Villain With The Strongest System - Chapter 186

Chapter 186: Choices
Rocky pondered deeply over which trail to choose. While his rational mind urged him to select the easiest path to maximize his chances of survival, he knew deep down that the promotion tests in the Origin Realm would never get easier over time.

He had nearly died during his first tier promotion test, and each subsequent test was sure to become progressively harder. This meant that if his ultimate goal was to reach the Origin Castle, he needed to tackle the most challenging paths now to build a strong foundation for facing even tougher challenges in the future.

Although this reasoning seemed logical in his head, the reality of the situation was that he didn’t feel confident about his ability to confront sentient tier-4 beasts at all as facing these beasts was not the smartest choice for several reasons—

Firstly, sentient tier-4 beasts were not just physically stronger but also highly intelligent. They could strategize, anticipate his moves, and adapt to his fighting style, making them formidable opponents.

Secondly, these beasts possessed a variety of unique abilities that could catch him off guard. Unlike lower-tier creatures, tier-4 beasts often had elemental powers, telepathy, or other supernatural skills that could easily overwhelm him and without prior knowledge of these abilities and how to counter them, he would be at a significant disadvantage.

According to what he studied in the monsters and their weakness class at the university, tier4 beasts had evolved to learn a variety of spells and skills for hunting and survival and without having specific knowledge about the kind of opponent that he would face, it was going to be extremely dumb for him to jump on to the most difficult trail, as if there was anything more fatal than facing a tier4 beast as a tier1 warrior… it was facing a tier4 beast as a tier1 warrior who was also under prepared.

Moreover, Rocky had to seriously consider his current state of preparedness. He lacked the advanced weapons and protective gear needed to face such powerful enemies as venturing into a battle without adequate equipment would be suicidal.

For all he knew, he couldn’t even put all his faith behind his academy issued common steel blades, as there was a high possibility that those blades broke down when facing a tier4 opponent and could fail in penetrating their outer tough skins.

Up till now, neither had he procured an adequate weapon, nor did he possess any proper protective gear items that could save his life during critical times.

Rocky also recognized that his combat skills, while improving after spending a year at the university, were not yet at the level required to take on tier-4 beasts with any hope of success, as the more that Rocky thought about it, the more reasons he found about not venturing into the hardest trail.

Lastly, Rocky understood that taking on challenges beyond his current capabilities could lead to him facing severe injuries or death.

Pushing himself too hard too soon might result in setbacks that could impede his overall progress as he needed to balance ambition with caution, ensuring that he grew stronger methodically rather than recklessly.

[ Strongest System Notification – An Emergency Quest Has Been Created! ]

Just as Rocky was about to choose the moderately difficult trail as his final choice, a system notification screen popped up before him.

[ Quest Title- ‘Choosing the hardest trail’.

Quest Description- The Gemini Gods strongly disapprove of the decision of their champion to choose the safer path.

Quest Completion Conditions- Choose the most difficult trail and somehow make it to the promotion test site alive.

Completion rewards – Immediate recovery from all injuries suffered + ????

Failure penalty – Death ]

Rocky almost choked when he read the quest notification, as he felt like cursing the Gemini Gods a thousand times when he saw that the failure penalty was death.

The Gemini Gods were basically bullying him into choosing the most difficult path, as while there was a possibility of him dying if he chose the most difficult path, if he did not choose it, then death was apparently a certainty.

‘What sort of a compulsion is this? What is this my way or the highway attitude?’ Rocky cursed in his head as although every rational brain cell in his head told him that choosing the hardest trail was a dumb idea, Rocky chose it nonetheless.

“I choose the hardest trail” he said, as even Epita looked visibly shocked by his decision.

She thought that she had made the dangers of choosing the hardest trail apparent to Rocky, however, the fool has somehow still chosen the hardest trail of his own volition.

“Do you have a serious death wish? Or do you really think you can survive the most difficult trail?” Epita asked, sounding concerned, as she tried to understand the reason behind why Rocky made that choice.

Shaking his head and sheepishly looking towards the floor, Rocky refused to answer as eventually Epita just gave up and lead him to the start of the hardest trail.

“Good luck…. If you somehow make it past the tier2 promotion test, we shall meet again” she said, as Rocky unsheathed his swords and cautiously began his journey down the hardest trail.

***********

( Meanwhile On Floor 92, The Gemini Gods )

“Are you crazy? Have you completely lost your mind?” Shakuni screamed in anger towards Ravan, as his younger brother gave him the most innocent smile possible.

“He only has a 0.8% survival chance if he walks down the hardest trail. 0.8!!!

Do you want our Champion to die so early?” Shakuni asked, as he did not understand why Ravan rebelled against his arrangement of sending Rocky down the moderate path and issued that emergency quest without his approval.

“He needs to walk down the path of the perfect warrior if he ever hopes to beat Hercules.

What’s the use of having a champion if he’s never going to become a first rate warrior.

I don’t understand fate and probabilities like you do brother, however, I refused to have a sub-par champion carrying my brand.

If he dies, he dies…. But as long as he lives, he’s always going to chase a perfect evaluation” Ravan said, as he made his intentions clear on what sort of a champion he wanted, although Shakuni did not agree.