Damon pushed the masked man out of his mind and focused forward. He moved up as fast as he could, but the situation was not straightforward. As he went closer to one of the golden doors, the pressure around him suddenly spiked.
His vision shook, his steps faltered, and his body let out a sharp creak as if every bone was being squeezed at the sa ti. Damon staggered forward and almost dropped to one knee before barely catching himself.
"Seriously…?" he growled.
The air felt thicker. He could feel it pressing against his skin, sinking into his muscles, digging straight into his blood and bones. Moving even an inch now felt like lifting a mountain. The door ahead lood closer, its golden surface glowing warmly, almost gently. Damon could feel it clearly now. The closer he got, the more it rejected him. "So that's the trick…" he muttered, breathing hard. This test was sothing he had already seen before, plenty of tis, but that did not make things any better. Even with his upgraded body, it was difficult to overco it. For now, all he could do was focus and step forward, one leg at a ti.
Damon planted his foot and forced himself upright again. His legs trembled violently, muscles screaming in protest, but he refused to give up.
His enemy here was raw pressure. A trial that didn't care about tricks, talents, or cleverness. Only one thing mattered here. Whether you could endure.
Each step forward felt like grinding his own body down against an unseen wall. His breath ca out ragged, his heartbeat thundered in his ears, and his blood churned as if it were trying to tear free from his veins. His bones creaked again, louder this ti, and a thin line of blood slid down from the corner of his mouth.
Damon wiped it away with the back of his hand and laughed weakly. The pressure intensified again the mont he took another step. It pressed into his joints, his organs, his soul, testing for weakness. However, slowly and steadily, he kept going forward. He unleashed his blood domain and poison domain which increased his regenerative ability. It also buffed his stats and helped him break free from the pressure a bit. It was not much but the boost was enough to bring him a few more steps forward.
At this rate, he could definitely make it to the first door in another few minutes. Damon felt excited and looked up when the system screen flashed in front of him. The next second his face changed. His tir now showed that 3 hours had already gone by. 3 hours out of ten hours were already gone? What the heck?
Not just that. Even as he was watching the tir, the ti countdown suddenly started increasing at a ridiculous pace. So the tir didn't work like an ordinary tir?
"A rules sheet or intro to this damn thing would have been helpful!" Damon cursed out loud to no one in particular. Not that it helped. The ti was still moving at a ridiculous pace. He even tried removing his domain, recasting his domain, and a few other things, which only made it worse.
In the end, he grit his teeth and started moving up again. He had no idea what else to do. No matter what, the show must go on, and his end goal was to reach the top after all. So he said fuck it and took another step forward.
Shockingly, this made the tir go slower.
Damon was once again left speechless. He continued taking the next step forward while trying to understand the rules of this place. The first thing he had to do was climb up and reach one of the golden doors. If he opened a door, a treasure, or a portal to the next stage, or so sort of boss would probably be waiting for him.
This was definitely the main goal of this entire trial. But there seed to be many small and hidden rules. For example, it was more beneficial to keep climbing upwards than to attack your fellow participants.
Another one was if one kept moving, ti progressed more slowly. If one stopped for a break to recuperate before continuing, that cost additional ti. This ant that even if Damon reached the door, there could be so sort of additional ti constraints.
At first, Damon had the idea of opening many doors and claiming as many treasures as he possibly could but now he had to rethink that idea. If he approached this trial with that sort of ntality he was most likely going to lose out big ti.
Damon sucked in a sharp breath and forced his thoughts to calm down. He glanced up the mountain again. There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of golden doors scattered along the slope. So were close. Others were so high up they looked like stars nailed into the sky.
Greed flared for just a second. Then he crushed it. He had to pick one door and aim for it. A door that was not too low. He did not want to return ho with a diocre treasure. He had risked too much to play things safely.
At the sa ti, the door also needed to be not too high. He did not want to end the trial empty-handed. He needed to aim perfectly with a proper understanding of what he was capable of. Sothing that he hadn't done before.
Damon grit his teeth and aid for sothing in the middle, upper middle. He had made the play, and now it was ti to shoot his shot. Without rethinking his choice, he started walking forward with everything he could muster.
Coincidentally, after a few steps, things started to look easier. The more he continuously moved, the more montum he gathered, and taking the next step was a little bit easier.
Logically, it should be getting difficult the higher he climbed, but if he kept going at it continuously, this difficulty level was reduced a little, and overall, it felt as if he was walking under the sa pressure, instead of increasing pressure.
There was also another surprise waiting for Damon.
User Comments
0 comments from readers