It took quite a while for Alan to reach the deepest corners of the trial space. He was walking for hours and hours on end, venturing everywhere there was some light, in order to find a suitable crystal.
He had terrible luck. Whenever he would find a crystal, it would be either too big or too small, or in an inconvenient and useless shape. Some were large as wall, some small as ants. He found some peculiar crystals, which were like armour plates, but he couldn’t use them as he had nothing to attach them to his body with.
He did find numerous fist sized crystals, he grabbed some and threw them where the crack was. It was hard to find his way back there. So he would either use his blood to mark the wall or some crystals. Or stack a bunch of fist-sized crystals in an odd manner at specific points. He would pick them back up as ammo.
‘Come on…there has to be one!’
He pleaded in his mind, it had been days now, and he had yet to find a suitable crystal in the form of a spear or any weapon at this point. He hoped he wouldn’t have to resort to using the fist sized crystals. He could either do the same thing-which was punching the scaly bastard, but that had a limited use. It would obliterate his body as well.
The crystals, were incredibly strong. Although Alan’s mana was locked, and he was unable to use it, his skin was tougher than steel. Ordinary objects, and even some mana enhanced ones, would find it hard to damage him.
These crystals would cut him at the slightest touch. Some small ones pierced the lower part of his foot, which made it hard to walk and posed an inconvenience.
“F*ck!”
He would always yell when one happened to be underneath his feet. And it was quite a pain taking them out.
“Why is this place so damn dangerous.”
He continued moving, a few more days had passed but no luck. Alan would always return when he encountered an area where there was pitch black darkness. He could not afford to be lost in this place, who knew how much time it would take him to get out if he did.
Navigating it was already a pain in his bottom, doing it in pitch black darkness? He wouldn’t dare even think of it. To pass the time and give him an advantage over the snake, Alan would sometimes venture into the crack, crystals in hand, He would place them in numerous spots and sometimes even throw them at the snake to do some more damage.
He threw the crystals near the crack a lot, so that his escape would be easier. He also found out that throwing the crystals was quite effective, it wouldn’t do life-threatening damage, but it was good enough. Another thing he found out was that the snake had great regenerative capabilities.
It took it only a day to regenerate from its eye being hit by a crystal. This ‘hit’ was actually severe. The crystal had penetrated deep into the socket, but it was pushed out by new flesh being formed and replacing it. 𝘦𝑎.𝒸ℴ
“That thing sure heals fast.”
Was Alan’s response when he saw it. All the other flesh wounds he had induced were healed in mere hours. And the snake was now very vigilant of his entry every time. The radius he needed to enter to get it into action had disappeared. And it would simply attack him the moment he entered.
However, it would always retreat behind the throne, not once did it stay at the crack to camp or block it. Alan thought maybe the throne was special, and sitting on it would maybe allow him to control the snake, or at least make it not hostile. He tried it.
It went horribly wrong, and his ass was almost eaten by the snake.
But, knowing that he could damage it gave him some peace of mind, and the motivation to go out and search for a suitable crystal.
He ventured into a direction he had not gone into before, this was the last one, all the others had been fully explored except the pitch black areas. He feared that, if he did not find a suitable crystal in this direction, he would have to just throw the smaller crystals to kill the snake.
“Let’s hope I find it here…”
He ventured forth, being greeted by the annoying feeling of his feet and toes being constantly wet. Thankfully, Alan’s body had adapted to the cold here, and it didn’t affect him any more. He went further and further, making small towers of fist sized crystals along the way to know where to return.
It had been a few days since he was walking. Strangely enough, this part of the space seemed much more vast, this increased his hopes of finding a suitable crystal. He wasn’t even searching for a spear crystal any more, a dagger would do. All he needed was something he could hold which could cut.
But alas, he had no luck. His luck had always been bad. After days of wandering here, he had found countless fist sized crystals, but not what he was looking for. He could see the pitch black darkness a few kilometres ahead and resolved himself to find as many crystals he could here, all so he could lob them at the scaly being there.
He walked a little bit more ahead, and was about to turn around when the darkness filled his view but…
He found it.
He found something! It was on the edge of the darkness, but he could travel a little bit further!
“Please!”
He hoped it would be the perfect shape. And when he finally saw it more clearly, he had a smile full of glee.
It had a wide base connected to the ground, but it reached up. The crystal was like a small stalactite, as thick as his wrist, and reached up to his mouth. It was a little bit long for a spear, but it would do! Anything at this point! Furthermore, it even had a sharp edge!
There was only one problem, however, which was…
How do I get it? The crystal had a wide base, and it was quite rigid. Alan’s previous attempts with a crystal informed him of how tough it was. It would be very hard to break the base and get it.
“Hm…”
Pondering, he went back and grabbed a smaller crystal.
Fight fire with fire, or in this case crystal with crystal. Like a caveman hitting a bigger rock with a smaller rock, he hit it continuously until the crystal cut his hand. Making him drop it.
“…”
He picked it up with his other hand and continued. After this one was filled with injuries as well, he stopped. Unwilling to try more now. There had been some progress, the base (where he was cutting) had been broken somewhat. This meant that he could get it. He wished that it would be over fast, and that his efforts wouldn’t shatter or deform the crystal too much.
And so, over the course of a few days he kept hammering it and waiting for his hands to heal, and finally, he was able to acquire it. The area he was hammering was as thin as a toothpick, afraid he would damage the crystal above further, he decided to pull it. Even though it was so little, it required Alan to input a great deal of strength to separate the damn thing.
“Hmph!”
He pulled hard and broke the area that had been reduced to a toothpick of odd shapes. He fell on his ass right after but didn’t mind it.
“Finally…”
He muttered, as he happily looked at the crystal spear in his bloody hands. God knows how much blood he had lost here. Thankfully, for his species, this wasn’t much of a challenge in the slightest.
The spear, which was quite crude to be called a spear…was perfect for him right now. He didn’t mind its odd shape at some intervals of its length. All he cared about was that it would work. After trying it, swinging and thrusting to get used to it. He finally made his way back home.
Along the way, he threw the crystals he had piled up to make mountains with back, just so he could have more ammo. It took him a day of running to get back to where he was. Fortunately for him, he didn’t grow hungry here at all.
He reached the crack, and after throwing in as many crystals as he could manage. He jumped in, squeezing the spear and his own body inside.
With full confidence, he looked at the snake rushing towards him and yelled.
“Come on, you big scaly legless lizard, I’m gonna fucking skewer you.”
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