When they entered the Palace of inheritance, the Avatar spoke directly.
"This time, the test is simple. It is a battle of survival. All you have to do is to stay as long as possible. You can fight each other, or kill each other. As long as you say you give up, then you would be safe.
If you are killed by the environment or by your fellow candidates, it is solely your responsibility.
You cannot use any special weapons and even spirit weapons.
Get inside that room one by one."
One after another all of them stepped inside the door.
When Sam entered it, he felt like he was sucked inside some sort of portal.
When he finally got his senses back, he was completely surrounded by black and bright red flames. The whole area is like an inferno. Even he felt suffocated by the heat until he circulated the Yanwu bloodline.
He managed to tackle the heat.
Sam didn"t move too much even then, he just looked around in the immediate surroundings to confirm that no one is there and there is no immediate threat.
Finally, he started observing the flames and the environment.
There are two types of lava streams in the surroundings. One is bright red almost in the color of blood and the other is black. Along with the small and thin lava streams, there are also flames surrounding him. Except for the basic topsoil in the ground, the rest of the objects in the surroundings are covered in flames.
The rocks, some withered trees everything is covered in the black and red flames.
After watching this, Sam just became surer that the woman in black is the player. Every Palace of inheritance, the environment inside is favorable to the player that the Palace belongs to.
Sam started moving in a direction he picked, but as soon he moved a few feet, he felt some other presence, which he couldn"t see. He tried to take a look at it with the energy vision, but all he could see pure fire elemental energy around him.
He frowned at this and got ready to battle.
As he stayed vigilant, he finally saw a fireball coming at him.
A humanoid figure came out of the nearest lava puddle.
It is completely covered with black and red flames.
Sam couldn"t feel any vitality or death energy from him, so he came to a conclusion, this is elemental.
It has been a while since he last saw one. These creatures are not exactly common after all.
The elemental ran towards Sam and started throwing fireb.a.l.l.s, firebirds, and all kinds of flame attacks.
Sam wanted to use the water element which is the fastest method to deal with these fire elementals.
But he was wrong. The water that came into contact with the fire elemental also caught on the black flame and started burning.
He couldn"t help but feel frustrated. What kind of nature does the fire have to be to even put water on the fire?
He has only one choice now. To directly attack the elemental until its core is destroyed.
Sam was covered in golden flames as he activated partial fusion and made a move at the elementals. He threw rapid punches at the elemental in that close range. It is nothing but a moving puddle of Lava, at least that is who he felt when he hit it. But he is not just hitting it.
Every hit, he is getting closer to the core and soon, he managed to break the core easily. The elemental was gone.
Sam really felt a bit exhausted right after the fight. Even though he could dozens of them together, he felt like the environment is making him use more energy than he was supposed to use.
The consumption is too large.
Sam took out a wine which is full of ice elemental energy. It is a large jar and he poured a small amount of heavenly wine inside and started chugging it.
He felt refreshed.
The heavenly wine is to make him feel energized and the ice elemental wine to combat the heat effects that are on him because of this.
After he chugged it, he felt a little bit cooler. But he looked at the heavenly wine with a sad look. Because he has only a little more of it left.
As much as he liked the wine, he only drank it occasionally. When he wanted to feel drunk because of his mood or if he was critically injured.
And sometimes Old beast asked for a taste now and then.
But even then, it has been almost two decades since he got this, so it is bound to be finished. But still, even though he is feeling sad, it is not because it would end in just a few days, it might come in handy for the next two to three years, but with all the time he spent here, he felt like two to three years is an extremely small span of time.
As he thought about the wine for a while, he took another jar of ice wine and chugged it before walking again.
He has to focus on the Palace of inheritance and it would be hard to not to do so as the elementals around him started growing.
He tried to use other elemental energies, but everything is catching on those black flames in one way or the other.
Only after a dozen or so trials did he manage to get past the flames and hit the elemental with a different element other than the fire element.
He could really imagine how the rest of the players are feeling.
The battle went for days. He doesn"t know who vast this area is, but he walked for three days straight and still didn"t see any trace of a player.
He met with a lot of elementals and on the third day, he met with a beast for the first time.
The Devil Wyvern.
When Sam saw this beast, his first reaction is to catch it. The Devil Wyverns are very high-level beasts. They are on par with the Ape he has with him.
This is the only beast he knew to possess a black flame. And another specialty is it is only called a wyvern because it looks like one in terms of its body and bone structure not because it is also a lesser dragon.
In fact, there is no such thing as a devil dragon.
But it is hard to catch it in such an environment as it wouldn"t submit to any of the superiority of the bloodlines.
He can only fight it out. He killed a dozen or so of these devil wyverns after he failed to make them submit.
He walked for another three days before he finally saw traces of another player.
He saw several arrows that are half-burned and molten in the sand. It must have belonged to Arkiv.
He followed the trail left behind by the arrows and after another three days, he finally saw Arkiv.
He is currently fighting with a bunch of Devil Wyverns and the Elementals.
Sam jumped in to help him and both of them continued their journey.
The Wyverns are getting crazier the more they traveled and elementals are becoming larger and stronger.
Days pa.s.sed slowly.
Sam is chugging ice wine along with Arkiv every day as they walked.
Even though Sam can endure it, he doesn"t like it.
As for Arkiv, if not for the Ice wine he would have given up by now.
It is that irritating.
Three weeks pa.s.sed like this, without them meeting another player.
And at the end of the third week, Sam finally saw someone else.
It is the body of the study attendant.
His wings are burned down and half of his flesh was molten with the skeleton visible to outside.
He died the most gruesome of deaths.
Sam burned the whole body down and collected the ashes to give back to the king.
After another two weeks, they finally something else.
The players are fighting.
It is Noah and Donner.
Even though both of them had elements that are not exactly great in this kind of environment, they are fighting it out to the best of their abilities.
Particularly Noah, she seemed to have vine seeds suitable for every environment.
Soon, the fight is over and Noah won while Donner gave up, she looked at the duo and became vigilant.
But after some time both parties went on separate ways.
They are on relatively friendly terms compared to normal and two days later, Sam and Arkiv met with Dayus and k.u.mar, and this time the fight broke out.
k.u.mar and Dayus had to give up in the end and with that, the whole environment suddenly shook and a wall of fire could be seen far away.
Sam took a high vantage point on a burning rock and took out the telescope to take a look.
He saw that the wall of fire which is miles away, slowly moving inward in a snail"s pace, and the elementals and the Wyverns are all gathering together and moving towards them along with it.
He took a look in a different direction and felt like rather than a wall, it should be called a large ring.
Even though he couldn"t see all of it, he could guess what is happening.
The G.o.d is trying to bring them all closer so that they would have more probability of fighting.