Thankfully Fonta woke up within Forty-five minutes bandaged, and bruised, with Two spoons at his hip. “Guess I’m back to spoons. What’s that spell” Fonta said as he got to his feet and scowled at his stench.

“You forced open your fourteenth and fifteenth meridians in that fight. They haven’t widened yet bu–”

Fonta used the chi in his body to cut out the debris in his meridians, widening them greatly and passing right back out.

Fonta awoke with a start. This time Shinra stood over him with a strange bag. “You damned idiot! You were out an hour, it took us twenty minutes to get here and we have forty minutes to get out!”

Gil nodded solemnly, his head bandaged and his expression grim.”We don’t know where we are, though the paths are clear, north or south.

“Has anyone else come by?” Fonta asked.

“No, why does that matter?” Shinra stated.

“Who is she anyways?”

“My bodyguard. I may be very high up in her sect in the future.” Fonta stated as he stood up and wobbled as he felt quite a bit taller, standing at a solid 5”10. His limbs also seemed longer. He squinted at Shinra.

“No I didn’t take your clothes off of you and shrink them, you just got a lot bigger. Opening all of your meridians fixes any defects that may have prevented your growth like malnutrition, and diseases. That is likely your height limit however.”

“I don't care. People won’t mistake me for a little kid ever again.” Fonta hopped into the air and did a double somersault before landing and scowled. “I have to brace for impact earlier, but the leg strength is much greater. I need to take care not to hit the ceiling however.”

“Cycle your chi through your technique for five minutes, then we move.”

“We’re heading north. Its where the monsters attacked from.” Fonta added.

“Where there are monsters there’s treasure.” Gil moved with Shinra as they examined the north room.

While they were gone, Fonta moved to the east wall where a key lay using a spoon he picked it up. Noting that it hadn’t changed colors and slid it into a pocket for later before he moved toward the northern wall and began to meditate.

After five minutes the chi in his body moved faster than ever and seemed to maintain its movement when he wasn’t actively cultivating but there was something he was missing for that next step. He chomped down on a piece of jerky and sighed in relief as he felt the energy flow through him which was a first.

Fonta then moved into the northern hallway noticing a lever on the wall. Upon hitting it the path behind them closed as multiple lights illuminated the path forward.

Each step Fonta took took him closer to the sounds of fighting which shouldn’t have been right, but it was. Shinra and Gil were fighting, the former using shadows and sickles, the latter using wind and fans.

Looking about the two Fonta noticed a doorway as well as a few words he didn’t understand. But he did see a key hole and because of that, he ignored the two that traded blows left and right put the key in the hole, and turned it, causing the door to open.

“Oi! Are you two going to keep dancing or are you going to keep up!”

The two stopped, looked at Fonta, and crossed their arms. “How did you get the door open?”

“With the key, I found it while cultivating. Now come on.”

As the trio entered the room a speaker spoke from above. “Nine have made it this far, but only three will receive the reward. Fight until there are only three standing! The counter is currently at 7/12, we await your decisions.”

Shinra intercepted Gil's attempt to drive a dagger into Fonta’s back as his eyes glowed a deep pink. Instead, the blow punctured her stomach and before it could be withdrawn, a spoon strike towards the side of Gil’s neck sent him into unconsciousness.

“Going to hide in your shadow to heal. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Fonta nodded as his team of three was reduced to just him in moments due to an untimely betrayal as something felt off.

Looking about, Fonta noticed five other warriors including Yang, and that earth user's hand had begun to charge at him.

Drawing his spoons Fonta felt the aura from earlier surround his weapons as he deflected a dao strike and elbowed the swordsman in the face causing him to stumble back as a blade of ice shot towards him shattering before it could connect and pelting him with shards.

It didn’t click that he was fighting with both arms until he sprung over the ice landing behind him and slamming the flat of his right spoon against his head while bisecting in a spear of stone with his left hand.

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The two halves knocked out two other cultivators as Fonta moved past Yang and drew his sword from his umbrella sheath; this was probably what his teacher had wanted him to learn.”

He surrounded the weapon in an aura of chi as his understanding of it had grown. Teaching him how to use it effectively and how it, no she wanted to be used. “The swords echo.”

Moving strangely Fonta caused the rest of the umbrella to fly from Yang’s side and onto his hip as his eyes found the Seductress hiding in what appeared to be stands utterly surprised that he’d made it this far.

Bouncing from foot to foot Fonta sprung forward towards the seductress as a familiar wall of Jade came hurling at him.

Fonta used his umbrella to change his velocity causing the boulder to crash into the enchantress as his blade light cut through a nerve on her neck where one of her meridian pathways traveled and temporarily severed it causing her to black out as the pain of a sudden blocked meridian shocked her mind. The sword he used didn’t enjoy killing, it preferred incapacitation and scaring people into surrendering. Had anyone been where the fire attack had been, there would have been no deaths and minor injuries from debris, but no burns, as power would have been wasted doing so.

“It’s alright Mary, I won’t use you as a tool for death.” Fonta stated.

The sword hummed in a way that spoke of understanding.

“That is going to be weird for a while.” Fonta picked up a shiny Dao near the person he’d knocked out earlier. It loudly got its point across.

“I abore violence, I am a piece of art not meant to be covered in blood or deflected by spoons. Put me on a wall and adorn me in jewelry, don’t forget to sharpen me from time to time and polish me.”

Fonta’s eye twitched as he placed the weapon down. “That will get annoying fast.”

Taking his spoons Fonta grimaced at the voices he heard from them.

“Soup!”

“Stew!”

“No, Soup is better it's a palate cleanser and good for the body..”

“Stew is thicker and thickness triumphs over all. It also fills you more than that watery soup.”

“Blashpehea! I will smite thee!”

Fonta focused on quitting the voices and eventually, he could no longer hear the spoons, but he did sense that they were both at odds. Fonta didn’t get it, food was food.

“Too many hits in the head for one day”

Yang seemingly regaining his sense of self swiftly knocked out two more cultivators as the man with many rings encased them in stone restraints before summoning a spear of earth and walking towards Fonta in a rage only to move past him and drive his spear into the Seductress's neck.

“Don’t you dare take control of my body!”

She died in moments as the young man laughed in a craze as he kept attacking, before his eyes landed on the corpse and disgust filled him as he ran towards the opposite side of the room and began dry heaving as various fresh wounds seemed to open up.

“What was that about?” Fonta asked Yang.

“He was used as a deterrent, killing the other two Awakened cultivators as well as some participants that attempted to flee. He was forced to attack you as well.”

“She did what?”

“She used him like a tool, and had him walk face first through various traps, it’s thanks to his durability that he survived this long.”

“You didn’t put up much of a fight?”

“Oh that? Your umbrella protected me. I just knew to play along when everyone was turned against me.”

“Ah, so that's why Gil tried to kill me.”

“Highly likely. She was quite strong mentally but. Not very strong physically, the awakened stage is quite weak isn’t it.”

“I still don’t think your grandfather would agree with that statement.” Fonta started as a joke but stopped when Yang didn’t join in.

“From what I’ve seen you’re about equal, though his experience is higher than yours, your talent is leagues above his. In a match it would end in a draw at best for him now.”

“Is cultivation that much of an equalizer?”

“When you fought him, you weren't even a cultivator, while the people here aren’t very strong in the grand scheme of things, they are still quite deadly to someone without knowledge or power. Now come on.”

Fonta moved towards the next room as a hand gripped his shoulder. “Other way, we came from this way? That’s south.”

“Eh?” Fonta looked towards Gil.

“What?”

“I told those two to go North. Shinra being confused makes sense but Gil…passed out when he landed on his head. Right. None of us knew which way north was, they just went where my head was turned.”

“Fonta? Did you come from the boss room?”

“Uhhhh…” Fonta dashed back two rooms, with Yang carefully following.

Arriving at the unlocked door Fonta continued towards the lever which he pulled opening up the door to the room they landed in. Moving past that door Fonta soon arrived where he fought the Jackals then moved past them arriving in a room with three platforms. On each platform, there was a white circle in the center then four colored triangles. Top left Blue, Top Right Pink, Bottom left, Orange, bottom right Green.

“Only three may enter the trial of the mind. You must survive ten rounds in order to progress.” Spoke a voice from above.

“Good luck Yang, I suck at puzzles.” Fonta took a seat and began to meditate.

“At least try. You have a decent memory right, if not maybe you can help us with all that jumping about you do.”

“That is insane. Do you really think I can?”

“Anyone in this room and not on a platform in 30 seconds will be killed.” The voice added.

“Serpents and Weasels.” Fonta hopped onto one white circle, Yang the other, and as time ran out Captain Dry Heaving made it to the third.

“Thanks for freeing me earlier but I’m going to win this.” He stated.

“You can try capn’” Fonta stated.

“My name is Casimar the Unyielding.”

“Is it now, nice to meet you Cas. Now I don’t care who wins so long as someone does, this isn’t a battle it’s a marathon.”

“Begin in three two one!” Discs with the same colors came to life and the pink one glowed once.

“Repeat the pattern!” The voice yelled in a distorted garbled tone.

Everyone jumped on pink.

Pink, Green. Was the next pattern, which was also easy.

Pink, Green, Pink. The three continued easily.

Pink, Green, Pink, Pink.

Yang almost tripped up but managed to stay on course. His prosthetics struggling to keep up with the jumping.

Pink, Green Pink Pink, Orange.

Casimar almost tripped over his own feet getting to the orange and scowled as the next pattern was much faster.

Pink, green, Pink, Pink, Orange, Pink, Blue.

Casimar completely failed as he stepped on orange twice as the platform holding him up fell.

Ready for that, Fonta jumped down the path grabbing Casimar as he carried him back to the land before hopping onto the puzzle again. The motion was fluid like the wind as he continued the puzzle like nothing happened.

Pink, Green, Pink, Pink, Orange, Pink, Blue, Blue, Green.

This time Yang’s prosthetic leg got stuck on the last blue and the platform fell. A tendril of jade grabbed him by the torso and pulled him up to safety on the area in front of the platforms.

“Final round!" Pink, Green, Pink, Pink, Orange, Pink, Blue, Blue, Green, Green, Pink, Orange, Orange, Blue.

"Look out!" Yang yelled.

Fonta made it to the end exhausted as a flamethrower rose from the ground and fired towards Fonta from behind. Flipping over the flames that burst forward Fonta stuck his umbrella into a ceiling tile like a piton and waited for them to die down. A pathway forward formed as the platforms turned into a bridge into a final room. Fonta was allowed to continue his path toward the next room with the others.

“Don’t you dare scare me like that again. I thought it was a puzzle!” Fonta said in relief. Leading the way to a large spherical object in the distance

“It’s a memory puzzle, and a mean one at that.” Yang added.

“Well you won fair and square.” Casimar stated.

“Yang come on. Let's heal your legs. Also, we more or less did this together. Even if I don't agree with all your methods, you did help us out.” Fonta yelled as he felt a familiar pulse of power.