Way of the Knights

---

[Devil Emperor's Pagoda - 1st Floor]

Advancement requirements:

1.) Search for a lucky chance.

2.) Search for clues about the irregularity of the first floor. 

It is this information that suddenly appeared on Raven's mind without any warnings. Just like what Elder Abe informed them earlier, all participants will naturally know what are the methods to advance once they entered the pagoda. 

"Search for a lucky chance and search for clues huh?" Raven muttered to himself, "It sounds simple but I shouldn't drop my guard down. Who knows what kind of nasty surprises this pagoda has in store for me. Now then, where shall I start?"

He then started looking around him. As he's in the middle of the wilderness, there's too many things that are covering his view even with his ocular technique active. Due to this, Raven's first thought was to search for an elevated space where his vision could expand freely. 

Raven's gaze automatically went towards the mountain peak. As soon as his gaze landed on it, Raven didn't hesitate to go over there as quickly as he can. Thankfully, there was a mountain nearby that satisfy his needs. 

He arrived at the foot of the mountain in no time, due to his recent improvements, Raven's speed was nothing to scoff at even though he wasn't using his Spacetime Laws to travel. 

As soon as he took his first step onto the mountain, Raven suddenly had a feeling that something changed just now. He can't put a finger on if but he knew that something felt off. Although it was a vague feeling, it gave him an impression that the mountain transformed the moment he entered its territory. 

He decided to ignore this at fist as he took a couple of steps forward, but as soon he reached quarter of the way through the mountain, he suddenly felt a rumbling beneath his feet. 

This caused him to stop on his tracks and frown. He had his ocular technique active which allowed him to inspect his surroundings in a much closer and detailed manner. The fluctuations on his surroundings were visible to him as well. 

All of a sudden, sharp shards of earth started flying towards him from below. The projectile were swift and also came in all directions. Silently taking out the Archaic Thousand Armed Deity Wheel, he controlled two hands to encase his whole body to defend against the sudden attack.

While others might think that this took a lot of time, in reality, everything happened within the blink of an eye. Thankfully the shards weren't strong enough to break his defenses, allowing him to be unharmed by volume of sharp projectiles coming his way. 

Raven raised his vigilance and surveyed his surroundings even closer, trying to find out whether the attack was orchestrated by someone or from the mountain itself.

He kept searching as he slowly made his way to the peak, yet he couldn't see anyone who could possibly control the earth and attack him. The only living being within 10 miles around him was only him. Which means that it was the mountain itself who's doing this. 

This situation was quite strange, he amounted it to the so called 'irregularity' of the first floor itself, unfortunately this doesn't really give him much information at all. 

'Its either that mountain itself has consciousness or there's something else going on here that I cannot see or aware of. Anyway, I'll try to see what's going on with this mountain. Maybe I'll get more information at the peak.' Raven thought inwardly as he hastened his steps. 

Raven continued climbing the mountain but as soon as he reached the halfway mark, he was attacked once again but this time it was stronger. From shards of rocks, it turned into deadly spikes. The projectiles were faster and carried more penetrative force, causing the arms surrounding him to visibly crack. 

This caused his pace to slow down which made him frown, Raven then added another pair of arms to surround himself with, superseding the with ones he had set up earlier. Doing this caused his defense to be bolstered enough to ignore the unending spikes of earth coming his way, allowing him to resume his quick pace. action

This trick is something that Raven unintentionally learned during the ceaseless massacre on the third trial. So far, Raven could only control 150 arms on the Archaic Thousand Armed Deity Wheel. Each arm carried a terrifying force which he could use to ceaseless bombard his enemies with, and so long as he wants to, the wheel would be hidden. 

That being said, controlling all 150 arms are still too much even for the current him. It would his whole concentration to do so, so much so that he won't be able to move once he get to that point. Additionally, each arm is closely connected to him. Which means that if an arm was destroyed, then he'll be injured as well. To top this all off, it would need him time and a good chunk of his Cosmic Force to condense the destroyed arm/s once more. 

In order to prevent him from losing an arm from the wheel, he unconsciously learned a certain trick. Later on, he realized that he could actually stack multiple arms to strengthen them. It all came naturally to him since when he learned it, he was experiencing a special condition. Unfortunately, he still need to train if even more since he could only stack five arms in one go for now. Plus, he also had to deal with the burden of each arm stacking together, which means that he'll feel the weight of each arm pressing down on him as well, causing his speed to slow down. 

Needless to say, even if he could only stack five arms for now, that's already plenty enough. 

Raven then continued making his way to the peak under the assault of earthen spikes. He kept his vigilance at the maximum since he could feel even more rumbling beneath his feet. 

Few miles away from the peak, the rumbling intensified even more. Something happened which caused Raven to stop on his tracks. 

Boulders started condensing around him, each boulder was seemingly being lifted by an invisible force. Each piece started forming a humanoid shape which was, at minimum, fifteen meters tall. 

'A golem?' Raven became alert. Several invisible arms manifested and was already aimed at the humanoid. 

A bright yellow light suddenly glowed where the eyes of golem were. The rumbling of the mountain intensified. Smaller rocks started floating around golem. The golem itself was emanating a strong pressure. From his initial measurements, this pressure was something equivalent to a human who reached Lord Knight in cultivation. 

'This thing is dangerous. Its two realms above me.' Raven's face became even more somber. 

He watched as the golem looked down and stare at him. It then lowered its posture to look at him closely, saying:

"Human! What is a human doing here in our Sacred Mountain?" The deep voice of the golem rumbled across the mountain and on Raven's ears.

'Devil's Language? How in world could a golem learn the language of the Devils? Something's off here?' 

Raven had met golems before during his previous life, he even befriended some and killed some. From what he understood on his time with them, golems aren't necessarily one of the brightest creatures. 

They are relatively simple minded and peaceful. Teaching them something, even the most basic tasks, will prove to be extremely challenging. And from what he knew, all golems understood the Elven Language, not the Devil Language. Which makes this encounter really surprising for Raven since he knew that it's nearly impossible for a golem to learn another language throughout its life. 

'Furthermore, this golem is young. Golems doesn't follow a specific kind of cultivation path, all they need to do is to exist and they'll naturally get stronger. At it's birth, golems are already comparable to Silver Knights. This guy's power is equivalent to a Lord Knight. Which means that its at least 150 years old, which is considered as a child to the Golem Race!'

"Pardon my intrusion." Raven stated politely, "I merely am trying to reach the peak in order to get a clearer view of the place I am in."

A grimace was present on Raven's face as he spoke using Devil's Language. This sort of reaction was natural, the language of the devils contained strange syllables and effects that could cause anyone who's unused to it, feel uncomfortable speaking it.

"Oh? Human could understand me? Good!" The golem praised as the light on its eyes curved as if it was smiling. "But human, this is our Sacred Mountain. I don't know what happened to the rest of humans but they aren't here."

This caused Raven to frown. He couldn't help but to think why this golem assumed that he's looking for other humans as well. He didn't say anything about searching for humans when he answered earlier, he said that he just wanted look around using a higher vantage point.

"Uh, I'm actually not looking for humans..." Before Raven could even continue, the Golem already interrupted him. 

"Ah! You must be asking for an audience with our Lord and Savior right?"

"Your what now?"