Neo had just gotten down from his flight, he almost broke his leg on the landing due to a sudden breeze. Thankfully he caught himself in time with some rushed constructs he threw to the ground. He should have thought about the landing before he took flight, next time he'll put down some anchors to catch himself instead of relying on his little legs. That gave him some inspiration to cosplay as a spider for some land mobility. Some wheels could also work of course, but it won't be as effective in this terrain. Besides, spider legs are way cooler.

  He has less than an hour left before the monster wave arrives, he didn't know what direction they would come from. He didn't see any sign of them when he took his flight. Maybe he should dig some trenches to slow them down or something, it's always effective in movies and games. But with no way to tell where they would come from, he would have to dig a large circle around his spot. That doesn't seem to be very efficient, not to mention that he would be flying anyway. He didn't know what to do yet, so he took a little break and took a handful of snow to drink. This time he didn't bother waiting for it to boil in his hand, he just shoved some into his mouth and waited until he could feel some bubbles popping up, then he gulped it down. He also took some moment to create some yellow snow, making sure to remember where it was.

  After he finished his business, he went back to the center of the clearing and took a seat. He figured that he needed to lay down his options on what to do with the remaining time. Option one would be to just rest, maybe take a nap too. It's way past his nap time, it should be around 3 or 4 o'clock if the apocalypse didn't happen. He likes that option, he is honestly a little tired, he could use a nap. But the problem with that option is who is gonna wake him up?. He couldn't exactly set an alarm either, so nap time is out it seems. Option two would be to push his Mana manipulation to level 40, but he didn't think that was possible in the time available. He didn't even gain a level from his successful flight. There is always the good old option three, try to earn another skill. He'd probably end up just using his only skill again, he hasn't figured out how to craft another skill that doesn't rely on his Mana manipulation.

  Should he just build a giant robot instead? That should keep him safe and there's nothing stopping him from making it fly too. But the amount of moving parts would be a nightmare to keep track of, that seems like the best idea. Maybe not the robot part, but a flying fortress is a lot more feasible. He could even add some foldable spider legs for landing and ground movement. The main problem would be maintaining his vision, he'd need windows and that would be an obvious weak spot. He'd figure it out later, he should build his fortress first.

  He opted to keep it simple and symmetrical. The more circular it is, the easier and faster he could build it. There's no need to reinvent the wheel, he chose to just copy a drone. He started by crafting four engines similar in size and shape to the one he used before, he is basically lifting the same thing after all. For the cockpit he decided to go with a simple egg shape, he created two layers for extra protection. The first one is just wide enough to fit his body, he also made a window in front of his face so he could see. To mitigate the window weakness, he covers it with a mesh. It's actually quite easy to make, his construct is made up of the same structure. He just spread it out then boom he had a mesh window. The second egg is much larger, about 6 meters in diameter, he didn't forget to add some windows. Both in front and slightly to the bottom side so he could see downward. He glances upwards to the left corner of his vision where a timer has been stuck there since the system mentioned the objectives, there is almost 20 minutes left so he still had some time.

  He chose to forgo the spider legs idea for the moment considering the limited time. He started all the engines and began to gain altitude. While the drone keeps climbing up, he focuses on building some barrels to help with his aim. He crafted five different barrels each pointing at a different angle, making sure each hole is lined up with his eyesight. He spent the rest of his time manufacturing his ammo, it's just a simple bullet shape. But this time he added something new to increase the damage, he compressed a small cylinder of mana in the center of the bullets. The mana on the outside helped to contain the pressure on the inside, he couldn't wait to see it in action.

  He took another look at the timer, there is only a minute left on the timer. As soon as it reached 10 seconds another notification came up in front of him.

  Warning, the first monster wave will arrive in (9s) .

  There's no mention of the type of monster that would arrive, or even what direction it would come from. It could fall out of the sky for all he knows, this budget system is as helpful as ever.

  As the timer went to zero, a massive portal opened up about a couple kilometers in front of him. It's in front of a small mountain, more of a hill really. It's in the shape of a half circle and goes up to about a quarter of the way up the small mountain, probably around 200 meters in diameter. Monsters begin to pour out of the portal, he could barely see them from this distance. They're mostly green in colour with some black and brown mixed in. Some of them are riding a mount that looks like a wolf, most are just running out screaming while holding onto some type of weapon. From spears to bow and clubs, there are even some who are holding a glowing staff. They look like a giant angry muscular green gym rat, most of them are about three times his height when he compares them to the trees. He knows what they're, they are orcs. But this doesn't seem impossible to him, there must be something else. So he slowly rotated the drone to look at his surroundings, sure enough there's 5 other portals that trapped him in the middle. They were all spewing out orcs like a waterfall, he could see why it's called impossible mode, if this was just the first wave he couldn't imagine the final one.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  He shrugged his shoulders, there's nothing else to it. He'd just had to grind through everything, if things get dicey he could always bring out bigger guns, maybe even get his sword involved. He took careful aim towards one of the portals, loaded up a bullet then fired away, flicking the bullet forward as hard as he could. He could see the orcs responding, the one with glowing staff setting up shields of various elements. The archers are shooting uselessly towards the projectile, most of them missing, the one that hit didn't do anything. He is impressed that they could even hit it, it's moving incredibly fast. A few short seconds after he fired, the bullet hit the ground in front of the portal, it immediately exploded sending a shockwave that obliterated everything in its path including the shielded mages. Then a wave of intense fire and heat turned it all to ashes. A series of notifications appeared in the corner of his vision, but he ignored it for the moment and just admired the sheer destruction a single bullet had caused. Then he fired a couple more shots to deal with the stragglers. He began turning the drone clockwise, stopping for a moment to fire three shots on every portal. He refined the positioning of his barrels, spreading it slightly to the sides so he didn't have to stop rotating when firing his shots. After a few rotations he got the timing just right, firing regularly while occasionally making more bullets, he just had to adjust the drone position whenever a strong wind came by.

  He finally paid attention to the wave of notifications that has been constantly rolling on the corner of his eyes.

  You have killed a lvl 10 Orcs shamans

  You have killed a lvl 4 Orc Grunt

  You have killed a lvl 12 Orc Tamer

  …

  …

  …

  Congratulations you have reached lvl 20 and may choose a trait that suits you. Choose a trait now? (Y/N)

  That was new, he could have more traits?. The one he had is already incredibly powerful, he basically has infinite mana. It probably won't be as powerful, but it would surely be useful. He selected yes and took a look at what's available.

  You may choose one of the traits below.

  -Mana Siphon, you can absorb foreign mana and convert it into your own.

  -Mana Vault, create a mantle around your skin that prevents your mana from leaking out without your permission. Gave resistance to foreign mana.

  -Mana Sight, improve your eyes and allow you to see mana in detail.

  -Mana Eater, gave you the ability to eat and digest mana for nourishment. Grant a slight boost to healing when you eat mana.

  -Split Focus, allows you to split a part of your processing power to focus on a simple task. Slow down your thinking speed the more split there is.

  He immediately ruled out the first option, he didn't need more mana. The second option is a lot more tempting, he didn't need it right now, but he would eventually be amongst other humans. Right now he is leaking radiation all the time, he is a walking biohazard. The mana resistance would be nice to have too. After a moment of thought he opted to eliminate it, he thinks he could replicate it with Mana Manipulation given some practice. He is not sure what exactly the third option offered, he could already see his mana. Maybe it allows him to see in more details, allowing finer manipulation. He'd shelved it for now. The fourth option, Mana Eater, is definitely the most tempting. He hasn't eaten anything since his snacks this morning, it gave some healing too. Maybe he could replicate the healing into a skill, that would be nice to have. The final option would finally give his poor brain some rest, he has basically been doing the same thing manually. Rapidly going back and forth across multiple tasks, but the drawback is a bit unclear. How much would his brain be slowed down with every split?, would it turn an hour into half?. He didn't know and that made him inclined to pick Mana Eater, there is no obvious drawback. He would definitely need it more for this trial, he isn't about to eat Orcs meat. They're way too similar to humans for his taste, perhaps he would consider eating their wolf if he is desperate enough. But looking towards the portals where he is still bombing everything to ashes the moment they came out the portals. He didn't think there would be any meat left.

  So he decided to solve the pressing issues essential to his survival and picked the fourth option. As soon as he did, he could feel a warm sensation in his stomach spreading throughout his whole body. It only takes a few seconds. He decided to try it out, he brought a hand up and channeled a small amount of mana to form a loose orb. He plopped it into his mouth and bit it, the orb rapidly dissolved into energy and traveled down to his tummy. It's like drinking an energy drink, which he definitely never tried. It satisfied a bit of his hunger and reduced his sleepiness. It also conveniently lowered the fatigue on his muscles. Picking this trait is definitely the right choice, he'd have to make sure to pay close attention to the healing process so he could try to copy it when the wave is over. He made another orb with slightly more mana this time, biting on it and gulping it down without hesitation. He could get used to this infinite snack hack, some milk to go with it would be nice. He won't hold his breath, the chance of getting some milk in this trial is slim to none. But it's not zero, if saw a monster cow appears from those portals he would definitely capture it.

  So far it's just more orcs pouring out of the portals, it's just sad at this point. He is basically spawn camping them, he didn't even need to fire that often. Most of them died as soon as they touched the ground, it's mostly lava at this point. The one who manages to somehow survive suffer a slow painful death from the massive amount of radiation, they're the reason he kept on firing actually. He didn't want to watch them writhing and screaming while dying slowly, so he gave them mercy and turned them to ashes.