Guild Wars

Chapter 1213: Endurance Test

At the current stage, the gravity value had reached the equivalent of 20 times that of Earth and people were still standing with ease at Draco's side while cries of anguish could be sensed from the very back as many collapsed to the ground.

Of course, the moment they gave up, the pressure around them disappeared and they were allowed to recuperate. Rather than sending them back outright, they were allowed to stay and envy those front of them who preserved longer.

20x, 25x, 30x, 35x, 40x…

The gravity spiked quickly and the number of those who could withstand it began to reduce rapidly with each second. By the time it reached 100x gravity, the people who remained were within eye view of Draco, yet even they began to display frowns and furrowed brows.

By the time it reached 150x gravity, only the top 50 were left standing, with just the top 20 able to handle 200x gravity. This number got reduced to half once they hit 300x Earth's gravity, the remaining ones were gritting their teeth with bent knees.

Meanwhile, Draco was still standing ramrod straight as if he had been exempted from the entire test, his head tilted upwards with one finger on his chin. Looking at the slight smile on his face and the far away look on his eyes, could he possibly be… daydreaming?

Soon, it hit 350x gravity leaving only three participants, with second and third place gasping for air while on all fours.

They looked like anime protagonists who had been beaten and in the midst of doing that 'I'll never give up!' bullshit that always allowed one to triumph over enemies, no matter how much more powerful they were just a moment ago or how many years they had spent plotting their evil plan.

Unfortunately, these fellows did not have that kind of fortune or luck, so the moment the countdown came to an end, they slumped to the ground and gave up. This left Draco as the only viable candidate, causing all eyes to fall on him.

The onlookers were speechless at his nonchalance and frowned deeply, wondering how long he could last. Since they were here, they would see for themselves where the limits of this fellow lay!

Meanwhile, Draco continued to daydream about one time around 4 years ago when his daughter Lucitera had kissed him on the cheek after he had crafted her a special hairpin as a gift. That had been one of his happiest moments. Another fond memory of this was when those brats Loki as well as Lucitian had been forced to 'beg' him for some special accessories for their preferences.

Given the tsundere nature of his two sons, they had naturally made a ruckus by claiming that he should treat it as an honor to do that, but Draco eventually gave them each a nougie and settled them down. Seeing them weakly mutter 'please Dad' while trying to keep up their tough look made him feel very amused and warm.

Hm?

Draco was snapped out of his trance when he felt a slight strain on his body, causing him to frown and see what was happening. He didn't even need to cast his senses, he could see that the area around him was warped and full of a black light that seemed eager to swallow everything, while those nearby had expression of shock and horror on their faces.

It was then that Draco realized that the gravity counter had surpassed 1,000,000 times Earth's gravity, which caused a small gravity well to emerged where he was. He understood the problem and slapped his forehead, regretting falling into a daydream because he had overdone it!

Due to their bloodline, the Evil Trio could literally travel in the void of Space, crash through planets and even survive in the center of a black hole. Of course he would surpass a counter of what was effectively 1 million times that of Earth since an average black hole had 100 billion times the Gravity of earth.

Draco immediately howled and fell to the ground, acting as if he had reached his limit while tapping the ground, stating that he was surrendering.

Candidates: "…"

Testing system: "…"

Cerea: "…"

Who do you think you're fooling?!

You know what, do what you want. Other candidates are trying their hardest to display their best side and show their limits so that they could get better treatment but there was someone actively suppressing themselves from shining too brightly!

Draco was helpless about this. His bloodline was not magic focused like Eva nor physically focused like Shuangtian, but had a smattering of both as well as being mostly spiritual.

As such, his strength output was actually not that great compared to what Shuangtian could do, but his resistance and endurance was actually greater than his strength by far.

Regardless, Draco ended this test early enough - thought a lot of time had still passed - and then waited for the next one. After a short 30 second break, each candidate began to feel a prickly feeling on their bodes, as if someone was smothering them with something.

This test went about the same as the previous one. After the base requirement of 50 atm was reached, only the absolute weakest failed or barely withstood, while the value rose crazily.

The top 100 was able to withstand up to 250 atm, top 50 up to 400 atm, top 20 could handle 650 atm while the top 10 reached 800 atm. The top 5 surprisingly survived up to 1000 atm, which was super impressive.

As for the other two among the top 3, they crumbed at 1200 atm, and everyone was forced to watch Draco again. Due to how incremental the process was and how long it took… Draco ended up daydreaming again!

This time, he was recalling the time Rosella was distressed about having destroyed one of his old pieces of equipment, specifically the Legendary Rank Hawkeye bow. She had naturally told Roma about it who had been unhappy that her usually sensible daughter would be so destructive this time.

However, Roma loved Rosella too much and promised to help Rosella breach it to Draco.

The funny thing was that both Roma and Rosella had overestimated the value of the bow to him. They had believed it to have some intrinsic had sentimental value, whereas Draco had only used that thing during a phase where he had been upgrading his Innate Technique Generator to create a set of bow skills.

So when Roma had come towards him to broach the topic with a fidgety Rosella who couldn't even bear to look at him, he couldn't help but feel amused and laugh. He eventually held his darling girl and told her that nothing, no item in this world, was more important to him than her.

Looking at the joy in her eyes after his soothing words, Draco felt that his entire life up to that moment had been worth it, especially when Roma, who was deeply touched, pulled him to her cottage and laid waste to him for three days straight.

Roma was able to use some special witchcraft brew to stimulate Draco's senses while reducing his various enhancements, almost reducing him to something of a mortal man during that endeavor.

Those three days had really tested his limits and shown him the difficulties of a normal man that he had long forgotten. Eventually, he gad wobbled out of her cottage half clothed and with a hand on his waist, making one wonder what he had gone through.

Hm?

Once again Draco was snapped out of his recollection when he noticed a bit of pressure, and then almost slapped himself when he saw that the atm counter had surpassed 500,000.

…still, he rolled on the floor while howling, begging to be released as if he was truly suffering.

His performance was so moving and awe-inspiring that those looking on 'almost' believed it.

For the final endurance test, the requirements were pretty straightforward. One had to withstand their own strongest blow, which left everyone serious as they manifested all their defensive skills and maneuvers.

Meanwhile, Draco turned on his enormous class passives for the first time and simply stood there with an interested look. A countdown occurred with an apparition of each candidate manifesting before them and repeating their previous best attacks, only that they were the punching machine now.

Some easily dealt with their attack while others suffered and surprisingly, the results had nothing to do with rank. 3rd and 4th place almost crumbled in the face of their own strongest blows while 2nd barely tanked it, while last place seemed to withstand the blow sufficiently.

As for Draco, the outcome was to be expected. His apparition sneered and unleashed a world ending blow with confidence on its face, but the moment it hit Draco's chest, it simply dispersed like a spring breeze hitting a wall.

The apparition was shocked and speechless, while Draco smirked with a cold expression. "Did you eat before you even came here?"

He then clenched his fist and struck towards the apparition, causing everyone to be shocked by his guts!

The shocked apparition displayed a look of disdain as if forced back its shock and threw another punch full of Draco still maximum power.

Hahaha, I can throw your best punch with every blow but your strength will fluctuate and wane each time! Can you muster the strength to surpass me or even match me?!

BOOM!

However, when the punch from Draco connected with its own, the apparition only showed an expression of incomprehension, its body slowly fading away into ash. Before it disappeared, Draco shook his head and revealed the simple truth.

"Who said that was my full strength? What you have is what I wanted to show."

Draco's words were heard by those nearby and they felt like they were about to have mental breakdowns. The strength he had revealed which had already been ten times higher than the best candidate here had been him limiting himself?

Then… what was his true strength?

The Endurance Test came to an end and the results were displayed.

1st – Draco: 9,800,000N (Gravitational Force), 500,000 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Apparition Destroyed (Resilience).

2nd – Bafira: 3,500N (Gravitational Force), 1190 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Averagely Withstood (Resilience).

3rd – Deork: 3,450N (Gravitational Force), 1150 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Poorly Withstood (Resilience).

4th – Huskar: 3,390N (Gravitational Force), 1030 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Poorly Withstood (Resilience).

5th – Ashwanda: 3,220N (Gravitational Force), 995 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Sufficiently Withstood (Resilience).

6th – Scurle: 3,180N (Gravitational Force), 980 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Sufficiently Withstood (Resilience).

7th – Recume: 3,120N (Gravitational Force), 960 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Poorly Withstood (Resilience).

8th – Pilkin: 3,030N (Gravitational Force), 955 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Greatly Withstood (Resilience).

9th – Laeser: 2,990N (Gravitational Force), 950 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Greatly Withstood (Resilience).

10th – Abardurn: 2,950N (Gravitational Force), 935 atm (Vacuum Pressure), Sufficiently Withstood (Resilience).

The rankings didn't not shift much at the top but the rankings below 50 changed wildly as many of the candidates proved to have better endurance than strength. Of course, this would also count to the final ranking, but that was clearly for the end.

The positions shifted once more, adopting the results of the Endurance test as the next stage was upon them, the test of intent.

｢System to Player Announcement

The objective of the Intent Test has been set. Player Draco must strike a being with ethereal killing intent, withstand the pressure of unaffiliated killing intent and state the meaning of intent to clear this task.｣

Draco raised an eyebrow as this test was as he suspected it to be, one about combative intent, or specifically, killing intent. After all, this was the Test of Body which was split into these five smaller tests, and given that this was the WAR MANIAC PAVILION, it was natural they would care about something like this.

Draco was just not sure how well he would do here because while his killing intent after living two lifetimes and slaughtering billions of beings was heavy, he was not arrogant enough to assume that he was topmost here.

After all, these fellows who were his fellow candidates could be 1000 year old monsters who drank blood and ate flesh for a living, being the evilest of beings with limitless killing intent.

So… this test might actually pose a challenge for Draco!