Tai's ki and the ki around him began to gather around his index finger, but it was still the normal ki that he normally used.

He looked at his finger, seeing the usual red color of his ki, but he didn't want the color red, he wanted fire. Around him, he could feel the heat of the smeltery, the flickering of the fire. The heat that made him sweat, but felt comforting. The heat that forged, created, and destroyed.

The aura of the ki in his finger started to change. Instead of its usual inflowing state, the aura flickered and looked like it was fire. Its color also changed with a hint of yellow, and orange.

Valgrek stared at the fire that was made by ki and raised his eyebrow.

"Interesting," Valgrek said to himself.

You have gained a skill: Fire Manipulation (Ki)

You have successfully attuned your ki to the element of fire

This cannot be changed and your ki will now be naturally imbued with fire

Tai looked at the words in front of him. If he had known that this couldn't be changed then he would've thought about it more, but what's done was done and he might as well put it to use now.

Grabbing the scrap metal on the table in front of him, he started melting a piece of it with his fire, combining, and welding them together.

After a few minutes, the pieces of metal cooled down and they were now fused together.

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Rargos, as a demon, came from the underworld, or hell as some call it. There are many names, but it all refers to the same place. The place of the dead.

When beings die, intelligent or not, their soul is taken to the underworld. Contrary to popular belief, the underworld isn't that bad. At least at the first level.

The underworld could be considered a dungeon of sorts and to escape the underworld and go to the land of the living, one must be summoned, or reach the last level of hell and get past the guards.

The deeper one goes, the harder it is to reach the next level and not to mention that over time, after living in the underworld for so long, the energy of all the dead beings in the underworld begins corrupting beings and turning them into demons.

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Rargos is one of these beings that have been corrupted by the energy in the underworld and turned into a demon. A long time ago, he had tried to reach the last level of the underworld, but had gotten stuck at a certain level, and failed to reach the next.

Due to this, he resorted to being summoned by necromancers or wizards to go to the land of the living, but being summoned wasn't the same as escaping the underworld.

The summoner could dispell him at any time once he had finished his task, or if the summoner ever dies, then his link in the land of the living is severed and he is forcibly taken back to the underworld, but being summoned in a trial was different.

If one was summoned in a trial and beat the one taking the trial, then they would be given a reward and in the case of demons, they would be granted the ability to live in the land of the living.

Naturally, like the trial takers, if they died, they wouldn't actually die, but they would never be summoned in a trial ever again.

Rargos looked at Anna, seeing her staff made out of darkness. He didn't know much about the darkness, but he knew that it was an unstable element that could corrupt its user if one wasn't careful.

He grabbed his staff that he had strapped to his back. This wouldn't be an easy fight as from what he learned from the demons that he had met that were summoned into trials was that their opponent would usually be at the same level as them, but there were some exceptions.

"Begin the fight! Good luck!" the woman at the side announced.

Rargos channeled her mana firing a fireball at Anna. He wanted to pressure Anna as much as possible and leave her with no time to breathe as from what he could see, she had little to no battle experience and when one's strength is equal then experience determines the outcome of the fight.

Anna dodged the fireball and gripped her staff firmly. Her mana spiked in her hand as she threw a ball of fire stronger than the one Rargos threw at him, but the fireball that Rargos threw wasn't meant to damage her, only pressure her.

Rargos already knew that the fireball was coming way before Anna threw it and secretly channeled his mana as he dodged the fireball last second.

"You definitely have no experience in fighting with magic."

Hearing those words, Anna became angry and manipulated the darkness around him, tendrils appearing and targeting Rargos.

Rargos chuckled, "And easily baited too."

He disappeared from Anna's view, appearing behind her and attacked her with the mana that he had been secretly channeling. From this distance, and adding to the fact that Anna only noticed that he appeared behind her, it would be impossible for Anna to dodge unless she too, teleported, but Anna didn't know how to teleport.

The attack hit her clean on her back, her clothes stained with blood as she was thrown forward from the force of the attack, landing flat on her face.

"If this is how you fight then this'll be quick and easy."

Anna groaned in pain as she stood up, wiping her face off as her nose started bleeding. 

She turned around and groaned. "I won't let that happen again. I just didn't expect i-"

"And that's what gets you killed..."

Rargos appeared in front Anna and blasted her with fire, her clothes being burned away and revealing parts of her tanned skin as he backed away.

"In the battlefield, you must be prepared for everything."