Others Summon, I Forge Beast Armor

”What is she doing?” Luke thought.

Day 3 of the Trials is very important because, as the middle day, it connotes how the rest of your Trials would go.

Luke didn’t want Scarlett to miss the third day. Rivals like Prince Derek are right on their asses.

If Derek overtakes her today, it might not change again because Derek was the kind of student who wouldn’t miss a day. And he was very consistent with his points per day.

First day he got 91,000 points; second day, 95,000. After the third day, he would be at 200,000+

Luke checked his GT of 275k again, so he knew he had to create that gap as he had on the first day. And he was off to a good start. Just this zone gave him 16,500, so ten of that would be a jackpot.

Luke dismissed his token and checked his map for the next zone.

Next zone. Slay the monsters. Repeat.

Wherever Luke went, he took Seraphina with him, which was beneficial because it let her see more kinds of people, not only the ones in the park.

He didn’t know her progress in Condition 1 so far. His focus was on the zones.

He had so many at his fingertips because of the Comprehensive Index; Luke even thought about selling some coordinates to classmates for a good price.

Some zones were in plain sight, some were hidden, while some required him to understand hints to discover them. It’s also important to mention that about 10% of these zones were false alarms, which was the exact risk that the receptionist told Luke about.

He faced 21 zones today, and he divided them into three groups based on how he found them.

The first seven monster zones he faced were at a bank, a subway station, a creek, a garden, an old construction site, an old water treatment plant, and a landfill.

He fought 41 monsters for 10,200 points in the bank, 36 for 8,700 at the creek, and 58 for 14,600 at the subway. The botanical gardens had 47 monsters worth 12,300 points, while the construction site had 52 monsters that gave him 13,800 points. The water treatment plant was tougher, with 63 monsters and gave him 17,500 points, while the landfill had 45 monsters and another 11,900 points.

The zones after that were an abandoned apartment, city reservoir, sewage tunnel, railway yard, old district, the city’s cemetery, and underground stormwater network.

Luke cleared 34 monsters in the apartment for 8,400 points before moving to the reservoir, where 49 aquatic monsters gave him 15,100 points. The sewage tunnel had 56 monsters worth 16,700 points, while the railway’s yard had 43 monsters and gave him 12,600 points.

The old district was packed with 71 monsters, making it one of the better zones of the day and rewarding him with 21,300 points. The cemetery had only 29 monsters, but they were stronger than expected and gave him 13,900 points, while the stormwater network contained 61 monsters worth 18,200 points.

The zones after that included a courthouse’s basement, a farm, another construction site, a zoo, a quarry, another apartment, and an old primary school.

The courthouse had 38 monsters and gave him 10,700 points, while the farm had 54 monsters worth 15,800 points. The construction site contained 67 monsters and gave him 20,400 points, followed by 46 monsters and 14,500 points from the zoo.

The quarry was another profitable zone with 59 monsters worth 19,600 points, while the second apartment of the day had 64 monsters that gave him 18,900 points.

Finally, the primary school contained 51 monsters and gave Luke 16,300 points.

It was a total of 311,400 points.

「Luke Kingsley is the first student to reach 500,000 pts!」

「Luke Kingsley has attained the title: Trialbreaker!」

Next zone. Slay the monsters. Repeat.

This was Luke’s routine for two days because the Comprehensive Index had removed the hardest part of hunting: finding the zones. He only needed to pick a location, clear it, collect the points, and move to the next one. It was repetitive, but extremely effective.

While other students were thinking about how to catch up to Luke or planning how to drag him down, Luke was planting his flag at the topmost peak.

After making 500k points in day three, he was back at the top. Also, if he doubled his points, as everyone said you should after day three, that meant 1M points. 1M points was his goal, so this meant he was on the right pace.

Day 4 was more or less the same.

More students were showing their teeth, gaining thousands of points every hour, so the leaderboard changed a lot. But since Luke’s advantage was obvious, there was nothing special for him to pursue.

At this point, he just enjoyed being outside because it helped Seraphina cultivate her foundational path, and he enjoyed the stories she came back to tell him.

After every zone, Luke loved to hear what she had to say.

Did she witness an act of kindness or an act of cruelty?

It was hard to tell their progress because the system didn’t provide a bar/panel that showed that. So, they had to trust their instincts and hope they were on the right track.

As for Seraphina, whenever Luke clears a zone, he comes out with so many cores for her to absorb.

Luke could harvest these cores because he killed the monsters with his spear, not his armor. This was another advantage of his spear. It solved the issue of his armor devouring the cores and everything else to Flame.

Seraphina absorbs these cores, but it took up to fifty cores before her fortitude even budged. She had been absorbing cores since the monster zone near the academy, yet she was leveling up for the first time!

From Mythic 3.1 to Mythic 3.2.

According to Luke, she was the real tortoise here, not Amigo.

But it’s a good thing he had many monsters to kill in the many zones he had. None of those cores would go to waste.

Seraphina can absorb as many cores as she wants, the same way she can eat as much food, and still won’t be satisfied. There was something strange about the Empyrean Angel Luke didn’t understand.

Back to his trials; he was wrong when he thought day 4 would be half a dozen of day 3.

At first, it was. The zones were mundane and easy to clear. A hospital had 48 monsters and gave him 14,200 points, while the subway again had 61 monsters worth 18,700 points.

An abandoned parking garage, supermarket, college, stadium, bridge, and warehouse.

It was hard to believe monsters lurked in the shadows, even in a city this habitable. Now, Luke could only imagine just how many monsters were out there in the eye of the apocalypse.

An office building contained 76 monsters and gave him 25,400 points, making it the best zone at first, but a highway tunnel had 81 monsters worth 29k points, so it became the best.

That’s a total of 215,000 points.

He was glad until he got to his 14th zone of the day in a neighbourhood partly abandoned.

Luke checked his map, and the coordinates pointed to an arcade, so he entered the arcade to get it over with and move on to the next zone.

FWOOOM!

The entrance he entered from got covered by something like black foam and matter, throwing Luke into the darkness of the arcade.

”What the—”

Luke equipped his mask to see in the darkness, and he saw everything you could see in a dilapidated arcade. Broken machines, shattered screens, and shattered prizes. But the nature of this zone was odd.

Back matter everywhere, covering the walls, floors, and ceiling—signs of corruption.

”Darn,” Luke whispered as corrupted monsters began crawling out to greet him, monsters like rats and bugs with strong forelimbs and fingers.

HISSS went his gauntlet, and his spear made a clever sound as he spun it in preparation.

Luke was surprised to see corrupted monsters, but he shouldn’t have been. The apocalypse rising again has brought many changes across the city, and this was likely another result.

Having monsters in the city was bad enough, but corrupted monsters roaming around was worse. They could reach civilians before the Bureau or Confederacy did, leaving helpless people with no protection.

Luke had to end them here.

He was about to lunge at the monsters when something touched his neck.