Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

At this point, it was blatant that Zara also had something anomalous about her — something different from his Primordial-grade talent and Formless core, but crazy and broken enough that she could nearly keep pace with him.

It took Uhtred a firm will not to probe and open that can of worms with Zara. He knew it would still happen eventually, but for now, he decided it wasn’t the time.

Aside from Zara, across the rest of the human population, several key powerhouses also reached the Nascent Realm during the final two weeks, their names updating on the trial rankings as they crossed the threshold.

Perfection broke into the Nascent Realm and reached Level 27 by the end of the trial, taking the spot as the third-highest-leveled human behind Uhtred and Zara. In doing so, he passed King Alexei, who had only broken through to Level 26.

Black Sun Mateo reached the Nascent Realm about four days before the trial ended, settling at the middle stage of Level 25. Diya was next, reaching the Nascent Realm a day before the trial’s end, while Antoine Blanc crossed the line just hours before time was up.

These five, alongside Uhtred and Zara, made up the only modern humans who successfully entered the Nascent Realm before the trial ended.

Several other top rankers, including Hassan Al-Malik, White Raven, Isolde Castiglione, Quiet Daoist, and a few ascenders who had been on Uhtred’s strike team during the Age of Hunger trial, reached Level 24 and sat right at the peak without crossing.

It seemed the breakthrough had not been as easy for them.

Looking at this situation, Uhtred came to a clear conclusion about how the Mortal-Nascent Realm threshold worked. A cultivator’s talent grade directly affected how difficult it was to cross the boundary. Rare and Uncommon grade talents needed far more time and effort to create their sub-core formation, while Common grade talents were effectively blocked at Level 24 completely.

A single-attunement class — which was standard for lower talent grades — could not meet the sub-core requirement naturally. In theory, a single element could probably be divided into sub-aspects with enough conceptual understanding, but doing so with a Common grade talent was so hard that the Mortal-Nascent Realm threshold acted as a firm wall for most of them.

Uhtred figured that the Level 75 boundary, the barrier into whatever realm sat above Nascent, would likely work the same way, but at an even harder level. He noted this silently for later.

On the ancient variant side, Uhtred tracked their progress through the trial leaderboards. He couldn’t see their exact levels there, but it provided a rough estimate compared to the humans whose levels he already knew.

Both the female general and Krijn stayed directly below him and Zara at the top of the trial rankings. Right below the top four, three ancient variant commanders filled the next spots before Perfection, who sat at number eight.

After him, the next human was King Alexei at number thirteen, meaning there were four more ancient variant commanders whose levels were somewhere between Level 27 and Level 26. This showed that the variants had also trained heavily during the two-week peace, sharpening their strongest ascenders.

Both sides now understood the true strength of the other. When their conflict inevitably resumed on the main continent, it would no longer involve small tests or cautious probing. It would be direct and far more brutal than anything seen before the trials.

As the final second of the two-week trial finally counted down, the System’s notice appeared again on everyone’s status screens.

[Notice!]

[The One-month Continental Event: "Trial of Ages" has officially concluded]

[No progress was made against the otherworlder force in the third trial zone...]

[Final result for "Age of Convergence" trial: Tie]

[Overall Continental "Trial of Ages" Winner: Inconclusive]

[Reassessing...]

[Both the modern human and ancient variant factions won a single trial each. More nuanced metrics across the three trials will be judged by the System to come up with a clear winner. However, the result of this reassessment will not be made public]

[For all intent and purpose, the "Trial of Ages" has officially concluded in a tie]

The System offered no rewards, no big show, and no extra words. Immediately after the last message was displayed, hundreds of glowing blue teleportation circles suddenly appeared across the Grotto Heavens of Zone 2. The circles were connected directly to the territories of those who owned one on the main continents.

Uhtred walked up to the large, glowing circle that had appeared before him, connected directly to his territory.

Because the hundred recruits Diya and Dennis brought together came from different sectors, and even different continents across Earth, the System required clear permission from the territory owner to allow them through.

The moment Uhtred stepped into the circle, a message popped up in his view, asking if he wanted to take the hundred new people along with him, Zara, Diya, and Dennis.

He gave permission, and in an instant, the blinding light of the teleportation circle enveloped every single one of them.

The same was happening all across the trial grounds. Even those who wanted to be smart and stay behind were being forcefully booted out.

The Trial of Ages had finally come to an end. More than 3.9 million participants, modern human and ancient variant alike, had entered the trials at the start. Now, only about 411,000 were returning. Nearly 3.5 million had perished here in Australia.

But one thing was for sure. The 411,000 who survived had gone through a trial of reawakening. The experiences they had endured, the things they had witnessed, and the things they had done — especially the modern humans — had surely opened their eyes to the true reality of this new integration world.

As they returned to the main continents, they were returning anew and much, much stronger than when they arrived.

Just how exactly their dramatic changes would rock the current status quo on the main continents remained to be seen...

.

.

Across the Zone 2 border, in the city of the Jotuniel otherworlders...

The Jotuniel leader himself, hovering high in the sky atop his dark unicorn, peered into the far distance, watching the last of the bright lights of the hundreds of teleportation circles disappear. A light smile tugged at his lips, his expression vacant.

Another Jotuniel soared up to meet him at his height using just his wings, unlike the leader who sat atop a mount.

"So, that human is gone now, brother," the newcomer spoke, drawing the leader’s attention. "I still cannot understand why you revealed all of that to him... You were treading the edge of what the System allows. I cannot fathom why you would risk such grave penalties just for a mere human..."

The leader finally tore his gaze away from the distance and looked at the newcomer, his brother.

"Because, Arrki," the leader lightly touched his gold eyes, which seemed to shine brighter despite the daylight, "my eyes never lie."

That response didn’t seem like enough for Arrki. However, he only clenched his jaw and chose to trust his brother’s judgment.

His brother, the leader, noticed the look and chuckled lightly, then looked to the distance again.

"In their next trial... I believe he’s going to reach there."

Arrki gasped.

"Brother... do you mean..."

The leader said nothing more. His gaze firmed up abruptly and he turned his attention to the city below.

"Now we have work to do. In preparation for that, we as Jotuniels must all be of one accord."

"It is time to silence all the dissenting voices."