It wasn't often but there were times when a demonic beast would appear normal. This wasn't to mean demonic beasts were abnormal in a sense. A better explanation was the changes brought about by mana would cause the normal looking animal to appear different. Awakening process for wild creatures was different and often led to an increase in abilities that could be seen by other creatures in the environment. He was sure he was looking at a lynx but he couldn’t find anything abnormal about it other than it being the source of the bloodlust. As the lynx approached it would stop from time to time as if it was about to notice something.
Still the creature continued to move slowly on the surface of the snow. In the same way he used his mana to propel himself up and spread his weight the lynx was doing a vastly superior form of it. The bloodlust was messing with his senses but when it came closer he could feel the mana being spent was not easily noticed compared to the abandonment of mana he had to throw at the problem. Still with four points of impact it was less weight being distributed and the tracks were therefore lighter and would be hard to see as the sun was currently making it difficult to notice. This process continued as the creature made it within twenty foot range of the tree he was currently in.
He had to ensure that his breathing didn’t destabilize as the creature was extremely sensitive to change. He would often hide his breaths during a strong wind and adjust his position while the lynx would still stop. In the end it wasn’t able to pinpoint its suspicions as it continued on its way. He didn’t have enough information to understand its current circumstances. What he did know was that Valerie was correct in her statements. He didn’t notice as he had yet to face something that he felt a need to push himself. From the beginning he found the idea novel but ultimately he did the strength test in a way to move his body as an active exercise allowing him to get used to his body.
From his relapse into his apathy state to regaining normality when he left that state. Not once did he really push as far as he could go. There wasn’t much of a reason to do so, the way he had lived in hell was a short time but unlike when he had his apathy state triggered it was completely different. In hell if he triggered the apathy state it meant his life wasn’t thought to be on the line. It was a foregone conclusion that if he didn’t get himself together he would die. Maybe because of these experiences he understood the process of pushing yourself; he never once did so. For those times he spent helping the others fighting the golem his focus was on absorbing everything that could become beneficial or just documented and stored in the recesses of his brain. If a time came it became useful he would have experience with how their abilities or those like them worked.
He didn’t pull out the branch for multiple reasons and decided to think before he moved. It wasn’t a foreign concept to him. It was something that had been branded into his bones as if muscle memory wasn’t enough. The second he slowed his breathing it reached a rate that he was constantly breathing but it was moving the air at such a slow rate he couldn’t even feel any changes in the mana surrounding him. If he pushed all other thoughts out and focused slowly on sensing mana he could pick up minute changes that occurred due to air flow. This meant that creatures staying in a single location would slowly build up a flow of air that would stabilize and hide itself into the environment naturally.
What didn’t change and could consistently be sensed if one had the ability to focus on these minute changes was the mana. Breathing itself wasn’t a big change in airflow but with sensitive enough senses it was possible to feel mana changing. This was because breathing was a concept of not just pushing but pulling. The lungs didn’t just create a flow that moved with enough force that it could cause mana in the surroundings to move. Generally this was mana moving to the responsible party as it was absorbed passively in tiny minute amounts where the exhaled showed a difference in the density. This amount was very hard to notice and even when he focused it would take time to find these changes.
Instead the moment before a predator strikes there is one last ingest of air to fill the lungs. By essentially power cycling as they stalked the prey they were slowly emptying the lungs of all air. This would slow down as they get close before they’re about to strike in which their lungs reach a zenith. For the most part their breaths slowly start to extend until the last breath that is followed by a long exhale which is followed by a huge inhale that happens slowly. The problem is with enough mana sensitivity and focus you can see the mana start to disappear as the predator is about to strike. This all happened rather naturally and it was unlikely the creatures themselves noticed they did it.
The only reason he discovered this was because it was the way he survived in hell. Learning from the creatures around him he learned their methods and with intelligence he was able to adapt using his consciousness to not just pay attention to things around him but himself. Finally he created a breathing method that worked even against himself. Usually when breathing there would be slight delays between the inhale and exhale. He removed this short delay and slowed down his breath to the point he would slowly work up to inhaling for over thirty seconds to repeat the time in exhaling. The breath itself wasn’t much different than normal breathing but the time it took to take that breath. This slowed down the mana flowing into him enough so that even when he focused he found it nearly impossible to tell.
He always used his mana change sensitivity to hold himself to those standards. Since it was his strength he learned to make it exploitable. As the lynx moved in close enough to reach, he didn’t immediately strike. As it reached the closest it would ever be he finally moved. With expectation he didn’t release his standing on the tree to strike where the creature was going to be or where it was. He chose a spot in between. As the lynx took a few steps it stopped directly under him before the ears flicked slightly before it jumped forward as a massive shadow landed in its previous location. This didn’t stop him though, he never planned to kill it in his first strike.
He had chosen a hiding spot that would require a fast acceleration making the air resistance would create enough noise he expected a response. As he landed there was an explosion of snow as the snow was at a point that reached two to three feet deep. This created a wall of white that blocked both of their abilities to see. The second he pushed off the ground to move in the direction of the lynx he pulled out the branch. By using the sudden onset burst of the scent of blood to offset its mind in the same way the bloodlust was doing to him.
No longer was the bloodlust surrounding him but completely pressing down on him. He didn’t even have the ability to sense the exact location it was coming from. The only reason he knew the general location was because of its previous movements to dodge him and the location of the strongest amount of bloodlust was flowing from. Like an attack that would hit a football field, the bloodlust had been filtered down but still spread half the field to not just make pressure increase. This also caused it to be impossible to exactly pinpoint as the bloodlust wasn’t just covering him but the general location around him.
As shadows in a sea of white moved towards each other they finally met in the middle. This clash was a strange branch and nearly invisible claw to meet before both sides moved past the other. These confirmations continued on and off. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact location of the lynx until they were about to meet. As the two were moving with large speeds the snow was being kicked up and blocking each other's views. The lynx wasn’t much better off. It was having its sense of smell blocked off by an unnatural amount of blood coming from the branch. There was an eerie amount of hatred and fear coming off as those once slain by it were seemingly attempting to attack its nerves and mind. This blocked off its supernatural senses it had devolved through its evolution into a demonic beast.
The two continued to move as slowly as the snow was being kicked up and was getting thinner as it was whirled off into the distance. As if by natural agreement the two were slowly moving away from the original tree they met at. In this manner as the snow started to decrease there was suddenly an increase as new snow was being introduced. As some of their fight kicked up winds that blew outside snow away. Still as the two were picking up speed the distance they were moving increased and so too was the influx of fresh snow.
In an undescriptive room. There was a man with a nasty look on his face as he looked in the direction of a crack. “You told me you didn’t want me to change the trial so I left it alone… Are you stupid there was a Child of Fenrir what did you honestly expect?... Do you realistically expect there to be people that pass that point?...”
He had set up the trial in such a way. Even the kids could feel that something was a bit off. This wasn’t entirely on him. Sealing wasn’t something his class or anything he knew how to do. Therefore the sealing was accomplished by the system. As the set restrictions were not unique to the creature the end results of each creature was questionable. This wasn’t even unique to him, the other Eight Rooms were similar in nature. As the limits of the creature went up it became harder to find creatures that could match the opponents that would face it.
Since before this there were two outcomes. First was no backroom deal; the Child of Fenrir would deal with anyone it met without question. Even when it was so heavily restricted it was still a monster that nobody had even perked its interest. Unlike the other creatures this intelligent being had access to the strength trial. It could see its system's illusionary self face the competitors. Ultimately for the child of Fenrir this trial was one it too had to deal with. Beings that were stronger than it weren’t impressive as without needing to unseal its strength it could use its intelligence to beat them in the same fashion that those from high level worlds could beat those from lower worlds.
Just because it couldn’t do many things didn’t mean it couldn’t produce the same results. Thus those that were over the range of its seal would push it, because it was using far less strength to come out in the end it wasn’t impressive to it. Those that were too weak were a joke that didn’t interest it and the fights didn’t last long. As a creature that had already climbed up from the bottom it had faced many life threatening situations there was no opponent at the current level that could rival it in ability.
Outside of Amit. When he fought against the strength test the wolf showed interest but it had no way to raise its own strength so it didn’t have a method to close the gap. It often showed the same perspective as the participants that were taking the trial did. The strongest that could really push it didn’t feel like risking their lives just for an increase of mana as they wouldn’t be able to pass if they fought this creature for next rounds to have a stronger creature. The two were at two different points and so there wasn’t much it could do in its current situation, but it didn’t mean it didn’t have any interest in fighting him later.
Finally when the opponent it could face was fighting his real self. It even could feel Rory’s loathing with the system for sealing its strength. It even became a bit bewildered by the fact he quickly realized it was his own fault for being so weak. This drew a bit of ire as its opponent wasn’t focusing on it. In the end it was partially because of this the child of Fenrir decided to acknowledge Rory. After the overseer came it left a mark that might help him, after which he was sent back to his father to get unsealed. With the helping hand it gave it would demand a rematch when Rory reached a level worth its own interest.
As for the golem. That and the lynx were throwaways. They reached a relative strength that would be acceptable to throw into the last two stages. The trial was designed to increase in difficulty but the range of this was questionable. The plaques as the participants had already realized were not exactly accurate but it was also pretty useless. It was just the average physical strength of the creatures they could face, while the number itself didn’t amount to much as the two were being rated in two nearly unrelatable categories. This didn’t stop it from heavily affecting many people that entered. Because of the child of Fenrir he never had to deal with the last two fights as nobody made it beyond there.
Those that did make backroom deals were used to fluff his records so that the system wouldn’t come down on him for failing everyone. It was the perfect situation as his numbers were slightly skewed in terms of hell level trials at this stage. Eight Rooms already was a lower range. At worst if he didn’t make any deals he would take out the child of Fenrir and pass a few. So long as his numbers were good it was fine. Everything was done so that he could focus on working on his class and yet now he wasn’t finished with the foundation but he would likely be giving up his position as the time he would lose looking for creatures to replace not just the fifth stage he had to also now find adequate sixth and seventh stage creatures. Only temptation was the rarity of his trial being used by the system.
