[Would you like to start the first trial?]
A voice appeared out of seemingly nowhere, he couldn't pinpoint the origin, it came from everywhere around him. Stuck in the cold, dead room, the only source of relief came from two fire baskets that were placed around the room. The everlasting light from mere moments ago was replaced by a medieval castle like atmosphere.
He noticed that one of his rings had disappeared, his storage ring was gone.
'Artifacts can't be brought in here?'
Leaving it at that, Lucas looked around before answering the voice.
"Yes."
Right as a part of him was about to criticize his action the voice appeared again.
[Rank 2 Wizard detected, trial adjusted]
'Shit, that doesn't sound good.'
'Hmm.'
'What are you thinking about?'
'It's clear the people here wouldn't get this message, but we did. Also, wizard? Why not mage?'
Before Lucas had any more time to think the voice appeared again.
[First Test: Survive waves of enemies. In case of emergency, please shout the words; I give up]
[First wave: 5 Black Ogres]
'5?!'
'I guess the adjustment isn't in our favor.'
Suddenly there was a change in the wall in front of him. Between two fire baskets, part of the wall slowly slid down into the earth. A door was forming, but what came out of it probably wouldn't be beneficial for Lucas.
Since the wall was slowly sliding down, he had time. He didn't know the first thing about these ogres, he barely fought a normal one in the world above. Immediately getting on his knees, Lucas started to draw a few extremely basic arrays.
His arrays couldn't perform large tasks like Asta's could, but putting a bunch of elemental mana into something and creating a condition for release was something even he could do. He made a bunch in front of the forming doorway that would only have a single function, explode into a ball of flames.
He didn't know how to change the flames into Blue Flames yet, he was smart, some people would praise him as an absolute genius, but he had no idea how to change it correctly. Failing now would cause it to explode right away and that was a risk he didn't want to take.
The doorway was almost completely formed, so he quickly backed up and started to create a bunch of spells inside his body. Being alone in that cold room with the only sound coming from the burning wood a strange noise was starting to get louder.
A thumping sound came from down the corridor, knowing what was coming at him, Lucas calmed himself down and prepared for the worst.
'Do we have any info on Black Ogres?'
'Nope, the bestiary's never said anything about them. There was a section for Ogres, not that it contained any useful info.'
'What do we know that can help us here?'
'I don't know, aim for the head.'
Left with nothing, Lucas could only hope that things would work out. He would feel more comfortable if he had a physical sword or two arms for that matter. Left with his worries, he pushed them aside and moved forward.
Standing in wait for them might be a good approach, yet part of him encouraged Lucas to move towards the corridor and assault the ogres there. They had little room to dodge any attack there.
Aiming down the corridor, he sent two Blue Fireballs in the hopes they would achieve anything. The explosion with no way to spread, pushed the air from within the corridor towards him. The wind was strong enough to push him back.
The thumping noise became louder, so he gladly backed away from the doorway and summoned a Blue Fire Sword. He couldn't perform the same techniques with his left hand, but he could still use it as an explosive and distraction.
There was a thought to simply use the imitation of the Dark Beam, but since he didn't know how many waves there would be, Lucas thought it was better to conserve some energy for now.
As the sound came closer Lucas could see them. They were about two to three head taller than him, their skin jet black with only the whites of their eyes standing out. They had little to no hair, but they did have teeth large enough to be compared to a small dagger.
Not that they needed their teeth to fight, they each had a large iron sword and shield. They already looked imposing, now they looked like genuine trouble.
They wore loose clothing, not that it hid the muscled bodies underneath. What surprised Lucas the most besides the somewhat neat clothing was the fact that they looked starved. While they looked extremely strong, they looked hungry and exhausted.
'Have they been in here for a long time perhaps?'
'Who gives a shit, focus on killing them.'
The ogres saw Lucas and quickly stepped forward, being stuck in that corridor made them a prime target, which Lucas took advantage off. He shot another fireball towards them. The ogre in front lifted its shield, deflecting the fireball with ease. Handling the power of a Rank 2 Blue Fireball said enough about their equipment.
'We're going to have some trouble.'
'What do you mean?'
'These assholes can think.'
'?'
But Lucas soon completely understood as the Black Ogre in the front didn't immediately attack Lucas but looked towards the ground. It could tell the arrays were something to be wary off. Their shields and weapons also had a magical aura around them. Lucas came to a single conclusion.
Winning in a fair fight was out of the option, without a decent weapon or his arm, he was doomed to fail. Then Lucas could only take advantage of anything he could think of. His fire sword was strong, but without a dominant hand it wasn't that great. There was but a single use for it left, and he waited for the perfect moment.
The ogre in front realized what the arrays on the ground were mean to do, so it took a step back before jumping over them. Right as he was in the air the Blue Fire Sword was right in front of his face.
BOOM
His skin, while strong, couldn't withstand the power of the Blue Fire Sword. Exploding in a bloody mess, the arrays were set off by the pieces landing on them, creating a chain explosion.
Lucas knew it wouldn't be enough so he started his second trick. He gathered a ton of energy to create two things, air and water. Soon his entire body started to exude a ton of mist. His goal was to fill the room up with a thick fog. With the dust in the air of the explosion, Lucas tried to take advantage of the ogre's confusion.
By the time the dust settled, the mist was already everywhere in the room, the only thing the ogre's could still see were the fire baskets in the distance, anything else was shrouded in a thick fog.
Erasing his presence, Lucas kept creating more mist since it didn't cost that much mana anyway. He kept going until you could barely see your hand if you held it out. The reason he did this was because if the ogres were to rush him, which their upper-world counterparts tended to do, he would be done for.
His magic shields were somewhat strong, but not nearly strong enough to last against those weapons. Creating chains for them would hold them back, but he needed to get rid of their shields, and it wouldn't hold them back for long.
In the dense fog Lucas was almost unperceivable thanks to Eleven's spells. He heard the ogres shout something, the words unintelligible.
While Lucas didn't understand, the ogres seemed to place their backs against each other, forming a formation, which shouldn't happen according to all literature Lucas knew off. Ogres were monsters, beasts that have absolutely no intelligence besides instincts.
It didn't make sense, but this wasn't the time to focus on details.
In the fog the ogres looked in all directions, a useless action since the mist blocked all sight. Still, they were in a good defensive position, they simply had to wait for any sound and hack and slash towards it.
Without any presence, Lucas was lucky the ogres didn't have access to willpower, or he would be easily detected.
Suddenly, an Ogre screamed out its pain as a large stab wound was made near its Achilles tendon. Falling onto its knee, swinging its sword in the direction of the attack the ogre accidentally hit his own companion.
They yelled and screamed at each other, and Lucas absolutely took advantage from their confusion and stabbed a few more times, retreating right after. With his low presence and hidden visibility, Lucas harassed the Black Ogres until they couldn't stand it anymore.
One of them rushed forward and swung horizontally, the others yelled something at him, but Lucas didn't understand. What he did realize, was that the ogre was now perfect prey. Boosting his arm's strength, he swung the sword towards its head.
The trajectory wasn't perfect, but the sword cleaved the head in two. These were powerful weapons, even if they looked mass-produced. He would've stored the weapon if he could, sadly, he didn't have his ring. He went back to the other three. He kept a constant check on them with his willpower and made certain that he didn't receive any surprises.
Continuously harassing them and picking them off one by one, Lucas was capable of handling the remaining ogres without wasting too much mana.
[Congratulations!]
[You have survived the first wave!]
[Resetting chamber]
The mist that Lucas had so carefully created suddenly all got sucked into the corridor that openend. The damage from the explosions fixed themselves as well. The bodies and weapons were gone alongside the mist. After a few seconds, the room looked exactly the same as before the fight even happened. The only thing that was different was that Lucas now had a single sword with him.
[Second wave: 10 Ghouls]
Leaving Lucas no time to rest, the next wave was already coming at him. Like the first wave, a doorway was starting to form, this time it was on the opposite side.
While the second wave had started, Lucas was a bit confused. Ghouls were weaker than Ogres, even two to one wouldn't be a fair fight for the Ghouls. In other words, the second wave was easier than the first, which felt strange to Lucas.
Ghouls were something that also existed in the world above. Lucas had never seen them, but there were plenty of bestiaries that talked about them. They were monstrous looking, and were basically corpse eaters. They were strong for a peasant, but for Lucas, a Rank 2 mage, it would be extremely easy.
They were weak to fire and aren't the smartest. The only strength they had was how deformed they looked and how terrible they smelled. It would put a lot of mages off, but Lucas didn't care for those kinds of things.
Still, it didn't stop him from putting down new arrays in front of both doorways, even if another opened, he couldn't trust the already open one. For all he knew the group would be split among the different corridors.
Spreading his willpower, he could try to check where the monsters are, nothing came up yet, but Lucas was keeping a close look in both corridors.
The doorway was all the way down, but nothing seemed to appear. As time slowly passed, Lucas was starting to wonder what happened. He saw nothing approach him and the weird voice wasn't saying anything either.
'Looks like waiting here won't do much.'
'Are you going to look for those bastards? We're safe here and can build a bunch of traps. Now you wanna go and abandon it?'
'I don't like it either, but I don't think we have a choice.'
Stepping into the corridor, a rotting smell reached his nose. Having better senses was for once a negative development. The stench got stronger the deeper he moved into the corridor. His body was rejecting the repulsive odor that permeated the walls.
The corridor itself was dark, making the already small pathway even more claustrophobic. The light that was provided came from the fire baskets that were positioned next to the doorway in the main chamber.
Still, Lucas moved forward, enhancing his vision, he looked down the dark corridor. With his willpower searching ahead and keeping an eye on his back, he moved step by step.
At a certain point something else reached his nose as well, it was a strange scent, different from the stench of rotting corpses. Unable to describe it, Lucas pushed forward. Further down the corridor he saw another room, with his vision enhanced he could already somewhat tell what was lying in wait for him.
All ten Ghouls were lying dead on the ground, their already disgusting and disfigured corpses were rotting. A bunch of flies had made their nests in the intestines, leaving maggots to slowly devour the remaining flesh.
Entering the room he could see both the flies and the corpses, a disgusting sight to behold. Even Lucas, who was pretty good at handling such scene felt like something was climbing at the back of his throat.
'What a mess.'
'Meh, could be worse.'
'You're sick.'
'Shut up. How are we going to complete the trial now? Can't kill the dead.'
'Let's burn the bodies and flies, perhaps that will trigger something.'
Lucas let go of his sword and held out his hand, a burst of fire shot out. The corpses quickly caught on fire, a new smell entered his nostrils, even worse than before.
As he was burning everything in sight, the flies started to haphazardly fly around, some into the fire, others tried to reach the ceiling. A few flew towards Lucas, since they were but harmless flies, he let them be, they were nothing after all.
One of the flies landed on Lucas's arm, if he didn't see it, it would've been extremely hard to notice with just his senses. Even after they had been enhanced, the fly weighed too little for him to feel the pressure from the tiny spindly legs. There were some on his clothing, one of them even managed to get to his neck.
Not that Lucas put that much attention on the flies since they were buzzing around everywhere. The bonfire of flesh and bone was pretty distracting. He didn't know if this would result in him succeeding the task, but it did make him think.
'The ogres looked like they hadn't eaten for quite some time, perhaps they've been here for weeks.'
'If those dumb bastards were here for weeks, they would be dead.'
'Even so, they must've been put here recently, even the Ghouls look somewhat fresh.'
'We both know that doesn't make any sense.'
'I know, it's just, how else would you explain this?'
Suddenly, he felt an itch on his arm. Looking down he saw the fly, staring at it for a second he realized that the itch he felt came from the very small mouth of the fly. It was stretched down to his skin and looking at it with his willpower, he could tell the mouth had pierced his skin.
Since he couldn't wipe it off with his other hand, he redirected part of the flames that went through his hand to the fly, incinerating it in a split second. The small hairs on his arm also burned away, but the pain was negligible.
'Oh no.', since a part of Lucas was in charge of controlling the body and interactions, the other was in charge of research and keeping the body safe through healing magic. It was then that he realized the fly wasn't just a normal fly.
'What's wrong?'
'It poured something in our bloodstream. I think it's venom.'
'A fly doesn't hold venom glands, it must be something else. Can't you get rid of it?'
Using Dark magic inside his body was a bit of a dangerous move, but taking risks wasn't a fun pastime for Lucas. Trying to get rid of it, he was already too late. The weird substance had somehow infected the blood that went and infected part of his muscles.
Getting rid of it now meant removing parts of his remaining arm. Performing such a task recklessly might end up destroying his remaining arm.
'Uh, sure, I can do something, yeah... Hey! Get rid of the other flies dumbass!'
Lucas only then realized that the flies had been starting to surround him from all sides, the ones that went to the ceiling were coming back down behind him, as if they all smelled the fresh meat. Some of them landed on Lucas and started to infect different places.
'Screw it.', expending a large amount of his mana, he pushed flames out of his skin, making himself look like a living torch. Sacrificing even more energy, he made certain that the flames at least caught all the flies that were still flying around.
They were extremely easy to take care off. Even if they were different from normal flies, they still held the same fortitude, being burnt to a crisp the instant they got in contact with the flames.
A large flash appeared in the room as everything was incinerated, including himself. Right after the attack, his skin was covered in burns. Using light magic as quickly as he could, he tried to fix all his injuries. Extinguishing his burning clothes was a bit annoying, they almost burned into his skin, but he was fast enough to not let that happen.
While he was at it, he tried to get rid of the substance that had entered his body from a bunch of different places now. Yet Light magic was useless, there was no visual clue, but he could feel his body getting heavier. Since it was spreading, using Dark magic was the best option, but there was still another wave coming at him.
[Congratulations!]
[You have survived the second wave!]
[Resetting chamber]
While the voice said that, the corpses in the room started to evaporate in a way Lucas couldn't explain. It was as if the bodies had always just been a body of water.
[Final wave: 1 Elite Einherjar]
Lucas didn't know what that even was, but he had to hurry back to the main room for multiple reasons. Besides the fight, he could feel his body getting sluggish. He didn't know what it was, but the substance was pretty much infecting everything it could touch. It even started to get into his bones.
As he ran back his vision started to blur, his body swaying. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. The infection had spread too far in too many places to start getting rid of it with Dark magic. The only thing he had hopes for was the reward of the trial which healed anything.
'We don't have much time! Run back you fool!'
'And what do we do when that monster attacks us? We need to barricade ourselves!'
'Shut up and follow my instructions! Run back and blast the fucker with the Dark Beam. Light magic is useless anyway, so don't hold back.'
The flies looked normal, left barely any trace, yet they put Lucas in a terrible situation. Although the plan was reckless, it was his best bet. Trying his absolute best to rush back to the main chamber, the newly formed doorway was already complete.
He could hear heavy steps in the distance. Standing in front of the corridor, he gathered a bunch of mana brought it to the tip of his remaining hand. The energy that piled up in his hand felt a little too much to handle, but he needed to end this fight quickly since he felt his consciousness fading.
Turning all the energy to form the Dark Beam, his most powerful attack ever was unleashed. A massive beam of pure Darkness shot forward, the power was incredible, he couldn't imagine anything standing enduring such an attack.
Yet the sweat on his forehead started to form when he still didn't get a single message. Whatever it was, was still standing straight. Lucas gathered more of his energy, and increased the power of the beam.
Still no message.
Since it was the final wave anyway, Lucas decided to gather all the remaining energy he had left and brought it to his hand. The amount of energy was way too much for his arm and hand to handle, making the veins bulge out.
Using all that mana to power up such a devastating attack, his own hand was starting to get consumed by the attack. Luckily, Lucas didn't need his hand to fire off the blast since he didn't have a strict gateway.
The Dark Beam was as thick as the entire corridor, it almost reached the power of the real version that the griffin used. All that power, yet still no message.
Lucas couldn't imagine what the hell could withstand such a thing.
Then suddenly, his beam stopped firing, his hand and upper arm were gone, along with all of his energy. The poison-like substance had now reached too far, making him exhausted and confused. Combined with his mana deprevacy, Lucas collapsed to the ground.
[Congratulations!]