Chapter 21 - Trials

It took me only three more days to reach the northern wastes. In that time I read two more books, a directory of plant species and the journal of a mountain explorer; from them, I received the skills [Poison Resistance] and [Median Climbing Mastery]. The climbing skill seemed slightly redundant, but I decided that it was better to keep it than consume it for essence.

After only ten steps into the wastes, I sensed a large movent of essence behind me and activated all my detection skills. A large wind hound was approaching me at a high speed. It seemed emancipated and determined to make my flesh its next meal.

'I don't want to put down this book, its getting pretty good... I can use this as a chance to properly test [Accelerated Cognitive Planning], this is the first opponent I've run into in a while'

I stood still and waited, the book I was reading in my left hand. After a few seconds the green-silver wolf, seven feet(2.1m) tall, charged out for among the trees and pounced at me. Right before it collided with me, I activated [Accelerated Cognitive Planning]. A large amount of essence exited my body and everything around me slowed. The wind hound was almost completely still in the air, trails of drool falling from its mouth. After a moment in this state, a transparent black smoke in the shape of the wolf appeared in front of the real thing.

'So this is the prediction that the description speaks of, though it's relatively useless for a straight forward beast like this. Now I just need to "plan" my actions I suppose'

I thought for a few seconds in the slowed world. Each time I made a decision a white smoke figure of myself would move and the smoke wolf would respond. After deciding on a course of action, I moved. My body flashed forward and I sent a high kick into the leaping beast's jaw, knocking it upwards. As my right foot came to the ground I jumped above the hound and stoped my quick ascent by forming a [Sky Step] above my now outstretched right hand. I brought my right leg back into the air and performed a vicious axe kick on the wolf, splintering all the bones in its neck and killing it. All of my actions occurred without even a millisecond of delay, completely fluent. My already fast speed was accelerated to its absolute limit. After falling softly back to the ground, I evaluated the skill's performance.

'Impressive, the high essence cost is worth it. By the time someone has processed my first attack, the fifth one would have already hit them. Though in terms of worth it's still far below [The Blessing of Myriad elements], as Its power depends on how accurate the predictions are, and how easy they are to fool'

Done with my experiment, I turned away from the dead wind hound and continued walking north as I read [Assorted Works of Halen Safrent].

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I skipped over Monolith, as I already had everything I needed, and continued to make my way through the wastes.

'Should I move around Palence? While most civilians won't recognize me, but those in the military and government probably will. There is a chance that someone from an inner kingdom is around so I don't want to get into the fight... I'll just move through the wilderness, avoiding any cities. I have enough food to last me another month and none of the endemic life is a threat to me'

A decision made, I adjusted my course slightly to the east and advanced. The wastes were just as empty as they were the last time I visited, nothing but a few shrubs and rocks. It was a strange place, a barren desert right between a large forested region, a swamp, and a huge grassland. It makes little sense that it gets so little rainfall. The soil has been studied before and it was discovered to be entirely barren, almost no nutrients to be found. Once scholars confirmed that it was not an issue of normal climate, they investigated the essence in the area. Soon after the investigation began, they discovered that water and earth essence was being repelled from the area for an unknown reason. The effect was not strong enough to disrupt spells, but It led to the gradual desertification of the area. Most theories hold one of two opinions. Either that the wastes were the sight of an ancient battle and that the essence repulsion is a consequence of the collision of powerful spells, or that some relic or artifact is buried in the area and causing the anomaly. Treasure hunters have been scouring the land for years, but nothing has ever been found. I thought looking for the artifact was a waste of time, something powerful enough to create a desert wouldn't be easy to find.

When the sun began to sink below the horizon and I reached the end of the book of poems I was reading, the ground began to tremble. I reacted quickly and jumped into the air, created an [Sky Step], and drew my daggers. I scanned the area around me, there were no living begins, but there was a large movement of metal essence below me. I watched as a sinkhole began to form where I had been standing moments ago.

'This definitely isn't a natural occurrence'

My suspicions were soon proven correct. The sunken ground formed a perfectly circular hole and a silvery substance, which looked to my essence senses to be an infinitely dense mass of metal essence, began to leak from the ground. The substance covered the surface of the hole entirely and hardened. After it finished hardening, marks began to form on the bottom of the hole like they were being carved by the hand of an invisible giant. Once the carving ceased, a dense runic pattern had been formed. The instant it finished, a toneless voice sounded in my head.

"Enter"

'That's about as suspicious as it can get. This is either some sort of trap or an entrance to an underground space. I'm getting out of here, nothing good comes out of entering strange holes'

I sheathed my daggers and sped away from the hole, but I had only gone a few hundred feet when the voice once more sounded in my head.

"Or die"

I froze, not because of the voice, but because a massive lance had appeared right behind my head.

'Fast, it arrived before I could even register it. I've got a chance if I use [Accelerated Cognitive Planning] or maybe [Rage of The Elements], but I don't know this thing's range. A lose-lose situation, I should have left the moment the hole appeared. It seems I was overconfident. Well nothing I can do about it now'

I dropped to the ground, the lance following me, and walked up to the pit. I sighed once and jumped in. The moment my feet touched the silvery surface, the runes began glowing with a familiar purple-black light. After a few seconds, my senses vanished and I experience a feeling similar to when I had entered the fae's land, but somehow harsher.

I soon regained my senses and adjusted myself to land on my feet. I stood in an empty circular room 40ft(12m) across, every surface covered in the hardened silvery substance. The voice once more sounded in my head.

"Welcome, barer of the marks, the trials will begin in 90 seconds. Survive"

'Well that's ominous. Marks could mean a lot of things, though I suspect it has to with one of my runes. Having these "marks" seems to be the qualification for being dragged down here, and now I have to pass these trials or die trying... Trials usually indicate some sort of reward, and since I'm down here I might as well try and get it'

After exactly 90 seconds, the voice returned.

"First trial: observation"

When the words entered my mind, my vision suddenly vanished. I had no time to consider how this was achieved, however, as my other senses detected spikes being shoot at me from every direction. I wasted no time and moved slightly to the right to dodge spikes coming from my front and back. I then move again to avoid a spike from above. The projectiles I dodged were absorbed into the silvery substance wherever they landed

As I moved, the number of spikes and their speed began increasing. It wasn't too difficult at first, but after a minute I had to start putting effort into dodging. I was constantly moving, narrowly avoiding spikes from coming from every angle. It was strange at first to maneuver without the use of my eyes, but I soon got comfortable with relying on my sense and detection skills. At the two minute mark, the difficulty rose steeply, I had to jump up and spin my body horizontally to avoid a long line of spikes coming for my legs and head. I then kicked off a [Sky Step] and rolled forward to avoid more spikes coming from above. At the three minute mark, a forest of spikes arose from every direction. I was overwhelmed for a split second, but quickly gathered myself and activated [Accelerated Cognitive Planning]. The spikes slowed down and a sea of black smoke appeared. It took me two minutes of hard thinking in the frozen world to find a safe path through the spikes. I confirmed my path and my perception of time returned to normal.

I then began dancing with death. A step forward, dash to the right, jump, sky step, roll left, back handspring, step back, turn left, frontflip, duck. Silver flashes passed by me like shooting stars out for blood. When I took a step back and avoided the last spike from the barrage, silence overcame the chamber. My new coat had a few tears, but other than that, I was completely unscathed.

'That was intense, these trials really will kill me if I'm not careful'

"Trial one complete, evaluation: perfect. The second trial will begin in 90 seconds"

Once the voice finished speaking in my head, my vision returned.

'No breaks huh? And how was my vision sealed? I sensed some shadow essence, but it wasn't just a blindfold, my eyesight was blocked. Somehow my eyesight was removed without me sustaining any damage, I can't even begin to imagine how that was accomplished'

The toneless voice was on time again and announced the start of the second trial.

"Second trial: Endurance"

I understood the trial quickly, as heavy pressure began trying to push me to the ground. It was similar to my encounter with the Faerie lord, the only difference being that the trial was perfectly steady in its increase of pressure. I stood up straight and activated all my boosting skills. Like the previous trial, there was a large jump in difficulty every minute. The first two minutes were relatively easy, I barely felt anything. But after that, it started to feel like mountains were being stacked onto my shoulders. I stood steadfast and ignored the pleas of my groning body. The pressure relented at the three-minute mark, but I could only take a few breaths before I felt a sharp pain in my arm.

The feeling repeated over and over again and spread over my body. After a minute it felt like I was being run through with needles from every direction. I could see that no damage was being done, but the pain was intense

'So it's not... just.. physical endurance'

The pain kept increasing, but I refused to pass out, as that was most likely the fail condition. I grit my teeth and endured the pain. At two minutes, I felt like I was being boiled alive and the only thought left in my mind was the want to endure. After the third minute passed, the pain vanished and I exhaled a shaky breath. My thoughts came back to me and I found myself on my hands and knees with a system notification open in front of me.

[New skill, Pain Nullification, has been devised]