Chapter 56 - First Part of the Trial

The drill whirred to life.

Rynold continued to run along the very edge whilst dodging spells. X, on the other hand, was rushing towards the center, longsword held out in hand as he dragged it along.

Despite their earlier efforts, Rynold finally held out some hope of ending this thing once and for all. The only problem was that whether he could survive long enough to see it happen.

Spells were coming from left and right and up and down, he barely managed to scrape by so far but with the drill out, it was harder for him to move. Regardless, he continued to whir the thing powerful enough for it to damage the very ground that he was standing on.

Instead of holding the drill out in front of him, though, Rynold was smart enough to drag it along with him. Making sure that the tip of the drill was on the ground and continuously whirring, the grooves on the floor was starting to get misshapen.

'This should work,' Rynold thought as he ran farther and faster while spells were coming his way. Of course, the drill was doing work too. The rhythm of the spells was starting to dampen as Rynold slowly got accustomed to the way they attacked.

However, he suddenly noticed that the barrage somewhat lessened.

'Don't tell me,' Rynold's eyes widened as he looked back on the spellbooks that were in mid-air. The Mana that the books are generating now is much denser than before. This just meant that the spells that were thrown in his way would get more powerful once again.

Clicking his tongue, he decided to stop running and stand his ground.

Since X was making his way towards the center, Rynold estimated that he should hold out for two minutes tops. He purposefully stood still in his steps and put the drill right in front of him, indenting it right onto the ground where he was standing.

Left hand on his side and right hand in front of him holding the drill in place, he relaxed and took in a deep breath.

'Focus, focus,' Rynold focused his mind while facing the upcoming barrage of spells that would otherwise spell his doom if he didn't do anything to dodge or block them.

Deep in his mind, he could still remember the feeling of Mana that he had recognized before. Since he didn't have a knack for making things out of Mana, it might be better to approach things differently.

He could still remember that Mana was the embodiment of one's will, loosely speaking. With that in mind, Rynold theorized that he could maybe make a shield out of his Mana, using the very drill he had as a medium. With that, there were only two ways for this to go.

Either he would manage to make it work or he could fail and die, miserably.

Not having the time to think of the consequences if things went south, Rynold poured his Mana into his drill and whirred it to life. Spells shot out from the books that were targeting him and looked like complete overkill for a single person.

Rynold willed his Mana into the drill to cast a protective dome-like shield at the tip of the drill. Introducing a new type and form of Mana that is based on defense not attack certainly felt different for him and what happened next was an even worse feeling.

It didn't work.

Taking the full front of a barrage of spells, Rynold braced himself for impact. There was no time for him to skedaddle out of the way or to block the higher-tiered spells that were way beyond his capabilities.

What was worse was that Rynold didn't even catch the fact that the spells empowered each other this time around. Instead of individual spells like before, wind spells this time actually evolved the other elements. More intense flames, faster sharp rocks, and even some icicles showed up.

Assuredly, and not knowing it, this was going to hurt a lot more than it looks.

On instinct, Rynold ducked and prepared for the worst. He closed his eyes out of fear of the spells coming his way. However, none of them managed to even touch him.

Unwilling to open his eyes, Rynold tried to open one of them. He could still hear the sounds of the rocks and icicles flying past him and the heat from the intense fireballs. But what he saw could only be explained by pure luck and nothing else.

He was in a hole. Apart from the certain doom that was flying past his head, Rynold was inside a hole that he unconsciously drilled. The Mana that he tried to will into existence earlier was directed into raw and pure energy for the drill instead. To make it unconsciously drill faster was certainly something he wouldn't expect.

But he appreciated it nonetheless.

All Rynold had to do now was to wait for X to do his job and in the coming moments, that's exactly what happened. Despite unknowing what happened just outside where he was stuck, at the very least he had faith in his Mech Knight who could easily carry out his duties.

In just a few moments, the spells stopped flashing and the Mana from the atmosphere started to dissipate. It was obvious that the fight was finally over, well, the one-sided barrage anyway.

Rynold picked himself back up from the hole and climbed back up. It was a simple solution to an overly complicated situation.

X had managed to do his job and pretty easily, in fact. The Mech Knight's longsword was even stuck on the ground like the sword in the stone. It was heavily placed into the ground and the circle in the middle of the magic array was firmly obstructed and broken.

Looking around, Rynold saw that the books were plopped on the ground, most of which were still open.

He hit gold.

It was obvious that if he collected all of the books that contained basic spells and higher, he would be able to use them to his advantage. However, the next thing he knew, the books disappeared and reappeared back on the bookshelves. A window then popped out.

[First Floor Trial Completed!]

[The Librarian is now watching over your shoulder.]

'Damn,' Rynold inwardly cursed. There was more than one trial and the first one turned out to be difficult. He was worried about what could come next but as of now, there was no way to figure out for sure. The sound of stone moving was heard in the distance and a door opened.

That's the way for them to leave the room and move forward. But, for now, though, Rynold decided to sit down and take a rest.

He took a good look at himself.

Before leaving his hometown, Rynold threw on new clothes that he found. It was a little baggy, admittedly, but it was something understandable since his old clothes were tattered from a number of fights. But now, though, some parts of the clothes were tattered and burnt. Clearly, his body was able to recover properly but his clothes were a different story.

Rynold called X to sit back down and take a rest too. The Mech Knight was self-sustaining now and Rynold didn't really know how to take care of him. Rest is good, he thought because any sort of sentient being needed it.

A few moments passed and his Mana recovered ever so slowly. Rynold looked back at where he came from and wondered what happened to the rest of the group.

Despite his earlier suspicions, the system at least confirmed that the difficulty is solely based on their overall strengths. With that logic, they should at least be able to take care of themselves.

With a stretch, Rynold stood back up and went to the exit. X tagged along from behind.

It was the quiet atmosphere and the same corridor and sconces that looked like the same corridor as when he first got in. The second part of the trial should be up ahead but even then he was somewhat trembling.

X didn't even notice what his Master was feeling. Rynold, however, wasn't scared at all. Truth was, Rynold felt excited like he was anticipating the fight that's up ahead.

Coming up on the next part of the trial, Rynold tightened his grip on instinct and was ready to strike straight away. The element of surprise won't necessarily work but it wouldn't be bad to give it a shot.

Well, it certainly didn't work since the room was completely empty.

Rynold slowly walked forward and entered the dome-like room that was architecturally the same as the previous one. It really was completely empty. This time, there was no engraving on the ground or no markings on the walls either. It really was a lot like an empty, ominous room.

Until he got thrown to the other side of the room all of the sudden.