Chapter 24: Trial
While Kim's continue to stomp his feet in madness causing crater and tremor to form, a squawked voice could be heard from a distance. Followed up with a familiar female voice.
"What do you think you are doing to my home, boy?! It's only been a single breath when you entered my lair and you already caused a rampage!"
Kim had a strange expression when he heard it's only been a single breath he's been inside this place. Kim spread out his mana sense and look directly toward the location of the voice as if he could actually see the owner of the female voice causing her to break a cold sweat.
"Not bad, not bad, I expect much from you"
Kim only gave a cold glare.
"Tell me who is your master?"
"Another one?! Why everyone keeps asking for my master?! That shameless old geezer is just an annoyance! He forced himself into my mind! Don't tell me he's spreading rumours as well!"
Feeling headache, Kim rubbed both his timple. He had a deep thought on how he would take his revenge.
"Making a broth out of the bone outside might be good hehe..."
Feeling perplexed with the weird expression showing from Kim's ugly face, the female voice let out a sigh. She then used her mana and formed an image in front of Kim. Looking at the image, Kim felt anxious. He suddenly thought of checking his back. Realized his back was empty, killing intent flickered in his eyes. He unleashed mana pressure and roared.
"Where is she?"
The female voice only let out a snort that caused the whole world to tremble. Her mana is actually more domineering than Kim's. It causes a backlash making blood to ooze out from Kim's mouth. However, it was several times weaker when compared to his 'Master'. Despite the pressure, he still stands firm on the ground with even more killing intent emitting from his eyes.
Momo is beside the monster!!
"Pass the trial of my lair and I will give her back"
Listening to this, Kim didn't waste any time to push himself forward toward the female voice. When suddenly, the plants start to move blocking his pathway. Creating a wall of vines that seem to be endless. The only thing Kim could see was the sky above him. He turned around and saw that the wall of vines was actually circling him.
"Get out, and you will have the qualification to find me. Give up and I will kill her too"
"How can I be sure she will be there when I reached you? How can I be sure she will be safe?"
"Then spread your mana sense"
Without the feeling of any trickery, Kim pushed his mana sense to the maximum without the slightest hesitation. He could see this world of lustrous forests as huge as Sarawak itself. Maybe even bigger than Sarawak since his mana sense has already reached its limit. Sensing familiar mana, Kim let out a sigh of relief. It was Momo's mana. Her vitality emitted a weak glow, but fortunately, it's in a stable state. Moreover, there's another mana covering her to make sure her mana won't disperse, helping her to recover faster.
With mixed feelings, Kim bowed towards the female voice location.
"I don't need your gratefulness. I only want to see someone to pass my trial. I'll let you check on her every two-hours when you hear the sound of nature"
Before Kim managed to ask any questions, the earth around him rumbled. Popping out from the ground with a 'plop' sound is a boulder as big as an average human. Vines and leaves covered the boulder and shattered it to pieces. Emerging from inside is a person that made out of clay. If one looks closer to the detail of the warrior, it actually resembles an Iban warrior, fully equipped with their Terabai and Parang. Ready to cut off the head of their foe.
'So, it's a trial of battle prowess.. bring it on!'
Kim looked at the warrior with a strange expression. It seems to be alive, but no life could be sensed coming from it. Only mana circulating in and out of its body. It gave out the same feeling like the undead monsters chasing him from before. He was also reminded of the scene when the jade-scale dragon, Gaia created a self-sentient golem to strike down the black dragon emperor.
Before Kim managed to analyse everything, the Iban warrior let out a roar and started to attack him. The moment the warrior reach half a distance away from him, Kim disappeared. Leaving only an afterimage. He appeared behind the warrior and stroke the body of the warrior to bits. The crumbled body then absorbed to the ground. Before Kim managed to take a breather, two more Iban warriors came out in the same fashion. They both started to attack Kim simultaneously.
Kim only took a single step and suddenly appeared beside one of them. He punched and destroyed it to bits. The other one closed in on him with its parang. He blocked it with his bare hand and send his mana sense into the body of the Iban warrior. The warrior couldn't take it and explode to pieces and both of them absorbed to the ground. Four more boulders came out and produced four Iban warriors. Kim only gave a cold glare. By now he already understood some part of the trial mentioned by the female voice. He continued to fight while analysing the Iban warrior.
"I knew that the first two was too easy, I won't lose until I get Momo back!"
Several distances away from the cage made of vines, a figure with magnificent black feathers covering its entire body perching on a huge tree that seemed to have lived for more than a millennium. It has a beak, with horns protruded upward. It shows an elegant image and standing with prideful demeanour. Beside it, a sleeping girl is floating with her violet hairs fluttering. The girl looked weak, but her life force is still glowing. In facts, she seems to be recovering as times goes by until the point colours appear on her pale face. There's warm mana enveloping her entire body as if she was inside a mother's womb.
The perching monster gave a warm look at the girl and then looked away in a distance.
"He seems to be one step toward understanding half of the trial. I wonder if he could find out the other half. Would he last that long? Besides, even if he manages to get out..." The monster let out a sigh.
"If he's dead, I can keep this cute girl as my child" The monster gave a cold glance toward the vine cage.
A gentle yet strong breeze blowing through to forest. The trees, leaves, grass and flowers, all uniformly swaying about, forming a soothing voice. If one is standing in the middle of the forest, it feels like they are listening to an orchestra. An orchestra of nature. The first two-hours has finally arrived. It opened up the mana covering the girl and mana sense could be felt spreading towards its place.
Outside the lair, a skeletal figure wearing a black robe is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the air with its eyes closed. Except that... its eye socket are empty! Whether it's closing or opening its eyes, the mana emanating from the creature is deadly. One look and you will be cursed to death. Besides, even getting close to have a look at the creature is twice as hard as undead monsters roaming about. Even if they seem to be docile now without moving an inch, no one knows what will happen if someone caught within their sights.
The skeletal figure continued to look toward the lair entrance as he is waiting for a person to come out.
'A monster that could control undead monsters huh?... You think you can absorb my apprentice mana? Well, think again. Kim will come out and devour you and your minion instead!'
Even though he knew no one would hear him, he still blurted out his thought with full of pride. This is a being who already used to living alone and talk to himself for thousands of years.
Inside the vine cage, it has past six two-hours marks now. Meaning Kim has spent more than half a day inside the cage. He already subdued thousands of Iban warrior, and more of it has been appearing. In facts, it's not just the number, even their strength has increased by several folds. The trial seems to be endless. With the wall of vines separating him from outside, he had no choice but to fight those warriors or else he will be killed.
The perching monster only watched Kim with a strange expression. It seems that it did not expect Kim to last this long. And moreover, it feels like Kim is not even trying to get out at all.
'What is he thinking? Does he really want to save this girl?'
It didn't glance for more and focus on healing the girl. Then, the seventh 2-hours mark arrived.
'Good, she's getting better. It won't be long until Momo wakes up. By then, I will break myself out from this cage'
Kim felt relief the first time he sent out his mana sense to check on Momo. Moreover, every time he checked her, she was getting better and better. By that time, he didn't hesitate to push himself fighting endlessly to make sure Momo would recover well. He knew that he doesn't need to beat all of these warriors to pass the trial. The female voice only gave him a hint. 'Get out!'
But he needed to buy some time for Momo. Even if it would mean he would overexert his body. But that doesn't mean he gained nothing from it. Besides tempering his body to an extreme level, he was able to analyse the nature of mana circulating inside the warrior.
'These warriors... they are not just seemingly alive...they are alive!'
Several dozens of blade come slicing toward Kim. He stomped his feet on the ground and causing flames to circle around him. Blocking the slicing blade from hitting him. He then made a gesture with both his hands and send those flames around like spear, piercing through those warriors body.
'My control of earth... is gone! Something is weird about this place...'
While he was thinking and continued to analyse everything, he blocked, attacked and retreated whenever he needed to. He didn't use any big skill in case he would lose too much mana and unable to recover properly. He only has been manipulating his flames. He didn't even enhance his physical body since it was already strong enough. He only focused on enhancing his mind, to make full analysation while fighting and moving around.
'That golem and these warriors... the feeling they gave off are similar to undead monsters outside...but the difference was the undead emitted out the aura of death while both of them emitted out the aura of life!'
Among those thousands of warriors, only dozens of them are left. Little by little, Kim beginning to understand how the mana inside the warrior works. He continued to fight to gain enlightenment. Even though Kim has huge mana capacity, fighting for this long eventually would lead to physical exhaustion. Furthermore, he couldn't recover in between as the warriors keep appearing non-stop. So, the rate of him using his mana is faster than him recovering his mana.
'Just a bit more. After this two-hour, she will definitely wake up!'
Kim finally felt sore through his muscle. It felt like his body is starting to tear apart. He's been like this for more than half a day non-stop. It's still a wonder how he was able to keep standing on his ground fighting thousands of warrior coming on him with killing intent. Gritting his teeth he punched through and the final warrior is reduced to rubbles.
'This is it, I'm going out now!'
As if knowing what he was thinking, the ground trembled with a violent tremor. Shockingly, instead of a boulder, a huge mountain suddenly arose from the ground. Kim could felt high dense of mana brimming with life surging out from the mountain. He felt pressured and were slightly pushed down. By this time Kim's eyes are gleaming with excitement!!!
'It's time!'