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“Congratulations! Body Stat Endurance Sub-Stat Crafter Endurance has reached level 11! Progression to level 12: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Body Stat Endurance Sub-Stat Crafter Endurance has reached level 12! Progression to level 13: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Recovery Sub-Stat MP Recovery has reached level 10! Progression to level 11: 5%! +5% to recovering mana quicker while in combat.”
“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Recovery Sub-Stat Stamina Recovery has reached level 15! Progression to level 16: 1%!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Will Sub-Stat Will Power has reached level 15! Progression to level 16: 5%!”
“Congratulations! Spirit Stat Will Sub-Stat Zen has reached level 17! Progression to level 18: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Knowledge Theory – Mana Control has reached level 12! Progression to level 13: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Knowledge Theory – Mana Control has reached level 13! Progression to level 14: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Knowledge Theory – Mana Control has reached level 14! Progression to level 15: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Channeling has reached level 11! Progression to level 12: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Channeling has reached level 12! Progression to level 13: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Channeling has reached level 13! Progression to level 14: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Control has reached level 5! Progression to level 6: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Control has reached level 6! Progression to level 7: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Control has reached level 7! Progression to level 8: 0%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Manipulation has reached level 5! Progression to level 6: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Manipulation has reached level 6! Progression to level 7: 100%!”
“Congratulations! Mana Manipulation has reached level 7! Progression to level 8: 0%!”
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Liam read through all the level ups he had gained from doing the challenge he had just taken on. His breathing had started to even out as his stamina filled halfway.
The pounding he had racking his head had dulled out as well while his mana slowly refilled.
“Cut it kind of close there,” Liam muttered to himself before a new screen appeared in front of him. The lettering was a greenish color.
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“Congratulations! You have completed the first challenge!”
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Liam nodded as he thought to himself, Kind of figured, but it’s always good to get confirmation I guess.
After he closed the message out another popped up.
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“Congratulations on completing the first challenge taking a much harder and unorthodox approach to it. You have gained a reward for completing the challenge with an approach not recognized or designed for the challenge given. Not only that, but you completed the challenge with some of the contents still left over.”
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Liam’s jaw hung open as he stared at the message.
Wha… Liam began to think as his mind tried processing what was in front of him. What does it mean I completed the challenge with an approach not recognized or designed for the challenge? If I wasn’t supposed to do it that way, then how the hell was I supposed to do it!
Irritation started to fill Liam the more he stared at the notification.
Before he blew a gasket, he let a burst of air and muttered to himself, “Calm down Liam. You were still able to get the job done even though you did it in a way it wasn’t meant to be done.”
Even though he was giving himself a pep talk to calm down, Liam started to realize he was just frustrating himself even more.
One thing did calm him down a bit though. It was the fact that his hard work earned him a reward.
As he stood up, Liam whispered, “I wonder what it is.”
He looked around to see if anything appeared.
Nothing new made itself noticed.
He then looked at the bottle sitting on the podium. He raised a brow as he walked over and grabbed the stopper.
He placed the stopper over the opening, grabbed the bottle by the neck, and lifted it.
To his surprise the bottle moved this time with no restraint.
“Is this my reward?” Liam muttered as he tried analyzing it once more.
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“Enchanted Runic Bottle of Liquid Fire. Item Type – Alchemic Creation. Item Rarity – Epic. Item Quality – Enhanced. Description – This bottle has been marked with runes to hold the Alchemical Creation, Liquid Fire within it and not let the heat affect the outside of the bottle. An enchantment has been placed to refill the bottle if it runs low of the alchemical creation. Warning, if all contents has been used up the runes and enchantments with cause the bottle to explode, never to be used again.”
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Liam’s eyes widened at the description. Even though the assessment read it was an epic rarity and enhanced quality, the first thing Liam thought was, How much was left when I finished the challenge?
Liam used his Mana Sight to look inside the bottle. There was a miniscule amount left inside. Barely more than a drop.
As Liam peered inside, he noticed the droplet was slowly growing.
“How cool is that?” Liam stated. “A self-refilling enchantment and runes to contain not just the liquid, but the heat as well?!”
I really need to learn Enchanting and Rune Crafting. Both of those are going to be game changers it looks like. Liam thought to himself as a grin grew on his face.
As he placed the bottle inside his inventory he started to go over what he just did.
“So, Mana Manipulation doesn’t just move solid objects,” Liam muttered to himself. “This challenge just proved that liquid touched or filled with mana can be manipulated too. Is there a way to do gas forms as well?”
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Liam thought it over. “Too many unknowns. Best to focus on what I can do now and experiment later on what I don’t understand then.”
He then looked at the open door and decided to move on to the next room. His stamina and MP were still a little over half way to full so as he walked, he drank an MP potion and a Stamina Potion to top off his bars.
As he entered the next area he was impressed.
The width of the room grew more than half of the last room. The length also extended almost a full football field’s worth. Even the ceiling had gone up quite a bit.
Yooperlite stones ran along the lines of the wall revealing they were bare.
As he scanned the room he noticed there wasn’t much in here either, just like the last room. He looked at the other side of the room and saw the doorway wide open. No slab or door barring it.
Liam looked at the ground and saw a white line run from the left wall to the right. It didn’t look special or ominous. It was just a normal line.
So once more I get no clues on what to do here. Liam thought as he took a step over the line.
As his foot and a small portion of his body passed the line, the room beyond the line turned green.
A buzz tingled on the side of Liam’s head, causing him to step back swiftly.
As he moved back, a stone sphere the size of a dodgeball flew pass his nose, barely missing it.
Liam’s eyes widened.
“What the fuck?!” Liam shouted as he felt his heart thump hard against his chest. “That came out of nowhere and so fast!”
Liam placed a hand on his chest and took a couple of slow breathes in and out to help calm it down. Once when he was calmer, he pulled his goggles down over his eyes and looked at the room for more detail.
After not seeing much, Liam activated his Mana Sight.
Once more, there was nothing.
Coming up with an idea, Liam pulled out one of his crude daggers from his inventory. He positioned his legs into a stance, aimed for the other side of the room and then threw as hard as he could.
A few things happened as soon as the dagger passed the line on the floor.
Through his Mana Sight, the area beyond the line lit up with brown, red, and icy blue colors.
As the dagger flew through the air, a few objects appeared. The first was a stone sphere zoomed from the right side of the room to the left right in front of Liam.
The second had three sharp icicles close by each other, but not overlapped. They each were at different heights. One at head level, one at knee cap level, and the third was at torso level.
The last happened as the dagger fell on the ground. Purplish yellow static electricity spiderwebbed across the tile the dagger landed on. Before Liam could say anything, a column of stone shot up, making the dagger fly into the air.
“Okay,” Liam started as he continued to stare at the dagger which was bouncing up in an endless loop from the earth spike. “This is a room full of traps. Seeing that I have no clue on how to disable traps I only have one option. Dodge, dip, dive, duck, and dodge.”
Before Liam moved to stretch his legs, he noticed something behind the dagger that was still stuck in the loop. It was two lines that were spread out with enough room for a person to sit down width wise.
“A checkpoint?” Liam questioned. He then shrugged as he muttered, “Won’t know till I get there.”
After he got done stretching he prepared himself by placing his right foot down behind him and his hands in front of him. It was a standing running stance one would get into before getting ready to run.
He breathed in a few times to try and calm his nerves. Once when his body felt relaxed he released the last bit of air he took in and then pushed off his back leg going forward.
As soon as his body passed the line, a buzzing sensation tingled on his whole right side. He ducked his whole upper body as low as he could without losing any speed and dodged the stone orb.
As he took another step his left side tingled with the same sensation. He stomped down and took a step back to dodge another stone sphere from colliding into him. Before another orb could hit him he jumped forward to dodge it.
As his feet landed from the jump, Liam sucked his belly in and tried moving his back as far as he could while an icicle flew past him. However, he wasn’t able to fully dodge it as it cut a small line across his stomach.
“Damn it!” Liam winced as he felt a cold pain across his stomach.
He went to place his hand on his stomach, but then stopped as he remembered where he was and couldn’t be lollygagging.
However, in that brief moment, a stone orb flew behind him and slid across his back. Even though the object slid across his back, the force of the momentum still felt like it had slammed him on his back and pushed him forward.
Liam fell to the ground, face first. Pain splashed all over his back and face, but he pushed his body as hard as he could into the air to dodge an icicle that was zooming towards him from down below.
As he came back down and landed on his knees and hands, Liam pushed forward to dodge another two sets of flying icicles.
This is so god damn hectic! Liam thought as he dodged a set of stone orbs and icicles by juking backwards and forwards.
Each step forward felt like a battle. Every time he took two forward, he took one back to dodge. His body screamed to rest as his bones and muscles ached.
Liam dipped and ducked as objects flew above his head. He dove when they zoomed at his stomach and dodged at the ones heading for his knee caps.
As his stamina bar reached the last quarter, he noticed the line he saw earlier.
Almost there! Liam thought as he panted heavily.
His eyes were set on reaching that line at all costs. Each step for that first goal felt like an eternity. Each duck, dive, dip, and dodge made him feel like his body was ready to drop.
As he was inches away from the line he remembered something really important. At first, he couldn’t remember, but as his foot stepped down in front of it a faint purplish yellow light came to life.
“Shit!” Liam cursed as he pushed off his foot and tried to jump the last tile length of the floor in front of him.
As his foot came down, he smiled. He had made it over the line. However, a shocking pain zapped up the back of his left foot and zig zagged throughout his body, paralyzing him.
He turned his head slightly to see not all of his foot had passed the line. A small section of the back of it was still on the electric trap. He braced for impact from the stone spike that was to come next but sighed in relief. His foot was far enough that the emerging spike shot up missing his foot. The body of the spike pushed his foot forward fully over the line.
The paralyzing effect of the trap wore off, fully relaxing Liam’s body. This allowed him to drop to his knees.
Liam panted heavily. His body aching all over from the obstacle course he just ran.
“That was…a lot harder…than I…thought it…would be,” Liam said between pants.
He looked at his stamina bar and saw how dangerously close it was to empty. He then noticed his health was at the halfway point as well.
Those stone orbs and icicles were no joke. Liam thought as he pulled out a health and stamina potion. One wrong move and I would have died.
As Liam was thinking, a few chimes echoed in his head.
I’ll check them out later. He thought as he looked behind him then back at the path he needed to finish.
Once when his breath got under control, he said, “Looks like I ran about half a football field. I’m surprised there isn’t any creatures trying to stop me as I try to run through.”
He looked back at the dagger that was still being sprung into the air and pulled it towards him with Mana Manipulation. He inspected the weapon and noticed how broken down and chipped it had become.
“Looks like you’re on your last leg,” Liam muttered. “Thank you for your help. I’ll need you to do this one last thing for me before you are completely destroyed.”
Liam brought his arm back behind him, aimed for the door, and then threw as hard as he could into the air.
As the dagger passed the next line, the area lit up with the same colors as the last area. However, instead of stone orbs flying from one side to the next, Stone figures suddenly appeared every five yards with icicles, waves of electricity bouncing around, and jets of fire moving in a circular motion like a jump rope appeared in the space between the figures.
Liam was shocked by what he was seeing, but was even more surprised as the last open section suddenly made the dagger plunge into the ground.
Gravity?! Liam thought. There’s a gravity trap at the end before the final figure?
“This challenge is no joke,” Liam muttered as he continued to stare wide eyed.
The elemental traps stopped, but the figures continued to stand there, waiting.
“How, in god’s name, am I supposed to do this?” Liam asked himself as he went over ideas in his mind.
This trial seems to challenge most of my Dexterity sub-stats. Liam began to think. I would believe that to be fully true, but I think there’s more this trial wants me to challenge and learn.
Liam replayed the last half of the room he had ran through. It really pushed his dexterity sub-stats, but that’s not the only thing it also challenged. He needed to be focused, adaptable, and react quicker.
Reflexes? Liam thought. No. Not just fully on my reflexes, but my agility as well. What do I have that utilizes both of those to get past those guys?
As he thought of his list of skills, abilities, and knowledge he remembered something he did have that didn’t rely on any of those. His Weapon Arts relied on nothing but his dexterity stats. Mainly his Agility and Reflexes since he couldn’t form them into an actual skill.
“It might work,” Liam muttered to himself. “It will all depend on how those statues move. If they move at all.”
He stared at the first statue and then shook his head. “There’s no point trying to think about ifs. There’s only one thing to do and that’s to go forward.”
Liam steadied his breathing as he stretched his arms and legs. The soreness from earlier had disappeared, but he knew he’d be feeling it tomorrow after a night’s rest.
He got into a runner’s stance, took one more breath in. As he unleashed it, Liam bolted forward.
As he passed the line three icicles shot towards him. The two that were on the outside were hip level while the middle one was flying towards his head. As the icicles were flying, the stone statue that was at the five yard mark scurried to stand in Liam’s line of sight without moving from the five yard mark.
Liam stopped as quickly as he could and ducked. All three icicles flew behind, in front, and over him. Once when it was clear, Liam side stepped as quickly as he could.
The statue followed his movements to block his path.
After the icicles crashed into the wall, a new set of three icicles shot towards Liam from his left.
Liam took a step forward in a thirty degree angle to his left bringing the statue with him. However as soon as his foot touched down, Liam pushed off of it and juked to his right. As Liam appeared on the right side of the statue, Liam noticed it bring a leg up and kick him back.
Liam flew back behind the line he had passed and almost rolled out from the other side.
Liam let out a cough as he sprawled on the ground.
God damn that hurt! Liam thought as he brought himself back up.
He stared at the statue and said, “Note to self, those things not only hurt, but are fast. How the hell am I going to get past this.”
Liam continued to stare at the statue trying to think of something.
After mulling it over he let out a frustrated sigh and muttered, “I’m just going to have to try and be faster.”
He cracked his neck and bounced a bit.
“Alright,” Liam said. “Round two.”