The words were spoken casually, but they hit their mark.

Shang Xu’s expression changed, a flicker of displeasure in his heart.

Feng Jialun, however, remained calm. He had already accepted this outcome long ago.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t just about the gap between Six-Star hidden classes.

Beyond class Authorities, there were many other factors that determined one’s strength, such as their Rune Map, Magic Blessing talents, Mechanical Armor, and even individual physical stats.

To put it bluntly, one’s class was likely one of the factors with the least disparity.

Su Chen had obtained too many golden rewards from world quests. The cumulative advantage truly made it impossible for others to catch up.

Not to mention, he had his family’s Jade Pendant as a cornerstone of his power.

These were things he couldn’t exactly share with outsiders.

Not long after.

Having reaped a huge harvest from this trip and with everyone returning unharmed, the group headed back, content.

Before they left, Captain Zhang Shihao sought out Su Chen.

“If you can, I want you to take first place in the Oran Trial Tower in the next day or two. Otherwise, when the seven-day settlement happens, we’ll have to hand over massive rewards and revival dolls to those deserters.”

To this, Su Chen nodded.

“I’ll see what I can do tomorrow morning.”

Compared to Dongfu City, where the Trial Tower had just begun its first day, the Trial Tower in Oran City was already approaching its fifth day.

The day of settlement was indeed not far off.

“With your strength, it won’t be a problem at all,” Captain Zhang said with a smile.

In fact, he was planning to have Dongfu City’s ‘big three’ go in together to at least secure the top three spots on the opposing Trial Tower’s leaderboard.

Those survivors hiding outside wouldn’t necessarily give up their ranks willingly. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t show up later to fight for the leaderboard, which would also give them an opportunity to set up an ambush.

As for whether the Sect’s forces would be willing to make things convenient, that wasn’t even part of his consideration.

During this honeymoon period, some demands had to be pushed through forcefully.

This was a condition they couldn’t refuse.

After all, if the rewards didn’t go to them, they would just fall into the hands of an external enemy.

“You should go back and rest first. The two elite corps will stand watch outside Oran City for the night. This is also to oversee the smooth transition of power into the Sect’s hands,” Captain Zhang said, the subtext of his words clearly showing his support for them.

The campfires blanketing the mountains were, without a doubt, a statement in themselves.

「…」

By the time Su Chen returned to the rear base in Dongfu City, the eighth batch of Rune Formulas had already been announced that evening.

The shocking news was… there were 110 in total!

‘No need to think about it. It must be a massive release of Ice Element Runes,’ Su Chen deduced without a second thought.

And that was indeed the answer.

On the first day of the Trial Tower, public enthusiasm was extremely high.

Major official and private channels all seized upon this key to traffic, providing as many tower-climbing guides as possible. The most crucial information was revealing the elemental environment of each floor.

The first six floors were bonus stages.

They had normal, standard environments with no tricky, targeted hazards.

According to Hunter’s Home, as long as a person’s Rune Map was built with attack, defense, support, and summoning Runes all at Lv. 5, and they brought one or two healing Potions, it was almost impossible to fail.

This applied perfectly to all single-Element systems.

After the seventh floor, however, the environments became more complex.

The seventh floor was a river area. While fighting a swarm of giant magical marsh frogs, one also had to deal with the threat of rising water.

The eighth floor was near a sweltering volcanic region. The geothermal heat made it difficult to breathe, and one also had to face the threat of falling Celestial Fire.

The ninth floor was a windswept, wild landscape.

「…」

As for the twelfth floor of the Trial Tower, it was an arctic environment that posed a great challenge to Trialists. If one’s Perception was lacking, they could easily fall into an ice pit. Furthermore, using Magic that was too flashy could trigger an avalanche.

The challenge lay in how to efficiently and consistently slaughter the snow leopards without using large-scale area-of-effect Magic.

This was why guides were necessary.

“Half an hour ago, the guide for floor twenty was almost updated.” Su Chen had specifically teleported to the Cultural Square. After a glance at the bulletin board, he noticed how quickly the guide-making teams were progressing.

The person in first place was a Four-Star Thunder Wielder named Qin Shutong, which sounded like a hidden class.

Interestingly, Cao Yutang, with whom he’d had a brief encounter before, was in 15th place.

“When the tiger’s away from the mountain, the monkey proclaims itself king.”

“Exactly. There’s no point in climbing too fast on the first day; the rankings will just drop quickly. Besides, the two elite corps and many of the top powerhouses have been conscripted for an external mission. The current leaderboard is completely misleading.”

A few people nearby chuckled.

However, according to the initial intelligence from the Sect, only the top two hundred would receive revival dolls. Those who didn’t compete for the rankings could still enjoy the tower-climbing rewards ahead of time.

“If you come across a Five-Star class change scroll, you can change your class directly,” Yan Ruoruo noted, catching another important piece of information from the bulletin board.

The rewards on the upper floors of the Trial Tower had a chance to drop High-Star class change scrolls. Moreover, this system of Magic Elements didn’t seem to have concepts like training, comprehension, or accumulation. As long as you met the conditions, you could use the scrolls to keep advancing to higher classes.

“You can’t switch between classes of the same Star Level, and you can’t switch if you don’t have the relevant elemental affinity,” Su Chen mused.

‘In that case, if I don’t take the path of advancement and give up this crucial opportunity, I’ll be permanently locked into the Six-Star Master of All Things class without other chances.’

Just then, an even more startling piece of news—one that left no room for complacency—arrived from the distant Inheritance Sanctuary.

Someone discovered that when they tried to change their class to the Four-Star Flame High Priest, they received a message: ‘The quota for this class is full.’

On a friend’s advice, they had to submit the request at the Inheritance Sanctuary more than ten times back and forth before they were finally able to complete the class change successfully.

This intelligence was quickly relayed to the Security Committee for assessment.

This was indeed a surprise.

They had learned earlier from Shang Xu that the slots for Six-Star hidden classes were limited. If one didn’t claim a spot early, successors might not be able to advance for at least a month.

Now, even a regular Four-Star class was showing a limit on its numbers, which undoubtedly made them realize the urgency of the situation.

At the very least, they couldn’t delay having the main forces participate in the Trial Tower. They had to get everyone to advance and change classes quickly to grab the limited slots. Otherwise, there could be huge problems.

This had to be done as soon as possible.

「At the same time.」

After obtaining a list of the eighth batch of formulas, Su Chen and Ruoruo headed directly to the nearby Five-Star Qiyao Platform Hotel for a meal.

This luxurious hotel, occupying a prime location, naturally had its own culinary offerings.

Seeing an empty private room, he went ahead and took it.

Once the Silent Stone on the table was activated, no ambient noise from the outside could get in.

“It’s a huge release of Ice Element Runes. There are 60 related Ice Element Runes in total,” Su Chen said, glancing at the list.

Ice Arrow Skill, Ice Storm, Frost Nova, Ice Armor Skill, Freezing Trap, Summon Ice Bird, Ice Wall Skill, Barrage of Ice Bullets, and Frost Breath, among others.

In addition,

among the Summoning Element Runes, there was Ice Wolf and the requisite Ice Element-type sprite.

Among them,

the elemental guard category now included ‘Cold Armor Guard,’ the elemental weapon category had ‘Cold Blade Longbow,’ and for continuous movement skills, there was ‘Frost Escape,’ and so on.

In the hard crowd-control skill category, there was also a very appealing Rune.

Ice + Ice + Light = Freezing Skill.

At a High Level, it could turn a small area into a field of ice sculptures. The physiological activity of targets within would nearly cease, and they would be unable to activate any Rune Skills.

‘The more I know, the greater the benefit to my Third Core Authority’s Element transmutation effect,’ Su Chen sighed to himself. At his current stage, he had basically no need to pursue Ice Element Runes.

However,

aside from the uniform assortment of Ice Element Runes, the eighth batch of Rune Formulas also included a newly announced body-enhancement Rune.

Metal + Light + Water = Golden Scale.

Its effect could harden the skin into fine metal scales and rapidly densify and reinforce the bones, leading to a highly efficient increase in both individual Power and Defense Level.

The higher the Rune Level, the more an individual’s toughness would be maxed out, and they would also gain a high damage reduction effect.

Clearly, this Rune was exactly what he needed.

‘Divine Illumination Skill buffs my Sea of Consciousness, Awakening of Insects opens up the channels in my limbs and bones, and Golden Scale completes the outer layer of skin. Together, they can form a perfect three-in-one Technique.’

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