Martial Online.

The stone Ambrose grabbed Ignite by his bandaged throat, lifted him off the ground, and slammed him into the wall.

"Ignite!" Anthon put his sword into a slashing stance, then tapped his foot on the ground two times and suddenly teleported behind the stone Ambrose.

He stabbed his sword through Ambrose's exposed waist, leaving behind a hole. However, there was no blood, as the figure was made entirely out of stone.

The stone Ambrose coldly elbowed Anthon.

Anthon crashed to the ground with a bloodied nose, but he immediately stood back up and spat out blood.

Cauldron was about to launch an attack, but the stone Ambrose suddenly threw Ignite's ragdoll-like body at him.

"?!" Cauldron stopped his attack and caught Ignite's flying body.

But then a stone fist appeared in front of him and smashed through his face.

"Ptui!" Cauldron and Ignite flew across the air and slammed into a wooden wall, leaving behind a cracked dent.

"Argh!" Anthon teleported above the stone creature and chopped his arm off.

The stone arm was cut off from the shoulder, and it landed on the ground. Once it landed on the ground, it shattered into thousands of small pieces of rock.

The stone Ambrose floated slightly above the ground, spun around, and kicked Anthon across the face.

Anthon staggered backwards like a man who had lost the feeling in his body. The numbness started spreading across his body like cancer.

"Whoo… Whoo…" He breathed heavily as he looked at the monster-like creature and let out a hollow chuckle.

He was now more convinced than ever before that this test was just a scam. There was no way that a player could survive without a head. It was considered an instant kill.

It didn't matter how much health one had; if they lost their head, they would die.

Thud—the stone Ambrose fell down on his knees, and the rest of his body started slowly crumbling apart.

"Ugh…"

Anthon, Ignite, and Cauldron suffered heavy injuries, but when they saw the stone figure starting to crumble apart, they heaved sighs of relief.

They thought the stone monster would never go down.

"Congratulations." At that moment, the stone creature spoke, even though he didn't have a head to speak from.

Anthon's eyes widened in surprise, as did Cauldron's and Ignite's.

"You've passed the final test." The stone creature slowly regenerated, but this time it returned to its original form as a ceiling-high giant.

"You're entitled to rewards."

"I have a question." Anthon stood up and held his numb face, which had lost all its feeling. "This test was a scam, wasn't it?"

"A scam?" The stone giant looked down at the three players and asked with a confused tone.

"We didn't recognize the face." Anthon said it coldly. "I thought it was strange, but the further we fought, the more I realized that this player we fought doesn't exist.

"Players cannot fly. His physical strength was off the charts. A player should die once their heads get cut off, yet this one continued fighting for several minutes after.

"Therefore, I came to the conclusion that this test was fake. A scam, one would say."

"What would you do if I said that this player very much exists?" The stone giant asked.

"If there is a player as strong as this…" Anthon's eyes turned cold. "I suppose I'll be meeting him in the tournament."

"Whoo…" Cauldron unsheathed his sword and took out a cigarette. "I've only felt this powerless when I was fighting King Tyrantion back in Ember Online.

"I know we aren't the players that are at the top of the strength hierarchy, but I don't think there can be someone this much stronger."

"Can we know the name?" Anthon asked.

"No." The stone giant replied.

"Fine…" Anthon shook his head. "Can we get our reward now?"

The stone giant raised his arm and snapped his fingers.

A shiny, jewel-covered treasure chest fell from the ceiling and thudded down on the ground. As it opened, a bright, golden hue spread across the room, almost blinding the three young men.

"My god…"

Outside the temple building, three new names appeared on the White Rock trial's leaderboard stone tablet.

The players that had recently arrived looked shocked after seeing that three players successfully completed the trial at the same time!

They started hurrying inside the temple as they realized that there were only seven spots remaining on the leaderboard. However, when they reached the stone stable with the dice-throwing stone statue, they came across a terrifying sight.

There were piles of deceased corpses piled up next to the table.

After Anthon, Cauldron, and Ignite, not a single player managed to pass the first test.

After seeing that, all the players felt discouraged.

…

In the Room of Damnation.

Blue blood was splattered across the walls, looking like someone had painted the walls recently.

In the middle of the room, red-skinned Ambrose was shuddering in agonizing pain. His veins were bulging around his neck and forehead, looking like they were about to explode.

His teeth were stabbing into his lips as he was desperately trying to muffle his screaming, and his fingers were stabbing into his palm.

At that moment, he had a painful headache, and suddenly the faces of three different individuals flashed through his mind.

It made his eyes widen in shock as he remembered those faces, but he hadn't thought about them for quite a while, and it was strange for him to suddenly think about them.

"What… the… hell…" His voice sounded coarse and painful. He strangely had a desire to go search for those three and take a little revenge for their ambush that happened a long time ago.

'Why do I suddenly desire to do so? Well, I think I am powerful enough now…'

He looked at the stack of filled-out skill scrolls in front of him. There were about dozen skill scrolls, all used up, meaning that he had already created at least dozen skills!

There was still plenty of time before he had to leave the Room of Damnation.

'W-well, I'll get that thought out of my mind. For now, I'll have to focus.'

He took a deep breath and again entered the world of souls.

He began training in swordsmanship while focusing on building the foundation of his Immortal Style.

As he began fighting against illusionary figures inside the world of souls, his swordsmanship started to look more refined with each move.

He had already reached the maximum percentage in all the new skills, and he was refining them in the world of souls.

These skills were vastly different from what he had used to doing so.

They were also skills that he could teach his students, but they were incredibly powerful skills, so he tried making "weaker versions" of those skills.

Therefore, in fact, he had created around 6–7 new skills but had to use double the number of skill scrolls as he also made those weaker versions.

He would teach the weaker versions first, and when they grew strong enough, he would teach the real versions.

Ambrose forced a hideous grin and shouted inside the world of souls. "Bring it on!"

Because he was in the world of souls, he was spending more time in the Room of Damnation, meaning that he was also under more pain for a longer time.

In the world of souls, his own soul floated in the air, shuddering in utter agony. However, it was trying to deal with the pain, knowing that Ambrose was growing stronger with each passing second.

And just like this, the remaining days went by, and soon, the one week of Ambrose's time in Room of Damnation came to a close.