With a few moves, William disabled all of the dangerous Arrays that would attack him, then retrieved the black box from the pedestal. Since it was already the eleventh trial, William took out the remaining black boxes from the fifth through tenth floors, totaling seven.
He opened all of them at once, a series of different colored lights enveloping some of the treasures as they released some ambient Mana.
-Acquired Mana Dragon's Blood Essence: +250 PP
-Acquired Soul Stone: +100 PP
-Acquired Epic Staff: +100 PP
-Acquired Soul Stone: +100 PP
-Acquired 3x Star Ore: +150 PP
-Acquired Element Root: +100 PP
-Acquired Tribulation Transcendence Protective Amulet: +250 PP
Over a thousand Potential Points from claiming rewards? This is better than x! William smiled with delight as he stored most of the treasures in his Space Ring.
He picked up the Element Root, unsure of what type it was. With a quick ask to the System, William found out it was of the Space Element! He was sad that he couldn't absorb it right now, but it was no matter. He also stored the item after confirming its use. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novelꞁire.net
He looked at the Tribulation Transcendence Protective Amulet, which was a cross-shaped golden necklace. The System would charge him a hundred Potential Points to learn the details of this item, but still recommended for free that he wear it.
William trusted the System, so he did as he was advised, stringing it around his neck along with the Luck Pendant after registering ownership. The Protective Amulet glowed with power briefly before becoming dull, seemingly idle.
Onto the next floor! William was becoming addicted to this. The trials were difficult, but each one had only taken a few hours at most to figure out their purpose before William cleared them. The most tedious part was waiting for his Mana to recover while resting between trials.
He continued moving through the trial tower.
Around four days later, it had been 15 days since William entered the Gravitas Ruins. He was currently on the 49th floor of the trial tower and had just finished slaughtering a group of four Nascent Soul trolls.
The Cultivators outside the trial tower had become numb to the successive announcements. Some had tried to catch up to William, but the few that were able to get past Uri were mercilessly killed by the traps on the tenth floor or gave up upon seeing them.
They had acknowledged that catching up to William would be impossible at this rate. If the tenth floor held such dangerous traps, they couldn't imagine what the fortieth floor would contain.
Of course, William didn't have much trouble. He was also able to relax, since the trial creator would give a tower-wide announcement whenever anyone entered the lower floors five at time. This meant that William would immediately know when someone entered the fifth, tenth, or higher floors.
Since he hadn't seen anyone enter the fifteenth floor yet, William knew he was safe for now. Of course, that didn't apply to when he exited the tower.
He had accepted that he would become public enemy number one upon leaving the tower, but with dozens of black boxes waiting to be opened, William wasn't scared of a bunch of Core Formation Cultivators.
He had continued through the trial tower with this in mind. The more rewards he obtained before he left, the greater his chances of survival on the outside.
After a while, the trials would start to repeat themselves but with greater difficulty. When he had taken on the thirtieth floor, he was required to dodge thousands of crossbow bolts that pelted him from all directions.
Even worse, the ground was littered with explosives, forcing William to create stone pillars with the Earth Element as footholds just so he could continue moving forward.
He began to use these trial grounds as a form of training, spending an entire day just dodging traps on the thirtieth floor rather than going straight for the pedestal.
The crossbows eventually exhausted all of their ammo, William realizing this was the true purpose of the trial. He wasn't supposed to bypass the traps and steal the treasure from under their noses, he only needed to survive the onslaught until it was over, honing his reaction time and movement skills while dodging arrows.
He climbed the staircase, entering the fiftieth floor.
At this point, something changed. The moment he raised his head to peek at the room, he was suddenly teleported a few meters up and the staircase downward closed.
Welcome to the 50th floor. Prepare yourself for the trial of restriction.
A Challenger has entered the 50th floor...
He frantically surveyed his surroundings, finding himself in a dimly lit room. The walls and floor were entirely made of stone brick, and torches were evenly spaced on the walls.
In the center of the room was a massive stone statue of a Minotaur wielding a double-edged battleaxe, but its surface began to show cracks the moment William looked at it. A Nascent Soul Minotaur with purple horns that curved in a complete circle burst forth, roaring at William with a fierce expression.
As the roar spread through the room, William felt the space become restricted, no longer able to open his Space Rings. Additionally, William found himself unable to use Magic at all!
What the hell is this!?! William exclaimed in his mind as he dodged to the right to avoid a sweeping attack from the Minotaur. He jumped backwards as the Minotaur spun in a circle, performing consecutive backflips as he was forced into a corner.
Without access to his Space Ring, William wouldn't be able to pull out any weapons, nor would he be able to use his Array Puppets to fight the Minotaur. He was forced to fight with his fists, striking the Minotaur with a heavy punch to its left elbow since that was as high as William could reach without jumping.
"Ouch!" William clutched his now bleeding fist, injured from trying to hit a creature that was more solid than a rock.
The Minotaur's eyes glowed briefly, then a massive wave of fire burst from its mouth engulfing William, who didn't expect the Magical Beast to use Magic. The flames didn't hurt at all, his Heat Resistance and S-Rank Fire Talent making him almost completely immune to the attack.
Even though he didn't take any damage, William was incredibly upset.
He can use Magic, but I can't? How do you expect someone to clear this trial without help?
He burst out of the flames, rushing towards the wide-eyed Minotaur. The Magical Beast raised its battleaxe to block William's punch that was aimed at its stomach, but William slid underneath the handle, then propelled himself up from the floor to deliver a strike to the Beast's groin.
"Take that you stupid asshole!" William yelled out as the Minotaur yelled out in extreme pain. Its knees buckled and eyes filled with water as tears streamed out of the big guy's face.
William would have felt bad, but he didn't.
His fists became blurry as dozens of consecutive strikes forced the Minotaur to go on the defense, William ignoring the pain as his fingers broke and hands bled profusely.