Time was almost impossible to calculate inside this cave. Leading Noah to set up the only system that would give him some kind of normalcy for his perception. Counting sleeping as the end of a day, he had spent two weeks already working on his skills and trying to figure out how to advance.
The training was far less lucrative than when he fought. Entirely because as his mental capacity increased, so did his bad habits. He got bored, distracted, and all around hard to train. With only three levels in swordsmanship, two in meditation, and two in energy control. These didn't seem like much, and in Noah's opinion, they were. But he had gotten a hang of using internal techniques and could focus even longer. If he hadn’t been focusing entirely on learning the new language, he would have experimented on his new skills.
If it was all positive then Noah would have been happy with how things advanced. But after his swordsmanship leveled up one more time, he started to feel an unknown strain on his body. Then he realized his strength and agility were capped at 10. So despite the fact that his sword should increase his stats by 15, he couldn’t make use of little less than half of them.
“Damn priorities.” He thought out loud, the worry about wasting time and something happening because he took too long rising back up in him. He felt his heart tighten as he walked through the few rooms that he had access to. The flaming flower called out to him like it did every time he walked through the garden. It held such potential power if he would be willing to take it. But his will kept him from plucking the flower and continuing on. The stairs were so familiar to him now despite the short time he spent that he could walk up them without thinking.
Standing in front of the door he needed to unlock, he calmed himself down with meditation once again. He had been getting more and more stressed with all the time that passed, but today was the day he would open the door and see what this trial would reward him. Placing a hand on the door like he had done multiple times before, he activated his technique and let the intent flow through him.
He had reached a certain point where the feelings of understanding and entering were prevalent. He could even tell that the last part of the sentence was enter. But for some reason the understanding intent and everything past that was a mystery to him. If he tried to focus on the words in between, he got a weird sense of needing to move on.
This process would once again take about an hour before he gave up. He still had a bit of energy left so he moved to the next one along. In front of this door, a pedestal was placed with nothing on top of it. He had done it a few times before but he pressed his hand against the text to read it. This time he got three feelings instead of two. Life, loss and strength. He nearly run out of energy trying to glean more understanding when he thought out loud. “What? Do I need to sacrifice part of my life for strength?”
An audible sound could be heard coming from behind him, turning around, he saw that the pedestal had the top section slide away and fall to the ground, revealing a bow Spurred on by what he said before it happened, he brought out his sword and cut his palm, letting the blood drip into the bowl. He would have stopped if the blood didn’t look confusingly reflective.
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He had to cut himself three times before the blood that flowed managed to fill the bowl to an amount that seemed to be satisfactory as the door opened, revealing a small room with three ingots. One was iron, the second copper, the last gold. He knew this because-
[Congratulations on solving one of the translation trials. Before you are materials you may use to augment your equipment.
Iron: strong and sturdy. Great as a base material to add stability and strength to a weapon
Copper: weak but energy conductive material. good at boosting the output of magical effects.
Gold: Valuable and highly conductive material. Easy core for a magical effect on your weapon.
You must incorporate the ore into your weapon like you improve the weapon once it has reached an improvement goal.]
Looking at the ores after dismissing the notification, Noah smiled at the opening possibilities of his skill. Not only could he use materials to create the weapons, but he could freely replace materials to upgrade the effectiveness of his weapons instead of needing to forge a new one with the superior materials.
Only after the excitement about this new mechanic he could use to improve wear off, did he think about the consequences, cousin him to gain an increasing sense of dread and annoyance. “Don’t tell me it’s read this and enter?” he thought out loud, and, despite the fact he was energetic, exhaustion washed over him as he received another notification.
[Congratulations on solving the first translation trial. You may continue on to the final trial, and the rest of the translation trials will be waiting should you wish to take them.]
“Of-bloody course the only reason I couldn’t go through the door was bloody syntax.” He could only grumble to himself as he walked up to the door that had recently opened, leading to a stairway up to what he was told would be the final trial. Hesitation held him back as he was worried about what he would find up the stairs in the final trial, but he took a deep breath and finally took the first step. He held his shield up in front of him and slowly advanced upon the stairway.
At the summit of the stairway, he was met with a stone barrier like the exit to his bonfire room, with a notification informing him of the trial before he had even entered it.
[This world is full of chance and anarchy, so your final trial will be to see how you handle a random threat. Both luck and skill is needed to do well in this trial: good luck]
Under the ominous notification was a spinning wheel with words flying past at speeds that he couldn’t read any of the names. Instead of slowing down though, it immediately stopped on the final trial: Insect hive
[Unlucky. You have managed to come across the most dangerous trial in this tutorial. Due to the potential abuse of the power support, it has been disabled for the remainder of your time in the tutorial. As compensation, the soul absorption technique will be supplied so you may collect the leftover energy from your defeated opponents.]
Noah stared dumbfounded as he saw the notification… Not only had he gotten the worst final trial, but one of the handicaps barely keeping him alive was now gone? He didn’t know how long he had stood stunned, but his brain finally kicked back into gear when a scroll appeared in front of him, where he instinctively caught it before it fell on the ground.