Chapter 16: Title: First in the Era

『 Calculation complete, Congratulations on completing the trial.』

『 +20 Strength points, +5 Chaos Points.』

{Guess 20 is the cap}

Neo nodded and then saw that the Chaos points were higher than the amount rewarded from before.

He felt a boost as energy coursed through his muscles, strengthening them.

『 Third trial [Trial of Finesse]』

『 Reach as far as you can.』

The white room disappeared, and Neo discovered himself standing on a steep hill. He looked down and found nothing but darkness covering the whole area. He then looked forward and saw a rope attached to the end of the hill and moving away from it, its other end, unknown.

Neo gulped and started thinking before saying to Blaze, "Wasn't I a master of control and such"

{Well, I didn't know I was, but sure, I got precise control over myself.}

"Just handle this one." Neo said as he let Blaze handle this who grabbed Bolt under his arm.

"Let's do this."

As if it was not dangerous enough, Blaze activated [Dash of the Wind] and dashed over the rope, when his foot came in contact with the rope, it bent down but didn't have time to move any further as Blaze jumped, and the rope moved up, but again it wasn't able to reach its peak distance before Blaze's foot touched again.

The rope kept moving up and doing as he flashed through the area. His control over his movement was precise, and this trial became a walk in the park, especially with 50 times the agility he got from the system which he just found out.

"Aren't these trials too easy?" Blaze commented as his feet touched the rope, but suddenly a wind blew, and the rope moved a little to the left and his feet missed the rope.

But he stayed calm as he grabbed the rope with his free hand and jumped back up.

'Nice, just had to jinx it,' Neo said when he saw what happened as the wind started blowing, which swayed the rope left and right. Blaze had to use his hands from time to time.

"Shut it, it's still not that ---"

'Don't, or the Tower might add flying monsters to harass you.'

Blaze felt tempted, but then didn't say it as he moved agilely and hopped as he moved forward toward the unknown. The more he moved forward, the more violent the wind became.

And now he had to decrease his speed a little, but he was still moving fast, now he had to time his jumped and in such a direction so that he won't fall to his death which he doubt would happen as he never heard someone dying in these trials.

"Perhaps I can be the first."

'Why are you so optimistic, might as well think about blowing me up?' Neo said, retorting, that he felt the change was a little refreshing as he was always on the receiving end.

Blaze didn't have time to reply as he put Bolt on his shoulder and said, "Hold tight, buddy."

Bolt grabbed on to his shoulder tightly so much that its claws dug into Blaze's skin.

"That's better. Time to zoom!"

Blaze grinned as he now had his other hand free, so now he had more freedom. He again gained speed as he moved faster and faster.

After a while, he saw the other end, which was also like the hill that he started from.

'Did we move around in a circle?'

"I didn't feel any curve, but it's the Tower, so anything is possible. Anyway, it's time to end the marathon."

Blaze put his feet on the rope which moved them so much that one might feel that after this much, it'll end up tearing. But he didn't let it reach that point as he used [Dash] and moved forward like an arrow, covering 100 meters in a tenth of a second as a booming sound echoed in the distance. (Over 343 meter per second, if you want to do the math.)

"Nice. I crossed the sound barrier."

'Congratulations.'

{Shut it, I'm tired.}

Blaze said as he let Neo handle the rest. Neo got Bolt down from his shoulder and saw the blood dyeing his shoulder red.

Whimper*

Bolt whimpered when it saw what it did. Neo smiled and rubbed its head. Although it was painful, it was manageable.

"Don't worry about it."

Bolt rubbed its head back and its sadness vanished as it jumped into Neo's arm.

After consoling Bolt, Neo looked at the notification that had been ringing, and he again found himself in the room.

『 Trial of Finesse completed.』

『 Time taken to complete the challenge: 00:12:32』

{Well, the distance was not small at all.}

Blaze said in his defense that even if he gave his absolute best, it would only be around 10 minutes.

『 Calculation complete, Congratulations on completing the trial.』

『 +20 Agility points, +7 perception +7 Chaos Points.』

{See, even the Tower agrees with me.}

Neo ignored as he saw the rise in chaos points, which was strange and the fact that Bella didn't tell him anything about it was strange as well.

{Like I said, I'll know what I am supposed to know or ask someone knowledgeable about it. Losing brain cells over it is just textbook idiotic.}

'It's a weird analogy.'

{As long as it helps. The next trial is starting.}

Neo found his surrounding change and suddenly felt a cool wind breezing over his skin.

『 Fourth trial [Ascent of Endurance]』

『 Climb as high as you can.』

『 Current record: 11 Km.』

{That's an enormous mountain.}

Blaze commented and then turned towards the notification to see which stat it was about as it usually boosted that stat.

『 Stamina will regenerate faster when taking a break.』

{So, it's about stamina.}

"Well, it doesn't have a time limit."

{Start trekking then}

And started the arduous task of hiking. Their first stop was after hiking up to 4.5 kilometers as the weather started worsening, and he had to find a cave, as his stamina was also almost gone.

He sat down, as he took out some snacks that he prepared for himself before coming into the tower. He tried to be as prepared as he could be. Goblin King's Keep was a lesson that he didn't want to repeat.

Neo found that after resting for five minutes, his stamina was almost half recovered and the rest also recovered in 10 more minutes.

Neo waited for the weather to clear a little, as it was snowing heavily. After waiting for half an hour, the snow stopped falling and winds also slowed a little. He started moving again and this time he could cover 3 kilometers before stopping again. The higher he went, the steeper the mountain became, and he had to climb up. He used [Authority of the Armament] and created small blades, curved so that they don't end up becoming the cause of his death.

Blaze gripped the blades and plunged them into the mountainside, the blades cut through the frozen snow and Blaze then dragged himself up with that and again created another blade while using the other blade as a foothold.

Blaze found that every creation of this blade cost him 5 energy points, Nether or Divine, depending on the type he formed.

Seeing the steepness reaching 100 meters up, Blaze went with only two blades and not make any more than the Tower might not regenerate this energy, and he'll be helpless in the next challenges then.

After 20 meters of climbing, he could finally get on top and collapsed as his stamina was dangerously low. The low oxygen here was not helping at all. Bolt jumped on his stomach as it looked at him with excitement.

Neo rubbed its head as he found an arch and sat under it to recover. After sitting there for half an hour, might be because of how high he was now, he started his journey again, and this time could go up by 2.3 kilometers before taking a break.

During his stay in a cave, the ground started trembling. Bolt stood up and looked outside. Neo also did so and saw the land sliding, or it was an avalanche as the snow moved down.

"I was inside the cave, otherwise I would've stopped the journey there."

{Or, just had to crawl our way out of it. Anyway, it must be because of my luck.}

Neo nodded as his gaze was still on the avalanche that was going down the mountain. The entrance of their cave also got blocked by an enormous boulder, but none were worried as they waited for the avalanche to pass, which they could only find by feeling the ground. Which would stop trembling.

This went on for five minutes before the ground stopped shaking. Blaze moved closer to the entrance of the cave and punched the boulder over and over. Finally, after one last hit, the boulder was blasted into pieces.

And the journey started again. He kept ongoing as they stopped getting closer and closer to each other as the steepness of the mountain increased.

He stopped after climbing for 2.2 kilometers, then 2.1, then 2.05, and it kept going down.

2.0

1.7

1.5

But it stabilized there for a while before again going down until he had to stop to take a break after every 500 meters and each rest also increased as the time to regenerate his stamina. Like at the start, it was only 15 minutes, and now he can only recover 15~20% of his stamina in that much time.

But his persistence was noteworthy as neither Blaze nor Neo gave up and this went on for over 3 days before the top became visible to them.

Seeing that they were close to the end. Neo felt a newfound energy, and he started climbing again after climbing for over 6 hours before they reached the top. Which was nothing more than a plain area with nothing on it.

{Well, that was uneventful.}

The notification rang, which differed from the other ones they got so far.

『 Congratulation on Surmounting the Kibra Mountain.』

『 Received: [Primal Breathing Technique].』

『 You have persisted and kept climbing and became the first in the history of the Tower to reach the top of the Kibra Mountain.』

『 Title: [First in the Era] has been granted.』

『 Completion Grade A+.』

『 +30 Stamina, +10 Vitality, +10 Chaos points.』

{Did I break the tower?}

Blaze asked as he looked at the dizzying amount of notifications. He didn't know what was going on other than that he was the first one to reach the top.

{Why, it's not that difficult to reach the top.}

But they didn't know that it was because of their high luck and that they were not alone plus there was an illusion array on the mountain which didn't affect him. They argued continuously that they could ignore the "test of loneliness" part of the test and Bolt was there too. Otherwise, anyone would lose their mind in this stormy weather or by the avalanche that was random but definitely hit a person once through this test.

Neo got no answer himself, so he could only shrug his shoulder, which awoke Bolt, who was using his shoulder as its napping spot.

Their surroundings changed, and they were again in the white room.

『 Resetting and Revitalizing.』

Neo felt all his mental fatigue go away, like everything reset. He stretched a little as he moved around and felt the cold that seeped into his bones leaving him, and a warm feeling took over.

Bolt looked at him as he moved around doing push-ups and such. After he was done with this, Blaze said, "Ahh… This is refreshing."

"Just need a face to bash in, and it'll be perfect."

'….'

Neo didn't comment as this part of his soul had some weird tendencies and came up with weird things to do from time to time.

"Well, this is what I want to do, but I am stopping myself from it. So stop calling me weird, that's weird."

Neo kept quiet and wondered whether it was true or not.