Way of the Knights

Chapter 736: 736

Raven was ressurected 24 hours after his death. 

He appeared on his home with a despondent expression. When he dies, his consciousness never really dispersed, he was still able to perceive the world around, just without a body. 

Raven saw how Bouldy rolled back down the slope. He was really shocked when it turned unstable all of a sudden. He spent his time being dead, thinking about what went wrong and he had a few guesses. 

It’s either he did something wrong or something occurred which was out of his initial expectations. Raven’s banking on the second one since he recalled being stable throughout his push. He memorized the lane and executed the shifts properly to make the most out of his attempt. 

In short, he can’t pinpoint anything he did wrong, so it must likely be the second scenario. 

As for what it is exactly, Raven honestly can’t tell for now. He might have to sacrifice a few resurrection chances to confirm that.

Upon his resurrection, Raven sighed and went down to inspect Bouldy. 

He rolled it around, inspecting its surface and saw that not even a scratch can be seen on it. He also inspected the slope and there’s nothing out of the ordinary there. This really made Raven confused. There’s obviously something that he’s missing here. 

He rested for a bit and went back to the routine. He planned to make himself stronger just a tad bit more before attempting again. 

Then he made his next attempt after a year of his 2nd resurrection. 

Raven did everything slowly and methodically this time. Making sure to pay really close attention to everything. 

Once again, he reached halfway up the slope. Raven really focused upon reaching this part. 

He continued rolling up Bouldy until he felt something amiss. 

There was something that’s preventing him from moving forward. Raven held Bouldy still and thought to himself: ‘What is it? I don’t remember anything like this. It is a bump?’

It was frustrating since Raven can’t see it. Bouldy was too big and he doesn’t have spiritual energies to inspect what’s stopping them. 

Without much options here, Raven decided to continue. He rolled Bouldy up and saw that it was shifting to a different angle. Raven’s eyes gleamed and thought that it might actually be a bump. He continued rolling the boulder up and then felt that it sudden sank. 

Raven looked at ground beneath him and whispered: “Oh, it’s more like a ramp actually. It can also function as a foothold but I don’t think I trust it.”

Indeed. The thing that caused his first failure was a ramp that appeared out of nowhere. The reason why Bouldy went unstable is because he didn’t know that the ramp appeared and he’s kind of going fast, the sudden shift in weight surprised him and got him distracted, causing him to he squashed flat by Bouldy. 

Rave  kept rolling up Bouldy, deep down he was thinking. ‘So there’s a catch huh? I see. Is should go slow and steady then.’

Although going slow and steady increased the burden for himself, it’s better to approach this scenario in this way instead of reckless bulldozing through everything. 

Raven continued on his way and to his surprise, he didn’t find any more abrupt changes in the slope. Before he knew it, he’s standing on the even ground and is now rolling up boulder to the crater at the peak.

The moment Bouldy was placed there, a loud sound rang to his ears and a ethereal number appeared on top of the disappearing Bouldy. It represented the number 1.

“Alright, 999 times left.” Raven pursed his lips as he nursed his aching body. Rolling up that boulder all the way here hurts. 

He saw Bouldy disappearing and the felt the ground rumbling. He then took a peak from the top, he saw that Bouldy was being ressurected down there as well. 

Right now, he didn’t go down to start the next attempt right away. He planned to rest for the day and continue when he’s fully recovered. 

Raven also noticed something when he successfully finished an attempt. He saw the fruit tree at the top bearing a new batch of apples. If he remembered it correctly, it hasn’t been a full week since he ate the last batch so this made him think that this is his reward for every successful attempt. 

He plucked the apples to check if they were any different…they’re not. Still, he ate them graciously since it will increase his strength. 

After this, Raven rested for two days before beginning another attempt. 

The third attempt ended up similar as the last one. He succeeded, raising the counter to 2. However, he did notice that instead of a single ramp, there was two. This gave him an idea of how the rest of his attempts are going to be. 

Raven’s guesses turned out to be true. On the next attempts he had, he noticed that the ramps were increasing in the number. When the counter reached double digits, the ramps became short bumps and they appeared all over the slope, making it harder for him to roll-up Bouldy.

Still though, with his perseverance and carefulness, he managed to raise the counter to 100 and that’s when a major change occurred. The bumps disappeared entirely, they were replaced by mud patches all over the slope. 

This sucked. Mostly because the mud patches caused him to die a second time. Resetting the counter all the way back to 0. Back to the ramps he went. 

If there’s some salvation here, it came in the form of his resurrection rule. 

It did say that he’ll be ressurected in his prime condition, meaning his absolute best state. Raven’s been eating a lot of apples and actually, when the counter reached the 100’s a change occurred to the fruit tree.

The apples it produced became bigger and their quality increased. It still produced three apples every week though but compared to the previous ones, these are clear way better. They increased his strength greater, making it easier for him to roll up Bouldy.

When he died, thanks to the rules, he was ressurected to his prime state, meaning that he didn’t lose any of the effects from the apples at all.

Sadly, the fruit tree degraded with the rest but that’s fine, Raven can just work hard to make it all the up to 100’s again. 

And work hard, he exactly did. He basically made an attempt once a day and eventually raised the counter to hundreds. 

This is where he stopped and decided to strengthen up first. He doubled-up on his training and ate the upgraded versions of apples. 

He can already tell that the mud patches will soon cover the entire slope the higher he went so it would be for the best if he became stronger and train his balance more. He focused on his core so that he can always support Bouldy no matter how difficult the terrain gets. 

And his training did pay off…

He reached the 200’s and fruit tree upgraded again. The slope turned rocky this time, so the theme would uneven slope. 

Once again, he trained. This time, he made some footwear that can allow him to anchor himself better to help. 

At 300’s, the slope became a mixture of bumps and mud patches. 

At 400’s, it became slippery and uneven. 

And at 500’s Bouldy gained double it’s weight. 

Every time he raised the counter by 100, Raven noticed that the fruit upgrades. At this point, the apples he was eating was so nutritious that he kept getting stronger. His strength went up by a lot that he’s basically carrying out an attempt everyday, and since every successful attempt resets the time it needs for the fruit tree to bear fruit, he’s having apples pretty much everyday. 

At 600’s the slope became filled with mud patches, bumps, and rocky areas. They appeared in different areas after each successful attempt. This scenario lasted until the counter 800. 

At 801’st and onwards, Winter never left. It was cold and the slope became really, really slippery. The cold was fierce, Raven can’t ignore it’s effects on him. 

Winter slowed everything down. That being said, Raven never wavered even though he noticed that it’s getting colder with every successful attempt. 

At 900’s, Winter turned into a merciless hailstorm. The visibility went down and it was extremely cold. Raven nearly suffered from hypothermia if it weren’t for his alertness. 

Bouldy became more like a glacier that he had to roll up. Since the hailstorm is very strong, he also have to watch out for an avalanche. 

It was only through his sheer will and determination that he managed to hold on. Also the apples, they were really of great help om strengthening him. 

Eventually, Raven managed to raise the counter to a 1000 and an explosion occurred. 

The hailstorm disappeared and spring came back in a blink of an eye. Raven heaved a sigh of relief and rested forma bit. 

He then saw Bouldy transforming into a palm-sized ruby crystal. Raven inhaled sharply and kept it for now, he then concluded the 3rd Trial and returned to the trial space.