Chapter 5 - Fifth Stage
"I-It's a Golem." Alden's heart thumped loudly as he faced the towering forest golem. It was huge and scary, made of hard, grey rocks.
Alden drew his sword, looking intensely in the golem's eyes. He stood in a attacking stance, ready to attack him at any point. The golem growled deeply, its big eyes glaring at Alden. The Golem's massive stature made Alden to tremble in front of him, but Alden quickly got back on his legs, planning for the attack. He took a big breath, getting ready to fight. "Here I go," he whispered to himself, stepping closer and closer. The golem, took a big part of the cave's ceiling, then threw the stone to Alden. He thought of destroying it, but that was almost impossible, since the stone was bigger than Alden himself. So, he took the decision of dodging the attack, of course, it wasn't easy. He ran to the right side of the cave, using his full speed, "Gah!". He was almost out of breath already, from that single attack, having no time to waste, he got closer and closer to the Golem, hoping to do some damage in close combat. The golem, who was remained unfazed by Alden's agility, it swung his stony leg at Alden, a trial of shattered stone followed by his leg's sheer force. Alden slashed his sword at the golem's legs, but again, the golem remained unmoved by his actions. That was the time that, Alden, remembered the weakness of a Golem. The golem are creatures that can infinitely regenerate, however.. if you destroy the Golem's core, it will shatter into pieces of stone. "haha..", Alden finally got a big of motivation to defeating this, "Rock Wall". Alden kept moving and dodging, trying to avoid the golem's attacks. While doing that, he noticed a greenish-colored stone on the front of his palm. "Got you!" Alden smirked, knowing that he discovered it's core. The Golem was raging, because he didn't even scratch Alden once, he suddenly lunged at Alden, kneeling in order to make a punch. As soon as he did that, there was blood on Alden's left cheek, it seemed to be just a scratch, however Alden now had a chance to defeat it.
He jumped on the creature's leg, them climbed up to his forearm, ultimately running to the palm. The golem, noticing what Alden's trying to do, tried to hit him, but unfortunately, him doing that without actually hitting Alden, resulted in his arm being disconnected. "Shit!", Alden screamed, "I can't let this chance go to trash!", feeling rage, he suddenly ran faster and faster, leaving behind a black trail and aura on his legs and sword. Alden aimed his sword at the core and swung as hard as he could. The sword hit the golem's chest, and there was a loud crack. The golem roared in pain as Alden hit it again and again. Finally, there was a big crack, and the golem fell apart. Alden has fallen along with the core on his sword on the ground, as he was almost unconscious, he heard a female voice say something, but he couldn't understand what she said. She was wearing a red robe, but that was all he saw, since his face was practically planted to the ground, then after a second or so, He fell unconscious.
Later, when he was woken up, his scratch, was healed up, even his muscles were feeling better than ever. The system notified him that he passed the fifth trial, "Congratulations, Alden. You have passed the fifth trial. Do you wish to claim your rewards now?", Alden felt confused, as he didn't think there would be a reward, "What exactly is this reward?" he asked. The system replied with a short sentence, "The system, of course." "System?", Alden asked back to her, but the System said that it isn't allowed to give any more answers.
Alden, for a few moments, wondered about what the system was. "I thought it was a robot, or higher being. Why does it want me to have it?", but he made a clear decision, the reward couldn't be disadvantageous for him, after knowing he got stronger by using it. And so he finally replied to the system, "I do want to receive your rewards, System." looking at the sky. It replied after a few seconds, "Very well, child, you shall receive it.". Alden, waited for minutes, .., no .. it was more like, hours. In this time he wondered about how long he had stayed in this place, his hair was getting longer, for gods sake, he even almost had a beard and of course, he also questioned his existence and the existence of this place, "What if it was a dream all along? Looking back to it, I did get stronger without a reason, I just slayed some monsters there and there, but now I almost got stronger than an Knight.