"...fucker's so damn persistent!" Ashton cursed as he swept his growing hair back.
His body was covered in sweat, his expression was twisted in irritation and annoyance as he released his perception past the walls of the library.
That Demon Prince visited the same spot again. Observing the surroundings with a despondent expression for quite some time before leaving.
This had become a daily routine honestly. Ever since he got nearly caught by the Demon Prince, the latter never missed a single day to check out the same spot.
"Seriously, fuck off." Ashton cursed again, unafraid of doing so since he knows that the demon won't hear him anyway. "Don't make this your life's mission. Go the hell away! Nobody likes you."
Ashton wanted to cry, to be honest. The Demon Prince was really diligent that he felt ashamed. Not a single day passed that, that fucker didn't come to that place to search for his trail.
It's like the thing was completely expecting him to show up any day now. Honestly, it's so frustrating for Ashton yet he can't do anything. He can't even relocate at all since he's afraid that the moment he shows his face outside, the Demon Prince will be ready to carve his heart out.
Oh, that last part was very likely to happen. Why? Cause he had seen that fucker do in the Simulation Zone before. Honestly, he's starting to think that it's a fetish at this point.
The number of times he caught himself being ejected out of the Simulation Zone while clutching his chest, just to make sure his heart is still there doing its job properly, has been a lot. He had already lost count of how frequent it happened.
He doesn't know why the Demon Prince was so insistent on doing that, again it might very well be a fetish, all he knows is that it hurts and he doesn't want that to happen in real life.
He only has one heart and he would very much like it to stay where it is now thank you very much.
It's been, roughly, a month since he started another seclusion. He threw himself into bitter training the moment he started. Losing count on how many times this hateful Demon Prince had killed him so far.
Despite his bad experiences though, he could feel its positive effects on his cultivation.
Thanks to the overwhelming pressure brought by the Demon Prince, Ashton had reached Lv.5 Archmage Rank (2nd Refinement) pretty quickly.
Some would say that he's sacrificing his foundations in favor of advancing too quickly but the truth is far from this. Ashton never forced any of his breakthroughs, they happened naturally as he accumulated sufficient experience.
The sensation brought by the fights which happened in the Simulation Zone looked and felt way too real. So, whenever he triumphs over his enemies or gets killed by them, Ashton could feel it all as if it actually happened.
All the experiences he got were imprinted on his bones. It'll only take him some real practice to completely integrate with those and his body would naturally adjust to it. This is the beauty of the Simulation Zone.
That being said, because of how real it feels and how his death seems very real, he sometimes gets nightmares about it. Hell, these experiences will take a toll on his body whether he likes it or not. This is why he always makes sure to get some rest every now and then to properly break the immersion.
He didn't want to lose his grip on reality because he overexerted himself. Aria will kill him for that.
The pressure was good for him. It allowed him to not only squeeze more potential out of his body to also refine his skills.
After one month of continuous one-sided battles, Ashton has improved and could properly read the tells of the Demon Prince to react properly.
He'd been in a fierce tango with the inside the Simulation Zone, he had yet to win but he's steadily progressing and that's what matters to him.
His Basic Firearm Proficiency had reached 2-star Phenomenon Rank. This allows him to shoot faster and be more creative on how he should deal with his enemy.
See, the problem about the Demon Prince is that he's way too fast. Blinking would make you miss how he closed the distance between the two of you. He's strong too to top that off and Ashton could tell that this guy hasn't shown anything yet to him. Which causes him more dread.
If he wants to match the pacing of the Demon Prince, Ashton has to push his intuition to keep up, or else he will die before he even knows how it happened.
Ashton was also revisiting his basics as he trained. Only a disciplined and experienced person can keep with the Demon Prince. He has to increase his skills even further to improve so he had to make sure his foundations are solid.
All of his fights against the Demon Prince are one-sided with him being killed as the common ending. Also, the fights never took any longer than 5 minutes due to how ridiculously powerful the Demon Prince was.
The fight could literally end within seconds if he's not being careful. The moment he starts the battle, Ashton has to make sure that he can explode at his peak strength to match the Demon Prince blow by blow.
And because Ashton's mind was geared to be as realistic as possible, he's already expecting the Demon Prince to have a 2nd phase. He just knows that there's 2nd phase, there has to be.
For now, though, it's useless to think about that. He's not nearly strong enough to push the Demon Prince to enter that phase so there's no use in thinking about it too much.
"...are you gonna attempt the promotion now?" Aria asked when she saw Ashton gearing up.
"Yep." He nodded as he secured his belt.
Due to his consistent hard work and strenuous training, Ashton's physique had seen an impressive improvement.
He's around 5'8 tall now despite being 15 years old. His body looked like it was carved out of jade, his muscles were solid and compact. The thing that Aria loves the most about his body was his broad shoulders yet narrow waist.
She also likes tracing her fingers in the v-line which leads to his sacred sword. She calls that part '*** gutters' much to Ashton's amusement.
His hair was a bit longer now. Aria was the one who ties them up into a bun most of the time. None of them knew how to cut hair properly so they could only resort to this right now.
Pulling up the hood of his white cloak, he kissed Aria and said: "I'm off, see you later."
'Mn, good luck." Aria smiled and sent him away with her gaze before returning to the labs.
Ashton was about to take another Status Promotion Test in the library. This will allow him to unlock more functions for the library and new floor filled with books which they can use to gain more knowledge, should he succeed.
Right now, he's a Chief Library Keeper. It's a title above the base level of being a Library Keeper. This title allowed him to add another room in the library and also make renovations for their rooms and minor ones to the library itself.
Technically, he could've gone after this test once he reached Lv.1 Archmage Rank but he wanted to be sure. Plus, he's busy at that time so he postponed it.
It wasn't until today that he got the time to take it, so he's doing it now.
Climbing to the peak of the library, he was once again standing in front of that familiar door. He pushed it open and was once again greeted with pitch black darkness.
"Chief Keeper of the Grand Library. What is it that brought you here?"
An androgynous voice asked him whilst he stood out in the middle of the darkness.
"I seek to upgrade my Status," Ashton replied.
"...very well." The voice said. "The rules remain the same. You only have limited attempts. Once all are used up, your status shall be firmly locked in place."
"Your trial is this..."
Ashton then saw his surroundings shifting. His vision blurred for a bit but it quickly recovered thanks to his recent growth.
He found himself standing in the middle of a Demon Hoard. There must be at least a thousand here from his initial guess.
"Eradicate all demons without receiving any injuries. You have 15 minutes to complete this task."
Ashton whistled upon hearing that. This test is pretty strict. Facing more than a thousand demons without getting injured? Not even once? They sure were expecting a lot out of him.
"What counts as an injury though?" He asked, wanting to clarify things for himself.
"Ones that make you bleed." The voice replied.
"Oh. Yeah, sure I can work with that." Ashton grinned.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Then, your trial begins now."
As soon as that was said, Ashton immediately turned into a streak of white light as he soared through the skies...
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