The old man looked around some more, getting up to his feet a few moments later and returning the halberd to its proper position. He walked up to the arch that Aiden had just jumped through, taking a close look at it.Behind that wall, Aiden could see what was happening on the other side and the sight of the old man's face in real life terrified him quite a bit. It felt like the old man could see through the wall at him and he was given a huge fright when the old man stretched out his hand to the wall just like he did a few moments prior.His heart had leaped into his throat when he saw the old man's hand hit a solid wall.[” Why are you scared? Did you forget who the spirit of this building is?"]Aiden was jolted awake from his reverie by a snarky comment from Darwyn."You have been living with him for centuries, I have not. Don't judge me"["Fine, I'll find him something else to do"]Aiden did not understand what this meant until he saw the old sage pause as if he was frozen in pl
He hurried over to check when he heard Darwyn's voice.["Congratulations. You're off to a smashing start, Arcana of Chaos and Void"]Aiden did not understand or more importantly his mind chose not to believe the gravity of that statement until he was staring straight into the cauldron."Isn't it supposed to be just a light grey-colored liquid when it's complete?", Aiden asked.["Don't forget your choice of ingredients. The one I showed you used normal ingredients. I have not seen a potion show up in this form before"]"Then how do you know it's good!?!"["I can feel it. My deductions don't tell me that it is anything bad..."]What Aiden was looking at was not a potion. It looked more like a pill with its round shape. Its color was a dark grey with little sparkling things in it."Tarren... Is that what you tried to make?", Miss Riordan asked.Aiden had forgotten that he had a person beside him while he was screaming at Darwyn."I'm not sure but it should be the one"Unexpectedly, what c
Aiden had gotten his arm ripped off by a swipe from the Briwyns limb as he passed by it with a slash.Unsurprisingly, the long cut on the Briwyns side began to heal as well. In a few seconds, both wounds had been completely healed.Like maniacs, the two were aiming at each other's heads in an instant. The Briwyn used its tail as a very effective whip that made Aiden dodge and weaves around it. There was no point cutting the tail because it would regrow in almost an instant.This was an annoyance as he tried to hit the Briwyn harder, to deal even more damage. The tusk of the Briwyn continued to swipe at Aiden, intending to pierce through or break him if it could.This battle continued for a few minutes with so many wounds opened and healed on both of them in almost no time.The fight was getting frustrating when Aiden found an opening. He immediately took it. He cut through the tail first, and leaped onto the beast's head, narrowly avoiding its tusk in the process. This gave him a he
Fraser took a glance at Randell before he turned to keep climbing."Thank you", he said as he continued on his way.Randell's face twisted when he saw Fraser's nonchalant attitude but Fraser had taken those words to heart. Not for the fact that they were threats but because there was truth in it.Fighting a rat in its natural home could be troublesome with the hundreds of entrances it would have to its hideouts. One would need to know the rat's behavior and tendencies when it was threatened.Putting Randell in the back of his mind, Fraser climbed up the small branches he could see as he made his way to the bigger branch.Thirty minutes into the climb, he stumbled into his first encounter. He had noticed the existence of something living there because there was rustling that immediately stopped when he showed up.His first impression, this creature had extremely good senses and it would be near impossible to sneak up on, especially when he couldn't even see it.He would have left it wi
On a bed, in a room somewhere in the infirmary, Aiden's eyelids fluttered. His fingers flexed ever so slightly as Miss Riordan watched him from a corner in the room with bated breath.She had been sitting there for hours by this point and at the moment, it was early in the morning. This was the first sign she saw that told her Aiden was recovering. He had been motionless, with no significant signs of life ever since she brought him out of the Alchemy room. With this tiny movement, she let out a long breath of air, she had no idea she was holding in for so long.~Aiden's figure that had been assembled opened its eyes. His eyes looked like they had a swirling grey storm in his pupils. The figure turned around, floating with all the grace in the world as it faced the red point of light that had once more cracked down the middle and was repairing itself.The difference this time was that the red point no longer looked red. It had shrunk and turned into a white glowing memory point jus
Fraser stood opposite a beast on a wide branch of the tree. The beast was standing in front of a fruit, with a purple color and Fraser could feel the uniqueness of the one fruit even though it was being covered up by the beast.The beast itself had black fur and bright yellow eyes which it pinned onto Fraser. It had four limbs and walked with all four. As it growled, Fraser already had his sword drawn and ready for a fight.The beast finally used up its patience and attacked. With a quick dash that showcased its insane speed, it swiped a claw at Fraser.Fraser, a seasoned fighter found this attack the easiest to block as he raised his sword to block the blow that was going for his head.In one smooth motion, his sword also tore through the beast's limb, disabling it very quickly.The beast landed, stared into Fraser's eyes, and began to melt into shadows. The beast was a briwyn, affinity; shadow.Fraser was surprised by this but it did not change anything because he was already retre
In a garden with trimmed hedges and a beautiful view, Prince Adrian was waiting with his hands crossed behind his back.In the distance, Princess Caitlyn approached him. She was wearing a beautiful green evening dress."Adrian", she greeted with a simple call"Caitlyn", he responded the same way."So?"Prince Adrian looked straight into Princess Caitlyn's eyes as he began to speak."I'm sorry for denying my feelings. I was so happy that you came to visit and also very sad because I uh... I saw myself lacking"Princess Caitlyn cocked her head to the side just a little bit when Prince Adrian said this."I am an outcast in the family... That's no secret but when my father proposed the marriage to you, I panicked. Truly I like you a lot but at the same time, I want to be worthy of you.A twenty-year-old 3rd Order Apprentice would be acceptable for most people but as a member of the royal family, it's unacceptable, besides, I have been stuck there for two years. I can't seem to take that s
With a hard bunch to the spine of a beast, she incapacitated it. Following this move was another leap into the air which she dropped from with another hard punch. She did this a few more times before switching back to running on the backs of the beasts as she'd done earlier.The feral beast with silver accents on its fur growled and attacked shortly after. Its teeth were shiny, looking as pretty as jewels.The girl quickly cleared the grey beasts and attacked the special beast.The first confrontation was quite literally troubling to see. The heavy punch she threw was smacked down into the ground, while the other paw came around to smack her head but it missed.The girl had used the hand that got smacked down to prop her body and push off into a spin over the beast.Attacking this beast was anything but easy because one of the grey beasts was already attacking before she could catch her breath.This time, she did not dodge its rush but chose to throw a punch at the grey beast.The spe
The crowd was pulled from the tragedy that the nobles caused, and some people started to point to the group suspended above them, whispering and murmuring various pieces of gossip.This was a topic that excited them all, however, the ones who were most excited for the revelation were the nobles who finally knew the people who beat them to occupy the highest floor of the tower.They did not hide the wicked grins on their faces and Aiden saw these grins on their faces. He also saw that the group were starting to descend from the sky into the midst of the crowd. That was bad and was quickly made worse when he noticed the nobles setting their hounds on the group.He could guess their thoughts. Even if the group was stronger than they were, given the position they occupied, they did not believe it and wanted to know for themselves how powerful they were.This gave Aiden a headache and his mind began to spin quickly, looking for a big enough distraction that would give the group a chance to
None could ask the other for help because each had someone attacking them, however, they were not noble scions for nothing. Despite being overpowered by the golems, they dealt some damage over time.It was not immediately obvious, but they managed to hold their own, and avoid grievous injuries even though there were several close calls.It took them each about an hour to circumvent their respective golems and deal enough damage to break through their chests.Hadrian was the first followed by Oscar shortly after with Tristan clocking in third, a few seconds behind Oscar. He was unhappy with this but he had no time to be unhappy because his face soon changed into a somber look. Oscar who had just tried to pick up the glowing multi-coloured orb was surprised to find the orb roll away from him and float up to meet the orb that came from Tristan’s golem. This also meant that the orb in Hadrian’s hand was the only one that remained.Oscar and Tristan noticed this, but they could do nothin
No one cared who had said that word because they all ran. The sight of the gray tentacles rising like pillars from the depths of the abyss was enough to scare every one of them.At the same moment, there was a rumble that spread across the skies of the city at that moment. Everyone heard it. Aiden, sitting in the restaurant was jolted from his thoughts and joined everyone else as they looked up at the ruin.He witnessed a few of the tentacles of the beast appear on the edge of the ruin as he had seen before they entered the ruin.‘That bridge, huh? They might be lucky enough to escape'.He did not care much if these people beat the ruin and made it to the temple. He had gotten his rewards and he was happy with that.Tristan and his group had immediately dashed off the bridge, but the tentacles came down on the bridge at a lightning-fast speed.This attack ripped the bridge apart, leaving just three people from Tristan’s group unscathed.Tristan’s face was painted with horror like ever
Aiden was dumbfounded. How was this a reward? It simply contradicted itself. The problem it caused was having him be a prime target for the Zaltyr, but it would also save him from them once.Then, is the mark erased once the life-saving opportunity is used?[Yes, everything returns to normal after that]This made him heave a sigh of relief. He tried to look at this from a positive perspective. This meant the mark was not meant to specifically protect him from the Zaltyr, its main purpose was to protect him from every other thing that tried to kill him.Thinking about it this way made it easier to accept the fact that he was going to be in trouble with the Zaltyr sooner or later, albeit only slightly.Elder Zarek watched Aiden go through his thoughts for a few minutes while he thought of the command he had received from The World Seed.Aiden had recovered his thoughts at this point and decided to check on his elemental seed. He was elated to see the changes to his elemental seed.The mu
None of the thirty remaining survivors was stupid and they took things as calmly as they could. There was no visible harm to resting till a problem was identified and this was something they unanimously agreed on.As they expected, there was something that was out of the ordinary and it was found after two hours of waiting.The quiet rumble that came from the depths of the chasm was enough of a wake-up call.Theo of the Arco twins was the one who made the first comment, breaking the silence. None of them believed that crossing the bridge would be easy from the start, however, the realization that some unknown danger lurked beneath was enough to bring them flashbacks of their time in the maze.“There’s something down there as well? Why is this trial so difficult?”“Good thing we were patient…”“Patient? What does that do for us?”“Theo is not completely wrong. Every stage of the trials had been harder than the last”, Oscar took a deep breath.“Indeed… Something that can cause such a ru
“You just had to jinx it?”Raven rolled her eyes in response.The orb glowed and the rubble spread across the hall was drawn to it. One piece after the other, they mashed together and barely a moment later, a statue had formed.This statue looked the same as the ones they fought before, save for a few important differences. One, this new statue was massive, at least three times as tall. Two, the statue now had a weapon – A halberd which it swung around. Three, most importantly, it had lines running all over its body. Looking close enough these lines were runes just like the ones Aiden and the rest had, but these were very close to being complete, easily dwarfing the ones they had.Their expressions turned grave as the glowing eyes of the massive statue locked onto them.It was a golem, and it wasted no time. With a roar that sounded like thunder, it wielded its halberd and charged at them.There was no running from it, because, a sweep of its halberd made the hall feel claustrophobi
Raven who had suggested was the first to move, and the moment she did, everyone else followed her one after the other. They got to the stone coffin amidst their careful creeping without any problems. The unnerving feeling that they felt from the statues kept them on their toes as they expected everything to go wrong at any moment. "Now what", Raven asked. Aiden and Connor stepped here, and as he instructed; "Keep an eye out", the two of them pushed the lid off the stone coffin. They were right to be worried, because the moment the stone coffin opened slightly, light burst out of the opening. They were taken aback by this absurd light show, however, the light was like a tonic, one that breathed life into the surrounding. Life into the several warrior statues that lined the walls. Each of their eyes opened with a snap, glowing a bright orange, followed by cracks that came from the loosening of the joints on the statues. Gadiel was the first to speak regret about the situation, but
With Aiden and Connor leading the way, they stepped onto the rope bridge. The silence that fell on them at that was quite unnerving, but it helped them keep their focus. This meant that their reactions were spot on as they responded immediately to Aiden making any signals.This was the moment that they finally understood the danger that lay in the chasm beneath them. Apart from the scary chasm that looked like a bottomless pit, a sight that already promised them death should they fall into it, there was something else living in the chasm, and the dreadful atmosphere it brought with evidence of its existence sent chills running their spines. The conclusion here was very simple, there was trouble and they needed to be careful.Listening carefully, they heard the silent rumbles gradually fade away, taking with it the tense atmosphere they felt. You would expect Aiden to make a sudden dash to get across as quickly as possible, but he didn't. He was taking no chances, so continued steadily
"Three days?!", Raven started."Oh, don't get worked up, it was more like two and a half days", Princess Eleanor chipped in.Unfortunately, this did not change the reaction Raven had; in fact, her reaction got worse at that moment as she got frantic and almost lost her mind as she looked around."Calm down, Raven. Things are not as bad as you think. We are out of the grassland maze; of course, we had to wait for everyone to de-petrify before we continued…", Deirdre explained."So, what trial do we have now?", Raven asked and immediately got a response."Oh, the long rope bridge, strung across the chasm that has a tentacled beast living in it", Deirdre responded like that piece of information was of no consequence.Raven was silent as she stared off into space for a moment. When she got her mind back, she asked almost immediately… "Are we crossing now that I am awake?"A question to which Princess Eleanor answered in a snarky and sarcastic tone… "Hopefully". Her comment got a few gazes