The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 102

Chapter 102 Willpower

Once you had learned to get past the fear and claustrophobia of the crushing depths of the mines, not many things would bother you. Plus, he had noticed that his will was stronger than most thanks to the beasts, and that might earn him some reward.

There were only a few others on the willpower testing stairs when Karl arrived. Hawk, plus the female cleric student and one mage.

Karl set foot on the first step, and a sense of doubt began to set in. What if the test rewards were only for the first trial? Surely, it would have been better to go to the other stairwells first in that case.

But Karl kept to his decision, and took another step.

The more that he thought about it, the more likely it was that this was also a test of character. Would the temple think that he had nothing else going for him but pure determination? He had met dozens of students like that in the accuracy training sessions.

They had remarkable willpower to keep going, keep training and grinding away every single day, but where did that get them? It got them to the bottom of the class, that was where.

Because willpower was all that they had.

Karl had talent. He had magic, he had strength. If he had tested those first, the temple would still see his determination, his willpower to keep going. Why had he chosen this staircase?

Another step and another, as the self-doubt crept in and the world around him faded until Karl could only sense what was around him. He barely noticed as he passed the mage, who was on the fifth step and in the middle of an existential crisis, or when he passed Hawk on the seventh step, who had stopped to have a little snack before he continued.

The Golem hadn't said anything about being timed. Perhaps Hawk had the right of it, and you should save your strength and keep refreshed.

No, if he stopped, it would be that much harder to get going again.

Karl made it past the tenth step, and the world completely vanished around him, leaving him in a vision of the mines. He was trapped in a collapse, his legs pinned, but ahead of him was another miner, closer to the emergency bell, and gasping for breath.

The man's rebreather was broken, but he could get to the button.

Karl took off the miner's mask he was wearing and threw it to his struggling coworker, then held his breath against the toxic fumes as the faceless man scrambled for the button, and the emergency supplies locker beside it.

Ten more seconds, that was all he needed. Ten seconds and the man would be coming back to throw him a new mask.

Nine, eight, Karl struggled to hold on. If he passed out, he would start breathing again, and the toxic fumes would linger in his lungs, adding a bit more permanent damage to the lifetime of injuries that a miner would suffer.

In his mind, Karl was still young, he hadn't taken the Divine Serum yet, and he knew that childhood lung injuries could ruin a man before he even became a man, leaving him useless underground. He would hold on, he had to.

Then the miner was back and slapping the mask over his face with a blast of fresh, compressed air and Karl was back in the real world, looking at the staircase in front of him.

"What was that?" He muttered as he looked at the steps in front of him.

Worse, it was self-inflicted torture, with no promise of rewards. _{fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm}