Kai stood at the center of the Colosseum with his hands resting on his knees. The sound of his short, uneven breaths softly echoed throughout the vicinity.
A small chuckle escaped his mouth as a grin crept onto his face, "I... Was right!"—his voice slightly wavering due to lack of air in his lungs.
His eyes were set on the glowing system screen that hovered in between the corpses of goblins.
---
[You have successfully completed phase 2 of the Trial of Strength.]
[Rewards - (+1) Strength Stat.]
[Would you like to Continue?]
---
The contents of the screen were clear.
Kai had received yet another stat in his Strength.
He straightened up, gave his back a nice stretch, and then calmly turned his eyes away from the screen.
"System, I wanna continue." He muttered as he began to walk opposite the corpses and the system screen, his voice barely above a whisper.
However, the System seemed to have heard him loud and clear as it disintegrated and materialized in front of his eyes once again.
---
[Your Choice has been confirmed.]
[Proceeding with the next phase of Trial of Strength.]
[The next phase will begin in 10 minutes.]
---
Kai barely spared a glance at the screen and passed through as he kept walking forward.
His eyes darted in all directions, relentlessly scanning through even the smallest bits of cracks in the ground.
Finally, he stopped as his gaze fell upon a single point where all such deep cracks that were spread throughout the colosseum converged.
His eyes slightly narrowed as he bent down and sat with one of his knees touching the ground.
He then slid his hand onto the cracked surface of the ground softly as his fingers felt even the most subtle cracks.
A faint, yet imminent smile crept onto the side of his lips.
"This will be the first and last opportunity for me to be able to clear this trial." He said calmly as his eyes remained fixated on that single point.
Kai then tried to stand up but felt as though his legs had become nothing more than twigs. His legs trembled slightly, until finally giving up—forcing him to fall onto his knees.
He furrowed his brows and let out a deep, long sigh.
'I guess my body is reaching its limits.'
It was true. No matter how many stats he had received as rewards, his body remained unfamiliar with such a sudden increase in strength.
Although logically speaking, his strength had indeed increased. But it was also the truth that his body wasn't familiar with such strength at all.
Years of scraping for scraps and avoiding fights had left his body soft. Strength? That was for people who could afford to chase it.
Upon struggling and barely winning from the first goblin, he realized that his body was not accustomed to its strength and that any abrupt or powerful movements would cause further damage.
His body had already hit its lowest, thus he chose to finish things up quickly in the second phase with sneaky and swift attacks.
The plan was a surefire, and he won.
However, those movements caused his body to strain, making it difficult for him to move.
Kai struggled to even breathe, yet the smile remained the same on his face.
'Even if I had killed Dozens in-game, killing monsters in real life doesn't look that difficult... It rather feels... fun?' he thought as he looked at the previous corpses dissipating into thin air without leaving any traces behind.
"Well, not that it matters anyway." His gaze drifted up toward the sky as sat on the ground comfortably.
"System, how much time is left?" He asked as he finally noticed that he was missing one of his daggers.
---
[Time Remaining - 03:00 minutes]
---
Another one of the System's windows popped up right in front of his eyes, reacting to his words almost instantly.
Kai glanced at the screen for barely a second and averted his eyes right away.
Feeling the faint warmth in his legs, he tried to stand up once again and succeeded, while his legs slightly wavered.
He then, began to march forward—where the goblins were slain—with short and slow steps.
Now that he was done planning his next set of attacks, it was only wise for him to go and pick up his weapons as well.
His gaze fell upon the dagger he had thrown to kill the first goblin of the second phase. Although the goblin was gone, its tip and edge were smeared in greenish blood.
He slowly picked it up and went back to the same spot, awaiting the arrival of the monsters.
Minutes passed in mere seconds and once again, the timer hit zero.
Yet another light emerged at the center of the Colosseum and, as expected, divided itself into 3 this time.
"Bring it on, motherfluffers..!" Kai shouted at the top of his lungs, almost as if motivating himself for the upcoming battle as he took his stance once again.