Beatitudes

Episode 80.

Not very long was taken as the beasts, numbering about twenty in total were all taken care, in other words they had all been killed, and that too without breaking much of a sweat. This was evident from the relaxed expressions on the trio faces as they calmly stood.

Harry looked around as his gaze landed on a spot directly opposite from the place where they entered from, it was a black door that gave off peculiar vibes, Harry didn’t really need to think much to guess that the door was something different and useful,

“What now guys, do we go over there and see what’s on the other side?”, Harry asked as he looked at the others.

Isaac’s gaze also stopped on the door, he didn’t know much about this place but it was obvious that that was the way leading to the next floor which they needed to clear, but before he could say anything at all, a screen of light, blood red in color, weaved into existence in front of the trio, bringing new words to say as they all read through it.

// Trial objectives:

1st Objective- Eliminate all tainted beasts(20/110)

2nd Objective- Clear all floors(1/5)

You have cleared the first floor of the Tainted mountain (Tier one) and completed two subtasks of the trial.

You may choose to step into the safe zone to recuperate and get prepared, or you may directly head on to the next floor of the tainted mountain to continue the trial. //

So it turned out the trial monitor, as Isaac had chosen to call the mind or being controlling these things and obviously in control of the trial, was keeping a record of the trial, Isaac felt that this was obviously something to be expected, but his gaze still lingered a bit more on the screen as he subconsciously tried to remember where the feeling of familiarity he felt originated from.

But after a while of briefly thinking, he received no feedback from the brain in his head, sighing to himself, he could only take his mind off the thought, his mind had been scrambled too much, there was hardly a single memory from before his recent years that hadn’t been scrambled badly, he felt he was even forgetting more than a little over a decade of memories. All in all, it was an uncomfortable feeling, one reason why he never stressed his thoughts too much.

And so, he raised his head to glance at the other two beside him, swinging his sword in a fairly commendable display of swift sword movements as he asked while in a good mood,

“So what say the two of you, we have two choices according to the what the screen said… do we go to the safe zone again or get on track to the second floor of this place…”

The question wasn’t really one to consider actually, the obvious was plainly obvious, none of the three felt the slightest bit out of sorts as if they had just gone through a slightly long walk in the park and nothing else.

Harry said nothing as he simply rested the blood stained hammer in his hands on his shoulders, a faint smirk on his lips, in a bold display of eagerness, his choice unsurprisingly the same as Isaac’s.

Hiya shifted her gaze away from Harry’s boastful display as she murmured quietly but loud enough for the only two present with her in the first floor of the tainted mountain to hear her reply clearly,

“Let’s just get on with this…”

Her affirmative reply towards going on directly to the second floor was naturally welcomed by the other two as they turned towards the peculiar black door. It was very much clear at this point that that was the way to the second floor, and so they put out one foot after the other at a time as they strode towards it.

When they got as close as a meter to it, that was when a change occurred as the black door that seemed sturdy and unbreakable suddenly vanished into thin air. The trio were caught by surprise and caution as they watched the door melt into the surrounding space.

But even after that happened and they deliberately waited for a while to see what was going to happen, there seemed to be nothing else happening as they simply stared at the now opened up space that was previously hidden away by the door.

What they could now see in front of them was a passageway that extended into the distance until it curved out of sight. As like the first floor they were currently at the edge of, the passageway was slightly dark but strangely illuminated by light from the ceiling through a few scattered holes, the light coming from the holes didn’t behave like normal light and radiate downwards in a straight line, instead it spread out from the hole in all directions, hence although the holes radiating light were few, the passageway was fairly lit up albeit a little dim.

After feeling a little cautious and apprehensive for a bit, the trio consisting of a female and two males stepped into the passageway which turned out to be a bit of a winding path. Even with their cautiousness and expectation due to Adam’s words about always being at an alert, nothing of any sort happened as no beast popped up while there were no traps or whatever could be expected.

It made sense though this way since the screen of light never said anything else other than heading to the second floor, but then again, Isaac didn’t exactly want to trust something that they couldn’t exactly be sure about, he was still feeling suspicious ever since he found out that the screen of light had listed an optional objective of destroying the mountain, if this mountain was sentient and was the one giving out the objective, why then would it encourage others to try and destroy it, was it flaunting off its indestructibility or something…

But nevertheless, nothing unexpected but faintly anticipated happened as they walked through the entire passageway unhindered.

They finally reached the end of the passageway after a little while had passed. There were no barriers of any sort obstructing them as they saw the passageway they were walking through abruptly widen up to a larger width than normal. They had reached the second floor without a hitch.

And there were naturally a number of beasts present to greet them as the sight of a number of beasts, reaching twenty one presented themselves in their usual lazy and casual manner. They were all still the same type of beasts that they had encountered before in the first floor, a disorderly group of Direflame wolves. But they seemed to be just a tiny bit more, in both size and the aura of flames around them, their orange red fur giving off sparks as they rubbed against each other due to the wolves’ steady breathing rhythm.

The three of them all stared at the wolves from where they stood at the point marking the end of the passageway behind them and the beginning of the second floor, Harry in particular, had battle intent practically bursting out of his eyes once again as he regarded the group of beasts in his sight as his potential disposable sand bags.

Nothing was said as they all knew what was to be done anyways, a hammer that looked poised to smash some bodies apart was hefted upwards in preparation for battle as the hilt of a sword in another’s hand was gripped harder as well, while one of the males and the only female readied their respective weapons, the other male in the middle of the trio had no need for that as he held out a hand, trying to look cool while white mist bursted forth from his outstretched hand before quickly condensing into the shape of a sword. His sword was a cut above the rest, though that was still up for a discussion, now was not the time.