442 Smelting Trial 1.5 (1/2)
The Smelting Trial inside the Devil Emperor's Pagoda continued without any hitches…
No one amongst the participants or the facilitators knew that something strange happened. All they could see, was the imagery provided by the monitoring arrays inside the Devil Emperor's Pagoda. As for Raven's situation, what the facilitators are currently seeing, was obviously faked.
In their eyes, Raven could be seen calmly participating in the Smelting Trial but in reality, Raven had actually fallen into a deep slumber in the 89th floor of the real Devil Emperor's Pagoda.
Had Raven wasn't chosen by the Heavenly Elk, what's supposed to happen was for him to experience a great number of challenges within each floor of the pagoda replica.
The rules of the Smelting Trial is simple. As the participants gets transported within, they will arrive at a vast and barren place. There they will face the endless pursuit of devils - Lesser Imps to be exact.
Lesser Imps are actually man-made devils. They were created from actual Imps by collecting some of their body parts, therefore acquiring their genes. Lesser Imps are created for the sole purpose of testing the disciples. These man-made devils weren't physically strong. In terms of energy control and reserves, they aren't worse compared to humans.
Where they truly excel at, is in terms of Spirit. Realm Imps possess incredible Spirit, controlling and cultivating their Spirits comes naturally for Imps. Due to this, they are incredibly proficient on pulling someone inside their illusions, and their illusions were deadly. They could plunge someone into a deep chasm of unending nightmares, trapping their consciousness within and leaving their physical forms vulnerable.
Imps devour souls. The more souls they devour, the stronger they get. Some of the stronger Imps could plunge an entire country into believe a false reality in order to devour all of them. Such is the terror of these little devils.
Lesser Imps, since they are made after the image of the real ones, could also do this but only on a smaller ratios. What makes Lesser Imps less dangerous is that, they don't have high intelligence. Lesser Imps couldn't talk and acts due to instinct. Only the stronger Lesser Imps could do that. Additionally, those who created them limited their lifespans as well.
Still, the amount of Lesser Imps present within the Devil Emperor's Pagoda replica were too many. The task of every participant is to kill a certain amount of Lesser Imps om each floor in order to ascend to the next floor. Whenever they kill a Lesser Imp, they will release pure Spiritual Energy that would be absorbed by the participants, allowing them to enjoy the benefits of getting a stronger soul without any draw backs.
As for the lucky chances and opportunities, those could be found scattered within each floor. All the participants has to do, is to search for them.
Of course, some of the more valuable serendipities are stashed amidst a dangerous place. Only those who are capable enough could grab them. However, just like Elder Abe said before. There is a first come first serve rule when it comes to this.
Though the participants won't see each other, the lucky opportunities located within the pagoda are finite. Should someone pick them up first, that item/lucky chance will disappear from the view of the other participants. Should two people were to try claiming the same serendipity, it will go to the one who could leave their mark on it first.
All in all, the participants had to fight Lesser Imps and discover their own serendipities within the pagoda in order to strengthen themselves since the higher they climb, the stronger the versions of Lesser Imps they will face.
Each floor has a dedicated safe zone. Within this safe zone, the participants won't be attacked by the Lesser Imps. Each floor also has a requirement that has to be met in order to ascend to the next floor. In the first floor, one only has to kill a certain amount of Lesser Devils, but from the 2nd floor and above, one would also be required to posses a certain amount of serendipities as well as to slay numerous devils.
The time limit is ten years, but only ten days will pass outside. This means that it is completely possible for the participants to stay within a specific floor for longer periods of time.
At this point, nobody managed to ascend to the second floor just yet. All the remaining 40 participants - minus Raven, are still on the first floor battling their hearts out.
Out of these 40 people, eight were in a critical state. These participants almost had their souls devoured by Lesser Imps. If it weren't for the fact that they managed to wake up from their befuddled state, they would've already lost their lives and serve as nourishment to strengthen the spirit of some Lesser Imps.
It also didn't help that Lesser Imps actually roam around in groups. Each group would have at least five to nine Lesser Imps. One wrong move and it would be easy for one to get ganged up by these imps.