บท 71: The Birth of A Dragonair

Arthur felt he understood the question wrong, if it wasn't his name, then whose name it might be?

"May I ask for a clue, your venerable being?" he asked, trying to get to know more about the answer.

"If you were worthy of the gift, then you must have been told to remember the name. there is nothing else to say, state the name right or vanish from here!"

Arthur's mind was hit by a lightning bolt, as this reply stirred some recent memory he had. He didn't know if this was the true answer, and why, but all he could do now was trust her.

"Zilia," he said the name he was given by her, just before she disappeared, sacrificing herself for him.

"Correct, your path should be blessed and approved by her. your path is already starting, get ready to be sent into the trial ground now!"

Arthur's mind froze when he heard that, he didn't know what all this was about, but strangely as it might seem, this was familiar to him. it felt like when he got his path on cultivation, ascending great ranks, and getting tested.

Without any need of his permission, he felt the traction force pulling him, strongly, towards the depth of that fog, which now became more docile and calm. The speed he moved with was very rapid, that everything around him turned into white smoke with no pattern or shape.

"Boom!"

He suddenly crashed on the ground without any warning, feeling the pain all over his body, he knew he landed roughly on this alien place. He was standing on a rocky ground, surrounded by a clear area that spanned for a mile. He had no one there, no tree, no living creatures except for him.

Just as he was trying to check his body, and take a broader view of the place, the sound echoed again everywhere around him:

"This is your first step in becoming a dragonair, a long path for a mortal human like you. You have one minute to kill the demon you offered as a sacrifice, fail and you will lose your qualifications for the gift your bestowed. Succeed and you will gain strength beyond your imagination, and you can be ready to be sent back to your mortal realm, looking for another worthy demon to kill."

Arthur didn't have time to contemplate on what he just heard, as suddenly the fox monster he was supposed to couple with was now standing in front of him. Arthur just smiled, bitterly, as others might couple with monsters then face their inner demons later on, he had to do it from the start!

What luck!

"You can use any weapon you had when you entered here, and you can use any special ability or summon or scroll or anything else in your possession. Let the fight begin now."

The sound just ended, and suddenly that fox monster roared, violently, before aggressively running towards Arthur. It was a one horned monster, and from the beginning it used its horn to attack him.

The horn glowed, and Arthur knew what would come next. That monster had a very strong mind power, that could control anything movable in its reach. Just as the horn glowed, many rocks suddenly jumped to attack Arthur, and all took the shape of huge spears, trying to claim his life.

"Not this easy," Arthur smirked, as he used his leg technique, to evade all these attacks, then he disappeared from the sight of the fox, to appear just behind its back, taking out his sword, and slashing it smoothly like that.

But he wasn't meant to have it easy, as it seemed that the monster evolved, somehow, here, and became more intelligent, more experienced in fight.

When the sword was just inches away from the fox's neck, a shield, made of rocks, rose from the ground, to protect it. Arthur was first startled by this move, which wasn't typical for this monster to pull, but he didn't think much and started a jumping journey, hovering from place to place, with his sword slashing and cutting everything in its path.

In less than twenty seconds, the fox fell to the ground, motionless, as its head was severed, and its body had many wounds, deep and shallow, all caused by Arthur's sword.

The fight ended simply like that, and that wasn't a surprise at all. Arthur was the monster instead, and this low leveled monster was nothing but a breeze for him.

"Good, you completed the rituals, and now you have gained the right to obtain this power."

Just as the words of that mysterious being finished, Arthur felt some sort of alien energy invading his body. He didn't resist, as he knew this was his reward. If this being wanted him harm, he would be dead long already.

The energy moved through all his body, feeling his muscles getting strengthened, his mind being bathed in new strength, and finally the energy resided in his heart, gathering there like spiritual energy gathered inside his dantian.

"Now, you will go back, and you are permitted to use the minimal amount of force you gained. Remember, the higher the quality of demon you use, the more energy you can harvest. You can enter here anytime you want, but each time carries the risk of losing what you gained last time, so choose wisely, mortal, and don't be greedy, human."

The venerable voice echoed with its wisdom before Arthur felt the traction force getting hold of himself again. He had tons of questions in his mind, but he didn't have the chance to ask any, as the next second he found himself travelling at that high speed, with nothing there but white smoke around his body.

"Boom!"

Again, he crashed on the ground, returning this time to reality. He cursed his bad luck in landing, as every time he felt his body so sour, and he had injuries this time.

What welcomed him with the bright day light, which gave him a rough estimate of his mysterious experience he just had. Time there seemed to operate differently than here, and even a minute there or less was equal to hours here.

Just as he moved up from his place, feeling the pain all over his body, he found everyone was already awake, and he was the last one among them. strangely though, once he returned here, he heard many voices calling for others to come, like he had come in a most bizarre fashion, that stirred the alert of everyone.

"Are you ok?"

Amelia was the first to reach and ask him, with worry all over her pretty face. Arthur didn't know why she was feeling this disturbed, so he replied:

"I'm good, why are you all this worried?"

It wasn't only Amelia, but all the rest of the group came here, with anxious faces and worried looks. There must be something wrong, extremely wrong, for them to behave this way.

"You have slept for over two days now, that's weird," Ron said, as he was very worried about his master and friend.

"Oh, two days?!" he exclaimed in surprise, as he never thought he spent all that time inside that mysterious realm, "it felt like minutes to me," he said.

He was telling the truth, as he only felt the passage of minutes through this whole journey, but it seemed he stayed there long enough to make everyone worried.

"Oh, that's great, the most important thing that you are fine," Amelia said, as she heaved a deep and long sigh of relief, like others around her.