Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

A stone door in the far wall opened with the dull scrape of shifting rock.

Priam took a deep breath and stepped forward. The moment he crossed the doorway, the structure came crashing down with a deafening boom, sealing the exit.

A new circular arena stretched out before him.

He barely had time to plant his feet before a chorus of savage roars shook the entire chamber.

A sinister crimson light flared up in the center of the arena, and a veritable tsunami of felines charged straight at him.

Monstrous lions, tigers, and leopards—thirty-two starving beasts charging in perfect unison, their eyes glowing like embers and their claws tearing through the stone bricks beneath them.

Priam reacted in the blink of an eye, channeling strength into his arm and throwing a devastating punch at the lion leading the charge.

However, before the blow could connect, an electric aura enveloped the beast.

Priam’s eyes widened.

That was cheating! It wasn’t relying on just its physical body!

In a split second, the lion simply vanished with the speed of lightning, reappearing dozens of meters away and leaving Priam’s punch to strike nothing but air.

Before he could even readjust his guard, an icy wind sliced across his back. A gigantic tiger emerged from his shadow, its jaws wide open just inches from his neck. The speed was surreal!

Without time to block, Priam activated the wind element throughout his body at full power.

In an emerald flash, he launched himself skyward as if he had teleported, narrowly escaping the attack.

He hovered several meters above the ground, his chest rising and falling as he stared at the pack below.

Unlike the Great Ape, whose greatest weapon was brute strength, these beasts relied on extreme speed empowered by elements and perfectly coordinated hunting tactics.

This was a completely different challenge. How was he supposed to overcome this while also earning a perfect score?

’The key is the previous reward!’ Priam realized.

Determined not to kill the creatures immediately with his overwhelming power, Priam used the wind freely to move among them.

While enduring the pack’s attacks, he observed their movements and meditated on the movement technique of the Divine Martial Art he had just acquired.

After half an hour of absorbing the style’s stances and footwork, he deliberately began reducing his use of the wind element, forcing his own body to gradually take over the evasive maneuvers.

The transition was brutal.

Without the wind’s speed to save him, the pack’s claws and fangs began reaching his flesh. Razor-sharp claws slashed across his chest, fangs tore into his arms, and powerful impacts hurled him from one side to the other.

The pain was excruciating. Even so, Priam didn’t allow Mirra to heal him.

”I’ll take this as punishment for failing.”

He wanted to feel every wound, every tear in his flesh. He used the suffocating pain as fuel to sharpen his senses to their absolute limit.

Bleeding from dozens of cuts, Priam kept dodging. Little by little, his eyes began deciphering the pack’s rhythm.

Despite their absurd speed and flashes of elemental movement, the beasts had strictly limited attack patterns. They were precise killing machines, but predictable. Once he identified their charging routes, the danger disappeared.

Priam reduced the wind element until he stopped using it completely.

Now, on the arena floor, covered in blood and surrounded by thirty-two deadly beasts, Priam moved using nothing but his physical body.

His body flowed between the claws like a shadow, executing the Emperor’s Steps. Every dodge was precise to the millimeter, every movement a flawless, instinctive reflex.

He was slowly carving the perfect memory of how to flow and move into his muscle fibers and meridians.

As time passed, the claws and fangs stopped hitting him altogether. Even so, he could still feel that he hadn’t achieved perfect mastery of the Martial Art.

That’s when Priam decided to take things one step further into madness: he stopped dodging by retreating to the arena’s edge. Instead, he began weaving through the beasts themselves, never leaving the heart of the crossfire.

He slipped through gaps no wider than a hair, threading between the jaws and swipes of all thirty-two beasts.

It was like dancing barefoot on the edge of a razor.

The danger level multiplied tenfold. The price for his audacity was immediate: sharp claws once again tore through his flesh, and blood poured out in streams. Even so, Priam clenched his jaw and continued.

He refused the relief. Becoming genuinely strong required merciless cruelty toward himself.

He lost count of how many times he was struck by claws or how many times his flesh was torn apart. His body had become a bloody mass of pain and open wounds.

However, that blood-forged training method proved to be terrifyingly effective.

Time flowed... until an entire hour had passed, and at that point, not even a single strand of Priam’s hair was being touched anymore.

Priam finally revealed a wide smile and allowed Mirra’s nature energy to close his wounds in the blink of an eye.

”Thank you very much, everyone,” Priam said, cracking his neck. ”I’m sorry for doing this after all the effort you put into training me... but the show must go on!”

In the blink of an eye, he shot across the battlefield like a ghost.

He used nothing except the body mechanics he had just assimilated.

Compared to before entering this place, merely through the structure of his muscles and tendons, his pure movements were at least five times more agile, and his reaction speed had become incredibly sharper.

Then, when he combined his physical mastery with his Elemental Physique and fought seriously... his power would become even more terrifying.

*BANG! BANG! BANG!*

Every thrust of his fists made the air explode, crushing the skulls of the monstrous felines as if they were made of glass.

Within seconds, the massacre ended. The arena fell into absolute silence, leaving only an ecstatic Priam standing at the center of the chamber.

’Yeeeeh’

Mirra roared internally.

Priam took a deep breath. At the beginning, he had needed to rely on the wind element to survive; however, he used it as an anvil to forge his body, and in the end, he overcame the challenge using his own body strictly.

Congratulations on your victory.

Your learning ability was remarkable.

Score: 100/100

Reward: Divine Martial Art — Emperor’s Fists

Priam smiled, his eyes sparkling with excitement. First, he obtained a Martial Art focused on mobility; now he had gained something clearly aimed at offense. This temple was truly incredible.