Hello everyone! I hope all of you are doing well!

I managed to injure my wrist playing games! It's kinda sad... but it won't affect releases, it may just mean more spelling errors than normal, so I ask that you tell me if you see anything wrong spelling or grammar wise. Thank you!

Anyways, that's enough rambling. On with the chapter!

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Chapter 21: Isolation

I can’t see the bottom, but I feel that it is close.

An idea pops into my head. This might work!

I move close to the wall… this is by no means how this move is supposed to work, but it’s worth a shot!

[Redirection!]

It doesn’t remove my momentum completely like the one outcome I had hope for, but it changed my momentum from vertical to horizontal… well, mostly anyways.

I cover my body in spatial energy. I am now floating mostly horizontally along the abyss at high speeds. The abyss is much longer than the room I fell from.

Now, the next part. I have to slow down, or go back up.

I create thin walls in front of me using only the power of heaven. I never expected I’d have to use these techniques like this.

I create the walls as weak as I can in order to break through them and slow my momentum.

I crash through the first wall as if it were paper. Let’s make the next one slightly stronger.

The next wall slows me more, but the strain on my body is intense. I need to go up now though.

I look above me… I look back down. Let’s not go up…

Above the abyss is slowly moving in on itself, closing. If that was all I wouldn’t be as scared as I am now. I see several ninth realm monsters flying around.

I don’t recognize any of these monsters from the other world! I only know they are ninth realm because of the tyrannical aura they emit.

I quietly hope inside myself that none of the monsters come after me.

After breaking through many more walls my momentum has slowed to a crawl. I release the spatial energy to gain accelerate downwards so I don’t get crushed by the closing opening above me. After getting to a speed I know I can go straight into the ground at, I cover my body in spatial energy again.

I see a light at the bottom of the abyss after fifteen minutes of slowly falling. I use condensed blocks of the power of heaven and earth to help move me to the opening.

I reach the opening and go through it. I emerge in a small room that is no more than 10 feet long and 8 feet wide, the ceiling no higher than 15 feet.

On my left side there is a closed door and all other sides of the room have smooth walls. The floor is a brick type pattern.

I hit the ground and roll. After standing up I dust myself off. “Well… that was an experience.”

I look at the ceiling of the room from where I thought I entered, but the ceiling was smooth like the walls, without even a scratch.

All I see in this room is a closed door. I don’t like this situation. I hope I can escape…

Wait. Now that I think about aren’t I way too calm in a situation like this where my life is in danger? I fell into the abyss, but only lost my composure for a couple minutes, then thought of a plan to help me stop my fall. The abyss closing above me. The ninth realm monsters. The light at the bottom of the abyss. Finally this room.

Where even am I? Is this still the forest of a thousand trials anymore?

I take a deep breath and head towards the door in the room. It was closed, and it looked like a simple wooden door which didn’t match the room at all.

I reach towards the handle and try to open the door. The door doesn’t move at all.

This is a puzzle!? I look around the door for clues. On the top of the door there are words in a font so small you can’t read it unless you are less than a foot away. It reads;

‘This is a door, open it.’

… This again!!!?

I punch the door as hard as I can with my prosthetic in anger. Cracks appear in to door as it slowly opens.

I guess I’ll take it… I guess.

I walk into the doorway and go into a room that is completely covered in ice. Before I take a single step forwards I notice that I can see multiple reflections of myself within this room. The ice is almost completely invisible save for the fact that it reflects my image at a certain angle.

I see a small inscription above the door I came through;

‘This is a maze, finish it.’

I pretend that I never read anything and move on to finding the exit to the maze.

I remember reading somewhere that if I put my hand on the right wall, I will eventually find the exit of the maze. I look around the room to see if there are any clues in the transparent ice.

After looking around the room I realize that it seems as if I am floating. There are exits on multiple layers. Which means this maze is multi-tiered and has fake exits. This is going to be a literal hell.

After 2 hours I found myself checking the fifth door only to be greeted with a wall behind it.

I tried to break through the ice as soon as I realized that the maze was multi layered. However, the ice didn’t even scratch. The room was not very cold, thankfully, but it was definitely below freezing.

Where am I even going? If I solve these puzzles do I even get to escape? I guess my only option is to keep going and hope for an exit, going back the way I came is impossible.

I look around the room again. There are 6 more doors to try. 3 above 3 below. I guess I’ll try the top ones first.

After 3 hours I find myself at the last door on the top layers. I take a deep breath as I open it.

‘You’ve probably been here a while, here’s a hint. The exit isn’t a door.’

A vein appears on my forehead. So that’s how it is eh?

The ice is completely transparent so it seems as if I am floating around. It is really hard to keep track of where I have been in this maze.

So the exit isn’t even a door. I look around the room to check for an exit that isn’t a door. I don’t see anything…

I start by trying to go all the way to the bottom from the top where I am.

After another 2 hours I make it to the bottom. It helped that I knew the route most of the way down after having taken it before.

My stomach growls.

Oh shit. I have no food.

All I have are the clothes on my back. There is no way this is going to end well. I don’t have any water to drink either.

I just realized the kind of situation I am in. Because I am at the second realm I can survive for some time without food and water… but I am still human. I need to start conserving my energy and not wasting it or I will run into serious issues very soon.

I calm my breathing that went slightly out of control. Panicking will do me no good in this situation, I just need to stay calm.

After calming myself I look around the room to try and find the exit to the maze.

After looking around for a few minutes I see an oddity in some of the transparent ice. The ice is reflecting a different area than what is behind it. It is a perfect mirror. The reflections it shows are not distorted in the slightest, and if I wasn’t looking carefully, it would be hard to tell that anything was wrong in the first place.

After another 4 hours I find myself lost in the ice maze. Getting to the area I wanted seemed simple at first, but whenever I got close it would be another dead end. I thought maybe it wasn’t the exit and was just a tease in order to lure me away from the real exit, but even after looking around more I couldn’t find anything else resembling an exit.

I sigh as I try going to the top of the maze to try and find another different route.

6 hours pass and I start to get tired. I am on the final path in this maze. To my knowledge I have gone on every other path in this entire maze. Why didn’t I choose this one earlier? Because it looked like a dead end at first but had a small path way I had to move sideways through that I missed the first time I passed through.

I slowly walk through the maze. If I fall asleep now it will be dangerous because the room is kind of cold, so I may not wake up if I go to sleep now.

I see the mirrored surfaces as I walk through the path. I cheer a little on the inside, but I feel oddly tired compared to how long I have been awake.

I walk into the mirrored section. After going in a spiral pattern towards the center there is a stairway that leads down.

Is this the true exit? I hope so.

I start to go down the stairs and there is text on the ceiling that is probably to be read while descending;

‘Good job completing the 2 bonus trials. Whether you came here on purpose after seeing the bottom of the abyss using a special technique or you were pushed in by your comrades and luckily survived the fall, I congratulate you nonetheless. There is a reward that will be given to you based on your realm and latent potential. If you are injured… you are on your own. Good luck.’

I sigh as I keep walking down the stairs.

After a couple more minutes of walking down the stairs I reach a room that has a white pedestal in the middle of the room and a red carpet down the center from the entrance I just came out of.

I look around the room and see that it is mostly made of marble. The floor and walls are made of the same material, however, the designs differ greatly. There are carvings on the walls of many monsters that I cannot recognize. The floor is a spiral brick pattern.

On the pedestal is a book.

I slowly walk to the center of the room to get a look at the book on the pedestal.

The title on the book is, ‘Elements for Dummies’

No way.