The Red Rhino’s Fallowed Forge!
The sudden removal of pain felt strange. The immediate and unintended cessation of the Water Dance spell didn’t help. Elijah felt like he had just been removed from a searing pool of viscous oil and thrust, far too suddenly, into the coldness of the void.
His limbs degelatinised as his mind cleared. In less than a second, he was back to normal – physically at least. His head was still spinning from the abrupt change. One moment he was fighting for his life, struggling to maintain the balance between human and water; the next, he was not.
Despite his growing headache, the teen had the wherewithal to select his next Evolution, Hammer of Blood. A new Skill was added to his list the second the System heard his choice – Hammerhage.
Before Elijah could begin to acclimatise to his voidly state, a new sensation overtook him. It wasn’t pain, not exactly. A pressure spread, centred behind his sternum. The feeling crept out, quickly seeping into his chest, legs, arms, and head. It was as if a bomb was exploding inside him; only it was silent and in slow motion.
He tried to scream as an overpowering feeling of dread assailed his mind, but there was no sound in the vacuum. The nothingness was unwilling to hear his sudden and desperate plea.
The teen’s skin turned even paler than normal, and a clammy sweat blossomed all over him. He clawed desperately at his stomach as the pressure continued to grow. Reflexively he curled up, his position that of a foetus.
The mounting wrongness caused Elijah’s eyes to blur. The Trial built itself around him, but all he saw was grey. There were blobby mountains, the colour of ash, and a wide-open, charcoal canvas that overcast the sky. Smudges of grey filled the air and marred what little he could make out.
A deafening rush of static filled his ears as the sensation of pressure continued to grow; the only thing that broke the building white noise was a thick, viscous, bubbling sound. It set his grinding teeth on edge and caused the hairs all along his back to stand on end.
Despite the teen’s rapid, shallow breaths, he detected an eggy scent, intermingled with the smell of burning rock.
Elijah convulsed. The feeling of pressure reached its apex, and a seizure overtook the young man. For several heart-stopping seconds the teen wondered if this was the end, if he was about to die.
After what felt like an eternity, but was likely closer to a minute, the sensation receded, and Elijah was left breathless and aching, sprawled out on an ash-covered slab of stone. For the next few minutes the sixteen-year-old did nothing but breathe and try to calm down.
“What the hell was that?” Elijah wondered aloud. There was no response. When he finally recovered enough to think straight, his mind went to the creature that lived in his blood. Was it punishing him for some reason?
Looking inside himself with Mana Manipulation’s passive ability to see mana, Elijah found that the presence of the creepy creature had all but disappeared from his veins – they were nearly entirely pure mana once again. If not for the tiny dark spot near his heart, he would have thought the monster dead. The blood was not the cause of this; it was far too weak to do anything of the sort.
Lying on his sweat-covered back, staring up at a cloud-covered sky, Elijah’s thoughts turned to the Water Dance spell. Was that the cause?
The teen had thought the owl to be a kindly and sincere teacher. The bipedal avian had taught him how to use magic – even if Elijah couldn’t use jets of water to cut his foes in half and was mostly limited to internal magic.
Then again, the professor hadn't told him about the dangers of the empowerment technique. If Elijah’s resolve had been any weaker, he could have dissolved into a watery grave. Even now he felt a tug in the back of his mind. His mana wanted to change into water, and a part of him wanted, needed, the power that came with that transformation.
Elijah shook his head, shaking off the sensation. That spell was dangerous. Holding his hand up in front of his face and turning it over, he couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw a flicker of blue. That spell was far too dangerous. Even so, he didn’t believe it was the cause of his sudden attack; there were no signs that his blood or mana flow was disturbed.
He didn’t know what had caused the episode, so it was best not to think about it until he had a solution. With his breathing back to normal, Elijah finally stopped suppressing the notification that had been impatiently waiting in the corner of his vision.
The Trial of Evolution 1: Terranoceros Ignis
You have reached Lv 25 as a Terranoceros Ignis! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: Impress the Terranoceros Ignis with your skill to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.
What’s a Terranoceros Ignis? Elijah thought, staring at the abominable amalgamation of letters with confusion. He wasn’t going to find out by lying about, so he heaved himself to his feet, ready to discover what Trials lay ahead.
A part of him was terrified by all that had happened in the last few minutes. It felt like he had been mere inches from death, true death, for the first time since the beginning of the Slime Trial. Not knowing how to cope with the mixing emotions that churned in his gut, Elijah chose to keep pushing forward – seeking a distraction.
Pushing himself to his feet and sweeping sweat-soaked hair out of his eyes, Elijah found he was on a platform halfway up a mountain. It was a plateau, a landing, in the middle of an impossibly large staircase; a staircase that at one point had led all the way from the foot far below to the peak far above but now was little more than a dusty ruin.
The steps going down had fallen away, crumbled by time. If he had rolled over during his fit, he might have discovered what it felt like to fall to one’s death. Looking over the sheer drop behind him, Elijah’s vision began to warp, and he had to take a step away from the edge to stop the vertigo from overwhelming him.
Unwilling to spend any more time looking over the perilous precipice, Elijah turned his attention to the mountainous terrain that surrounded him. Everything was grey. Grey fur seemed to cover the geological features, grey clouds filled the sky, and grey snow fell lightly, but continuously, all around.
Holding out his palm and letting one of the flakes fall onto it, Elijah was surprised to find that the snow was warm. On closer inspection he discovered that it was not snow but ash that rained down as far as the eye could see in all directions.
Looking up, the teen traced the floating grey specks to their source. They were being shot up from the peak of the mountain, out of sight. Turning his head to take in the whole mountain range, Elijah discovered that all the peaks were spewing out this ash. These weren’t mountains; these were volcanoes!
As if to prove him right, a rumbling shook the world, coming from his right. Elijah watched as chunks of rock larger than him were tossed up into the air, raining down and burying themselves deep into the layers of ash.
Streams of lava followed shortly after. Their bright orange colour, a stark contrast to the otherwise monotone scenery. The sight reminded him of something. The bubbling, slurping sound that came from below the elevated staircase.
Elijah moved over to a seemingly undamaged section of handrail to look beneath the steps. The second he placed his hand on the grey stone, half of it fell away. The teen nearly joined the lump of rock. For a terrifying moment, he was bent over, staring down at a river of lava. It was more than twenty feet below, but still it burnt his face. Before he could collapse into a fiery death, he twisted his legs, falling face-first into the ash-covered steps instead.
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Groaning could be heard across the mountainside as Elijah rubbed frantically at his sore nose. His mood soon improved, however, at the appearance of a new notification.
Agility +1
The sixteen-year-old’s face lit up, if he was right, that was the final point he needed. He checked his stats.
Level: 9
Title: None
Name: Elijah L. Chim?ra
Race: Elijah I
Age: 17
Class: 17 and None
Skills: 14
Traits: 12
Attributes:
- Strength: 28
- Endurance: 17
- Vitality: 25
- Perception: 23
- Agility: 24
- Dexterity: 14
- Intelligence: 15
- Wisdom: 15
- Initiative: 12
- Luck: -20
Health: 250/250
Stamina: 165/170
Mana: 150/150
The teen’s eyes skimmed over the text until they came to rest on his Agility. 24 – the number required to wield the sword, the weapon once used by a long-dead king, Nimueh’s nemesis.
“Finally!” Elijah exclaimed with exuberance. After so long, one of the first items added to his Inventory could be put to use. The raven-haired lad had, of course, utilised it many times before, but now, now he had the Attributes to wield it properly.
Ecstatic, Elijah withdrew the blade. It appeared in his hand with a thought. He waited, but for the first time since receiving the weapon, it didn’t jump out of his hand like a leaden fish.
Once the teen was sure the sword wouldn’t slip his grasp, he began swinging it about, laughing maniacally. The weapon was perfectly balanced, slicing the air with remarkable ease. It was like an extension of his arm, connected directly to his will. With but a twitch of his hand, it swished this way, and with but the impulse of his mind, it sliced that.
Elijah only stopped his mad swings after getting a little carried away. He swung at a featureless stone statue, one of many that lined the enormous staircase. Elijah flinched when he realised what was about to happen, desperate to stop his ill-thought-out attack, but it was too late – the blade was already in motion.
The reckless boy clamped his eyes shut, expecting to hear the ring of metal on stone, worried he may have damaged his new toy. The sound he expected to hear never came. A couple of moments of blind silence passed before the sound of stone grinding against stone could be heard.
Opening his eyes, Elijah was greeted by the sight of a solid stone statue, the height of a man, bisected cleanly – a diagonal slash marring the intimidating work of art. He watched, slack-mouthed, as the top half slowly slid off the bottom before the chunk of stone tumbled into the river of lava below with a goopy thwack!
Elijah’s laughter was uncontrollable. The sweaty, pale teen giggled like a maniac at his newfound power. He stared at the blade as if it were a gift from the gods.
The teen’s expression twisted, however, when his eyes landed upon a chip in the blade. He scowled at it, hoping it was some trick of the light. But rubbing off the ash and rock dust with what remained of his spoilt clothes revealed that, indeed, a pinky nail-sized bite had been taken out of the edge.
“Shit.” Elijah cursed, his jubilance curdling like month-old milk. Already, he had damaged his dream weapon.
Frustration overwhelmed the whelp, and he lashed out, punching the remaining half of the statue. The aged stone crumbled under his fist – a Strength of 28 was nothing to sneeze at. The outburst of violence went a long way to improving his mood; it would have gone further if he hadn’t just broken his hand.
After a moment of seething self-reflection, Elijah hissed out a breath, letting his anger go. It took less than a minute for his Blood Regeneration to fix the injury, and with the pain gone, he could once again think clearly.
There was nothing that could be done about it now; he would just have to be more careful in the future and maybe keep his eyes open for a forge.
Letting his emotions subside, Elijah returned his focus to the Trial. Based on the notification, this was another test wherein he had to impress someone, much like the Owlkin Trial. The question was, where was this person whom Elijah was supposed to show off his “skills” to?
Looking up at the near mile of ascending staircase, the teen groaned. There was only one way to go, up. The answer to his question would obviously be found at the volcano’s peak. With nothing else to do, Elijah began what would no doubt be a long and tiring climb.
??
Elijah was wrong. Truth be told, it wasn't as bad as he had expected. With all the Attributes the slender teen had gained since starting the Trials, stairs, no matter how many there were, were not a challenge. Tedium was the real threat. With little beside ash – ash that covered the crumbling bannisters, ash that covered the blobby, humanoid statues, and ash that crunched under foot – Elijah soon became bored.
The sixteen-year-old had to stop himself from idly swinging his weapon, an unconscious impulse all boys had when holding a stick – or in this case, a sword. His mind wandered as he trudged ever upwards. He wondered how the imprisoned System administrator was doing. He wondered about the repressed memories he had unlocked. He wondered if the vile immortal he had been marked by was real or some fiction made up by the Candlesweep.
Elijah’s time wasn’t entirely spent reminiscing; there were some moments of interest on his ascent. Sections of the steps had crumbled away, eroded by time, or destroyed by one of the flying rocks that came crashing down as a result of the occasional eruptions.
The armed teen found finding a path across the jagged, ash-covered rocks to be quite fun – a break from the monotonous stairs. It was during one such diversion that he discovered something.
When jumping from one of the staircase’s broken support pillars to another, Elijah slipped on loose ash. Before he could fall into the river of lava that ran beneath the path, he latched onto a featureless statue lodged into the mountainside.
As he clambered his way back up to the path, the sixteen-year-old discovered the statue was not, in fact, featureless. Most of what he assumed to be the head had been worn smooth by time but by brushing away a coating of ash, he was able to make out an eye. It had several large bags beneath it and was quite small, but that wasn’t what surprised him. The eye was on the side of the figure’s head!
Elijah’s curiosity had been spiked. When he finally clambered his way back up onto the path, he was excited to learn more. Rubbing ash off the evenly spaced statues that flanked the staircase helped to alleviate some of the boredom the mundane hike elicited.
Sadly, most of the stone carvings Elijah assumed to be of Terranoceros Ignises, whatever they were, were too badly damaged by age to make out anything, other than that they stood on two legs. The occasional one did reveal more of the creature’s visage however.
They had a horn in place of a nose, possibly two. Funnel-like ears sprouted, one on either side of the head. Their skin was likely rough, though that could have been the wear of centuries of ash-fall.
Elijah was so invested in his archaeology that before he knew it, he had reached the summit.
Looking down, Elijah found himself on the rim of a giant basin filled with lava. The ragged manling was more than thirty feet above the pool of molten rock, but still, he could feel the searing warmth radiating off the fluid's surface – it felt like he was being sunburnt.
The path continued down, towards the lava lake. On the edge of the bubbling body of magma was some kind of open-air outpost. Stone tables were laid out in rows, tools sat in neat lines, grindstones stood unmoving, and a mini pool of lava had been set up as a forge. All of it was covered in a thick layer of ash.
Elijah scanned the smithy from his vantage, looking for whoever he was supposed to impress. Nothing moved; there was nobody there. The tired teen was just able to stymie his frustration – that had been a very long and very pointless waste of time.
Just as he was about to lash out in anger, a worrying impulse he seemed to be developing, his eyes spied another statue, this one intact. At least the universe had provided some form of compensation.
Eager to uncover the true form of these volcano-loving monster people, Elijah forwent the stairs and chose to bum-shuffle down the ashen slope.
As soon as the ground levelled out. He sprinted for the statue.
Already, he could tell what this creature was, though he remained confused by the name. Given the nomenclature of the other monsters, he would have thought these people should be called Rhinokin.
Checking to make sure he wasn’t missing something, Elijah brushed the ash off the statue’s face. When the monster’s red skin moved, the filthy young man nearly jumped out of his own. An eye opened, and the creature he had thought to be made of stone spoke.
“Quid agis?!” It spluttered in a thick and gravelly voice, grumbling with annoyance.
“What!?” Elijah shouted back, more aggressively than he had intended. He held his sword tightly, keeping it between him and the suddenly animate statue.
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