As I trudged through the forest, anticipating yet dreading the next trial which would no doubt be harder, I also thought about what the others would be doing right about now...

-Breadktalk-

“STOP RUNNING AWAY YOU PUSSY!!!!” I screamed as I frantically chased Belieber around this house that appeared out of nowhere.

Loki instructed me that to attain higher masteries over the weapons I could draw out from his armoury, I would personally have to meet and complete the tasks the weapons asked of me without the help of any of the weapons. For Belieber, this task was unexpectedly simple but unseemingly hard.

All I had to do was catch that cat. However, it was a game of tag in a two storey house. Belieber was unbelieveably quick on her feet. She darted through corners like they were curves instead and she could “phase” past certain furniture like bed and tables by just running under them. Everytime I gained a small advantage, she just had to run under a furniture and all the advantage was gone.

She could even run up to the second level and just jump out of the window, landing perfectly because cats have an innate ability to jump from great heights and suffer no damage. I stopped following her example after the third time I leapt out of the window to chase after her. The third time I actually rolled and tumbled into a fucking tree outside which hurt quite a lot.

This is going nowhere... How the fuck should I deal with this?

Cats have several weaknesses but how could I put them to good use??

Wait this is a furnished house.. I should be able to find...

I ran to the storeroom and searched for what I was looking for. A ball of yarn.

“Here kitty kitty kitty!” I exclaimed as I played around with the ball of yarn. Belieber was running to me as expected. I put the ball of yarn on the floor and prepared to catch the cat while she was playing with it.

YES I'VE DONE IT!

While Belieber was playing with the ball of yarn, I leapt towards her with my outstretched arms. In that instant, Belieber immediately jumped towards me as well which threw my timing off. I only saw a gleam of light before I realised what happened.

“OW! YOU FUCKING SCRATCHED ME! BITCH!”

“I'm a female cat not a female dog AND CATS DON'T LIKE PLAYING WITH A BALL OF YARN YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG WE FUCKING LOVE MICE AND FISH GET YOUR FUCKING FACTS RIGHT!”

I dashed into the kitchen.

-Soup-

“Master what in the bacon is this? How come such a skill can exist?” I asked.

“Because you are my disciple. That's why. Be wary, it must be used at the correct time for it's full effect.” Fenrir replied.

“Yes master.”

I reverted to training mode. I activated my Gladiator's Rage, stood tall, facing at least a thousand wolves in the cave, none of them lower than level 100 and begun to activate the skill I just learnt. My features became more wolflike, my skin started becoming fur and I could feel my new muscles tensing up, elastic and strong.

“Go get them. Remember, anything more than an hour and you will have to do it again like now.”

“Aye yay.” I growled. And off I went.

-Beathoven-

“STOP STOP STOP!” Hel screamed.

“It's all wrong! You have talent with music but this is one step higher. The maximum number of melodies you can maintain with your flute is two. Like it or not, two melodies on one instrument is the limit for your lute and your two hands. This song requires three melodies so you need to use your voice. YOUR FUCKING HORRIBLE VOICE!”

“You think I like having a horrible voice?!” I retorted.

“No. But you have one so please do not sing to seduce anyone. My god if only you could get a third melody in. The effects of this song are extremely useful but this cannot be done with a voice like that.” Hel shook her head.

“Wait. Must the song only be played by me? Can someone else play the third melody?”

“I believe its possible but where are you going wit- OH I SEE. What you lack in your voice has gone to your mind I see. It's a great idea I believe I've caught onto your plan. Let's see if that's possible. If you can actually do that.... I believe you will be able to gain access to even my upper tier musics. Let's try it out.”

“Yes.”

I started to strum a very nostalgic tune. The beginning of the stanza sounded like the chorus of one of my most favourite songs. 'Reflection'

After the desired effects of the song begun to come into play, I changed the song into the three piece melody that was required for the new song to work. Alas, the ground begun cracking open and a flaming fist thrusted out of the cracks.

“Say hello to your new friend Beathoven. It seemed like you managed to draw his attention.” Beckoned Hel.

-Jinx-

When the fuck will I actually reach the next trial I've already been walking for 30 minutes. The walks are longer than the trial holy shit.

Suddenly, another clearing appeared in front after the bend. This clearing however was not just plain and empty. There were 9 huge weighing scales in front of me that were blocking the road ahead.

There was also a signpost beside the first weighing scale on the left so I went over and took a look.

Welcome Adventurer!

This is your lucky day! You've reached the mana cooking challenge! The 9 weighing scales you see in front of you are already coloured in the respective colour of the 9 types of mana. Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Darkness and Gravity. (Red, Teal, Yellow, Blue, Grey, Green, White, Black and Purple respecitvely). The goal is simple. This is a speed cooking challenge. You will see a dish appearing on top of the middle of the 9 scales with it's relevant components at its side.

For example, a green apple costs 1KG of earth mana, 300g of water mana and 150g of light mana to create. You will have to create the respective mana's on top of the weighing scales in one second and then we will take the weight of the mana you've provided. The dish will be graded upon 100 how nice it tastes and if you follow the recipe list given, you're likely to get 100/100. FYI, no one has gotten 100/100 before. You can try to be the first! Good luck!

P.S. The weight of mana will be adjusted according to your maximum mana level so don't worry. It's calibrated and accounted for so no matter your level, the difficulty is the same. Also, you will have 100% mana regeneration here so your mana will permanently be at maximum.

So in essence, the previous challenge was about me creating shields as fast and as miniscule as I could while protecting myself to emphasize on mana preservation and control. This challenge didn't seem to be that different as well. I needed to focus entirely on mana control and speed. The moment the recipe list comes out I need to use the correct type and amount of mana onto the weighing scales. Let me see how much 7000 mana would weigh. I used all my mana to form a fire sphere on top of the fire weighing scale. 7KG.

Every 1000 mana is 1KG huh. Easy enough!

“Your trial will begin in 3... 2....”

I thought it was going to be easy but boy was I wrong. It was easy to use all my mana at once but using only a specific amount was harder than I thought. I realised this the moment the first ingredient came out.

“1!”

Omlette. 3KG Earth mana.

I estimated about 3000 mana worth into a sphere and placed it on the green weighing scale.

I saw the weighing scale shoot to 3.5kg and as I was adjusting the mana to make it lesser, the one second really was one second.

“DING! You used 3.4kg of earth mana to make an omlette. The judges gave it 40/100”

“FORTY?! WHAT? It's just 400g!” I protested.

“If you added 400g more sugar into a cake you will know how disastrous that would be. Protests are not entertained. Your next dish in 3.. 2..”

Next was a bowl of fishball noodles. 2KG of water mana, 500g of fire mana.

I already had problems getting a simple 3KG with earth. Now it had jumped to two elements and it was even harder to split two different manas with different amounts into two different locations. I barely did it within the second.

“DING! You used 1.5kg of water mana and 1kg of fire mana to make a bowl of fishball noodles. The judges gave you 20/100.”

This was no joke. At the rate this was going, I was going to fail the test. Sure enough, 8 dishes later, I got my total score.

“Congratulations! You have gotten a grand total of 110/1000. You need a score of at least 500 to pass this test. We hope you will try again. If not, you can always retrace your steps and get out of this forest.”

It seemed impossible. Even if I did four times better, I would still be quite far off from the passing mark. Furthermore, the higher the thing went, the more complicated the permutations of the mana. I had to use 7 different types of mana for the last stage!I just couldn't use my gut feeling to create the exact amount of mana! I would always just estimate the size of the aura and turn it into the element..

Suddenly it struck me.

“Of course! I'M BEING SO DUMB!”

I only estimated the mana and every time I did not care how I shaped the mana. They were all usually spherical but not perfectly round. I knew I could only use this way to try my best. I made a fire aura, estimating and trying to memorise the size of the aura which I shaped to be a cube which is my favourite shape. I adjusted the size of the cube of fire mana until it reached 1KG of fire mana. I burned that image in my head. Not literally of course.

“I would like to challenge again.”

A warm cup of You Suck So Hard. 2KG fire mana, 1KG darkness mana.

I quickly formed two cubes of fire mana and one cube of earth on the respective scales.

“DING! You used 2.05kg of fire mana and 0.95kg of darkness mana to make a warm cup of You Suck So Hard. The judges gave you 80/100”

This time, I was doing much better. I was always blindly manipulating my mana, not fixing the shape nor scope or size. I always just estimated what amount to use and formed it into the necessary shape immedaitelyto cast a spell. However, I just realised that even during the conjuring phase, I could estimate the amount I use more accurately by manipulating my mana first into the 1kg cube until I reached the necessary mana before distorting the shape into the correct one needed for the spell while not changing the quantity of mana.

However, this wasn't easy to do quickly. Especially when more than one element was involved. At first I could not even finish the number of cubes of the different elements in one second. I had to redo the trial a few times. However, it seemed that there were unlimited tries and finally, after the 5th attempt, I passed. However. I was still unhappy with the score and decided to train here more. I started to gain more and more proficiencies until forming the cube of mana immediately was second nature. The next problem was when there were alot more types of mana than 2 or 3. That took me awhile but by the 30th try, I managed to complete stage 10. However, until now there wasn't once where I got 100/100 for a dish. It was insanely hard. 10 grams off would ruin that chance for you already.

This wasn't an easy test at all.

I finally managed to get a score I was quite proud of on the 35th try and decided to call it quits.

Trial by Weighing Scales.

A specific amount of a specific type of mana has to be generated out within one second. The accuracy will then be graded. This is a very important skill in combat. It seperates the elites from the good. In fights, you don't even have one second to conjure the mana. You got about 0.2 seconds. Also, combination spells require very intricate blends of mana in order to attain their highest affinity and power. An example is poison torrent. You might not know but poison torrent requires 80% water mana and 20% darkness mana in order to attain maximum damage. This is how important mana control is in high level fights. Hall of fame will be shown.

Jinx : 880/1000

Hall of fame : 1) Zarak : 910/1000

2) Jinx : 880/1000

3) Dumblemore : 875/1000

4) Grendel : 770/1000

5) Somerandomdouche : 750/1000

6) Somerandomdouche 2 : 740/1000

7) Somerandomdouche 3 : 730/1000

I realised this hall of fame did not even have 10 people. Maybe only 7 people have passed it before. That would be the only logical explanation. After all, in order to pass this, one must have the insight to be able to visualise his mana in a certain form to estimate how much mana he was using. I used cubes but who knows what dumblemore used. At least I was better than him at instantaneous mana control. However, I was still losing to my senior.

Cubes were already extremely symmetrical shapes with all sides of the same length. I wonder what shape Zarak visualised his mana in to get a whopping 30 points more than me which was quite a gap. I was awed but at the same time frustrated. I wanted to beat him in at least one aspect.

Oh well, I'm certain more trials await. I will definitely beat you. In one thing or another. Just you wait.

End of Chapter 26