"Blink."
Calder’s foot pivoted, his silhouette blurring into a flicker of displaced air. He vanished from the forest floor and reappeared instantly, hovering directly above a Lyra Cadaver-Toad.
But the monster was faster than its bloated frame suggested. Before Calder could strike, the toad’s neck snapped around with predatory fluidness. Its gullet swelled, and a torrent of Caustic Spew erupted toward his face.
The acid struck with a hiss. It ate through his skin in heartbeats, dissolving layers of muscle to reveal the white gleam of bone beneath.
"Infinite Proliferation."
Calder’s expression didn't flicker. He watched his own flesh melt with the detached coldness of a man observing a machine malfunction.
[Upper Limb Blight Index: 1]
[HP Regen: 4.1/sec]
[Evasion: 5%]
As the system notification chimed, his cells went into an evolutionary frenzy. Raw meat knitted back together over exposed bone; new skin surged forward like a rising tide, resetting his health bar to its peak.
Below him, thirty Lyra Cadaver-Toads crouched in the muck.
On paper, their raw stats couldn't touch a Centipede Fiend, and their lineage paled in comparison to the Primori Mantikind. But their toolkit was a surgical counter to Calder’s current build. Their Sonic Burst punished his heightened senses, and their Blind Gaze rendered his Blink—a skill that relied on exploiting visual gaps—nearly useless against their uncanny dynamic vision.
This was the reality of The Eternal Dominion. Monsters didn't just have stats; they had evolutionary answers. Even with Level 10 attributes that far exceeded the norm, Calder knew one slip meant being digested alive.
"The third trial, and they’re already turning up the heat," Calder muttered, a thin, predatory smile touching his lips.
He kicked off the air, his six Chain Scourges unfurling from his arms like metallic vipers. He dived into the heart of the toad formation.
Metal clashed against bone. The Lyra Cadaver-Toads rose on hind legs, meeting his scourges with jagged claws.
"Steel Cleave!"
Calder narrowed his focus. The tips of his scourges hummed with reinforced mana, spinning into a lethal whirlwind. He guided the blades with pinpoint precision, driving them into the soft base of the toads’ skulls. Green ichor sprayed the dirt.
-100!
-120!
-150!
Critical markers flashed in a violent crimson. In the Novice Trials, most beasts capped at three hundred health; a well-placed crit was a death sentence. But these Cadaver-Toads possessed ten times the vitality of anything in the Beast Surge. Their hides were thick, their resilience maddening.
"If once isn't enough, I’ll hit you ten times," Calder hissed.
His eyes began to bloodshot as he pushed his nervous system to the limit. The rotation of the six chains accelerated until they were nothing but a shimmering dome of death. The toads’ bodies could see the attacks, but their reflexes finally hit a ceiling. They were overwhelmed.
[Ding! You have slain a Lyra Cadaver-Toad!]
[Ding! You have slain a Lyra Cadaver-Toad!]
The notifications began to cascade. Minutes later, the last toad collapsed into a heap of twitching meat.
[Trial 3 Complete. Time: 6m 58s.]
[Congratulations, Player Calder. You have unlocked the Class: Phantom Rogue (S-Rank). Affinity Score: 73. Do you accept?]
[Move Speed: 6.5]
[Charm: 20]
Calder stood amidst the carnage, dripping with green gore and his own drying blood. He stared at the shimmering gold text.
Phantom Rogue.
He remembered this class. During the Grand Convergence of his past life, a player from a mid-tier civilization had used this exact profession to ascend the rankings. Armed with a Streaklight Dagger, that rogue had systematically hunted down and executed several Paragons of The Eternal Race. He had only been stopped when he reached the Top 100.
In the early stages of the game, an S-Rank class with a 70 Affinity score was a god-tier start. It was an order of magnitude better than the Warrior path he had taken in his previous life.
He hesitated, his fingers hovering near the 'Accept' prompt.
Then, he shook his head and swiped it away.
"This is only the third trial. I'm not settling yet."
[Class Phantom Rogue rejected. Merging The Proving Grounds... Please wait.]
The world beneath his feet groaned. The sterile arena disintegrated, replaced by the violent birth of a landscape. Massive trees erupted from the soil, their trunks thick as skyscrapers, while the arena floor sank into rich, damp earth. Sunlight filtered through a canopy so dense it felt like a green ceiling.
Calder knelt, grabbing a handful of soil. He sniffed it. It smelled of morning dew and ancient decay. Every sense—touch, smell, hearing—screamed that this was real.
"Not an illusion? Then it’s a miracle," he whispered. This level of planetary-scale terraforming was beyond even the most powerful wood-element mages of The Eternal Threshold. It lent weight to the terrifying power of the beings behind The Chaos Sanctum.
[The Ancient Ones Test: Trial 4]
[Task: Survive and hunt the creatures of this forest to earn Kill Points. Points may be exchanged for Classes. Higher points equal higher-tier Classes.]
[No time limit.]
[Countdown: 9, 9, 9...]
[Threat Level: 3 / 5]
The moment the timer hit zero, a roar shattered the silence.
A gargantuan figure erupted through a grove of trees nearby. It was a Verdant Oni, its skin the color of bruised moss, standing nearly a hundred feet tall.
Calder’s pupils contracted. A Level 100 Verdant Oni.
In The Eternal Dominion, these ogres grew a foot for every level they gained. A hundred-foot Oni meant a Level 100 calamity. It threw back its head and howled, the sonic pressure flattening the surrounding foliage like a hurricane.
Calder didn't hesitate. He dived behind the roots of a massive tree, masking his presence and slowing his heartbeat to a crawl. At his current level, he wasn't a predator to that thing; he was an insect.
Then, a high-pitched screech tore through the sky. A flock of Gilded Hippogriffs dived from the clouds, their golden feathers gleaming like daggers. They swarmed the Oni, their talons tearing out chunks of mountain-sized flesh and swallowing them whole. Within minutes, the Level 100 giant collapsed, its death-rattle shaking the earth.
Calder pressed himself tighter against the bark. The message was clear: in this place, even giants were prey.
How was a Tier 0 player supposed to hunt in a graveyard of Level 100 legends?
Most would have succumbed to despair. But Calder had survived oceans of corpses to get back here. He didn't waste time complaining to a system that didn't care.
He leapt into the mid-branches of a giant tree, scanning the terrain. His eyes caught something out of place—a small, blackened patch on the forest floor.
He dropped down and inspected it. A cold campfire.
He rubbed the ash between his fingers. "Still warm. They’re close."
He ignored the obvious tracks and looked for the subtle ones—the bruised leaves and shifted pebbles hidden under the brush.
"West."
Calder moved like a ghost through the canopy. Ten minutes later, he stopped, his gaze fixed on a tree that looked identical to its neighbors. To the untrained eye, it was just wood. To Calder, the concealment was amateurish.
"I can smell it," Calder muttered, his eyes narrowing. "The scent of the weak."
He dropped from the branch, landing silently at the base of the hidden tree.
"Aberrant Shift."
His right arm rippled, bone and muscle fusing into a jagged blade.
"Steel Cleave!"
The blade sheared through the massive trunk like a hot wire through wax. The giant tree tilted, then crashed into the undergrowth with a thunderous boom.
"Wuli-wala! Wuli-wala!"
High-pitched shrieks erupted from the fallen canopy. Dozens of tiny figures scrambled out of the wreckage, clutching miniature spears and rusted knives.
"Pygmari," Calder said, his voice flat.
[Race: Pygmari]
[Level: 10]
[Mana Regen: 2.5/sec]
[Traits: Social, Linguistic]
[Innate Ability: Threat Sense]
They were a pathetic race, so weak even the Eternal Dwarves refused to acknowledge them as cousins. Yet, they thrived in the most dangerous zones of the world. Their secret was their Threat Sense—an evolutionary radar for staying out of the way of things that could crush them.
"Wuli-wala!"
Enraged by the destruction of their home, the Pygmari unleashed a volley of needles. The tiny projectiles bounced off Calder’s skin without leaving a scratch.
Annoyed, Calder swung his transformed arm in a wide arc.
Zip.
A dozen Pygmari were instantly bisected. The shrieking stopped. The survivors dropped their weapons and fell to their knees, knocking their heads against the dirt in frantic worship.
"Wuli-wuli-wuli!" they wailed.
Calder raised a hand to silence them. Since the system’s Universal Language was disabled for this trial, he had to be direct.
"I hunt. You guide. Lead me to prey."
The Pygmari continued to babble. Calder didn't argue; he simply swung his blade again, thin-lining another row of them.
Finally, one Pygmari crawled forward, tears streaming down its face. "Lord! Stop! Please! If you keep cutting, there won't be any of us left to lead you!"
Calder smirked. "So you can speak."
Pygmari were natural linguists. Without magic or bloodline encryption, they could learn any language within minutes of hearing it. It was another survival mechanism.
The lead Pygmari looked up, trembling. "Lord, who do you wish to hunt? The Gilded Colossus Dragon? Or perhaps the Infernal Hydra?"
Calder’s eyes flashed with murderous intent. "Are you mocking me?"
The creature slammed its head back into the mud. "No! Never! Kemi only thought a warrior of your stature would settle for nothing less!"
"Whatever. You're my guide now," Calder said, grabbing the Pygmari by the scruff of his neck and tossing him onto his shoulder. "Find me targets I can kill. If I succeed, you live. If you lead me into a trap, I'll butcher your entire tribe before I die."
Kemi’s face went pale. "Lord... that is a very heavy burden for poor Kemi..."
Zip.
Another Pygmari nearby lost its head.
"I’m Kemi! I am your eternal shadow! To the ends of the earth, I follow!" the creature shrieked, gripping Calder’s tattered tunic for dear life.
"Good. Where to first?"
Kemi’s eyes darted around, his internal radar pinging. "Lord... there is a Coralfang Tribe nearby. Perhaps we start there?"
Calder glanced at the tiny creature. "If there’s a problem with the directions, you're the first thing I eat."
Kemi whimpered, his soul mourning his misfortune. Why did I have to be found by a maniac who commits genocide every time he’s bored?