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"Just one way to find out, I guess!" Eisen shrugged and stepped forward to make his way into the dark cave. It took a little while, but soon his eyes got used to the lack of light other than what came through the caveentrance and was able to make his way through the wide tunnels.

And not long after the light from the cave entrance couldn’t be seen anymore, another source of light took its place. There were a number of luminous crystals growing along the walls of the cave glowing in a soft blue light.

"Ooh? These look interesting! I wonder what makes them glow like this... Do they store energy and push it out in the form of light?" Eisen asked himself and squatted down next to an especially large piece of these crystals.

"I’m sure whoever I’m visiting won’t mind if I take a little bit to play around with." He chuckled and activated his transmutation to cleanly split off a small part of the crystal, which he then placed into his Backpack, before continuing on through the cave.

After a few more minutes of walking, Eisen was met with a grand stone doorway. It looked somewhat blank, and Eisen expected it to be more decorated, but in the end it also seemed quite old and rustic, so it had some natural charm to it that possible didn’t need any further decorations.

But Eisen kind of hoped to be able to find out what it was that waiting for him on the other side through those decorations when he saw the door in the distance, but it seemed like now he just had to get in and see.

Thus, Eisen slowly moved to the door and placed his hands on the two sides, slowly pushing in to open it up.

Immediately when he did so, clouds of mist hit his body and poured into the space behind him. It didn’t seem incredibly dense, so Eisen wouldn’t have any trouble continuing on walking, but it was still an immense surprise.

The old man entered the misty space in front of him, and was surprised to see that this actually wasn’t where the creature he was going to meet was. There was another tunnel leading further into the mountain, and Eisen figured that that’s where he could find it.

And as such, Eisen continued walking forward through the mist. It seemed to him as if there were some ghostly whispers echoing around the cave, but Eisen ignored them and simply kept on walking, albeit while making sure he wouldn’t be ambushed by something by carefully looking around himself.

Eisen continued through the tunnel until the mist was cut off, which seemed basically instant. It was as if a literal wall of mist stood behind him.

And in front of him, a huge hall was openly displaying whatever treasures were inside. Gold coins upon gold coins, and gems of all kind that were all glittering away. It was so bright in this room that Eisen even had to shield his eyes! That made him curious, though, where that light came from. There didn’t seem to be any normal light source around, and all the light seemed to come from the treasure itself.

There was really only one thing that didn’t glow in this room, and that was the huge carved gold statue in the center of the room! It was truly magnificent to look at! It was in the shape of a huge sleeping dragon, with a strong body and mighty scales that were all individually carved. It wasn’t as shiny as the rest of the gold in the hall, and on first sight it didn’t even seem to be real gold, but since it was surrounded by it, Eisen figured that it was.

The statue seemed so life-like to him that Eisen’s heart nearly skipped a beat from pure surprise and awe. Even though it was just sleeping, it looked so strong and mighty, and seemed as if it was truly alive! For a few seconds, it seemed to Eisen that the Dragon’s body was slightly moving up and down as if it was breathing! Just for a few seconds, though, and soon enough Eisen noticed that it... was really breathing...?

"Wait, is this a real dragon?!" Eisen yelled out in surprise and walked up closer to the sleeping creature. Sure, it scared the absolute shit out of Eisen, but he wanted to know if the Dragon’s scales were really made of gold. Just out of curiousity, of course. It definitely wasn’t because he wanted to know if he could use these kinds of scales as if they were real gold, and he definitely didn’t want to try that out as soon as possible. Not at all.

But still, Eisen couldn’t help himself but try and touch them. It was quite a rare chance, after all. Just before he could touch them, Eisen felt a strong pressure that immediately surpressed his whole being.

[You started part (1/3) of the Ancient Gold Dragon’s first test]

He jumped backward while protection the tiny Caria from whatever was causing this, and stared directly into the Dragon’s eye, ignoring the notification that popped up.

[You were able to defend against the Ancient Gold Dragon’s Fearful Presence (Immensely Weakened)]

Eisen wanted to read through his notifications to find out what was going on, but before he could, he was met with another wave of the same pressure, just far, far stronger.

[You were able to defend against the Ancient Gold Dragon’s Fearful Presence (Strongly Weakened)]

This already nearly brought Eisen to his knees, and it felt as if the Dragon simply stomped on him to squish him like a bug. Eisen hoped that it would be over now, but it was far from it. When Eisen was released from that pressure, it simply hit him again, incomparably stronger than the last time.

[You were able to defend against the Ancient Gold Dragon’s Fearful Presence (Weakened)]

[Congratulations! You passed part (1/3) of the Ancient Gold Dragon’s first test! ]

Finally the pressure completely dissipated again and Eisen was able to relax for a moment. But that moment was quite brief, as soon enough the test continued.

[You started part (2/3) of the Ancient Gold Dragon’s first test]

Eisen looked at the dragon’s maw that was slowly opening up. Inside the seemingly infinite darkness of its throat, a few sparks started to appear, and fire formed inside. Immediately, Eisen knew that this was a sign that showed something that he really had to dodge was coming. And his intuition was right. From the Dragon’s mouth, flames shot outward toward Eisen. Luckily he was able to dodge, but Eisen knew that he would have died if he got hit by that attack.

But it wasn’t time for him to relax yet. So that Eisen could concentrate on dodging completely, he placed Caria into his backpack and grasped it tightly. The dragon exhaled through his nostrils and incredibly hot steam shot out, just before it opened its maw once more. From the last shot, Eisen knew that its head wouldn’t move when it was shooting out those flames, but would still follow him when he was moving.

So, Eisen waited for the dragon to shoot out its flames and then immediately dodged to the side as far away as he could. This time around, the flames took over a larger area than before, and seemed to be significantly hotter on top of that.

Eisen stood still and carefully looked at the Dragon, who once more released that hot steam from its nostrils and then opened its maw up again. Once the same sparks appeared in its throat, Eisen prepared to dodge, and immediately did so once he felt the heat of the flames approach.

When Eisen was sure that the current fire-beam was over, another notification suddenly popped up in his sight.

[You were able to defend against the Ancient Gold Dragon’s Fire-Breath (Weakened)]

[Congratulations! You passed part (2/3) of the Ancient Gold Dragon’s first test!]

"Two out of three, huh? Alright, then bring the last part!" Eisen chuckled and got in a stance to be ready for everything that the Dragon could throw at him.

[You started part (3/3) of the Ancient Gold Dragon’s first test]

The Ancient Creature looked at Eisen with a sharp gaze and pushed its knife-like teeth together. While Eisen was trying to figure out what was going on, a light-green mist poured out between the Dragon’s teeth and immediately filled out the whole area around Eisen, so quickly that he had no chance to respond.

But nothing was happening to Eisen, he felt completely normal. But then Eisen noticed a slight difference. The Zweihänder in his hands felt far, far heavier than usual, and Eisen was struggling to hold it properly. His skin slowly became brittle, and it was hard to move around. It was kind of as if a thin layer of rock grew on him. But it wasn’t anything too great yet.

Shortly after Eisen felt these effects, the mist dissipated and the Dragon was waiting for a reaction. Eisen slowly moved his arms around, and the layer of the rock-like substance shattered, which let him move around like normal once more.

Eisen could swear that what the Dragon did next was grin somewhat, but he wasn’t sure if he imagined it or not. Either way, soon, the Gold Dragon let out the next wave of the same gas, that once more immediately filled out the whole area around Eisen.

This time around, he felt significantly weaker, and his sword was slowly moving toward the ground since Eisen couldn’t hold it anymore. The rock layer on Eisen’s skin became harder and thicker this time, and made it incredibly hard for him to move.

After the gas disappeared again, Eisen closed his eyes and quickly tried to break out of this shell. It took more effort than before, but it was still relatively easy for him to do so. And now, judging from the last few parts of the test that Eisen didn’t even agree to taking, the last gas-attack would come at him, and it would be significantly stronger than the other two.

Eisen mentally prepared, and grasped his Zweihänder tightly. Sure, he could of course always use his ’A Giant’s Strength’ Skill, but to Eisen that felt kind of like cheating for some reason. So, Eisen took the gas on and felt himself turn basically into a statue as it became nearly impossible for him to move.

But once the last wave of the gas disappeared, Eisen’s body cracked and a grin formed on his face. He didn’t expect to feel this old and useless even in the game! With a soft chuckle, the layer on Eisen’s hands broke first as he grasped the hilt of his sword tightly and regained enough strength to hold it up.

With a slow slash of the sword onto the gold-coin covered floor, the rest of his body broke free, and Eisen looked up at the Dragons grinning face.

[You were able to defend against the Ancient Gold Dragon’s Weakening-Breath (Weakened)]

[Congratulations! You passed the Ancient Gold Dragon’s first test!]