The Tale of the Void Emperor

" Alright, everyone, The 2nd round will start in 5 hours. You all can take rest in those cottages," Lafurge spoke while pointing at an area on the left side, " After 5 hours, we will enter the palace for the 2nd round."

Everyone then headed towards the cottages to take a rest because, after such an intense struggle of climbing to the top of the mountain, everyone was spent.

It didn't take long for 5 hours to pass as Lafurge's voice boomed while they were taking rest inside their cottages.

Soon everyone came out after hearing the voice.

Seeing that everyone was ready, lafurge led all participants into the palace for the 2nd round.

" The 2nd round is also very simple: you all have to stay in two zones for 5 minutes. " Lafurge spoke after leading everyone inside the big palace.

The palace was very big as it covered the whole mountain top.

The Palace hall had 3 doors. One at the front, One at the right, and one at the left.

First, Lafurge led everyone towards the Right side door. As soon as everyone entered, intense heat greeted everyone's face.

In the middle of the room was a pool of lava.

" All you have to do is to stay inside that pool of lava for 5 minutes..." Pausing here, Lafurge looked at everyone with a small smile as all participant's faces turned White after hearing about the test.

" but don't worry, That pool of lava is not real lava, It just Fire Elemental Energy turned into the appearance of real lava. But the pain you feel after entering this pool of lava will be the same as the real lava, The only difference will be that you all will not die but endure the pain of your skin, bone, and organs burning. It's just 5 minutes, not that hard, right? "

Everyone wanted to beat up this guy after hearing, " not that hard, right? "

Lafurge smiled, seeing everyone's expression, " The 2nd round starts now, Your 5 minutes will start as soon as you enter the pool, Everyone will have to enter the pool in 10 minutes until then, you can take your sweet time. "

Nobody moved, Because they wanted to see someone else go first.

First or last, The experience will be the same, and so I jumped into the pool of lava.

Lafurge's eyes shone as he nodded, ' This type of resolve is not found in many people. '

After jumping into the pool of lava, I did not feel anything for the first second, But then came hell.

" Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...." I could not help but let out a scream.

But as soon as I remembered what happened to me in my previous life, I gritted my teeth as I stopped shouting.

The pain was even was spreading inside my body as my organ started to feel the pain that could make someone insane.

But I steeled my resolve and fortified my mind as I endured through this whole ordeal, ' This is nothing, what I will have to endure in the future could be more painful than this, THIS IS JUST A GODDAMN FIRST STEP. "

Strangely, I could feel the pain lessening.....NO. The pain is not lessening, but My tolerance of pain just went up a notch. I could also feel my body strengthening, Wait...could this be one of the ways to refine my body using Elemental energy?

Seeing what was happening in the pool, Larfurge nodded his head, ' This lad is good. '

Soon 5 minutes passed as I came out of the pool.

After that, Participants started to jump into the pool, Some people just fainted after staying in the pool for 1 minute, and few others fainted after coming out of the pool.

After 7 minutes, Mike said, " Bro, how did it feel? "

I said with a serious face, " I can only say it was the most painful thing I experienced, but as long as you keep your mind firm and don't give in to the pain, you will succeed, I think that this pool of Lava condensed from Fire elemental energy is not that simple, Just don't give in to the pain and Keep your mind firm and you will pass, that's all I can say. "

" I see. " Nodding his head, Mike gritted his teeth and jumped into the pool.

As soon as she dived in. He started screaming, well screaming can alleviate the pain, as it serves as a good outlet, many participants screamed for 5 minutes before coming out of the pool.

Mike also adopted that method as he started screaming.

Mike started to show signs of giving in after 3 minutes as his expression gave away his inner thoughts.

And I didn't want to let that happen, " MIKE, WE ARE GOING TO TRAIN TOGETHER, I WILL NOT ACCEPT IF YOU LOSE, SO YOU BETTER GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND PASS THIS ROUND. "

' Keep the mind firm and don't give in to the pain, I came together with Athon, and I will not return alone, DEFINITELY NOT. '

Mike stopped screaming and gritted his teeth as he seemed to have found the key to endure through this trial.

5 minutes passed as mike came out with a smile that was uglier than crying.

I went ahead and gave a hard pat on his back, " There you go, It really wasn't that right? "

Mike, " Not hard, my a-s. "

Lafurge laughed, hearing our exchange. " Yep, It really isn't that hard, You just need sufficient resolve and tolerance of pain, After all, Walking on the path of Elemental warrior is not child's play, If you can't even endure through this, then you will 100% face death in the future while training. "

Everyone who was left nodded, hearing those words. Out of 50 people, only 23 passed this round, More than half were eliminated just like this.

Seeing everyone ready, Lafurge spoke, " Now let's head towards the 2nd zone. "

One of the participants raised his hand and spoke, " Will we not be given some time to rest this time? "

" Nope, The 2nd Zone is part of the 2nd round, No rest. " saying, he led everyone to the left side door of the palace hall.

Entering the 2nd door, we were shocked, Literally shocked.

Have you ever seen lightning within your arm's reach? Like if you so much as to want, you can touch it.

This place is exactly like that. The lightning sparks occasionally come near us, giving us a mild shock.

" This place is filled with Lightning Elemental Energies, as you can see, The platform in the middle has much more fierce lightning, and it will become even more fierce when you stand there. To pass this round, You all have to stand on that platform for 5 minutes, Just as simple as the previous round. "

Everyone had the same thought, ' screw your simple. '

" Alright, similar to Fire Zone, You all have to stand in that platform in 10 minutes and stay there for 5 minutes, Time starts...Now. "

As soon as Lafurge finished speaking, I dashed towards the platform in the middle of the room.

As soon as I stepped on the platform, clouds started to gather over my head, and after a second, lightning started to strike me like whips.

With not even a second to take a break, Lighting struck me continuously, After a few strikes, I lost the ability to move my body as intense pain even more than what I felt in the previous round assaulted me, It felt even more dreadfully because I was unable to move my body as numbness and intense pain ravaged my body inside out.

If it was not controlled by some sort of powers as if it was real lightning, I would've already turned into Ash.

BUT as long as my resolve is unwavering, My endurance will also keep increases enabling me to get through this hellish situation where you can't control your own body while suffering intense stinging pain constantly.

After 5 minutes, the lightning strike stopped as the cloud dispersed. Still, I felt like I stayed inside for not just 5 minutes but 5 days, that's how it felt, staying paralyzed while feeling intense pain inside the body, This lightning bolts dealt more pain inside the body while paralyzing the outside body.....it was 100% worse experience than staying in Lava Pool.

Even though lightning stopped striking me, I could not move a bit due to my body being paralyzed.

At this time, Lafurge waved his hands towards me, and something magical happened, I felt like countless insets started crawling all over my body for 1 second. Then everything disappeared, The Numbing sensation disappeared, Paralysation disappeared and even the intense pain I was feeling inside my body disappeared.

I ran back towards where everyone was staying as Larfurge spoke, " I will cleanse everyone's body of intense pain as long as you can pass this test, If you fail, then you will be carried off and will be taken care of by normal method which will take a few days to get rid of pain from your bodies. "

Soon, Participants started to enter the lightning Platform one by one.

After me, 2 people went at the time, where both of them failed, they respectively lasted 3 and 4 minutes.

You can't even scream in this test as your whole body will be paralyzed.

Participants only had 5 minutes left because they wasted 5 minutes watching me, so the remaining 17 participants, including Mike, arrived at the platform. It was definitely big enough to hold more than 100 people, so there was no worry about the crossfire from their respective lightning clouds over their heads.

3 minutes passed, and 11 participants fainted and were carried over through telekinesis by Lafurge.

7 participants, including mike, were left on the platform, Mike seemed like he was going to faint anytime soon, But this time I did not say anything.

The reason being that, looking in his eyes, I could feel that he was already beyond his limits, but he was still pushing and enduring through this hell to pass this test.

Time passed, After 30 seconds, one of the remaining participants fainted, who then got carried over by lafurge.

' Hmm...is it my imagination? or.... ' Larfurge, who was looking at participants, suddenly thought

To Clear his doubts, he flew on top of the platform, And as he looked below at one of the participants, his body trembled.

' No way....am I dreaming? NO, DEFINITELY NOT...It looks like we obtained a hidden gem. ' The look on Lafurge's face one that was of extreme excitement.

At this moment, Athan also noticed something on the platform.

Mike's eyes started to change colour, it kept getting a hue of silver with each passing seconds.

After just a few seconds, His eyes turned silver as Lighting bolts could not hit Mike anymore.

I saw clearly as one lightning bolt that was going to hit mike somehow did not hit him as it landed on his right side instead, But from the actions of Larfurge, I could feel that this was definitely a very good thing.

And there was only one good thing I could think of right now, and It was that Mike, somehow, By a twist of fate or Divine intervention or whatever. Mike somehow awakened means he somehow gained an affinity with an element, though from the silver colour in his eyes, I don't know what Element is that.

After that last participant who failed, the remaining 5 participants, including mike, passed the taste, but Mike's eye suddenly closed as he started floating, Seeing this scene, Lafurge sent everyone except Mike away from the platform as he looked intently at Mike.