Chapter 388 - 388. Seabed
Noah descended slowly.
Two pairs of wings flapped behind his back and small black circles appeared under his feet as he balanced himself to fly.
Endless darkness surrounded him, Noah wasn't able to see anything, he only knew that he was descending.
'No trace of dragons behind me, it seems that they were restricted to the area above.'
Noah thought as he inspected his surroundings, his mental energy was suppressed and his eyes couldn't help him, he could only rely on his instincts.
'This place should be an area below the labyrinth… Wait, don't tell me that we could have just jumped off the bridge and skip the trials!'
That realization hit Noah's mind as he continued to descend.
The darkness below the labyrinth was a common sight in the trials, many of them featured pits connected to that area.
'This is so strange. Why the ninth trial forced us to escape? Why did the other tests emphasize teamwork? What is the damned aim of the creator of this separate dimension?'
There was only confusion in his mind.
The dimension seemed to test the teamwork of a group under many different situations, it didn't make sense to just put an impossible trial at the end.
Humans had reasons behind their action, one wouldn't create a separate dimension just to play with some human cultivators.
'At least I hope so.'
Noah suppressed his question when he reached that point, he couldn't understand every human being, maybe the creator of the dimension was just a sadistic watching the trials with a cup of wine in his hands.
Noah continued to descend, he guessed that he had already fallen for a few kilometers but there had yet to be a change in the environment.
It was only after another couple of kilometers that a sandy ground appeared in his view.
The sand shone with soft azure light, illuminating the environment at the bottom of the void.
'This resembles the seabed, how strange.'
Noah didn't understand his situation nor the place where he was.
His escape token didn't work, he was separated by his teammates and he didn't even know if he had passed the ninth trial, there had been no peal after all.
Yet, he was happy that he had finally found a foothold, there were things he needed to do before he resumed in his exploration.
Noah landed on the sand and inspected his surroundings, there seemed to be nothing except for a few rocky constructions in the distance.
'Just normal sand.'
Noah concluded after he inspected the terrain, he decided to find a place to rest before nearing the rocky constructions.
A small hill appeared in his view, there seemed to be a cave of some sort on its surface which Noah didn't hesitate to explore.
He had used all his strongest attacks together, the Demonic form and the Warp spell expended a lot of mental energy and the Third Form pushed his body to its limits, even the liquid "Breath" in the membrane around his heart had to be refilled.
However, when he entered the cave, he was surprised to find a chained dragon surrounded by inscriptions.
The dragon seemed to be sleeping but there was a detail that surprised Noah even more: It was a Sea dragon identical to those on the bridge!
'What does this mean?'
Noah neared the creature with caution, the inscriptions seemed focused on restraining it but there were other effects that Noah couldn't understand.
'They seem to scan it but for what reason?'
The dragon woke up when he sensed the new presence in his prison, his hungry eyes stared at Noah but it didn't seem willing to fight.
'It's the first time that I see a beast so docile.'
There were carriages carried by magical beasts but they were suppressed by inscribed chains or similar.
The dragon, instead, seemed to have completely given up on escaping, even its instinct as a magical beast was destroyed.
'For how long were you here?'
Noah couldn't imagine the amount of time it spent chained like that, it wasn't malnourished after all, it had simply given up.
Then, he just walked to the bottom of the cave, the dragon was restrained and Noah had no intention of interfering with inscriptions that he didn't understand, it was simply better to rest and to prepare for the incoming exploration.
His eyes shone when he inspected the contents of his space-ring, a headless dragon was laying in an empty area, its blood flowed on the floor, tainting some of the items in the distance.
Noah quickly took out the corpse and placed a large barrel under its neck, then, he proceeded in gathering the blood spilled on the floor inside his space-ring.
It was at that time that he noticed a small old scroll in a corner.
'That isn't mine.'
Noah always kept the space inside his rings quite organized, he wanted to be always ready for battle after all.
That's why he could immediately see that the scroll wasn't something that belonged to him.
The shock he felt when he took it and unfolded it couldn't be expressed by simple words.
That was because the scroll depicted the diagram of a spell up to the fifth rank!
'When? What!?'
Noah was even more confused, that spell had appeared out of nowhere directly inside his space-ring and without him even noticing!
'Don't tell me, this is the reward of the ninth trial! Why there wasn't any peal then?'
Even more doubts assailed his mind but he faced them with renewed happiness.
The spell was of the wind element but its sheer value would allow him to exchange it for basically anything in the human ranks, he could also hope to obtain something in the heroic ranks from the sect.
'Amazing! I believe that the dimension has given something of equal value to all the cultivators that have passed the ninth trial. The creator must be filthy rich!'
Noah's determination in reaching the end of the dimension increased, there seemed to be simply too much wealth inside it!
His eyes went on the dragon's corpse which was slowly filling the bucket with its blood, as he willed, the bat and panther half-transparent figures inside his mental sphere crumbled, leaving no traces of their existence.