Betwixt rain and snow

The more that Quill looked at it, the more sure he became.

The 'strange conical cup' was in fact the very torch that need to be lit to leave this "strange snow and rain version of hell".

'The cold is really getting to my brain, huh?...'

Quill sighed. He had indeed found an important object, but it was still useless in the current situation. He had no means of accessing fire, so that meant that trying to light the torch was useless.

Quill took a deep breath. This situation was supposed to be a trial, not a suicide quest. There had to be fire somewhere. Even if snow and rain were constantly dousing fire, there had to be somewhere where the weather could not reach. Now, the real question was finding that place.

If he wanted to find that area, meaningless wandering wouldn't help him in any way. Instead, following logic, the valley couldn't be endless. there had to be a part where it eventually stopped. If he kept heading consistently in one direction, he would either reach the cave or the end of the valley.

Either way, it would be beneficial to him. Going to the cave would mean that he could pick up his jacket, and also explore the cave; after all, he hadn't really checked anything in there.

If he reached the end of the valley, then it should also count as a different area. Following logic, an obstacle course usually had the goal at the very end of the course. Holding the pit as the end, it would either confirm the location of the Pit of will or at least give him a few more answers then what he was finding here.

Quill felt a smile creeping onto his face. He had managed to form a proper plan. 

'Seems like food, no matter how strange, does get your brain working, huh?'

---

Quill stared at the sight in front of him. 

He had barely ran for an hour at most. He wasn't even cold, his senses still fresh.

But he was now standing in front of ruins of an tall structure that towered over the tallest trees, despite its ruined state. At first, he had believed he had reached the end, but peering through the sides of the structure, he soon realized that the valley was spread far behind as well.

Another thing was that it wasn't bothered by the strange weather conditions. The base of it was spanning the entire width of the valley. The structure itself, however was rather...

'The hell was this supposed to be?'

There was a platform situated well above the tallest trees, and there were three staircases that seemed to wind up to the platform. The entire thing could have looked like a tower if there were walls wrapping around the staircases.

But instead, Creeping vines tightly bound each staircase together. Two staircases were visible in front of him, while the last could be seen by peering through the thick vines. The Stairs themselves were so thickly hidden that he could only make out their general shape.

As for the platform, it was well above Quill's line of sight. From the bottom, it looked like it covered the entire valley, but yet, despite it's height, it wasn't even a quarter of a way up the side of the mountains.

Whatever the case, Quill was now sure that this wasn't a dream. He had thought at first that he was dreaming, and this was an illusionary world, but upon going through the trial, his doubts were eradicated. No human could dream of something so puzzling and so intricate. The Torchbearer's trial definitely took place somewhere in the world, but where?

Quill didn't have much time to ponder about that, though. It couldn't have been more than a day or two since he was in this realm, but time was difficult to tell in a place where no celestial body existed to provide the time.

More importantly, this place drove him insane. The entire thing was illogical and strange. Once he got back, he would have to start searching for something like this.

'Though, I have a sneaking suspicion that this place is at least an sector level 2 area...'

Shaking his head, Quill stared at one of the long staircases. Was it worth risking his life on such heights to see if there was anything on the platform?

Somewhere in his mind, a voice quietly answered no. Quill ignored that voice.

---

Climbing was much more nerve-wrecking than he had expected. There was a constant fear running through his mind, and it took all of his willpower to take deep breaths and keep going.

The steps were covered in vines, and the stair case seemed to spiral at strange points. Often, he would try to put his leg forward, only for piece of stone to fall beneath his feet. The rubbery vines didn't help much either.

Quill was constantly taking sharp breaths. the structure was much taller than it looked. Occasionally, a whimsical part of him wanted to to jump off to try and see if he would survive. His heart was beating so fast sometimes that he was shocked that it hadn't already burst out of his chest.

The adrenaline he was feeling was beyond anything he had ever experienced. With each step he took,the ground got further, and the platform drew closer.

Now that he was much higher up, he could clearly make out the difference between the two areas. The mist that covered the forest, and the clouds that hung low over the snowy plain, obscuring most of the land.

There was also the fact that despite the distance he had covered to come to this point, there was still a long valley stretching out behind the structure. 

Quill sighed. This trial only got harder with every passing second. 

---

Quill collapsed on the ground as soon as he reached the platform. 

He was breathing heavily, his heart pounding. The stairs only got more narrow and broken as the they progressed, to the point where the top ones were nothing more than small slabs of stone stacked on on each other.

As he got higher, the mists seemed to grow thicker. He could no longer see anything other than the platform and the faint outlines of the rocky mountain walls.

Somehow, the cold seemed to have grown a bit more bearable, or perhaps it was just him adjusting to the freezing temperatures.

Quill forced himself to get up from the hard ground, grimacing at the effort needed. Days of tirelessly wandering had sapped most of his energy. While he wasn't exactly one of the pampered city boys, he wasn't exactly an adventurer either. 

If anything, he was an amateur swordsman, but without a sword, he was roughly equal to the average human.

'Strange situations sure do cause people to adapt huh...'

His stamina had certainly increased, but it wasn't anything substantial. As for strength and speed...

Quill sighed. He was dead lucky that he didn't have to fight anything or anyone. If he tried, he would most likely lose from a single blow.

Pulling himself to his feet, Quill stretched, then decided to start looking around. Such an obvious monument had to have some significance in the trial, right?

As it turned out, it did indeed have significance. 

And that significance was simultaneously the best thing he had ever seen, and the worst challenge he could have faced.