Chapter 19: Cocky Magician

There were two wards that Xerel summoned, one was the ward he used to teleport in this area he was currently in and the other was an award he used to locate the World Tree.

'The teleportation is still in cooldown, for now, let's check the area. Theena should already be partaking in the trials, I wonder how fast she manages to finish the first ten trials? She should be able to finish it faster than me, she probably already set the world record.'

Xerel shifts his vision to the ward at the world tree. When his view changed, he was surprised at what he saw.

"There are a lot more challenges than I expected it to be! Damn, who are these guys and what are they doing?"

There were crowds of humanoids outside of the World Tree, most of them were from a race that Xerel had never seen before, there were some humanoids that were distinguishable by their looks and some were oddly unique.

One was a humanoid with four heads, on the right was a bull, on the left was a lion and on the back was an eagle and on the front was a human. The humanoid had a humanoid body wrapped up in gothic armor and three sets of black wings that exuded dark smoke. Xerel went closer using the ward but as soon as he reached 20 meters away from the humanoid, its sets of eyes flashed in red as it stared at the ward.

'Fuck! It can see me!'

Xerel immediately flew away from the humanoid and the humanoid closed its eyes.

Xerel continued to observe the humanoids present in the area. There was a Minotaur that had three eyes and spiral horns. A humanoid eagle that was oddly similar to an Egyptian God. There was even a giant black spine that had eyes in each bone floating in the air. A lizard that was clothed in a wizard costume. A humanoid tree that was smoking cigarettes. A succubus is being carried by stone humanoids. A half-human half-snake that had only one eye. A humanoid horse that always tapped its foot on the ground. A mysterious hooded man had a demon wing on his back, an arm made of sharp blade and the other arm was bulging.

There was a swordsman that looked like an elf that was floating mid-air and seems to be meditating. A lycanthrope that was sleeping. A draconic humanoid that turned the ground it rested on in a giant pool of lava. A humanoid praying mantis that looked like an alien. A Viking humanoid was exuding ice around him. A vampire that was resting on the shade of a tree. A knight is full of silver armor. A slime humanoid. A humanoid that looks like a Kryptonian. And dozens more that he could not describe further that piqued Xerel's interest was a half-naked man full of tribal tattoos and was wielding two sticks as he converses with other humanoid monsters.

"So Thorfinn is also here, I should greet him after we meet. If he means any harm to me, I won't back down since I'm already stronger than him, plus, I have the protection of the barrier."

To waste some time, Xerel went on hunting monsters while observing the challengers on the World Tree. From what he could understand, only one Challenger per trial was allowed to enter and after the Challenger finishes or loses on the trials, another challenger entered, it was first come first serve, and even despite the hierarchal difference in power, nobody complained as they respected both Dryads who guided them and the World Tree.

An hour passed and Xerel was able to gain 2 levels from his hunt and was ready to go to the tower.

"Before I go, I should put up a good impression to the other challengers."

Ting~

[Player: Xerel

Level: 640 (13%) (+112 (+32%))

Class: None

+Title: One in a million (5 more titles)(+1 title)

Race: Human

State: Excited

HP: 72,750/72,750 (+20,000)

MP: 12160/12160 (+4000)

STR: 2217 (+400)

AGI: 2297 (+400)

INT: 1216 (+400)

DEF: 1455 (+400)

Status Points: 530 (+1120)]

(Fixed an error with the health points)

'I should increase my intelligence and defense and put some to Strength and Agility

"Distribute 600 points in Intelligence, 500 in Defense, 275 in Strength, and 275 in Agility."

Ting~

Ting~

[Player: Xerel

Level: 752 (45%)

Class: None

+Title: One in a million (6 more titles)

Race: Human

State: Excited

HP: 92,750/92,750 (+25,000)

MP: 16160/16160 (+6000)

STR: 2617(+275)

AGI: 2697 (+275)

INT: 1616 (+600)

DEF: 1855 (+500)

Status Points: 1650 (-1650)]

Ting~

[YOU ARE THE FIRST HUMAN TO REACH 2000 POINTS IN INTELLIGENCE!]

[YOU HAVE BEEN REWARDED]

[Manipulation-(P)-(BUFF/DB): Control Mana around your surroundings. Controlled Mana can be from the manipulator, a locked target, an object, or anything that contains Mana. The manipulated Mana can be used to disrupt the flow, absorb to the manipulator, convert into defense, speed, or damage, to amplify skills/abilities, and conceal]

+50 MP Regeneration]

Ting~

[YOU ARE THE FIRST HUMAN TO REACH 2000 POINTS IN DEFENSE!]

[YOU HAVE BEEN REWARDED]

[Second Coming-(P)-(BUFF): If health drops by 10%, gain debuff immunity and resist 95% of damage for 15 seconds. After the buff disappears, heals 80% of missing health over time.

Cooldown: 48 Hours]

"Great skills! Especially Manipulation. From what I can understand, if I use manipulation, I could disrupt and magic that is cast on me or make their attack useless. And when I need more attack output, I could simply convert my Mana or the surrounding Mana into damage to amplify my attack. Damn, that's gotta be a godly skill to have!"

Xerel was satisfied with his rewards and opened his ward eye, there were still a lot more challengers arriving, and seeing this, he was quite excited and shy since it was his first time to be surrounded by a lot of people.

"Hoooh~ let's go."

Waaaaaaaaaaang~

Xerel disappeared and reappeared up in the sky. Instantly after appearing out of nowhere, many eyes stared at Xerel as he landed down like a feather using his telekinesis power.

Xerel looked around and the first thing that poked his view was Thorfinn who went running towards him like a dog who hasn't seen its owner for a while.

"It's you! I apologize if what I did a few days ago, Zula has given me his salvation and has asked me to give you any gift you want so I can be freed from my sins."

"Oh, it's okay. I don't know what you can give me but it's fine. I just need to enter the World Tree."

Xerel refrained but Thorfinn insisted as he held his hand intently.

"Please! I'll give you anything you want, it can be an item, a blessing, or anything!"

Seeing that he was insisting, Xerel didn't want to let a benefit go to waste.

"Okay fine. You must do what I tell you in the future."

"Deal! Anyways, do you want to enter the World Tree too? Don't worry, I'll accompany you while we wait."

"Why?"

"We have to wait here in line until the other Challenger finishes the trial. We don't want to disrespect the great tree by cutting in the lines, plus these guys are very powerful! I wanted them to be my marriage but everyone declined."

Thorfinn looked sullen and Xerel patted him in the back to show his sympathy.

'I can see why people would decline your marriage offer. No one in their right mind would marry a guy they just met.'

"So come on! Let's talk more while we wait in line."

Xerel could choose to not be in line and enter the World Tree since he was already at the checkpoint but seeing Thorfinn's enthusiasm, he decided to follow him for now.

"Hey! Get out of there, that's my line!"

Thorfinn scolded a thin-looking guy who was resting in the crater he made. The thin guy was wearing thin clothing and had a long pointy hat that he covered his face with to block it from the rays of the sun.

"Finders keepers."

The thin guy said as he continued to sleep. Thorfinn was angry at his remarks as veins popped up in his head, he summoned his batons and was about to hit his head with them but then, the thin guy waved his hands a bit and the shiny essence of Mana flowed out of his fingertips and went into Thorfinn as he instantly turned into a frog.

Croak! Croak!

Thorfinn in frog mode seemed to have lost his sense as he started acting just like a normal frog and upon seeing this, Xerel's eyes grew wide in shock.

Ting~

[Locafustrous

Rank: Sorcerer Supreme

Level: 740

HP: 1,000,000/1,000,000

State: Sleepy, Bored]

"So you're a Sorcerer Supreme."

"..!"

Locafustrous removed the hat on his face and stared at Xerel suspiciously, he confused look on his face as he spoke.

"How do you know that I'm a Sorcerer Supreme?"

"I'll tell you if you turn my friend back to normal."

Xerel smiled as he held the frog (Thorfinn) in his hand. It didn't seem like he was in the mood to negotiate and simply laid back down.

"I don't care anyway, leave before I turn you into a frog-like your loud friend."

"What if I don't?"

"Simple, you become a frog to-?"

Locafustrous started waving his hand and Mana essence glimmered towards Xerel but it immediately turned to dust as soon as it made contact with the barrier.

"That's weird, you don't seem to be affected by my spell?"

"Probably because you're weak."

"Nah, not that...I only feel a trace of Mana inside you so you shouldn't be able to block my spell unless you're also Sorcerer Supreme but that's unlikely since I'm the only being in the world who has that title."

Locafustrous continued to wave around his hand and chanted spells but none seem to affect Xerel. The face that once looked timid and bored slowly changed into confusion and disbelief.

"How are my spell not working on you?"

"I told you already, you're weak so return my friend now to his normal self."

Locafustrous didn't seem to listen to Xerel and cast more and more spells but none worked against him. Realizing that Locafustrous won't listen to him, Xerel sighed and used [Mana Manipulation].

His vision quickly changed and just like being in the eyes of the Chimera Ant, Xerel could see the world in a different perspective except now, he could see Mana flowing out from the surroundings.

The roots of the tree that spread out contained a very pure Mana essence and the surroundings including the trees and air spread out Mana too.

He looked at Locafustrous and he could see his Mana capacity beaming out like a beam of light and if one didn't have any resistance like Xerel, they'd faint from such a dense Mana.

'This guy is worthy of the Title Sorcerer Supreme. His Mana output reached the skies. But although that's impressive, I'm disappointed that he couldn't even see my mana even though I simply concealed it with mana manipulation. Is it because he's weak or this skill is just too op?'