Chapter 224: Third Floor
When Sam went to the third floor, there are no other people in the corridor. Only two rooms are occupied and that is it.
The rooms which are occupied are room fourth and fifth. Sam entered the first room and was greeted with the holographic screen.
"In this room you will be tested on you battle prowess against the puppet, one attempt would be considered complete if you are defeated or you defeat the puppet.
The rankings will be published by evaluating your prowess based on the number of attempts you took to finish the stage and the time you took to defeat the puppet."
After that, the screen vanished abruptly and Sam saw a wooden puppet around same height as him standing in front of him. The puppet is humanoid in figure it looked almost similar to the video game character Mokujin from Tekken.
There are no eyes, nose or any other facial features.
Sam looked at the puppet and threw a wind blade, the puppet dodged it and replied with the same wind blade. There are no hand signs and no chants, the puppet attacked in the same way Sam did.
Sam dodged it and responded with same attack as he made his way forward, his arm was covered in golden fire and punched the puppet squarely in the chest, but what he expected didn't happen, the puppet blocked the punch and countered him with another punch to Sam's surprise it is a punch similar to his.
Sam frowned at this sight. He didn't expect that the puppet to also possess a fire element ability and to his surprise even though it is not same golden flame, the fist almost identical and at least in terms of appearance.
It doesn't have an explosive ability that Sam used by compressing the fire, rather it is just a normal fist covered with fire.
Sam took a step back and thought whether the puppet is copying his elements or does it possess all the elements.
Sam didn't use any other elemental attack and rushed towards it, but the puppet started attacking with wind blades and fire balls. There is no other elemental attack.
Sam kept on dodging and when he was near the puppet, he took out the reaper and slashed it squarely without any other elements. It was pure raw power. But the sword didn't cut through, it chipped away a piece of wood indicating some damage, but the puppet can still fight.
At this moment, Sam was stunned. The puppet took out a wooden sword out of nowhere and before Sam could think further, it started attacking him with the sword and wind blade combination.
The sword rays started coming towards Sam with extremely sharp and wind elemental traces.
Sam dodged it by hair's breadth and looked at the puppet again.
For the next few minutes, the puppet was on complete offence with combination of wind, fire and sword.
Sam just defended as he observed the behaviour of the puppet. And after a long time he confirmed that the puppet is not copying his moves or techniques. It is more like a robot which was pre-programmed with certain set of elemental and battle techniques and they would only be triggered if the candidate uses a certain element or warrior skill.
Since, Sam used the wind blade, fire element and the sword. The puppet struck to them and used on these three aspects.
To test his theory, Sam took a hit and healed himself with the light element and to his surprise the puppet did the same and the chipped piece of wood back.
But the puppet's method is different from Sam's. Sam only concentrated the light within his wound, which the puppet used one arm to conjure light on the 'wound' to heal itself.
So, from what Sam could understand, the puppet has all kinds of elements pre-programmed within itself and they will only trigger if opponent uses those elemental skills.
Sam suddenly thought of something and triggered elemental fusion. He transformed himself into fire elemental body and attacked the puppet in the close quarters. But the puppet didn't change itself into the fire elemental body, but after studying Sam for a while, it tried to cover itself in flames which didn't exactly work the same way.
From this, Sam concluded that the puppet is also trying to learn and improve according to candidate's strength.
He was fascinated by the puppet and couldn't help admire the creator's excellent skill. For a second, he wanted to tear it apart and examine it which is almost impossible, but Sam doesn't have to do that, he has observation ability and all he need is a close contact with the puppet for a second.
But Sam didn't do that. Since the first room already hosted such a puppet, there is a high chance that the fifth room will host a much more excellent puppet, so he decided he would finish this and at this moment, Sam stopped in his tracks and sent a laser towards the head of the puppet and within two seconds, the head was on fire completely collapsing the puppet.
Sam walked out of the room and just as he was about to walk towards the second room, he noticed that it was already occupied. He tried to open the door, but it didn't budge. Sam understood that in this floor only one person can occupy the room at a time.
He waited for five minutes, when the door opened and a person was sent out of that and more importantly that person seemed to be in a daze.
Only after the door was shut loudly, the person came back to his senses.
But he was still a bit confused. Sam walked around and was about to open the door, when that person who came out stopped him.
"Wait, I am not done yet, I want to try again."
Sam turned around and looked at him and then only he noticed that this guy is also from the thunder god temple. He is not from any other empire.
"Then why did you come back; you should have just stayed in."
Sam asked as the other person also observed Sam and understood he is from an empire and immediately his eyes turned condescending.
"Why do you speak so much, just move aside. I came out by accident."
Sam didn't like the tone of voice and he didn't bother talking anymore, he turned around and was about to walk in.
"How dare you?"
The guy didn't want to back down and threw a punch towards Sam, but before he knew it, he was sent flying and crashed into the wall.
He puked a mouthful of blood and was completely dazed. But Sam was not in front of his eyes after he came back to his senses.
Sam didn't think much of the encounter and entered the room. This time, the puppet is same as the first one but it is stronger than previous one.
The puppet in the first room has same cultivation level as Sam and in this room, its level is one step higher than Sam's.
Now Sam is a Level 3 Great realm and the puppet in room two is Level 4 Great realm.
Sam didn't use any elemental energy this time. He started attacking in close quarters and mainly with fists.
He started punching rapidly, he wants to see if the puppet will also use only fists, but that didn't happen, the puppet used the fists and legs to attack.
Sam suddenly grabbed the puppet's arms and held its neck in a standing choke hold.
His fleshly energy was on full swing as he suppressed its movements completely and Sam used his observe ability at this moment.
The puppet's internal structure was simple and the joints are simple mechanical joints. Every mechanism is made of simple elements but with utmost complexity and precision. This kind of robot wouldn't be possible in the modern world because of the material availability, the power source and the lack of precise manufacturing and delicate assembly facility.
Sam only observed them for a second and noticed that there is a dark glowing object at the heart of the body.
He didn't venture further as he knew that his main target was the fifth one. He wouldn't need to observe the rest. But his curiosity won over and he did this on an impulse.
He suddenly released a full-blown flaming blaze as he held the puppet in the choke hold.
The wood started to burn and Sam won in seconds.
The door opened. Sam walked out with some charred wood fragments still stuck on his body. He didn't care about them because he thought that they would come off by themselves when he crossed the door as he assumed that there would be certain measures that would be in place so that the participants wouldn't be able to take all the items with them.
But when he walked out, he was dazed when he saw that the wooden fragments are still struck on his dress.
This left him shocked and he was in so much shock that he didn't notice there is a group of four people in front of him and one of them is the idiot he sent flying earlier.
As Sam was marvelling whether he could bring the things outside or not, the group of four started attacking and Sam finally noticed them.
Two minutes later.
Sam had a gloomy expression as his precious thought process was interrupted and around him were four people sprawling as they bled from their mouths.
Their teeth are completely knocked out and their faces are bruised and swollen.
Sam didn't even look at them a second time and went towards the third room.