Outside, there was also a stone pillar, but unlike the one inside, this one only showed everyone's scores.
The frontrunner before the trial had been Lianda, as expected. Artifact Users rarely had a chance to practice force application, so they usually had to figure out how to reach a Force Multiplier of two on their own.
But once she entered the Volcano Interior, she gained access to techniques.
Like a fish in water, Lianda's strength rose rapidly. She lost only a few seconds on the final joint and achieved an impressive score of 991.
In second place was Yanlefu from East Sea Province. The warriors of East Sea Province specialized in killing with a single strike, and they always finished battles decisively. He had scored perfect marks in the first three rounds, killing his opponents instantly. In the fifth round, he took the longest against a Lava Stone Monster, spending more than twenty seconds on it, but still scored 971 overall.
Third place went to Toster, also from East Sea Province, with 958 points.
Guen came in fourth. He'd wasted too much time on the Lava Stone Monster in the first round, and his attempt had backfired. Once he figured things out, he gave it everything and managed to climb to 944 points. If you added the more than forty seconds he'd wasted at the start, Guen would have been second only to Lianda.
Scott stared at the scores with a gloomy expression, feeling even more frustrated.
Guen had somehow made it to fourth place, completely beyond his expectations. Scott couldn't help wondering: What had Guen been doing in the first round?
Scott wasn't the only one puzzled. Even the Super Tier experts above the volcano looked helpless.
When they saw that Guen had scored only fifty-four points against the Lava Stone Monster in the first round, they were astounded. They even wanted to ask Tom if the test equipment from Stardew Valley had malfunctioned.
But Guen's final ranking showed that his strength was indeed formidable.
"Tom, what was your little fellow doing? Don't tell me he was trying to hide his strength," someone asked.
Tom was just as frustrated.
All they could see were the scores; they couldn't tell what had happened inside. Otherwise, they would have loved to ask that damned fellow what on earth he'd been doing.
Kagar, however, looked intrigued. "Tom, your Southeast Province has some truly impressive people this time."
Tom smiled as well.
Guen's ranking had indeed frustrated him for a while.
But the overall results had lifted his spirits.
The rankings for everyone outside the top nineteen had already been announced. Only six of them belonged to Southeast Province. Out of the seven provinces, that was a poor showing.
But surprisingly, four people from Southeast Province had made the top nineteen.
Guen had the highest ranking, in fourth place.
Next came Setti, in eleventh.
Then there was Ganlan. Many people knew the son of the Leiquan City Lord, and he had decent talent. It seemed that the clearer guidance inside the volcano had greatly increased his Force Multiplier, earning him sixteenth place.
The most surprising was someone named Chen. Though he came in last, with only 724 points, it was clear he'd scraped through the final two rounds by dragging things out. Yet before the trial, his Force Multiplier had been only three.
Many trial participants with a Force Multiplier of four had been eliminated. Those with a Force Multiplier of five had been deliberately protected and all kept in the trial. This showed that the Land of Inheritance had some ability to regulate the challenge. So what had Chen done to draw their attention?
A Super Tier expert from the Forest Goddess Temple glanced at the information about Chen in their hand and suddenly looked startled. Green hair?
High above, beyond the Super Tier experts' sight, a spaceship disguised as a cloud watched everything below.
"Do you think Guen will gain anything here?" Ina asked.
"Yes," Kolong replied with certainty.
"Whether it's the Norde Race or the Kano Race, the lessons they can offer are bound to surpass what this planet can provide. But those are our races," Kolong said with a wry smile. "You and I are only ordinary Planetary Level beings. We can teach Guen a few things, but when it comes to proper instruction, this Domain Lord Level inheritance will certainly do a better job than we can."
Ina agreed.
The resources they'd received in their race had certainly been better than anything on this planet, but that was true only for them. Guen had left soon after he was born and had grown up in the Aoyu Empire.
Kolong and Ina had mastered many Secret Methods, but they couldn't pass them on to Guen.
When Guen had been a low- or mid-tier warrior, they'd been able to help him a great deal. But the closer he got to Planetary Level, the less they could offer him. He stood to gain more from this Land of Inheritance.
Everyone's gaze was fixed on the stone pillar, eager to see how much longer the remaining participants could hold out.
Inside the volcano, the red space suddenly grew even hotter. Waves of heat made everything look distorted.
"Congratulations on entering the Second Stage. There is no danger in the Second Stage, only a test. You will receive some of the most widely circulated Secret Methods on Tucha Planet. You must raise your body's Force Multiplier to eight within three months. For every five days beyond the first month and a half that you take to achieve this goal, your score will be reduced by one hundred. Begin."
A cold, mechanical voice rang out, devoid of emotion.
A massive light screen suddenly appeared before Guen, displaying numerous smaller options.
"Basic Martial Arts 108 Forms, Basic Force Deconstruction 518 Diagrams, Basic Fist Technique." Guen's eyes lit up as he read through the titles.
With a light tap, he could open the detailed training instructions.
The Basic Force Deconstruction 518 Diagrams contained the same moves demonstrated on the trial screen in the first stage.
Compared with the Hundred Refinement Fist, this Secret Method dissected the techniques of force application in much greater detail.
Guen took a brief look at the other Secret Methods and found them all extraordinary.
They covered fist techniques, Body Movement Techniques, physical training methods, techniques for dealing with different weapons, and even ways to fight Spirit Readers.
In the universe, the path of a warrior was more specialized, but it mainly fell into two categories. One was the Fighter; the other was the Spirit Reader, who could manipulate telekinetic power. Illusionists, Controllers, and Beast Tamers all belonged to this latter category.
The Aoyu Empire's Artifact Users mostly belonged to the Controller category, using weapons under their control to fight.
Lianda was proof of just how formidable Spirit Readers could be.
Guen had once needed a Protective Suit to defeat an eighth-tier Artifact User. Against an eighth-tier warrior, though, a pair of fists had been enough. That was the difference.
But none of that mattered now. What mattered was raising his Force Multiplier to eight as quickly as possible.
Guen devoured the knowledge. He had obtained a Secret Method like the Hundred Refinement Fist, but that was about all. His father, Kolong, knew many things, but knowing them and teaching them were very different.
Whenever Guen got hungry or tired, Cosmic Energy would flow into him.
Even if he was injured, there was enough Cosmic Energy to heal him.
In this Trial Space, all a trial participant had to do was focus on training.
Guen could devote himself entirely to learning. The light screen even had an option to summon Lava Stone Monsters for practice. He could choose anything from fivefold to sixfold force application, from a seventh-tier warrior to a ninth-rank warrior, and any type of opponent he wanted.
If the previous month hadn't been so desperately short, Guen would have liked to summon a few Controllers and Illusionists and test himself against them.
His father, Kolong, had told him so much about the universe because one day Guen would venture into that sea of stars as well. The Aoyu Empire was dominated by warriors, but the universe wasn't like that. Guen couldn't afford to ignore it.
He studied the Secret Methods again and again, then tested what he'd learned against the Lava Stone Monsters.
Time flew by.
Bang!
The Lava Stone Monster exploded, its shattered rocks and flames scattering everywhere.
The stone pillar suddenly shone brighter, and Guen's ranking shot up to first place.
After they entered the Second Stage, the scores of the remaining nineteen participants had reset to zero. A month had barely passed, yet Guen's score had suddenly soared, putting him straight in first place with the full thousand points.
"Guen..." Chen had been bent over his research into the Secret Methods, his eyes bloodshot and piles of still-warm, broken stones scattered before him. Seeing Guen's name leap into first place, he couldn't help smiling. "You really are something. But I'm not giving up either."
Several figures flashed through Guen's mind, all with the same green hair as him. Then he came back to himself and continued studying the Secret Methods.
"Three months? How is that possible? I've trained since I was nine, and I'm twenty-eight now. I only managed to reach a Force Multiplier of five here. And now they want me to reach eight in just three months?"
Ganlan nearly scratched his scalp raw. He could feel that the explosive progress he'd made going from a Force Multiplier of four to five was gone. Three months wasn't nearly enough. Even with all these Secret Methods to study, he thought it would take at least three years.
"Hmm?" Ganlan sensed something and looked toward the stone pillar. He suddenly saw one of the nineteen names leap into first place. His eyes nearly popped out. "It's only been a month, and this Guen..."
For the first time, Ganlan felt the insurmountable gap between himself and so-called geniuses. Instead of feeling inspired, he thought of something else. "Isn't Guen not even twenty yet? Hmm, he's about the same age as my sister. Before, when my sister was dating an ordinary warrior, Father asked me to talk to her, and I thought it was unnecessary. Now I see why it's very necessary."
Setti saw this too. The muscles in his face twitched violently, and he summoned another Lava Stone Monster, this time just to vent his frustration.
"Guen?" Inside a fiery red space, Lianda, with her wheat-colored skin and unremarkable looks, remained silent for a long time. Then she continued controlling eighteen Flying Daggers, drawing intricate patterns in the air. Gritting her teeth, she added two more. The pattern immediately grew chaotic, but Lianda gritted her teeth and managed to keep it from collapsing.
It had taken Guen only one month to meet the Second Stage trial's requirements. He had given everyone a tremendous shock.
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