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  Ding!

  [You have ehe Sed Css and Subcss Rank Up Trial!]

  [By choosing the Path you want to take, your Css and Subcss will evolve differently.]

  [Each Path has been designed by the Divihat desire to sponsor you in one way or another. It is your choice to pick whie you want to take.]

  [Once you ehe Trial Building, you’ll have to prove your strength, intelligence, iy, and various other talents to obtain the privilege of Ranking Up your Css and Subcss even further.]

  [While your mind is within this Mindscape, time goes incredibly slow, so take your time to decide! Good luck!]

  Vd g the diverging paths in front of him and the message that had popped up right afterwards. It seemed that whichever path he took, he would gh some sort of challenge or trial and then gain a special “power” to evolve his Css and Subcss.

  Meaning that he had to take what “divinity” he wao io his Css and Subcss so they would evolve even further towards this divinity’s dire.

  This made it so even when he had already chosen some od before, he could choose yet another one.

  Of course, there was also the option of choosing none of them.

  Aside from each castle, temple, or ruins belonging to every one of them, there were three other castles, ruins, and temples belonging to no one.

  These had only three paths, and once he looked at them, messages would appear telling him what they were about.

  [Crimson Castle Trial: Path of the Blood Demon]

  [Phantasmal Temple Trial: Path of the Death Eater]

  [Bzing Ruins Trial: Path of the Burning Soul]

  There was no more additional information than that though, and it retty much the same for the ods.

  Not all Seven Evil Gods were present this time; there were only four of them remaining, which beloo some of these Gods.

  Of course, the rgest was the Evil God of Gluttony; then there was the Crimson Moon Goddess, the Evil Goddess of Lust, and stly, the Evil God of Greed.

  These were the remaining gods that were ied in him, and they each offered their own uhs that Vd had to sider too.

  [Starving Castle Trial: Path of Gluttony]

  [Crimson Moon Temple Trial: Path of the Crimson Moon Priest]

  [Ruins of the Depraved Trial: Path of Lust]

  [Golden Castle Trial: Path of Greed]

  “Hmm…”

  Vd wished they could at least tell him a bit about what they offered, but everything was very vague!

  “What do I do?”

  He asked the Heavenly Demon, the only ohought might have some sort of idea about what he could even do in this situation.

  “Hmm…”

  The Heavenly Demon crossed his arms, sighing.

  He looked ptive, as if he knew what to say—he knew an answer!

  Vd felt relieved with his calm demeanor; he khat as long as this bastard was around, he could get things done.

  “No idea.”

  “Huh?”

  Suddenly Vd gred at the Heavenly Demon with eyes full of hatred.

  “The hell do you mean you don’t have any idea?! Use your powers or something to see through this!”

  “I have, but it’s vague… Hah, well, I’ll give you some clues.”

  The Heavenly Demon poi each trial.

  “The Path of Gluttony will enhance your attack power the most,” he said. “But it’ll make you hungry, perhaps. It might twist some of your powers inte abilities too.”

  “Ah…”

  “The Path of Lust will increase your ability to trol magic, especially illusions, mirages, and other things,” the heavenly demon expined.

  “Oh…”

  “The Path of Greed will give you the power to take energies, life, and stats from foes while fighting them… iing ohe heavenly demon nodded.

  “Yeah, sounds good.”

  “The Path of the Crimson Moon Priest will enhance your Crimson Moon sorcery, or whatever it’s called… It will give you more holy power based on the moon goddesses. Maybe more healing and support powers.”

  “Hm, kind of mid.”

  “And the others seem simpler,” the heavenly demon expined. “The Path of the Blood Demon will help you improve that transformation; maybe gain something else reted to that. The Path of the Death Eater seems like it’ll increase your affinity with the undead and also by being one. And stly, the Path of Burning Soul strengthens your soul and fire elemental powers.”

  “Okay, that’s o know,” nodded Vd. “Still fusing to choose from… What do you reend?”

  “Hm…” the Heavenly Demon remained in silence. “Yreatest weakness is your overrelian equipment due to your Curse. The Curse won’t go away no matter what we try, only through eating monsters. Choosing the Gluttony Path will only worsen this aspect, as it’ll make you crave more. So let’s scratch it, despite how tempting more power could be. We could probably work on other things that could help you abuse loopholes within the system. The Path of Greed could be a good choice. If you steal stats or skills from foes while fighting them, even if to a limited extent and perhaps temporarily, it would give you an incredible advantage.”

  “You’re n…” Vd nodded. “Maybe I could choose that one. I was sidering the Blood Demon Path myself; if it’s reted to my stroransformation, it could also enhance my stats a lot, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, perhaps… It’s up to you at the end, my foolish reination; whatever you do with your life is for you to decide,” he said, looking rather bored, as if trying to dismiss this already. “I am rather frustrated though; why isn’t a trial about me?! I could ma and even affect the erial before, but it feels like the System is directly stopping me from doing that now.”

  “I mean, it sounds fair; you’re teically dead,” said Vd. “What happened back then must’ve been an error, which they fixed already in the update.”

  “That’s bullshit; I should be allowed to guide you through the path of the Heavenly Demon!” he said angrily.

  “You’ve already done so for a while now; calm down,” said Vd. “For now, let’s focus… I guess… Greed or… Blood Demon. Hm…”

  After some time thinking, Vd quickly made his decision, walking forwards towards the dire of the trial he had chosen.

  To do this, he had to be careful though; the path was made of floating stones, and he had no idea what falling from here could even do to him.

  One jump at a time, he reached the rge castle.

  He walked towards the stairs leading to the entrand then touched the door, which opened on its own with a loud creak.

  And then Vd found himself standing in the middle of a lugubrious and rge castle, made out of cold gray stone, decorated with torn apart red fabric fgs across the walls.

  In the floor, aside from the cracked gray stone making it, there was a rge red-colored circle with a demon-shaped head in the middle, with two red jewels as eyes.

  There were also stairs leading to the sed flht behind this strange circle.

  Ding!

  [You have ehe [Crimson Castle Trial: Path of the Blood Demon]!]

  [In the Crimson Castle Trial, you must prove you’re a true Blood Demon and unleash your wrath and rampaging bloodthirsty destru as you please.]

  [Step into the Blood Demon Circle for the Trial to begin. O begins, you will have 30 Mio plete it.]

  “Only thirty minutes?”

  Vd felt annoyed with the little time he was given, but he decided not to overthink it. However, he didn’t get there immediately, instead expl the castle.

  He sidered that this trial had to do with battling, so he wao get some advantage in here; after all, in here he had no equipment at all; it was his bare body and his skills, maybe.

  He looked around, ultimately finding some old bck armor lying in an abandoned, destroyed-looking room, which he quickly equipped.

  It barely had some stats on it, but it was better than nothing.

  “Hey, I found something over here!”

  The Heavenly Demon called for him as Vd moved to another room upstairs, finding out aem that he could grab, or well, many items.

  It seemed to be some sort of ste room where soldiers pced their ons. Most armor here was destroyed though, nothing of value.

  But there were ons inside of barrels, most of them oxidated and broken, but there were a couple still w.

  Vd grabbed a spear, a sword, and a shield, uo use his iory here; this was all he could carry with his own hands.

  Equipping the shield on his left arm while holding the spear with the left hand and the sword with the right hand, he walked downstairs, having finished his exploration.

  “Alright, this is about all I could find… Let’s go.”

  Vd stepped forward, toug the circle in front of him and stepping over it.

  FLASH!

  The two jeweled eyes of the demon ihe circle flowed brightly as it started moving up into a third floor that Vd had not been able to enter.

  “Is this a freaking elevator?” he wondered.

  “What is that?” asked the heavenly demon angrily. “Stop saying nonsense. Focus, the trial will begin now.”

  “Ah, yeah,” nodded Vd, looking at the front.

  Suddenly, he realized he was surrounded.

  There were ten other beings around him, all resembling skeletons, but their bones were red, and they had rge horns ing from their heads.

  They were wearing rusty bck armor in some areas of their bodies and holding broken, rusty ons.

  They were standing there in silence, and Vd couldn’t move either, as a new message popped up.

  [Prove to the A Blood Demons that you’re worthy of iing their true legacy.]

  [Fight as many of the A Blood Demons while not using Skills ic, using your stats alone.]

  [Because of this trial, your Stats had beeored to their inal numbers.]

  [Objective: Sy as many A Blood Demons as possible. The more you sy, the higher your score.]

  [Duration: 30 Minutes.]

  “So I have to kill without Skills ic, with these ons I found?” wondered Vd. “Fug hell, this got iing now.”

  As the system message faded away, the skeletons, which seemed dead and i a sed ago, started moving, creating creaking sounds as their bones hit one another.

  “The ohat ot prove themselves…”

  “Must be eliminated…”

  “You ot i acy…”

  “Without being a true demon yourself!”

  The skeletons even spoke, with phantasmal, resentful voices! Jumping towards Vd and swinging their ons against him.

  Vd noticed Blood Runes activating around their bodies too, which strengtheheir attack power and movement speed!

  CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

  He evaded three secutive blows, moving away as quickly as possible.

  It was quite refreshing; he could move however he wanted without the Curse eating away at his body aing his movements.

  "If you think you just escape…! You are… mistaken!!!”

  Three more skeletons jumped from behind Vd, all three of them swinging their spears against his body, which he barely mao avoid by pg his shield in front.

  CRAAASH!

  “Ugh…!”

  He was sent flying away, hitting the ground and rolling over it, groaning in pain.

  “Are you going to just let them hit you?! Aim at their joints! Destabilize their bodies!” the Heavenly Demon said angrily. “You’re my reination! Show them who’s boss!”

  Vd smiled as he heard him loud and clear, nodding. And then a rge bck axe swung down, almost cleaving his body into two halves.

  CLASH!

  As it hit the ground and created a small crack, Vd quickly used this opportunity to hit the skeleton that attacked him, using his sword to ssh and break the joints of its unprotected legs, making it colpse into the ground.

  Still, the skeleton was resilient, trying to fight even on the floor. Vd was quicker, however, crushing the skeleton’s skull with his foot aroying it into dozens of tiny pieces, revealing a glowing red crystal inside.

  “What is this?”

  Vd grabbed it rapidly before invading more blows, realizing it was something uo the trial!

  -----

  [A Blood Demon Crystal Core]

  The crystallization of a dead Blood Demon’s powers, often times found ihe undead blood demons that had been sin using physical blows and no magic.

  If you’re patible with the Blood Demon’s Legacy, abs it will allow you tthen your foundation and awaken more of the power of a Blood Demon.

  -----

  “I think I get how this trial works!”

  As Vd evaded more blows, moving gracefully as if he were as light as a feather despite wearing armor, he quickly let one of the blood demons hit his back with a sword, his armaining a few cracks but proteg him.

  CLAAANK!

  As he ehe hit, he quickly puhe blood demon’s skull with his armored fists, destroying the skull and tearing out the core; the skeleton instantly colpsed, dead.

  CRASH!

  Then Vd opened his mouth, eating both tiny crystals and swallowing the small fragments once he triturated them with his sharp teeth.

  FLUOSH!

  A powerful crimson aura surged from his body as he noticed the faint trace of the Blood Demon Runes appearing through his body.

  “Alright, let’s keep the pace…!”

  -----

  Pach