second Zone
For the next 10 hours, the process of clearing a temple, looting, and moving closer to the center of the island continued. In those 10 hours, James managed to conquer a total of 10 different temples, all housing different gods. Sadly, it seemed that they weren't getting stronger, all of the gods he fought were at the same level as the God of fire. They didn't give a higher completion rate either.
On the loot part, things weren't going as well as James had hoped either, every temple did have a god crystal in them. Bringing his total up to 11, but apart from 1 more Basic silver combat technique 'shadowless unsheathe", there were no other combat techniques.
After 10 hours of nothing but these low-level temples, James was getting demoralized. It seemed like he was never going to find the highest-level temple. Right around the 11-hour mark, when James was debating with himself about whether to take a break or not, he saw it. The normal-looking temple that he had seen so much, but this time the monsters outside weren't Lords.
[Advanced Magic Guard Golem] (Golem, High-Lord Rank)
Level 20
HP 5,000,000/5,000,000
4 Advanced Magic Guard Golems stood in front of the entrance. With one standing in front of them, it seemed that this was their leader.
[Peak Magic Guard Golem] (Golem, Grand-Lord Rank)
Level 20
HP 20,000,000/20,000,000
Not only were the Grades of the monsters getting higher, but their combat standards were too. James guessed that the High lords were around the Trial Tower's second floor and the Grand lord should be on the third floor.
Floors were the measurement of combat stance in the greater world, not only did you need the realm of truth, but also the realm of refinement to achieve higher floors in the Trial Tower. Second-floor experts have reached the Flowing water realm and have reached the first realm in the realms of truth or a combination of the realm of refinement and truth that could be considered as good. Third-floor experts were around the Void realm and the second realm in the realms of truth. Fourth-floor experts were at the very minimum in the domain realm and the second realm in the realms of truth, and fifth-floor experts were in the beyond domain realm and the third realm in the realms of truth.
At the moment James was very close to becoming a fifth-floor expert, something incredibly rare, even in the greater world. The only problem was that he didn't have much talent in the realms of truth, so he couldn't discover them on his own, and finding someone to teach him or finding a fortunate encounter relating to the transcendent realm, also known as the third realm, wasn't easy.
For now, though, to take care of these monsters. Being a pseudo-fifth floor should be more than enough.
Rushing in, James knew that if he tried the same move as before the Grand-Lord would surlily get a hit on him, so he decided to be a little more cautious.
Void Shield
holy aura
just like he predicted, when James was rushing to the middle of the pack of Golems the Grand Lord had already predicted his movement and had thrown a punch straight at him. The golem seemed surprised when he noticed that James was not even trying to dodge the attack, rather, he seemed to be channeling mana through his ring. Now in full motion, the Grand Lord didn't have time to retreat when he saw a huge firestorm coming his way.
Firestorm
Currently, it was James's highest damage skill, dealing 800% damage. It was rather slow though so normally a grand lord-level opponent at the trial tower's third floor should be able to dodge it, that's why James let the Grand Lord think he could hit him.
-4,457,410
While taking damage in the firestorm around them the Golems didn't seem to notice that James was already charging up his blade with lightning for his second attack.
Lightning discharge
-2,602,753
The four High Lords now all lying on the ground dead, the only one left standing was the grand Lord. With around 13 million HP left. James, who still had his sword in the ground from his previous attack suddenly saw a giant fist flying towards him, he wasn't worried though. He just gave the Golem a light smile.
The fist deflected off an invisible field around James, leaving him totally unharmed. The only thing that happened was a damage number that appeared above the shield.
-430,000
The shield had not even lost 1/4th of its HP so James wasn't worried. Now that he could freely move again this Golem couldn't hit him anymore. James jumped back while showering the Golem with arcs of holy light. The golem seemed to be made purely for close combat, it didn't have any long-range skill, so if an opponent like James came about who had higher agility and ranged attacks, it became just a punching bag.
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-2,026,095
It only took a couple of seconds for the Grand Lord to also come to its end.
Letting go of his blade James walked into the temple, and what he saw pleasantly surprised him.
[Projection of the God of Destruction] (????, [Tier ?])
Level ????
HP ?????????/?????????
James didn't know a lot of the details about the ancient gods, but he could clearly tell that this God of destruction was a grade above the rest. Therefore, instead of stepping further so that the battle would begin, James went outside and rested for about an hour. Waiting for his cooldowns to be over.
Stepping back into the arena the God of destruction started talking to him.
"Finally, your back young man. You know how this works right? I'm presuming you fought some of my companions at the first zone."
When he heard the word Zone it all finally became clear to James. The whole reason he only now stumbled on a higher-grade temple was that he was in a low-grade zone. At least now he knew that he was going in the right direction. To confirm his suspicions, he asked the projection before he started the battle.
"Would you mind telling me more about these zones, sir?"
The projection looked him up and down before sighing.
"All right, I can sense that you have slain around 10 Gods in the first zone, that is an impressive achievement, so I'll tell you the basics. This sacred ground of sword training is divided into 3 zones. We are currently in the second zone, the third one is occupied by a single temple in the middle of the island. In the past, this land could give you more enlightenment the closer you were to the center, that's why the closer you get to the center, the stronger the owners of the training grounds became. That is all I am allowed to mention, so I think it is best that we begin your test."
Just like all the previous times, all the divine runes glowed brightly and directed all of their energy to the projection. This time it seemed to need a lot more power to suppress him to Level 20 Tier 0.
[Projection of the God of Destruction] (Projection of ancient god, [Tier 0])
Level 20
HP 10,000,000/10,000,000
James didn't waste any time after seeing the immense increase in stats this Projection had in contrast to the ones that were located in the first zone.
Seeing the Projection sprint at him he could also clearly see that the attribute increase wasn't the only thing that was far superior to the projections from before. James could clearly see him sprinting towards him, but he had no presents, all of James's senses were telling him he wasn't there. Even his domain couldn't pick him up.
'He can use silver combat techniques at Tier 0?'
It was clear that this was some kind of silver combat technique related to movement, nothing lower could trick a domain realm expert's sense, but to be able to have the concentration necessary at tier 0 to perform it was an amazing accomplishment.
Void Walk
James slipped into the void. Learning from his mistake against the God of Fire James didn't take his time in the void. It took only a fraction of a second before he reappeared 10 yards behind the projection, who seemingly had yet to react to James's disappearance.
It was clear that this God of destruction, even though he was far above the projections in the first zone. Was still lacking in comparison to James when it came to physique, agility, and concentration. James more or less expected this, ancient gods were naturally born gods, so they could basically do close to nothing for their entire life and still become one. The fact that the projection was set back to Tier 0 in every aspect meant that James was basically fighting a baby form of the real ancient god, they might have been powerful but not to the standard he was. There was also the fact that these projections didn't even have a fraction of the strength of the real deal, and they couldn't wield equipment. James only dodged the previous attack to confirm these suspicions, so now he didn't need to hold back anymore.
Firestorm
Lightning discharge
-4,457,410
-2,602,753
James planned to finish this fight rather quickly, so he prepared some holy sword arcs and was in the motion of throwing them when the Projection turned around with an angry look on his face, at the same time thousands of little stars appeared in the sky, all of them becoming bigger and bigger by the second. It was only then that James realized what it was.
'Another combat technique and this one seemed to be even more powerful than the last one.'
All of those dots were points of a sword all coming directly at him from the sky, a barrage of swords. James was pretty confident he could dodge the swords but better safe than sorry.
Void shield
The sword barrage continued for a few seconds, and not a single one of them managed to hit James. He did, however, notice that the projection had disappeared, but he could deal with that after the barrage was over.
Now that the last sword had fallen from the sky James suddenly took a quick step to the side, letting a translucent figure with a piercing sword movement pass by him. James had to admit, this was an excellent way to combine his two combat techniques, first, distract your opponent with a thousand blades, and during all the chaos sneak up on him with your movement technique and deliver a devastating blow. Any Domain Realm expert would have fallen for it, luckily for James, he wasn't in the Domain Realm.
Seeing the projection still in the stabbing motion next to him, James delivered 2 quick slashes to his abdomen to finish him off.
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Just like all the other times, a dark purple orb flew outside its body and up in the sky. Giving James a system notification.
System: Completion Rate 95%. Do you wish to absorb the Legacy orb and complete your Tier 1 promotion?
James pressed no and headed straight to the privet quarters of the God of destruction.
The Loot inside wasn't that different from the loot in the lower-grade zone. He found a total of 3 God crystals lying about and another combat technique. This time it was a footwork technique, 'Formless step' an advanced silver combat technique. James could pretty confidently say that this was the technique the projection used.
Putting everything in his bag, James walked out of the temple, contemplating for a second. Now that he knew about the Zone system this place worked in, he knew that he just needed to cross this zone to get to his final destination, but he decided against it. Clearing these temples was the best method of collecting God crystals he had ever found; it would be best if he took full advantage of it while he still could. Plus, the time dilation in this realm was 2 times compared to the outside world, meaning that he still had 3 and a half days in here before any of his teammates would be done with their Tier quest.
Having made up his mind James set off, still towards the center, but with no thoughts of clearing it just yet.