Rex experienced agony unlike he had ever experienced before now.
The teeth of the menacing Lions seemed to be laced with poison, a poison that could numb his bones and inflict the greatest amount of pain to him, not just to his body but to his soul too.
Rex screamed until oxygen left his lungs completely.
"This is not what I bargained for!"
When Rex first heard of the 12-floored pagoda test, he imagined it to be filled with tests where his swordsmanship would be put to the test.
With his massively improved swordsmanship, though he knew that getting a perfect score was unrealistic, he still had high hopes of getting a good score.
Well, reality was so much different from what he expected.
He did not sign up for this, he never expected there to be a torture test.
Rex struggled to no avail as every time that the Lions caught him, he was torn to pieces in no time, he was not able to last more than 3 seconds each time as the sensation of extreme pain sent him into unconsciousness.
After getting tired of struggling, Rex finally decided to try listening to Lord Asuka's advice. Before he took the test, the Lord gave him only one advise.
"Remember my stories".
After exhausting all the strategies of passing this test that he could think of, he finally decided to heed the Lord's advice, he started remembering the stories.
Lord Asuka had a habit of adding philosophical quotes to his stories to spice them up. According to him, he picked this habit from the Sword Saint.
As the crackling sound of another Lion's maw snapping his bone reverberated followed with the sharp pang of pain, Rex forced his eyes closed.
With his eyes closed, he focused and this was when he remembered. "Nature is constantly changing, like the wind".
Originally, when Lord Asuka said these words, Rex did not attribute a hidden meaning to them until now. Nature was indeed changing; just a moment ago, he was still a free Rex who was relishing in the feeling of absolving knowledge.
Now, he was no longer free, he was stuck inside a pagoda where the only sensation that he could feel was pain, agonizing pain.
"When you base your expectations only on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality".
He also remembered this and now, these words only seemed more striking. He felt the agonizing pain only because it was the present reality.
The pain was what he felt, but there was also another present reality which was that the pain he was currently feeling was just an illusion.
By combining these 2 present realities, he arrived at a random conclusion that left him thinking, this was when he also remembered. Lord Asuka once said. "The natural order is disorder, understand this and get inner peace".
"I finally get it!" Rex's eyes shone. "The goal is inner peace!"
Rex finally understood why Lord Asuka made him achieve inner peace before taking the pagoda test, inner peace was the short-cut to completing the tests.
Rex closed and tightened his eyes as he recited one of Lord Asuka's most iconic quotes that he claimed was not his. "Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty and become wind".
With his eyes closed, Rex let his inner peace to take control. The natural order was disorder, he let all the sensations of pain in his head flow without order, he no longer tried to restrain them.
What he instead strived to do was to ignore them. By letting go of his earthly tether, he aimed to view the pain like it was nonexistent.
"Pain is just a thought, it is all in my head, let it go".
Rex kept on reciting this in his head till he achieved it, this was only possible because he already achieved inner peace and once he did, things changed.
Rex instantly felt like a cool wind was blowing as it caressed his face. He felt all his sorrows and worries washing away and the next moment, the pain started subsiding and in no time, the pain was nonexistent.
Rex no longer felt the pain as he turned to face the Lions. "You are all nonexistent, you are not the real reality".
Unknown to him, in this time while he did all these, 10 seconds already passed without him losing consciousness. He finally completed the 1st torture test.
The 2nd torture test came and Rex used the same strategy. Everything went smoothly, he breezed through the test with unnatural ease.
The 3rd torture test was the same and he completed it at a record time.
"Congratulations! You have completed the test of the 1st floor".
"Your endurance and willpower have increased; you have been rewarded with 3 fragments of a sword skill and a special swordsmanship manual".
'Fragments of the Master Level Sword Skill: Precision Slash!'
Once Rex finished the test of the 1st floor, without hesitation, he moved to the 2nd floor where the test of patience and endurance was presented before him.
Like the first, all that he needed to complete this test was inner peace. Once he let go of his earthly tether, nothing was able to hold him back anymore, a second could feel like a millennium to him and vice versa.
In reality, he only had to wait a few hours whereas due to his inner peace and self-control, he tricked the system into thinking that he already waited for centuries, he breezed through the patience test like the first.
Instantly after completing the patience test, the pagoda did the thing and the scenery changed again for him to take the real swordsmanship test.
On seeing the group of 50 Samurais that were before him, all yearning to end his life, Rex grinned. "Now, this is more like it!"
"Shing!"
For the first time, Berserker finally got a role to play.
Rex grabbed his sword tighter before pouncing on the Samurais. Having achieved mystic sword domain already, these group of 50 Samurais with sword domain were like kids before him, they stood no match.
All it took from him was a bit of sweating, a bit of brain power for the mystic calculus, and just 20 minutes of his time before he breezed through all 50 Samurais.
"Congratulations! You have completed the test of the 3rd floor".
"Your willpower has increased; you have been rewarded with 4 fragments of a sword skill and a random ability that is compatible to you".
"You have received the Special Ability: Sword Berserker".
"Fragments of the Master Level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!"
"You have acquired all 10 fragments to unlock the Master level Sword Skill: Precision Slash!"
"You have unlocked Master level Sword Skill: Precision Slash!"
"You have unlocked the mystic sword domain floors".
Without giving Rex time to comprehend and appreciate his gains, the 12-floored pagoda moved again as he was transported to the 4th floor.
Once again, Rex was subjected to a torture test and once again, having discovered the tricks behind it already, despite the fact that this torture test was far stronger than the previous, he still breezed through it.
For the patience and endurance test, he experienced the same.
"Too easy". Rex grinned as he was transported to the 6th floor.
This was what finally gave him a bit of trouble as he had to fight against 50 Samurais who already unlocked the mystic sword domain, he struggled.
Rex spent the most time in this floor, he had to use some unconventional means to try outwitting the Samurais before he was finally able to defeat them.
One major disadvantage of the Samurais was that Saint Minato was so fixated on replicating the past that he gave them the personalities and knowledge of Samurais of old, they still fought like Samurais of the old era.
There was no sense of mystic calculus being displayed by them, there was no cooperation, no sense of advanced fighting techniques, just raw swordsmanship.
This was what Rex took advantage of to come out on top.
The last test of the mystic sword domain that commenced in the 7th floor was a hard one combining both the torture test and swordsmanship tests.
Rex had to overcome the pain of the torture while at the same time having to fight 50 mystic warriors who already unlocked the mystic sword domain.
It was hard, but Rex was up to the task. Having discovered ways to go around the restrictions of both tests already, he won and came out on top.
Once he succeeded, the pagoda's familiar voice spoke again.
"Congratulations! You have completed the test of the 7th floor".
"Your willpower, endurance, soul power, mystic energy, and swordsmanship has increased, you have been rewarded with 8 fragments of a sword skill and a random ability that is compatible to your bloodline".
"You have received Saint Minato's Special Ability: Age Extraction".
"You have acquired all 18 fragments to unlock the Master level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!"
"You have unlocked Master level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!"
"You can use sword skill fragments to upgrade your sword skills".
"You have unlocked the ultimate sword domain floors".
"To access the ultimate domain floors, your sword proficiency needs to be at the ultimate sword domain realm..."
The pagoda barely got to spoke before the silhouette of Lord Asuka suddenly appeared. "Grant the kid passage".
"Level 00 order received! Granting Level 00 access".
To Rex's shock, the pagoda moved and did its magic again as he was picked up with one smooth move before being tossed to the 8th floor of the pagoda.
Rex's journey through the 12-floored pagoda was not over yet.
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