CHAPTER 443: LEVELING UP

The group slowly advanced through the second floor on their own while Darian trained alone high above.

After a day, when they stepped onto the third floor, the pressure changed. Before, it only came from above; now, it came from every direction. Even though the pressure in the skies was much greater, everyone felt like they were at the bottom of the ocean, struggling to move.

Luckily, the third floor was different from the two previous ones. Before, each person had to endure the pressure alone; now, if they stayed close to each other, it would be shared among them, slightly reducing the individual burden.

It wasn’t a perfect split, though. That trial was a kind of intelligent array, and the runes that created the pressure reacted according to the situation, decreasing the weight for each one by a percentage when they were in a group. Otherwise, since there were thirty thousand of them, the value for each would’ve been ridiculously easy.

Days passed slowly as they advanced, and Darian was deeply impressed — the blood of a Primordial Dragon was truly terrifying.

Everyone seemed capable of growing without limits, as long as the pressure was high enough. Whenever they couldn’t improve, it simply meant the pressure wasn’t great enough yet, not that they had reached their limit.

Because of that, they were able to keep advancing nonstop, though slowly.

Darian was already enduring over a thousand points of Fiendgod force up above. But since they were in a group, the weight for each wasn’t even half of that. In other words, they were already capable of withstanding an insane amount of pressure on their own.

Under that terrifying pressure, their true power began to surface. Some who had been ordinary before were now covered in glowing marks — their physical strength growing explosively.

But on the fifth day inside the trial, when they reached the eighth floor, everyone finally began to struggle. Their physical bodies felt like they were about to tear apart.

Darian exhaled sharply. All thirty thousand of them had reached the limit of physical body growth. Each one was now enduring a thousand points of Fiendgod force. They weren’t like him — reborn with primordial power, with all impurities removed.

But that was only their physical limit. He could still feel room for them to grow.

"All of you, activate your protection technique together. Your bodies can’t evolve any further, but your Bloodlines still have plenty of room to grow. If you push your Bloodline power to the limit, without any mistakes, you’ll be able to create a barrier and endure double the pressure together," Darian explained calmly, and everyone nodded, taking deep breaths.

He moved closer to the group but didn’t position himself among them to share the weight. Instead, he stayed two meters above, in the air, neutralizing all the pressure coming from above, which was much stronger.

That made the trial array shift, as if Darian was now part of the group. Because of that, the pressure on everyone below increased. But nearly ninety percent of what the group should’ve endured was now being handled by Darian alone, while the rest was shared among all the others.

Even though the group’s total pressure had increased, what each one actually endured below had gotten lighter. It was like before they’d been holding up eighty percent of the weight, and now only ten.

Up in the sky, Darian roared as his entire stellar physique was pushed to its absolute limit. He looked at the measuring crystal and saw that he was already withstanding two thousand points of Fiendgod force — more than before, even compared to when he was alone on the tenth floor.

But he was barely holding on...

In just a few minutes, his body started to crack, with fissures spreading across his skin.

Soon, however, a white light healed him completely. For anyone else, that kind of training would’ve been pure suicide. The pressure kept increasing, but as long as he didn’t explode, he could recover fully and continue — until he could withstand it.

He had an absurd amount of white power stored. In the past, even though he couldn’t use it, every time he devoured karma, a small portion of it was absorbed into the hidden white ring within his soul.

Those below began to smell blood. When they looked up, they saw Darian covered in red, blood dripping slowly as he trembled from head to toe. Everyone broke into a cold sweat, unable to imagine the torment he was enduring.

That sight only motivated them even more. Thanks to him, they could hardly believe the power they now possessed — and he was still protecting them, helping them grow even further.

Soon, everyone focused completely, determined to live up to his expectations.

At first, since the pressure had eased, they advanced quickly. But once they reached the seventh floor, they started struggling again, even if they were only taking on ten percent of it.

After half a day, they arrived at the ninth floor.

Darian looked down and couldn’t help but sigh. At that point, everyone was already handling the pressure well, using only their magic technique with their Bloodlines.

Thanks to the progress they’d made so far, their combined strength allowed them to keep moving forward together. Thirty thousand — that number alone was staggering.

As they advanced on that floor, they felt like they were standing in the center of a tornado, wild power tearing at them from all sides. Many felt their flesh being ripped apart.

However, they were mentally prepared, and together, using their Bloodline barrier, they slowly adapted.

After two hours...

*CRACK!*

A violent sound echoed across the skies, and everyone looked up.

There, they saw Darian radiating a powerful gray aura. The space around him began to distort under the sheer pressure of his physical power.

’Finally... I can now perfectly endure two thousand points of Fiendgod force,’ he thought, a wide grin forming on his face. He had finally activated the first level of the Chaos Celestial Armor.

That technique had seven levels, and he needed to reach the last one to finally merge the Chaos Celestial Armor with his Stellar Physique — creating the Primordial Stellar Physique.

He took a deep breath. It had been endless torture, his body breaking and regenerating hundreds of times in the process. He had a terrifying amount of white power stored, but had already consumed nearly half of it before realizing. Still, the results were worth it.

Now, everything became easier to endure. His new goal was to keep raising the level of that physique.

The group continued forward. On the sixth day inside that place, they finally stepped onto the tenth floor of the trial.

The moment they entered, the thirty thousand stopped in their tracks, feeling their bodies nearly shatter. The pressure on each of them was at least fifteen hundred points of Fiendgod force.

Their bodies alone could only handle a thousand, but together, using their Bloodline barrier, they’d managed to reach this point. Even so, they felt they’d truly hit their limit.

"You must keep moving forward. At the passage to the eleventh floor, I’m sure there’ll be another kind of test. That’s why this floor exists — the last one under pure pressure, made to be nearly impossible to endure. You must push yourselves to the absolute limit and reach the end."

Darian’s voice echoed through everyone’s minds. They took deep breaths, feeling like they truly couldn’t go any further. Halfway through, they’d probably explode into blood. But...

No one hesitated — everyone forced themselves to take another step forward.

Darian nodded, satisfied. On that floor, the pressure didn’t actually increase that much from start to finish; it was less than a hundred points stronger. That’s why he was sure that if everyone could endure the torture of being just one step away from exploding at any moment, they’d eventually make it through.

Of course, some really wouldn’t make it.

In less than an hour, the first person fell, body covered in cracks. But Darian raised a hand, and a white light wrapped around the person, healing them completely in just two seconds.

"Try again." Darian’s voice echoed loud and clear, and everyone’s eyes lit up when they saw it.

Seeing their reaction, Darian spoke coldly to the rest, "Do you think I’ll keep healing you forever? Listen carefully — I don’t have enough power to heal all of you more than once. So if you fail once, I’ll give you a second chance. But on the second failure, I’ll let you die."

It was an obvious lie — he could’ve healed all of them more than five times without any problem. But if they knew that, they wouldn’t take things nearly as seriously.

Using the magic technique to solidify the Bloodline and still keep everyone connected wasn’t easy. They all had to stay completely focused while also improving their control as they advanced.

Just as Darian predicted, after failing once, everyone immediately entered a state of total focus, as if their lives were truly hanging by a thread. Failing once was actually good — it taught them where they went wrong and how to fix it.

Then, halfway through the sixth day...

...they finally stood before an entrance completely different from the ones before.

That was the end of the tenth floor, and the unusual entrance meant the type of Trial ahead had changed entirely. In the easier versions — the ones others had completed in the past — it had been the same, so they were sure of it.

But... everyone was drenched in blood, desperate for it to end. If they had to stay one more hour, they felt they wouldn’t make it.

Darian exhaled sharply and stepped forward, crossing the entrance.

A second later —

**BOOM!**

The moment Darian crossed the entrance, a thunderous blast echoed, and a violent force slammed him backward.

He was thrown back to the previous floor like a meteor, crashing into the ground and carving a huge trench before finally stopping.

"Darian!" Tetoya shouted in shock.

When he got up, everyone froze — he looked like he’d been brutally beaten. His entire body was dented from every angle, his appearance horrifying.

"I... I’m fine."

It took him a moment to catch his breath, then he began to heal. Fortunately, his physical body was far stronger now; if it had been before he’d mastered the Chaos Celestial Armor, he would’ve exploded.

"This must be the final test for this stage of the Trial. It’s like a whirlpool of power crushing me perfectly from every direction, making it almost impossible to block. If I slip even a little, I get flattened," Darian muttered seriously.

Everyone fell silent in horror. If even he couldn’t get through, then they were all doomed.

Darian took a deep breath. "Don’t worry. Just focus on holding out on this floor a little longer. I can feel that if I make it through and you manage to endure here, you’ll all be set free."

"How? That sounds impossible," Tetoya murmured.

"You’ve forgotten that the Matriarch only made it to the fifth floor in the past and still came back alive?" Darian said calmly. "The will of whoever created this place is watching everyone being tested. I’m sure he doesn’t want all of you to die after growing this much. But... you must be like the Matriarch — prove you deserve to survive. The least you need to do is endure this floor’s pressure perfectly. As for me, I have my own trial to face, and I must make it through."

Everyone grew serious. They knew that in the past, the Matriarch and another ancestor had been acknowledged by the Primordial Dragon’s will and even received guidance from it. Then, they’d been sent out alive, despite failing and nearly dying.

So, reaching the end of all thirteen floors wasn’t the only way to leave. The only reason they’d been thrown into such an absurdly difficult level of the Trial was because of Darian. The fact that they’d all survived this far together and evolved to such an unbelievable point was already incredible.

If the will of the Primordial Dragon really was watching them, it wouldn’t be fair to think they’d all be judged by the same standard as Darian. If they could at least fully adapt to this floor, just like he said, maybe they could leave alive.

"Give it everything you’ve got! I’m going back in!"

At that moment, Darian shot forward again.

**BOOOM!**

Not even two seconds later, he came flying back like a burning red meteor, crashing violently into the ground.

"Brother Darian, are you okay?!" Zelkov and the others shouted in disbelief.

"I’m fine. I refuse to believe I can’t get through." Darian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and charged again.

Seeing Darian’s unstoppable figure, radiating an endless will to grow stronger... after a brief stunned silence, everyone’s determination caught fire as well.

How much courage and willpower did Darian have to keep trying like that, getting hurt over and over without ever backing down? The fact that he’d made it this far wasn’t luck — only someone with that kind of madness could achieve it.

And yet they, as princes, princesses, and nobles from one of the most powerful worlds, were actually hesitating in front of this challenge. The sharp contrast between them and Darian filled them with shame, so they all focused completely on what they had to do.

Two hours later, Darian had already been thrown back countless times. Still, he was managing to endure a bit longer with every attempt.

At first, he’d get thrown back in a single second; after ten tries, he was lasting five.

Everyone kept pushing themselves while watching his progress in awe. But inside, Darian was the most thrilled of all.

’Third level! I’m leveling up, fuck yeah!’

With every attempt, Darian was pushing the Chaos Celestial Armor to its limit — and evolving it. This test was perfect for him.