Reincarnated As A Dragon With A Godly Inheritance

Kaedros found himself inside a rusted metal room with an arching ceiling. The room shone with a low white light that lit up his surroundings and he looked around, mouth opened, sword in hand when instincts that had been honed while fighting shadow blades screamed at him and he turned sharply, his short sword rising and falling with ease.

A small, sharp projectile fell to the floor in a clatter and Kaedros stared at it in amusement. Was this supposed to be funny? Sending something as insignificant as this against him?

He didn't have time to analyze it as Rauk stumbled inside, his massive sword a long thing behind him.

Kaedros gave him room and watched him, not giving warning. He simply trusted in the strength of his companions.

And Rauk proved him right as he snapped the length of his sword forward, slamming the sharp projectile away like an annoying fly.

"What is that? A weapon? So it has begun." He said grimly.

Kaedros simply nodded, sword held at the ready, his senses sharp and strained for anything amiss.

He heard the last projectile as it made its way toward Taria immediately she appeared in the room. Taria, who was staring at the room in surprise, simply swished her head sideways and the projectile was gone, going through the door and outside.

"So this is the first trial? Disappointing." Taria said. She wasn't using her usual spear for this because she didn't know the type of place she might fight. Instead, she had opted for a short spear with a thin bladed head. And Thalso had given her spears with different lengths.

"Maybe, but we have to be careful. Those projectiles might be poisoned for all we know." Kaedros said.

"And... remember this was made for candidates who had trained all their lives with mana. The disappearance of their core will disorient them." Rauk said dryly.

Kaedros agreed. He still remembered how Thalso had trained them without their using mana. Brutal training for weeks.

"So that's the next door." Rauk pointed. Like the first one, it was at the back, marked by the softly glowing blue light.

Walking there didn't take time.

"Remember to be on guard always now that we know there's something waiting for us in there," Kaedros said. "I want you to follow me immediately, no waiting!"

With that, he plunged into the door and found himself in a dark room, the room was inked in darkness so thick he couldn't see his body.

Others stumbled behind him, their gasps muted.

The only light that cut the darkness was a straight beam of light that came from the ceiling in front of them. And the blue light of the door from afar.

"Now this is weird." Kaedros half expected Taria's voice to be lost to the darkness but it cut through well enough.

"Smart. We should probably only walk towards the light in the middle but doing so..." Kaedros paused.

"Will make us instant targets." Rauk finished.

The thing was that, the three of them had felt those presences immediately after they entered the room. Monsters. Hiding and moving in the darkness.

"Let's go anyway," Taria said.

"Can you take them?" Kaedros asked.

Their answer was yes. So they advanced, slowly making their way towards the beam of light.

Rauk stored his large sword away in favor of a short fat one with a broad edge. If he fought with the long sword here, he might take heads. Even his team's own.

Kaedros put his sword into the light and when he got no reaction he tried with his hand but it was just an ordinary light, nothing fancy.

"Get ready. We jump in as one. Now!" Kaedros jumped into the light beam, his sword pointed forward. Waiting for trouble.

"What's to happen next," Taria said then paused as the sound of claws dragging on the floor filled the air.

Kaedros could tell, every monster in the room was coming towards them. Too bad he couldn't tell how many they were with his senses.

But the monsters didn't attack them, instead, they moved around them, their movement quick. A flash of reddish skin coming close to the light, a flash of claws here, fangs. Growling.

"Oh come on." The next time a monster flashed before him, Kaedros drew on silver stone and his left hand blurred into the darkness, snapping the monster forward with its head.

It was a small ugly thing the size of a street cat but this one was muscular with tight skin, the color of red mud. Small black eyes widened in surprise that Kaedros was able to catch it so easily.

But the surprise wore off and it struggled, trying to sink long claws into his hand. He was not having any of that. Kaedros threw the monster up and pierced it with his sword, flickering it away, blood and all.

There was a pause as all the monsters paused their play at intimidation. Then the room erupted into angry growls and the monsters came for them.

Came to their death. It was easy for Kaedros and his companions. They made quick work of the monsters for all that they were almost blinded by the light as the monsters made good use of the darkness to fight them.

But with silver stone burning steady in their chest, they were simply too fast. Too strong and the floor bore testament to that because it was covered in black blood and body bits.

Kaedros flickered his sword as the last of the monsters was made to part with its head. "They got my robe dirty."

Blood had splattered it and was that a pinkish substance below? He refused to investigate what it was.

Rauk grunted. "We would have been overwhelmed if it was when we just came into the castle and our mana was taken."

"No," Taria said firmly. "We would have died."

They silently thought about that. Thalso and the others were right after all. They wouldn't have stood any chance if they hadn't trained them.

They deactivated their silver stone and made for the next door, stepping on the squishy floor as they went.

The next room was a bit hard for them. There was no monster or sharp projectile this time.

It was a long and narrow room, the door a blue dot in the distance, and set in the stones around them were perfectly round metal balls the size of a fist.

The first step into the room had a ball fired at Rauk from the side, which he deflected with the flat of his sword, and that was when they knew.

The room might seem simple, but it was more than that because the small metal ball had slammed his sword into his hand painfully, and the place where the metal ball had hit the blade was scratched.

Rauk cursed as they watched another ball replace the one that fired on the wall. He shook his hand. "That packed a lot of weight. It's like taking a backhand from Thalso."

Kaedros looked at the door far away. So this door trial was to see how quickly they could reach the door. He tensed his legs and called silver stone. "Let's not wait to take more. Spread out and don't bother to use your weapon. Focus on avoiding and getting to the door. Now!"

Kaedros leaped forward, his legs digging cracks into the floor and propelling him forward like a freed arrow. He didn't wait for the others, didn't find out if they were keeping up as he ran.

It wasn't easy. There was no rhythm to the way the balls fired and Rauk was right. They carried the weight of Thalso's 'training' punch.

One metal ball slammed into his ankle and pain flared. If he wasn't using silver stone, his left leg would have twisted. On he ran, dodging when he could. Taking a hit where he knew he could afford it, like his shoulder.

He could see the door now, glowing softly. Kaedros could hear his labored breathing as he pumped strength into his limbs.

A metal ball went for his face and he caught it without slowing down, throwing it to the one that targeted his ribs.

He heard the dull sound of metal hitting flesh behind him, followed by Taria's curse, but he didn't wait to see what happened.

Then two balls fired, one for his face and one for his chest. Kaedros gritted his teeth and focused on avoiding the one coming for his face.

The second one hit him like a monster's punch, lifting him off his feet. Panic flared more than the pain because if he should go down now, then he would never get up. The balls would splatter him on the floor.

He tried to center himself but he was having no success, then rough hands caught him, shoved him, and shouted in his ears. "Brace yourself!"

Then Taria threw him as if he weighed so little. Kaedros tried for a curse but the wind snatched it from his lips. He slammed into the platform where the door lay and bounced once on the wooden floor.

Kaedros stared at the ceiling, trying to get his eyes to stop spinning. He drew deeply on silver stone to hold off the pain but since the stone was the only power they had here and he mustn't overuse it, he let it go.

Kaedros groaned as pain exploded all over his body. His chest and left shoulder held the most pain. He felt for his chest, hoping he hadn't broken a rib. He hadn't, but he hissed at the tender flesh.

"So much silver stone can do, right?" Taria was breathing hard beside him, her left eye was swollen shut and her grin was a wince.

Rauk limped to the platform and collapsed, breathing hard. "I haven't tasked myself like this for a long time."

Kaedros sat up with another groan. "Just to show how mana always supports our body even when we aren't using it."

"Right now we are nothing but normal humans with the power of shadow blades and silver stone." Taria was gently massaging her black eye.

"And our training," Rauk added.

"No wonder thousands are dying in the trials," Kaedros added. "How do they hope to survive that? Unless they have something up their sleeves."

They rested for a while. They didn't know if it would affect their trials but they had no choice. They were tired, and they must give silver stone time to recover.

"Thank you for that, Taria." Kaedros stood and faced her. He might have ended up seriously wounded if not for her quick save. Might even have ended up with some broken bones for the trouble.

Taria stared at him blankly, then her one eye cleared, yellow specks gleaming in grey. "You would have done the same."

Kaedros opened his mouth to deny it, that given the same situation, he might not have done the same, but he stopped just in time. Maybe a few days ago he might have had a different answer, but now his Demon heart saw these two as his.

He sighed. "Very well. I think we have rested enough. Let's go."

Rauk rose with a stiff motion and shook out his legs, then grumbled. "One ball caught me real good, just at my ankle bone. Almost shattered the whole thing."

Kaedros frowned. "We are always missing a healer in this team. Not that it would have helped now that mana is useless. Anyway, don't forget that silver stone only makes our body strong, not impenetrable. A well-timed projectile or claw is all it takes."

They nodded and entered the next room.

It was much the same as the last one, the only difference was that the walls were covered in white drawings. White ribbons had been drawn all through the length of the room, not one long ribbon but different ones with varying lengths, coiling into each other.

"What now?" Kaedros demanded from no one. They could not deduce what this room was about but one thing was certainly sure. It would be more deadly than the previous one.