Before beginning his training program, Commander Yseult had gone over everything she understood about Elias, again and again, and the result left her astonished.
It was not the power he was displaying; she would be surprised if he did not have this sort of power with three active legacies, but it was the solidity of his growth despite his speed of ascension that kept surprising her.
Every test she had given to the child that she wanted to use as a benchmark to see his limits had failed. Elias was not the most talented Siphon she had seen. There were true monsters in certain parts of the world, but at the mont, she wanted to break Elias to rebuild him from the pieces, but for now, he was still fighting hard to preserve his previous state.
The training trial she had created was estimated to push him to his limit and break him; he was not ant to win, but there was a possibility of victory. If he won, it ant she had not pushed him hard enough, and Yseult was eager to find out.
The test she had created was ant for an Ascendant Candidate at the Mist Phantom level, and they should exceed Elias’s talents, but considering that he now had a God-Form and another hidden talent, she wondered how much she could draw out from him.
Commander Yseult frowned as she felt her Frozen Throne quiver, a potent sign from Fate that unexpected danger or calamity was on the horizon, but if the plans of the Bone Singers worked, then calamity was indeed coming. As she dismissed this warning, her bright silver eyes peered through millions of tons of rocks to see her disciple’s state.
She found it amusing how tightly he held on to his secrets, and she was almost taking it as a ga, seeing how much she could draw out of him.
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Elias moved as he had never moved before. He leaped from branch to branch, using his montum to outrun the reaching limbs. He ducked under swinging boughs, rolled across wider platforms, dropped and caught himself on lower branches when the ones above beca too dangerous.
His movents tested every single one of his attributes, and his mind did not just have to move through this dangerous jungle; he also had to chart his directions properly.
The air shook, and cracks like lightning strikes erged from the agitated roots. Elias did not think his body and armor were strong enough to resist the powers of these roots, as they would tear him to pieces in seconds.
Elias had seen training centers around the city where youths practicing to be guards or other professions went through training, and one of the most sought-after training courses was the interception course, where Siphons maneuvered through an obstacle course, and failure usually ant the Siphon would be laughed at or have a painful but light injury.
He always wanted to do this course, but now that he was involved in a more dangerous course, Elias’ blood was beginning to run hot; however, he was surprised that his mind still remained a bit cold, and a quick internal check told him the truth.
His Void Legacy was subtly affecting his mind, making his thoughts colder and more focused, and the Crimson Vein Dominion was the one triggering his blood to run hot, alongside his Elder Talent that was enjoying every mont where Elias was pushing himself.
This place was like the maze of crystals, but faster and more aggressive, and what kept Elias on his toes was the fact that the trees did not hunt in patterns, they simply reacted to his movents, and their movents were unpredictable, since their attacks ca from all directions at once, as they had no joints for him to be able to easily respond to.
Despite his overall attributes, the only reason Elias was still alive was that the trees were reacting to his movents. He knew if he stepped on a branch, the entire tree would attack him, and so he was able to barely slip through the gaps, but it was hard.
A branch caught him across the back, and his armor absorbed most of the force, but the impact still sent him stumbling, nearly falling. He caught himself on a thicker branch and kept moving before the branch was able to wrap around him like a gigantic python.
His Status Screen vibrated, and he glanced at it for a mont as he noted that Inverse Reflection had activated. The branch that struck him cracked slightly, as a hairline fracture appeared in its surface.
Vitality: 4502 / 4517 (minor blunt force trauma)
The slight mont of distraction was maybe the slight difference that was needed to break the balance as a branch wrapped around his ankle, yanking hard.
Ti seed to slow down as Elias grabbed a higher branch with both hands, held on, and kicked until the grasping limb released. He pulled himself up, breathing hard, and realized he was being herded.
Perhaps at the beginning, they wanted to drag him down, but he had held onto so branch for longer, and they had not been too violent, and only when he was heading in another direction that they beca more agitated.
He seed to be forced towards the center of the forest, and he could either fight their influence or follow it. Elias thought about it for a mont, and he decided to let the forest lead him.
If they wanted him to go sowhere, he would go there. But he would go on his terms, aware and prepared, watching for whatever waited at the end of their path. Besides, he was not a helpless prey; Elias had not yet tested his current offensive strength, but he would not go down easily.
Following the lead of the trees, he soon reached a clearing and in its center stood a tree larger than the others, its trunk easily twenty feet thick, and its branches spreading to fill the entire space.
"Oh, why am I not surprised?" Elias muttered to himself, "There has to be sothing bigger at the center."
At the base of this massive tree, nestled among exposed roots, sat a single branch, but the more Elias stared at this branch, the more it no longer looked like a branch but a piece of the tree itself, carved or broken into a shape that seed almost intentional, as it resembled a wooden heart that pulsed with faint luminescence.
The familiar whispers touched his ears, "The Heartwood."
Elias touched his chin in thought. He had gained the Echo Stone, and now there was a Heartwood in front of him. This should be the second of the four items he was ant to find.
Watching the massive tree for a mont, Elias prepared himself for a fight and dropped from the canopy, landing on the forest floor; however, the ground did not move, as no roots reached for him. The trees almost seed to be watching him; perhaps they were.
He waited for a mont and decided to get the Heartwood. As he walked towards the target, he heard a spine-chilling howl that made him freeze, even though the howls were still a bit distant, his instincts instantly scread at him... Rune Beasts!
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