Way of the Knights

---

"The temperature's rising a lot." Raven pointed out as he remained seated amidst the sea of fire. He placed a finger on his chin and said: "This is the second time this happened and only twelve hours has passed. This means that the temperature rises every six hours huh."

He then observed the appearance of the flame even closer and noticed that they appear to be regular flames created through Fire Energies. The Sun Crystals embedded on the walls of the temple was constantly releasing fire energies to keep the flame alive even though they are a closed space. 

Of course, this is heat nothing to Raven. His force barrier is strong enough to endure the flames without any problems even if the flame's temperature rises once more. He consumption of Chaos Force is almost non-existent thanks to his constant state of deep meditation. 

"Ellen wouldn't mind this, I'm sure. In fact, I could safely say that she could even fall asleep in here."

As someone who gained understanding of Fire Laws, this kind of environment could be said to be made for her. Of course these flames wouldn't hurt her, in fact if she's injured before hand, she could use this flames to cure herself. 

But of course, Raven is different from Ellen. Needless to say, passing the first trial is a cinch for him. All he had to do is to wait until the time limit was up and he could move on. 

Raven decided to spend the remaining time in deep meditation. He didn't have any better things to do anyway so he might as well. Once the 18th hour arrived, the temperature rose by a few degrees. It happened one last time during the 20th hour. 

Once the time limit was up, the sea of flames disappeared along with the heat surrounding him. He woke up from his meditation and stood up. 

There's still some residual heat left by it was harmless to him. He then proceeded to walk towards the altar and see his progress. He saw a bunch of words written saying:

"First Trial Complete. Proceed with the next trial?"

Raven didn't hesitate and placed his hand on the ritual circle. That was the way to confirm his desire to continue with the trials and since he was far from reaching his goal there was no reason to stop at all. 

Once his confirmation was received, the whole floor lit up once more and he was informed about his next trial:

"First Floor, Second Trial: Defeat the waves of enemies within 10 minutes."

As soon as he was finished reading that, the words then transformed into a countdown timer. Ritual circles then appeared inside the floor, summoning waves of demonic beasts who are at least Tier 3 in strength. 

Raven didn't need to think hard on this one since the trial was straight-forward enough. He allowed his fist to do the talking.

He made a quick work out of the Tier 3 Demonic Beasts, he didn't even need to summon his hammer for this nor move from his spot for that matter. He sent air bubbles containing pressurized air created through his casual punches towards them and that's enough to reduce them into meat pastes. 

There are a total of three waves that appeared, the final wave were all Tier 4 Demonic Beasts but once again, they were no threat to him at all. 

***

A couple of weeks passed and Raven continued blitzing through the trials. 

As expected of Sun Temple, he basically didn't face the same enemies and the difficulty ramps up in every subsequent trials. 

He had face different kinds of trials at this point. He had been doused to a sea of fire, ne faced several demonic beasts, answered questions and puzzles, made his way through a bunch of deadly traps, tasked to grow a specific plant and etc. 

This might be the most random and/or excessive trial for sect admission he had probably encountered but Raven didn't mind at all. In fact he was having a good time. He found himself looking forward to the next trial and barely needing any kind of rest at all. 

Due to this, he is currently on the 30th trial. Meaning that he could choose to walk out of the temple at any given moment. Of course, he's not going to without taking the ingredient that he's after. He only had to pass 20 more trials and he's good to go. 

Currently, he's wrapping up the 30th trial. His task is…

*Boom!*

*Shatter*

To slay a Little Stone Titan…

*Boom!* *Boom!*

Raven flew across the room with his hammer on hand. Arms made out of silver were constantly hitting the 50 meter tall beast and shaving away some of its stony flesh in the process, causing rocks to fly everywhere. 

The Little Stone Giant hadn't even touched the hem of his clothes at all. Raven was too nimble and his attacks were too strong for the stone giant to handle. Each strike he landed causes the stone giant to fall on its knees. 

Raven dealt with the stone giant with relative ease. This is a Tier 5 Demonic Beast yet he was able to toy it to death. All of this thanks to his vast knowledge about demonic beasts in general. He allotted a portion of his previous life on studying them thoroughly so that he'll know how to deal with them. And now his efforts are being handsomely rewarded. 

Of course, even if Raven isn't knowledgeable about beasts, with his strength alone he could still do the same thing. 

It didn't take much until the Little Stone Giant was finally defeated. Raven delivered a fatal blow that crushed its delicate core, making crumble with the loss of its heart. 

Once it's done, Raven released a long exhale and started walking towards the altar of the 3rd floor. As soon as he approached the altar, he could already make up the words written on it's surface.

"3rd Floor, 10 Trial Complete. Rewards: Ancient Art. You may now choose to proceed with the next floor or make your exit."

"Oh? I get an Ancient Art this time? Neat."

Each time one clears a floor, there will be a reward given. Upon his completion of the first floor, he received some cultivation boost, allowing him to enter Mid-Stage Golden Knight Realm. On the second floor, he received a life-saving talisman that he might never use. And this time, it looks like he's going to receive an Ancient Art. 

He placed his hand on the ritual circle and a book manifested out of nowhere. He carefully picked it up, sat on the floor and began reading its contents. There's no need to hurry since there are no time limits whenever he's not on trial anyway. 

As soon as he read the name of the Ancient Art, a frown immediately surfaced on his face. 

"9 Destruction Steps? Wait a damn minute…"

Raven then placed his whole focus on reading the book, and the more he read about its contents, the more he was convinced. 

"It really is what I thought it was!" Raven exclaimed, unable to peel his eyes away from the Ancient Art. "A technique inspired by Destruction Laws! What a find!"

Raven felt an immense glee after realizing what he just got from the Sun Temple. Of all things that he was expecting to receive, this was the last thing that he was thinking of, not because he didn't want it, but because he just thought that it was nigh impossible for this temple to have this. 

He had seen the reward list of the Sun Temple once, and he knew that one could receive an Ancient Art by going through the trials, what he didn't know is that the Ancient Art was actually fashioned for Destruction Law users. 

It's been many years since Raven had been baptized by Destruction Laws, however due to it being a rare law, he had little information about its application nor knew any kind of technique fashioned for it. 

His applications are brought by improvisation and enlightenments. The most he could do with Destruction Laws is applying to his attacks through a crude manner. The most advance application he knew is through the 'Fault Signs' and that's about it. Which is why his progress had been slowing down even more. 

He wanted to ask Astrid if she could teach him some Ancient Arts but he hadn't been able to contact her ever since.

Raven always thought that he'll just pick up the pace when he ascend in the Divine Realm, he was sure that there are some techniques out there that he could learn to improve, but he wasn't expecting to receive one here.

That being said, this also raises a few questions in his mind…

"How in the world did the Divine Sun Sect got a hold of this? Did they have a disciple that receive baptism from Destruction Laws as well?"

Raven had more questions in his mind which pre-occupied him for a bit, but before he got immersed from his thoughts, he shook his head and threw these useless thoughts away. 

"It's useless to think about those things, I must instead focus on learning this technique." 

And thus, Raven spent some time reading and practicing the Ancient Art before moving towards the 4th floor.