William raised his arms to cover his face while dashing backward, shielding his eyes from pieces of stone brick that had become shrapnel from the explosion.
This guy is more insane than I am!
I didn't need your input!
He jumped back from a secondary explosion that triggered at the 200-meter mark, forcing him back again. He activated his Forcefield to defend against the shrapnel this time, then stood in place until the explosions subsided.
The hallway became silent again, so William used the Wind Element to clear the smoke. The walls and floor that were previously destroyed in one section had fully repaired themselves, and William guessed the traps had also returned. This trial obviously wasn't going to be as easy as the others.
He stepped forward and inspected the area at the 250-meter mark, but still couldn't find any evidence of a trap even though there were almost certainly some present. William used his extraordinary Mind Talent to think back to when the explosion first took place.
Over there! He looked at a certain spot just left of the center of the hallway. The explosion had originated from that point, so William just needed to figure out how it worked.
After nearly an hour of close inspection and three more explosive encounters, William still couldn't figure it out. The explosive device was probably hidden with an extremely powerful Array, and it wasn't actually part of the trial.
Don't tell me you actually expect people to just ignore this and tank the explosion?
It seemed to be the case, but William didn't like it. He activated his Forcefield and ran through the explosive trap, which turned out to be a minefield at the 300-meter mark. William was agile and had impressive reflexes, but none of his Talents could detect or avoid the invisible mines.
By the time William reached the 500-meter mark, his Forcefield showed multiple cracks and would need some time to heal them. His Mana reserves were below a thousand, and his head was fuzzy from taking thousands of direct hits.
He was now directly in front of the first Array, which was incredibly simple in comparison to the minefield. It constantly launched Lightning Element attacks at William when he got close, similar to the entrance, but once deactivated it seemed unable to recover in the short term.
William sat down cross-legged to rest for a bit, only leaving after three hours when the Array was close to recovering. He didn't plan to disable it a second time, lest someone that follows him in gets an easy pass.
He moved toward the next Array carefully, but his caution turned out to be unnecessary as there were no additional explosions. It seemed that only the first section held a minefield.
The second Array also carried Intermediate level attack power, but the Array was slightly more Advanced. There were nearly two dozen Intermediate Runes of Stability reinforcing the Array, so one couldn't just disable the Array with brute force.
Well, except for William. His physical strength was at the middle stages of the Golden Core Realm even without the help of an Array, so it only took a single punch to smash through the Intermediate Barrier.
You've cracked two Arrays, impressive. Or so I would say if you didn't cheat! The deep voice resounded through the hallway. It obviously realized that William wasn't completing the trial as it intended.
I won't bother stopping you, but if you think that will get you the reward you are sorely mistaken. It finished with a serious tone.
William wasn't sure what the trial creator meant by those words, but a quick glance at the next Array gave him an idea. It was an Advanced Barrier, normally impossible for a Core Formation Realm expert to break unless they were incredibly talented like Yu Ren or Hanzu.
Including this Array there were 8 left, meaning the end of the trial would probably carry Perfect Arrays. William wondered why the trial creator would set such a difficult benchmark.
Even if disabling Arrays was easier than creating them, even someone able to create Advanced Runes would struggle to destroy a Perfect Array in less than a week. When William was detained by a Perfect Array Master in Blue Moon City, he wouldn't have been able to escape if he hadn't upgraded his Array Talent.
William shook his head and continued with the trial. He was able to break the third and fourth Arrays with his physical strength, but the fifth was too strong. The Array was much more complicated than the other Advanced Arrays William had seen, not to mention he was still being attacked by a separate Intermediate Array that launched annoying lightning bolts at his Forcefield.
The moment a punch was thrown at the Array, it responded by focusing all of its defense to a single point where the punch would land, multiplying its defensive power by at least a dozen times. William's full-power punch landed, causing a few slight cracks, but they were quickly healed by a row of twenty Mana Stones behind the Barrier. This update ıs available on novèlfire.net
The Array was fully healed by the time William retracted his fist, meaning he would have to punch it until the Mana Stones were exhausted.
But why would the loot goblin pass up on twenty Mana Stones?
William sat down cross-legged and inspected the Array. It seemed this is what the trial creator meant when he said his physical strength wouldn't help him.
With just a glance, William understood how to crack the Array. He weaved an Advanced Rune of Compression, then an Intermediate Rune of Reversal. With the two paired together, William weaved the Runes into the Array, combining it with an Advanced Rune of Stability to ensure the two Runes stayed in place.
William threw a light punch that wouldn't even hurt a Qi Refinement Cultivator. The Array reacted by focusing its defense to a single point like last time, but the Compression Rune also activated, followed by the Rune of Reversal. The Array was forced to undo its last action, then it tried to compress its energy while it was still reversing the process, causing it to malfunction.
The Array began to heat up, then melted before William's eyes. He walked past the disabled Array and stored the twenty Mana Stones that were fueling it into his Space Ring.
It seems you do have some knowledge of Arrays after all...I suppose I will grant you the reward I held back last time. The voice resounded directly in William's mind.
William's hands stretched outward on their own, a black box appearing out of nowhere. This was very similar to the first trial William completed, where he received a black box after only clearing the fourth level of the trial.
Is the creator...still alive? William wondered. He couldn't say it was impossible, considering it was clearly reacting to what William did in the trial area. After all, powerful Cultivators had very long lives.
He opened the box. Inside was a sliver of what looked like plastic shaped like a slice of pizza. It emitted a slight Mana Signature, but William couldn't tell what it was used for.
-Acquired Unknown Disc Fragment: +50 PP