I decapitated my opponent with the slash and instead of falling down, the bust and head my opponent turned into the smoke before vanishing.
This battle had been really amazing not only I get to see my mistakes but I also got a chance to correct it and the fight even give me a few ideas about the new moves.
All three tests had improved my strength significantly and gave me confidence enough to say that if I consolidate my gains in a few days and improved one more time then passing the 3rd Guild challenge would be a breeze.
"Congratulations on passing the Third Test!" said the Etherial voice as I was busy with my thinking.
"And now it is time for your rewards." said the ethereal voice and next moment everything in front of me changed and I found myself in completly different space.
It seemed to be big underground cavern and around be is hundreds of caves, these caves looked exactly the same except for one minor difference.
That these caves are sealed with white and Red film of energy, most of these caves were sealed with a film of white energy, only ten some caves are sealed with the Red energy and there is a circle of golden stars above my head, there are ten stars of which nine are lit while the tenth one is dimly lit than other’s, If I am not wrong then this should be my score.
One more thing that made me pleasantly surprised that I am back into reality as I am wearing the same clothes I wore before entering that runic gate and I have all my gear on me and most importantly, I can feel my connection with Ashlyn.
Chew chew...
I was about to contact her when she came out of me suddenly and started to chirp at me loudly.
Asking why I was not responding to her and how she was worried about me, and how she wasn’t able to come out no matter how much she tried, I was about to pacify her when the Etherial voice called out again.
"You have passed the three tests with a near-perfect score and now free to enter any cave of white energy layer to get your reward."
"The rewards you will get will wholly depend on your luck and remeber you have only one chance to choose." Said Etherial voice with a hit of a laugh.
Luck? Only one chance to choose? Is she shitting me, I have passed all three tests just to try my luck? But I forcefully calmed myself down and asked the question that I am most curious about.
"Can you tell me what type of reward in those caves and will I encounter an empty cave?" I asked, my biggest fear is if there are empty caves and I chose one of them.
I want to be mentally prepared if something like that is arranged by that powerhouse.
"There are no empty caves and every cave had a reward that will be useful to you."
"As for what rewards there are, there are many like Occult Methods, Top Grade Inheritances, Duke Grade or above weapons and some other things," Etherial voice said.
Hearing the list of Rewards, I am shocked. I had expected rewards to be great but never expected them to be this great, the maximum grade of reward I had expected is Lord grade but here all of the rewards are above lord grade.
Now the question is choosing the cave, which one should I choose. It would have been quite good if the rewards were displayed so I can see them and evaluate and then choose the best one for me but here everything is dependent on the luck, the reward I will get will depend on the cave that I enter.
There must be near three hundred caves here, except for twelve caves that are blocked by red energy film that is prohibited, I can enter any one of these three hundred caves, if my score had been a little bit higher then all the caves would have been opened for me.
Well, it didnt matters anymore and there are more than enough option for me to choose one from.
Chew Chew Chew...
I was just thinking of choosing the cave when Ashlyn’s loud chirp disturbed me and when I looked to see, I found she is excitedly motioning her wing toward one cave.
She looked very excited, I have never seen her this much excited before.
"Do you want me to go there?" I asked, to which she chirped excitedly and nodded with her little head. In normal times she wouldn’t have waited for me and flew inside the cave but this time she obediently stood on my shoulder.
It is likely because she had sensed that she could not enter the cave without me, she is always very keen about certain things and her intuition is always correct.
Ashlyn had never been wrong about treasure and now she somehow sensed the treasure inside the cave most suitable for us, so I am very sure the treasure inside that cave.
I walked toward the cave and ented inside it though the white energy layer and the next moment I have transported to a different place again.
It is a completly darkroom but in the center of the room is thumb size bottle is floating and reading red glow when it seems to light the whole room.
When I moved closer, I found that it is not a bottle that is glowing but the red drop of liquid that is glowing.
I first thought it is human blood drop but soon discarded that thought as the color of drop inside is not crimson red but Sangria red and that is not the color of blood that humans have.
It is likely to monster’s blood as I’ve only seen their blood came in the different shade of red.
Chew Chew....
Ashlyn excitedly chirped at me, asking me to take the bottle and give her that delicious liquid to drink.
I did not hurry to pick up the bottle despite Ashlynn’s insistence instead, I decided to observe it more.
The bottle which seemed simple at first glance is not the simple bottle as the bottle is filled with the tiny runic arrays, these runes were not seen to the eyes unless one looks them very closely.
The blood inside that bottle is seemed to be very precious otherwise it wouldn’t have been kept in the bottle that itself cost a fortune. The blood in the bottle did not seem to giving off any dangerous fluctuation except for the glow.
After seeing there is nothing wrong with the bottle, I picked it from the air.
Chew Chew Chew.....
Just as I did Ashlyn against started chirping at me excitedly, saying I should quickly open the bottle and gave her blood inside it to eat.
I wanted to wait till we reached home to research about but seeing how excited she is and if I did give it to her, she will not let me hear the end of it and another reason is that Ashlyn always been sure about the thing she wants to eat.
So, I opened the bottle from her but just as I opened the bottle, I sensed a very fearful aura and just as I sensed this fearful aura, I know I had made a great mistake about this blood.
The aura was very fearful that it had completly immobilized me physically, just like the suppression did earlier but the difference between the two is very great.
The one I sensed earlier had shaken me to the core with just a tiny bit of suppression and the feeling I got from it that it higher level lifeform in the food chain that has transcended.
This aura is very powerful as it directly coming from the drop liquid but it could not be compared to the suppression I felt earlier, as for why I am being completly immobilized that is because of this blood in front of me from the higher stage powerhouse which is way to stronger than me its drop of blood is enough to immobilize me.
As I was observing the aura and noticed a peculiar thing about it when I saw Ashlyn being completly fine as she came close to the bottle and drank away drop of blood that has already appeared top of it before I could even stop her.