Alexander woke up on the cold hard surface, warm, with an aching back. He had just slept on a flat rock for who knows how much time. His mind was clearer than before, Alexander thought if this had anything to do with the challenge.
Just like he had always done, he got out of an uncomfortable position by sitting up. The realization struck his head. He could move. He fumbled his hand forward, then he tried moving his legs, they were rough and moved in an unbalanced way.
Currently, Alexander could handle at two senses well without going into overload. It would be enough to see and hear, hear and think, walk and see, but a complex action like fighting eloquently was still near to impossible for Alexander.
Then he heard it again whilst he was thinking. Multiple heavy repeated steps coming from behind him, it gave Alexander goosebumps. The steps sounded like metal stepping on stone, furthermore, he could swear that the steps were close.
He felt thirsty, really thirsty. He had to find water, there was a small hindrance to this. He did not know where water was and he could not see, at all. It was pitch black and the last thing Alexander wanted to do was touch his way to the water.
A sudden realisation struck his head, back at the hall inside his mind there was a door with "sparks" written on it. This was his best option and therefore he returned to the hall.
He found himself standing at the same spot he had seen the salamander, it was at the beginning of the hall just to the right of the first door. When he looked around he got slightly shocked, three doors had been turned into wood. He walked over to read them, "sparks", "firehands", "spirit summoning first tier".
All these skills intrigued Alexander. Currently, he was in a tricky spot, and he needed a way to get water. He compared each skill, the firehands seemed like an offensive spell, spirit summoning and sparks sounded miscellaneous. The two spells that could grant him vision were firehands and sparks, for a moment he thought about it. Then he decided that he would go for firehands instead of sparks. Mainly two reasons, the offensive ability it granted him and the light source, granted sparks were most likely a better source of light, what would he do if he met the creature?
He walked over to the firehands door and opened it. He found himself in a room. In front of him was a ball of ice, about the size of a baseball. Then he heard the salamanders voice again.
"In this extremely simple challenge, hehe, toddler simple challenge, you will have to melt that ice ball in 30 seconds using your body."
"Once again, tell me when you are ready"
The salamander felt amused in a sense, Alexander's brows tightened as he tried to figure out why. Alexander remembered his previous test, the same way he had prepared that time he could maybe do the same this time.
He rubbed his hands against each other as quickly as possible, he knew his hands would become warmer from this. Then he was struck by a realisation, why not just use the previous skill he had gained. Almost subconsciously the feeling of honey spreading through his body started, he cranked it up to a maximum.
He was warmed than a rock standing under the Saharan sun all day. He put his hands on the ice ball and the challenge had started. The ice ball almost felt colder than normal ice, the sensation he got from melting the ice with his hands alone was horribly painful. It was like his skin was stuck between an extremely cold spot and a really warm one. The result of this was blisterings being created at almost triple the speed. It was pressuring on the mind since all he had to do was simply extending his hand would be enough to stop this horrible pain.
His efforts were paying off, the ice ball was melting. However, it was not melting at a fast enough speed. Alexander decided to start rubbing his hands to increase the speed. This made the pain ten times more unbearable, enough for him to flinch each time he had to change the direction of his hands.
Then the 30-second mark had passed, he had barely gotten 1/4th of the ball to melt. He was transported back to the floor. In a certain sense, it was comforting but it was also anxiety creating because he knew he would have to go through that pain again.
After 10 minutes of mentally hyping himself up, he went back into the hall and then straight back into the challenge. He tried the same strategy again but this time he rubbed his hands from the start.
It failed.
He was transported back to laying on the floor like a lazy homeless man. He went back into the hall, and he started the challenge. He failed again, and this repeated itself multiple times. Each time he would get a slight bit more discourages but his dehydration would get slightly stronger balancing it all out.
Until he had enough. He took the ice ball and threw it on the ground from pure rage. He had become angry. He heard the salamanders voice announcing that the challenge had started. Wait. He had not violated the rules? He grouped up all the pieces of ice and with his hands he started melting each part down. He had melted 3/4ths of the ice this time. This revelation had greatly inspired Alexander
"simpleton"
The salamander had mocked Alexander. Alexander felt his chest heat up. 'Who does this shitty lizard think he is' Alexander thought.
"You. know. I. hear. you?" Said the salamander with a voice trembling of hatred"
"I am not a lizard you sub-sub-sub-lifeform. I am the salamander, I am great Alburazath Kanako Zelado the third of the second force. Disgusting vile lifeform."
"Fuck you lizard"
It felt like the part of his mind that he had lost control over was burning. This burning sensation spread to Alexander's part of his mind. The pain was so severe Alexander's eyes shot upwards. Then his entire body started burning, burning. The flames were blue and Alexander felt like his entire body was surrounded by lava.
After a few seconds, fire both in his mind and on his body slithered away. He was left there, his mental strength had been completely wiped out of existence and then he was kicked out of the challenge.
He was back to laying on the cold hard surface. His material body had reacted to the flame with sweating. He was in a more desperate scenario than he previously had been. However he needed sleep, rather he could not function without it. Sleeping would inevitably accelerate his water problem. He tried resisting the urge but his eyelids become heavier than he could manage. He fell asleep.