Corwin came too and was surprised by what he saw. He fully expected to be at his respawn point having failed the challenge. He slowly realized the flash of white light was the monster being killed and not the trigger of Belphegorite’s special attack. He’d somehow managed to survive.

He checked the time and realized he’d slept for 30 minutes of game time. His stamina wasn’t full and he still felt a bit lightheaded but he was slowly becoming alert. The debuffs to his stamina and intelligence were gone.

Corwin looted the demon, hoping for a lucky chance. He wasn’t disappointed. He received eight magic crystals instead of the usual four, bringing his total to a rather happy 17. He also received a level seven gold tier basic pentagram demonic suppression array. While it was only a basic array, any gold tier item or ability would be quite powerful at this stage of the game. With an ally he could protect, Corwin would likely be able to take on more powerful demons going forward. Furthermore, with 17 crystals, Corwin was on the cusp of his first gold item as only three more crystals would produce it. Corwin would then have quite the dilemma as all three items could offer powerful abilities. Would the ring of elements finally offer a combat ability? Were the hidden attributes necessary if another more powerful sloth demon occurred later on? Or was upgrading his boots the right thing to do? Corwin ultimately delayed his decision.

Having recovered fully and finished with the looting on this stair, Corwin pushed forward reaching the 4th stair. He looked at his enemy:

Firath, Lesser Fire elemental, Superior Lord, Level 7

HP: 120,000/120,000

MP: 50,000/50,000

Elementals were powerful beings but fortunately the four elements array was used to suppress them. The four elements array consisted of a compass with symbols for Fire, Water, Air, and Earth at the North, South, East and West tips respectively. Corwin knew some hidden secrets of this array, to suppress a creature of a specific element the suppression would be more powerful if the opposing element was drawn stronger than the other three elements. This required channeling more mana into that one element while equally balancing the other three. Corwin was equal to the task, finishing the fire element last and draining all his mana into the suppression. Four Elements Array drawn, 99% completion. Hidden Enhancement unlocked. Net result 250% effectiveness.

Corwin looked at the result before charging into battle with wind charge.

Firath, Lesser Fire elemental, Superior Lord, Level 7

HP: 40,000/40,000

MP: 15,000/15,000

Corwin was impressed with the results but still knew the fire elemental was quite dangerous as elementals often are. He wished he had a water skill as opposing elements would do extra damage. He promptly pushed such thoughts out of his head and centred himself for combat.

His charge was successful and his swords dug into the elemental. Unfortunately, the elemental was resistant and the damage wasn’t what he’d hoped. The elemental used the flame sword skill and created a sword of flame on an arm that grew out of its non-humanoid form. The arm began to attack at Corwin, but parry was still effective.

Corwin attacked normally, not having any mana left for his skills after using the last drops that had regenerated on wind charge. Fortunately, techniques didn’t cost mana so he used rapid blow to accelerate the pace of the fight.

The elemental was quiet on skills and the next skill it tried to use was the same one as before once it was off cooldown. Corwin had the mana saved up for disruptive blow, and used it as he didn’t want to see this thing get more sword arms. Fairly soon the elemental reached 80% health.

The elemental underwent a transformation as its flames grew more intense. Corwin could feel the room get hotter as the waves of heat hit him. He’d have to be careful now as clearly this thing would deal a lot of damage. Furthermore, the intense heat was exhausting so Corwin had to stop using techniques and conserve stamina. After what felt like an eternity of saving mana just for disruptive blow, Corwin finally got the elemental to 60%. The temperature increased once more and the core of the elementals flames became purple. Fortunately, the thing still only had one flaming sword and its attacks were easy to dodge. Unfortunately, the temperature of the room started dealing damage, not too much, but enough to basically negate Corwin’s regeneration.

Since he wasn’t getting hit this wasn’t a problem but there was still one more temperature evolution. Corwin suspected he’d need potions to keep up with that one which would limit his margin for error substantially. The predicted scenario came to pass and at 40% HP the interior of the elemental turned bright white. The heat in the room became unbearable and Corwin could feel his skin slowly burning. He downed a potion to regen enough to keep up health wise and pressed onwards.

At 20% the fire elemental unlocked its other, more powerful skills with the now predictable berserk from a suppressed enemy. Corwin decided he could no longer afford to disrupt flame sword. He also once again entered a stamina race, using rapid blow to defeat the elemental before it could grow too many arms. This was risky with the temperature, but if he let Firath grow more arms then pretty soon he’d need vanishing steps to dodge and that would be a good deal worse.

At 10% health, the fire elementals second skill triggered, and Corwin didn’t disrupt it. *Flame Wave* was cast and a wave of fire passed over Corwin. With the heat of the room being unbearable the flame wave was unusually effective and Corwin had his health reduced to 50%.

The third skill was dealt with by disrupting blow. Corwin was unfortunately surprised and dismayed to find the elemental had a fourth skill. Fortunately, his potion cooldown came just before it triggered and his health jumped to 69% when he quickly used it. *Flame Wall* was cast and a giant wall of flame separated Corwin from the elemental. Not wanting to let the elemental burst him down from range, Corwin used Wind charge to go through the flame wall as quickly as possible. By the time he exited he was at 40% health and still on fire. He positioned himself between the fire elemental and the flame wall preventing it from going through the wall again. His health declined to 35% right as he got the elemental to 5%. The elemental froze in place as a timer of 1 minute appeared above its head. Corwin did everything in his power to burst the enemy, his stamina starting to fade to exhaustion as he used rapid blow repeatedly. His health ticked to 30% then 25% then 20%. The elementals health ticked to 3% then 2% then 1%. Finally, at 10% health Corwin defeated the elemental and the flame wall vanished. Corwin wasn’t out of the woods yet as he was still on fire. His health ticked to 5% as he stopped, dropped, and rolled. The flames went out as he checked his health bar. 40 HP were remaining.

Corwin sighed and collapsed, resting for over 15 minutes, recovering HP, MP and stamina. He then finally got up and went over to the corpse of the elemental, looting it. He wasn’t lucky, and only got 4 mana crystals and a level 7 silver tier array scroll for the four elements array. Nonetheless, he was happy as he now had an upgrade available as he had 21 crystals. Corwin ultimately decided that his hidden attributes were more important than the two unknown benefits. He upgraded the ring of hidden attributes to gold tier which once again doubled its effects.

Invigorated by his enhanced stamina and luck, Corwin pressed onwards, ascending to the fifth stair.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 7: 40% of level 8

Str: 209 (base:5)

Agi: 239 (base:35)

Con: 209 (base:5)

Int: 117 (base:5)

Cha: 117 (base:5)

Lck: 69 (base:5)

Cnc: 69 (base:5)

Sta: 69 (base: 5)

Def: 577

MDef: 355

HP: 2163/2163

MP: 1519/1519

Gear:

MW: Iron Tier Level 7 Longsword, +14 Str, +14 Agi, +14 Con

Base Damage: 56-64, Durability 24/25, Requirements: 42 Str

OW: Iron Tier, Level 7 Shortsword, +14 Str, +14Agi, +14 Con

Base Damage 42-49, Durability 25/25, Requirements: 42 Str

MA: Iron Tier Level 8 Plate, +16 Str, +16 Agi, +16 Con

64Def,32MDef, Durability 48/48, Requirements:36 Str

LA: Silver Tier Level 8 Plate Cuisse, +32Str, +32Agi, +32Con

128Def, 64MDef Durability: 64/64 Requirements: 64 Str

B: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate Gloves +12 Str, +12 Agi, +12Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements: 36Str

G: Silver Tier Level 8 Plateboots +32Str +32Agi +32Con

128 Def, 128MDef Durability 128/128, Requirements: 64Str

RR: Gold Tier, Level 8 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+64 All base attributes, +64 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Silver Tier, Level 8 Ring of Elements (+32 All base attributes,

Ignore 1.6 Levels, Ignore 1.6 Equip Levels

AM: Iron Tier, Level 8 Amulet (+16 All base attributes)

Skills:

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Disrupting Blow, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Double Slash, Uncommon, Tier 0, Level 1

Slash, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Pierce, Common, Tier 0, Level 2

Parry, Common, Tier 0, Level 1