Chapter 31: Old acquaintances
Saying that the walls were red will not be a surprise at this point; this part of the tutorial was really full of clichés; however, could it be any other way? Why break the mold in a phase that would be 1% of the time a player would spend in the game? The difficulty of this tutorial was not really due to the difficulty of the different tests, but rather due to the low level and resources with which, When you arrived at them, it had been more a game of choosing the correct order of factors than anything else.
The heat started as soon as I approached the first torch; it was not suffocating, but compared to the "cool" atmosphere of the rest of the sanctuary, there was a slight difference. Maybe it was my heightened senses, but the heat was beginning to be noticed … the torch was not manipulable, nor did anything happen when turning it off or on... I began to walk down the hallway. A few drops of sweat beaded my forehead, but it was still bearable.
As I moved forward, the heat in the hallway increased, I was sweating profusely, the air began to be uncomfortable to breathe, and my mouth became dry... I surrounded myself with wind magic to repel the hot air that surrounded me, so I could go a little further. Although it was possible to survive without magic in that environment, it would be a challenge for anyone's will. I began to accumulate the little water in the environment so I could drink it and refill my skin. I advanced until the temperature increased to the limit of what was bearable, and that a person originally from Andalusia was used to the horrible temperatures that could occur in summer in the basin. Of the Guadalquivir.
Let's put it in perspective. The test consisted of walking for more than four hours at temperatures above 45 degrees in its final stretch and with humidity less than 30%... It was not impossible, but it required willpower to continue...
When the ambient temperature rose to 50 degrees, it was difficult, even with magic, not to feel hot. Finally, one of the torches seemed strange to me. I had not stopped touching all of them and carrying out tests along the way, so as soon as one of them was simply in a slightly different position and the signals went off, I turned the torch in the right direction. Of the clock, and a click sounded down the hall.
Although it was still hot, a hallway opened to the right... I looked into the hallway; it wasn't that hot in it. As soon as I walked two steps, columns of fire shot up from all directions, from the floor, from the walls, and from the ceiling, in an inconstant pattern that is difficult to avoid.
I had several ways to avoid the flames: create an air bubble in my head and empty the oxygen to extinguish the flames; accumulate water from the environment and pray that it would be enough to extinguish all the flames; open successive rifts and jump, praying that he didn't give me a jet of fire between rifts (I couldn't see the end of the tunnel; that's why I couldn't jump directly to the end of it)...
However, the most effective ones had a mana cost that I would later miss in combat if one arrived, and the ones that had the lowest cost seemed risky and inefficient to me...
I launched "bullet time" and tried to do it like a mission impossible or matrix, so I began to advance while the columns of fire jumped around me at a speed slow enough to be able to avoid the columns, jumping, rolling, and sometimes running. If you had told me a few days earlier that I would be capable of such physical feats, I would have laughed...
I was unharmed except for some minor burns that I healed as soon as the columns disappeared. On the ground in front of me was a red stone, the size of an apple. I imagined it was the token...
Unlike other side quest hallways, this one continued... I advanced for about 20 meters; the hallway continued forward, but on the left wall there was a door.
I took precautions as always, and turned the knob... I didn't expect that on the other side of a small room with a table and a desk, "the merchant of dreams" was sitting, and behind him there was a door with a slot.
"I already thought you wouldn't come... you really do things differently, kid."
"But what the hell are you doing here?"
"I already told you, boy, we would see each other in the next phase…"
"Sorry, but you said "at the end of the next phase" and as far as I know, this is not over." I said with a vengeance for his trap…
"Technicalities…" He told me with a malicious smile.
"Technicalities, my balls... the end is the end, plus we didn't say that among cheaters we wouldn't deceive each other; don't go back on your words." My eyes burned with a certain anger; if it was an NPC they had created, him, especially irritating.
"Okay, you caught me; this time it doesn't count; this is... my usual job, so to speak... but let's not waste any more time... I already know from your look that you must have missed me and that you would like to ask me a lot of things, like, How's the family? And so on... but let's get to the business at hand. "He continued with his ironic tone. My impatient gaze cut him short...
"Let's go with the rules if that's what you want. Behind me is the first staircase to the hell of fire. Climb it and face the creatures that live there... bring me a stone of fire, the kind that some monsters release and you will be able to pass the test... bring me more stones and we will do business again... I forgot that every time you open the door, it will cost you a copper coin... too bad I forgot that you only have one left... "His smile of triumph finished fixing the atmosphere...
If it hadn't been for the desk, I would have pounced on him, that and I didn't know what he was capable of...
Whatever awaited me, I only had one chance.
I inserted the coin into the slot, which made the noise of an arcade video game machine. Several locks opened, and the door began to rotate on its hinges slowly, knowing the "merchant of dreams" had surely modified the mechanism to give it drama and make the players nervous...
That also led me to another reflection: surely not all players got coins during the tutorial; would a player be unable to take the test because they did not have coins...? Unlikely, surely that scammer merchant would fleece them in exchange for a coin... The merchant had a nice business here...
The stairs were wide and went up in a spiral, like a castle tower. After a couple of turns, I reached a room. On the other side, red eyes were looking at me with fury...
However, beyond the look, there was little that was impressive about the creature: a little taller and stockier than a goblin, reddish skin and large ears, a bald head, and a large mouth with boar's fangs. He was wearing a simple leather jacket and, in each hand, a small battleaxe...
He advanced quickly, throwing his left axe, forcing me to raise the shield... I stabbed the spear forward, blindly having covered myself with the shield, to where I thought the "red pixie" would be; however, I only stabbed the air... to When I wanted to look at the creature, it had retreated and a jar crashed against the shield... "boooommm!!!" The flask exploded against the shield, releasing a liquid that ignited in contact with the air. The shield resisted and I was able to get rid of the flames with my air magic.
"So this is the game…" I told the monster, even though it couldn't understand me.
He was far enough away to not be hit by the spear, smiling. The smile died along with him when he realized that his body had been cut in half by an air blade.
I searched the body, but there was no sign of the stone...damn...this wouldn't be so easy. What I did find were two more bottles of the flammable product. I had no use for them right now, so I put them in my backpack.
I reached the second floor quickly to meet another red pixie. I didn't give him time for tricks or maneuvers; I cut him from a distance, and that's it... no frills, no fanfare. This corpse also did not throw any stones, only three other jars.
We can say that these monsters were not difficult for my current self, but if we compare them with the goblins, the red goblins were stronger, more skilled, better equipped and above all, more intelligent. Even for those who arrived at the sanctuary, they would have been opponents. To consider.
I continued climbing and eliminating pixies, with the same bad luck. When they began to appear in pairs, the brilliance of their tactics was revealed: one attacked physically and the other threw the jar; they took turns; they interacted by opening my defenses... It's not that They were difficult to eliminate, but he did appreciate the pressure they could put on the players.
When they became three per round, it was no longer easy to kill them at first sight; they didn't put me in trouble, but it required a little more effort...
It was not until five appeared at the same time that the stone appeared in one of the corpses. In terms of jars, I had accumulated more than 30, and the number continued to increase. If it were not for my dimensional backpack, it would have been impossible to transport them...
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Albinus_istamar
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