He spent a very pleasant half an hour, during which Julius hung around these guards. They had already polished off their pies, but Julius had taken out a few cups and filled them with tea. He found out the lead guard was named Hozen. The youngest guard was Ike, and the other was Joane. They were a part of the Golden Cauldron Sect and were supposed to watch over the doorway until it opened. Hozen was the only Tier 5 amongst them, and he looked quite young. Julius suspected he had recently advanced to Tier 5. That being said, his aura was quite solid, and Julius had no doubt he would be a strong opponent.
There was no way the Golden Cauldron Sect would have placed him in this position if he wasn't capable. Not that Julius had any plans of fighting him.
While they were drinking their tea, another group of people approached the doorway. It was led by a young blonde man wearing a black robe with a gold lightning bolt symbol on both shoulders. At his side was a young blonde woman with streaks of pink flowing through her hair and another younger man with black hair. All of them were wearing similar robes.
Whereas the blonde-haired man and woman were quite striking, looking like they had just walked out of a fashion magazine, the black-haired youth was quite plain-looking. His shoulders were hunched slightly as he followed behind these other two.
“When is it opening?” the blonde man asked sharply. The manner in which he talked wasn't exactly unkind, but it certainly wasn't polite either.
Hozen didn’t look the least bit fazed by the man’s behavior. He sipped his tea and stared at the young man before finally responding. “There is still more time. I will make an announcement when it opens. Go back to where you were waiting in the meantime.”
“I asked it was opening. Not for you to tell me what to do,” the blonde shot back.
However, before he could get any more aggressive, the young woman with the pink highlights pulled him back roughly by the collar of his robe. “Stop it, Kyler. Don’t get us thrown out before we can even enter.”
“Come off it, Analia. We’ve been waiting all morning. Not to mention we’ve already been waiting in this shit city for the past three weeks. I’m tired of waiting,” Kyler said, shrugging her hand off him.
She rolled her eyes and bowed toward them. “I apologize for his behavior. He’s a bit prickly even at the best of times.”
Hozen nodded at her, acknowledging her apology, and went back to drinking his tea. The other guards were less calm and had grabbed their weapons, clutching them tightly. Kyler must have noticed this, too, because he had a challenging smirk on his face as he stared at Ike and Joane.
Julius didn’t know if the man was just a bit stupid or wanted a fight that badly, but he could feel the tension rising and auras surging in response. Thankfully, it was interrupted by another person.
“Ohh, I thought I heard a wild beast rutting in the bushes over here,” a light, charming voice chimed in. Kyler’s face twisted upward in a snarl as if he recognized the voice.
Julius raised his brow and turned to see a young woman walking up to them with three men beside her. The young woman was wearing a pretty pink robe with flowers over it. Her brown hair was curled in soft waves, and she wore a full face of makeup. She looked as if she was going out for a date rather than an expedition into a Tier 6s inheritance site.
The three men beside her couldn’t have been more different. They wore black robes, and beneath them were silver plates of armor. Just from the amount of mana coming from them, Julius could tell they were expensive sets as well.
“What’s a harlot like you doing out in the woods? Trying to find a lumberjack’s bed to crawl in?” Kyler said with a nasty grin.
The woman tried to hide her irritation at this insult, but Julius saw her aura twitch in anger. The three men, however, didn’t have any issues with showing their displeasure; they all pulled out their swords and leveled them at the blonde man with calm but bloodthirsty eyes.
To the blonde’s credit, he didn’t so much as flinch and stared at these men with a cocky smirk. “How cute, trying to stand up for your master like good dogs?”
This almost set off the man in the center.
“Calm down, Dillion. He’s trying to rile us up and get us kicked out of here,” the pink-robed woman said with a glower towards Kyler.
“You will pay for those words, boy,” the man said firmly and peeled back. Only then did the other two men put away their weapons and take a step back, too.
“What are you doing here, Cassidy?” the other blonde woman asked flatly. It would appear there was a lot of animosity between these two groups.
“What do you mean?”
“Why is someone like you even here? A trial like this doesn’t suit you at all. I don’t see any reason for you to even care about it; nevertheless, you come all the way out here to Goldmere. You’re a long way away from the Flowing Cloud Pavilion.”
“I was in the area visiting family, so I thought something like this would be an interesting way to pass the time. What about you guys? I didn’t know the Thundering Heavens Sect was interested in an inheritance from the Lord of Obsidian. Don’t tell me you guys are worried about losing your spot on the rankings to us?” Cassidy asked teasingly.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What does that have to do with anything? You haven’t even passed the Thousand Poison Sect. A little premature to say that you’re going to pass us, isn’t it?” Analia pointed out with a scoff.
“Oh, trust me. It won’t be long until both of you will be far behind us. One sect has more lightning than brain, and the other is full of cowardly and treacherous losers. It’s only a matter of time.”
Julius didn’t know if Kyler didn’t like being called stupid or if he was just done being mocked by the woman, but he stalked toward her angrily. This time, it was his plain teammate who grabbed him by the arm. Weirdly enough, this seemed to be enough to stop the blonde. Julius almost expected him to shout at the plain-looking man for interfering, but that didn’t happen.
Another curious detail Julius noticed was that Hozen didn’t seem the least bit interested in stopping this escalating situation. He appeared to be fine with letting it play out.
And after several more minutes of ridiculous insults, the two parties finally went their own ways. When they left, Hozen finally looked over at Julius, who was off to the side, and shrugged.
“Kids, am I right?” he said to him with a chuckle.
“You didn’t want to stop them from making a scene?” Julius inquired.
“Not my responsibility. If they want to fight among themselves, they are more than free to do so. My only job is to make sure nobody tries to mess with the entrance or tries to enter prematurely. Either way, you should get ready. The door will open in less than ten minutes. Make your preparations. You won’t have the opportunity or to do so after it opens,” the man emphasized the last part. It was almost as if he were warning him.
Julius didn’t really understand, but nodded all the same. He started to double-check his supplies and his new ring, which he found out was an Aegis Shell. Wexley, the shopowner, made some comments about the quality of the ring being “okay” and said something about an inefficient mana conversation rate, but from what his wife hinted, Wexley had an unrealistic standard for items, and the ring should be more than fine for Julius.
When the time was up, and it was time to enter the door, it was mayhem. The door vanished into thin air, and in its place was a pitch-black curtain of nothing. It was like staring into the abyss. He could have sworn he felt his mana getting sucked in as if it were caught in a whirlpool
If anyone was worried or anxious about the door that looked like something straight out of nightmares, they didn’t show it. Instead, he watched as hundreds of people all flooded the door like wild hounds who hadn’t eaten in days. Julius, on the other hand, hung back with Hozen to avoid getting trapped.
Once the crowd was already inside, he felt Hozen give him an encouraging push forward. “Get on with it. Do your best in there, kid,” he said with a chuckle.
Julius gave him a grateful bow and nodded at the other two guards, who gave him friendly waves in return. Then, with one last look at the doorframe, he walked through the curtain of black.
***
You have entered the Obsidian Vault.
You will be able to leave this inheritance trial at any time. Simply voice your intention to do so, and you will be removed from the space. Beware that death is still possible, so for those who do not wish to risk their lives, you can exit at this time.
Would you like to exit?
Julius quickly denied the message, only to be greeted by another.
By agreeing to continue, you have accepted to undergo the Inheritance Trial of the Obsidian Vault.
Please wait while you are transported to the Trial of the First Floor.
That was all he was able to read and was soon teleported through another space. It was a lot rougher than other rifts he experienced, but when he arrived at his new location, he stayed on his feet, though a little wobbly.
That wasn’t his worry, though. The second he arrived, a powerful and oppressive force came crashing down on him. His air got caught in his chest as it was squeezed by all sides.
He groaned and realized he wasn’t the only one experiencing it. He saw that the others who had entered before him were on their knees, being crushed by the same unknown force. Weirdly enough, nothing he did worked; no matter how much ruinous aura he hurled at it, the pressure kept beating him into the ground.
The only thing that somewhat worked was using his willpower. Thanks to the resilience of his will, he managed to create just enough room to breathe and think about what to do. He tried a bunch of things, and only when he used the anti-domain technique did he have any success. The overwhelming pressure alleviated, and he was finally able to peel his face from the ground.
However, he was confused. That pressure hadn’t felt like a domain. It was almost like a physical weight or mana was being piled on top of him. He noticed that he wasn’t the only person who managed to get up.
He spotted several others struggling to their feet, stumbling around drunkenly. The girl from the Flowing Cloud Pavilion and the group from Thundering Heavens Sect were some of them. He noticed that each of them had some kind of field surrounding their bodies, and it appeared to come from an item on their person.
He didn’t pay much mind to them. He simply covered his head with his cloak and started to head toward the massive gate several hundred feet ahead. They didn’t pay him any attention either; they were too distracted by whatever force was assaulting them.
The gate ahead was enormous. It was at least fifty feet tall and spanned at least three times that across. He was finally able to check out the area he had teleported into. It was a large chamber, with the ceiling rising several hundred feet and the sides even wider. You could have easily fit in tens, if not hundreds, of times more people in here than there were.
In the ceiling were brightly shining gems of light that illuminated the chamber enough to see what was in front of him.
He looked back at the gate. He had a slight feeling that’s where he was supposed to be heading and strolled toward the ominous-looking gate. He had to step around the downed people; their groans and shouts of pain were echoing throughout the large chamber. Several people vanished into thin air, no doubt giving up and exiting the trial, unable to bear the pain.
Was something like that anti-domain technique that rare? He had never come across anyone else who used it. Nor had he heard of any mention of it other than in Doren’s little book. It had been something that Julius had tried on a whim.
He was surprised that nobody else had tried to do something similar. All it required was a little bit of experimentation and occasional soul explosions. It shouldn’t have been that hard to figure out.
He shook his head and went over to the gate. The weird feeling he got from it grew more intense the closer he got to it. Only when he was about to touch it did he feel something jump out at him. Then, before he knew it, he was whisked away once again.