— Hikari's mental journal —
[Fifth floor] Cleared out that hive filled with slimy plants and that beating heart shooting fire at me every few seconds. There was a treasure room, but it had little inside. Four more walls to the right of the treasure room. Four floors to go.
[Sixth floor] Physical exercises? Really? Fire sword training afterward. Can clear out hives easily now.
[Seventh floor] Parrying fire bolts was pretty fun. The trick was to save mana by blocking most of the flames with my sword. A barrier blocks the residue that causes damage. The barrier eats mana because it keeps dissipating. Save mana by turning it on at the exact time. The garden growing on the floor filled me up again.
The eighth floor.
If she remembers correctly.
Cold. Really cold.
Freezing cold, in fact.
It certainly isn't caused by the wind seeping through the cracks.
Mana sense.
It's still the same mana.
The color had changed from a fiery gold to bright blue.
But she seemed to be able to sense and channel it just as before.
She sits close to the door, trying to condition herself to the cold.
It felt like sitting before the mana vein deep in the mountains with her leg buried in the snow.
She tries to remember that feeling.
Her mana moves. The mana in the ground responds.
Doable, she thought.
She gets to work, pulling extra pieces of caterpillar skin from her harvest sack.
Skin from a creature that could weather the cold of the wyvern peaks and the searing heat of the tower.
She wraps pieces around her arms and legs to insulate them.
Her salamander skin stretches further down her leg to cover her feet.
She sandwiches her exposed feet between two layers of caterpillar skin.
It makes walking harder, but they will do well if all she has to do is sit and endure.
She wriggles her toes, channeling the wyvern flame through them to keep them warm.
She remembers men getting frostbite and losing body parts while she fought the orcs in the snow.
Her body resists the cold much better than a normal man's, but she always takes precautions.
She falls into meditation again.
Time passed.
Munch. Munch. She pops a cannonball fruit into her mouth.
The cold makes them taste more refreshing.
She is ready to tackle the trial.
Where is that pesky crystal?
Hikari reaches her hand into the frozen vegetation and pulls it out.
"Headache."
She takes a deep breath and gets it over with.
…
The first room.
A stickman sitting in a meditative pose.
One squiggle on each side.
Fancier squiggles. The squiggle's head was a spiral, depicting a cold aura instead of wyvern fire.
Hikari sits on the tile. Just like the lower floor, the tower's mana engulfed her.
Freezing cold.
She felt the concentrated mana more acutely than in the mana veins.
"Ivory berry."
She chants quietly to herself.
"Wheat grass. Bear meat."
She thinks of food back at the estate to keep herself awake.
Falling asleep in the frost and letting their body get cold had led to death for many.
That giant slimy creature Ria brought back from Moradale.
A rainbow palpafin was it?
Its meat was tougher than bear meat.
Its skin was smooth and slimy, and it contained a lot of yucky innards.
Ria had to help her clean out the insides.
The warmth of her cauldron.
She'll feel it soon.
One last floor after this one.
She has quite the story to tell once she gets back.
A bigger body and some nifty new abilities to show.
Even though she'll get a good scolding first for disappearing for so long.
Her excitement keeps her awake.
Time passed.
The door rumbled.
Hikari immediately wriggles her toes and fingers.
Those are the most susceptible to frostbite.
Good. Nothing frozen.
Perhaps the caterpillar skin kept them warm.
She stands up.
She could still feel the residues of the cold mana flowing through her body.
But she felt completely fine.
She walks back down the steps where she left her supplies.
They were far enough from the cold room to avoid becoming frozen.
Especially her pot of water. It would be difficult to bring fresh water if it cracked from freezing.
Munch. Munch. Gulp. Gulp.
She feels like eating another caterpillar.
An odd craving she had developed.
Her giant pot was still on the fifth floor.
She has to either collect water on the third floor or haul the giant pot to the seventh floor, past the chasm on the sixth.
Onwards.
She reached the next door.
No double- or triple-fancy squiggles for a stepped-up version of the freezing trial room.
She tried to read the symbol above the door.
From left to right, fancy squiggle, stickman, double normal squiggle, wyvern head.
The most complex stickman drawing sequence she'd encountered so far.
"Parry?"
Like the floor below, the trial seemed to want her to block flames shot from the wyvern statue.
The fancy squiggle represents the cold she channeled from the previous room.
She sits down and practices.
The air around her chills.
She forms a frost barrier around her.
Too weak. She needs more practice.
Time passes.
…
Munch. Munch.
She might need to do a supply run soon.
The seventh floor where the cannonball fruit was wasn't terribly far.
For now, she's ready to take on the trial.
Two squiggles.
She had handled much more.
A large wyvern head on the other end of the room.
She steps onto the tile.
She knows the drill well enough by now.
The wyvern head charges up.
Hikari raises her frost barrier.
A torrent of flames surges from the wyvern's mouth toward her.
She stands her ground, hoping her hours of practice will pay off.
The wyvern flame envelopes her.
Her barrier buckles as the flames pierce through.
Sensing danger, she steps off the tile.
The stream of flames stopped.
The wyvern statue powered down.
Edges of her exposed salamander skin were burnt.
Charred patches on her caterpillar skin.
The sting of shallow burns on parts of her exposed skin.
It wasn't as impervious to fire as her wyvern skin.
She sits down and keeps practicing.
Her barrier needs to be stronger.
Munch. Munch.
Looks like she'll need to go back for more cannonball fruit.
…
Woosh.
Hikari steps back from the tile as she feels her barrier buckling.
The wyvern statue powers down.
She gets off the tile without suffering more burns.
Confused, she could have sworn her barrier was stronger this time.
It did last longer, but perhaps that's not the point of the trial.
Fancy squiggles, stickman, normal squiggles, wyvern head.
The instructions are quite clear.
She was just unsure how to increase her barrier's power.
Fancy squiggles.
"Flames?"
No, something like flames, but at the same time their opposite.
She went back into the frozen chamber and sat on the tile.
The tile activates; the freezing mana engulfs her.
Even after clearing the tile, she could still practice with it.
Enduring the frost was only the first step.
The trial room had let her clear it without ensuring that she mastered it.
Now she channels it, allowing it to flow through her body.
"Bear meat. Chocolate. Cannonball."
She chants her favorite foods aloud as she feels her body freezing.
Yet it did not. Her heart beats normally even as freezing mana courses through her.
She tries to raise a barrier. The moisture in the air condenses into fog.
It was working. She lets the tower guide her mana flow.
Time passed.
…
The door rumbled.
Hikari collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion.
The symbol on top of the door. Six squiggles, two wyvern heads.
The pair of actual wyvern statues powered down.
She drank from her water pot.
She left a small amount, then rubbed it over her exposed skin.
"Ouch."
The shallow burns sting as the cold water touches them.
Nothing too serious; they'll heal in time.
Munch. Munch. Hikari finishes the last cannonball fruit.
Beyond the door, she could see the stairway to the next and final floor open.
She was nearing the end.
She falls asleep against the wall.