THE EVERLASTING

Volume 7

(The Crucible II)

Chapter 1

‘Ok, play it cool play it cool’ I thought to myself.

I was walking down an open field where nothing but tall grass was showing. It was similar to the floor that I had to escape the death ray from. The same pillar of light was illuminating the darkened night.

Yuna was behind me however carefully and prudently following my footsteps.

While I had both my hands behind my back and walked confidently. I mean if the monsters of this floor are of the same caliber of the ones we met before I can’t seem that they would want to bother with me

Even though I was releasing my presence I made sure it didn’t affect Yuna. I don’t think that she even noticed yet.

We walked through the open meadow without disturbance.

After we exited the portal she then said

“This is wired, for the first time inside the crucible I managed to clear a floor without fighting.” She said

“Do you have an idea why?”

I was still in front of her and wrote on air.

“Who knows…?”

The overseer however was silent.

Another doorway opened and we walked in

This time the gate opened inside a desert. It was huge. It expanded beyond what my eye could see. Not even a pillar of light was apparent in any direction. Then the gate closed down leaving us to fend for ourselves.

I began to look left and right but saw nothing that could be of help. Only hills upon hills of sand.

“This is dangerous…we have no idea what is the direction of the exit and if we stray out of the path we will end up dead…the weather is dry here and I cannot use my magic to make water for long…”

Actually…of all the floors this might be the most serious…I could try and fly in any sort of direction until I could leave the desert –it has to end at some point right?- but that would still be stupid if I don’t find the exit…staying here is also not an option…what to do?

I began to weight my options…should I pick a direction and go toward it? if I did try to fly I will need to carry her with me…I can’t seem to think that I could possibly be able to carry the both of us and for a long period of time and even more I don’t want anyone to know that I could use the aspects…

I began to think and took notice of Yuna who was still trying to look for a way or a hint so that we could find our way.

“There is nothing here…if only there was an oasis or something of the sort we could go toward…”

An oasis? Nature! Ah I can use that

I sat then down and began to meditate.

I entered equilibrium which by the way was a hundred times easier to do than in the void. It is fairly easy to harness the energies of the world. But what I did notice was the direction of the flow of energy and where they came from, this is what I was looking for. Although a desert it had to end at one point, and the closest point was the place that the most energy came from and it was north of where I was sitting.

I stood up and wrote.

“Follow me.”

“Euh are you sure?” she said “do you have an idea? Do you know where we should go?”

I wrote once again

“Yes.”

“Alright if you say so. I can’t seem to have a better option than sitting here or randomly selecting a direction.”

We began walking, an hour, two hours…three hours until she spoke.

“Are you certain of the direction you picked? I mean I still can’t see any indication that we are going the right way…”

I wrote once again

“Yes.” I took confidence from the increasing amount of energy that I was receiving.

She then sighed and moved along.

She was sweating while I didn’t feel the slightest discomfort from the heat. She then began to create water. But the drops were gathering very slowly into a small orb which she then drank…

“Do you want some water Arvion-san?” she said

“No need.” I wrote

“…”

And I just kept walking

Night fell and we were still in the middle of nowhere with the weather turning rather cold. But still nothing too uncomfortable. Yuna however was panting. We sat down while she used a ring on her finger to bring a piece of meat from within it. A storage ring.

She also brought out a small tent and few pieces of wood to make fire.

She lit the wood and placed a piece of meat on it.

It took a while until it was done then before she could serve herself she gave me a piece.

“Here.” She said

I then wrote.

“No, I need not”

She looked a bit perturbed but didn’t ask me again.

She just took the piece and began munching on it.

Right after she finished she said

“So. Can I ask you something?”

‘What is it?’ I wrote. I was beginning to feel annoyed by my inability to fully express myself but what can I do. I have to keep up the appearances…

“So I was wondering Arvion-san. From where do you come?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I hesitated a bit…then I wrote

‘Far away’

“…Okay, so you have a family?” she said

I was beginning to feel a bit annoyed.

“None.” I wrote

“…it seems that you are not a good talker, I won’t bother you anymore I am sorry.”

What the hell?

…

Anyway Yuna began to prepare the tent. But seriously speaking this is absurd…if she is planning on sleeping in the desert isn’t she afraid that there might be some monster lurking around here?

She then turned around and said

“I know I just said I won’t bother you but…I will be resting for a bit so could you please wake me if you want to swap turns so that you could rest as well.”

‘Go ahead’ I wrote.

“Thank you”

Then she entered the small tent while I was sitting near the flame.

I had nothing to do so I began playing with the fire. It seems that I can place my hand inside it and not suffer the slightest of burns…quite nifty. I then poured some mana into it and it turned purple. Really nifty and cool.

I stopped the feed and the flames turned back to their original color.

Time passes by slowly actually as I had nothing else to do.

I expanded my senses and tried to see if there are anything near us.

There actually were a few monsters here and there, from the shape of it, the closest thing which by the way was a giant scorpion was underground and a few hundred meters away. Probably lurking around waiting for an unsuspicious pry. And as I was feeling hungry I mean Yuna’s food would have done the job but I would need to remove my face and I don’t want anyone to see my new eating ‘habits’ as I much prefer raw meat…man I am turning into a monster…

I made sure that Yuna was really asleep before I walked away and also made sure that no other monster was close to the small camp.

I walked toward the beast and actually didn’t release my presence as I didn’t want to scare it off.

The monster began to move underground and rapidly began to un-burrow itself.

The first thing that showed were his gigantic red colored claws that appeared from underground while he and his body followed soon after. A big almost four meters from the ground creature. Without counting his raised tails as It had two tails with very nasty looking needles that reminded me with my own sword…oh hey he is a desert scorpion…it seems that now I know where the name came from.

The scorpion clamped down both of his cutters to make itself more intimidating.

It then took a swing at me that was easily blocked with one hand. After all I am in dragon mode already.

Disturbed, the scorpion decided to use its other hand and the same thing happened to it.

Unable to move any of his hands he went for the tail strike. I then released him and jumped backwards. I just wanted to gauge out its strength. It seems a bit stronger than a wyvern but not by much.

It began to hiss at me and clump more furiously while both his tails rose to make it more threatening.

I didn’t want to waste any more time nor did I want Yuna to wake up only to find me gone. And then becoming scared…wait a second why the hell am I even caring…

Ugh…I am turning soft…I hate myself and the way I think…

Feeling ‘unreasonably’ rushed, I had to stop playing with the scorpion

It struck at where I was standing, with both his tails, and was rewarded with a horizontal slash that cleanly cut through them. Black blood poured from the open wound, the scorpion began to screech from pain and hastily walked backwards. I didn’t want to give it the chance to burrow itself and escape so I lunged at it and slashed with my sword downwards.

It was actually quite fast considering its own weight and size as right before I struck it actually placed both its clamps forward but were instantly torn apart with the blade striking down its head rendering it lifeless as the scorpion dropped.

I then dragged one of the clamps and tore them apart. Fresh and delicious looking pink meat was underneath. I tried the taste and oh was I disappointed…although it was similar to the wyvern back there but this one was a bit more bland…tastes like chicken though.

I continued on eating for a while and decided to burn down the corps. As I didn’t want its blood or its scent to attract unwanted attention. Although I could probably handle whatever thing that could be hiding on this lesser floor if I could avoid it, then it would be even better.

However I forgot a little thing that actually made me appreciate the gift from Drakhsis.

After I had finished eating I placed back my mask and because it is so light and was always on my face I actually forgot it was still there. I mean it granted me complete vision and felt like real skin so you can excuse me. So I decided to burn the body of the scorpion the ‘cool’ way…meaning burning it with a fire breath…

So after concentrating mana into my lungs and just right after a willed it to turn to flames I remembered that I still had my mask on…but I couldn’t stop so I released it. And you know what happened next? The damn fire was casted from outside the mask... how? And why? I have no idea. But man that was awesome.

At least now I can use this spell without having to remove my mask…convenient…very convenient…

I continued on with scorching the body of the scorpion and went my way.

I was still on alert to all incoming creatures but they were still quite far away.

I got back to the tent and checked up on Yuna who was still sleeping.

Then I sat back again near the almost extinguished flame and waited.

The sun got high up after few hours of waiting but Yuna however didn’t wake up. It seems that she was too tired to do so. So I got back to her tent and nudged her to wake. We have a huge distance to travel.

Looking at her I saw that she actually was panting profoundly. But her eyes were still closed. She didn’t have any sweat on her so I placed my hand on her forehead. She was hot. I mean…heat you know her body was very hot…I mean her body temperature was high…focus Asura focus!

Her heart rate was very elevated although faint…it seems that she has a heat stroke…quite a pickle indeed…

I had suffered through one of these when I was with my master traveling, and I know how to treat it…but it might prove to be a bit of a challenge if I do so this time…

I began by strip- ahem...removing Yuna’s ‘unnecessary’ clothes which were just some torn leather armor and her sky-blue colored t-shirt. She had a pale skin color but was glistening with sweat. Her face was redden from heat and my thoughts went high wire when I had a better look. But I instantly decided against anything stupid and began calling upon whatever miniscule drops of water that still lingered in this dry air.

It was very hard to create a water ball but still managed to do so. I willed the ball to move toward her skin her very beautiful and distracting skin…God damn it Asura!

Sigh…

I willed the ball to coat her body and froze the thin layer of water.

I kept the mana fueling the thin layer of ice until I saw that her breathing began to slow down and her heart rate slowed down and steadied soon afterwards.

I stayed that way for a period of time until her body heat turned to normal. It seem that exhaustion and constant exposure to heat had caused her this sort of ailment.

I walked out of the tent without forgetting to place back her clothes as best I could.

But seriously she would need rest and remaining in this place will only serve to make her sicker.

A gust of hot wind soon passed me by and turning to see the source of it left me a bit shocked.

A huge god damn sand storm…ok huge is an understatement this thing was gigantic it rose too high above the scarce clouds and it width was beyond what my eye could see. It was like a tidal wave of sand that was going to engulf us soon. I don’t think that taking shelter inside that meager tent would be of help as it will probably tear it apart on contact.

It seems that not only the monsters can be a challenge in this tower.

I hastily entered the tent and gently carried Yuna in a princess carry.

“Morfii Drakh!” I spoke the old words and began to change

My nails transformed into claws my hair turned white and my skin turned pale with scales on different parts of my body. Two wings sprouted from my back tearing at the clothes given to me by Drakhsis but they will mend like always once I transform back.

I then took the skies.

I began to fly slowly not to cause Yuna more discomfort but it seems that if I keep this speed I will be caught by the storm. The damn thing was moving at an enormous speed.

I am sorry but I have no choice.

I sped up. My destination was the place I felt the most energy coming from when I was meditating, there has to be something there.

Even though my speed was quite high the storm was not slowing down at all.

Normally I could go faster but I think this is the limit while carrying another person.

The storm was on my tail by the time I was able to see the first signs of greenery.

There was a green patch of grass in the middle of nowhere with a small portal inside. No pillar of light to indicate the direction and no possible way for any to know the way…If master truly did manage to clear the first fifty floors, then how in the hell did he get through this floor.

The moment I entered the gateway the storm was tearing at the greenery that was still there. I placed Yuna on the floor and checked up on her. She was still out of it but it seems that she will be alright soon…

“You took your time Challenger.” Said the overseer in a clear and mocking tone.

“Well I had some things to do.” I said and just noticed that the overseer had spoken for the first time in a while.

“Your rewards of the first twenty five floors are still claimable if you wish them I can give them to you now.” he said

“Rewards?” I said.

“Yes, every twenty five floor you will obtain rewards, proof that you had cleared the crucible and the designated set of floors.” He said

“What are those rewards and why would I need them?” I replied

“It depends, as for the first twenty five floors you will be getting a box with gold, jewels, and a medal that proves that you had cleared it. Within these rewards are also potions that will help cure you of all aliments. If you care to take them I can give them to you at any point provided that you had cleared the earlier set of floors.” He said

Hmm…a potion that can cure sicknesses. I mean I understand what he is trying to get me to do…but why is he helping me…

“Alright. Then I want to claim my rewards.” I said

Soon after a small golden box appeared in the middle of the hall.

I opened it and saw various trinkets made of gold and jewels alike. But was only interested in the potion.

I grabbed the two that were laying there and used the storage ring that I had from the old man back at the cave and placed the box within. I then walked toward the still unresponsive Yuna and made her drink the potion.

I waited for a couple of minutes before she began to grunt and wake up.

She then looked at me and around the hall probably noticing that she is no longer in the desert. She gave a sigh of relief. A moment later she took notice of the state of her cloths…

Her face turned bright red and looked at me with an accusing expression…

“W-what did you do!” she said

Oh…I think I am in trouble…