It took some time but Ved was finally able to convince Nimue that he can take trial. When the sun rose and the first ray gently shined upon the land, she took him.

Ursela wanted to follow them but Nimue did not agree. She said only trial takers and guardians of the inheritance can set foot on the trial grounds.

Even her own family was not allowed to go there. The two of them arrived at the foot of the mountain. " Okay this it it, good luck." Ved got confused.

No matter how hard he looked he couldn't see how this was a trial ground nor could figure out what the trial was, fortunately Nimue cleared things up.

" This is where your trial begins. You have to climb to the top of the mountain, that your first challenge." Ved looked up, he couldn't even see where the mountain ended.

' How tall is this mountain anyways?' Her answer made him sweat bullets, according to her, the mountain stood at over 13 thousand kilometres tall.

Ved couldn't comprehend how a mountain could be that large, nor could he understand how he didn't see it from his original home.

Something that tall should've been visible from thousands of kilometres away, especially to somebody with eyesight as good as his.

Then Nimue took a step back, her protective screen disappeared and the dense essence energy touch his scales.

Ved's eyes turned red as the essence burnt them like acid, tears fell down like rivers. He could hear his scales sizzling like water dropped into boiling oil. A burning sensation spread throughout his entire body, he gritted his teeth and held on.

Before he took the first step he stopped himself and asked Nimue an important question. ' Is it mandatory that I climb or can I fly as well.'

Nimue giggled. " It doesn't matter, as long as you're using your own power, you can fly if you can." Ved grinned, this first challenge might be easier than he expected.

Then he took a deep breath which was a mistake because he felt like he had just inhaled acid. His wings rose and pointed to the sky then dropped like falling mountains.

He flapped them as hard as he could, generating powerful winds. He shot to the sky like a loosened arrow. He heard her shout, " I almost forgot, you have three years to get to the top or you will fail."

His body continued rising, each flap of his wings generating powerful winds but he also noticed an issue, the higher he rose, the denser the essence became.

This made flying up harder for him, his lungs burnt like crazy, draining his stamina even faster.

What made things worse was that he knew this was not designed to be an obstacle, infact it might've been made to assist the trial taker but it did the exact opposite on him.

He had lamented not being able to use essence before but now he just loathed it to the core.

Even so, he did not stop, in only a few minutes he had reached the first layer of clouds 40 kilometres up.

The temperature dropped but coldness of this level was not an issue for him. However when he entered the cloud he almost screamed.

He dove back out, the essence density inside the clouds was ridiculously higher than below them.

He felt his insides burn just by touching the clouds. Ved landed on the mountain, his feet sank on the cold snow.

He was terrified to go back in there. He stayed on the mountain for a few hours then noticed something.

The more time he spent here the less the pain got. Then it dawned on him. ' I'm so stupid.' he laughed at his own stupidity.

He should've figured this out a long time ago. He knew world essence energy was poisonous and corrosive to him.

The entire world was filled with world essence energy, yet he didn't feel like he was burning, nor was he uncomfortable at all in his daily life.

Infact the only reason he even knew there was essence all around him was because he could smell it, otherwise it felt no different than air to him.

Didn't that mean he had some level of resistance to it? So if he stayed here for a while, his body might get used to this level of essence as well.

He layed on his stomach and slept through the pain, after a week the pain had become far less and much more bearable than before.

He looked up at the clouds above and gritted his teeth, he wanted to try something, it was crazy but if it worked, his resistance to essence energy poisoning will much higher.

He dove into the clouds and the burning sensation hit him. He opened his mouth to scream and his throat itched and burnt as well.

He floated inside the fluffy clouds for over an hour before he felt his vision blur. His body became weaker, it was no longer just a sensation.

There were actual burnt marks all over his body as if somebody dripped acid on him. Then he fell, his body fell for over 5 kilometres before he stabilized himself.

His regeneration trait kicked in, healing the wounds immediately. Infact it was the only reason he lasted for so long, he was glad essence energy was not this thick everywhere else or he would've been fucked.

After a while the pain completely disappeared. The density of essence energy on this level was no longer an issue for him at all.

He flapped his wings and flew back up, this time he spent an entire day in the cloud before falling but he was happy, he could see progress.

He spent two weeks doing this, while it wasn't to the point of feeling nothing, being inside the cloud was more irritating than painful at this point.

He figured it was time to continue. He flew above the cloud, the cloud belt was very thick, stretching for a few kilometres across.

He expected to find a layer of snow but instead he was met with a beautiful green forest that stretched all the way to the second layer of clouds.

However the essence energy here was slightly thinner than the clouds below which was a surprise.

While he would've loved to enjoy the view, he was still undergoing a trial and was on a time limit.

He knew he would have to spend more time adapting to the essence density at some point, so he needed to use every opportunity to rise.

He flapped his wings and flew up, however he had only flew for about 10 kilometres or so up when his breath started getting heavy.

He felt like he was carrying a boulder on his back and his stamina was being drained like an opened dam.

' What in Atlas's curse is this pressure?'

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