Chapter 549: Trial of Endurance
Max’s eyes narrowed, and within monts, he understood. ‘This path… it doesn’t test the body—it tests the harmony between inheritance and energy.’ Without wasting another second, Max summoned the Fla Tyrant Inheritance.
Black flas erupted across his body and wrapped around him like an emperor’s cloak—furious, burning, yet obedient.
The mont the black fla cloak enveloped him, the chaotic reaction of his mana cald, flowing naturally once more and he could finally controlled his mana normally.
He took another step, then another. The pressure continued to increase, but his mastery over the inheritance made it feel like a heated wind brushing against him, nothing more.
For a while, all was still—just the crunch of his boots on stone and the dance of dark flas rippling from his body—but then the path revealed its teeth.
From the black fog ahead, a low growl echoed, and a creature erged—a Duskbone Hound, its skeletal fra covered in flickering shadows and bone spikes, its eyes glowing red like dying embers. It lunged at Max with terrifying speed, claws and fangs bared.
Max moved without panic. He raised his hand to strike, black flas spiraling into the shape of a jagged sword.
But just as he was about to swing, he felt the cloak around him begin to waver. The control was slipping—only slightly—but enough to let him know the truth.
‘So that’s how it is… if I attack without perfect control, the inheritance cloak of flas will collapse.’ He thought.
It was an ingenious trial—forcing the challenger to maintain absolute focus and perfect balance between movent and control.
But Max wasn’t just any challenger. He had mastered the Fla Tyrant Inheritance to perfection.
With a calm breath, he refocused, pouring his intent through the fla. The cloak of black fire surged even brighter, steady and unshaken. Then, in a smooth motion, he sliced through the Duskbone Hound, the flaming blade tearing through it like paper. The beast dissolved into ash, swept away by the winds of the trial.
Then one after another, more beasts attacked—Ash Drakes, their charred wings snapping open with every beat, spewing showers of molten sparks as they dove at him from above.
Obsidian Serpents, thick and jagged like shattered blades, slithering from beneath the path with eyes of glowing coal and venomous fangs eager to sink into his flesh.
A Scorchback Ape, ten feet tall with magma veins pulsing across its skin, slamming its fists into the stone path as it charged.
They weren’t strong just barely at the early levels of Expert Rank however this test wasn’t about strength either.
Looking at these beasts, Max understood the essence of this test.
It was the application of inheritances they had learned. How proficient they were when it ca to using it? How proficient were they in battle using their inheritance?
‘It’s a perfect combination of the last two tests.’ Max thought calmly.
Then his body ignited with tyrannical heat, the flas roaring around his limbs as he moved. His arms morphing into weapons of fire.
He conjured a Flaming Gauntlet and drove his fist into the chest of an Ash Drake mid-air, reducing it to ashes before its scream could echo.
‘They aren’t even worth using the moves of the Fla Tyrant inheritances.’ Max thought smiling. ‘Just its essence to conjure any attack will kill them.’
He ford a Scythe of Black Ember in one swift motion and slashed through three Obsidian Serpents in a wide spinning arc, each of them crumbling into dust before hitting the ground.
When the Scorchback Ape roared and slamd both fists down upon him, Max countered by leaping upward, his knees flaming with a burst of jet-black propulsion, and hamred down with both flaming fists, the impact crushing the beast into a crater of glowing cracks.
Through it all, his control never slipped, not for a breath. The inheritance cloak burned brighter with every strike, shielding his energy and stabilizing the pressure upon him.
Each attack he unleashed was brutal, efficient, precise—every movent dictated by the inheritance, and every step forward marked by the scorched remains of his enemies.
He walked, struck, redirected, and pressed onward, never once letting his control falter. Minutes turned to hours, though ti felt strange in this place.
Then, without warning, the world around him began to ripple, as though reality itself had grown thin. The stone path cracked and twisted, the fog folded in on itself, and Max found himself standing in a different space altogether.
The pressure vanished. The beasts were gone. A faint golden light radiated from the ceiling above.
He had passed the third floor.
‘The first three floors are super easy, but then again, for those who have only comprehended the basic foundation in two months, it would be quite a trial just to pass them,’ Max mused silently, his eyes scanning the space he now stood in.
This ti, there was no black fog, no looming obsidian pillar or reflective mirror—only a vast, open arena that stretched so far in every direction that the horizon itself seed to bend and vanish into endless light.
The ground beneath his feet was a polished, deep-red stone, smooth and slightly warm to the touch, almost as if it had absorbed heat from countless battles.
Max narrowed his eyes, alert.
There was no obvious enemy, no challenge presented upfront, but sothing about the overwhelming emptiness and silence around him was more unnerving than any beast he had fought so far.
‘Instructor Virelia ntioned the middle three floors tested one’s endurance,’ Max recalled. ‘Endurance of what, though? The body? Energy? Will? Soul?’
Just then, Max’s sharp eyes caught a flicker of movent in the sky. His gaze narrowed as he turned his head and focused.
From the far end of the vast arena, a winged creature was approaching, its body dark and jagged like molten stone that had cooled under pressure. The closer it flew, the more details Max could discern—the creature resembled a bird forged from black lava rock, its wings trailing faint embers, its eyes glowing faintly red.
It wasn’t fast, but its presence was imposing, like a beast born in a volcano and tempered in shadow.
Instinctively, Max braced himself, muscles tensing and black flas gathering subtly around his arms, ready to strike.
But as the creature descended, its flight slowed, and Max finally noticed what it was carrying tightly in its claws—a stone tablet, just like the ones on the previous floors.
His wariness settled into cautious curiosity. The creature landed a short distance from him, talons clicking as it gently laid the tablet down before him, then took off again in silence, vanishing into the high ceilingless void.
Max stepped forward and read the carved inscription:
“Once you finish reading the rules, the test of this floor will start. You have to defeat ten shadow warriors of the sa strength as yourself. Only if you kill all ten of them will you be allowed to enter the next floor.”
Max read the rules slowly, his gaze narrowing as each word carved into the stone etched itself into his mind. With every line he absorbed, his understanding deepened.
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give more motivation!
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