Fifty-One briefly explained the next test. It wasn’t particularly complicated though. They would summon monsters, and they would need to defeat them. It was a simple enough trial. None of them were really all that worried about it. Mash fully believed that any one of them could handle whatever monsters were summoned for this trial. It got to the point where they decided to flip a coin to see who got to fight.

  “This doesn’t make any sense, there are four of us.”

  Red had a flat gaze as she spoke to Jill. Jill shook her head quickly and pulled out four coins from her pockets. Mash blinked in surprise. It wasn’t that the gesture was uncommon, but he didn’t expect her to carry coins around. Mash didn’t carry anything with him. Everything he had was in his storage space unless he needed it. So, the very typical gesture caught him off guard.

  “Hear. We all flip and anyone that gets crowns wins.”

  Mash instantly understood her idea and nodded. The gold coins had a crown on one side and a tiara on the other. It was supposed to represent the king and queen. Not the individuals but the station. He was about to flip the coin.

  “No, wait. Let's all do it together.”

  “3!”

  “2!”

  Jill was having to much fun with this, but Mash couldn’t help but smile himself. He moved the coin so that it rested on his thumb and against his pointer finger. A single coin felt so light with all of his strength. It might as well have been a feather.

  “1!”

  Mash was a little surprised as Jill rushed her countdown, and he flipped his coin slightly delayed. It didn’t matter. Every coin flew high into the air. The sound of metal striking metal was audible as his coin hit the ceiling. It echoed in the silent room. Mash had put way too much force behind that flip. Although that only helped his toss, since the coin bounced off and came down a little faster than the others. Red and Luke flipped their coins normally, though Jill had put some extra power behind her toss too. Not nearly as much as he had, but enough that hers was the last coin to fall.

  Red and Luke caught theirs easily, but Mash had to dash to the side to catch his coin. He caught the coin in his left hand and quickly slammed it over the back of his other hand. It was a common way to play this game as it hid the results. Mash looked over and saw that neither Red nor Luke had done the same. They both had the coins open to the world. Mash could see that both of them had lost. That meant that the final decision would come down to him or Jill. They might all fail but that wasn’t all that likely. Once Jill caught her coin, she didn’t flip it like Mash had but just covered it with her other hand.

  “Mash, did you cheat?”

  He was a little surprised to get the accusation from Luke of all people. It took him a moment to respond.

  “No, it’s just how I always did it. I can flip it back though. I didn’t really look at which side I got.”

  Luke shook his head quickly.

  “No, if you didn’t look it doesn’t really matter. I didn’t know that people did that.”

  “What did you get?”

  Jill spoke while revealing her own hand. A golden crown pointed upward. Mash slowly moved his own hand away and was disappointed to be met with a tiara. That was it, Jill had won. Fifty-One stared at the whole display with obvious confusion. He didn’t stop them though and let them play their games. Jill walked forward to enter the arena. They had changed rooms but hadn’t moved up the tower. Instead, they just went to another arena that looked identical to the first. Although it was on the other end of the building. There were three such rooms, and the southerner was still taking the test in one of the rooms.

  Fifty-One stuck around for the test, and mash wondered why he had left the southerner alone. Maybe another member was watching him? It wasn’t really important, and Mash refocused as Jill teleported into the arena. He watched her and remembered something.

  “I think Jill conned us!”

  Mash said the words and didn’t hide his incredulity. She had the skill to win games like that, didn’t she? Plus, she could kind of see into the future. A coin flip game was a terrible competition to have. He shared these ideas with the others but did through mental messages. He didn’t want to talk about Jill’s skills openly. Mash looked aghast, but the other two didn’t seem to care at all. In fact, Red nodded as she knew already. Luke just shrugged like it didn’t really matter. Red commented about him being a battle junkie. Mash was left grumbling to himself, but he didn’t argue. He liked fighting, especially when there were no consequences.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  Jill P.O.V

  Jill teleported into the arena. Moving from the smooth stone to rough dirt was a little odd. The dirt was uneven, and she wasn’t heavy enough to properly stomp it flat. She could do it now, but it would look awkward and ruin the moment. She had a mad grin on her face as she heard Mash’s faint shouts from behind. He had just realized the trick. She was just glad that she had convinced Red to play along.

  It turned out that her skill, chosen by the universe, had improved her luck significantly. She hadn’t expected it to, but in games of true chance she basically never lost. Only Red knew that it would, but she wasn’t as addicted to combat as Jill. Well, Red didn’t like to admit that she was, and that let Jill use her for this. Mash had been asleep when Fifty-One told the foreigner about the trial, but she had heard. That had given her enough time to work out this plan. Plus, She had given up on the first test entirely. Her skills were fine, and she was already leveling quickly. Figuring out either thing would be a later problem, and one she didn’t think was important. She was mainly here because the others wanted to learn what Fifty-One had to share. She didn’t care about it one bit. They had figured out a lot on their own, and she kind of felt like adventurers were supposed to do that.

  Her thoughts froze as the test obviously started up. Golems or rather elemental golems started forming in the room. Eight of them, and she was surprised to see them range so many elements. At the opposite end of the room, she saw molten rock climb from the dirt. Lave splashed on the ground as an enormous obsidian fist climbed out. She wondered where it was climbing from. Summoning skills were varied enough that she didn’t know how they actually summoned things. Was it like her space magic? She knew that some summoners could teleport. She turned from the two fire golems.

  Giant crystals sprang out of the ground like grass. They wrapped together and connected. Two crystal, or maybe diamond golems seemed to phase into existence. Their arrival was distinctly different from the previous. Another two were made of ice, and she had missed their arrival. But she caught the tail end of one of them. Its arm seemed to form from its body. The air seemed to crystalize into the shape of an arm. This creature didn’t have any fingers, and now that she looked, the diamond one didn’t either. Only the lava one had fully functional arms. She glanced at the final pair of golems. They were odd. Two metal spheres floated in the air, and lightning bounced around them in a circular kind of way.

  She really didn’t know what to think of the arrangement of golems, but she felt a distinct urge to blow them all up. She could make a barrier of space near the golems and through her spear. That would probably be able to deal with them all. However, controlling that so she wouldn’t get hurt would be annoying. Plus, she was fairly certain the building wouldn’t withstand that either. Those were the sensible thoughts she had. They were not the ones she chose.

  One of the crystal ones held out its arm. It didn’t have fingers but a kind of weird obelisk in place of an arm. When it raised the limb, she was surprised to realize it was hollow on the inside. An opening was there too. Her forewarning let her dodge the beam of light that shot from the crystal. It had a fairly long charge up, and she teleported to the side as its arm filled with white light. Even with it, her dodge was narrow. The light was fast!

  That attack changed her attitude. She blinked again and appeared further to the right. The crystal golems could fire beams of light. That was terrifying, but they were slow, and the beams took a while to charge up. It would be problematic if she didn’t have her forewarning. She expected the lightning ones were similar. The arrangement of the golems made more sense to her now. The fire golems were in the middle. The crystal and lightning golems were to either side. The ice ones were as far away from the fire as possible but were still on that end of the arena. None of them had appeared near the spectator area where the others were.

  After confirming their positions, she estimated their size. Each golem was two or three times her own height. That wasn’t too big. She looked at the diamond golems and willed the space around their arms to harden. It did so, and the slow-moving golems were locked in place. It was easy. Brute strength probably couldn’t break her barriers, and she doubted they could fire light out of anything but those tubes.

  A smile slowly started forming on Jill’s face, as her needle coalesced out of the space around her hand. She teleported again and immediately started falling toward the diamond golems. The lightning golem fired at her previous location. The sound made the very air shake. That felt like real thunder, whereas Mash’s attacks tended to feel more magical. The two lightning golems had actually spun together. They formed a large circle before firing the bolt of lightning. Her forewarning let her close her eyes and let her avoid getting blinded by the attack. The barriers she had made weren’t that big. She had essentially made shackles for the crystal golem.

  That probably wouldn’t damage the walls, plus Fifty-One’s group could fix it. She felt like a group like this would have more than enough to spare. She threw her javelin downward. It moved unnaturally fast as it split the space in front of it. She was really grateful for the advice Red had given her. The spear cut the space in front of it, and the universe then pushed the rest of the weapon onward as it tried to fill the space. To everyone else, it probably just looked like she had thrown it really hard. She did do that, but there was more behind the weapon than her raw strength.

  She turned away and teleported all the way across the room. She did that long before her weapon had actually struck the barrier. The fire golem was too slow to adjust to her movements, and the ice golem was stuck unable to get closer to the fire one. The choice of golems was rather terrible, even if they were positioned well. She landed on the ground and stared at the diamond golem. Her weapon, the legendary weapon, struck the shackle on the right golem’s arm, and she felt the world shudder for a second time.

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  Chapter 277: Such Devastation!

  Name: Mash Stellumbra?????? Class: Chimeric Vagabond

  Level: 112

  Health: 3000 / 3300

  Energy: 4400/ 4400

  Fortitude: 330

  Endurance: 210

  Strength: 275

  Agility: 275

  Intelligence: 230

  Wisdom: 120 → 130

  Charisma: 110

  Free Stats: 40

  Skills: Hunt, Thunder-wood Creation, Inhuman Hibernation, Chimeric Transformation, Thunder-wood Imitation, Chimeric Reconstruction, Vagabond’s Path, Chimeric Domain, Adaptable Monster Core, Chimera’s Constitution, Wooden Body, Mimic’s Avarice, A Touch of Nothingness, Golden Body

  Skills: Hunt, Thunder-wood Creation → Magical Layered Wood, Inhuman Hibernation, Chimeric Transformation, Thunder-wood Imitation → Wooden Birth, Chimeric Reconstruction, Vagabond’s Path, Chimeric Domain, Adaptable Monster Core, Chimera’s Constitution, Wooden Body, Mimic’s Avarice, A Touch of Nothingness, Golden Body

  Hunt: You have gone beyond your limits when fighting enemies and devouring their power. Go beyond your limits. Continue current fight even after depleting energy. Stats improve while at 0 stamina. Continues until either you or your enemies are dead.

  Current Bonus: +100% stats

  Inhuman Hibernation (Broken): You have stolen the techniques of mages and monks to form an artificial technique, your inhuman body morphing it to fit your corrupted nature. Hibernating will increase the rate at which your body recovers, healing only physical wounds.

  Current Rate: +200% recovery

  Thunder-wood Creation → Magical Layered Wood: You know how deadly sticks can be. Forge your magic into your wooden creations. Your magic has been layered into the wood allowing it to carry every kind of magic. Its durability and resistance increase with your affinity.

  Chimeric Transformation: Transform your body taking on aspects of those which you have consumed. Control which aspects to take and combine them to create the perfect form. Greatly increased energy consumption when combining forms.

  Thunder-wood Imitation → Wooden Birth: Form imitations of creatures you have consumed, imitating some of their bodily functions through your wood. Impart your own life into the creature to grant them true vestiges of life.

  Chimeric Reconstruction: Consume what you kill for more than just stats. Steal their flesh to repair your own. Their blood becomes yours. Your enemies are nothing more than your medicine.

  Vagabond’s Path (unique): Having chosen the path of the vagabond, you have freed yourself from your own world. An explorer at heart, you laugh as you leap between worlds. Open portals to worlds you have already been. Once per cycle of the moon create a portal to a random world. Create a world of your own, portal to personal world granted.

  Chimeric Domain (Passive): Your eyes just weren’t enough. Sense the changes in the mana around you. Connect to the mana and life in your space and inherently understand the nature of the mana and life. Your presence suffuses the space, weakens the magic and strength of enemies beneath you. They cower beneath your might.

  Current Range: 53 → 57 feet

  Reconstructed Adaptable Monster Core (Passive): An unnatural mana core has fundamentally altered your body, fusion with a monster has given you access to its potential. Stamina and Mana combine to become energy. Your monstrous body is better able to handle the changes to your core. You have progressed your core further, by forcing it to adapt. Now, you may only further your core by repeating the process.

  Current Bonus: +80% efficiency

  Wooden Body (Passive): You can connect with the wood that you are touching. By expending your energy, you bring your creations to life as another one of your limbs.

  Chimera’s Constitution (Passive): Giving up your humanity has improved your body, improving your physical control, natural defenses, animalistic intuition, and mana control. No longer a human in any sense, you are no longer bound by that which limits them. You have created your own race, improving your rate of growth.

  Mimic’s Avarice (Passive): Devour your enemy in battle to temporarily raise your stats. The fresher the victim the stronger the bonus. Gain full benefits even when consuming through your magic. Absorbs some properties of those you devour alive. Removes the negative effects of things you consume.

  A Touch of Nothingness (Passive): Belonging to no race or group, you have embraced the nothingness that is a part of everything. You are free, and automatically resist others' attempts to bind you. Constantly emit the aura of nothingness within your domain. Your allies will gain some of the freedom you possess. Enemies weaker than yourself will slowly lose that which makes them whole.

  Golden Body (Passive): Having stolen the techniques of another world, your body evolves beyond its old limitations. However, even this transformation is incomplete. Seek out the next Step and truly make this power your own.

  Trial of the True Body: 25 → 27 / 100

  Mash Stellumbra

  Age: 18 (15)

  Ki-Realm: Third Monstrous Realm

  Body-Realm: Golden Chimeric Body

  Path: Path of the Blood Bond

  Vitality: 300

  Strength: 250

  Dexterity: 252

  Mind: 221

  Ki: 4070