The walk back to the steps wasn't long, if a little awkward. Nate and Reed were treating Lan like a terminally ill patient, walking on eggshells around him.
"I just wanted to say thank you. I know I've already said it, but seriously you are doing us a huge favour," Reed smiled, patting Lan's shoulder.
Lan glanced at Reed and shrugged, "Don't worry about it. I'll take my chances, however slim,"
"What a good attitude to have!" Nate exclaimed.
"But seriously, since you are such a nice guy, I just want to let you know something. The fourth, fifth and sixth steps are one continuous challenge. Two of us will pass the fourth step, and one will pass the fifth. But there's something you should know."
"What?" Lan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The time for each step is a maximum of one day each, meaning by the time you complete the sixth step, 3 days at most will have passed,"
"3 days…" Lan echoed, doing the math in his head. That would leave at least 5 days to climb the final two steps, do the dungeon and whatever other stuff popped up. Of course, what was the worst case scenario, but it was best to be prepared.
He took a deep breath, clearing his mind. 'One step at a time, and the next step is the fourth one,'
"Not that you will be in there for that long," Nate laughed, patting Lan on the back with enough force to dent a car. Lan didn't budge.
Reed smiled self-deprecatingly, "Honestly, I'm not even sure either of us will make it to the end. Since the sixth step is a three-way battle against three other winners…." He trailed off ominously.
"Wait… So how exactly does this work," Lan interrupted, trying to get a clear picture of what would come next.
"Ok, so the fourth, fifth and sixth steps have one unifying through line. It's called the train. We will not be physically fighting against each other. Rather, it is a race to complete challenges and advance our trains down the track. Every round completed, I.e., after each step, the weakest of us will be eliminated. Finally, three winners will face off in a physical confrontation on the sixth step. Only one person comes out of that victorious," Reed explained.
Lan nodded, picturing the process in his head.
"I would like to explain more to you, but we should really get going," Reed apologised, leading Lan and Nate onto the platform and towards the first step on the far side.
The platform was a bloody mess, and Lan left footprints in the sticky red liquid as he slipped between violent skirmishes. Everywhere he looked, someone was killing someone else.
In one particularly gory case, he watched a girl get her arm chopped off. Without a moment of hesitation, she suicidally rushed her opponent, landing a blow before being beheaded. 'It won't be long till she's back,' Lan noted morbidly. Seeing the nasty scowl on her opponent's face, it looked like this wasn't the first time he had fought her.
Perhaps his companions' battered uniforms kept people away as they walked across the platform to the wall. Everyone knew what that meant. These two had not died once.
In unison, they placed their hands on the stone wall littered with carvings.
Alert: Fourth step: 99/300 capacity – Enter with a group [Y/N]
"On the count of three," Nate said, holding up his other hand to show three fingers.
"Three," Lan breathed deeply, tasting the bloody stench of iron in the air.
"Two," Reed shifted, moving his free hand to the bow over his shoulder.
"One," Nate finished, pressing yes.
For the second time today, Lan's world went black and then quickly blinding white.
'Here it comes,' He groaned internally.
Welcome, Challenger, to the fourth step. Your task for this step is to find suitable cargo and deliver it to the train before 24 hours pass. The two challengers with the most cargo will pass this trial… GO!
'And there it is,' Lan sighed morosely, 'But seriously, is that all I get? No locations, no nothing?'
He looked around, trying to get his bearings. What he saw shocked him to his core. A mountain like nothing he had ever imagined loomed over him, dwarfing the very sky. Rugged snowy peaks pierced through the cloud cover, scraping the stars.
Surrounding the mountain was five distinct biomes. They were segmented into equal parts, each posing its own unique challenges.
"Now, where is this train?" Lan muttered, looking around for any nearby train tracks.
Unfortunately, he came up short. 'Of course, it wouldn't be that easy,'
Standing at the foot of the mountain, Lan could just about make out two of the nearest biomes. One was a tangled, overgrown jungle that seemed to be growing in on itself. Its dense leaves and creeping vines looked impenetrable from where he was standing. The other was a volcanic wasteland devoid of all life. Geysers exploded at random intervals spewing boiling steam into the air, creating an otherworldly blanket of mist over the hellish landscape. The only colour other than black rock and white mist was the occasional splash of red as lava bubbled to the surface.
'I have two options. Either I start looking for the train immediately and run off into the jungle or lava land. Or I climb the mountain and hope to spot the train from a higher vantage point,'
One of those options seemed more efficient than the other, so Lan began climbing. The mountain was alpine, spotted with green outcroppings of fir trees, the boughs of which sagged heavily under the weight of thick snow.
Understanding that he was on a timer, Lan couldn't afford to relax and enjoy the picturesque scenery. It blurred by as he sprinted up the mountain, running at full pelt.
He shot past the first cloud layer after barely a couple of minutes running, but from there, the going was tougher. Ice covered rocks that were quickly becoming too dangerous to run across. And the mountain only grew steeper the higher he climbed.
It was around the second cloud layer that Lan started to struggle to breathe. His breath came in short gasps, straining desperately to extract oxygen from thin air.
From here, the ground shrank away. Giant jungle trees looked like models a child could play with. Lan was so high up he could almost see the curvature of the world he was on. With some perspective, he quickly came to a realisation.
'I can't just keep climbing like this. I'll die. I'm not even halfway up the damn thing, and breathing is already this hard,'
"This should be high enough," He wheezed, turning around and trying to get a good look at the lands below. From here, he could see it all, every biome, every plant, every rock, everything. It was all laid out before him like god's sandbox.
The two biomes closest to him were roughly the same size as the other three. All of which posed their own challenges.
After the jungle came the desert. Golden sand piled in rolling dunes that appeared to centre around an ancient red Pyramid in the middle of the desert. A colossal stone sphynx watched guard quietly beside the pyramid, its visage so life-like that Lan half expected it to get up and walk away.
Shifting his gaze from the desert, Lan arrived at a creepy swamp. Hanging vines reached down towards murky waters hiding spine-chilling creatures. Once again, Lan noticed that the swamp was centred around something. A vast patch of trees was missing in the centre. Within this bald patch, a single tree towered above all else. Beneath it, a small hill covered in unreadable patterns rose from the murky swamp.
Finally, he found signs of the train. A white marble line disappeared into a gaping tunnel at the foot of the mountain. Lan could just barely make out railway tracks on the marble. Tracks that he followed to an old-fashioned, green steam train.
Stationed beside the final biome, the vibrant green train stood stark against the pristine snow.
A world of pure white made up the final biome. It looked like a chunk of the arctic circle had been transplanted there. Like all the previous biomes, this region also centred around something.
In the middle of the snowy planes lay a frozen lake. The ice was a pale blue, and a black totem pole stood in the middle of the lake. Lan was too far away to make out the faces carved on the pole, but his vague impression was that they were demonic to the core. Beneath the blue ice, something shifted slightly, not enough for Lan to notice, but it moved.
'The other two biomes must also have something in the middle,' Lan reckoned, shifting his gaze back to the original two regions.
In the centre of the jungle was an overgrown Aztec temple, slowly being smothered by ivy. An ancient tree grew straight through the centre of the temple.
'Huh?' Lan frowned; he could have sworn something colourful had just moved on the tree branches.
"If those objects in the centre are where I find my cargo. I wouldn't expect something valuable to be unguarded…." Lan trailed off, squinting towards the branches of the mighty tree.
Something moved again. It was hidden by densely packed green leaves, but it was there. Bright reds and vibrant yellows popped out between the gaps in the leaves. Before he could get a better look at whatever it was, the thing stopped moving, returning to its cover behind the branches.
"Damn, if the temple is guarded, then I bet the other ones are as well," Lan cursed, turning his attention to the final region.
In the middle of the volcanic region was a stout volcano. Lava poured from its molten centre, dripping down to the land below. In the centre of the volcano, a grey obelisk poked through the pool of lava, reaching towards the sky.
Try as he might, Lan could not find the obelisk's guardian anywhere… 'Unless it's below the lava… I'm going to stay away from that one,'
Lan sat down on a rock, catching his breath and coming up with a plan. He knew where the train was and had an idea of where to find the cargo. The question was: How should he go about this? And how much cargo was enough?
The announcer had said the pathfinders with the most cargo would pass, but how much was enough? One piece, two pieces, all of them? Lan wasn't sure. 'If I want to play it safe, I should aim to get every piece available. Now…’ He looked down the mountain at the sprawling regions surrounding it.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
'Where should I begin?'
After deciding, Lan began running back down the mountain towards the volcanic region. He would progress clockwise around the mountain. First, visiting the volcano, then the jungle, then the desert, the swamp and finally, the snowy region where the train was located.
'I know I said I would avoid the lava monster… So, I really didn't expect to come to blows with the damn things so soon. Whatever it is,'
The volcanic wasteland was tame as far as volcanic wastelands went. A geyser here, an explosion of magma there, nothing too dangerous really…
"Shit!" Lan spat. He had barely felt the vibrations that time. Only managing to dodge a steaming pillar of death by the skin of his teeth.
There was a trick to walking on ground that could explode at any moment, and that was listening. If Lan listened closely, right before an explosion was due to happen, he would hear it. A low rumble building up strength in the bowels of the earth.
Like this, he managed to avoid the never-ending barrage of geysers and magma, skipping from safe spot to safe spot as he crossed the desolate landscape.
Comparing the volcanic region to the mountain, it was like Lan had stepped from inside a freezer to an oven. Boiling sulphurous air choked him, and he would have removed his robe due to the extreme heat… If he had any robe left.
Black lizards that resembled komodo dragons sat quietly by the mouths of geysers, relaxing while they absorbed the heat. By avoiding these groups, Lan succeeded in dodging both geysers and a fight. Not that he minded a fight, he just didn't have time right now.
Crossing a gully with a molten river running through the bottom, Lan craned his neck up at the volcano. It was active. Bubbling lava poured from the rim of its crater in pulsing rivulets. But it wasn't erupting, and that was a fundamental difference.
'I've had enough erupting volcanos to last me a lifetime,' Lan winced when he remembered getting cooked alive by magma and peppered with volcanic debris.
"Not long now," He muttered, beginning to climb the side of the volcano.
It was slow going at first. Due to the irregular nature with which the magma had cooled, Lan's way was constantly blocked by massive outcroppings of basalt and little rivers of fire flowing down the mountain.
But thankfully, he had some experience climbing volcanos and quickly got the hang of it again. Jumping from outcropping to outcropping, he scaled the flaming mountain in barely ten minutes, arriving at the top.
There he crossed over the lip of the crater, being greeted by a bubbling lake of fire. The heat alone would have killed a normal person who didn't have Lan's endurance. Never mind the occasional spurts of lava that shot out of the lake without warning.
"Jesus, it's hot up here," Lan wiped his brow, adding another layer of dirt to his 'robe'.
At the centre of the lake, a grey obelisk covered in golden carvings rose from the magma, unperturbed by its extreme heat. Lan could make out a titanic lizard curled around a rustic campfire carved onto the obelisk. The carving was so realistic Lan could almost hear the flames crackling… Or maybe that was the volcano.
A drop of sweat fell from Lan's brow and landed on the dark basalt. It sizzled the second it landed, spitting steam back up at Lan. He felt like he was walking on burning coals, and the faster he got this over and done with, the better.
Black rocks barely poked up through the lake of fire, presenting precarious steppingstones Lan could use to reach the obelisk.
He walked over to the edge of the lake and squinted, trying to figure out what route he should take to cross the lake.
After picking his route, Lan clenched his teeth and jumped. The shore slipped away, and he flew towards the nearest steppingstone, landing heavily. He teetered on the verge of falling, barely finding his balance at the last moment.
Taking a deep breath, Lan calmed himself and jumped again and again and again. Over and over, he hopped from steppingstone to steppingstone, all the while ignoring the agony in his feet touching the scalding rock.
In the lava, something moved. It only let a faint hiss as it slid through the viscous molten rock, but Lan heard it. He whirled around, trying to catch the source of the sound.
Nothing.
The surface of the lake was perfectly still. 'Shit, I don't like this.'
Spurred on by the unknown creature, Lan jumped again, lava flying by beneath him.
This time he caught it. Out of the corner of his eye, something moved, something huge. A burning red spine cut through the lava like a shark's fin in water. Before Lan could look closely, it sank back into the lake.
But he had seen enough. Whatever it was, it was headed right towards him.
This time when he landed, Lan didn't bother steadying himself before he made his next jump. As his feet touched the burning steppingstone, he immediately jumped again, flying to the next one.
Behind him, the spine rose through the lava, slicing towards Lan at breakneck speeds.
He was almost halfway to the obelisk, and the closer he got; the more desperate Lan became. His skin crawled as he bounded from steppingstone to steppingstone, straining with everything he had to stay ahead of whatever monstrosity lay below the lake's surface.
When only a few jumps stood between Lan and the obelisk, it struck. He was mid-jump and had nowhere to go, helplessly falling towards the monster as it lunged out of the lava.
Its head was like a Komodo dragon's, lava dripping from black scales as it burst from the lake of fire. On its back, a flamboyant spine like that of a Spinosaurus glowed the same colour as the lava.
Time slowed for Lan as he fell towards the gaping mouth packed with wickedly serrated teeth. He could see his own death at the back of that throat. It would be gory.
The monster was lunging straight towards him, rising from the lava like a breaching whale.
Contorting his body in mid-air, Lan managed to avoid the jaws, pushing off the monster's foreleg and jumping with all his strength towards the obelisk. It roared furiously, turning and snapping at Lan as he flew across the lake, landing on the small outcropping that housed the obelisk.
The second he landed, Lan turned around, desperately searching for where the next attack might come from. But there was no sign of the creature. It had completely vanished beneath the lava.
'I knew I should have avoided the damn thing. I didn't even get a chance to see what level it was,'
Lan shook his head like a dog, clearing his thoughts. Now, he would have to keep one eye on the lake as he searched for the cargo, whatever that was. He quickly scoured the platform around the obelisk, searching for… anything.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spied the spine sliding through the lava. The creature circled him like a shark would stalk a stranded surfer trapped on a reef.
A thought occurred to Lan as he watched the creature swim through the lava. Wouldn't it also work as a medium for mana? The beginnings of a grin crept across his face as he watched the creature swim. The next time the damn thing attacked him, he would fight back.
The platform wasn't big, not compared to the obelisk, anyway. It was circular, about ten metres across and rose half a metre above the lake. This meant that it didn't take long for Lan to explore it in its entirety. There was nothing, no cargo, no treasure.
'Did I come to the wrong place?' Lan wondered, a sinking feeling constricting his chest. 'No, there must be something here, something to do with the obelisk,'
Testing his theory, Lan reached out, brushing his hand against the rough stone. The golden carvings were smooth to the touch, and a weird gut feeling emerged as he traced them with his finger. 'I should channel mana into these,' He wasn't sure where it came from, but after he tried it, he knew it was right.
Brilliant light travelled up the carvings as mana entered them, quickly encapsulating the entire obelisk in a magical radiance. At the centre of the carving, the bonfire began to shine brilliantly, projecting a fiery red radiance onto Lan's chest.
Cargo retrieved; the train is waiting.
Alert: Temporary title acquired – Embers
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Effects: increased affinity and resistance to fire and extreme heat.
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Note: Blessing removed on failure to pass the fourth step.
'It's perfect!' Lan was always happy to earn more titles, especially when it was a title that helped him resist fire and he was inside a volcano.
'Now, the monster will be less of a threat. Maybe I could even just run past it and...'
As it turned out, the monster thought differently. The second the engraved fire began glowing, it surged through the lava towards Lan, leaving rippling waves of lava in its wake.
Lan jumped back, shocked out of his thoughts of pacifism by a hulking monster throwing itself at him. It lurched out of the lava, crashing down on the suffocatingly small platform. As it burst from the lava, it sent specks of molten rock spraying in all directions. Some landed on Lan, but thanks to his new title, he could ignore them for the most part. What would have previously burned a hole through his skin only left an angry red welt.
Now that it was entirely out of the lava and he could get a good look at the damn thing, Lan felt slightly more confident in his ability to win.
Firstly, there was its level.
Fire wyrm – Level: 13
He had killed stronger before, even if the circumstances were slightly different.
It towered over him, looming almost 5 metres tall at its head and at least 30 metres long. The fire wyrm was so massive that its tail and back legs dragged through the lava, unable to fit on the platform with the rest of its body.
Deciding to take the initiative this time, Lan ran up to the obelisk and jumped, pushing off it and soaring towards the creature's back. He landed there, grabbing its protruding spine to anchor himself as the colossal lizard writhed beneath him.
With a grunt, Lan stomped down on the fire wyrm's back, making a loud crack like splintering wood.
The wyrm opened its mouth and screamed, belching fire from its gaping maw. The fiery spines on its back began to heat up, glowing so brightly Lan couldn't keep looking at them. It was like staring directly into the sun.
'What is it doing?' Lan felt an ominous sense of growing danger as he watched the spine glow more intensely. Too preoccupied with the spine, he didn't notice that the tail still dragging in the lava had also begun to glow.
A low rumble spread from the wyrm's belly, growing in intensity as it reached the monster's spine. Lan felt like he was standing on a broken pipe on the verge of exploding, extreme pressure building up beneath him.
"Shit," Lan frantically stomped on the monster's back, digging his heel between the overlapping black scales as he tried to stop the thing from doing whatever it was trying to do. But his struggle only made the wyrm angrier, roaring loudly as its spine glowed blindingly bright.
In a last-ditch effort, Lan grabbed his scythe, and after strengthening it, he began hacking at the bony spine running across the creature's back. But it was like chopping wood with a blunt axe, and his scythe kept getting stuck uselessly in the spine, causing the beast minor damage.
'I bet your head isn't this tough!'
Lan abandoned the spine and picked his way along the monster's back, trying desperately not to be thrown off into the lava.
He finally arrived by the wyrm's neck, taking a deep breath as he stared down at the glistening black scales.
'Let's do this!' Lan hyped himself up, activating mana strings.
Strands became a rope, and that rope was quickly lowered down into the lava below, turning from transparent blue to solid red. He held two ropes, one in each hand and followed the inspirations that came to him in a flash.
Joining the roped together at either end, he created what resembled reins of fire, looping them under the Komodo dragon head and tightening the loop around its neck. The fire wyrm bucked wildly, but Lan held tight, increasing the pressure on the noose he had formed around its neck.
The wyrm roared, a deep, throaty thing, vomiting flames onto the platform in a messy deluge and finally, it attacked.
All the pressure building up in its spine exploded in a terrifying supernova of lava. Its tail funnelled lava from the lake into its spine, which spewed liquid fire into the air, raining down a cascade of death and destruction.
Lan looked up wide-eyed as the wave of flame fell towards him, 'Please work new title!' He prayed, clenching his teeth and tightening his grip.
For what felt like an eternity, they struggled inside the flames, Lan refusing to let go and the wyrm refusing to die. The final victory would be decided by who died first. Would Lan burn, or would the wyrm be suffocated?
Horrific burns marred Lan's skin as the magma landed on his back, incinerating what remained of his robe and leaving agonising third-degree burns on his back. He stifled a scream and pulled tighter, hearing the wyrms bone's groan in response to the added pressure.
Suddenly, a crunch rang out, and the wyrm screamed no more. Its body went limp, and Lan did something similar, collapsing in a heap on its back as it slumped halfway out of the lake. Its huge body looked like it would capsize the platform the obelisk was on.
Alert: Killed lvl:13 Fire Wyrm – Experience gained (Bonus due to level difference)
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Alert: Level up: 9->10
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Alert: Class options available!
Too tired to care, Lan had but one wish. ‘Let the other guardians be easier to kill,’ he prayed.