---


    "Ooh! So hot! Are we in hell?" Logan groaned at the sudden heat wave that assaulted them.


    The team is currently on the move when all of a sudden, the climate changed. Of course, Raven sensed it first due to his sensitivity of Spacetime Laws however he didn''t say anything about it just like what he had been doing ever since.


    Now, it would seem that they are transported in a ce where Mount Olympus is at a very hot ce. The heat was quite abnormal that it actually feels hotter herepared to Asphodel. It was as if they were mere miles away from the sun due to how hot it is here.


    It didn''t take long before they were drenched in sweat and could feel their mouth''s parched. They were being dehydrated pretty quickly here. And as usual, this climate isn''t normal since it affects them.


    "Hold on, I got us covered." Sensing that it''s getting a little bit hard for them to breathe, Raven was immediately to the rescue.


    Taking out the Brush of Wisdom, he drew a rune in the air. Although it only took him a single swipe to draw the rune, the truth is that this simple rune isposed of numerous runes which wasbined into one, thus greatly amplifying it''s effect.


    The rune ended up spelling the word ''Cold''. As soon as it manifested, it started functioning by converting the heat around them into cold breeze of winds that brought greatfort to their bodies.


    Everyone heaved a sigh of relief at thefortable feeling. Again, with just a single move, Raven nullified the harsh weather they are in. With him around, it doesn''t matter how many times the climate changes at all. He could just lift up his brush and nullify it''s effectspletely.


    "Much better." Henry smiled as he cast an appreciative nce at Raven.


    Indeed, if feels much better to move around without worrying about the scalding heat. Now that that''s done, they could move on with their journey.


    "I wonder how far we are to the next trial gate?" Theo voiced out his concerns. "We''ve been walking forward for nearly a month now, aren''t we? Yet the trial gate is still nowhere to be seen."


    "We should be pretty close." Charles replied, "I doubt that there will be any changes to the pattern at this point of the hike."


    "It would be good if that''s the case." Theo said, "Let''s continue then."


    Everyone nodded and continued on with the hike.


    As they moved forward, Raven couldn''t help but to pay attention to the road they are taking. He noticed something about it before but now that they''vee to this point, the difference was just too obvious.


    "The road really shrank huh?" Raven subconsciously said out loud, causing the War Gods to pay attention.


    They all looked down and thought for a bit before eventually noticing that the road indeed narrowed down. Before, it was extremely wide. They could pretty much do anything without worrying about that they''ll fall down.


    Now however, it shrank drastically that they have to consider their movement since it''s quite possible that they will fall.


    "Huh, how did we miss such a thing?" Logan mumbled.


    "Maybe it''s because we''re too focused on clearing the trials that our attentions were pulled out of it." Henry replied, "But yeah, we now have to pay attention to this. I bet that this road will continue to shrink down the closer we are at the peak."


    "I mean, if you think of it closely. It would make sense for it to shrink down right?" Theo said.


    "You must also consider the sheer size of Mount Olympus, before you say that." Charles retorted. "Yes, it does make sense for the road to shrink but Mount Olympus is too damn big that even if the road does shrink down, it shouldn''t be this much."


    "The road wasn''t big to begin with." Raven said, "If we look back on the time when we were still at the bottom, the road should be at least ten timesrger than what we seen since we are climbing Mount Olympus. Yet it''s only a bitrgerpared to the rest."


    "I guess Henry is right then." Theo replied, "We must''ve been to focused on the trials that wepletely missed out on such a small detail."


    "Anyways, it''s not like discussing this can change anything." Henry said, "Let''s just move on, I wanna arrive at the Trial Gate as soon as possible."


    The team agreed with that and continued moving forward. As for Raven, he too dropped the matter all along since it won''t be of much use anyway.


    The road shrank, yes. But, so what? It''s not like they could do anything about it. All they truly do is to rise up to the challenge. They can''t make the road bigger, nor they could make it so that the climate will always remain pleasant. What they could do is to just move forward and do their best to reach the peak of the mountain.


    After travelling for another three days, resting in between, the team eventually made it to the area where the trial gate appeared.


    This is the 1st Trial they''ll encounter on the way to the 7th Checkpoint.


    "Alright, this is it." Charles said, "We''re going to enter. As usual, we''ll be in you care once we got out Raven."


    "Sure thing." Raven nodded as he started making preparations as well.


    "Hopefully we get lucky." Theo murmured just before they entered the trial gate.


    "Yeah, I sure do hope so as well." Henry added as the four of them were engulfed by the blinding light that the trial gate was emitting.


    Once the light dimmed down, the Trial Gate closed down and remained in there, floating in silence.


    Raven was left alone yet again. He didn''t waste anytime and began setting up the tools he needed. He erected the formation, set up the tents and sleeping bags, and also started making food.


    "Hmm?" Raven frowned as he felt something strange around him.


    He stood up and inspected the surroundings. A rainbow colored light blossomed from his pupils as he activated his ocr technique. Once his vision was improved, his pupils constricted for a bit once he saw that aside from him, there are other creatures around oozing with ill intentions.


    "Smanders!? Adult ones at that? Howe?"


    Indeed, Raven saw numerous over-grown lizards crawling about towards him. It was as if they could see him through the formation. He roughly counted at least 20 of them here. Each one was at least twenty meters long.


    Their scales were literally on fire, their reptilian pupils were ring at Raven as they wed at the formation separating Raven from their group.


    Raven had a look around and saw that the Smanders came from above. They didn''t fall, instead they were perched at the surface of the mountain to begin with. He didn''t know why none of them noticed their presence but for some reason, here they were.


    *Shing!*


    "Oh, shit! I got so distracted that I almost forgot that they are attacking the formation!" Raven was rmed. "Although I don''t know how, it''s quite obvious that these lizards are here and wants me."


    "Very well. I guess we''re having a Smander feastter." Raven snorted as he immediately released his Destruction Domain, suppressing every Smander around him.


    The adult Smanders froze as they felt the heavy suppression, but that alone wasn''t enough topletely stop them. Far from it actually.


    Raven also knows that and have no ns on stopping there either. He took out the Brush of Wisdom and began drawing lines which then turned into enormous spears which converged above the Smanders.


    Waving the brush down, the enormous spears of light descended, smiting the Smanders around him. The zing scales of the Smanders were indeed tough but the spears easily punctured their bodies, causing them to shriek miserably.


    Some Smanders died on the spot, while others were severely injured. Raven could still see some Smanders climbing down from the surface of the mountain so he didn''t stop his onught at all.


    Raven, even without stepping out of the formation, managed to clear waves of adult Smanders on his own. Judging from the amount of corpses around him, he in at least 50 adult Smanders just like that. It didn''t take him long either.


    Even then, Raven was still wary.


    As he fixed the damages inflicted by the Smanders at the Formation, he also modified it while he''s at it. He added a bunch of new runes which serves more functions for the formation. In short, Raven no longer have to be worried about being seen by any enemies as long as he stayed inside. He also fortified it''s toughness massively, and even added a function where it couldunch a counter-attack upon reaching a certain threshold.


    After doing all of this and making sure that there are no other Smanders around, he went out and began harvesting the corpses of the Smanders. Using some runes, he sealed them and froze the carcasses in order to preserve. Once he''s done, he patted his hands in satisfaction.


    *Sniff* *Sniff*


    "Oh shit! The food''s burning! Argh!"