After he had taken a refresher on some of his more important skills, Valyr did not delay fighting against the primitive humanoids, even going so far as to use some of the new information he had learned in a couple of his fights.

Contrary to his initial thoughts, Shadow Serpent Magic Style actually worked well alongside the other combat styles he was already using, increasing his efficiency of killing the humanoids to ever greater heights.

With that, he began to experiment more and more during his fights, combining techniques from Shadow Serpent Magic Style with the skills and techniques he often used during combat.

By the time an hour had passed, the young man was only a couple dozen of kills away from proving whether his hypothesis was correct or not.

Realizing this, he went ahead and wrangled up all of the primitive humanoids in his vicinity, taunting them with the help of techniques from Shadow Serpent Movement Style.

…

“Shadow Serpent Magic Style…”

“Memento Mori.”

Whoosh!

Once he felt like he had gathered enough primitive humanoids into a single spot, Valyr began to condense both Shadow Energy and mana onto his fingertip as an ominous aura started to radiate from his body.

At first, the humanoids thought nothing of it, instead thinking of the young man as a fool for angering them. Though, just as the humanoids were about to make their move against Valyr…

Pop!

All of a sudden, the amalgamation of Shadow Energy and mana burst, causing the ominous aura surrounding Valyr to intensify by multiple degrees.

At this point, the humanoids felt a palpable sense of danger emanating from the young man, briefly wondering whether they were the foolish ones all this time.

Gone were their thoughts of using the situation to their advantage to kill the man.

Instead, their survival instincts flared up to no end as every cell in their body told them to escape.

“Grroooaagghh!!!” Unfortunately, just as the humanoids realized this, the world surrounding them had become somewhat muted, looking as if it seemed a bit more glum than before.

Though, underneath this gloomy facade was an insidious energy that began to rampage within the primitive humanoids’ bodies, gradually inflicting more and more pain to those that were inside this world.

Due to how the primitive humanoids worked, a great portion of them had already succumbed to its power, falling to the ground as they were rendered lifeless.

As for those that remained standing, that was due to their instinctual habit of greatly defending against magic attacks. Though, at this moment, those humanoids wondered whether that was a good thing or not.

After all, with how they looked worse for wear after the attack, it seemed as if all of them would easily tumble as long as someone gave them a slight push.

“Arcane Shadow Serpent Combat Style…” Unsurprisingly, Valyr was the one who would inflict that final push, retrieving his spear from his back before summoning both Shadow Energy and mana towards the end of his spear tip.

“Arcane Tide of the Dark Night.”

Then, amidst the vaguely fearful gazes of the primitive humanoids that remained standing, Valyr swung his spear upwards, conjuring a wave of destruction that spared no mercy to those that stood before it.

Whoosh!

One by one, the remaining humanoids fell to the ground with a thud as their bodies took on a bit of the dark energy that enveloped them.

Eventually, after some time had passed, the primitive humanoids that Valyr had gathered now all laid flat on the ground, their final expressions covered by the dark energy that ended them.

Ding!

Hearing the ever-familiar sound echo in his mind, Valyr affixed his spear onto his back with a grin as he commanded the system to bring up a screen. “It seems I finally have an answer to my hypothesis.”

You have completed the quest: Gates of Enlightenment’ Trial (3).

Your authority level within the Gates of Enlightenment has been increased by one. Your current authority level is now Level 11.

Seeing the confirmation appear in front of his field of vision, the young man let out a bit of laughter as he closed the screen soon after. “Now that I think about it, the fact that I could still obtain the quest even after reaching Level 10 should have already been a dead giveaway that it isn’t the limit.”

“Either way, the question has now changed to where the limit of authority level lies beyond Level 10.”

“Perhaps Level 20? Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case,” muttered the young man as he shrugged. “In any case, I’ll save that for later.”

“For now, it’s time to head to the center of the west quadrant.”

With his first agenda after reaching an authority level of 10 now done, Valyr swiftly proceeded onto the second agenda he wanted to complete before the five of them had to gather again.

“Traceless Slither.”

Whoosh!

Coating his entire body in Shadow Energy, the young man began to move through the west quadrant at great speeds, making sure to avoid the attention of all the primitive humanoids that he passed through along the way. 𝑶𝗏𝑙xt.𝓬𝒐𝗆

Nevertheless, there were still a few instances where he moved through an area that put him near a few primitive humanoids.

Though, whether it was due to the speed he was going, or the fact that the Shadow Energy covering his body masked his presence, the primitive humanoids continued to stand in their places as if Valyr hadn’t passed through at all.

Deciding to make use of the skill more often, especially after he and the others had left the inheritance, the young man eventually arrived at the center of the west quadrant, where one of the quadrant leaders they had to kill resided.

…

Whoosh!

Dispelling his movement skill around a hundred meters away from where he and Hal had surmised the west quadrant’s quadrant leader would be, Valyr pushed Hunter’s Tracking Eyes to its limits as he slowly looked around the vicinity for traces of the quadrant leader.

Eventually, after looking for a while, his vision had picked up a pitch-black circle that was a couple of magnitudes larger than the other circles in the area.

Knowing what this meant, the young man took in a deep breath as he began to move towards it. While doing so, he made sure to not catch the attention of any primitive humanoids along the way.

Inwardly letting out a wide sigh of relief after arriving at a spot that gave him a great view of the quadrant leader, Valyr went ahead and activated Superior Analysis to gauge their chances of winning.

Ding!

Though, at the very moment the quadrant leader’s information appeared on his screen, the young man could only bitterly smile.

‘Yeah…’

‘Even with our current stats, that really isn’t something you could defeat on your own.’