Chapter 10 (Trail Of Endurance)

After 15 minutes of walking, Melda stopped and signaled Kazuma to do the same. Kazuma saw a bright light-emitting in front of him.

Melda: This is the first challenge.

Kazuma: What do I do here?

Melda: Just go forward. Youll understands when you get there.

Kazuma: Aren't you coming with me?

Melda: I am not permitted to go further until the challenger has finished his challenge.

Kazuma: I see. Well then, I won't take long.

Kazuma begins to walk towards the bright light with his guard at the maximum. Every sound made Kazuma unsettled. He decided to continue though. The light seemed to be getting further and further away. Not only that but the air became thinner and colder. Kazuma felt the difference yet continued.

After 17 minutes of walking, Kazuma started to get dizzy. The thin and cold air made it hard for him to breathe, and he dropped to his knees. He looked into his hands that seemed to be numb from the cold.

Kazuma: *huff, huff, huff, huff.....huff...huff...huff

Kazuma's entire breathes pattern changed. His breathing became calmer. He got back up and continued walking. Although it was still cold, he didn't has the air problem which made it a lot more bearable for him. He continued to walk down the narrow pathway until he reached the end. It was a cave packed with blue crystals. They looked dazzling as they shined brightly. Everything else in the cave that wasn't a crystal was ice. Except for this pond in the middle of the cave. Kazuma looked at the pond intensely and saw a gleaming light, and with all his courage, he jumped into the icy pond. He instantly felt a sharp pain. The icy cold pond made him almost pass out upon jumping into it. He continued to swim down, trying to forget the pain. His shirt became heavier as slowly froze. He took it off and continued to swim further down into the pond. Now the cold was directly hitting his skin. It felt like knives were skewering him from all sides. He started to run out of the air and began to sink. When he hit the bottom, the water pressure began to crush him. He slowly started closing his eyes, as if he gave up, but then a small and seemingly harmless "Frost Fish" swam past him as if it had no trouble in the cold waters. This made Kazuma feel weak. To think that a measly, little fish that is used as food, can show better resistance than him. This made Kazuma get up with a burst of energy and swim towards the gleaming light. When he reached his destination, he saw a small pearl. Upon touching it the pearl exploded letting out a huge amount of "Frost Energy" which completely engulfed Kazuma. The energy started to merge with him. It was as if they started to become one. The shockwave from the explosion soon sent Kazuma out of the water and into the cave. He hit his back at the roof of the cave so hard that it made the crystals shake. He soon got up after coughing up some blood, only to be met by an "Elemental Entity". It was an "Ice Dragon" of the child stage. It wasn't too big but its strength rivaled a human of the "Beginner Metal Stage." This meant that Kazuma was one tier above the dragon, but because of the immense damage he took, he could barely throw a punch. The dragon and Kazuma stared into each other's eye for above 2 minutes. Kazuma had the will to survive in his eyes and the dragon noticed that. The dragon then suddenly rushed at Kazuma who was barely standing and entered his body. Bright blue light surrounded Kazuma, as he suddenly felt that his body was healing, and the cold disappeared. He sat down and meditated, only to be greeted by the "Ice Dragon".

Kazuma: Such power.....This power is inhumane. The ice energy flowing through me is exhilarating. To imagine that this isn't even the strongest it could get. Enough of this though, I should probably meet up with Melda now. I finally got to see the full extent of my body. Not to mention that I also got immense ice resistance and an ice affinity thanks to the dragon. That is a HUGE find.

While walking Kazuma then realized that the crystals he saw were immensely valuable. They were called "Crystallized Snow Essence". The crystals themselves aren't that valuable, but when broken down into snow essence, they make cultivation a lot easier. So Kazuma grabbed as much "Crystalized Snow Essence" as possible and headed out the cave.

To Be Continued...

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