Gu'en had no trouble dealing with the Lava Stone Monster, so his gaze drifted involuntarily toward the stone pillar.
He noticed that the positions of some names on it had changed, and a string of characters had appeared after each of them.
"Yanlefu, Phase One, 100
Toster, Phase One, 100
Charko, Phase One, 100
Lianda, Phase One, 100
Gu'en, Phase One, 0."
It looked like a ranking of all the challengers, and he could be sure it had something to do with the Lava Stone Monster before him. With that thought, Gu'en immediately struck and defeated the monster.
The Lava Stone Monster thrashed its body in defiance, but Gu'en shattered it with a single punch. Lava-coated rocks scattered in every direction, and Gu'en stared at his fist for several moments.
The searing heat and solid resistance he felt made it clear to Gu'en that this was a real, tangible thing.
"What a marvelous space. It actually conjured up something equivalent to a Tier 7 Warrior. No wonder the guard said there might be a risk to our lives. If the Lava Stone Monster's strength keeps increasing, someone is bound to get hurt—or even killed."
Gu'en looked toward the stone pillar.
He had only been getting used to the illusionary attacks. That kind of attack was rare in the Aoyu Empire, and there was no point in struggling with something that only had onefold force.
Gu'en's final score was 54.
At the same time, a message came from the stone pillar.
Each phase of the trial offered a maximum of one thousand points. Anyone who reached eight hundred points in any phase would receive an additional reward. Anyone who earned all one thousand points would have a chance to become a citizen of Tucha Planet.
Each battle lasted only one hundred seconds. The score awarded was equal to the time remaining, and anyone who lasted the full hundred seconds could continue.
"So that's how it works. I guess I got carried away," Gu'en said, somewhat annoyed. It seemed he was destined to miss out on the perfect-score reward. "But what's Tucha Planet? Is it the person who left behind this Legacy?"
Gu'en knew that the Aoyu Empire, where he lived, occupied only a tiny part of this planet. He also knew other planets existed.
But the planet he lived on definitely wasn't called Tucha Planet.
Gu'en quietly committed that detail to memory.
The Lava Stone Monster crumbled completely, and the light curtain appeared again. This time, though, it was different. No figure appeared; instead, there was a pillar of light and another person.
The face across from him looked familiar. He seemed to be a challenger from East Sea Province named... Scott, or something like that.
One look was enough for them to understand the nature of this challenge. They wouldn't be comprehending the moves and then fighting the Lava Stone Monster anymore. They would be fighting other challengers.
Scott's expression was grim. Gu'en hadn't fought anyone since arriving in Lionheart City, but everyone knew he was a warrior capable of fivefold force.
Was there anyone who could do that who wasn't formidable?
Fivefold force was widely recognized as one of the strongest levels.
Just as Scott was preparing to stall, the stone pillar took shape completely, and another message came:
If neither side won within one hundred seconds, the one with the lower score would be eliminated.
Scott hurriedly searched the pillar for Gu'en's name. If they had the same score, couldn't he persuade Gu'en to stall with him for a hundred seconds? Unless Gu'en was determined to win the eight-hundred-point reward.
But Scott's eyes swept past more than two hundred names without finding Gu'en's. He couldn't help panicking.
A flash of red light passed, and the stone pillar began its countdown.
Gu'en gave him a teasing look. "Don't bother looking. I'm in last place."
Scott glanced over. Sure enough, Gu'en's name sat at the very bottom of the stone pillar: 54!
That meant Gu'en had taken forty-four seconds to defeat the Lava Stone Monster.
"How could that be?" Scott couldn't make sense of it. The Lava Stone Monster was a little troublesome, but it only had onefold force. Everyone who had made it here had at least threefold force; ten seconds was more than enough to deal with one. In fact, everyone except Gu'en had scored over ninety in the first round.
A warrior with fivefold force had taken more than forty seconds. An odd suspicion arose in Scott's mind.
Could it really be as those people said? Was Gu'en all show and no substance?
While Scott's thoughts were racing, Gu'en charged straight at him. The rock beneath his feet cracked, and before Scott could make out his movements, he heard the wind whistle by his ears.
Scott was one of East Sea Province's top warriors, after all. The province's narrow terrain made it easy to be ambushed by ferocious beasts, so even though his mind hadn't caught up, muscle memory had already made him draw his blade and barely block the punch.
"He blocked it?"
Gu'en was a little surprised, but immediately threw another punch.
Scott was drenched in sweat. He used everything he had to desperately defend himself, but after three moves, he left an opening, and Gu'en punched him in the chest.
"Pfft."
Scott felt a sharp pain in his chest and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Ever since they entered the Volcano Interior, some tremendous force had suppressed the Battle Suits and damaged their structure. Only their weapons remained unharmed.
With no protection at all, Scott felt the sweat that had just soaked him turn ice-cold as Gu'en's punch landed.
Gu'en pressed the attack, and after a few more punches and kicks, Scott spat out another two mouthfuls of blood.
"I surrender!" Scott knew there was no way he could hold out, so he gave up without hesitation. A surge of red energy shielded him, and when Gu'en attacked again, it gently bounced him away.
Scott's pillar of light began to collapse, and he glared furiously at Gu'en. "Gu'en! When you run into Toster and the others, they'll avenge me! You coward!"
Scott was miserable. Judging by the situation, all five hundred challengers would be paired off, and half of them would be eliminated each round.
He was doomed to miss out on the top hundred.
The top hundred would certainly be treated very differently from the remaining four hundred, and that was without even considering that he had been eliminated in the very first round.
So all he could hope for was that Gu'en would run into Lianda, Toster, or the others in the next round.
In Scott's eyes, Gu'en and Toster's group were all among the very best. But Gu'en had taken more than forty seconds to defeat the Lava Stone Monster in the first round. Scott didn't know what he had been doing, but he certainly wasn't on Toster's level.
Red light enveloped Scott and whisked him away.
Gu'en didn't even look at him. He simply stared at the stone pillar.
He had taken only five seconds to defeat another challenger, and he still hadn't gone all out.
The names on the stone pillar dimmed one by one. By the time the light curtain appeared and began demonstrating the moves again, only two hundred and fifty challengers remained.
"Twofold force. Is this the second round?"
Gu'en watched the figure demonstrating the moves on the light curtain. This time, it showed only fifty-five moves, covering the process from 1.1-fold force to twofold force. There were fewer moves, but they were still simple and easy.
After a while, the light curtain vanished. Amid a rumble, another Lava Stone Monster appeared. As expected, it had twofold force.
It was the second round. After glancing at his score, Gu'en decided not to waste time this time. He charged forward and, amid the Lava Stone Monster's roar of illusionary attack, punched it in the chest. Its body shuddered violently, then shattered into pieces.
Gu'en killed the Lava Stone Monster in less than a second.
This time, he earned the full one hundred points, bringing his total score to 249.
The Lava Stone Monster vanished. Across from him, an illusory stone pillar appeared, along with the figure of someone taking shape. The other person was probably witnessing the same scene.
Ten seconds.
That was the limit Gu'en set for himself. Unless his opponent was among the very best, he had to end the fight within ten seconds.
"Whoosh."
"Whoosh."
One after another, bewildered figures appeared outside the volcano, wounded and filled with either resentment or curses.
They were the ones who had been eliminated.
The first round eliminated two hundred and fifty people.
The second round eliminated one hundred and twenty-five.
In the third round, some people finally received byes, and sixty-seven were eliminated.
In the fourth round, forty-nine of the sixty-eight people left were eliminated. Some had been defeated by other challengers, but most had fallen to the Lava Stone Monsters.
They were bitterly disappointed. Some hadn't even held out long enough to meet an opponent before being defeated by the Lava Stone Monster.
The fourth-round Lava Stone Monsters had fourfold force. Their scorching bodies and rock-hard fists gave the challengers, who had no Battle Suits to help them, a miserable time. They could hold out for ten or twenty seconds, but lasting a hundred seconds in the confined space of the volcano was too difficult.
Only nineteen people remained in the trial.
"It's a shame they couldn't even make it through the first phase. They're destined to miss out on the rewards, and they didn't gain much either. If only they'd held on a little longer." The guards had grown used to this.
In fact, as long as they got through the fourth round, they wouldn't be forcibly eliminated in the later rounds unless they failed at the most basic requirements.
That was because in the fifth round, anyone who could reach fivefold force would earn one hundred points. Those who couldn't would still move on to the next stage. They only had to defeat the Lava Stone Monster or last one hundred seconds to pass; they wouldn't have to fight other challengers anymore.
What's more, the fifth round would allow a full two hours for comprehension.
"Let's see how these nineteen do in the end. Unless something unexpected happens, most of them should be able to become Super Tier experts," one of the guards said solemnly.