Looking at the horde of creatures ahead of me, I stopped in my tracks and said to Ai:
'Wake up Senna. If I don't find a way out of this, we'll have to leave this world anyway.'
[Right away.]. A few seconds after, Senna's voice sounded in my head. I was not ejected from the trial, which I didn't know if it was a bad or a good thing.
[*How did you get yourself in this situation?*] asked Senna as soon as she regained consciousness.
'That doesn't matter right now. Can you think of a way out? Hurry, they will probably attack pretty soon.'
[*With the amount of mana you have left you can at most take a few of them with you as you die.*]
'What if I let you use more of my spirit?'
[*I will need around 100 spirit to be able to help.*]
[Ethan, this will give her control to 35% of your soul. It's too dangerous.]
'I know, but what else can I do? I can't simply abandon this world. How do we do this, Senna?' as soon as my question ended, Senna appeared in ethereal form right in front of me and asked:
"Do you agree to a modification of our contract, letting me inhabit and use 35% of your soul as a vessel in exchange for my help to save your life here?"
'I agree.' I replied and she bit my neck before a sphere of darkness engulfed us both. Once the sphere faded, I was back inside the dome where the trial started and Senna's ethereal form disappeared.
Senna appeared to be in a pretty good mood as she said:
[*I teleported you back to the start of the trial. I'm going back into slumber since I can already feel that something is trying to remove me from your body. Thanks for the treat and see you later.*]
'All right. Thank you for the help' I was honestly grateful for her help. Even if she was a bit dangerous she got me out of quite a few dangerous situations.
[Ethan, she is gone. Please refrain for relinquishing any further control over your soul. 35% is already enough for her to slightly influence your thoughts. If you pass 50% she will be able to take control over your soul completely.]
'I understand but I really had no other way. As weird as it sounds, I feel like I can trust her.'
[That may already be her influence. Please be careful.]
'I will.' I sighed and focused on the glass sitting in the center of the dome. I looked at the pearl in my hand for a moment before placing it inside the glass. All the water inside got absorbed by the pearl before it disappeared and was replaced by the guide in his water ball form.
"Congratulations challenger, in passing the second trial. You have amassed a total of ten points. You will now be sent back to the trial grounds and you can enter the door to the third trial any time you please."
After saying the same thing as the first guide, it also flowed inside my body and I woke up in the real world, but this time I was holding a ball of water in my hand.
"I wonder what these things are." I mumbled as I placed in my robes, next to the fire one and went to sleep. I didn't want to waste too much time on recovering. Once I woke up, I asked Ai to show me my status.
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 19;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 4 325/80 000;
Health Points: 310/310;
Mana Points 550/550;
Level: 28;
Vitality: 31;
Strength: 34;
Dexterity : 32;
Intelligence: 55;
Resistance: 30;
0 free stat point
———
System Points: 100;
Spirit: 1000 (650);
]
'I only have 650 spirit left.' After letting out a sigh, I continued through the dark corridor towards the third trial door. I can't deny that the thought of giving up passed my mind, but I felt like this was my best chance to get stronger. After passing through the door, I found myself in a giant arena. As I was looking around, a green ball came from the sky and hovered in front of me.
"Welcome to the the third trial challenger. The Trial by Earth. Difficulty: Eternal."
"Aren't these trials simply elemental trials?" I mumbled as I waited for the guide to explain the trial.
"The third trial consists of a series of fights inside the coliseum. You will receive a point per any fight you win. You will need to win five times to pass and ten times for maximum points. There will be no break between fights. There will also be no option to surrender until you win at least five points. There is also a ten minutes time limit to kill your opponent. After ten minutes the next opponent will also join the fight. Any questions?"
"How is this related to earth?"
"Your opponents are all members of the golem race able to manipulate earth. Any other questions?"
When the guide mentioned the word golem, my mind instantly went back to the moment I got separated from Anna and to old man Cunt's death.
'Ai, can I win against a golem now?'
[Depends on the level of the golem. Also, lightning and fire spells will probably prove useless in this fight. The only way you can use them is to consume a large amount of mana to increase their strength, but that's not really an option when you have to fight continuously against ten golems.]
Nodding, I asked the guide: "Will I receive world energy when I kill any of the golems?"
"Negative. There will be no world energy reward in this trial."
"That is unfortunate. What level are the golems?"
"Considering the difficulty of the trial, the first golem will be five levels higher than you. The others will get progressively stronger, their strength increasing by one level each round. Any other questions?"
"Will I receive any weapon?"
"No. Your trial is set for the wizard class and no weapons are required. Any other questions?"
'Ai, can I even win against a golem 15 levels higher than me?'
[It will be hard but not impossible.]
Since there was nothing else I could do, I told the guide to start the trial and I appeared in the center of the coliseum. Not long after, the earth in front of me started raising up and taking the form of a two meter tall golem. It didn't look that much different from the one in the cave except for it's size. This one was a little bit bigger.
The guide sunk in the ground below and his voice sounded all around the arena.
"Let the first trial, begin!"
As soon as the guide's words ended, the golem started running towards me. I dashed back, using just a small amount of wind magic to increase my speed as I asked Ai:
'How should I go about dealing with it?'
[Golems have a core in their bodies. You can use earth magic on the golem to try to reveal it's core and destroy it.]
Nodding, I stopped retreating and instead moved towards it.
Seeing me running towards it, the golem formed a fist and launched it toward my face. I crouched down, preparing to slide under it's fist, but a small wall of earth raised itself from the ground right in front of me. Unable to stop in time, I crashed into the wall and proceeded to get kicked by the golem, propelling me across the arena, straight into one of the arena's walls.
Freeing myself, I said to Ai: 'I didn't expect it to be able to use earth magic. The one in the cave didn't use any.'
[It depends on the type of golem. The guide told you these golems are able to manipulate earth at the start of the trial.]
'I see.' A new plan formed itself inside my head as I dashed back towards the golem. Seeing the golem try to punch me again, I used wind magic to propel myself up, turned around, grabbed onto it's head and tried to use my mana to control it. My mana couldn't even penetrate it's body and the golem grabbed my arm, throwing me onto the other side of the arena.
After standing up, I immediately checked my remaining health points.
[162/230]
'Damn, that thing hits hard.'
Continuing to run around the arena, I started talking with Ai about a new plan.
'I don't think I can take control of the earth that forms it's body.'
[It must be because of the level difference. You must find a way to damage it's body and reach the core. Only by destroying the core of the golem can you win this.]
'Mhmm… do you think a water blade, the same type Anise used, would work?'
[You can try.]
As I was running in circles, away from the golem, I turned around and moving my hand horizontally, I formed a thin wind blade which I sent towards it's legs. I didn't use the spell before but it was not that hard.
As the blade came into contact with it's legs, it cut straight through, making the golem fall flat to the ground, but soon after new legs started growing out of it's torso, replacing the cut ones.
'Fast regeneration, but at least now I have something that can damage it.'
[You need to find and hit it's core.]
A smile appeared on my lips as an idea took form into my head. Channeling my mana in front of me, thin water needles started appearing in the hundreds. With a wave of my hand, all the needles flew forward passing through the golem's body and turning it into a sieve.
I was about to go and check on it, but the entire body of the golem soon lost it's form and turned to sand right in front of my eyes.
"I guess that was enough." I remarked and checked the mana I used.
[530/550]
Seeing that I barely used any mana, I waited cautiously for my next opponent. I didn't have to wait long for a new golem to take form. As soon as it was complete, I didn't waste any time and sent another wave of needles right at it, but an unexpected thing happened. The golem raised it's palm and an earth wall appeared in front of the needles. They managed to penetrate the wall but lost their momentum and turned into water droplets as soon as they hit the golem's body.
Snorting, I charged towards the golem and jumped over it. When I reached straight over it's body, I released another volley of needles from close range. The needles did they job as the golem turned to sand right after.
Once the next golem formed, there was a visible difference in it's physique. A small layer of water was covering it's body.
'Dual affinity? So they also change affinities and not only increase their levels.'
Too bad for my third opponent that water was the worst choice it could make. After reaching close to it, I shot an lightning arc straight at it's abdomen, turning it into sand in a matter of seconds.
"Three down, seven to go." I said to myself as I waited for the next one to appear. The next golem was surrounded by flames, which made taking care quite easy after dousing it with large amount of water and shooting lightning at it right after. The mana cost was slightly higher but it worked nonetheless.
The next golems, up until the tenth, all had different auxiliary affinities, some even having three at the same time, but were not that difficult to counter. After killing the ninth one, I checked my mana while waiting for the last opponent to appear.
[138/550]
It should be enough, I said to myself as I watched a pitch black golem taking form right in front of me.
'What the hell is that?' I asked in my mind as I watched a five meters tall, pure black golem charging at me.
[That golem is not made out of sand like the others, but black iron. Black iron is a very resistant metal.]
Cursing again, I started dodging attacks left and right. It was surprisingly agile for a five meters tall golem and had to use wind magic to keep up with it's speed. I imagined that getting hit by a golem with fifteen levels over me would mean instant death.
The golem, seeing that he couldn't catch me, formed a black iron spear and threw it at me. I quickly dodged but it still managed to graze my arm, taking away fifteen points of my health.
'Ai, any way to deal with this thing? The moment I fail to dodge anything I will die for sure.'
[Black iron melts at 1410 degrees Celsius. Your mana is enough to create a flame of that temperature.]
Not longer thinking about it, I dodged one of it's attack and slid right under. It tried to block me with an earth wall, just like the first one, but this time I was prepared and propelled myself over it.
When I was right underneath the golem, I used almost all my remaining mana to create the hottest fireball I could, keeping only a small amount so I can escape. A white fireball with slightly cyan edges took form in my hand and I threw it straight at the golem from underneath as I slid between it's legs. After throwing the fireball, I used wind magic to push myself as far as possible away from the golem to not get caught in the explosion. The fireball passed through the body of the golem like a knife through butter and exploded right as it reached it's abdomen.
The shock wave threw me tumbling across the ground until I reached the edge of the arena and the explosion went on for an entire minute before subsiding. Once the explosion was over, there was nothing left of the golem and the center of the arena.
[That was a bit overkill. Your attack generated a temperature of over 4000 degrees Celsius.]
'Better safe than sorry.' I replied as I waited for the guide to declare the end of the trial but nothing happened for a while.
Suddenly, the space around me started cracking like a broken mirror. Before I could even make sense about what was happening, I was back in the real world holding an earth ball. Placing it inside my robe with the others, I asked Ai:
'Do you know what happened? Why didn't the guide show up this time?'
[I can't be sure, but it's possible you destroyed it's consciousness with your last attack.]
'I did what?'
[Similar to how the water guide took the form of the pearl you had to retrieve, the earth guide probably acted as the core of the last golem. Your attack melted the core completely, together with the guide's consciousness. Even the ]
'What about my points then?'
[I don't know. But you obtained the same type of core as you did in the previous trials so it must mean that at least you passed. You can try to ask the guide of the next trial to find out for sure. I also wanted to inform you that you just received the quest reward for clearing three trials.]
'Okay. I'll ask the next guide, but I need to rest first to recover my mana and health points.'
Saying that, I laid down on the ground and went to sleep so I can recover my mp and hp. Once I recovered my mana, I started reading about the air element while waiting for my health to also recover since the process was slower and didn't require for me to be asleep. Since logically air should be the next trial, I wanted to get as ready as I could. Almost twelve hours later, I stood up and walked up the corridor until I reached the fourth door. I put my hand on the handle and mumbled:
"Air trial, here I come."