The Forcefield upgrade was incredibly swift, the veil expanding and condensing until it was stronger than before. After two consecutive upgrades, the Forcefield was just as strong as a Perfect Barrier, enough to hold back even a Nascent Soul Realm Beast for a short period of time.
With this, William was much more confident in surviving these ruins. The Forcefield didn't cost any Mana, and the range would now extend to up to ten meters, which would hopefully prevent him from being sneak attacked.
William decided to save the rest of his Potential Points. He spent the remainder of the time working on setting traps and reinforcing the ceiling.
The fourth level started, a wave of Caverns Hobgoblins entering William's view from afar. Instead of charging at William, they ran to the Arrays, triggering every trap on the way. They ran on high ground, avoiding the water with an intelligence William didn't expect.
William realized what was happening. The Hobgoblins were risking their lives to destroy every Array he had placed, which would ruin over an hour of effort. William launched fireballs at the Hobgoblins to save the Arrays, but by the time they were all dead, there were only four surviving Arrays, all of which of the Lightning Element.
William earned 750 Potential Points from this wave of Hobgoblins, but it wasn't over yet. In the very back was a large goblin wearing a set of armor and carrying a greatsword on its back. It glared at William menacingly, emitting an aura superior to every enemy William had fought before.
The Bestiary didn't react, so William guessed it was still a Caverns Goblin, but something about this one was special.
The goblin sprinted at William, running almost as fast as William's peak speed when he was fighting Yu Ren and Hanzu. It brought the greatsword to its hands, unleashing a heavy strike. William was about to order his puppets to help, but he wanted to test out the Forcefield first.
The greatsword smashed into William's Forcefield but bounced off to the goblin's surprise. The goblin became angrier, slashing at the Forcefield a second time, to no avail.
William smiled, releasing a quick fireball to knock the goblin off its feet. He raised an Earth Spike, impaling the goblin through the back as it fell, then dropped a Lightning Bolt from above to finish it off.
-Defeated Caverns Goblin: +5 PP
You even defeated a Goblin Chieftain, impressive! Here is your promised reward.
A small blue and silver rock materialized out of thin air and dropped into William's hands.
-Acquired Star Ore: +50 PP
The Star Ore was quite heavy, surprising William as he almost dropped it. Even a bodybuilder in his old world wouldn't be able to lift this small rock. Will could guess that the Star Ore was used in forging, but he couldn't be sure. He put it into one of his empty Space Rings for now.
The voice continued speaking once William had put away the reward.
You've done well, but the final level will arrive in one hour. Prepare yourself.
William took the unknown man's words seriously. If there was a Golden Core Beast on the fourth level, that means there would be multiple on the next, or even worse. He spent the first half hour resetting the traps he had created, since they were still quite effective as a distraction.
William looked at the room that was covered in Goblin and Hobgoblin corpses. He looked at his Talents, then back at the corpses. Wouldn't this be a perfect moment for one of his new Elements?
He called some Necromantic Mana to his fingertips, then pointed it to one of the Hobgoblin corpses. The Mana entered the body of the Hobgoblin, forcing it to stand up and look at William silently.
He continued raising corpses until he failed, finding five corpses to be the limit.
System, upgrade my Necromancy Affinity.
Necromancy: (E --> D)
The upgrade only took one minute, so William had plenty of time for a second upgrade.
Necromancy: (D --> C)
Another five minutes passed, raising the Affinity to C Rank and increasing the limit to a hundred corpses.
It will have to do for now, I can't risk the level starting in the middle of my upgrade.
William raised the Goblin Chieftain and every Hobgoblin corpse he found until he had reached the limit. Each corpse seemed to require one Mana for every five minutes it was alive, so William drank a Mana Regeneration Potion to fully recover.
The fifth and final level began, and the scale was well out of William's expectations. The back wall of the caverns suddenly fell, revealing a thousand pairs of glowing eyes that belonged to Hobgoblins. In the very back of the group, William could make out ten Goblin Chieftains, each wielding a different large weapon.
William made sure his Hobgoblins were out of the way, then activated his trap Arrays. The series of Water, Earth, and Lightning Arrays were triggered, but a veil of Mana covered the Hobgoblins' feet as they stepped into the Water.
William squinted his eyes to see a small goblin holding a magic staff standing next to the Goblin Chieftains. A Shaman!
The Goblin Shaman gave William a flirty smile, making him want to throw up. His Arrays were useless, so William ordered his Hobgoblins to attack.
They rushed forward into the group of enemy Hobgoblins, cleaving at every enemy they came across. Because of the tight space, the fight was actually even for the first few minutes.
-Your Thrall defeated a Caverns Hobgoblin: +3 PP
-Your Thrall defeated a Caverns Hobgoblin: +3 PP
-Your Thrall defeated a Caverns Hobgoblin: +3 PP
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A hundred against a thousand, the Thralls actually managed to secure an advantage. It seemed that William's Necromancy Element didn't just raise the dead, but actually made them slightly stronger than before, since they didn't respond to minor injuries and their wounds slowly healed.
As expected of an Epic Element. William awed. He fired a series of high-speed Ice Spikes at the Goblin Shaman that was preparing another spell, turning it into a porcupine and killing it shortly after. He wasn't going to let the Shaman have its way against his Hobgoblins.
The fight was long, the Hobgoblins bashing at each other for more than an hour before all of William's were dead. They managed to kill more than four hundred Hobgoblins; a valiant effort considering they were of the same race.
During this time, William had conserved his Mana well and only launched fireballs at the back line, killing 7 of the Goblin Chieftains and around three hundred Hobgoblins.
There were now only three hundred Hobgoblins and three Chieftains left, which William made quick work of with a bit of effort and timely protection from his Array Puppets.
He slumped to the ground, nearly out of Mana and both physically and mentally exhausted. Even with his Stamina and Mind Talents, William couldn't handle fighting constantly for over an hour, it was just too much for a non-Cultivator.
You've completed all five levels of my trial! In the ten thousand years since forming this trial ground, no one has ever completed it alone! Approach the pedestal and receive your reward.