“With that, I’m finally 10% of the way to completing this damned trial.” Watching the wave of dark energy he had summoned wreak havoc against the group of Divine Elite tier aberrations from afar, Valyr let out a low sigh as he affixed the spear onto his back, wondering to himself how the aberrations would become stronger for the next 10 groups.

Feeling happiness emanate from the spear through the connection they had in his mind, the young man took out his hammer from his spatial bracelet before proceeding to do some quick repairs on his armor set. With how much he had to struggle against the previous 10 groups, Valyr made sure to see the 10 groups of Divine Elite tier aberrations to the very end, even though he had time in between each revival to repair at least one armor piece.

‘Well, at least I have more than enough to repair my armor and return myself to peak condition before the new arrangement for the next 10 groups arrive,’ thought the young man to himself, confident that he had now more or less understood the pattern the trial gave him for his breaks.

‘Then again, whether they increase the aberrations’ strengths by a level or a tier, it’d still be a pain to deal with, even if I were to rely on my spear.’

Just as he had finished repairing the first armor piece to peak condition and was about to begin his second, Valyr was forced to stop in his tracks as a familiar voice resounded throughout the area all of a sudden. ‘Congratulations on reaching your first thousand kills on the Trial of Myriad Aberrations. By surviving this portion of the trial, you have shown that your strength and willpower are truly built on a sturdy foundation, not wavering even under the feeling of utter despair.’ 𝑂𝗏𝒍xt.𝗇𝓔t

“I swear to the heavens… if the Gates of Enlightenment decides to bump up the difficulty another level…” Muttering these words to himself as he tried to predict what the disembodied voice would say next, the young man was instead left at a slight loss for words as the voice had mentioned something else instead.

‘As a token of our goodwill, the Gates of Enlightenment shall allow you to obtain a portion of the power you’ll earn through your own merits in the future in advance.’

Whoosh!

Ding!

In less than an instant, before he could even a chance to ponder over what the voice meant by its words, Valyr was bombarded with a great amount of information. Due to the amount of information he had gained all of a sudden, the young man gradually felt a searing pain, which was only exacerbated by the fact that a second wave of information inundated his mind a few minutes later.

Thankfully, after having to endure three large waves of information in total, the pain in his mind finally began to subside. Letting out a small sigh of relief, the young man began to take a look at what exactly happened, opening up his notification screen after recalling that the system had sent him one the very moment the first wave of information arrived.

‘This…’ Before Valyr could even finish reading through the notification he had obtained, the young man’s eyes swiftly widened in disbelief as the earlier words of the disembodied voice began to resound in his mind. ‘This is their token of goodwill?’

You have received an inordinate amount of information from a mysterious source.

All Basic-level and Intermediate-level advancements up to the end of the Iron Age on the Technology Tree’s Innovation branch has been unlocked and upgraded to their max levels.

Pushing his curiosity as to who or what the mysterious source was aside for the meantime, Valyr was left at a complete loss for words as he read through the second notification. Though he did plan on unlocking and maxing out all of the advancements in the Technology Tree’s Innovation branch at some point, he planned on doing it step by step since it was hard to come by a lot of Technology Points in one go.

However, the Gates of Enlightenment had done exactly that, saving him the cost of possibly over a hundred thousand Technology Points in maxing out the Innovation branch of the Technology Tree.

With the thought in mind, he then began to wonder why the Combat and Production branch of his Technology Tree had not received the same treatment, only to remind himself to not bite the hand that fed him. After all, with what the disembodied voice had told him just now, it seemed that his current situation wouldn’t just be a one-time thing.

‘Though the Gates of Enlightenment have already considered you to have passed the trial by surviving the first thousand, you are free to attempt going through the entire trial and take on the remaining nine thousand aberrations,’ said the disembodied voice. ‘In exchange, the Gates of Enlightenment shall allow you to obtain more portions of your future power in advance, with the next one obtainable after reaching a total of 3,000 kills.’

‘Would you like to proceed with the trial? Or would you like to opt out and obtain the Gates of Enlightenment’s knowledge?’

“I would like to proceed with the trial,” replied Valyr after mulling over it for a brief moment, taking out the spear from his back as he prepared for the next group that was to come. In response to his answer, golden lights covered the aberration corpses once more as they gradually rose from the ground.

Though it may seem like he had not given the voice’s question much thought, the young man knew that he would stand to gain more if he were to continue with the trial, following the saying where high rewards only come from taking high risks.

Aside from that, there was also the fact that he would still gain access to the Gates of Enlightenment’s knowledge whether he opted out or not, while the goodwill the Gates of Enlightenment was showing to him seemed to be a one-time thing.

With how their goodwill solved one of the more tedious problems he would face in the future, why should he decline?

“Grrrwaaaggghhh…!!!” As the group of aberrations let out bestial roars in unison, Valyr began to manipulate the Shadow Energy in his body as he looked at what he was up against. However, before he could even begin to infuse said energy into his spear, his pupils shrunk in size as he frenziedly examined the group he would fighting this time around.

Though the group of aberrations remained at the peak of Rank 4 and at the Divine Elite tier, their numbers…

Had quintupled.