The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 968: Sholaha Trial

Karl stepped through the portal, and found Cara waiting for him on the other side.

An open field of stone, looking like the aftermath of a rock slide, greeted them. A massive golden temple stood in the distance, with two crystalline golems standing near the base.

Karl walked to the statues, not quite jogging, but not wasting any time, in case the instance was limited in duration.

{Greetings, adherent of the Old Gods. Welcome to the Sholaha Desert Trial Instance. You have been introduced to the Overlord Ranked Trial grounds. Please choose your challenge.} The Golem declared.

Words appeared in the air between Karl and the Golems, made of small stones from the ground.

{Option 1 ⇒ Attempt Advancement} Difficulty 10

{Option 2 ⇒ Attempt Class Change} Difficulty 5

{Option 3 ⇒ Attempt Status Optimization} Difficulty 7

{Option 4 ⇒ Random Bonus} ????

Karl grabbed Cara before she could immediately go for the random option.

”At least take three seconds to think about it.” He reminded her.

[Thought about it, still want to know what they are hiding. Though... a Class Change. Would that give me one, as I donʼt have one? That could be fun too. No, I know what will happen if I do that. Randomness is best.]

Once she finished speaking, Cara vanished, and Remi began complaining in Karlʼs mind.

[This is discrimination. Just because I follow a Shaman God, I donʼt get to play? Even Brothers Thor and Hawk canʼt come out.]

Karl shrugged. [I guess itʼs an exclusive thing. They did put it right above a Temple.]

Rae considered the answer. [It said no to me, but the Spider Goddess is ancient. Does that mean that ʼOld Godsʼ actually refers to a specific group?]

The Golem made a noise like grinding stone. ”That is correct, daughter of the Spiders. The Old Gods are not the Beast Gods, not the Elemental Deities, not the Renegade Gods, not the Titan Gods, and not the Council of Divinity.”

That at least answered her first question.

[But why does Cara get to play?]

”The God of Chaos is one of the Old Gods. His favour grants her entrance, as the World Dragonʼs favour grants the Karlʼs entrance.”

[Haha, they call you ʼThe Karlʼ too.]

Karl rolled his eyes at her mockery, and focused on the options. Totem Rank advancement did sound like an incredible option, even if the difficulty was high.

But he was more intrigued by what a Status Optimization was.

Could that take him to the theoretical limits of his power? That would be flat out broken, assuming it was as good as [Predation] at increasing his damage.

He would make it to Totem Rank soon enough, that much was essentially inevitable.

Changing his class might be harder, but he had already seen the requirements to move to the next class in his current progression, and he didnʼt meet them yet.

{Requirements for Next Class Advancement}

⇒ Reach Totem Rank

⇒ Fill All Beast Slots or combine spaces to remove redundant areas.

⇒ Visit any Dungeon, Instance or Relic with System integration

Not only was he not yet a Totem, he still had one empty beast space formed. So the class change would have to be something other than the natural progression, unless it closed his remaining beast space and bypassed the rank restriction.

Karl pulled a bit of power from the Haint Claw and the Sword of Champions, and felt the state of his body. He was physically very close to Totem Rank. A bit more optimization from the weapons after this battle, and he should be able to push through no matter what.

A month at the most, and he would be a Totem. Two, if they were slacking.

Karl made his decision.

”I will take the Status Optimization.”

The Golem nodded, and gestured toward the temple. ”I believe that you know the basics. But this trial is integrated. Simply walk to the top within the next forty-eight hours to achieve perfect optimization. You may take any path, they are all equal.”

Karl stepped to the temple, then walked around to his right so that the sun was at his back and not in his eyes. Sometimes the little things made the biggest difference.

Karl stepped on the first step and felt all the spells on his body, other than the [Beast Form] spell, shatter. So, he had to do this under only his physical abilities. With the Chaos Beast Constitution, it shouldnʼt be too difficult to walk up the first few steps.

According to the description, it ʼremoved physical limits on developmentʼ. That wasnʼt necessarily the same as removing limits on physical development, but Karl had high hopes for his gains this time.

The second step sent power surging through Karlʼs body, and in their mental storage his weapons buzzed with resonance.

Alright, he knew what to expect now. He had gone through it before, when his body was overloaded after the battle with the undead.

But the third step made his body burn like fire before leaving him slightly stronger than before.

The fourth step bombarded him with elemental energies, as if he were under attack by fifty mages at the same time. If he had thought that the fourth step was bad, it had nothing on this one.

The sixth step was all of the above, plus an oppressive force, similar to how the physical restriction of the first trial he had ever entered had tried to crush him.

The seventh step, everything increased. Then again on the eighth.

[Ooh, your fur is smoking. Nope, freezing. Freezing and smoking and glowing. Now Iʼm kind of glad Iʼm not out there.] Remi narrated.

[Thanks for the words of support.] Karl joked as he stepped up onto the tenth platform, and all of the effects all doubled.

It nearly drove him to his knees, but after a moment, his body seemed to adjust and Karl stepped forward again. Only to find that the rate of increase had also doubled.

Eleven steps down, nine hundred and eighty-nine to go.