Born in Blood

What Liam saw made him curse slowly in confusion.

Boulders.

Just boulders.

Massive boulders lined up as far as the eye could see.

'One, two, three, four…'

Liam began rapidly counting. The more he counted, the more his eyes widened.

'One… thousand.'

One thousand boulders were lined side to side, as far as the eye could see. They were placed atop a thin pole that somehow managed to hold them up.

The boulders were perfectly smooth. They were marble white and shimmered under the fake sun above. 

The fake dimension had been narrowed down to only 50 meters side to side. 

The boulders were positioned to be both to the left and right of Liam.

"Split them in half within the allotted time."

Liam's eyes widened.

Allotted time?

Liam raised his head. 

Above him was a timer, and each time a second ticked down, it made a ting noise.

12 hours.

He had 12 hours to cut down 1,000 boulders!

What kind of idiotic test was this? 

What was the point?!

There was no time to think.

Liam cursed and gripped his Black Blade, activating Sword Hardening and looking towards the first boulder.

SHING!

Liam swung from top to bottom.

A second passed.

The boulder slowly split apart, but didn't fall from the pole holding it up.

The boulder was actually hard!

It wasn't made out of marble. It was strengthened enough that Liam's peak Rank 3 weapon had difficulty cutting it.

And this was considering his strength and Sword Hardening that enveloped his blade.

Liam moved to the next boulder. And the next. And the next.

But the more he cut, the more Liam came to a realization.

He wasn't getting past this Trial.

12 hours for 1,000 boulders was extremely difficult.

And apparently, he couldn't use his Shadow Clones, even though he tried repeatedly.

Liam went through 200 boulders in 5 hours.

And strangely enough, he felt incredibly tired.

Ever since Liam had become an Ashura and attained a Rank 4 body, he had basically forgotten what exhaustion was. 

But something was making him sweat and tire.

His arm and body also felt sore for some dumb reason. 

Liam's face turned dark as he continued to split down each boulder.

He hadn't given up. But he knew he'd lose eventually.

11 hours passed.

Liam kept swinging and swinging.

All of his muscles throbbed in pain and ached horribly.

Liam's mental energy was also running out. Sword Hardening was always active throughout the swings, after all.

Despite the technique costing a small amount of mental energy, keeping it active for 11 hours straight was bound to drain him of strength.

Plus, the more tired Liam became, the less easy it was to split the marble boulders in half. 

Everything was piling up on him.

Liam managed to cut 513 boulders as twelve hours passed.

He was panting heavily, sweating with his eyes half-drooping.

"Failed."

Liam heard the words and grimaced. 

What a retarded test!

So much preparation, effort and work...

Just to hear that word at the end.

Liam shook his head, waiting to be transported out of the fake dimension.

Silence.

Liam grew confused.

Suddenly, he was back at the beginning of the fake dimension. Where he entered the third Trial.

Liam looked at the boulders.

They had reformed!

Didn't he fail, though?

Liam raised his head. The timer was suddenly back to the twelfth hour, and it hadn't started ticking down.

Liam realized why.

His Black Blade was stored.

For the last trial, when Liam unsheathed his Black Blade, the Trial had begun.

Liam smiled broadly.

He wasn't out of the game!

He sat down and started to lay down a massive feast fit for a king, wolfing it down.

'Doing the same thing again without changing my line of action is dumb.'

'This is also a test of some sort.'

'Is it speed or something?'

'Maybe not.'

'If it was, I wouldn't get so tired for some reason.'

Liam wracked his brain for an answer.

He genuinely didn't know.

If there was a boulder, he'd cut it. Problem solved, right?

Eternal Sword absolutely sucked at directions, and Liam was getting angry as he gulped down meal after meal.

Heaving a sigh, Liam positioned himself beside two of the boulders and unsheathed his Black Blade.

All he could do was repeat the Trial until he understood something.

The voice rang out once again.

"Split them in half within the allotted time."

Liam got to work.

He put more strength into his grip, back and arms. 

The boulders split apart much easier compared to before.

Liam swung once, thrice, one hundred times and more.

For some reason, Liam felt even more tired than before!

It was a small amount. Barely noticeable. But definitely there.

Using Transfiguration to increase the weight of his slashes somehow worsened his stamina.

Liam was starting to hate how boulders looked.

***

12 hours passed.

…And Liam cut down less boulders than last time at the end of it!

499 compared to 513. 

That was not a small difference!

Still...

"Failed."

Liam was once again teleported to the beginning of the line. 

The boulders had also reformed. 

And he was once again sore all over again.

Liam let his back touch the floor.

'The more physicality that I use, the weaker I get,' Liam realized. 'Is that what he wants me to know?'

'That I'm using too much strength?'

Liam was pretty sure that was the problem. 

But he needed to rest before coming to a proper conclusion.

Liam took a moment to ponder over what the inheritance wanted from him.

All this time, Liam simply daydreamed about what he could reap from it.

But what was the actual point of it? Besides the Eternal Sword wanting an heir, of course.

Liam pursed his lips.

'Does he want me to develop my own sword style or something?'

A plausible conclusion.

But Liam put it aside for now.

His body was back to tip-top condition, and he was ready for another shot at the ridiculous task.

Liam unsheathed his Black Blade.

"Split them in half within the allotted time."