'Solo battle?'

Noah carefully inspected his surroundings with his mental energy.

Every time it hit the walls of the room, his perception would flutter, disturbed by the "Breath" which they were made of.

He seemed to be in some sort of underground closed area fifty square meters large and he sensed no living forms around him.

'It seems that I'm really alone here.'

He coldly watched in front of him as some runes in the terrain began to s.h.i.+ne and rose in the air.

A rank 2 Rabid mole appeared between the halo of light and the voice sounded again.

"If you want to give up, please break the rune that formed in your sea of consciousness."

Noah's eyes widened and he hastily checked his mental sphere.

His cross-legged figure inside it opened his eyes and was astonished to find an orange rune between his hands.

Noah came back to reality and could not help but feel some reverence toward the cultivator that set up the separate dimension.

'This world can directly interfere with the insides of my mental sphere! This is incredible!'

The beast stood still as if waiting for Noah to make the first move.

'This inheritance ground was made for cultivators under the age of twenty so this stage should be calibrated on a reasonable difficulty. I might really get something valuable here.'

His reasoning had no flaws so Noah decided to make a serious attempt in obtaining a good reward.

His eyes focused as he took out his upper armor and put it in the s.p.a.ce-ring.

Then he wore the ring on his finger and made a step in the direction of the beast.

His sabers were unsheathed since he jumped in the second stage.

The rank 2 mole charged as soon as he moved but was instantly killed by a casual strike from Noah.

The beast turned into smoke that acc.u.mulated back where the runes were and two rank 2 moles came out of the halo.

'Ohh so that's how it will work. Well, I always wanted to know my true limit too.'

A slight smile appeared on his face as he ran toward the two beasts killing them in an instant.

The same process repeated and four moles appeared.

Noah charged at them without hesitation.

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.

.

Time pa.s.sed and the number of beasts appearing together kept on increasing.

Noah had just killed the last specimen of the latest wave of enemies.

'Forty this time. I wonder how many there will be now.'

He didn't use the liquid "Breath" in his dantian at all and was only relying on the one in his body to fight.

Since it recovered even as he fought, using it was the best method to maintain himself at peak form.

After the forty strands of smoke rejoined the halo, the runes s.h.i.+ned with more intensity as if they were charging themselves.

Then, a rank 3 mole came out of it and stood still looking at Noah.

'So it's time for the advancement in rank, luckily I'm alone now.'

He charged toward the beast and pointed his sabers to deliver a blow.

The mole prepared to block the blade raising its fangs but was met by the black teeth of a reptilian head.

Its paws were locked in the snake's mouth so he had no way of protecting itself from Noah's strike in its blind side.

Its head was severed and it turned into smoke.

A rank 3 beast was killed with only two attacks!

'It's way easier when I use a.s.sea. Magic spells are awesome!'

The smoke went back to the halo and two rank 3 Rabid moles appeared.

'The real challenge starts now.'

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.

.

About an hour later, still in the area of the second stage.

Noah was surrounded by six rank 3 Rabid moles with their strength being in the middle-tier of the rank.

He had begun to use his liquid "Breath" long ago and he swung his sabers madly in every direction.

a.s.sea would randomly appear every time he needed to block an attack or to deliver a sneaky bite to a beast.

Wounds kept on acc.u.mulating on the six moles and their movement began to slow down.

At some point, one of them appeared in Noah's blind spot and was about to raise its fangs to strike but it was soon enveloped by a.s.sea's mouth.

Noah turned and hastily pierced its head, its body transformed into smoke.

Now that their number was lowered, the fight became easier.

It took Noah another fifteen minutes to vanquish the beasts and when the fight was over he sat on the ground to meditate.

He discovered that the test gave him a ten minutes break after every battle.

Initially, he didn't need to rest but as the numbers of rank 3 moles increased, he found himself depleting more and more liquid "Breath".

The new beasts would be created immediately but they would stay still until the ten minutes pa.s.sed.

Noah wouldn't even look at his opponents and he opened his eyes only when an attack came to him.

Doing that allowed him to maximize the time spent recovering.

Ten minutes pa.s.sed and Noah felt a threat in front of him.

He suddenly opened his eyes and dodged the incoming attack.

'Peak rank 3!'

There was only one enemy in front of him but it was at the peak of the stage.

'The difficulty increased again by one tier.'

Against a single enemy, he actually had it quite easy as he could exploit the numerical advantage given by his blood companion.

The battle was fierce.

Noah had fought magical beasts in its same rank twice already but they were injured both times.

However, he now had a rank 3 body and a.s.sea wasn't hindered by any other enemies.

Little by little, the rank 3 mole lost terrain as it was being a.s.saulted on two sides.

Then, Noah forced it to block a powerful frontal blow and a.s.sea bit off a big piece of its defenseless back.

The beast turned into smoke and Noah sat to meditate.

When he reopened his eyes, two peak rank 3 moles were punching at him.