Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Max eventually reached the common square of the Ten Shadows Trial, a vast central area that gave participants access to all ten monoliths.

The square was enormous, big enough to hold thousands of people without ever feeling crowded. Ancient stone paths ran outward from its center in ten different directions, and each one led to one of the towering monoliths.

Newcomers from every race crossed the square constantly. Some were entering the monoliths for the first time, while others were coming back from finished attempts with tired faces.

Max stood there for a moment and looked around. He searched the crowd once more for Damian and Revona, but he still couldn’t find either of them.

At that point, he decided to stop worrying about it. If they had already arrived, they were most likely somewhere deeper inside the trial. With so many people gathered here and so many different areas connected to the Ten Shadows Trial, wandering around looking for them would only waste time.

Max turned his attention to the first monolith instead. He had come here to experience the Ten Shadows Trial for himself, so there was no reason to hold back.

He took a step toward it, but before his foot had even landed, a familiar translucent notification appeared in front of his eyes.

[500 Bronze Marks are required to enter the Ten Shadows Trial.]

[If the Bronze Marks are not paid within 10 seconds, you will be teleported out.]

[10...]

[9...]

[8...]

Max glanced at the countdown without any sign of surprise.

”Pay the five hundred Bronze Marks.”

As soon as he said it, he felt a faint tingle in his right palm, where the Bronze Mark was etched into his skin, and the mark glowed briefly.

[500 Bronze Marks deducted.]

[Entry confirmed.]

[You are now permitted to access all ten monoliths of the Ten Shadows Trial.]

Max read the message calmly, since it was exactly what he had expected.

Before he left Bloodstone City, Anna had already told him that simply entering the Ten Shadows Trial complex cost five hundred Bronze Marks. That payment only granted access to the trial grounds as a whole, and every individual shadow trial still charged its own fee before a participant could challenge it.

The Godslayer’s Pilgrimage really did know how to eat through marks.

As Max walked toward the first monolith, another thought suddenly occurred to him.

’Did Damian even have enough Bronze Marks to get in?’

Revona had built up a decent amount through the Battle Space, but Damian hadn’t earned nearly as much from his draw against Aldric.

Max frowned slightly, though the feeling passed quickly. If Damian had come here, he must have found some way to cover the entry fee, so there was no point worrying about it now.

Soon, Max stepped through the entrance of the first monolith.

The space inside was far larger than the outside suggested. Hundreds of arenas filled an immense interior chamber, separated by glowing boundaries and floating formations, and battles were happening everywhere.

Primordial newcomers clashed with devils, dragons fought spirits, and angels tested themselves against strange opponents, while members of lesser races occupied many of the remaining arenas.

The sounds of combat filled the enormous hall. Weapons collided, techniques exploded, and law power surged through the air without pause. Yet despite all the chaos, everything stayed perfectly organized, because invisible formations separated each arena and kept one battle from interfering with another.

Max’s gaze moved past the countless arenas.

At the far end of the monolith stood an enormous door. It was several dozen meters tall and covered in ancient inscriptions, and the symbols on its surface shifted slowly, as if the door itself were alive.

Max understood at once what it was. Beyond that door had to be the real entrance to the First Shadow Trial.

Before he headed toward it, however, something else caught his attention.

A massive list floated high above the center of the monolith, so large that it could be seen clearly from almost anywhere inside.

Max stopped walking.

Unlike the lists displayed outside the monoliths, which constantly updated with the achievements of active participants, this one was much shorter. It held only twenty-three names.

Max’s eyes narrowed slightly. There was no title above the list to explain what it represented, but he didn’t need one. The lists outside recorded how many shadows each active participant had beaten, and this one was clearly something else.

’These must be the people who cleared all ten.’

That realization immediately changed how he saw those twenty-three names.

If his guess was right, then every person listed here belonged to one of the rarest groups in the entire history of the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage. Anna had already told him that fewer than one percent of participants had ever defeated all ten shadows, and that those who managed it didn’t stay ordinary afterward.

They went on to become some of the greatest geniuses of the inner layer and the core layer, and some of them had even dominated entire generations.

That meant the twenty-three names floating above him weren’t simply successful challengers. They represented some of the strongest talents the Five Universes had ever produced.

Max looked at the first name.

Rank 1 was Stella of the Angel Race.

He stared at the name for several seconds. He knew nothing about Stella, but being ranked first among every confirmed clearer of the Ten Shadows Trial already said more than enough.

His gaze moved down. Rank 2 was Hojomin of the Dragon Race.

Max kept going, and then his eyes stopped on the third name.

Rank 3 was Varok of the Devil Race, son of Devil Emperor Abaddon.

Max’s expression shifted slightly.

He had already known Varok was dangerous. As the son of Devil Emperor Abaddon, one of the highest figures among the devils, Varok had never been someone Max planned to underestimate.

This, however, was something else entirely. Varok had cleared all ten shadows, and on top of that, he ranked third among every recorded genius who had ever completed the Ten Shadows Trial.

Max’s eyes grew more serious.

’So he’s even stronger than I thought.’

The threat Max had associated with Varok rose sharply in his mind. Clearing all ten shadows meant Varok had possessed terrifying talent, foundation, battle instinct, and comprehension even back when he was still considered a newcomer, and only two other people ranked above him.

Max quietly committed that to memory and moved on to the fourth name. His expression changed again.