Chapter 22: Fire Forged

As Tides body made contact with the liquid fire mana, it ceased to exist. His cells were torn apart at the molecular level into nothingness. His feet vanished first followed by his legs, then his chest and eventually his head as well. The pool of fire began to react much more violently splashing and overflowing the well containing it. A blinding green light suddenly poured out of the well like a spotlight.

Tide reflexively removed his hand from the purple crystal which began to crack. Stepping back Tide was confused as to what happened. While he did so the purple crystal, he had just been touching disintegrated into dust and fell to the floor. Looking around, he was back in the original chamber of fire and had all his belongings still. For a moment he questioned if the trial of fire had even occurred or if he had simply hallucinated it all. This line of thinking was immediately disproven as he saw that his skin was still much tanner than before and a system window that popped up in front of him.

Congratulations you have completed the Challenge of Fire!

As a reward your body has been modified and you have gained the trait [Fire Forged].

Tide opened his stat screen curious on what had changed with the addition of this new trait.

Tide Blackwater

Lv: 12 (17%) [15 Stats Undistributed]

Class: Elementalist

Health: 850/850 (Regen 42/h)

Mana: 950/950 (Regen 95/h)

Stamina: 350/350 (Regen 35/h)

Vitality: 17

Strength: 5

Endurance: 7

Agility: 5

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 19

Control: 20

Affinities:

-Earth: 8%

-Water: 5%

-Fire 22%

Skills:

Traits: Observant, Fire Forged

The first thing he noticed was that his Vitality was five points higher than before. That in itself was a free level worth of stats. Tide became even more excited when he noticed that his fire affinity grew by a whole twenty percent. Perhaps entering the challenge was worth it after all. Usually increasing elemental affinities was a long and gradual process, but the challenge forcefully increased his bodies compatibility with fire.

After noticing those two differences he focused on the new trait to see what its description would say.

Fire Forged: A body purified and reconstructed by a pure flame. Effects: +5 to Vitality, +20% Fire affinity, Greater Fire Resistance.

Tide felt his body was brand new, no aches or pains from previous fights were present. He now felt comfortable in the chamber of fire and no longer was sweating due to the heat. He took a moment to meditate and see how his body was interacting with the fire mana in the air and was surprised to see that his body was drinking in the fire mana like a sponge. Now that his body was attuned to the energy it wasn’t struggling to gain control of it like before. Having a greater resistance meant that he would be able to shrug off most attacks using fire as its damage source. It was only one step below having immunity.

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Satisfied Tide thought about his next steps. It had already been about twelve hours since he first entered the training grounds, leaving him with around sixty hours of time left. Perhaps, there would be other challenges for the other three elements. As awful as what he just went through, it was a very efficient use of his time. If he had spent the five hours, he took to clear challenge, meditating to gain affinity he wouldn’t have gained nearly as much.

This train of logic led Tide back into the main room of the World Tower looking at the other three doors. He started off by checking each of their rooms. Their set ups were all the same. After touching the doorknob and teleporting into them, he was brought to a chamber where the air was chock full of their respective elemental mana. The mana was all produced by a different source in the middle. For earth it was a meteorite, water a mysterious pearl, and for wind it was a small green tornado trapped in a glass cage. Each room also had their own challenge pedestals with purple crystals affixed to them.

Looks like he just need to pick his poison. His plan was to try the air room next, but he didn’t think entering its challenge was a good idea until he unlocked the affinity in the first place. As such Tide would knock out the earth and water challenges before working on the air element. After making his decision Tide went back to the earth chamber and walked up to the challenge podium and place his hand on the purple crystal letting it suck his consciousness into it.

When he did, he once again found himself stripped of his possessions and in a new dark cavern.

A familiar window popped up in front of Tide.

Welcome to the Test of Earth

To complete this test, you must simply reach the center of the room. Upon completion you will be rewarded.

Tide let out a loud sigh and walked forwards towards the first ring imprinted into the rooms floor.

It only took four hours for Tide to finish the Test of Earth. He already knew these test gimmicks. Submit yourself to an insane amount of pain for power. The only difference was the method of torture. In the earth test it was gravity that was used to crush his body. It seemed like this test focused more on just his muscles and bones, compressing them making them denser. Once finished with the test he earned a new trait Stone Sturdy which had very similar effect as Fire Forged after he finished the test.

Stone Sturdy: A body refined under the gravity of earth and stone. Effects: +5 to Strength, +20% Earth affinity, Lesser Physical Resistance.

After finishing that test Tide moved on to the water room, wasting little time. The water rooms test was a different when compared to the other two he had already finished. Rather than having to get to the middle of the room he had to dive to the bottom of a pool of water. The water was denser than typical water and it was easy to float and difficult to descend. Another factor that made it worse was that the water was ice cold.

In this test pressure was the tool used to refine Tide’s body. At three different depths of the pool the pressure would ramp up to new levels. At the first pressure zone caused Tide to drown. He was unable to keep the air in his lungs as the pressure of the water squeezed it out of him. Whenever he passed out from being unable to breath, Tide would float back up to top and recover there. Eventually his lungs and other organs healed and became strong enough to withstand the first section.

In the second section his circulator system was the next target. The pressure of the water around him plus his dropping body temperature, prevented his blood from circulating. His heart still tried its best but, only ended up tearing itself and his blood vessels apart. Once they grew back and were able to pump blood around his body with enough force to combat the pressure, he was able to move to the third zone. At that point his ears and brain began to rupture under the pressure. After a couple of reconstructions, he was able to withstand this pressure as well and reach the bottom where pure water mana gave him one last remake before the test ended.

This test took him the longest due to having to get used to holding his breath for long periods and many more instances of him passing out and needing to rest. In the end it took him eight hours to finish it doubling the time it took to finish the earth test. Of course, the reward was just as good as the other ones.

Depth Developed: A body refined under the pressure of the deepest depths. Effects: +5 to Endurance, +20% Water affinity, and Lesser Cold Resistance.

After finishing the water test Tide needed to take a break. While he was often unconscious in the test his mind hadn’t truly been able to take a break. Merdon did say he didn’t need to sleep, but Tide wanted to take this break. A quick rest would let him regain his peak mental condition making easier to unlock the air affinity.

After a two-hour power nap Tide woke up and walked over to enter the last room in the world tower. It was about time that he figured out how to connect to the air element.