Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 389: Hitless Endurance Trial

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’Oh, man. This is stressful.’

Cedric groaned as he kept observing the prison he was in. Even though he adjusted his mentality and focused his senses into finding a solution for this problem, he just couldn’t see any viable way to clear this trial.

The Titanic Cage was huge, and the materials it was made from were gigantic as well. There were many gaps in between, but none were passable, even though it looks like he could easily fit in them. The strange enchantment of the cage prevented him from exploiting those gaps like that.

Cedric tried looking for any fragile or weak spot around the cage. He searched left, right, up, and down but still hasn’t found anything after a week of observation.

’And no, underground doesn’t work either.’

He also tried waiting to see if something would change inside the cave as time passed, but so far, there’s nothing of the sort.

’Okay, let’s not be anxious here.’ He told himself, ’You’ve got a hundred years to clear this. Retreat for now and check the other trials.’

Upon making this decision, Cedric sighed and willed himself to exit the trial space. He felt a warp swallowing him up. When his vision was clear, he found himself standing before the door that led to the Trial of Mind once more.

He chose to enter the Trial of Body this time. Once he did, he felt the familiar warping sensation, and when he came to, he found himself standing at a unique-looking trial grounds once more.

The place reminded him of how his people used to describe Hell in general: a place filled with noxious gas, scroched earth with pits of magma. The air was scaldingly hot and suffocating, the sky was dark and gloomy, and the aura of despair and evil could be felt everywhere.

Cedric has to admit that the Purgatory Realm looked and felt way better than this one. But he’s not here to compare the two; he’s here to see what he needs to do to clear this trial.

**

[Welcome to the 6th Stage of the Body Trial]

[Your goal is to survive this hell for 72 hours without getting hit even once. Defending against an attack counts as a hit; so does a graze that touches your skin; taking even the smallest and most negligible attack from your enemies that you can usually ignore or that doesn’t hurt you also counts as hit.]

[Any and all methods you can think of are valid, so long as the unique stipulations of this trial were met.]

[You have 100 years of tower time to complete this trial. You may come and go as you please.]

[Your results will be judged according to your performance. Good luck!]

**

Cedric’s eyes flashed between the system’s message and the huge hourglass hovering above the realm that’s quickly running out.

His mind analyzed the rules of the trial as he made as many preparations as he could before this hell started. The rules were pretty straightforward as always, and in his experience, quite literal as well.

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The stipulations were simple: just don’t get hit by any attacks of the enemies. So long as he could last for 72 hours while doing that, he could clear this trial.

"But this wouldn’t be the Tower of Prodigies if it gave easy trials," Cedric muttered as he summoned his sword.

It didn’t take long before the timer ran out. As soon as it did, he immediately sensed his enemies manifesting all over the place.

Cedric’s senses were already primed. Even before they completely manifested, he was already predicting what they were going to look like while also gauging their strength.

He smiled wryly upon receiving the initial feedback. The enemies that spawned just now were at least thousands in number; the weakest of them were equivalent to the planetary grandmaster realm in life evolution. Sure, they’re much weaker than him, and he could easily deal with them, but all things considered, these enemies were already strong.

Cedric couldn’t actually tell what kind of creatures they were. He had never seen nor heard of them before. It could be possible that they were unique creations instead of an actual race that exists in reality; it wouldn’t be too difficult for the AI of this tower to do something like this, after all.

Ironically, this situation reminds him so much of Hell Dives. He could already tell that the more enemies he killed, the more would spawn. And it should be the case. After all, while thousands of enemies sounds like a lot, if they’re only this strong, Cedric wouldn’t even break a sweat dealing with all of them. He could clear all of them within seconds.

What gave it away was the condition that he has to last for 72 hours here without getting hit.

Roar!

All of the creatures roared and snarled at him the moment they completely manifested into being; they wasted no time and rushed at him with maws wide and claws pouncing.

Cedric took a step forward and held the hilt of his sword firmly. With a faint grunt, he executed a horizontal slash that cleaved through their numbers mercilessly.

Blood, guts, and bones exploded everywhere. Cedric remained mostly indifferent about this since he’s used to mass slaugther like this, but then he remembered the unique stipulation of this trial.

Time seemingly crawled into a halt as a question filled his mind while looking at the disgusting remains of his enemies.

’Will that also count as a hit?’

Time resumed, and just to be safe, Cedric evaded the rain of blood, guts, and bones. He even hovered a few meters above the ground, stepping on air instead, just to make sure that he wouldn’t accidentally end this attempt this early.

And as it turns out, his initial guess was proven to be correct; this is indeed another Hell Dive because more of these creatures spawned as soon as he killed a lot of them.

Cedric wasn’t surprised by this. The only thing he had to be wary of was getting hit. As for the rest, it’s all the same to him.

Now that he sees this as just another Hell Dive, Cedric’s body relaxed, and he subconsciously optimized his movement to ensure that he could conserve as much energy to last as long as he needed to while also paying attention to enemy attacks, all to clear the 6th stage of the body trials.

Whether he’s being observed by the staff of not was unknown, but if it was, then they’d probably be shocked by his performance.

Well, dealing with masses of enemies alone isn’t really a strange feat for the challengers. Some would say that it’s the bare minimum requirement for them to qualify in this place. After all, the tower only accepts the cream of the crop.

That said, the unique challenges of the tower expose challengers to strange situations to squeeze out more of their potential. They even went as far as personalizing trial contents for the really impressive challengers to give them more pressure.

Cedric’s trials have always been like that, especially since he chose Dynamic Difficulty and has been showing fantastic results so far.

They would’ve never thought that the reason why he’s combat capabilities were so strong and sharp was because he was forcibly thrown into hell each month to face thousands upon thousands of enemies that only wanted to tear him apart piece by piece.

So if they see him adapting to this challenge like it’s nothing new to him, of course they’d be shocked. Because in their eyes, it shouldn’t be that fast and easy.

Cedric didn’t care if he’s being watched or not. Even if he was and he learned about it, nothing would’ve changed for him. Having their attention doesn’t change his goals here.

Cedric’s body weaved through hordes of enemies with so much familiarity, even though this was the first time he encountered them.

His sword flashed dangerously, sweeping through hundreds of his foes easily with a single swing. Golden fire and light bathed the lands, raising the already suffocating heat of this place even higher.

As he moved, Cedric paid close attention to any signs of danger coming his way. He dodged all projectiles they sent, making sure that none even touched the hem of his robes. His eyes also flashed with a strange light, observing every movement of his enemies and paying attention if they would do something weird or launch any invisible attack that he couldn’t trace.

All things considered, Cedric was doing fine. At least he thought so. But then...

Tick!

Weng!

[Attempt failed!]

"What!?" He exclaimed, dumbfounded.

He didn’t even see what happened. He only heard an extremely faint sound, which didn’t even register as a threat or a hit, yet that already spelled the failure for his first attempt.

In a rush, he tried looking around, searching for the source of whatever that was, but failed to see anything. Not even a trace was available.

Cedric could only helplessly groan as he saw his enemies melting in a puddle of good and his consciousness being swept away.

By the time he opened his eyes, he’s already back at the lobby, standing before the trial doors.