Wind blowing and snow mist. It was most of what could be seen. No matter how far one traveled it was basically all there was to see. Patrolling its lone kingdom had become a habit. Periodically food would be introduced into this kingdom and other times it was withheld. Almost systematically when the food disappeared something else would enter. This had only happened twice. Both times were a nightmare as humanoid creatures would charge it with reckless abandonment.
Barely by the skin of its teeth had these situations ended in reward. For after each fight the animals would be stronger when they returned. While sounding like a negative this meant that while the effort going into hunting was more the meat was far more delicious and made it more robust. While not increasing its strength it did allow it to show more strength as it gained more control over its body. This in turn allowed it to appear stronger without actually becoming stronger.
At the moment it was moving around as the animals had started to disappear. It hadn't seen any other living creature for a week. In the beginning this made it extraordinarily hungry to the point it relished those humanoids that tried with all their might to feed it. Sure the battles were tough but in the end it never thought about the process and focused on the result. Jumping down a cliff it spread its mana sporadically for a short burst when it landed.
This allowed it to land gracefully without making a large indent in the snow. It had just sat at the barrier's edge watching the sea of clouds before going on its routine patrol. Sooner or later it would find the creature that had invaded its territory. As the king it had the ability to release a large amount of bloodlust. This was something it learned to do over time. While usually doing so would allow others to find you. Only by killing the previous king did it gain the ability to release its bloodlust in an aura that interrupted the senses of its enemies. It was a passive ability that would help it control and hunt.
As the lynx stepped on the top of a hill it paused. There was something wrong but it wasn't sure exactly what. Looking around it failed to see anything. Even when it honed its senses to nearby trees it couldn’t hear or smell anything abnormal. Slowly it kept moving forward. It had its suspicion but it kept moving as if it was unaware. Once it made it to a nearby tree it moved without stopping with only another slight pause.
Its opponent had grown complacent. While it couldn't hear or smell them it could still feel an ominous presence in this location. It had also noticed an unusual pile of snow. It was too close and would be too obvious to look up. Therefore it continued to act unaware while being suspicious. From experience it knew what to do.
Simply having the ability to ponder allowed it a small level of intelligence. As if the world was talking to it, whispering hints and conclusions. Food shortages. Ominous presence. Snow piles matching the same appearance as snow falling from tree branches. None of which could give a definite conclusion alone. Yet with the ability to just ponder lightly with the blessing of the world, it could easily conclude the creature it needed to kill was hiding in the tree.
With this thought the lynx took one final step. And that was the last thing it did. Without warning and without a chance at retaliation a black shadow burst out of the ground and struck the lynx from below. The second the commotion occurred the lynx tried to crouch but this only quickened its death by a few milliseconds. While the hit wasn't fatal it was enough to wind the beast. As the shadow came into picture while moving closer there was no emotion in its eyes as the lynx took its final breath.
What seemed effortless was in reality, not so easy. In hell the expected reaction of creatures was abnormal. The fact the cockatrice would patrol a set patch of the safe zone everyday. Outside of a few exceptions already showed that dealing with demonic beasts or just creatures in general was potentially dangerous. If treated like a normal animal you would end up dead just as quickly as the lynx. The first reaction the cockatrice had to tracks was not to follow them out but backtrack them to the beginning.
They didn't just follow them randomly as they returned and kept following the tracks out. With a few tests he had already known the reaction the lynx would have. It was awkward at first. Still it didn't take long to identify its greatest flaw, and that was its confident behavior. It could be mistaken as pride and yet the creature walked into traps knowing they were traps. First time he fought it in the strength test he learned this.
He couldn't put his finger on the extent of it until he repeatedly attempted the fight. The lynx could pinpoint his location within a small area. It felt like the lynx had a GPS feature on a phone on Earth. A few reactions showed it was never completely accurate but the general location could be confirmed. Once he tried to strike the lynx would respond accordingly. With the bloodlust and the snow it kicked up, this gave it a natural advantage.
Without the ability to pinpoint its location, killing it took time. From what he had learned from others the fights before this weren't so easy. Not only did the beasts change they also could match the other party fairly well. Though there were exceptions. Aegle struggled immensely while being as strong as Steven. Steven also seemed to struggle a lot.
Ultimately he overcame his opponent. Going from what he said he experienced against the hydra and what he saw in the third test showed the likely outcome. He didn't go into too much detail but it could be seen when he came out that he most likely ended up ambushing the hydra. He likely played a game of cat and mouse with the hydra. This approach showed his apparent willingness to gamble with his life. He had shown the same when facing the vodyanoy. He was strong but tended to risk his life with useless gambles instead of planning ahead or finding more methods to use.
Nothing was clear about Monte outside of the fact there was something different about him after the fight. As for Jackie his fight was the beginning of the abnormality. He didn't struggle terribly and appeared to have lost control while Rory showed this trial was being handled by an overseer. Finally the climax of the problem. Both the golem and the lynx didn't add up to the rest. For the way they originally spoke there was a problem with the trial in itself.
It was said to be much harder than it actually was. With Jackie as an exception as his fight ended poorly because of his own performance the rest never showed any real signs of being in life threatening danger. If not for the fact he lost control he likely wouldn’t have been injured nearly as bad. Each and everyone of them came out completely battered and bruised. Problem was there was no life threatening danger. Up until the sixth trial was a steep incline in difficulty. His experience told him this had something to do with the overseer.
As for the lynx, using its personality against it showed what could be accomplished with proper planning. Though he didn't feel like it was a waste, the creature was extraordinary. He struggled lightly with it in his normal state and yet it was able to avoid an instantaneous death from his current ambush. The creature had been completely blindsided like a car in the middle of the intersection being hit at full speed from a car on a side road. In that split second it was able to react, even if it still couldn't avoid death it showed it was by no means weak or to be underestimated.
He wasn't surprised by the empty waiting room and lounge. Moving to his room he planned to take a few more days before the final eighth room. The mana was finally at the same level as it was in hell. It was just not the same. There was a more pronounced feeling from the mana in hell. By this point he was fairly certain the final opponent would be strictly related to the overseer. Monte hadn't left his room while the door had been sealed.
With nobody being forced out after beating the last mandatory stage. He already had slight expectations as to the relationship between overseers and their trials. He was only joyful that the last stage was not one he had to beat. Though he did think there was more to it, the two that had information on the trial never spilled the beans. There was no reason for him to force the issue but the trial seemed to say he was the one that had to fight the last battle. The overseer could be seen from the fact the fight between Rory had been interrupted. The rest might or might not have realized it but he did. Monte had broken the norm by not showing up once since his beating of the third stage.
Combined with the two presences he felt back when he came out it was clear there was something going on. It wasn’t just Aegle who was giving off a strange aura. She wasn’t the one he was focusing on. He didn’t say anything as he didn’t want to become an enemy with Monte. He did hope to speak with him but the situation didn’t occur. Though this did make him question his own experience. In hell he wellowed for roughly three days under the tree. But did he really?
The feeling he received was slightly different but it reminded him immensely of that feeling when he was being spoken to. At the time he didn’t feel it but after it happened when he thought back he was able to look in from outside and find large abnormalities that were really obvious if he hadn’t been so distracted. It was likely the same thing that happened to him was happening to Monte, therefore this made him wonder if it was really just three days he spent there. There were too many questions to come to a complete conclusion.
What he did know was that nobody being forced out felt like a sign. Like a calling card that the next attempt would be between him and the overseer. Since from Aegle and Rory’s explanation the last fight was somewhat optional. There was no real redirect of how the fight would go as the fight was mandatory but it wasn’t a deathmatch. Though there was an underline meaning they attempted to hide. They didn’t outright say it but they did mention that it was talked about again. Meaning the information mentioned the person that entered the eighth room was seen again.
They had used multiple examples to prove the norm that was the Eight Rooms. But that was the only time they ever mentioned the person that entered the eighth room after the trial. And when spoken they didn’t sound very sure. It wasn’t like they were lying but that they weren’t clear on the information. This told him they didn’t want to tell everyone else but the eighth room was likely a death sentence. Though this did make him wonder about the message being sent to him. He did feel like he was maybe misreading it but he would have to wait and decide when he had more information.
It didn’t take long for him to realize he was correct. After a week he felt movement on his way out and opened the door to see Steven. When he heard the door open he looked back with a slight smile but when he saw his face it disappeared almost immediately to be replaced by a forced smile that looked worse than if he was crying hysterically.
Maybe noticing this himself he quickly stopped smiling and tried to speak to him awkwardly, “Uh, hey. You just missed Aegle. She mentioned she couldn’t leave the lounge. She said she wanted to see what the strength test said about the next room. Only when she tried to leave she couldn’t. I wanted to try and it is true.”
As he said it he tried to open the door but it didn’t budge even when he tried to force it open. This showed that this wasn’t done by the system but by the overseer and the message he received when he beat the seventh stage was correct. He paused slightly as he spoke, “You should go back inside, you will be allowed to leave soon.”
While he didn’t try, his voice still came out really cold. This was clearly seen by how uncomfortable Steven’s response was. Still he forced a smile and started to go back to his room regardless if he wanted to or not. He did hear his steps stop slightly as he reached for the door but he ignored him. With a twist the opened without any problems, so he entered. When he entered the waiting room he noticed it was slightly different. Or maybe it was the lack of change that made it feel different.
He could feel the presence of something on the other side of the trial door. The only change outside of the sealed door to the lounge was the plaques on both the trial and strength test were clear without a single digit on them. He felt similar to the way he did at the end of the hell trial. As if the door in front of him was the same as the fog panel that told him he had passed the trial. He almost felt slightly tired. It wasn’t real but the fact that he could almost feel anything caused him to pause. He took a deep breath as he reached for the handle of the trial door. It appeared his daydreams and distractions were now strong enough to even affect him in his apathy state.
There was no point in waiting as he could feel he was reaching a bottleneck. His mana was full and he couldn’t gain anything from waiting. The best he could do was process the mana slightly to make it a bit thicker. He finally cut out the bullshit and had asked Valerie about it and she explained that was the process of making your mana purer. While this had benefits the process was slow and usually only done by those that were stuck and couldn’t progress. It was a waste of time for anyone else as once he reached the initial worlds the mana would have a fundamental change that would make purifying his mana worthless. Therefore he didn’t hesitate anymore and walked into the fog.
