Second Trial (2)

Huff... Huff... Huff...

After fighting for more than an hour, Max had exhausted most of his stamina and mana and was panting roughly.

[ Name: Maxwell Garfield ]

[ Age: 18 ]

[ Strength: 10 ]

[ Agility: 10 ]

[ Stamina: 2/15 ]

[ Vitality: 13 ]

[ Intelligence: 15 ]

[ Mana: 250/1331 ]

[ Element: Fire ]

[ Lust Points: 0 ]

Glancing at his status screen, Max couldn't help but smile bitterly. Given his current stamina, he wouldn't be able to last more than a few minutes.

'Thankfully, I only cast ten mana point fireball. If I had tried to use more of my mana to cast them, I would have fainted from fatigue long ago.' Max thought.

If you used more powerful attacks, they would take a tremendous toll on your mind and body, thus, depleting your stamina quickly.

Max looked at the golems charging toward him. Although their speed was slow, it was still comparable to his. Fortunately, their overall agility was worse than him, or he might not have been able to kill them.

"I think I've killed enough. After one last attack, I will withdraw. Hopefully, killing more than eighty golems would be enough for this trial." Max muttered as he took a deep breath and straightened his posture.

He raised his hands above his head and shouted in a weak voice. Two fireballs around one foot in diameter appeared above his hand after a few seconds.

"Go"

His vision started getting blurry as he tried to squeeze all his remaining mana into them and hurled them where golems were near each other.

Boom!

Boom!

Both fireballs exploded upon contact, but he didn't have time to see how many were killed because one golem was punching at his head, and if this punch connected, his head would explode like a watermelon.

Max clenched the small bead in his hand, which the crimson monarch gave them before sending them here, and he vanished from the battlefield.

Whoosh!

Golem's punch hit nothing but air. As Max vanished, the remaining golems stopped moving and disintegrated into the mud.

...

"Dammit. It's not comfortable to fight with my strength sealed." Aaron yelled in frustration. He was having difficulty destroying the golems with his strength restricted, even though these golems were easy to destroy.

He stimulated his mana, and more than ten fire arrows of one-meter length appeared around him. He looked toward the golems and sneered, "Here, take my farewell gift." Fire arrows flew through the air and penetrated the golems' bodies.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Golems fell to the ground making thudding sounds. As for Aaron, he had also consumed all of his mana and therefore crushed the crystal bead and disappeared from there.

...

Whoosh!

One altar shimmered with light, and Max appeared. Max was barely conscious and looked very haggard. He collapsed on the altar and gasped for air.

Whoosh!

After a few minutes, one more altar glowed with light, and Aaron appeared. His condition was slightly better than Max's, but he was also panting heavily and had minor injuries all over his body.

Aaron looked toward Max, and, seeing him almost unconscious, he smiled, but that smile froze when he saw that he had barely any injury. He secretly gritted his teeth 'Dammit, I came out the same time as this trash, and he is only slightly injured. Did he even fight?'

Max lay on the altar without moving. After a few minutes, his breathing became steady, and he also recovered some stamina, but he didn't move and continued to lay there with his eyes closed.

Aaron also didn't speak and continued to recover. He had some medicine pills, and after eating them, he recovered quickly. As he looked at Max again, he saw him sleeping on the altar and smiled with disdain. 'It seems this little shit doesn't even have any recovery pills.'

...

The crimson monarch and Aaron watched the rest fighting on the mana screen. After a while, Max also opened his eyes and struggled to sit up. He then watched them fighting with interest. He knew this would benefit him if he could watch more powerful people in action.

Black reaper was fighting in close combat. His sword was burning with flames, and he was dashing amidst the golems swinging his sword around. With every swing, one golem's head would detach from its body.

Schwartz was using fire chains that looked as if they were made of red crystal. He was controlling them with great dexterity and destroying the golem in the range of his chains.

Margaret, the only woman among them, was the most ferocious one. Any golem that came close to her would melt by her and turn into lava.

"Doesn't this consume more mana? Wasn't her mana core sealed? How is she able to sustain this consumption and fight until now?" Max couldn't help but say his confusion out loud after watching this.

Aaron heard him and shot a disdainful glance at him. Although Max didn't like it when he was treated with disdain, he couldn't blame him for it as he really didn't know anything that might be common knowledge for the people like him.

Surprisingly, Aaron started speaking, "Her mana core is undoubtedly sealed, and she can only use the same amount of mana as us. Although I didn't like her, I must admit that her control over mana is much greater than the rest of us. Because of that, she can easily cast her spell with the minimum possible amount of mana without reducing her spell's power, thus, saving a lot of mana and fight longer."

"Oh, I understand now. Thanks for the explanation." Max exclaimed after hearing his explanation and thanked him.

For example, if your car model is old, it will consume more petrol for traveling a certain distance. Whereas, if your car is the latest model, it will consume less petrol and give you better performance. It was something similar in the case of mana too. If you can control it better, then with less mana, you can cast a spell that would generally consume more mana. Better control will result in better efficiency.

After less than ten minutes, the Black Reaper and Schwartz also appeared on the altar, and not long after, Margaret also came back.

***

"Hey kid, how did you do?" Schwartz asked Max in his usual lazy tone.

"I think I performed the best I could, but I don't think I was able to destroy more golems than you guys," Max said, a little disappointed.

Schwartz looked at him with a surprised look. According to Max, he destroyed enough golems but wasn't sure whether he destroyed more than them.

"Kid, it's normal if you couldn't destroy more than us. After all, we are more experienced at fighting, and your mana control is only at the basic level." He said, smiling wryly.