test of determination

James, more detriment then even went to work killing the invading undead, the killing itself was rather quick thanks to their low agility and weakness to James's skill [holy aura], but despite this, it took him a long time to get the 250 kills required to become a Baron, so much so in fact that he had little more than 2 hours left before his plain would land and he would be forced to log out. All of this was due to the low spawn rate of the undead, they were extremely hard to come by and even harder to spot thanks to the low amount of light that the guardians gave off, and even if an undead happened to walk in the light there was a relatively big chance they would wander in the range of the statues, somewhere James couldn't come. The statues didn't seem to attack the invaders, James theorized that this was because they could only detect living creatures, this theory could also help clear up his confusion about the big reward they gave him every time he killed an invader if they could do that themselves, they surely wouldn't give out a nobleman's title that easily.

System: you have collected a total of 500 reputation points in Thunder city, the capital of the Thunder Empire. This achievement will be rewarded with the status of Baron throughout the whole Thunder Empire, any city in the vicinity of the Empire can now be entered without the requirement to pay the mandatory entrance fee.

James just plopped down after receiving the message, his concentration stat was high, higher than a newly upgraded [Tier 6] player in fact but having to concentrate for hours on end on an extremely dim source of light could make even him a little tired. Now that he had gained the title of Baron the pressure of the statues seemed to have disappeared, like they never existed in the first place, indicating that he could enter at any moment, but before that, he decided to read through the message and what he read cleared up some of James's confusion, he had wondered why only Barons and above could enter the city, after all, back in the day countless commoners must have passed the city gates, but now he realized that they probably had to buy some sort of pass from guards standing in front of the gates. This obviously couldn't be done any more thanks to the state the city was in.

Now that he had looked everything over James stood up to approach the wide-open gates, maybe it was a stretch to call them that though due to the fact that one of the doors was lying on the floor covered with vines and debris, only some faint golden accents being visible underneath, and the other door is gone completely. Stepping into the city it looked not much different than the doors themselves, everything was in ruin and only some small precious metals were indicators that this one was a thriving and powerful capital of an Empire. Going deeper into the city James could spot most of the buildings a normal city would have, like an auction house or a market, all of them in ruin, of course, but one thing stood out, James could feel a slight fluctuation of mana coming from a higher elevated building, the building seemed to have been quite grand back in the day because it was located in some kind of nobleman's district.

Having nothing else to go on he made his way toward the big mansion, only to find a calm-looking phantom sitting before the entrance of the mansion, he had a rather elegant look to him.

[Soul of Addo, Prince of the Thunder Empire [Tier 5] level ??]

????/????

James was rather surprised to see he couldn't identify him even with his powerful eyes, but after noticing his name he found this only reasonable, the prince was a [Tier 5] being after all. His eyes may be powerful but the gap between him, a [Tier 0], and a [Tier 5] was not something a powerful skill could make up for.

"Finally, another visitor to our beautiful Thunder city, or at least it once was. I sincerely apologize for the state of my kingdom, I am truly embarrassed to welcome anyone in this state, but as you can see, in my current state there isn't much I can do about it."

After hearing the prince out James just smiled lightly, this was exactly what he had been waiting for. The sword he was currently after was rather mysterious back in his previous life, but one thing was known by anyone with a little knowledge of it, the owner of the sword before it got into the hands of the first player was Addo Thunder, the prince of the thunder Empire, he kept it as an heirloom to one day give it to his son, they say he used it himself when he was a teenager.

"No problem prince Addo, I can completely understand what kind of situation you are in at the moment, and that is exactly the reason I am here, in my journeys I came across a wandering soul that said he was from this beautiful Empire, he asked me to help free all of his friends and family that were trapped in the city. So, if there is anything I can do to help, please prince Addo, speak up."

Addo looked James up and down with a skeptical look after he made his declaration.

"I appreciate your efforts young warrior, but you have to understand, there is only one chance to free my people, if it goes wrong then I could never forgive myself. The same goes for you, if you fail to free them, death will not be your only punishment, and I would never want that for someone who would go so far as you for my forgotten Empire."

James just stared at Addo with a determined look on his face, Addo was a man who valued bravery and spirit highly, if he wanted to have a chance at completing this quest, he had to show him these qualities, so that is exactly what he did, not moving with a determined expression on his face for as long as necessary.

"Okay then young man, I see you have adequate spirit, but you can understand that giving you this task that involves my people's lives is not something I can do based on spirit, so I will give you a test, you will fight me, every skill or power will be disabled in this duel. The winner will be determent based on who is better with his sword, but I must warn you, the damage you will procure in this duel will not disappear after it ends, so treat this as a life-or-death battle."

James just nodded as the area around them transformed into some sort of training dojo.

"Whenever you're ready, come at me."

The prince said with confidence, James then rushed at him with a normal iron sword in his hands. The prince had long seen this attack coming and dodged accordingly, but as a beyond-domain realm expert James had long known what his opponent would do before they even did it themselves, so he appeared at the place the prince was retreating to, giving him no way out. Just when it seemed to be all over for the prince, he swung his sword in incredible patterns creating a starry sky made up of the sparkles flying off the blocking of his sword, even redirecting most of James's attacks back at him.

What?

James was stunned seeing this, he could feel that the prince was at best on the verge of breaking through to the Domain Realm, but after seeing the expertise he showed in performing that defensive combat technique James was forced to reevaluate his skills in combat. He honestly couldn't tell how far the prince was in the Realms of Truth, but one thing was for sure, he was a lot more skilled in it than James, maybe even being in the beyond Truth Realm. This would make him one of the strongest opponents James had ever faced, finding a [Tier 6], NPC in the greater gods domain that had reached the beyond Truth Realm wasn't something even Apex guilds could do, that's how rare they were, not to mention an NPC that had the talent in combat to have reached that realm at [Tier 5].

Before James could even calm down his amazement, the prince had already changed his stance, obviously going into the attack. He had hoped that he could stretch this fight out as long as possible to gain some insight into the realms of truth but feeling the pressure of this next attack James knew that there was nothing he could do to stop it, that was a golden combat technique, something that could transcend Tiers, now that he and the prince both had the same stats there was nothing he could do against it. Luckily, he knew that this test wasn't meant to test his combat strength, but to test his resolve in a real life or death situation. Before his grateful thoughts could even finish though all the alarm bells of his gut and senses were going off, it felt like he was on death's door, and the cause were countless attacks from every direction, this all happened while James could still feel the prince standing before him, not moving an inch, until only a few seconds later, nothing. All of a sudden, all attacks seem to have vanished and James felt like he was completely safe, all of this happened while Addo hadn't moved an inch.

Golden combat techniques sure are amazing.

James thought while he knew what was coming, all of a sudden countless attacks pierced him from every possible place, for everyone he tried to deflect, more came out of his blind spot, and the most amazing thing was that he couldn't feel a thing, not a single sense of danger could reach him. Completely destroyed, James kept fighting, he knew that to win this challenge he just had to not give up.

This continued for a few minutes before a white light flashed before James's eyes, when he could see again, he had been transported to the front of the mansion with Addo standing in his same position.

"Well done, your fighting spirit is commendable, you are worthy of me putting my trust in you. When you pass the door behind me, you will see a courtyard, in the middle of said courtyard you will see a sword in the ground, that is my sword, [Killing ray], it was used by the invaders of my Empire to seal the souls of my fallen people to the land, remove the sword and they shall be free ones again, but watch out, when you start pulling out the sword countless imaginary attacks will descend upon you. These attacks will feel exactly like real ones but don't be fooled, ones you give in and unhand the sword while you are in the middle of pulling it out, you, and the souls of the residents of Thunder city will be doomed. I trust you to hang on."

Addo didn't say another word and just stepped aside, making a passage for James, who stepped into the courtyard without a second thought.

When looking over the courtyard James finally saw it, a long bleu sword with a black hilt, occasionally lightning bolts would shoot out of it, chipping away at the sturdy stone floors around it. James didn't waste any time and went to work, taking hold of the sword.

Everything went black and James appeared in a different place, still with the sword between his hands, the place looked vaguely familiar, it looked like a rocky wasteland with signs of battle everywhere, it was not until a certain man appeared that he finally realized where he was.

"hahah, James just give up, you might be a [Tier 6], but that's the most you'll ever be, some of our [Tier 5] prodigies are close to being stronger than you."

This was the day he fought against another [Tier 6] player of rivaling guild, and the day he came to terms with his weakness, you could say that today was the day his dreams of making it big were crushed.

James couldn't even process his emotions before a big meteor made completely out of bleu flames came crashing down on him, he remembered these flames, they were one of the most painful things he had ever experienced, but he didn't have the luxury to feel fear right now, so he stared at the comet with squinted eyes and tightened his grip on the sword, putting more and more force into pulling it out.

The ball of flames crashed down to the ground incinerating James, who at this point could do nothing but grit his teeth, he was giving all his attention to the blade and wasn't even looking at the flames that were constantly burning him alive, his eyes were wide open staring at the sword with tears of pure pain and determination running down them. He couldn't feel himself making any progress but that didn't matter now, he just kept on pulling.

The flames all around James disappeared and lots of blue translucent bodies flew directly from under his feet, James already gridded his teeth, expecting a second disaster but stopped when he heard a voice behind him.

"Great job kid, I knew you had it in you, your fighting spirit is even bigger than mine when I was your age."

While turning around to see that Addo had come in James could finally focus on what was coming from beneath his feet, where countless blue phantoms were rushing to the ceiling.

System: you have completed the Epic quest "the lost souls of thunder city" by freeing all souls trapped in the city, you have been rewarded 25 legacy skill points, for any additional rewards talk to Addo, the prince of the Thunder Empire.

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

Sighing in relief James turned around towards the Addo only to find out he himself was already fading from existence. This made James a little shocked.

"Don't be so surprised young man, my duties have come to an end, and besides I have overstayed my welcome for a little too long on this plane I'm afraid, so it is only natural I take my leave. Before I go thought I should reward you, I don't have much though so you will have to be satisfied with that sword you pulled out just now. It is a sword I cherished in my younger years and was planning on giving to my descendant, but that obviously isn't possible anymore, so it is fitting that you, one of the brightest young swordsmen I have seen receives this sword."

James didn't wait a second longer and inspected the sword before putting it in his backpack.

[Killing Ray] (One-handed Sword, Sacred Sword, Epic Rank)

Equipment Level: Level 30 - Level 120

Equipment Requirement: Strength 700

Attributes adjust to user's level.

Attack Power +760 (Level 30)

Strength +70, Agility +64, Endurance +55

Attack Speed +20

When equipped:

Strength and Agility increased by 10%, and Attack Speed by 10%

Ignore 20% of the target's Defense.

All Sword Skills +2 Levels

Ignore Levels +20

All item level requirements reduced by 5 Levels.

Attacks have a 40% chance to trigger Lightning, setting the initial Attack Speed as 50% of total Attack Speed and increasing damage by 240%.

Additional Skill 1 - Summon Lightning

Summons lightning to deal 400% lightning damage to enemies within a range of 15 yards and inflict the Numb effect for 5 seconds. Afterward, the attack range increased by 20 yards for 30 seconds.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Additional Skill 2 - Thunder God's Descent

Become immune to all Control Skills, Movement Speed, and Attack Speed increased by 150%, damage increased by 50%, and all damage received decreased by 50% for 30 seconds.

Cooldown: 1 hour

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James, now standing alone in the fallen Empire, proceeded to log out after taking a good look at the sword, it wasn't that good at the moment thanks to his low level, but still leagues better than his current one.