The Rise of the Black Plain
chapter-2712

Over the next four months, Minos would experience ruin 11 from start to finish.

After beating the 11 minutes on level 1, he left the place bleeding from all parts of his body, having lost a good part of his wings that day. But fortunately, these were physical injuries that he would eventually recover from with opportunities.

After defeating the crushing chamber, he had access to three paths in ruin 11—the one that would take him to level 2, the one that would take him to his prize and an area where he could get food and water.

He took things for himself to use during his journey through ruin 11, but also for his companions. The food from the ruins had already proved especially tasty and useful in strengthening the mental and physical strength of the challengers. Nothing restricted those who completed challenges from taking these food resources to their companions, so Minos wasn't the only one to use this strategy.

But as much as it took him 'only' 11 minutes on the level 1 test of ruin 11 and less than 20 minutes collecting food and water, he had spent almost a whole month on level 1. The area of opportunity for him was what looked like a mud lake, where by covering himself with the gray paste of the area, he experienced an opportunity not only to regenerate his physical injuries but also to raise the quality of his defenses.

As those who had already challenged other ruins in this heritage had realized, this place could kill them, but if they were resilient and endured the minimum time for each test, they would have the tested characteristics strengthened.

Minos experienced this at level 1 of ruin 11, having left the place not only with a higher physical capacity, strength and endurance but also a more resolute mental capacity.

The pain of having one's flesh cut by wind blades for 11 minutes was enough to drive one mad or raise one's mental resilience to a new level!

Minos faced a cultivation challenge at level 2, where he had a magical parasite attached to his body for 11 minutes, which sucked out his energy. He had fought the creature by meditating in the middle of the test and trying to overcome the special being's energy consumption by absorbing energy from the surroundings. If he failed this test, his energy would reach a worrying level and he could be killed.

But by winning the level 2 test, he had the chance to cultivate in a room capable of nurturing even Supremes, something that saved him, in just 3 weeks of cultivation, 23 years of cultivation!

This was followed by level 3, where he faced a comprehension challenge capable of breaking his mind and leaving a living, but unintelligent, body behind. At level 4, he faced an opponent who could mirror his movements, one of the most interesting tests he had ever seen in his life.

Facing his own qualities and defects had almost been the end of Minos!

But he came out of level 4 stronger, more confident in what he was good at, and more aware of his weaknesses. He didn't have many weaknesses, truth be told. But he wasn't totally invulnerable either.

Level 5, the one that was supposed to be the hardest for him, turned out not to be what the creator of this place had expected. By skillfully using his prophetic abilities, Minos circumvented the problem that could have put him into a repetitive cycle, in which he would be trapped endlessly in that place.

The test itself wouldn't kill him, but it would make him stay in the same place until his last breath. To his advantage, he overcame the insight of the challenge's core, escaping at the beginning of the last test in that ruin of what could have been his end.

But Minos finished ruin 11 with a feeling that he had almost been defeated by the place, full of recommendations to give to Tiolos when the man was going to accept the challenge.

There was no time for them to complete these tests. As everyone had to do at least one challenge in the area, until Abby, Gloria and Ruth could challenge and beat ruin 15, they had all the time in the world to complete the 15 challenges.

The three weakest women in the group hadn't even managed to advance since they entered there and would certainly need to improve more than once to take their chances, but Minos had already done a third of the challenges in the area. As such, the group was making good progress with their plans in the area, and no one was feeling pressured to rush into challenges that could kill them.

When Minos left the ruin 11 this morning, at the beginning of the fifth month of his entry into the area, he didn't rush to warn Tiolos and get the man to start the test. As he left the ruin with his cultivation reaching the final 30% of level 113, Minos observed the surroundings to find out exactly where each of his companions was and who was training, meditating, resting or challenging the area.

Coincidentally, no one was challenging any of the ruins in the area at the moment.

He headed towards the resting group, where Tiolos was waiting for the day when he could begin his seclusion with the help of Minos' temporal powers.

"How was ruin 11?" the native of Zocarro asked.

Minos replied with a not-so-good expression. "Now that I've beaten it, I can say that I could easily repeat the test. But for a first attempt, it's tough to beat it. I nearly died in one of the tests and another of them could easily have trapped me in that place until I died of old age, if I hadn't been clever with my skills."

Tiolos turned serious, having already noticed that ruin 11 wouldn't be easy because of the difficulty of ruin 12, but not having thought that things would be so bad.

"Is it that complicated?" he asked.

"Hmm, be careful. In fact, you'd better cultivate for a few decades before venturing there. I also intend to take a long seclusion now that I'm here." Minos confirmed, while the others interested in the area's opportunities felt curious and even excited.

Near-death challenges were problematic. Nobody wanted to die. But they knew that overcoming these challenges would guarantee their strength. This excited them as much as it made them fear the future!

"Anyway, let's not waste time. Get organized. I'll put you under the effects of Temporal Sands for a longer period this time."