'How long had it been since I left the cave?'
After Kaelen killed the two Ash-Stalkers, he started to move away from there as planned. He had walked for multiple kilometres now, and he had killed many more creatures on the way here.
It was unfortunate that he didn't get any memories from them, but he did get a lot more shards and bones that he sharpened into spikes that now rest in the Seafarer's Satchel.
'My count is at...'
He raised his hands and started to count on his fingers – '120? 130? I killed 23 Ash Stalkers after the first 2, so it should be around there.'
He was sad almost.
This region seemed to have a lot fewer Nightmare Creatures than the other two trials relative to the distance he had travelled.
Something else that Kaelen noticed was how the topography of the land changed as he continued forwards; it seemed to be getting narrower and the number of hills he needed to traverse
'Is the lack of nightmare creatures because of the land's topography or the lack of water?'
He paused for a second.
'Do nightmare creatures even need water?'
Well, most beings need water to live, or maybe the nightmare creatures just got their water from the blood of the raw meat they eat.
A shiver ran down Kaelen's spine – 'Thank god I don't need water anymore.'
The changes happening to his body through his [Formless] attribute.
Speaking of which
'... Void sprite'
The implications of his aspect's name alone were great.
The word 'Void' alone held a very dark meaning, but the word 'Sprite' held some too.
The description of the sprite according to the spell was a being that held the 'essence' of something, most likely the elements, which made sense given his trial.
'Wait... the spell called me the heir of something. What the hell was it?'
He racked his brain trying to remember.
'The First Voidborn'
He continued to walk, and thoughts started to form in his mind: was he the heir of one of the gods?
The Gods were born of the Void after all, but why did it refer to the being as the first Voidborn and not one of the Gods?
Also, the name of this being was The Nameless King.
That was probably its true name.
'... But there was never any mention of such a being in the novel... another fateless being that was forgotten?
It was a possibility.
Suddenly his eyes widened, and he slipped back, falling on his butt with a wince.
He was not complaining, though.
A deep ravine appeared in front of him, and he was about to fall straight in, and he was standing at the top.
The wall leading down right in front of where he was standing was at an angle of 70, maybe 80 degrees. The floor of the ravine itself was wide, which would make one forget that falling in there would leave him only one walkway.
Forward
But that was not the thing he was focused on mainly; the real concern was the 'vents' blowing flames from below the ground.
'... I have to go there, don't I?'
It was obvious. The ravine's walls were coated with spikes at the top and blazing stones.
Letting out a groan, he took off his shirt and sat on it and used his feet to drag himself forward; it was like a slide.
Eventually reaching the bottom, he looked at his shirt; the entire back was torn.
'Damn it'
He rolled it up and threw it in a random direction; just then the flame vent shot up and roasted it, reminding him of their presence and danger.
Slightly regretting his choice, he turned around and placed his hand on the 'slide'.
He could not climb up that.
Turning around, he started to walk again; this ravine was about the size of 2 tennis courts, and it was littered with those vents and also many bones sticking out close to them.
'Well, at least I know it's safe here.'
Just as he said that he heard some snorting? grunting?
'What the butt is that?'
It looked very much like a dog, a dog that was rotting away and had some black ooze leaking out of its wounds; that black ooze also seemed to be its blood and also seemed to be leaking from its mouth.
It was coming from this ravine's only exit point; in other words, it was an obstacle.
'Beast? No, it looks more like a monster.'
Kaelen started to move, making sure to avoid the vents, picking up one of the bones from the ground – this one seemed to belong to a particularly large nightmare creature – and he reared back and launched it forward like a spear.
It flew through the air and landed right in the creature's ribs.
The bastard didn't go down, though; it aggressively scratched with its back leg at the bone and broke the length sticking out.
'Does it not feel pain?'
He just stood there as the creature looked around and locked eyes with him.
It snarled, a sound like grinding metal, and then it started to run.
Just as it breached the halfway mark of the distance between them, one of the vents flared, and the blazing flame roasted the back half of its body; the flesh on it seemed to melt, but not only that, the flame started to blaze on it.
'Well, it's too dumb to be a demon, so definitely a monster...'
The creature was not fire resistant; rather, it simply lacked the ability to feel pain, and judging by the way the flames stuck to its back and travelled to the wounds, that black ooze was flammable.
Kaelen knew he had to make the fight quick; the flames were spreading up from its back and moving closer. He did not want to get bitten by something with fire in its mouth.
It jumped forward, aiming for the throat with its teeth.
'Same animalistic tendencies as the rest'
He pulled out a bone spike from the seafarer's satchel and stabbed it into the creature's head, pushing it to the left of him, and continuing with that momentum, he stabbed it into the ground, digging the spike into the ground.
He watched it snarl and grunt, wriggling on the ground. It just dislodged the bone from the ground and wobbled.
It was going to die in a few seconds.
Just as he said that, the vent below its head ignited, and the flame shot up, roasting its head.
[You have slain a dormant monster, the cauterised ravager.]
'God damn it, was it the spike that killed it or was it the fire?'
He looked around and watched as another one of the hounds walked in from the same direction he was planning on going to.
'Hello, Shards.'
...
Kaelen stood at the end of the ravine panting.
He really regretted walking through the narrow walkway the ravager came from.
That narrow walkway opened up into an entire wide open area, and when he moved into that area, an armada of the ravagers were waiting, like a pack of starved wolves.
Kaelen fought and killed the first 3 there by stabbing their heads, but when he saw the rest charging, he turned around and ran back through the walkway.
The reason was simple.
Only one of the creatures could fit through that crevice at a time, giving him the advantage in dealing with the numbers.
The only problem was that the hoard continued to flow over and over and over.
He had to do the best with what he had, and what he had was 4 remaining bone spikes and an entire court with vents blowing out flames.
[You have slain a Dormant Monster, Cauterised Ravager.]
[You have slain a Dormant Monster, Cauterised Ravager.]
[You have slain a Dormant Monster, Cauterised Ravager.]
[You have slain a Dormant Monster, Cauterised Ravager.]
[You have recieved ...]
[You have slain a ...]
His hands were literally shaking after the 40th one, and thankfully, after they stopped pouring through the path, Kaelen dropped to the ground.
"Why the fuck did I jinx it and ask why there aren't enough of these ugly monsters..."
Turning his head on the ground, he saw the corpses lying around him and released a smile.
As the smile appeared on his face, his eyes closed.
His body may have been able to resist physical fatigue, but clearly his mental strength had been exhausted.
He would need to wake up and harvest the shards, guessing by how many days he had been here.
He was most likely going to come across the Demon tomorrow or the day after.
It'd be best to get the rest he needed now.