Noticing a surname appended to his registered name, Adyr immediately opened his character panel to verify something.

[Name]: Adyr Hellcraft

[Race]: Twilight Human

[Path]: Primora

[Evolution Step]: 2

—

[Free Stat Points]: 40

"So it really updated…"

Seeing his character panel now also display a surname deepened his frown.

When he first arrived in this world, the system knowing his name made sense; he had been using a gaming helmet that would already have basic info registered. But adding a surname—one that wasn't even official, one he hadn't accepted for himself—made him question what logic the system operated on.

While turning this over, he noticed the free stat points from the first trial had been added. He also realized the Mother Tree was due to yield another fruit. He sent his energy body to consume it, and his free stat points settled at 45. The number eased his expression; at least something in all these unknowns offered a clear benefit.

"How did you manage to take 1st place?" Thalira Luna's voice carried a frown of its own, edged with anger.

"How?" Adyr let out a short chuckle and pointed at the lion's severed head. "Apparently, my attack hit it. How else?"

Thalira and the others followed his gesture. In the center of the bloody brow, a black throwing knife sat buried to the hilt, likely lodged there even before Thalira's blade took the head.

"How?" Thalira asked again, stunned, unable to process the impossible.

She was fast—so fast her strike should have been the only claim on the lion's life. Watching the evidence, she could not place when Adyr had moved or how quickly.

Of course, it wasn't only speed that secured Adyr 1st place. With his bloodline talent, Gaze, he could see 10 seconds ahead.

While everyone else waited for the lion to show and moved with a slight delay, he already knew what would step through that doorway. He drew a knife from his belt and threw it the instant the path opened, the blade reaching the lion's skull a fraction before Thalira's sword beheaded it, which gave him the largest contribution.

Brakhtar Gorat, appearing 3rd on the list, was no surprise either. With mind-type skills, a debuff was to be expected.

He likely cast it even before the moment my knife struck. Adyr thought this while glancing sidelong at Brakhtar's calm figure.

While Adyr took 1st with his bloodline talent, the other two finished 2nd and 3rd by a narrow margin; assuming they still had trump cards, they were not opponents to dismiss.

[The Second Trial is called.]

With the shock not yet gone and the bitter taste of a rewardless First Trial still in their mouths, the Practitioners refocused the moment the Second Trial's message arrived.

Goal: Survive the Clouds

Reward: 200 free stat points.

Payout: Last 10 standing. (Rewards scale down by placement: 1st gets the most, 10th gets the least.)

Stat points again? Adyr noted the reward without a hint of letdown; stat points were always worth taking. With the amount now doubled, he expected richer prizes as the stages advanced.

"'Survive the Clouds'? What does that mean?" Determined to earn a reward this time, the Practitioners lifted their eyes to the sky and waited for whatever would come.

Adyr mirrored them and turned his attention to the sky as well, studying the clear, cloudless blue, even though he already knew what was coming and that it would not come from above.

"Aaagh!"

The sudden, painful cry yanked every gaze down from the sky.

A Practitioner from the mixed-race group was wreathed in a white, cloudlike vapor, writhing in agony. His body began to melt from within; in a heartbeat, he collapsed into a single viscous drop that seeped into the gold-colored sand.

Cold breaths rippled through the ranks as they witnessed the nightmarish scene: a Rank 2 Practitioner reduced to nothing in a second, his life stripped away with terrifying ease.

"Fuck. The cloud is coming from the ground."

Realization dawned on everyone, and they fixed their attention on the sand beneath their feet.

Soon after the first cloud appeared, claimed a life, and vanished as it came, another began to rise from the sand, moving as if it had a mind, hunting for another victim.

This time, its target was already on guard. He sprang into the air like a leopard and slipped past it with ease.

"Heh, it's not so hard to escape once you know where it comes from." He laughed, silver eyes tracking the vapor as it spread over the spot he had just left.

At that exact moment, while he thought he was safe, something changed.

"What… no… aaagh!"

As the ground cloud receded without finding its mark, a second one bloomed above him. It wrapped his airborne body in an instant and, as before, dissolved him within a second. He fell as a single viscous drop into the gold-colored sand.

"Hmm. It doesn't only rise from the ground; it can materialize anywhere," Brakhtar Gorat observed. He said it aloud instead of sending it only to his own through mind-speech; it was a deliberate tactic to drag the others' spirits down with fear.

And it worked.

"Are you kidding me? How are we supposed to survive then?"

Panic first started in the mixed-race group. Realizing there was no fixed way to escape, they faltered.

Another harsh truth landed when they remembered the reward condition. "Wait… 'Last 10 standing'… does that mean only the final 10 survive? Do the rest die here?"

More than 100 Practitioners had entered this trial. It was only the second trial, yet it already felt as if their fates were sealed.

"No, no, no, no! I surrender! My life is worth more than a few stat points, woof!" With a strangled cry, Loudbark burst across the gold-colored sand on all 4 legs, cutting angles as if he could trick the cloud into passing him by and choosing someone else.

It made no difference; his plea meant nothing, and worse, the cloud chose him anyway, as if mocking him, like it wanted to make survival harder for him, a cruel joke at his expense.

"No way! Help!" He barked and cried harder, running for his life, jumping, twisting his body, and doing everything he could to slip the white, deadly vapor that kept sliding into his path each time he dodged, turning every route into a blind wall.

"Aaagh!" At last, a painful cry tore from his mouth. As he slipped past the cloud's final rush, its trailing edge caught his tail; it hissed and melted, dropping as a viscous smear into the gold-colored sand. After that, the cloud actually broke off the chase and slid toward a new target.

"Huh?" Loudbark stopped, realization dawning. He looked back at his empty butt with a pained, bewildered expression; then, driven by the simple relief of still being alive, he barked toward Maruun and the others.

"Hey! I got a message saying I'm disqualified, and the cloud let me go!"

The chance to get a reward was gone, yet his face lit with relief; he stood genuinely happy to be disqualified, even with no tail left on his butt.

His shout echoed across the arena. The meaning spread through the ranks in an instant, and understanding clicked.

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