Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 2079: Trial Site!

Max smiled faintly.

’Interesting.’

As he drew nearer, he began to notice more figures moving across the surrounding wilderness. There had been only a few at first, but soon there were dozens, and then hundreds.

Some flew through the sky under their own power, while others rode flying treasures shaped like swords, ships, beasts, or enormous leaves. A few crossed the ground at incredible speed, and several groups used strange spatial techniques that carried them great distances with every step.

All of them were headed for the same place.

Max quickly noticed something else too. Almost everyone approaching the trial was young, and more importantly, their cultivation levels all fell within a narrow band. The vast majority sat at the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level of the Divine Lord Realm.

They were newcomers, exactly as Anna had described.

The closer he came to the trial site, the more representatives of the five great races he saw.

A small group of Primordials flew past with their ancient auras held in check as they quietly discussed the trial. Their armor and robes came in different styles, which suggested they had come from different factions within the Primordial Universe, yet all of them carried the natural steadiness Max had come to associate with his own race.

A little farther off, a group of devils approached from another direction. Their crimson eyes and dark horns made them unmistakable.

Some carried enormous weapons on their backs, while others leaked faint traces of corrupted energy even when they weren’t actively using their power. They occasionally shot hostile looks at nearby participants, but nobody was willing to start a fight this close to the Ten Shadows Trial.

Then came the angels, with white and golden halos floating above their heads and luminous wings moving gently behind them. They traveled in organized groups, and most of them carried themselves with the same distant pride Max had seen back in Bloodstone City.

His expression stayed calm at the sight of them. None of these angels seemed connected to the group that had tried to kill him, or at least none of them gave any sign of recognizing him.

He kept moving forward.

Several Spirit Race geniuses appeared next, and their arrival was much quieter. Some looked nearly human aside from the luminous patterns across their skin, while others seemed partly formed out of natural elements.

Max spotted one young man whose hair flowed like pale blue water and a woman whose arms were covered in tiny green leaves growing straight from her skin. Their bodies seemed naturally linked to the surrounding energy, which made their movements look unusually smooth.

The Dragon Race was impossible to overlook. Groups of young dragon geniuses moved toward the trial with heavy physical pressure rolling off them. Scales covered parts of their bodies, horns rose from their heads, and long tails shifted behind them now and then.

Even those at only the 1st level of the Divine Lord Realm radiated a dense vitality that made them feel stronger than ordinary cultivators at the same level.

There were plenty of participants from lesser races as well, including humans, elves, demons, beastkin, and several races Max couldn’t immediately identify.

The plain around the Ten Shadows Trial had become an enormous gathering ground for newcomers from all five universes.

The sight finally made Max grasp the true scale of the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage. Bloodstone City had already felt crowded, but that was only one city in the outer layer. The people gathering here had come from multiple cities, different spawn regions, and countless factions scattered across the five universes.

Every one of them had earned the right to enter this place, and every one of them had been considered talented somewhere before arriving.

Yet Anna had said only about twenty percent would ever defeat the eighth shadow, only around ten percent would beat the ninth, and fewer than one percent would ever clear all ten.

Max looked toward the towering monoliths again, and suddenly those numbers felt far more impressive. There were already hundreds of geniuses visible around him, with more arriving from every direction. If only a tiny fraction of people like these could ever reach the final stages, then the Ten Shadows Trial truly deserved its reputation.

As he moved closer, the pressure from the monoliths grew clearer. The ten structures dominated the horizon, and their shadows stretched across the enormous plain while countless newcomers gathered beneath them like tiny figures standing before ancient gods.

At the center of the trial site stood a vast circular platform of black stone, ringed by countless formations. Several enormous entrances surrounded the platform, each one leading to a different registration area where newcomers were already lining up to take part.

Floating above the entire trial ground was a massive translucent screen, with names constantly appearing and vanishing across it. Some names were followed by the number three, others by five, and a few showed seven. Very rarely an eight appeared, if one appeared at all, and each time it did, the surrounding crowd reacted noticeably.

Max understood right away what those numbers meant, because they were the number of shadows defeated.

He slowed as he reached the outer edge of the gathering area. All around him, newcomers from every race continued making their way toward the registration platforms, some of them excited and others visibly nervous.

"Damian and Revona aren’t here yet?"

Max slowed further as he moved deeper into the Ten Shadows Trial site, carefully sweeping his gaze across the massive gathering area.

There were newcomers everywhere. Groups from the five great races stood beneath the towering monoliths, while others moved between the registration platforms, the temporary rest areas, and the information points around the trial grounds. Conversation filled the air, broken now and then by a surge of cultivation pressure whenever someone released their aura or prepared to enter.

Max searched the crowd for several moments. He saw Primordials and dragons, and he saw angels, devils, spirits, humans, and members of several races he didn’t recognize. Still, there was no sign of Damian or Revona anywhere.

His brows drew together slightly. Either the two of them hadn’t arrived yet, or they had already gone deeper into the trial grounds ahead of him.

After thinking it over for a moment, he quickly settled on the second possibility.

The route he’d taken from Bloodstone City had been chosen deliberately because it was longer and less traveled. Anna had recommended it precisely because Max had drawn so much attention after his fight with Greyjin, and a quieter path reduced the risk of pulling Damian and Revona into whatever trouble followed him.

That longer route by itself should have made him slower than the other two. On top of that, there had been the devils, and then the angels after them. Even though Max had escaped both ambushes without any real injuries, those interruptions had still cost him time.

Damian and Revona had taken the more direct road toward the Ten Shadows Trial, so unless something unexpected had happened along the way, they should have arrived well ahead of him.

’They probably got here earlier and went on ahead.’

Max’s expression relaxed a little, since that explanation made far more sense.

He looked once more at the immense trial grounds spread out before him, where the ten ancient monoliths rose into the sky like silent monuments.

If Damian and Revona had already gone deeper, then there was no reason for him to stand outside waiting.

With that, Max continued forward.