Chapter 82: Chapter 82 – Trial 3/6

As they neared the illusions at a blinding pace, Astrid shot the needles forward at the perfect timing. From the physical impact, the illusions vanished like a mirage.

The monsters weren’t able to react in time, despite their ability to move in mid-air. The needles sunk into their fine scaly flesh and disappeared without a trace. Their bodies fell simultaneously to the cold, hard ground. It was only after a moment that blood seeped from the tiny, obscured newly created holes in their chests.

Despite her victory, they did not give her time to rest. Her Psych Domain picked up more matter travelling through the hallway of the door. Astrid racked her mind for an idea. She was confident in the amount of mana potions she had brought with her, thanks to the help of everyone else. But she needed to relieve the amount that she used.

Her brows raised and sent a [Crash] to the back of her barrier. Astrid flew and stopped in front of the large, opened dark wooden doors. She tried moving it with Psychokinesis, but it didn’t budge.

Whether it was because of the trial blocking it, she didn’t know. She then attempted to sculpt it to her desire, but that didn’t work either.

Next up was Psych Warp.

Astrid sent multiple explosions down the hall as the monsters quickly approached. They dashed back, avoiding the mass of matter being created. Astrid kept it there, as they refused to go past it. But she couldn’t control it forever. Controlling so much matter was quickly exhausting her mana container. She had to do something.

Although she had never done it before, she created a wall from Psych Warp while controlling the matter ahead. She strained her mind and groaned in pain.

Doing two things at once normally wasn’t a problem, like grabbing hold of three or more objects at a time. But creating something from nothing, while also holding off the blindingly fast monsters from tearing her apart, was difficult.

Blood dripped from her nose at the heightened concentration as the wall of metal formed. Not being able to focus only on the wall made it jagged in areas, and some places were thinner or thicker than others. She just hoped that it could stop them.

However, she was never one to focus on defence. She left a hole in the middle of the wall. It was difficult working around it and she had to spend more mana, but she had something planned.

She let go of the matter and, without a moment’s hesitation, the mini fish-like humanoids pounced toward the hole in the wall. The moment they were about to pass through the hole, razor-sharp spikes shot out from the hole.

Their bodies rammed into the spikes, but they were moving so fast that they continued with little resistance. They moved at the same speed. There wasn’t a change in their movement, yet they were already dead.

With this being in her Mind Domain meant she could use any means necessary to kill.

The monster’s corpses splatted and slid against the black tiles. Dark liquid and guts rolled along the floor until they eventually stopped.

Astrid didn’t bother checking their corpses. She was already paying attention to the tunnel. She tapped her foot on the floor. It was as she had thought. They doubled once more. She hoped it wouldn’t continue for long, but she had a strong suspicion she would be here for a while.

* * *

How long had it been? Astrid wasn’t sure. She sat with her back against the wall as she rifled through her backpack for stocktaking.

She gazed at the empty bottles that were laying on the floor. Half of her entire supply was gone, and she was sure it had been at least two days since the trial had started.

Astrid rubbed her stomach. She was in agony from her over exerted mana container. For two entire days, or longer, she was using the mana non-stop. If she halted it, then she would be ejected from the palace, where that may be. And she wasn’t sure if she would be allowed back in.

Or maybe she would just die? The Trial had said that she couldn’t leave and that the only way was death. She didn’t want to find out, so a little pain was nothing to fuss over.

At first, she used the high agility and unpredictable nature of the monsters to train her senses and reaction time. After all, it was difficult to practice on real moving targets with a crafty nature–humans. And if she did, she would be constantly worried about accidentally taking their life.

At least this way she could train with no remorse at peak efficiency. She was getting used to reading the matter at high movements and predicting where it would come from.

Astrid had even resorted to thinning out her Mind Barrier, and using the extra mana to fight with her knives. It was strange and difficult at first, but she attempted to replicate the Sinwen sword fighting style with the knives. The only difference was that she wasn’t actually holding a weapon. Instead, they danced in the air and moved to her command.

She replicated the sword’s movements. Thrust, strike, swipe, step, slash. It was difficult at first, but once one truly learns something, it remains in the brain for a lifetime. All it needed was some warming up.

During that time, she had experimented with her trap making. Once the monsters reached the sixties, her previous strategy of the hole in the wall with small spikes no longer worked. Instead, she had to get creative.

The sound of heavy objects moving filled the entire hallway next to her.

The entire floor rumbled, and an intense sound of footsteps filled the entire hall. It filled the next couple of minutes with gut wrenching cries and screams. Well, it sounded more like an intense mixture of clicking, clacking, and hissing than anything.

Something hard cutting into flesh and bone filled the hallway, then only silence remained. Astrid gazed at the countless number of notifications within her mind. They just kept on going, quickly reaching past the hundreds.

She got into the habit of just skipping past everything and moving straight into the more important parts of the System. The level ups, six in total to be exact, and that also meant that she had finally reached the five-hundred intelligence mark. A great upgrade awaited her.

Astrid sighed and stood up. It was meant to be a great reward, but it felt unearned. She gazed through the hole and looked at her wondrous creation of death.

At the end of the tunnel, enormous circular blades of metal rotated. They spun at a speed capable of severing entire limbs off of whatever monster ran into its war-path.

Just in front of the blades, metal plates lay flat against the wall and were embedded with pointed spikes that crashed against each other repeatedly. Then, just ahead, two similar plates both crashed down from the ceiling, and above from the floor. It didn’t matter how the monsters evaded, it would either slice them into pieces or crush them to death.

It was a constant mana expenditure, but it was worth it.

But that wasn’t all. Astrid had created a narrow funnel, so that the monsters could only move through a narrow passageway. It was the final defensive line if they even crossed the death passage.

If they got past the traps, thousands of hardened needles were stuck into the walls, ready to be fired from Psychokinesis at a moment’s notice.

The stench of blood was so thick that she could practically taste it. Corpses lay in the thousands and piled up high. With any newcomers, the old bodies would either be sliced into fragments or crushed into a mulch to accommodate the new arrivals.

With the noises gone, she clenched her hands. Will she finally gain some peace?

Two minutes passed, and the screeching continued. Astrid sighed, placed her back against the wall and slid down until the cold tiles pressed against her butt.

The cries continued until they stopped. Then the silence remained. She was hopeful once more.

It was time to look at her System.

 

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