Chapter 20: Lessons and Rewards

Uzman stumbled into the new trial unprepared; he furtively looked around expecting danger. However, he only saw a sharp narrow stairway going up for an indeterminate number of steps. The stairway seemed to be suspended in the air in an otherwise empty room. Turning, he realized that there was no way out and the room was rapidly shrinking in size pushing him toward the stairway. There was no choice but to step on the first rung. From his previous experience, Uzman recognized that this was not a combat trial. He stood on the first rung wondering whether to move forward while furiously going over various possibilities about the nature of the trial. Having no alternative, Uzman decided to ascend the stairway and face whatever challenges that may lie ahead.

As Uzman went up the stairs, he realized that it was a form of an endurance challenge. Every step up the stair was a struggle as a massive weight started pressing down. It was as if he was fighting against gravity. As he neared a third of the way up, a light blizzard started blowing pelting him with debris. Uzman stopped. Confused; as far as he could see there was nothing but the stairway suspended in space yet he was being bombarded by a cold wind carrying debris. He struggled onward bracing himself against the wind. By the halfway point, his whole body was stiff and in pain. He stumbled after being hit by a clod of debris in the face and fell down three steps. He only managed to catch himself using the tip of his fingers tenaciously clinging to the rungs as if for dear life. He hauled himself up and continued ascending the stairway on all fours.

The pressure became unbearable as his body was subjected to all manner of torments. Uzman allowed his mind to remember the image of Zimri crucified on the gate of Kolcita. The blood that flowed across its streets when weak villagers faced the might of the Imperials. He would survive. He would persevere and gain strength. He used this as a mantra chanting it over and over in his head. 'I will survive, I will persevere, I will gain strength.

Uzman concentrated on the next rung and then the next, and then the next. Bruised and battered he ascended to the last rung and completed the trial. Immediately, the stairway disappeared and Uzman was in the room where he had started the trial. This time there was a table in the center with two pills that glowed a bluish-golden light. A floating screen hovered over the pills.

'TAKE THE HEALING AND RAINBOW PILLS TO ADVANCE YOUR TEMPERING. THE DUNGEON HAS NOTED YOUR RESILIENCE AND REWARDED YOU. YOU HAVE 2 HOURS TO CULTIVATE.'

Uzman took the pills as suggested and sat down in the lotus position to cultivate.

The tempering pill tore through Uzman’s body painfully, as his body was destroyed and remolded from within. The pill emitted a bluish-white glow that was similar to the color of Uzman's core. The energy spread through his meridians widening them and thickening them. Uzman ignored the pain that was coursing through his body and started the condensation process of his core. He had already started the process having understood the principles from his abrupt formation of an earthen shield.

Uzman selected motes of energy and envisioned a crystalline rectangular shape. He held them tightly through his will and forced them to congeal into a small crystal. He pressed them together until they condensed into a single crystal. Uzman was elated by this success. He continued the slow process gradually creating crystals in his Dantian. Chi rushed into Uzman's Dantian to fill the created crystals. noticed that the crystals held more of the energy which was immediately restored through cultivation. He was interrupted from his cultivation and pushed into the next trial forcefully after the end of the two hours that had been provided.

Uzman entered a dark forest environment with large canopied trees that occluded the sun’s rays from reaching the ground. The vegetation on the ground reached his knees. Immediately, he activated his energy sense recognizing the potential of an ambush from the long vegetation. Uzman scanned the forest around him following the energy flows he could detect. Failing to detect any danger, he continued stealthily deeper into the forest following the energy flows hoping to find spiritual herbs or other treasure from the trial. After walking for around 20 meters, he noticed a denser patch of energy ahead. Uzman slowed down apprehensive of whatever challenge awaited him ahead.

As he neared the source of the energy flow spike, Uzman noticed an isolated tree in a small clearing. The tree had some yellow fruits with a reddish tinge and seemed to be the source of the energy flows. Green vines spiraled around its trunk creating beautiful patterns. Uzman stood in front of the tree contemplating the reddish-yellow fruits. He hoped that the fruits had some medicinal or spiritual energy based on the energy flows emanating from the trees. However, he remained apprehensive since his grandfather had cautioned him that powerful spiritual herbs and fruits were protected by spiritual beasts.

After waiting for a few minutes scanning the environment with his energy senses Uzman determined that there was no danger and decided to pick the fruits. He started picking the fruits and putting them in his storage pendant. As he stretched on his toe tips to reach the third fruit, the vines entwining the tree came to life and grew thick tendrils that started wrapping themselves around his body. The tendrils sprouted thorns that dug into his body painfully.

"Aaargh!" Uzman yelled in pain. He tried to extricate himself from the vine to no avail. More and more tendrils grew from the vine wrapping around his body slowly tightening and constricting him like a python. Uzman augmented himself with earth trying to overpower the tendrils. However, the tendrils were morphing into vines and fastening him to the fruit tree. Additionally, the tendrils started wrapping around his head cutting off his air supply and slowly suffocating him.

Uzman slowed his breathing to sharpen his focus and consider his predicament. Using earth had failed to dislodge the vines. He dug deep and tried to project chi from the body and form a shield. As he almost blacked out from the lack of air, Uzman willed his Chi to form into a fire shield, switching from earth to fire. The shield resisted since the tendrils were digging into his airways disrupting his breathing patterns.

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Uzman created a visual of flames coating his body drawing inspiration from the last exhibition match. With every sinew in his body, he held the visual and forced his Chi to obey his will and gel into the defined form. Just before he passed out, his body burst out in an orange flame tinged with blue and turned the vines into ash as he lapsed into unconsciousness.

Uzman woke refreshed as if he had not just faced an ordeal where he had almost died. He did not have time to meditate on his ability to create a flame shield as he was immediately pushed into the 13th trial. This was a straight fight with 3 Rank 2 goblins. He easily overcame the beasts quickly weaving in and out of their attacks using his sword to deliver fatal blows. The fight showed Uzman that his strength and speed had both increased considerably after reaching the middle level of Rank 2.

The next challenge was more trying as he faced a pair of hobgoblins that were the same rank as Uzman. However, they failed to work in coordination allowing Uzman to isolate one and kill it quickly evening the odds. Facing the Hobgoblin, he used an air shield to blunt the impact of the blows and relied on the increased speed to attack its weak points.

As Uzman had learned in a previous trial, the hobgoblins were very strong but clumsy. He needed speed and accuracy to defeat them. As the hobgoblin swung the trademark mace, Uzman used his superior speed to bury his glaive in its throat trusting his shield to save him from the blunt force of the mace. As the hobgoblin died, its mace connected soundly with his air shield shattering it and throwing him 5 meters in the air to land clumsily on his back. However, it did not matter as he had completed the trial the moment the hobgoblin fell dead.

Uzman was looking forward to the two-hour respite at the end of every 5 trials as he walked into his 15th trial. He wanted to explore the nature of his shields. He had managed to create three types of shields in the trial. He felt it was important to assess their advantages and vulnerabilities. The first earthen shield had been inspired by the looming specter of death. The fire shield had been necessary to free himself from the vines, while the air shield had worked well against the hobgoblins.

When he walked through the shimmering door, Uzman found himself in a cavern where two men seemed to be fighting for their lives against 4 demon wolves. Additionally, there was a huge troll standing to the side of the altercation watching the proceedings dispassionately. As Uzman was about to jump into the fray, a rumbling voice spoke loudly jarring his eardrums painfully

“We have no quarrel with you puny human. If you choose to interfere, I will kill you personally,” the troll warned.

This was a moral conundrum. His duty as a cultivator was to root out demon kin from the Tanga plane. But in this case, doing so would lead to his death. He knew that beasts increased in intelligence rapidly after the Third Rank and could even develop speech. Using his energy sense, he noticed that the aura of the troll was too strong for Rank 2, though he could not determine whether it was in the third or higher ranks. He was certain, however, that he would not survive any engagement with the troll. Additionally, even joining the fight against the four demon wolves would not ensure victory since they would still be outnumbered four to three, and the two men seemed to be tired and on the cusp of defeat.

Without rationally knowing the reason, Uzman was drawn into the fight when one of the men fell to the ground wounded. A demon wolf had savagely bitten his heel. Another wolf had pounced on the falling man angling to rip his throat out. Reflexively, Uzman had thrown his glaive at the demon wolf. His aim was true, and the glaive speared the wolf through the heart.

“Why do you throw your life away human? You know you stand no chance of winning against us,” the troll asked as Uzman joined the fray.

“Because it is right,” he replied while dodging the claws of one demon wolf.

He had retrieved his sword and joined the remaining standing warrior. They stood back to back, ensuring that the remaining demon wolves could not attack either of them from the back. Uzman used earth since their fighting formation did not allow for maneuverability. Two of the wolves attacked from the flanks where it was harder for Uzman and his partner to coordinate their actions.

Uzman decided that passive defending provided them with fewer options as they were forced to respond to the attacks by the wolves. Switching his affinity to fire, he moved quickly to engage one of the wolves while creating a fire shield around his body. The wolf that had been stalking them was too slow to respond to the change in pace. His sword though of a low rank had been crafted to fight demon beasts and easily cut through the neck of the wolf before it responded to the attack.

Uzman pivoted quickly to face the other wolf. It barreled into him as he completed his turn; taking them both to the ground. The wolf howled in pain as it came into contact with the flames of his shield. It sprang back eyeing him warily. The other warrior was down, crawling on the floor with one hand while the other was attempting to keep his entrails from spilling to the floor.

When Uzman had engaged the wolves the other demon wolf had taken the opportunity to attack the tired warrior. He had managed to overwhelm it with his spear but suffered serious injuries.

“You have chosen your fate, I hope it was worth it,” the troll thundered as it waved its arms in the air.

Earthen spikes rose from the floor beneath Uzman impaling his legs. The spikes easily pierced his shield. Uzman only had a few seconds to think about the earthen spikes when a huge spike speared him in the stomach. He was immediately yanked from the room and fell gasping for breath outside the dungeon.

“You took like forever; you went in first and had to show us up by leaving last.” Lady Tameria tsked.

“Hi, everybody,” Uzman greeted the waiting students trying to look dignified from the floor. He looked around and noted that all the students who were selected for the dungeon trials were present.

Just as Uzman stood up, Masters Jalid and Jones appeared and were followed shortly by the Headmaster accompanied by Madame Zubiya.

“I am happy to see that all of you survived unscathed. We always try to ensure no fatalities but on rare occasions, we have had casualties. I would like to congratulate all of you. It was a masterful performance.

"As expected, Uzman went furthest only failing at trial 15. Lady Tameria and Kenzo tied for second at trial 8. Jurdur, Ishraq, and Prazard tied for fourth reaching trial 7,” The Headmaster informed the students.

“Congratulations to all who managed to ascend to Rank 2. This trial has been one of the tools used by the Academy to help students understand themselves better and thus advance on the martial path. I will now invite Master Jalid to inform you of your rewards."

“Some of you have already received rewards from the dungeon. However, the Academy provides 100 points for every trial that a person passes. This approach is consistent with our philosophy of helping the best grow stronger. Hand me your student tokens," Master Jalid ordered.

Uzman had won 1500 points from the dungeon on top of the tempering and healing pill. Kenzo, Tameria, Ishraq, Jurdur, and Prazard had advanced to the 2nd Rank during the trial. They were planning a celebratory feast at the first cohort hosted by Lady Tameria on the next day and invited Uzman.