2.15 Trial of Strength

It was a big room with doors on all four walls from one of which I entered. The walls, floors, and ceiling were all irregular. There was a large blue crystal that was shining to make the entire room visible, at the center of the ceiling.

Since the voice said this was the trial of strength, I prepared myself by taking out my sword Aurora from its sheath. When the door on my left slowly started sliding, I took my position.

After the door completely opened, a growl that sounded like a dog could be heard and a large creature slowly stepped outside.

"A Cerberus?"

It was a three-headed dark-colored dog that was twice as big as me. It had large fangs and a long and thorny tail.

"Wait, this isn't the only one that I will be facing?"

As I was busy looking at the large Cerberus that was growling at me, another door slid open. I could hear the heavy breathing sound from inside.

"A Minotaur? Really?"

He had a huge muscular body covered in white fur and there were two white pointed horns in his head. And with the way he was breathing out smoke from his nose, anyone could tell that he wasn't in a good mood.

"Okay guys, come at me," I shouted since provoking both of them to attack together was better than being attacked by one while being distracted by another.

Both charged straight towards me. Cerberus with its fangs while Minotaur with its horns.

I wasn't just planning to wait there for them to attack so I charged towards the Cerberus. When I reached close to its head, I created a small fireball in my left hand and blasted it on the floor. I had set myself in the position where I could use the momentum gained after the blast to slide between its legs.

'Thank you for your third law, sir Issac.'

As I thought, its ventral part was the most defenseless part of its body. Before he could try to attack me with its tail, I used the wind slash from Aurora at full power and chopped off its tail.

"Oops!"

The impact was a bit bigger than I expected and ended up creating a scar on the ceiling. It was a long scar, and as a result, some rubble started falling from above. I moved backward to avoid it but the Cerberus that was grieving for its tail wasn't lucky enough and was squashed like a bug.

The Minotaur that was angrily charging towards me narrowly escaped the falling rubble. The way he was charging towards me, he would have probably ended up colliding with the Cerberus if the rubble hadn't fallen.

'He looks even angrier now.'

The Minotaur that was breathing out smoke until now, started exhaling fire. A red aura appeared around him and his muscles that were already big looked even bigger. His fur color changed from white to black and his horn changed its color to golden.

'Man, level up transformation in the midst of battle is so unfair. But well, since I wanted to test something, it's fine I guess.'

I got this idea when I saw the summoning ceremony, but I had never gotten an opportunity to try it.

I concentrated Darkness magic into my sword, and as I did that, the whole sword turned black.

"That's rude!"

As I was experimenting with magic, the Minotaur came charging towards me. Even though he charged towards me with greater speed, he was still a mad bull like before, charging without thinking.

I jumped towards my right to avoid the attack and supplied raw mana through the edges of the sword. The color of its edges changed back to its original steel color.

When I changed the raw mana into the fire magic, dark frames appeared on the sword.

'Woah! Flaming dark sword.'

I had always thought that the Darkness magic was the most useless one, but this changed my view about it completely. The flames that appeared on the sword, they weren't warm at all. Instead, they were freezing cold. I had no idea that dark magic could change a property of matter this much just like that.

I was probably only able to do it because it was a Mithril sword. On a normal sword, I would have never been able to use two different magics at the same time. And controlling both of them with this much accuracy would have been impossible for me without a medium like a sword.

I kept on dodging the Minotaur while trying to figure out how to use it and with every dodge, the Minotaur got angrier and angrier. I didn't want to mess things up and make the whole ceiling fall this time, so I had to be careful on how I use my power.

This time when the Minotaur charged towards me, I tried counter-attacking it on its left leg using my sword, but my sword couldn't even scratch his skin let alone hurt him.

'Is his skin that tough?' I thought but when I looked back towards the place where I attacked, I could see something.

The part where my sword touched him was frozen and the ice was spreading. The flames had probably frozen the part when they touched his body, and that was why the sword couldn't cut through.

'But how could something be frozen to the state where even a Mithril sword couldn't put a scratch on it?'

While I was thinking that, the freezing spread, and soon, it covered his entire leg. He tried to walk but he couldn't move his left leg. He tried to come towards me on his right leg while dragging his left one but even before he could touch me, both of his legs were frozen.

When I took a closer look at where I had attacked earlier, I realized that there was a small cut, but the ice probably didn't let the blood come out making the cut hard to notice.

'Man, this thing is dangerous, I need to think seriously before using it.'

Soon, his entire body froze, his eyes were still open, but he stood there without any signs of movement just like a statue.

"You pass the trial of strength. The door in front will lead you to the next trial venue."

When the voice said that, the remaining one of the four doors automatically slid open with the heavy metallic sound.

I looked back and saw that the Cerberus was still alive but had ceased any sign of resistance while the Minotaur was in a frozen state without displaying any signs of life. I had no intention of checking whether he was alive or not, so I just turned forward and walked towards the door.

When I entered through the door, I heard the voice say, "Welcome to the Trial of Bravery".

Next Chapter: The Trial of Bravery