— Hikari —
[Physique : 850]
[Mana : 960]
[Defense: 850]
[Mind: 875]
[Height: 5.1 meters]
[Weight: 3200 kg]
[Heart of wyvern: 105]
[Telekinesis: 400]
[RazenHeir flame: 250]
It's warm.
Hikari was sweating all over.
The symbol above the door.
A stick-man sitting in a meditative pose.
She counted the squiggles.
Ten.
She started sweating at around eight.
Her wyvern skin helps insulate her from the heat.
Her salamander armor below the wyvern skin absorbs some of the excess heat.
For a living creature that grew up in a volcanic environment, this was nothing but a warm-up.
Endure. She tells herself.
It wasn't just the number of tiles; the trial grew longer with each additional squiggle.
She remembers the heat rooms back at the RazenHeir estate.
Every RazenHeir knight goes through it.
Her lady's turn is near.
It felt way worse than this room.
Her house's mana form tends to burn its own users.
Only her training and consistent practice protected her from its backlash.
The mana petered out.
She finally cleared the trial.
Her feet felt slimy.
Her legs felt stiff from standing.
The heat would have been stronger if she'd tried to endure it sitting down, like the stick-man symbol suggests she should.
The tower's mana courses through her.
She tries to calm it.
She doesn't know how long she's endured the trial, but it's well beyond her normal practice.
Control. Control. She'd just absorbed a lot of mana; now she needed to stabilize it.
Her body needs time to cool off.
She walked through the door and found herself at the first room's entrance.
A sitting stick-man with one squiggle.
"Ah."
She did remember along the way that the first floor was a circular chamber.
The tower was so large that she hadn't noticed the circular path around it.
"Where now?"
She'll answer that question later.
For now, she collapsed against the wall for a well-deserved break.
She stripped off her wyvern skin and salamander armor to let the air in.
The thick layer of cotton, fresh just before she left for the wyvern peaks, was soaked through.
She deactivated the weaving runes and peeled it off piece by piece.
The inner layer kept her comfortable for extended periods out in the field but hindered her in the heat rooms.
She keeps stuffing the pieces into her harvest sack.
The wyvern-skin bag keeps its contents safe, even from a blast of wyvern fire.
She takes out a ration pack and some petals she gathered from the caves below.
Thirsty.
The petals' moisture wets her throat as she tries to swallow the dried rations.
Still thirsty. She'll need a reliable water source soon if she wants to keep going.
Sleep. Inside the tower, she can't tell whether it was night or day outside.
She could only tell that her body was too tired to keep going.
She finishes all of the petals and two packs of rations.
The training through the rooms made her skip at least two meals, she feels.
She'll go back out of the tower to harvest more if she needs.
She falls asleep.
Time passed.
She got up.
One arm raised straight.
Left side stretch.
Right side stretch.
Leg stretch. Touch her toes.
She can't do a full workout because she's out in the wilderness without a reliable food supply.
Fortunately, she stuffed herself with the leftover food from the retreating Herdial expedition just before she set off.
Water.
Does this tower even have water?
There's definitely water somewhere if vegetation can grow.
She listens out.
Faint Splashing sounds.
They were coming from above.
Only someone with her acute hearing could hear them.
How does she get up?
The platform.
She could see the mana ley lines flowing into it.
She steps onto the platform.
It rumbles.
The platform rose, lifting her to the next floor.
A spacious room, it was filled with junk.
Golden petals filled the walls.
The vegetation had made this place her home.
She spots the entrance to the next trial room.
The splashing sound got clearer.
Water.
She spots it.
A constant stream of water flowing down from above.
"Snow?"
Melting snow atop mountains produces streams.
It must be coming from the top of the tower obscured by the clouds.
She collects the water with her palm.
The water was biting cold.
But it was clean.
She searches around the room.
Pots.
She found one that was fully intact.
Its insides contained an age's worth of dust.
She collected a palmful of water and splashed it into the pot.
Her telekinesis pushed the water violently.
A cold wind blew from behind her.
A crack in the wall.
Sunlight through the crack indicated it was morning.
She tossed the dirty water out of the crack.
With a clean pot, she could wait for the tiny stream to collect.
Hungry.
She proceeds to harvest the petals.
The soft petals went well with the dried rations.
That was her breakfast.
Meditation.
She practices her telekinesis.
The most important spell if she has to defend herself.
She tried to activate her RazenHeir flames, but they clash with the tower's mana.
"Figures."
She'll do without it for now.
Sheela's mana form- she could still channel it.
How does it fare against the stone that made up the tower?
Shatter.
She picks up a stone.
Shatter.
Shatter.
She tells herself.
But the stone did not budge.
She tries to crush it with brute strength.
It cracked only when she focused her telekinesis in her hand.
It was hard.
She moved her fingers to shake off the strain.
She definitely can't punch through the thick walls.
Time passed.
She's hungry again after meditation.
She swallowed another ration pack, then a fistful of glowing petals.
The petals were quite filling.
She felt their mana spread through her body.
Back to meditation.
She focused on internalizing the tower's mana.
She visualized the most difficult trial room she had cleared so far.
The constant heat.
The steady flow of mana.
She replicated it.
It was night.
The pot had gathered a good amount of water.
She drank half of it.
Slimy. The training had left her slimy all over.
Her telekinesis still wasn't working properly, so she poured some water onto her hand and scrubbed herself.
Especially her feet. She had been walking around barefoot in the wilderness as her boots were too small.
Her clothes were dirty, but she couldn't spare the water to wash them yet.
She left them by the crack to dry in the cold wind blowing into the room, at least to dry the sweat.
Weighing them down using random pieces of junk found in the room.
It got dark outside.
A single brazier lit the room.
The tower's mana fueled its flames.
Hikari sleeps in her armor.
It keeps her warm against the cold wind.
Another day.
Her throwing dagger hovered mid-air.
Hikari concentrates.
The dagger maintains its position.
Then it began wobbling.
Clank! It drops onto the ground, bouncing across the room.
Hikari holds out her hand and focuses.
The dagger clatters onto the ground.
It flies back toward her and hits her abdomen.
The steel bounces off her muscles.
It was good enough for an attack.
She checks her ration stock.
At this rate, she can still last for a few days.
Time to advance to the next room.
The gate was closed.
Above it, a stick figure was drawn putting his hand on a crystal.
"Crystal?"
Hikari scans the room.
Most of it was covered in vines.
Mana sense.
Hearthstone sense.
Neither was working well right now.
But it seemed that there was more space behind the vines.
She drew her sword and slashed through the vines.
The stubborn vines only allowed a slit for her to clear through.
She entered a circular chamber.
A tall altar stood in the center.
Hikar sensed an invisible pillar of mana flowing from the ground to the ceiling.
But something else caught her attention.
Round fruits were growing on the walls.
They were the size of her eyeballs.
She took a bite.
It was hard.
But juicy.
She took another bite.
It was sweet.
But only if she could bite through the hard fibers to the juicy bits between them.
She plucked another fruit and ate.
"No."
She stopped herself.
After eating the first two, she had to wait to see if it might upset her stomach. was
Poisons don't hurt her, but the tummy ache is still painful.
Time to examine the altar.
A strange crystal sits on top.
The carving she saw at the door tells her to grab the crystal.
She rolls her shoulders to warm up her muscles, just in case.
Taking a deep breath, she grabs the crystal.
It responds. The runes inscribed glowed.
She feels strange.
Unlike a normal mana crystal, she wasn't absorbing its mana.
A ringing in her ear.
Her head hurts as the crystal pushed a surge of information into her mind.
"Ivory… berries…"
She cursed as she blacked out.