Chapter 39- Farming

For the rest of the evening, Malice continued practicing the fire manipulation. Turns out, his suspicion was correct. It was extremely hard to actually make this fire good as a weapon in battles.

To begin with, creating a big enough fireball that can do damage required a lot of Soul Essence, and that brought him to the first problem his trait had. It consumed a humungous amount of Soul Essence. For better or worse, Malice had a lot of Soul Essence so it didn't seem like a problem to use the fire for several minutes.

However, when he came to actually creating a huge fireball, it became a whole different matter. Not only did it consume a lot, but it was very unstable too. In many instances, the moment Malice tries to form a bigger one, it immediately explodes, almost burning his face off.

Luckily for him, it seemed that his own fire could not burn him. Apart from a small discomfort, it does nothing to his skin and body. However, after a few hours of continuous try and failure, he eventually got the hang of it and was able to form bigger fireballs.

The second problem he faced was trying to throw it or make it fly. The moment he throws it, the fire extinguishes or explodes. It couldn't maintain its form or integrity. After many attempts, Malice found himself completely exhausted.

His body was destroyed after an entire day of hard work. 

"I am done… I can't move anymore." He said as he lay on the ground. Even though Cipher supplied him with Soul Essence potions to recharge, there was a certain limit for the body that no potion could heal. Only the rest can do that.

'I learned how to make a big fire, but throwing it is so hard! I couldn't do it once properly!' He clenched his teeth in frustration.

For the first time ever, Malice had truly hit a wall. Before, things were hard, but some work made them possible and even easy to do. Things like wielding a sword and fighting. However, something as simple as throwing a ball of fire turned out to be ridiculously hard.

"Don't sweat it." Seeing that expression on Malice, Cipher said coldly. "You have barely started. Things will only get harder from now on. If you let the first few steps get to your head, then you might as well give up right here and now."

His words, as harsh as they were, snapped Malice out of his mood as he looked at Cipher for a moment. The man's eyes were as cold as ever, except they seemed to carry something different at that moment. Malice didn't know how to describe it, but he understood what the man was trying to say to him.

"Ugh… Who said… I'm intending to give up…" Malice muttered as he lifted his tired body and said. "I have lived through way worse than this. This is a child's play."

'Nothing can be harder than living in the slums for years. That's true hell.' He thought to himself.

The number of people that die in that section of the city on a daily basis would make the ignorant shocked. That place was a lawless hell where everyone either dies or gets crushed. Malice, however, survived that, on his own.

That was a life-long achievement as far as he was concerned.

"Good. Now, go take some rest. Tomorrow, we are going to take care of your appearance." Cipher said.

"Understood."

With that, Malice carried his ragged body back to his room.

Cipher looked at the boy's back for a moment, nobody knew what was going through his head at that moment.

***

After taking a shower, Malice lay on the bed and quickly transported himself to the White Chamber.

[Welcome back, Marked Malice.]

"I'm back." Malice said as he walked to the bed and picked up his armor, weapons, and the new item he had received from the draconic priest. There was not much need to talk as he came here for the same purpose as before, to continue exploring the Dungeons Of Madness.

[Do you require any help, Marked Malice?] Avatar asked.

"No, I'm fine. Open the door for me." He said as he took a deep breath.

[Understood.]

With that, the doors opened and Malice walked in.

[May the darkness be with you, Marked Malice.]

Those were the last words he heard before the scenery shifted again. Looking around him, all he could see was darkness.

'"Hm?" Raising an eyebrow, Malice immediately created a fire in his hand. 'Well, this feels convenient now.' He thought to himself proudly. His power was coming in handy almost instantly and that made his hard work feel all the more rewarding.

But, that thought didn't last long as the place he was in caught his attention.

"Wait…" He muttered. "Isn't this where I fought the priest?" 

Moving the flame around made him realize that he wasn't where the tunnel started, and instead, he returned where he killed that monster.

"Weird… I guess this is my starting point from now on?"

'It must have something to do with the statue or the fact that I killed that monster. In any case, this is very convenient. I don't want to waste time getting back here from the start.'

With that, Malice focused on something a few meters away from him, it was the corpse of the dead priest. For a second, he flinched but he quickly shook his head.

'The bastard is dead. It's over.' He thought to himself as he finally turned to look around him. The same praying creatures were still where he left them. Even the ones he killed.

With a small frown, he approached the first one and swung his sword down, cutting its head. 'I am sorry. But, you guys are too enticing of a reward to be left alone.'

Even though he felt a little bad disturbing their ritual, there was too much of a benefit laying in this place for him to ignore. They had to die.

'If anything, I am sparing them the torture of staying in a dark room like this one for eternity. May they rest in peace.'

With a small prayer, Malice continued to kill each and every single monster in that room without hesitation. His Soul Essence counter rose slowly. By the time he killed the last one, he had gone from 68 Soul Essence to a staggering 85.

The power that came along with that much Essence was naturally big. 

'Haha, this is so easy.' Malice thought to himself. 'I didn't have to struggle to get these.'

With that, he finally looked at the statue. 'Now, where do I leave from?'

He knew that the hole he entered from was behind him, and there were no side doors on either of the left or right walls so he only left the wall that faced him, where the statue was built.

'Here goes nothing.'

Approaching the statue with steady steps, he admired its appearance silently. Even the darkness of the room didn't stop him from truly appreciating this work of art.

However, that came to an end rather quickly as he suddenly heard a sound. Then, he saw a source of light coming from his pocket.

"What?" With a frown, Malice pulled the thing that was emitting light, which turned out to be the smaller statue he had.

The thing had started emitting ominous light on its own. 'What is happening?'

*Click*

At that moment, he heard another sound, looking up, he saw dust coming down from the ceiling. Then, the ground beneath him shook a little. Malice immediately pulled his sword out.

"What? Is there someone else?!" He said with a dark expression. However, what happened was completely different.

The statue in front of him suddenly started moving. It slowly slid to the side, shaking the entire chamber in the process. The process took a few seconds before it ended rather quickly and the room was submerged in silence again.

Malice's eyes widened a little. "That's… Ok…" He muttered confusedly. "I guess this smaller statue triggered the bigger one to move, and when it did…"

Slowly moving his hand down, he cast light upon the new discovery. "Door had opened."

Precisely, a set of stairs that went down appeared from beneath the statue. As for where it led… There was nothing but darkness.