Chapter name – The Training Room.
Chris once again walked up the flight of stairs that led up to the sealed room.
After a few minutes he arrived at the corridors, and walked towards the pit of lava. The pit was calm, like the ocean. The previous chunks of meat that floated on the surface were nowhere to be found. It had been a year. There was no way the reward would still be here.
Chris reminisced about the past, he had come here, and left charred black to the bone, like burnt chicken. "It's been a while." He had grown, he believed he would be able to cross over to the other side with no problems.
"Alright let's do this, let's get the fuck over with."
{Welcome to the training floor}
{You have not Unlocked the training room}
{Proceed through the lava to access the training room}
{You must prove your qualifications}
{The Challenge has been set to the Beginner tier}
"Alright, let's get our game on!"
Chris and Sim ran forward to the lava.
Chris descended the 1st steps of the lava pool. He took six steps like he did before, nothing had changed, except the challenge had become a bit easier. "If I keep this up I'll be able to finish in a few minutes."
{Proceeding with the Second phase of the challenge, try to avoid the incoming obstacles}
"What?"
Bam, bam, bam, bam.
Large boulder like rocks made from solid stones as hard as diamond rained in from the roof.
"Just one hit would be enough to end me," Chris contemplated on whether he should head back to the beginning area and wait it out, it might end.
"Damn it." He knew that was a pipe dream, if anything it would just get harder, he had no other option, but to grit his teeth and continue.
He began running head first into the bombardment of rocks, with sim following right behind him.
He immediately activated Demon's eyesight for the first time.
His field of vision expanded, the rocks slowed a little, just enough for him to dodge the incoming boulders by a hair's breadth.
As he landed inside the pool, he immediately concluded that swimming wasn't in the best option.
"Fuck. I'm like a sitting duck," there was nothing he could do as he continued to dodge the rocks.
Chris decided to put his plan into action, it would be better and may be faster than swimming, giving them less chances of getting hit. "I'll give it a shot then, he aimed for the moment the rock was within arms reach. He pulled himself on to the rock and jumped forward. He felt that this was the best method, the other would be to keep dodging the rocks.
"I'll go with the first plan. Sim, make sure to follow after me," the first idea was certainly better and since it worked he would just stick to it. If he were careless for even a minute, the incoming rocks would squash him while he mounted the rocks. Due to the fact that they launched in pairs. It would be hard to avoid that.
"I'll just do better, I'll work harder, I'll just keep learning, damn it, have I still not grown enough to be called a Beginner, this is too disgraceful."
Chris made up his mind, he would do what ever it took, if he needed to jump, he would jump, if he needed to move, he would move, and if he must be crushed, he would avoid it.
The demon's eyesight wasn't omniscient, but he could at least see better than before. At least that was something, he had to work with what he had. He looked around and searched for any patterns to the falling rocks, they were falling randomly around him, there was no patter whatsoever. So he sealed his guts tight and jumped on the first rock to fall right in front of him, and managed to leap a few steps forward.
Sim did the same, she got in and jumped. She seemed to trust him that much. A boulder was coming where they had just landed, so Chris shifted to the side holding Sim in his embrace. He swam forward and locked on another boulder, he got on and jumped a few steps forward, this time in mid-air, a boulder was about to strike them. Chris stretched his arm forward and touching the falling boulder he used the momentum to push himself out off the way, while falling he noticed that sim had missed the timing and was falling beneath the boulder.
"Sim!" Chris shouted, luckily he used a nearby boulder and propelled him self forward, just enough to drag her away from underneath the boulder right before they hit the surface, like that they were caught up in the after splash of the sinking boulder, and began sinking deeper into the lava.
Chris still dodged the lava boulders from time to time. In the lava pool, Chris's body began to burn, he's body burned even more than it had when he challenged the pool of lava for the first time.
The lava pool was filled with cracks at the bottom, and was as desolate as the desert, except for the tiny lava fish swimming at the bottom of the pool. The fishes were scared of the intruder and swam away from Chris, most of them burnt up from the intense heat at the bottom of the pool, while some survived, swimming on as if nothing happened. A few of the burnt ashes glittered in light turning into new fish.
{You have witnessed the phoenix fish}
{You have attempted to tame the phoenix fish}
{You have failed to tame the phoenix fish}
'Well now.'
Chris caught the phoenix fish, and ate it. It was tasteless, it was more right to say that it tasted like an explosion of fire.
{You have eaten the phoenix fish}
{You are the first to eat the phoenix fish}
{Growth is aroused}
{Your compatibility with fire has greatly increased}
{You have earned the skill Fire explosion, and on the brink of death you will be able to launch fire attacks equal to your existence}
{Your endured has increased by 10}
{Your constitution has increased by 15}
{Gathering Maki is now easier for you, especially Maki of the fire element}
Chris's burning skin gradually cooled down.
"Wow!" He did believe he got such a wind fall after having suffered so much, 'is this the feeling an oasis in the desert.'
{You have greatly angered the mother of the phoenix fish for eating her young}
{The Mother of the phoenix fish has marked you.}
Chris was worried, but he didn't mind, if I get stronger I'll be able to take her on, all I need to do is to get stronger.
Chris ran towards the end of the pool with Sim in his clutches, the barrages from the lava rock boulders did not stop.
They re coming in quicker, and faster as time went by, as if to make up for the lag they suffered in the liquid medium.
Chris didn't mind. He charged full speed ahead and dogged every rock in sight. He finally arrived at the end of the pool, conveniently there where steps placed there to make it easy to climb out of the lava. Each layer of stairs had a different temperature. Chris didn't mind, he had just consumed a fire phoenix, so he would be able to handle it.
He got on the stairs and ran.
◇◇◇
There were a hundred stairs in total, Chris stopped at the 50th stair.
It was way too hot, his body had started to char again, but he kept going he had been through this sort of pain before, it didn't stop him then, it certainly won't stop him now. Not long ago, the barrage from the rocks had stopped, so he had ample time to continue with the challenge.
He closed his eyes took a deep breath and tried to feel the energy in lava around him, "since my affinity had increased I might as well try to use it."
{Your Affinity with fire has greatly increased}
He felt it.
He began to manipulate the fire in such a way that wouldn't hurt him. He manipulated the lava and deflected the heat away from his skin, he did his best to keep the heat reflected, after he got the hang of it, his climb began again.
{New skill detected fire manipulation}
{All elements of fire, heat, and explosions are at your mercy}
Chris smiled things were finally going his way, it sucked that up until now he was such a bum.
"It's alright, let's go slowly, don't rush it."
Spikes began to appear on the stairs piercing into and out of Chris's feet.
Shaw
Shank
Shank
Different types of spikes appeared and approached him. Chris used the repulsion of heat from fire manipulation to push most of them away, while the rest pierced him, blood began to run down his body. He became more, and more bloody as he reached his goal.
98 steps, 99 steps
His determination spoke volumes, throughout of this craziness he kept sim safe.
She whimpered in his arms as if telling him to stop, yet she didn't dare to move for fear of the consequences, she couldn't bear to break his concentration. Such a thing would get him hurt even more, only a fool would do such a thing.
Chris felt happy, "this time at least I can protect myself and those around me."
The 100th step.