John returned to the cavern he had started in a short while later, gasping for breath. It wasn't gasps of fatigue or breathlessness, but gasps of disgust from the foul odor that surrounded him. His body was covered in a horrifyingly foul-slling sli that nearly caused him to faint from its stench. Pain rose from his body as well as the sli corroded his skin, wracking his body with pain. And worse of all, the sli clung to his skin in spite of his Qi, refusing to budge. It even perated his Qi when he tried to push the sll away, making it impossible to escape. Only with great effort was he able to get so of it off, although a great deal remained lingering behind.
The trial was even worse than he could have imagined.
"What the fuck is this stuff?" John cursed through the gags.
While the corrosive sli did cause him pain, it was not enough to endanger him. It was the foul-slling sli that was the worst, which was easily the worst sll he had ever encountered in his life. Before entering the tunnel, he would have never imagined such a sll existed.
"Gahahaha, I see you didn't make it through on your first attempt," the Pri Shadow suddenly appeared next to him, laughing loudly. "I warned you, the bats are very sensitive to aura's, and yet you barged in there with your aura flaring that powerfully. What did you expect?"
"I was hiding my presence, not flaring my aura!" John rebuked loudly, stifling so gags in between his words. The Pri Shadow waved his hand in front of his nose and took a few steps back, face scrunched up from the sll.
"If that's what you call hiding your presence, then you're going to be down here for quite so ti," the Pri Shadow said, shaking his head.
John grimaced, then grumbled audibly.
"Does the aura hiding portion of the assassination art even matter? Just teach the killing portion. I don't need to hide my presence," John grumbled.
His words caused Pri Shadow's laughing face to instantly change to a serious one, one that caused John to hold his tongue before speaking more.
"If I did that, then it would be no different than a normal battle art," the Pri Shadow said, voice very serious. "My master created this art as an assassination art, and it will only ever be used either completely, or not at all. So pick now, learn the entire thing, or give up entirely."
John sighed, then stood up, doing his best to ignore the putrid sll.
"I'll learn the entire thing," he grumbled.
"Good," the Pri Shadow said, his cheery attitude returning. He shifted his gaze to the tunnel entrance, where the Toxfoul Bats lived. "Those bats only dwell in that tunnel, and don't co into this cavern, so if you get ambushed, you can always safely retreat here and recover."
John thanked the Pri Shadow for his obvious advice, as he could already tell the bats had not followed him when he retreated earlier. The Pri Shadow ignored his obviously sarcastic tone, opting to give him more advice.
"Oh, and don't try to outrun the bats either," he said warningly. "The Toxfoul Bats aren't very strong or dangerous, but they're far quicker than you. And once they lock onto you, they spit their slimy bile all over you as a defense chanism, as you've now found out. Oh, and don't try to kill them either. They just explode when destroyed, and then their sli gets everywhere anyways. Regardless, I'll only count this trial as being completed when you successfully sneak past the bats without disturbing them. If you play any tricks, I'll bring you right back to this point to start all over."
John grumbled again, then nodded his understanding. He stood up and looked towards the tunnel entrance, then sighed and moved towards it. Withdrawing his aura as best he could, he entered the tunnel again, moving more carefully this ti around.
"Gahhhh!"
Another cry of retching disgust bellowed out within the tunnel a short while later. The Pri Shadow shook his head in light disapproval, and waved his hand to the side. A comfortable chair suddenly appeared, which he sat on, lounging back on its backrest.
"That boy didn't grow up as an assassin, so his ability to hide his presence and aura is quite lacking," he said to himself, listening to the cries of disgust coming from the tunnel. "We're going to be here for quite so ti it seems. I suppose I'll make myself comfortable."
…
Days passed quickly turned to weeks as John spent his life within the dark tunnels, trying to hide his aura enough to sneak past the Toxfoul Bats. Thousands of attempts later, progress had been made, but he had yet to successfully withdraw his aura enough to sneak past all the bats unnoticed.
After being covered by the bat bile thousands of tis, he had expected to develop so sort of tolerance for the soul sll. However, that had not happened, and it still affected him just as much as it had the very first ti he had been discovered by the bats. In so ways, the sll of the sli was more torturous to him than any pain trial he had endured in the past.
"There's millions of them in there. How the hell am I supposed to get past all of them?!" John grumbled loudly after another unsuccessful attempt. I think you should take a look at
"You're getting better," the Pri Shadow said, still lounging on his chair.
"Shoudlnt you be doing sothing else?" John said to the man.
"Like what?" the Pri Shadow asked, giving him a questioning glance.
"I don't know, like running the Guild? Surely you can't stay away from it this long?"
"That's what the Guildmaster is for," the Pri Shadow grinned. "Now get back to it. You're getting better, despite the thousands of failures."
John frowned and wanted to make a snarky remark, but held his tongue. The Pri Shadow was right, he was most certainly getting better, and at a much more rapid pace than he had expected.
John had at first questioned the old man's thods, and grumbled that he could learn to conceal his aura in other ways that were less disgusting. But after a few weeks of this, he couldn't help but admit the Pri Shadow had a good reason for having him train here. Without the horrible sli the bats covered him with each failure, his motivation to pass the trial as quickly as possible would have been much less. The foul sll of the bat bile was so putrid that it ignited his instincts much the sa as a life and death battle did, pushing his comprehension level to a higher level than normal.
However, despite improving at an incredible pace over the last few weeks, it was still far from enough. John grumbled once more before returning to the tunnel. He took a deep, depressed breath, and then entered once more.
The silence lasted for longer than any other attempt, causing the Pri Shadow to stop his comfortable lounging on the chair and peer into the tunnel, a curious look on his face.
"Is this the…"
A commotion broke out within the tunnel, indicating another failure. The Pri Shadow shook his head and then leaned back once more, comfortably lounging on his sofa.
…
Another two weeks passed by, marking over a full month since John had first been taken into the dark tunnels. The Pri Shadow continued to lounge on his sofa, basking in this rare opportunity to truly relax. He suddenly sat up on his seat, then smiled.
He touched the chair, storing it in his spatial ring, then vanished. He reappeared above ground, hovering in the air a few dozen yards above the ground. John turned his gaze upwards to et the man, still covered with the foul sli from trials previously failed.
"Congratulations, you have successfully passed the first part of your training," the Pri Shadow said approvingly. An object appeared in his hands, which he tossed to John.
John caught it and gave it a questioning glance.
"Soap?" he asked.
"Soap that can take the sli of a Toxfoul Bat off you imdiately," the Pri Shadow said, a cheeky grin on his face as he noticed John's displeased look. A look that scread, 'you had this soap the whole ti and didn't bother to give it to earlier? I've been covered for a month straight in this horrible stuff!'
"There's a very refreshing natural spring over that hill," the Pri Shadow said, gesturing to his right. "Go clean yourself up. Once you're done, we start the next part of your training."
John grumbled again at the troubleso old man, then made his way towards the spring.
"Oh, and when you're done, I have so information for you," the Pri Shadow said.
"Information?" John stopped and asked.
"Information regarding that missing companion of yours."
Reviews
All reviews (0)