hour remaining on the trial clock, they encountered a massive bottleneck.
A Level 27 beast, a monstrous, six-legged reptilian behemoth that controlled earth magic so intensely that the area around it distorted like a gravity well, was guarding the closest Grotto Heaven to the inner border line.
Uhtred’s initial instinct when sensing the creature’s immense pressure was to retreat and settle for the Grotto Heavens they had already conquered. Facing a Level 27 monster while he was Level 25 and Zara was Level 24 was an absurdly dangerous risk.
That two-level gap was almost equivalent to a ten-level gap within the Mortal Realm. The differences between levels here in the Nascent Realm were insane.
In the end, though, Uhtred remained undeterred. He urged Zara forward, and they both engaged the beast.
The battle that followed was the most grueling one Uhtred had faced since entering the trial grounds. Much worse than his battle against the Dune Strider serpent.
The Level 27 reptile slammed them with crushing gravitational fields that made every step feel like carrying a mountain. Zara was forced into an entirely defensive role, using every drop of her spatial energy to warp the gravity fields away from Uhtred so he wouldn’t be flattened on contact.
Uhtred threw himself into the fray with suicidal intensity. He pushed his physical strength to its absolute limit, embedding thermal and metal magic into every swing of his axe while weaving his newly practiced, crude unified spell to disrupt the beast’s earth armor.
Blood poured from several of his orifices from the immense pressure bearing down on him. His muscles burned with severe exhaustion, but he pushed past his physical limits, relentlessly battling the monster and whittling away at its vital spots.
With each powerful swing, he cycled his cosmic essence through his battle-axe repeatedly, to the point where the star-metal material began to show obvious damage.
The weapon had served him well ever since the first day of the integration. Uhtred had long noticed signs of wear and tear, but it had still held up remarkably well.
However, against this monster, it finally shattered... but not before taking the creature’s life.
Uhtred collapsed onto one knee, gasping violently for air after a hard fought battle, his right hand trembling as the blood from the beast soaked into the red dirt beneath him.
Not far from him, Zara dropped straight to the ground, her face completely drained of color and her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps. For someone who rarely showed emotion or physical strain, she looked entirely spent, her spatial reserves completely drained.
They had done it. They had claimed the deepest, most valuable Grotto Heaven on the entire continent, sitting merely a few miles away from the shimmering border to Zone 3.
It had barely even been a full minute after they had defeated the beast when the final countdown reached zero.
[Notice!]
[The 7-day duration for the "Age of Abundance" trial has officially concluded]
[Calculating final internal scores across all metrics: Grotto Heavens Claimed, Total Cultivation Level Breakthroughs, and Original Techniques Created...]
[Final Result: Modern Human Faction — VICTORY!]
A system map interface expanded before Uhtred’s eyes, displaying the final territorial split across the continent.
Looking at the numbers, Uhtred let out a dry, weary laugh.
It had been dangerously close.
The ancient variants had held a massive lead in total level breakthroughs thanks to their Inheritance Shard. But the combined impact of the human-made cultivation techniques circulating among the lower ranks, paired with Uhtred and Zara’s desperate, last-minute capture of this Level 27 Grotto Heaven, had tipped the final point tally in humanity’s favor by the barest margin.
If they had chosen to retreat from the Level 27 beast instead of fighting it, the ancient variants would have claimed the overall victory.
Zara let out a long, silent sigh of relief, too exhausted to even comment on the win.
[Notice!]
[All surviving trial participants will now enter a 12-hour buffer period]
As the System notifications flashed, Uhtred continued reading as more began coming in, explaining the details for the upcoming transition to the next trial.
Compared to the transition after the first "Age of Hunger" trial, where everyone had been required to reach the border of the next zone, this time there was no such requirement.
After the 12-hour buffer period ended, the third trial zone would open, but that didn’t mean everyone within Zone 2 was going to be booted out. It simply meant the next zone was open for those who could reach it.
For the vast majority of human ascenders who were still within the first half of Zone 2, the System was not going to drag them forward. They were free to stay here for the remaining two weeks of the one-month continental trial, utilizing the high-density ambient essence to safely grind their levels without facing instant death in Zone 3.
Meanwhile, ambitious ascenders like King Alexei, Perfection, Black Sun, Antoine Blanc — High-levelers whose levels now sat at 20, 19, 17, and 15 respectively, could use the remaining time to push into the Nascent Realm at their own pace and cross into Zone 3 whenever they were ready.
It was a natural filter. Only those who possessed the strength to reach the frontier were permitted to participate in the third trial.
Uhtred closed his eyes, letting the dense, pristine essence of the Level 27 Grotto Heaven passively wash over his battered body, slowly repairing his exhausted pathways while Zara began attempting to push to the Nascent Realm beside him.
As a reward for winning the trial, humanity had been rewarded with an Inheritance Shard. Uhtred’s thumb brushed over the crystal in his palm carefully. He had been given one, just like Zara had also been given one too.
Uhtred wasn’t sure if every other human within the trial grounds had also received the same. Perhaps it was until one reached this deep into the zone and was ready to cross into the next trial that they would receive a shard for themselves, but he couldn’t be sure.
In any case, it wasn’t like he could use it here and now. The System had explained that the shard could only be used within the third and final trial ground.
I wonder what kind of trial it’s going to be...
Uhtred didn’t need to wait for too long. The twelve hours flew by, and soon enough a new glowing prompt materialized in the center of his vision, answering his question:
[Notice!]
[The third trial has now begun: "Age of...]