Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener

Sterl felt a slight surge of excitement. Is it here, the hidden quest?

Just now, Daphne had introduced him to some characteristics of hidden quests, such as the significant variability of rewards. The better the performance of the player, the higher the gains.

For instance, this current quest, although it is said to be suitable for players around two-class strength, if one can complete the hidden quest with a very high degree of completion, then the rewards could be equivalent to the high-value reward quests accepted by players of levels eighty to ninety!

Sterl gazed at the light screen before him.

[Quest: Empire Trial]

[Description: Survive as many rounds of the trial as possible, and achieve as high a rank as possible in the final selection battle.]

[Hint: Although this trial is officially organized by the Divine Mountain Empire. It selects talents through temples within the empire's territory. Perhaps this is not quite the approach expected of that bold emperor?]

[Hint: After achieving excellent results in the Empire Trial, you will have the opportunity to unlock the main quest of the Divine Mountain Empire [Kings Pursuing the Crown].]

"A chance for the main quest?" Sterl's expression twitched slightly, almost unable to maintain his usual aloof demeanor.

Main quests! Those are the top-tier opportunities in [Transcendence]! They mean extremely generous rewards, and the legendary status spoken of in legends comes from them.

Legends say that those demigods and other powerful beings also obtained key items for advancement through some high-level main quests involving several continents...

However, he was a bit excited while the players around him, including Daphne and Teresa, appeared calm and composed.

As a top-level expert, Sterl was puzzled, but he couldn't just ask outright. So, he sent a private message to Teresa, and the response he got was somewhat amusing.

Because achieving excellent results in a hidden quest was simply beyond what a normal player could imagine.

With so many pioneering players among the human race on Earth, a considerable number of hidden quests are uncovered each year. Yet, it might take several years or even over a decade for one to be completed with an excellent rating.

Because the difficulty is just too high! Often, one needs to possess strength far beyond the requirements of the quest to have a chance of completion. But if you have such strength, you would definitely go for quests that match your level.

Completing a hidden quest perfectly requires much effort, and with the huge difference in levels, the rewards might not even be satisfying. One would have to be crazy to take on such a challenge.

Therefore, Sterl saw the players around him casually discussing.

"Anyway, just mixing in for a few rounds should be fine."

"Let's just get some rewards as they come. The difficulty of hidden quests is quite high."

"But our current leader... might actually have a chance of completing it perfectly?? But for him, the rewards of the hidden quest might not even be appealing. Our leader's strength is probably around level ninety!"

...

The players indeed had quite a bit of confidence in Sterl.

And that muscular NPC smelling of paint then walked up to Sterl, looking at this person who clearly seemed to be the leader of the player team and extended an invitation.

"Warriors from other races, please sit on those altars."

"Don't worry, this selection trial will not cause any casualties."

"You can fight to your heart's content."

Upon hearing this, Sterl and the others looked at the refreshing prompt on the mission panel—

[Enter the altar.]

They followed the muscular man's invitation without hesitation. After all, the quest system would not deceive them.

As Sterl stood on the altar, he felt a screen of flames light up before him, and eventually, he found his consciousness being transported into a special zone.

Then...

Sterl found himself sitting in the stands of a gigantic arena, with an extremely vast combat field below. On the spectator stands, Sterl noticed that the buildings made of coarse gravel were stained with mottled blood, clearly having witnessed countless conflicts.

Near Sterl in the spectator seats were other players.

"This mission turns out to be of the non-dangerous type."

"We are in luck." Daphne moved as fast as lightning, forcibly taking a seat next to Sterl before Teresa could.

Teresa's face turned sour. She regretted not using electric stimulation on her muscles to speed up. Wouldn't that have allowed her to grab the seat?

The spot where Sterl sat was exactly at the dividing point between two sections of the spectator stands, with only one space available on his right side.

Left with no choice, Teresa thought for a moment and could only take the seat behind Sterl.

Teresa stared at Daphne's back with a resentful gaze. Her sister, truly a rare beauty!

She consoled herself, after this hidden mission, given her master's cautious habits, it's likely that Senior Sterl would no longer use this identity.

"I'll endure this for now..." Teresa silently muttered to herself.

However, Sterl's attention was not on these sisters at all. He realized that the spectator area he was in was filled with players of the human race from Earth.

At the same time, in this gigantic arena, there were also a handful of spectators scattered across about a dozen stands, some of whom had distinct racial characteristics, such as back wings, fiery red skin, or tails and animal-like ears.

"Alien races?" Sterl muttered.

The so-called alien races refer to those with clear racial characteristic differences from humans on Earth, such as the adventure team Sterl had encountered previously, which also came from various races, but had life forms similar to humans on Earth.

However, whether they were alien races or not was not important. The relationship between humans on Earth and other races could generally be summarized by the strategy of "befriending distant states while attacking those nearby". Because with races living in close proximity, as soon as the population increases, there would inevitably be significant conflicts over interests with humans on Earth.

Races living far away, even if there are substantial differences in life forms, could still engage in trade and commerce with humans on Earth, each taking what they need.

Moreover, Sterl noticed that each spectator area mostly represented players from a different race...

At that moment, the arena below was hosting an opening ceremony.

A group of muscular men covered in paint danced a strange dance, humming a rather rough war song, seemingly celebrating the commencement of some grand event.

Sterl watched with considerable interest. This peculiar dance, he guessed, probably symbolized some traditions and folklore of the Divine Mountain Empire.

The performance ended quickly, and a person dressed in a white robe, resembling a priest, raised a scepter towards the audience in the stands, comprising players of various races, and announced: "Welcome, warriors from different races. Complete our test, and you will gain the qualifications to serve the empire."

At the same time, a prompt popped up in the eyes of all the players present.

[Quest Objective: Complete the first round of the test.]

[The rule for this test is to last the longest in the arena, with the 30 players who endure for at least half an hour qualifying for the next round of tests.]

[This round's reward: Unlock the Divine Mountain Empire reputation and receive 500 reputation points. Unlock the permission to accept quests from the Divine Mountain Empire's army and administrative office.]

Upon seeing the light screen before them, the atmosphere among the players in the audience stands heated up significantly.

Directly unlocking the quest permissions for both the Divine Mountain Empire's army and administration? The future gains must be terrifyingly high! And to directly gain the entire empire's reputation??

This not only means that there's a chance to participate in the main storyline of the Divine Mountain Empire or its national-level side quests in the future, but also to accept quests previously unattainable across all domains of the Divine Mountain Empire with this reputation!

Instantly, everyone's breathing became heavier.

But precisely because of this, Daphne, standing next to Sterl, frowned slightly, feeling a bit worried.

Can the quest be completed? With death penalties waived and such generous rewards, it feels like the difficulty will be terrifying!

On the other hand, Teresa was much more composed: "Sir, I might not be able to accompany you in the upcoming quest journey."

Their attitudes showed a clear difference.

Daphne was worried about herself, while Teresa felt ashamed that she couldn't assist Sterl in the subsequent hidden quests.

Sterl himself remained calm. He had already used the Star Insight to examine the attributes of all the players present. It has to be said that among the various races, there were indeed talented individuals, with about seven or eight of them possessing strength comparable to Eric Dane, and there was even a player with A-level talent and B-level, two-class profession, extremely fierce in combat.

For the humans from Earth, securing a spot in the top 30 would be very difficult.

But Sterl didn't care. He was invincible anyway!

And his newly recruited subordinates couldn't help but discuss among themselves.

"It seems we can only go through the motions in this quest."

"It's disgusting, we spent so many contribution points, and it turned out to be a combat-type hidden quest?"

"Damn, these kinds of quests are basically monopolized by the top talents of various races, and we ordinary players are just wasting our time!"

Most of those who hadn't reached two-class twitched in frustration, regretting their earlier decision to exchange for this quest. They wished they could strangle their past selves!

A total loss! They couldn't earn any rewards from the quest itself and ended up becoming slaves to others.

A complete loss! A total wipeout!

Only a few two-class players remained calm, their expressions unchanged.