"Open status screen," Leon commanded after returning to the hub again. Lately he came back here so many times because of that golem. 12, after a total 12 attempts, Leon managed to stay alive for a minute with his previous death experiences. Where he must position himself to take the least damage, how many seconds pass after each attack, when he should activate his skill, Leon learned them by dying repeatedly. But in the end, all of this effort is worth it. However, death is still not in Leon's top amusing hobbies.

*Sigh*

Letting himself fall to the ground, "Finally..." Leon sighed with relief.

Looking at his rewards, Leon reads his new skill's description.

[PREDATOR (PASSIVE) |(Level: 1/10): With each upgrade, the player's senses will develop to inhumane levels. Player's senses of sight, olfactory, gustatory, touch, and hearing have been %10 enhanced.

"Hmm, I don't sense any difference, maybe because of one effect of the hub. Whatever, I will probably feel the difference in trials," Leon said to himself.

"Oh, you poor thing..."

Looking at his nearly annihilated armor full of holes and melted parts, "Analyze," Leon used the analyze on it.

[Woldymir Armor Set]

[Rank: 2]

[Material: Reinforced Iron]

[Defence: 58]

[Durability: 14/100]

[(When All Equipped) Effects: +3 VIT +3 AGI]

"...I guess I will need to find a new armor soon," Leon sighed, while removing it to his inventory.

"Okay, time to use some points," Leon said while opening his status screen.

[LEVEL: 11 (4620/12000)]

[HP: 310/310]

[MP: 260/260]

[Qi: 150/150]

[STRENGTH: 59 (+2)]

[AGILITY: 55 (+3]

[VITALITY: 27 (+4)]

[INTELLIGENCE: 26]

[INNER ENERGY: 15]

[ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 6]

[SKILL POINTS: 4]

[GOLD: 700]

[CURRENT TRIAL-29]

After thinking for a while, "System, put two points into vitality, and put 4 into intelligence. Also, use three skill points on [BRUTAL BLADE]." Leon commanded.

[CONFIRMED]

[ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 6>0]

[VITALITY: 27>29 (+4)] [HP: 330/330]

[INTELLIGENCE: 26>30] [MP: 300/300]

[SKILL (BRUTAL BLADE) HAS EVOLVED TO (RUTHLESS BLADE)]

[RUTHLESS BLADE: After activating, the next attack player does, will be %300 strengthened. Uses 250 MP and has 2 minutes of cooldown.]

"%300!!! That means my next attack will be 3 times stronger. I wonder if I used this skill to attack that golem. Would I be able to deal damage to it?" Leon wondered. Too bad he can't try it and find it out.

[RUTHLESS BLADE| Level: (0/10) 0/4]

"Oh, and it's much more painful to upgrade it..." Leon mumbled, after realizing its upgrade requirements.

"*YAWN* Whatever, I will upgrade some time later after completing trials, but I am tired now," Leon said while closing his eyes.

"And I still have no bed... At least the ground isn't cold."

...

...

...

[Three Days Later]

"5328!"

"5329!"

"5330!"

While completing his daily schedule, Leon's voice echoed through the hub while swinging his sword.

"5334!"

*Pant*

As his both arms trembled in pain, a panel appeared in front of Leon that caused him to stop swinging and lay off to rest.

[STRENGTH: 64>65 (+2)]

[AGILITY: 60 (+3)]

Looking at his strength and agility stats, "Huff... I guess I reached the maximum limit of this level," Leon said. But how does he know he reached the maximum limit? He doesn't know either, but he feels. Like, his body says this is his current limit and he should stop wasting time. Of course, Leon didn't care about this feeling at the beginning, but after doing some training and seeing no panel in the end, Leon had to accept it.

"Okay, then time to enter another trial has come." Leon said while getting up and equipping his gear.

[DO PLAYER WANTS TO GO THE NEXT TRIAL?]

"Yes," Leon confirms before the light starts the next trial.

[TRIAL-29 IS NOW STARTING...]

Step by step, the new trial gained shape, color, and created with the power of mysterious light until it created an uncivilized settlement place deep in some forest. Standing 100 meter away from the settlement, Leon looked at it while observing.

"A village? Now this is new," Leon said before a panel appeared in front of him.

[TO COMPLETE TRIAL-29, PLAYER HAS TO KILL EVERY OPPONENT IN 20 MINUTES]

"So this is the trial. Well, better than staying alive against a damn 30 level giant golem," Leon said while running towards the village to end this trial as quickly as possible.

Coming close to the village, Leon sees goblins that stand guard in front of the gate.

'Goblins? It has been a while since I fought against them,' Leon thought as he continued running.

*Khgaa*

*Khgaaa*

Seeing something coming towards them, goblin guards start screaming while raising their stone-headed spears against this intruder.

[-30 Qi] [Qi: 120/150]

Channeling Qi into his legs, Leon suddenly appears in front of the goblins. Because of their low level, Leon seems to the goblin guards like he teleported there.

*Slash*

"Hello guys!" Leon says as he swings the Tyrfing before they can even react. Leon cuts their spears and body into half with one strike as he passes by them as their bodies collapse to the ground. But this is only the beginning of the massacre he will do inside the goblin village.

Getting inside the village, Leon swings his sword to wipe out the goblin blood on it as he runs towards his next goblin foe.

*Slash*

Poor goblin raises his rusted sword, only to be welcomed by his sudden death just like the goblin guards. As his other friends see this, realizing an intruder inside their village, they start attacking Leon all together. While some lucky ones of them picked up a rusted sword, the unlucky ones picked up a rock to hit Leon. Some of them even tried to bite Leon, but in the end, all of them suffered the same fate... Death. He was like a wolf among a flock of sheep. No matter how many they are, in front of the ultimate power, all they could do was just die.

As the seconds turned to minutes, after every strike of his sword, goblin corpses piled up around Leon. If the system did not control them, all the goblins who saw this bloody scene would be running from the village in fear without even looking behind.

Like an executioner, Leon cut whatever comes his way until the only trace left by them is the blood of them that splashed on Leon's face.

Lifting the last goblin from his neck, Leon holds him in his left hand. Looking forward, Leon sees three new goblins that are coming towards him, but unlike others, they look much bigger and stronger.

As his bloodlust leaked from him, "Analyze," Leon commanded, wondering how strong they are.

[Hoblogoblin Lv.10]

[Name: Zalx]

[Race: Goblin]

[STR: 45]

[AGI: 37]

[VIT: 28]

[INT: 20]

---------------------

[Hoblogoblin Lv.10]

[Name: Ugzas]

[Race: Goblin]

[STR: 47]

[AGI: 39]

[VIT: 28]

[INT: 19]

---------------------

[Hoblogoblin Lv.12]

[Name: Dryrk]

[Race: Goblin]

[STR: 65]

[AGI: 57]

[VIT: 35]

[INT: 23]

---------------------

[TIME REMAINING MINUTES]

[-20 MP] [MP: 280/300]

After looking at their stats, "Good, I was getting bored here," Leon said as he set fire to the last goblin's head before throwing him in front of them.

"Then, shall we start?" Leon asked as he pointed his sword at them.

Suddenly, both sides started running towards each other, since the 12 level hoblogoblin is the fastest among them, he was ahead of others.

"Let's end this quickly!" Leon shouted as he jumped into the air to meet with the strongest hoblogoblin.

[-250 MP] [MP: 30/300]

"Activate [RUTHLESS BLADE]," Leon commanded before the Tyrfing suddenly got covered by some unknown crimson glowing energy in the air.

As soon as the hoblogoblin sensed the danger, he raised his own sword horizontally to block the Tyrfing. But it was in vain. First cutting his sword into two, the Tyrfing cuts through the hoblogoblin vertically, and splits the hoblogoblin into two too.

After completely cutting the hoblogoblin, the Tyrfing, crashing into the ground, creates a shock-wave while opening a scar on the surface, and kicking up dust too.

'T-this was stronger than I imagined,' Leon surprised for a second before running towards the other hoblogoblins to kill them.

Now the strongest of them is gone. They are nothing against Leon with the current power they have.

*Clash*

*Clash*

The moment their swords clashed with each other, their fate was already chosen... death. Unlike them using a two handed long sword, Leon could use his full power in every attack. With each clash, the hoblogoblins pushed back more and more.

[-30 Qi] [Qi: 90/150]

Taking advantage of an opening, Leon channels Qi into his legs and sends flying one of them to crash into a random tent.

"Now we are alone," Leon coldly says before attacking a tired hoblogoblin.

*Clash*

*Clash*

Leon, directing more and more strength into his arms with every blow, the tired hoblogoblin can't keep up blocking his heavy strikes, and Leon makes him more and more kneel.

*Clash*

*Clang*

Striking until he completely kneels down in front of him, looks directly into his eyes, "This was fun," Leon said before directing a little Qi into his arms to finish him.

[-20 Qi] [Qi: 70/150]

*Splash*

Cutting vertically, the Tyrfing goes down until it reaches his abdomen. After pulling out his sword from his abdomen, the hoblogoblin's body opens like a flower and his inner organs flow out to the ground.

Looking at his art for a second, Leon walks slowly towards to the other hoblogoblin. After newly standing up, the hoblogoblin, directly comes running towards to Leon while screaming.

Leon doesn't take either block position with the Tyrfing nor uses any other strike movement, he even puts the Tyrfing into his inventory while looking at his enemy that is coming towards him.

[-40 Qi] [Qi: 30/150]

As the hoblogoblin came close enough to Leon, he swung his sword with anger, but rather than seeing Leon's head rolling on the ground. He sees Leon grasping his sword's blade. Directing his Qi to his hands, Leon holds the hoblogoblin's sword with his left hand and creates a sharp edge by covering his right hand. Leon stabs his right hand into the hoblogoblin's heart.

[-30 MP] [MP: 0/300]

"Goodbye," Leon says with a cold voice while looking into his eyes.

Before the hoblogoblin coughs blood, Leon this time, with his remaining mana, creates a fireball in his right hand which explodes the hoblogoblin's rib cage and causes his instant death.

Slightly pushing him after pulling out his right hand from his chest, Leon lets him fall to the ground.

Waiting for the trial completed panel, Leon spends a few seconds. But the panel does not appear even after waiting for a minute.

[TIME REMAINING TIME MINUTES]

"Hmm, the trial hasn't ended? Did I miss an enemy? No, I am sure I killed every one of them," Leon wondered while looking around him to see any alive enemies.

*Waaaghhh!*

"Baby voice?" Leon asked himself while looking at a certain tent that the sound was coming from.

-CHAPTER 20 END-