"So, this is the tomb of the great Minato Musashi?"
After 2 harrowing days where he pushed himself to the limits just to meet up the time, Ben finally arrived at the famous tomb of Minato Musashi.
Just like every other mystic swordsman of this era, Ben had a lot of reverence for this powerful mystic warrior. Through his advanced navigation equipment, he was able to arrive at the main entrance to the tomb.
Tomorrow was the day of the official opening of the inheritance ground, and the energy-gathering technique of the tomb already started working its wonders.
The entrance to the inheritance ground that was originally hidden was no longer buried by sand. The entrance was now visible above the sand, it was a huge door with the statues of 2 sword-wielding knights erected at its front.
Through the energy gathering technique of the tomb, it slowly generated more mystic energy which slowly pushed the tomb from underneath the sand.
Ben calculated that in another 24 hours' time, Minato Musashi's tomb would fully see the light of day again.
After getting here, Ben heaved a sigh of relief but he dared not stay and wait at the entrance to the tomb. It seemed like he was the first to get here, but Ben doubted and he had no intentions of waiting for the other candidates here.
Ben moved a few dozen meters away from the rising tomb before digging under the sand and erecting his tent there, which became his temporary shelter.
About 50 meters away from the rising tomb was a sand dune. It looked natural, but if thoroughly looked at, what seemed like binoculars could be seen barely poking out of the sand, these were the first warriors that arrived here.
They were able to watch everything that transpired through their binoculars.
"Our first competitor already arrived". The mystic warrior whispered to his companion who diligently wrote the figure down.
For the next few hours, this part of the desert seemed to call a gathering of humans as mystic warriors of different backgrounds started appearing.
Due to the fact that the inheritance token was needed to access Minato Musashi's inheritance ground, not many mystic warriors came but all of them that came were talented warriors from prestigious backgrounds.
For the next 24 hours, the pair of warriors who were hidden in the sand dune was able to record 18 mystic warriors who were competitors.
After the long night, as soon as the dawn of a new day started, the tomb finally became fully exposed to the morning sun and a reaction occurred as powerful red energy spread out with the tomb at its center.
Once the energy erupted, the loud cries of Sand Worms were detected in the desert as these apex predators that were nearby were frightened away.
After the energy eruption, the massive door that led inside the tomb finally opened. Once it opened, all 21 mystic warriors who arrived came out of their hiding as they all moved towards the entrance.
In tacit understanding, none of them attacked each other as they followed the entrance through the winding staircase that appeared down the tomb.
As civilized mystic warriors, they all knew that in scenarios like this, it was better to get the benefits before doing the fighting.
Ben caught a lot of attention due to his huge frame which grew bigger in recent months, but he acted naturally as he followed the mystic warriors in.
Once all of them were in, the entrance to the tomb closed back as the desert finally regained its liberty to swallow it up.
…
After 20 minutes of walking, they arrived before a massive 12-leveled pagoda inside the tomb. In here, a voice spoke to them through the pagoda.
"The master's inheritance is simple".
"The master's inheritance mainly emphasizes sword proficiency".
"Only swordsmen who already unlocked the sword domain can come here".
"The first 3 levels of the pagoda correspond to the sword domain level, the next 4 levels correspond to the mystic sword domain level, and the last 5 levels correspond to the ultimate sword domain level".
"The requirements are simple, finish the challenge of every level to receive benefits from the master".
"As you climb higher, the challenge becomes tougher and the benefits also become better".
"The duration of the inheritance is 1 month, and during this period, none of you gets to eat. Obstinance from food is one way to get enlightenment".
"The test starts now".
"Prove your swordsmanship!"
The inheritance of Minato Musashi was pretty simple and primitive, just like the man's personality but all the talented mystic warriors here dared not underestimate it having heard stories of their seniors who benefited from it.
With a serious expression on their faces, the mystic warriors here entered the first level of the pagoda one after the other.
Once Ben entered the first level of the pagoda, he saw himself appear in a world that was filled with a raging fire. An apocalypse seemed to have taken place in this world as a beast that seemed like a Fire Elemental wreaked havoc.
Though he already prepared himself mentally for it, Ben was still shaken to the core by what he saw, everything looked and felt real.
What baffled him though was that despite bathing in this ocean of fire at the moment, he received no physical damage.
He was confused at first before his eyes widened. "I got a mental test?!"
The next moment, Ben felt his head being split open by a sword. He finally felt pain for the first time, agonizing pain as his head was cut into 2 equal parts, and the most horrifying part was that he did not die.
Ben could not control himself as he screamed in pain.
That was not the end of his mental torture. With his head cut apart, tubes were stuck into his head through which his blood was sucked.
The sensation of his blood being sucked drove Ben crazy and that was not the end, he finally felt the heat as the fire started cooking his blood raw.
"Ahhhhh!!!" Ben screamed with all his might as he experienced unimaginable pain, he was literally already going crazy.
Ben could not hold on, he lasted just 5 seconds before passing out.
When Ben woke up, he was back to where he started with his body intact back in the world of fire as the fire Elemental continued wreaking havoc. As he looked, he heard the familiar voice speak.
"You failed!"
"Again!"
This time, Ben brazed himself for it but the effects were not different. In just 2 seconds, he was already screaming like a castrated goat.
For what felt like centuries, Ben kept on passing out and being awoken as he underwent this torture. The worst part of it all was that Minato Musashi gave no authority to the challenger, they could not back out mid-way.
It was either Ben passed the test or he was stuck here forever.
Minato Musashi was renowned for being a masochistic warrior who could inflict unimaginable pain on himself just to improve his strength and swordsmanship. He expected no less from warriors aspiring to inherit from him.
Having tried different ways to cheat his way around the torture to no avail, Ben had no choice but to simply focus on building his willpower through the pain.
"Ahh!"
"Ahhhh!!!"
"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!"
His cries of pain reverberated in this world like the cries of souls in hell.
After a long time of screaming, gritting his teeth, and great endurance, Ben grew to the extent where he was able to grit his teeth through the first 5 seconds only to scream and pass out 2 seconds later.
After an indeterminate time, amid his screams of pain as he exerted every ounce of willpower in him to endure, the torture suddenly stopped.
The fire disappeared and Ben's body was restored.
Ben looked around, stunned and ecstatic. "Did I pass it?"
He barely asked before the world before him changed again. He was still on the first level of the pagoda, what changed was the scenery.
He was on an open battlefield set in the Victorian era, all around him were dead bodies, and he was the only survivor.
Ben felt a chill crawling down his spine as his danger sense tingled, he looked up only to see an infinite number of swords falling from the sky.
"Don't tell me the first level has stages, don't f*cking tell me, don't f*ckin…"
Ben was cut short as the millions of swords that blotted the sky finally descended on him. He was not even given time to recover from the first torture.
No part of him survived the onslaught, every part of his body to the smallest bit including his pee-pee was sliced into pieces.
Like before, his consciousness was left alive to endure through all the pain.
"Ahhhh…, f*ck…, f*ckkkkk!!!"
Ben screamed like a goat as soon as his consciousness registered the pain.
Amid his screaming, another round stared as the swords descended from the skies. Each descent took an interval of a second before they cut him to pieces again.
Ben's consciousness could not survive the 2nd time as he passed out.
"Ahhhh!!!"
Once again, his cries of pain continually reverberated around the battlefield as the ocean of swords continually cut him apart like he was a fish.
After taking an even longer time, he finally persevered through it and crossed the 10-second mark. As soon as he achieved this, everything stopped but like the last time, the scenery changed again.
Ben cried. "Are you f*cking kidding me?!"
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l