Rei continuously tempered his own body.
Then, without hesitation, he sacrificed souls directly to strengthen his physique.
Previously, when he had been a Level-0 Warrior, the upper limit of his physical body had been extremely low.
Even when he used souls as sacrifices, the enhancement had only raised his physique to the level of a Level-1 Warrior.
Now, however—
Rei directly sacrificed ten thousand souls, using them to temper his body.
Very quickly, he felt a bottleneck.
But this bottleneck could still be expanded through the operation of "Blood and Magic Tempering."
It seemed that the physical enhancement brought by soul sacrifices was one dimension.
Meanwhile, the tempering effect of Blood and Magic Tempering functioned in another dimension entirely.
Roughly five minutes later, Rei felt that his physique had reached a temporary limit.
It seemed he could no longer break through further for the moment.
"Kumironi, I'd like to continue my advancement."
"Promote me to a Level-2 Warrior."
Kumironi's expression turned somewhat complicated. She sighed softly.
"There are very few people in this world who perform three promotions in a single day."
Yet Rei undeniably met the requirements for Level-2 Warrior advancement.
In fact—
Rei had already comprehended Battle Intent.
His advancement conditions were more perfect than those of any ordinary Level-1 Warrior.
Calling it flawless would not be an exaggeration.
"…Very well."
"Then we'll proceed."
The Level-2 Warrior trial required the candidate to demonstrate their battle techniques, evaluating mastery and execution.
Facing the training dummy that rose from the ground, Rei unleashed the martial technique "Magic-Tempered Combat Art."
The strike shattered the dummy into countless fragments.
This dummy had been constructed to withstand the strength of a Level-5 Transcendent.
Rei's attack…
Barely even qualified as a mere martial technique anymore.
It should be called a Transcendent Combat Art.
The evaluation also considered combat experience.
For warriors, however, the form of combat did not matter.
Any battle counted.
And Rei's combat record?
He had cleared 100 floors of the War God Tower.
He had fought War God Kaiga himself.
Naturally, his qualifications were beyond reproach.
The process of advancing to Level-2 Warrior flowed as smoothly as water—without the slightest obstacle.
「Warrior Mastery — Transcendent Physique (Exclusive)」Physical strength can be tempered far beyond ordinary limits. Breakthrough difficulty is reduced, and the upper limit of breakthroughs increases.
「Warrior Mastery — Transcendent Technique (Exclusive)」Allows Transcendent Combat Arts to be executed at a higher level and improved more rapidly.
「Talent Acquired: God-Tier · Ultimate Sense」
Effect:Grants combat intuition bordering on precognition.You can sharply perceive all incoming dangers and their origins, and instinctively understand how to neutralize them.This perception cannot be blocked and can pierce through all illusions and deception.
Three breakthroughs in a single day.
His body became stronger once again.
Warrior advancements were truly simple and direct.
Two Warrior Masteries.
Stronger flesh and blood.
Greater raw power.
Nothing flashy—just pure strength.
"Do you want to advance to Level-3 Warrior as well?" Kumironi asked.
Rei shook his head lightly.
"Hmm… that won't be necessary."
"Thank you, Kumironi. You've already helped me a lot."
Kumironi wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead.
Little Rei…
Your talent is simply monstrous.
Perhaps it wasn't limited to being a mage.
Given time, he might grow into the most brilliant existence in this world.
Performing three consecutive promotions for the same person had left even Kumironi somewhat fatigued.
For ordinary candidates, advancement ceremonies were trivial.
But Rei's advancement required purifying the contamination caused by external observation.
Removing that contamination demanded enormous effort.
Back when Kumironi had been Level-5, she hadn't been able to completely block the corruption when Rei advanced from Level-1 to Level-2.
Now that she had reached Level-6, it was much easier.
But Rei's spirituality had also grown tremendously with his level.
Which meant the corruption caused by his advancement had become far more severe.
Conducting three promotions in a row—even for Kumironi—required catching her breath.
"Remember," Kumironi said, "a profession's foundation must always be solid. Otherwise, even if your level is higher than someone else's, superior technique could still suppress you."
But the moment she finished speaking, she laughed softly at herself.
This little monster…
When has his foundation ever looked unstable?
A warrior who had comprehended Combat Intent and mastered Transcendent Combat Arts couldn't possibly have a weak foundation.
If that counted as unstable—
Then no warrior in the world had a solid foundation.
"Well then," Kumironi said.
"Since your class change is complete, I should return to my duties."
After finishing Rei's Warrior class change, Kumironi needed to return to the Church of Life.
In fact, she hadn't rested the previous night at all.
She had spent the entire night dealing with matters related to the Church of Death.
The faint resentment in her tone was obvious.
Originally, when she came to the City Within the Circle, she was only scheduled to work two days.
After those two days, she was supposed to enter full vacation mode.
Instead—
The sudden discovery of Death Church activity meant that as a High Priestess, she could no longer leave.
Following the trail now forced her to take responsibility for the purge operation.
Honestly… what miserable timing.
Iz and Akasei were also helping.
Their group had always been a mutual support team.
Even though the affairs of the Church of Life technically had nothing to do with them—
Because Kumironi was involved, they naturally stepped in to help.
Obades, meanwhile, remained responsible for defensive oversight within the city.
With the strength of Iz Palut and Akasei, they were essentially invincible across the continent.
Compared to worrying about their safety, it was far more important to guard against an enemy striking their base while they were away.
As for Rei…
Well.
Small ability, small responsibility.
Kumironi handed him several special documents.
His only task was to decode the information within them.
The Church of Life offered extremely generous compensation.
Rei's request was simple.
He mainly wanted high-grade healing elixirs, especially the kind not sold to the public.
The Church of Life's recovery potions were far superior to those sold in ordinary alchemy shops.
As for money—
He truly had no shortage.
What he lacked were things that money couldn't buy.
In the end—
Rei received five bottles of Life Elixirs.
In exchange, he would decode five classified documents.
Each bottle could instantly heal all physical injuries of a Level-5 warrior or below.
Used properly, they were essentially extra lives.
Combat Arena
The War God Cup battles would begin at 12:00 noon.
At 11:00, Rei had already arrived at the Combat Arena, checking the tournament schedule.
Combat time limit: 4 hoursRest period: 15 minutes
Matches began daily at 12:00 PM and the final match ended at 9:00 PM.
Because fighting styles varied greatly, the time limit was extremely generous.
Of course, almost no one actually fought for the full four hours.
Most battles ended within 5–10 minutes.
If you defeated your opponent but your next opponent was still fighting, you could spend the time watching other matches.
As for opponent assignments—
Rei glanced over the bracket.
Just as expected.
He and Luluvi were separated by an entire bracket division, making it impossible for them to meet early.
The third- and fourth-ranked Level-4 competitors were also placed far apart.
Rei also noticed something else.
Besides himself, there were quite a few Level-3 competitors participating.
So he wasn't the only one aiming to challenge higher-level opponents.
Of course—
Whether they had the strength to do so was another matter.
Rei cleared his thoughts.
Then he stepped through the Gate of Combat.
He noticed that Kyoshū was not currently present in the arena.
Browsing through the open battle rooms inside the gate, he saw several listings.
Level-4 Archer: Ice King — "Frozen Sky Domain"1v1 Duel — Looking for punishment15-win streak. Loser calls me daddy.
Level-4 Mage: Magic King — "Golden Kingdom"1v1 Duel — Invincible mage. Everyone gets crushed.
Level-4 Assassin: Invincible Assassin — "Daybreak Wasteland"1v1 Duel — Anyone welcome.
There were quite a lot of Level-4 rooms.
Probably because the War God Cup was about to start.
Everyone was doing warm-up battles.
Come to think of it—
Rei had never entered one of these privately opened duel rooms before.
But since he had already completed his 500-win streak, and his score was more than 700,000 points ahead of second place, there was no real need to continue ranked matchmaking.
And his upcoming opponent would be Level-4.
He might as well fight a few test battles now.
After all, he had never fought a Level-4 Transcendent before.
The probability of something going wrong was low.
But if he somehow capsized in a gutter during the tournament…
That would be embarrassing.
Rei glanced at the Ice King's room.
Then entered.
A freezing wind howled.
The entire battlefield was covered in endless white snow.
The ground was a sheet of slippery ice.
Dozens of massive ice pillars stood scattered across the terrain, varying in height.
This was the Frozen Sky Domain arena map.
Many combatants loved it.
Mages could utilize the abundant ice elements.
Archers could maneuver around the pillars, creating safe firing angles.
Assassins could hide within the blizzard and snowstorm.
As for warriors…
They had no particular advantage.
But most warriors didn't care much about terrain anyway.
"Rei?"
Seeing the Unbeaten Champion title above Rei's head, the archer—whose name was Zenith Vale—immediately tensed.
Still, he spoke.
"Prepare yourself."
Rei nodded.
With a single thought, he entered the ready state.
Instantly—
His opponent retreated at extreme speed, fleeing toward the distance.
Typical archer tactics.
First—
Create distance.
Swish!
The battle began.
At the same moment—
Hundreds of arrows shot toward Rei from various tricky angles.
The archer's figure was almost completely swallowed by the snowstorm.
With the naked eye alone, it was impossible to even locate him.
He also wore a perception-blocking pendant, which partially shielded him from detection.
If Rei had not awakened the talent God-Tier · Ultimate Sense, he would probably only sense a vague area rather than the exact location.
But now—
Perception could not be obstructed.
Every movement the archer made was completely exposed within Rei's awareness.
"Looks like catching him will be easy."
Rei did not use his staff.
Instead, he raised a single finger.
「Instant White Flash」
Shing!
A thin beam of light pierced through the blizzard.
In the next instant—
It passed through the archer's body, cleanly piercing his heart.
Instant kill.
Originally, Rei had planned to close the distance and test his martial techniques.
But after thinking it over—
If Luluvi turned out to be particularly troublesome…
It would be better to keep the fact that he knew combat techniques as a hidden trump card.
It might even surprise her.
After all—
She would never expect a Root Mage like him to secretly possess martial combat techniques, right?
And his Death Priest class had never been revealed in the Combat Arena either.
Very few people knew about it.
No one would imagine that even with his current overwhelming strength—
He was still planning to hide multiple trump cards in battle.