Infinite Realm

Even before he had engaged the Blood king, Sato already knew that he wasn't its match in direct combat. If he had a team or even a partner, then things would have been a lot more easier. Sadly, the Main trials seemed to be a solo-based challenge.

So, if Sato couldn't face it, then how was he supposed to defeat it?

The answer laid in Sato's setup.

'First one!'

When Sato was 75 metres away from the other end of the hall, which also happened to be where he came in from, he suddenly swung his sword out and pointed it at a certain spot in the hall. His movements seemed silly as even after 2 seconds, nothing happened.

However, as the Blood king passed the same place Sato pointed at, a brilliant orange light gleamed from the spot and exploded towards the Blood king. There wasn't just one flash but 4 from the four cardinal directions. One from each side which included in front and behind of the monster.

At this point in time, Sato, who was about 15 metres away, had stopped and faced the Blood king with his two hands joined up to form a seal.

'Array activate. [4-directional Blast]!'

From the four directions of the Blood king, from the exact position the orange lights gleamed from, 4 flaming pillars jutted out from thin air and headed towards the monster. Upon their appearance, the temperature in a 10 metres radius pf the beams had distinctly increased by a couple of degrees as even Sato who was still out of reach felt the effects.

From the directions and the patterns the attacks took, they didn't just dart towards the Blood king but also sealed any possible point of escape. In other words, the attacks were impossible to dodge. This was all due to Sato's meticulous arrangements, battle sense and experience.

"Got you." Sato smirked.

*Boom*

The 4 flaming pillars struck the Blood king and exploded upon contact, creating blazing inferno that lighted up the air and sparked the temperature up by a few points once more. The combined explosion of the four blazing pillars at one point, had formed a gigantic flame that occupied 4 metres of space with the Blood king right in the centre, and increased the lighting in the hall by more than 3 times what it previously was.

"Howl!"

-21

-27

-17

[Critical Hit]

-84 (1418/2000 Blood king Varg's HP)

The explosion of the 4 pillars took the Blood king as the centre and as a result, had forced it to a stop. Because the explosion was too loud and the flames too bright, the figure of the Blood king couldn't be made out as the best Sato saw was a hazy figure shrouded within the flames. The only thing he could sense, were the loud howls of the Blood king which seemed like it writhed in pains within the flames.

'It seems to have a bit of effect.' Sato smiled as he saw the damage values popping up on his interface.

Originally, Sato didn't expect the fire array to do much damage and only cause few scars to the monster. However, the results he saw now were much better than expected. The column that fired from the left even caused greater damage to the monster as the spot it struck happened to be the location of the injury on the Blood king's left arm; the very same bone-deep injury that was left behind by Sato's [Astral Blade].

While the total attacks were a bit below 150 in damage, one shouldn't look down on them. The only reason the flaming beams didn't do much damage was because the Blood king had perverse defence, surpassing that of the Rock Golems and kobolds. But for it to still cause that much damage was already impressive and there was still the fact that as the monster was wrapped/wrought in flames, it would receive constant damage over time.

[Flame DoT] (AN : DoT : gaming term meaning Damage over Time)

-10 (14o8/2000 Blood king Varg's HP)

'One shouldn't underestimate any subclass just because of the prefix 'sub'.' Sato thought as he recalled the origin of the array.

Infinite Realm aimed to mimic reality and mix it in with fantasy as much as possible, hence there existed so many subclasses tat it was rumored that players have only touched 3% of the existing ones. What was even more daunting was the fact that this 3% consisted of more than 75 subclasses. While they were called subclasses by the players, the official name tagged to these classes were 'lifestyle classes'. This was because these classes didn't directly influence battles and were mostly mimics of a few careers in reality to enable various kinds of players enjoy the game how they see fit. In other words, just like in reality where one could be a banker, an engineer, a farmer or even a pop star, the same could actually be replicated in-game.

Because of the various different types of lifestyle classes that existed, The trend and belief that these classes were unusable in battle spread, and honestly, it was true. Just think about it, what could a farmer possibly do in a battle against a legendary beast? Harvest some crops before he gets ripped to shreds? Even for the supportive ones like a Blacksmith or an alchemist, who could create certain equipment or potions that could affect the balance of a battle, against an overwhelming and truly strong opponent, they were useless.

It was because of this fact that the battle hardened players didn't bother on getting a subclass. Unlike with Fudo, when he had to just read a book and receive his reward, or with Sato, where he already got his reward right after registering, the difficulty of getting a subclass had increased by multiple folds. The Alchemy guild didn't just let anyone become an apprentice as not only did they have to complete the basic alchemy manuals but they also had to succeed in concocting a Simple grade potion of the lowest tier. Even the Blacksmith guild didn't let new examinees free as they had to create a Low tier Mortal Rank weapon, even if it was of the lowest caliber. It was as if the simple trials for Sato and Fudo was a 'Bonanza period' for the players where they wouldn't need to do much and will still get their subclass plus the System rewards. But with the 'Bonanza period' now over, the difficulty had increased.

This, added with the fact that subclasses didn't do much to a player's comprehensive strength, made quite a lot of people abandon the thought of getting one. The lure of having an extra level's worth of attribute points might sound nice, but when facing a real expert, it might not do much. Rather, the improvements and boosts gotten from equipment and weapons were a lot more attractive. So rather than spend a couple of hours, if not days, trying to pass a some 'silly' exams, most players would rather go to the fields and grind monsters, increasing their strength and also making a killing in fortune.

Even the players who had subclasses eventually ignored them as their original intention for doing so was just for the extra level's worth of attribute points. Since their goal had been achieved, 'why waste more effort and time more on what they deemed unnecessary?' was the thought in the minds of these players. And so, the popularity of lifestyle classes had taken a big drop and very few players still bothered with getting one.

However, the same didn't go for Sato's crew. Sato made it his mission that everyone of them, almost a half of them did. While the others had yet to select theirs, they did get to learn a lot about them and practice it so as to get familiar with them. A good example was Xue Yan, who took a liking to the [Scribe] subclass and had spent 5 days (RT) which translated to 10 days (IGT) on inscription.

While it was true that most of those days weren't solely spent on the subclass, a majority of them were. With the facilities and equipment of the Great Hall of Grey Chaplains, Xue Yan's comprehension of the subclass advanced rapidly.

'The strength of these runes are pretty impressive. Against monster under level 10, they should be capable of doing massive damage. If they could be mass produced, we could make a huge sum.' Sato's eyes glinted as he thought of the future.

Even though they did make quite a lot after defeating the Kobold chief, the team still had to spend a lot. This was especially so for Sato and Xue Yan, who had to make preparations for the Main trials and this translated to spending a lot of money.

The library of the Great Hall of Grey Chaplains had so many collections related to various subclasses and even books on the various Rune languages were there. While the knowledge on relatively new languages like the human race's Klaman were limited, that of ancient languages like the Gregorian rune language were more complete. As a result, Xue Yan started from a much higher vantage point that most players who studied runes did. The advantage of this was that her progress would be much faster and the strength of her runes greater, whereas the disadvantage laid in the difficulty in both learning and drawing rune. At times, Xue Yan even used Rune languages of the Ancients, Elves and Dragons as reference.

With 10 days worth of time, Xue Yan had of course made sufficient progress that she was able to draw basic runes, and because the runes were drawn in Gregorian, the power within them was much stronger than average runes; at least stronger than the one Miss Trevale drew back then during Sato's blacksmith class. In other words, though Xue Yan hadn't take the official Runes guild exam, she was currently the most proficient Runes-master and the strongest in terms of Runes.

'I have to complete this trial and get an excellent result by all means.' Sato strengthened his resolve.

The Caventry's knowledge bank, aka library, was astounding and the records they had were immense and varied, ranging from combat knowledge to non-combat info. So long as one had the time and energy, they could be able to master all subclasses from the books alone and also practice them out in the research area. They could also learn a bunch of skills and become unhindered within the entire gaming world, so long as they don't encounter a terrifying NPC. From this alone, the strength of the Caventry at their peak could be imagined.

If one could succeed and make all of this as theirs', raising a mighty force in Infinite Realm would only be a matter of time.

And this was just the effects of owning the library, one can only imagine what else the Great Hall of Grey Chaplains held. It should be known that while Sato and the others did indeed have access to a majority of the facilities in the tower, they didn't have access to the all of them, especially the true core facilities. Like the arsenal, the Central control room or even the Demon god's son's seal. They could only be able to access this places once they complete the Trials and inherit the place.

"And for that to happen, you have to die, big guy.." Sato faced the burning figure.

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