Doomsday Pillars

Dusk sinks in the yellow desert, followed by the dark curtains and glittering moonlight, bringing a tremendous chill to those inside it.

The area that was previously pitch black was now covered with blood, filled with a repulsive stench that could make ordinary civilians empty their guts. There was a man seen standing on top of the bodies of hundreds of critters, unbothered by the smell and sight of the carnage around him.

Alex with swords still in hand looked around and searched for any movement, ready to cut down anything that caught his eye. Finding nothing, He then sat on one of the bodies and relaxed his tense body.

After going through such a long and precarious battle where a single mistake could cost him his life, Alex felt like his body was within its limits. While resting, he turned his gaze to the giant hole where the critters came out. 

Alex wanted to enter the hole, but seeing that the night was coming, he gave up his intention and decided to wait until tomorrow. He couldn't take the risk of night exploration when he was alone, especially with his current destination.

Feeling well rested, Alex walked around the bodies of critters and began to collect their crystals..

[Telekinesis] was an extremely useful spell for times like this, where he could gather his loot with ease instead of collecting them one by one, breaking his spine after the process. 

With a wave of his hand, the white crystals were seen floating and quickly entering Alex's storage ring. In this battle, Alex defeated more than 600 critters where nearly one in two of critter's corpses had white spirit stones, bringing the total of his loot to over 300 spirit stones.

Making sure no spirit stones were left behind, Alex walked back to his vehicle and started a bonfire under the rock cliff. He then sat cross-legged, ready to start cultivating.

Even though Alex is currently somewhere in the middle of the desert, he was not worried about the possibility of an ambush from monsters. With his spell [Scan Area] Alex will know whether there are threats around him or not. His light spell is very useful at times like this although occasionally it makes him a little too sensitive because sometimes he feels like someone or something is following him. And when he tried to trace the source Alex found nothing, who knows maybe an insect or small animal has accidentally followed him, raising a false alarm.

Alex wasn't too worried about it even if there were monsters following him, as long as they didn't attack or got too close to Alex, he wouldn't attack and start a slaughter. There's no need to worry for the monsters, just don't get in Alex's way.

While listening to the sound of fire crackling in front of him, Alex opened his storage ring and examined the spirit stones in his possession. Currently he has nearly a thousand white spirit stones with over thirty yellow spirit stones, as well as a red spirit stone that he got in the fight against the stage 4 zombie in Bali.

Nearly all of his other spirit stones were used to increase the skills and realm of his special forces when they arrived in Australia. After spending so much spirit stones for the troops, Alex kept the rest to himself.

On this occasion, Alex plans to consume the yellow spirit stones he has. He decided to consume one stone every hour and started his cultivation, refining the energy from the spirit stone in his body. Several hours later, Alex received a notification in his mind.

[Your sky realm level increased by 1]

Currently, fighters have two general methods of increasing their realm. The first was to absorb spirit energy that they received from the battle against the challenges on each floor of Doomsday Pillar. Whereas the second is by consuming spirit stones or mutated beast meat and refining their energy in your body.

His fighters numbered more than four hundreds are using the first method, who are currently travelling across Australia, challenging the pillars to strengthen and advance their realm. Meanwhile Alex uses the second method, taking the energy contained within the spirit stone and refining it for his own realm.

The first method is difficult to do alone because the situation of pillar challenge is a big battle that makes it impossible. So that leaves Alex with the second method he is currently using as the best method for him.

There is something completely different between Sky Realm Knight and Sky Realm Magus. Whereas the knights were still very dependent on the realm level while for magus, the realm level was just the standard boundary for increasing the stage of their spirit element.

If Alex wanted to learn higher tier spells he needed to master the necessary element stages and in order to reach the required element stage, he first had to reach the minimum Sky realm level requirements before he could try to achieve a breakthrough in the spirit element he possessed.

On the other hand, one of the advantages of a Sky realm Magus was the ability to increase his realm with a third unique method. By increasing their understanding of spirit elements, they were able to absorb the world's spirit energy to gradually increase their realm. 

Even though this method was completely unique and took longer to master, if someone had extraordinary talent like those spirit enhancers, he would be able to absorb spirit energy much faster and would also find it easier to get a breakthrough in his understanding of spirit elements.

After exhausting himself on today's battle, using all the light spells he could use and his training for the past two weeks on the pillar. Alex finally got the notification he had been waiting for.

[Your understanding with light element has increased, your sky realm level increased by 1]

Alex

[Male - 36 years]

[Sky Realm Level 3 - Initial Stage]

[Spirit Energy - Light - Initial Stage]

[Spirit Talent - B]

Tonight's consumption of yellow spirit stones, followed by his two weeks of accumulated meditation, raised his realm level twice, which was a progress in his cultivation. However, this was still far from sufficient for him.

Unlike the Earth realm and the Mortal realm which only requires thirty levels, to reach the peak of Magus he would need a hundred Sky realm levels as well as the peak understanding of his corresponding spirit element. 

Meaning that he had to break through the early stage, middle stage, high stage, and peak spirit of spirit element stage to fulfill one of the two peak conditions of Magus.

Alex knew that in his previous life, it would take an A grade aptitude Sky realm magus 3 years at the earliest to reach the Spirit realm stage.

Recalling the message of the mysterious man in gray who said that Alex needed to reach the Spirit realm stage before the third tribulation, made Alex need to use every opportunity to train and cultivate so that he could achieve his goal.

There was still a long way to go for him to finally relax and take things easy, he still needed to continue to gather his strength. So until then, he won't stop until he reaches the finish line.

With the advancement of his Sky realm level, Alex needed a little rest and some food. After sleeping for a while and having a simple dinner, he spent the whole night practicing and cultivating. 

As soon as dawn arrived, Alex prepared to enter the Abyss pit.