Chapter 135: Oh… oh wow.

(Level-2)

The thing that brought more dread to Sam as his trial continued was not the way he was experiencing the trauma of the people that were close to him.

Lexie had been with him for a long time so the way she experienced his misery was one thing.

But as the level of the first trial increased further, the things that he experienced were not so simple.

The system put him through the experiences of not just the people… in the second level, he experienced how the small pendant he carried in his past life must have felt as well.

The little ornament belonged to Lexie in the past. And he had carried it for a long time after she passed away.

In that past, the things that he experienced over the decades were more cruel than anything.

And as something that belonged to the person that cared about him the most, seeing Sam suffer was not a simple thing.

(Level-3)

The following level overwhelmed him with the emotions of all of his beasts who were always looking up to him.

The system put him through their hearts, forcing the emotions of helplessness and anger and loathing they felt towards themselves in those momentary experiences.

‘These fools.’

The anger they felt towards the world for harming their master was inhuman and almost cruel.

Be it Felix or Nyx or Art, none of them wanted to see him hurt.

He was always doing things that would get him in trouble and they had accepted the fact that their master was just like that.

But they were still trying their best as well.

‘Every time I push myself, they fear they’d lose me.’

They know the feelings he had towards them and they knew how much he cared about the world… but to them, he was the most careless person out there.

They did not like how he put himself through dangerous situations.

Thanks to this test, he also understood the depths of their vulnerability.

‘They can become a threat just as big as what we experienced back then.’

All three of the beasts that he had bonded with in this life carried a tremendous potential.

As long as he was here, they would grow up to be heroes of the world. But, if he’s gone…

‘They’ll burn the world.’

(Level-4)

The test was pretty different.

The goal wasn’t to achieve anything. He just needed to pass through all ten levels without breaking up.

But, as strong as he was, this wasn’t an easy test.

‘It’s father this time…’

In the fourth level, he experienced the things that transpired when he was an infant.

Things that were stored deep inside his mind. Things that he didn’t want to accept, but knew the truth about.

‘He had to kill her… she asked him to do so. And she asked him to look after me.’

The entire sequence, seen from the perspective of the Sungrade patriarch, brought tears to his soul.

To forgive a helpless husband or to be angry at a neglectful father… Sam questioned why he had been the way he was towards him.

‘Is this… supposed to be traumatic?’

The Sungrade patriarch was a softer person than the world perceived him to be.

(Level-5)

‘No…’

The fifth level recreated his friendships in the academy.

First the people he met, and then the people he lost.

Students, companions, people who were with him at the last island, and the creatures that accompanied him.

(Level-6)

His enemies hated him for a lot of things. During war, he was the reason for hundreds of deaths, his taming techniques caused a lot of deaths until it became mainstream.

And even after that, things weren’t simple for a radical person like him.

The ability to tame beasts that were thought to be beyond one’s innate limitations was too strong once grasped correctly.

Criminals erupted around the world wielding his powers. They killed, stole and destroyed the world from the inside.

Just like the forces that were trying to corrupt the Topaz empire from the inside, he gave birth to a number of new kinds of crimes.

He had hated himself for it for a long time but as empathetic as he was, he hadn’t felt the emotion of the people that had been hurt directly.

At least until now… he did not know how much hate a mother who lost her child felt towards him. He did not know how a father felt when his daughter was burnt alive.

How her ashen hands felt in his arms.

How the kind people who lost all the little things they had felt when facing the criminals he had birthed.

(Level-7)

‘Oh…’

If things until then were still somehow manageable, what came right after that was a punch to his kidneys.

‘Wow.’

The test recreated his time in the last island and, instead of showing him the things which had transpired there, he was looking at his dead body from the perspective of his companions who somehow had survived.

They were mourning because he was the first one to perish and there were still the damned beasts who killed them present all around them.

‘Ugh…!’

He endured getting killed from the perspective of each of his teammates.

He watched them getting ripped apart.

Some of them went to his dead body to get it to a safer place but he felt what they would have felt if they were to see him getting ripped apart.

‘Argh…!’

The pain, anger, and dread that he felt while experiencing these things seemed to have been enhanced ten folds.

By the time they were all dead, he was looking at the carnage from the perspective of the creatures who felt nothing even after chewing them alive.

And that hurt him far more than anything else.

[Would you like to continue on (Level-8)?]

The test was far too burdensome. Even for someone like him, experiencing deaths several times over was not easy.

He was slowly getting used to dying but the system was also increasing the difficulty and pain. His tolerance was limited… and yet, he was not shown any mercy.

‘Yes…’

He continued onto the 8th level and experienced what the young demon lord that his father had killed in the demon forest might have felt.

At one point, he forgot what he was or who he was supposed to be as well.

The immersion with the demon was so strong that he used the demon’s body and in the heat of the moment, almost killed his own father.

‘Arghhhhhhhh…!’

Getting a hold of himself, even for a moment, took away every bit of mental strength he had left.

So… when he still stubbornly continued onto the 9th level, he did not know what he was even doing anymore.

‘…’

He experienced the trauma of watching the love of his life die a hundred times on a loop from the perspective of a random tree.

His emotions were frozen.

He had cried every drop of tears he had in him.

Blood had become his tears as well.

So even as a random tree… he was crying the tears of blood.

(Level-10)

The final trial: the end of the world.

And him? The one trapped in the body destroying this world.

[Your mental and physical signs show a dangerous drop.]

[Do you want to forfeit the trial?]

The test was made to break his will, his heart, and his being.

But… somehow…

‘…’

[You have chosen to continue.]

[Resuming the test.]

He continued on with the trial.

And at the end, he stood in the same black space where he had been before the trial.

His eyes are completely devoid of life.

And his face, free of any light there has ever been…