Today, the access restrictions around Oran City’s Rune Core were lifted, and the enclosing Barrier was gone.

Even the so-called usage tax for the Rune structures was abolished.

The Olan People could finally come and go from this crucial Rune Core area as they pleased.

In an instant, a massive crowd had formed, and the newly arrived Su Chen and his group didn’t attract the slightest bit of attention.

“Let me be the first to congratulate you on taking the top spot, Brother Chen,” Little Zeus said with a grin. He sounded completely relaxed, as if first place was already in Su Chen’s pocket.

In fact, no one in the group disagreed.

Beyond his undisputed status as the strongest, the later floors of the Trial Tower featured different elemental environments. But for a Master of All Things proficient in All Elements, this posed no problem whatsoever.

The concept of being at a disadvantage simply didn’t exist for him.

On the contrary, the guy always had an advantage.

HUMMM!

With a flicker of his thoughts, Su Chen connected with the towering Trial Tower.

A screen of light materialized in his vision.

[Trial Tower]

[Select Trial Difficulty: Normal / Nightmare (Confirm to begin the tower trial)]

[Current Leaderboard Rankings]

He opened the leaderboard and saw…

First Place: Cassian Ward (Secret Scripture Praise)

Second Place: Canon Dylan (Radiant Holy Judge)

Third Place: Leo Mars (Melting Core Tyrant)

‘Without a doubt, the one in first place must be that Five-Star bishop specializing in secret techniques. After successfully advancing his class, he obtained a decent Six-Star hidden profession.’

‘The man in second place was a familiar face. He wielded a Six-Star hidden profession of the Light Element. After his failed strike last night, he had quietly fled before the Barrier even shattered.’

‘As for the third, he’d never heard of him; the man was clearly very low-key.’

Looking further down the top thirty, there was a noticeable gap in talent. There was still one Hell Arbitrator on the list, but it clearly wasn’t the old patriarch, as the surname had no connection to Lorentz.

Below sixth place were the Five-Star Professions, but this top tier only consisted of five people. After them, it was a long list of Four-Star Professions.

Su Chen raised an eyebrow. ‘A lot of people really did die.’ There was also another possibility he couldn’t ignore: some top experts were biding their time and hadn’t entered the tower yet.

‘But considering how desperately these people needed to leverage their power to survive, and based on their respective gains, it was more likely that most of them were simply dead.’

In addition to names and professions, the leaderboard also displayed the floor each person cleared and the time it took them.

The player in first place had taken a total of 17 minutes and 52 seconds to clear up to Floor 22 on Nightmare difficulty.

‘Time to start.’

After a brief review, Su Chen didn’t hesitate. He began his first-ever run of the Trial Tower.

HUMMM!

In a shimmer of light, his figure vanished.

…

First Floor: Barren Plains.

The moment Su Chen teleported in, he found himself in a desolate landscape devoid of vegetation. Looking into the distance, the horizon was slightly blurred, giving it an unnaturally distinct edge.

A breath later, five Demonized Giant Dogs materialized at once.

They were a full two sizes larger than normal and wreathed in black smoke. But before they could even growl and close in…

BANG! BANG!

With a single thought, Strong Thought Bursts erupted, silently obliterating the heads of the Demon Dogs.

Time to clear: 0.8 seconds.

‘Exit trial?’

“No!”

Without delay, Su Chen’s figure appeared on the next floor.

The next few floors were what the guides called “gimme stages.” Even on Nightmare difficulty, while the number of monsters doubled, it was no real trouble for an expert—it just took a little more time.

To Su Chen, it was downright tedious.

BANG!

BANG!

With each flash of the teleportation light, Su Chen’s figure never touched the ground for more than two seconds.

The Poison Goblins, Stone Gargoyles, and even Elite Minotaurs had yet to fully materialize from the Void before they were met with a volley of precise Strong Thought Bursts.

Splitting his consciousness this way was highly effective for clearing mobs.

Su Chen couldn’t even be bothered to use Elemental Runes. There was no maneuvering, no probing attacks. He relied solely on this one technique, popping enemies like balloons and causing one bloody mist after another to erupt within the tower.

Upon reaching the seventh floor, the environment changed abruptly.

The solid ground beneath his feet was gone, replaced by rapidly rising, murky water.

SPLASH!

The water’s surface exploded as seven or eight Giant Demon Swamp Frogs lunged forth with the rising tide. They spat out long, highly corrosive tongues that shot forward like a volley of javelins.

But before their tongues could even get within three inches of Su Chen, they were frozen in place by an invisible force of Telekinesis, unable to move an inch.

And then… it was another instant kill.

The Demon Swamp Frogs’ bodies exploded into clouds of charred, bloody mist within the murky water.

Eighth Floor, Scorching Volcano.

A wave of heat washed over him. Fissures in the ground filled with lava released toxic gases, and in the sky, several burning Celestial Fire meteorites rained down, bombarding the ground indiscriminately.

A moment later… a series of arcing water mirrors manifested around him. They deflected the Celestial Fire, redirecting the bombardment to kill the Lava Behemoths one by one.

By the end of the fifteenth floor, Su Chen still hadn’t moved an inch. Every attack was an instant kill. The most he did was switch his killing blow from Strong Thought Burst to Telekinesis Shell.

On the next floor, he found himself in a boundless open sky. There wasn’t a single inch of solid ground beneath his feet—only a roiling sea of clouds and a blinding sun.

According to the guides from Hunter’s Home, this floor was the end of the line for many a Trialist. Anyone who hadn’t mastered a High-tier Floating Rune or some other flight ability would simply free-fall until they passed the boundary, failing the challenge.

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