Up the stairs were obviously other testing rooms, and I already saw the pressure plate I am supposed to stand on to unlock the door to the next room. But it will also activate trials, and this will likely be more dangerous than just a few jumps above fire, as the price of the thing I seek is much higher.

  I would have been really tired by now if not for my ability to strengthen my body considerably with power. This is just another reason why mages, wizards, and others like them had such an advantage over mortal men—an advantage that now serves me. I moved to the plate and thought about it for a second, but in the end, I stepped on it.

  The room instantly changed; it looked like I was in a garden full of trees and some strange plants. One of them even looked like a combination of a rose and strawberry bush. This entire place felt alive, and I don't mean just the plants. It feels like this place has a mind of its own and everything here has its own consciousness. When I looked higher, I saw a castle that looked like it was from a different plane. It didn't look like a place you would see light elves occupy, and certainly not the dark elves—at least from what I imagine they would live in.

  I started moving around the garden, and when I crossed the corner, I saw plant monsters that had mouths full of sharp, long teeth. But they didn't attack me yet, so I continued moving forward through the garden. A few turns to the right, left, and forward, and then I saw a plant golem blocking my way. This one seemed like it wanted to fight. I started manifesting a ball of fire in my hands, and when I did that, all the plant monsters started showing their teeth and started hissing. It wasn't certain to me if they would attack if I kept the flame, but I thought that trying it wouldn't hurt, so I called back the fire into my hand.

  The monsters started returning to their original posts, and suddenly it was only me and the golem again. Maybe using fire is not the best move here; no one said anything about other things, though. As I thought of this, I ripped out huge chunks of the floor and threw them toward the golem, using force to try to crush it. It didn't work as well as I expected, as it had some anti-magic protection material in it and probably some wards. It's not impossible to get through it, but it would definitely be more annoying. I recalled the leftover earth chunks and scanned for the golem's next move.

  The golem lifted its body back up to a standing position and prepared to rush at me. I used my power this time to push him instead of crushing him with one hand, and with the second one, I power-grabbed its leg. It collapsed on the ground, and I immediately got onto its chest. I was about to use my empowered blade to start an actual battle, but I saw the crystal in its chest. I quickly pushed it out with my blade before it could smash me with its hand, which it already had lifted in the air. The golem stopped completely.

  Not a hard fight, but it probably wasn't supposed to be one. He was just four meters high, and even though that's a little more than twice my size, it's still not even close to the battle golems I saw back in my town—which says a lot, as there is not even a powerful mage lord around to make a strong one. I walked off it and I looked at the crystal. It was red and had a decent glow—not too strong, but it could power this golem for probably three thousand years, as it usually doesn't take much to power them. The combat itself uses a lot more power than simply guarding. This crystal was bigger than the power its glow indicated, which means it had already been active for a few thousand years already.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The golem was protecting the passageway to the castle, but the wilds to the left called to me. It was an unnaturally strong feeling that something was there—something I would very much want... I turned to the left and ventured into the wilds.

  After five minutes, it got significantly darker and you could feel danger all around; it's only a matter of time before something tries to kill me. As I predicted, I saw a few shadows moving behind the trees, and I pretended I saw nothing while preparing my body to shoot tentacles from my hands at them. They got to the top of the trees and jumped down at me. My black tentacles just slammed into them like a mountain, breaking necks and spines and shuffling them against nearby trees.

  A few seconds later, the fight was over. I walked over to the body of my attacker and looked at it. It turned out it wasn't even a beast that attacked me; they were just monkeys with light green fur and short claws. Not too shabby. There is one good thing about it... I am hungry, and they are normal meat—not a plant, not a poisonous monster, just an animal.

  I prepared the monkey first by burning its fur and forcing my will on the fire to not burn the meat, and after a while, all I had to do was conjure a bit of water and clean it. After that, I put it on a stick over a fireplace and I let it cook for a decent time. I know how to cook, so it was okay even though I had no salt or any spices. After eating, I went to sleep around the fireplace while pushing out a bubble of my will for protection.

  During my sleep, I felt punches against my will, screams, and some beings trying to get through. But I was used to this; demons have been attacking my mind my whole life. The difference is that now, not only am I trained, but also powerful.

  After a few more hours of sleep, I woke up. I looked around... still very dark, as there is not much light that can get through the tree crowns. You could still see better than at night, so I saw a few figures on the edges of my mind protection. I tried to see their silhouettes more clearly.

  Now these ARE monsters. One of them was a shadow being that looked like a demon. The second one was a really big spider with some mushroom-like parasite on its back. The third was a mosquito that was the size of a truck—also, its body stunk of venom. And a dessert... a fucking wendigo. A seven-meter-tall wendigo...

  Now that's a big step-up from the golem, especially since a wendigo possesses magic. I was thinking about the best way to start the encounter. The wendigo and the shadow being definitely will not go down fast, so realistically, if I want to win, I need to focus on the other two first.

  The spider has a parasite on top of it, and from what I remember, if you hit the parasite, it will make the host feel pain, so this is an option. The mosquito has strong but thin legs, so if I throw enough force in a small area there, they could break, making it a 3v1 for a decent amount of time. The shadow being will be vulnerable to soul fire or light. Light was never close to my heart, so the choice was obvious. The wendigo will be a lot tougher: a lot of dodging, spell sparring, and illusions.

  Well, now I know what to do. It is time to let it bloom.