Morning came.
I was already awake.
The air felt calm.
Almost unnaturally calm.
I sat on the edge of my bed, watching the faint sunlight creep across the room.
Today was the trial.
I rose and stretched, allowing my muscles to loosen through a series of controlled movements.
A few light exercises.
Nothing excessive.
Just enough to awaken my body without wasting energy.
My movements felt effortless. Every muscle responded precisely, every shift of weight perfectly balanced.
My body wasn't merely stronger than before.
It was becoming more refined.
"...Strange."
I glanced toward the door.
No one had come to call me for dinner last night.
Not that it mattered.
I had been too occupied with everything that happened after discovering the hidden world.
Nyxarion.
The Nameless One.
Authority.
And the unanswered questions surrounding my own existence.
There would be time to investigate them later.
For now, I had a trial to complete.
I straightened.
"System."
A familiar blue screen appeared.
[Good morning, Master.]
"Morning."
DING!
Another notification appeared.
[Do you wish to begin the trial?]
[YES / NO]
My gaze sharpened.
"Yes."
[Trial Initialization in Progress...]
The space around me trembled.
A pillar of light descended, swallowing my entire body.
For a fleeting instant, the world disappeared.
Then—
Everything changed.
---
When my eyes opened, I was standing in an endless field.
Tall grass stretched toward the horizon, swaying beneath an open sky.
No trees.
No mountains.
No buildings.
No cover.
Just a vast expanse of grass and open ground.
And surrounding me—
An army.
Orcs.
Hundreds of them.
They formed a massive circle around my position, their formation stretching more than a hundred meters across.
Green-skinned warriors stood in the front ranks, gripping axes, swords, shields, and enormous gauntlets.
Behind them waited countless others.
Their bodies varied in size and build, but one thing remained consistent.
Their eyes burned with hostility.
Their weapons were raised.
Their muscles were tense.
The air itself seemed saturated with bloodlust.
I glanced around, taking in their numbers.
"...Quite the welcome."
ROOOAAAR!!
Four orcs broke formation.
They charged from four different directions, their footsteps shaking the ground.
One threw a punch.
Another swung an axe.
The third attacked with a greatsword, while the fourth rushed in with a pair of daggers.
Their movements were fast.
Much faster than those of ordinary warriors.
But their attacks lacked coordination.
Their strength was wasted on unnecessary movements, and their killing intent was far more impressive than their technique.
I tilted my head.
"Stronger than before."
The first punch rushed toward my face.
I shifted slightly.
The fist passed beside my cheek.
"Still weak."
CLANG!!
An axe crashed down toward my head.
I raised two fingers.
And caught its blade between them.
The orc's eyes widened.
Before it could react, the greatsword came sweeping in from behind while the two daggers closed from either side.
Four attacks.
Four angles.
Not bad.
But—
SWISH!
I vanished.
The weapons cut through empty air.
A heartbeat later, I reappeared in my original position.
The four orcs froze.
Their weapons remained extended, their bodies locked in the aftermath of attacks that had found nothing.
I looked at them.
They looked at me.
For a brief moment, silence settled between us.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!
Four explosions erupted simultaneously.
The orcs disintegrated into particles of light, their bodies vanishing before the fragments could touch the ground.
Four notifications appeared.
[+100 Points]
[+100 Points]
[+100 Points]
[+100 Points]
I glanced at the screens.
"...Too easy."
The remaining army had witnessed everything.
Not one orc retreated.
Instead, they tightened their grips on their weapons.
Their eyes burned brighter.
Their bloodlust intensified.
Interesting.
They weren't afraid of death.
Or perhaps the trial had simply removed the instinct to flee.
Either way—
I smiled.
"Good."
SWISH!!
The ground beneath my feet shattered.
I disappeared into the army.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
One orc exploded into light.
Then another.
And another.
I moved between them like a shadow slipping through a battlefield, appearing where their defenses were weakest and disappearing before their counterattacks could connect.
A sword swept toward my neck.
I leaned back.
The blade passed over my face.
A heavy fist followed.
I twisted aside and drove my elbow into the attacker's chest.
BOOM!
It vanished.
Another orc lunged at my back.
My tail whipped around, lightning crawling along its length.
SPLIT!!
The strike tore through the orc's defenses, erasing it in a burst of blue sparks.
I continued forward.
Punches.
Kicks.
Tail strikes.
Lightning-infused blows that shattered armor and reduced entire bodies to flickering particles.
The notifications multiplied.
[+100 Points]
[+100 Points]
[+100 Points]
The blue screens crowded my vision.
I ignored them.
Points were useful.
But the real value of a trial was discovering what I could do when faced with an opponent capable of pushing me beyond my current limits.
And these opponents—
Weren't doing that.
BOOOOOOM!!
A shockwave erupted from my position.
Dozens of orcs disappeared at once, leaving a crater in the grass and a cloud of dust rolling across the field.
I stood at its center, completely unharmed.
Within minutes, more than half the army had been eliminated.
Yet the survivors still refused to retreat.
Then—
Something changed.
The remaining orcs began to reorganize.
Their movements grew deliberate.
Their formations shifted.
And for the first time, I noticed distinct differences among their ranks.
Light-green orcs moved with incredible speed, darting between their heavier companions.
Dark-green orcs possessed thicker bodies and brutal physical strength, their blows capable of crushing the ground.
Orange orcs watched the battlefield with unsettling precision, positioning themselves to intercept attacks and protect their allies.
Then there were the red orcs.
They were heavier than the others, their bodies covered in dense muscles and thick armor.
Their movements were economical.
Their footing was stable.
And their eyes followed me with an awareness that the earlier enemies had lacked.
I studied them.
"...Different types?"
A red orc stepped forward.
The others moved with it.
The army had stopped behaving like a collection of individual enemies.
It had become a coordinated force.
My grin widened.
"...Finally."
BOOM!!
I accelerated.
Four figures burst away from my position.
Four versions of me appeared across the battlefield, each moving toward a different section of the formation.
Clones.
They attacked simultaneously.
One drove a fist toward a dark-green orc.
Another swept through a group of light-green warriors.
The third struck toward the orange formation.
The fourth charged directly at the red orcs.
For a moment, the battlefield tilted in my favor.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!
The red orcs attacked.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized.
Flames erupted from the ground.
Compressed energy blasts tore through the air.
Each attack covered the space another left exposed, forming a coordinated barrage designed to eliminate all four targets at once.
My clones vanished beneath the explosions.
But before the energy had completely dispersed—
SWISH!
I reappeared behind the red formation.
Both fists were already moving.
The strikes were aimed at two exposed targets.
I expected them to connect.
Instead—
GRAB!!
Orange hands clamped around my wrists.
Two orange orcs had intercepted my attacks.
One caught my left fist.
The other caught my right.
Their grips were firm, their footing perfectly aligned.
For the first time since entering the trial, my attack had been stopped before it could land.
I glanced down at their hands.
Then at their faces.
"...You adapted?"
The answer came immediately.
The red orcs turned.
Their counterattack was already underway.
A coordinated blast erupted toward my position, leaving me no time to break free and evade normally.
I released a pulse of energy through my arms.
BOOM!
The force broke their grips.
I vanished an instant before the incoming attacks collided.
The explosion swallowed the space where I had stood.
I reappeared several meters away.
But the attack wasn't over.
DANGER!!
A flash of metal crossed my vision.
Daggers.
The light-green orcs had moved while the red formation launched its barrage.
Their blades targeted my neck, ribs, and joints with precise, calculated movements.
They weren't attacking randomly.
They were exploiting the gaps created by their allies.
I twisted my body.
One dagger grazed my clothing.
Another passed beneath my arm.
The third came dangerously close to my throat.
I pulled back just in time.
Then I landed lightly on the grass.
Silence lasted for a fraction of a second.
My gaze swept across the army.
The red orcs controlled the main attacks.
The orange orcs intercepted and redirected my movements.
The light-green orcs exploited openings.
The dark-green orcs waited for opportunities to overwhelm me with brute strength.
Each type possessed a different role.
Together, they formed a system.
A formation designed to compensate for individual weaknesses.
"...A formation."
I slowly raised my head.
My grin returned.
"Now we're talking."
---
Blue lightning gathered in my palms.
It stretched between my fingers, compressed into narrow blades of crackling energy.
I formed one in each hand.
The surrounding grass bent beneath the pressure.
Then—
SWISH!!
I attacked.
The first blade swept toward a red orc's neck.
The second struck toward its side.
Both attacks were fast enough to leave blue trails in the air.
CLANG!!
The red orc raised its arms.
Energy condensed around its forearms, forming reinforced guards that caught both blades.
The impact sent a shockwave through the grass.
Yet the orc remained standing.
Its feet sank into the ground, but its defense held.
Another red orc moved to cover its flank.
An orange orc shifted behind them.
The formation closed around me.
Their movements were immediate.
Precise.
Practiced.
I pushed harder.
The lightning blades flared.
The red orc's defenses trembled beneath the pressure, but the others were already moving to support it.
They had learned from my earlier attacks.
They weren't going to let me dismantle their formation one target at a time.
I withdrew my blades and leaped backward.
My feet touched the ground.
I looked at the army surrounding me.
Then I laughed.
"...Excellent."
The sound carried across the field.
For the first time, my excitement wasn't born from the ease of victory.
It came from the possibility of resistance.
I had entered the trial expecting to crush everything in my path.
Instead, the enemies had forced me to reconsider how I approached the fight.
They were adapting.
Learning.
Using their combined strength to challenge my speed and individual power.
And I wanted to see how far they could go.
Unfortunately—
I had already seen enough.
My smile faded.
"Let's end this."
I lowered my hands.
Energy surged through my body.
Blue lightning erupted around me, spreading across the ground in branching patterns.
The grass flattened.
The air trembled.
For a brief moment, the entire army stood within the range of my power.
Then—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
An enormous explosion swallowed the battlefield.
The shockwave raced outward, tearing through the grass and shattering the ground beneath the orcs.
The coordinated formation collapsed.
The red orcs were consumed first.
Their reinforced defenses resisted for an instant before the overwhelming force tore through them.
The orange orcs disappeared next, followed by the light-green and dark-green warriors.
Hundreds of bodies dissolved into particles of light.
My four clones vanished.
Their remaining energy returned to me as the explosion faded.
And then—
Silence.
Smoke drifted across the shattered field.
The ground beneath my feet was cracked and scorched.
I stood alone.
I glanced at the empty battlefield.
"...Come out."
No response.
My eyes narrowed.
"Dragging this out is pointless."
The trial had changed the enemies' behavior several times.
Their formations had adapted.
Their attacks had become more coordinated.
But now, the entire army was gone.
If there was another opponent, it had no reason to keep hiding.
Unless—
I slowly raised one hand.
BOOM!!
A pulse of mental energy erupted from my body.
It swept across the field, passing through the smoke and spreading toward the horizon.
I searched for energy signatures.
Movement.
Breathing.
The faintest trace of a presence.
Nothing.
I expanded the search.
Still nothing.
My expression hardened.
The trial's enemies had possessed energy signatures I could detect, even when their movements were difficult to follow.
But this presence—
It was different.
Or perhaps it wasn't a presence at all.
A ripple crossed the space to my left.
So faint that I might have mistaken it for a distortion caused by the lingering explosion.
I turned.
Nothing.
Another ripple appeared behind me.
Then vanished.
My eyes sharpened.
"...There you are."
BOOOOOOM!!
I struck the air.
Space tore open before my fist, producing a violent distortion that spread across the empty field.
But the attack hit nothing.
Before the distortion could fade—
A red fist emerged from the warped space.
Already inches from my face.
DANGER!!
My body reacted.
I tilted my head.
The fist grazed my cheek, tearing a thin line through my skin.
I barely had time to register the attack before—
BAM!!
A second strike slammed into my face.
The impact sent me flying backward like a projectile released from a cannon.
The world spun.
Wind roared past my ears.
I twisted in midair, forcing my body to regain balance before I struck the ground.
BOOM!!
My feet hit the field.
The impact carved two trenches through the soil as I slid backward.
Grass and dirt erupted around me.
I dug my heels deeper.
The ground cracked.
Finally—
I stopped.
Silence returned.
I slowly raised my head.
Blood dripped from my lips.
A thin cut ran across my cheek.
I touched it with my fingertips.
The wound began to close, but not as quickly as I expected.
My eyes narrowed.
"...Strong."
That single exchange had told me more than the entire battle against the army.
The hidden opponent possessed enough power to launch me across the field with a single strike.
More importantly, it had attacked from a position I couldn't properly perceive.
I spread my senses again.
Nothing.
No detectable presence.
No clear energy signature.
Only the occasional ripple in space.
My gaze moved across the empty battlefield.
"...So that's how you want to play."
I wiped the blood from my mouth.
Then I closed my eyes.
No more reckless attacks.
No more relying on speed to overwhelm an opponent I couldn't even locate.
If my senses couldn't find it, I needed to understand why.
I adjusted my stance.
Feet firmly planted.
Shoulders relaxed.
Breathing steady.
I allowed the surrounding energy to flow through my perception without trying to force it into revealing something.
I listened to the wind.
The movement of grass.
The faint vibration of the ground beneath my feet.
I paid attention to everything.
And nothing.
Seconds passed.
The opponent didn't attack.
Perhaps it was waiting for an opening.
Perhaps it was studying me.
Either way, the next move would reveal something.
My breathing slowed further.
My heartbeat settled into a steady rhythm.
I released the tension in my muscles.
Then—
I opened my eyes.
They shone a brilliant blue.
Focused.
Clear.
The world seemed to sharpen around me.
"...Let's see how long you can stay hidden."
The air shifted.
A faint distortion appeared near the edge of my vision.
I didn't move.
I watched it.
The distortion disappeared.
But I had seen something.
Not a body.
Not an energy signature.
Something else.
The space around the hidden opponent wasn't behaving normally.
Its movements left subtle disturbances behind, ripples too faint to detect through ordinary perception.
I followed the pattern.
Another distortion appeared.
Then another.
Each one lasted only an instant, but together they revealed something the opponent had failed to conceal.
A path.
A direction.
A presence moving through space without fully revealing itself.
My lips curled upward.
"...Got you."
Blue lightning crackled faintly around my body.
It didn't explode.
It didn't spread across the battlefield.
It remained close to my skin, controlled and silent.
I no longer needed to destroy everything around me.
I needed to see.
To understand.
To strike at the exact moment my opponent revealed itself.
The battlefield fell quiet.
The grass swayed.
Space trembled.
And somewhere beyond ordinary perception—
Something moved.
This time, I was watching.
The army had tested my strength.
The formation had tested my adaptability.
But this opponent was testing something far more important.
My ability to perceive what I could not see.
I lowered my stance.
Lightning gathered around my fists.
A thin smile crossed my face.
"Come on."
The distortion appeared again.
Closer.
Sharper.
Almost visible.
My eyes followed it without hesitation.
"Show me what you've got."
For the first time since the trial began—
I wasn't hunting blindly.
I was beginning to see the hidden fang.
And the real fight—
Was about to begin.