Ever since Zephyr almost got killed by the photon worm bombardment in the sea of ash, he had been thinking of methods that could help him deal with laser beam attacks.

Laser beam attacks were as fast as light, and even if the photon worms were not exactly as fast as light, they were quite close to the speed of light nonetheless.

Zephyr knew human capabilities and movement speed had their limits, and there was no way he was going to react and fight at a speed faster than light itself, at least not anytime soon.

For now, he had to think of a method, a skill, or a technique that could help him deal with these laser attacks.

Being passively beaten by lasers didn’t suit him.

Even though he was tanky enough to withstand a few attacks and survive, it was better to find a more effective solution against the lasers.

But of course, fighting laser beams was not an easy task; thus, despite already being in this world for almost six days, Zephyr had no proper defensive idea against it. That was until he awakened his mana.

Once Zephyr awakened his mana, everything changed.

With mana awakening came wind and space elemental affinities!

These two affinities opened countless possibilities for him, and after seeing the laser attack of the spider boss monster, Zephyr finally had a new realization, and he managed to come up with a new attack of his own!

[Shattered Firmament Martial Art: Space Type: Reality Bender!]

Like pulling a curtain downwards, Zephyr stretched the space-time fabric downwards with his hand and bent the incoming laser attack, causing it to be deflected back to the spider monster!

*SHIIIMMM!!!*

The laser beam hit the spider monster in the abdomen and created a massive hole in its body!

Dark black blood and slimy substances started to spill out of the monster’s body as it screeched loudly in pain!

*SHRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAA!!!!*

The spider staggered back from pain and stopped bombarding the area with its laser beams in panic as if worried that Zephyr would use its laser beams to attack again.

But the monster didn’t know that stopping its attack because of pain right now was its biggest mistake.

It was a momentary flaw, but Zephyr, who had perfect combat sense, could easily sense such a flaw, and with his quick-witted nature, he was never going to waste such a golden opportunity!

He brought out a cotton ball that he had made earlier, set it on fire using the torch, and launched the ball straight onto the monster’s injury!

*BOOOM!!* *SIZZZLEEE!!* *SIZZLLEE!*

The acidic, poisonous, and highly flammable blood of the spider monstrosity instantly ignited the moment it came in contact with fire, causing a massive explosion that ruptured the spider monster’s abdomen and a major portion of its body from inside out!

"How to deal with spiders? Just burn the d*mn creature!"

Broken pieces of the monster’s body flew in all directions as its slimy innards splattered all over the shiny floor, and its burning blood caused the entire area to be covered in flames!

Seeing this scene, Zephyr suddenly felt that burning the monster might have been a bit too wasteful; he should have extracted its blood, as it could be used like kerosene to ignite fires whenever he needed to cook food.

’Err, I don’t really have any containers so I might not be able to take the blood back anyway...’

The only container he had was a small pot with a lid on its mouth, and it was supposed to carry water in it.

Zephyr had brought it with him along with the cotton and those tissue papers.

Zephyr needed to keep himself in a combat-ready state, as he didn’t trust Xinran much; that’s why he was only carrying such a small pot with him, as having a bigger one would restrict his movements and the risk of it breaking would increase.

’Man~ I want a storage ring desperately right now! Let’s hope that I can get one from the lottery pull, sigh...’

Just when Zephyr was lamenting over the fact that he didn’t have proper equipment at hand, the stupid sparrow shouted at the top of its lungs,

"Congratulations, Challenger! You have successfully completed the ’Stairs of Despair’ Trial and have become the third person to complete this stage of the trial!"

"Please proceed to the next trial area now."

With that said, the stupid bird vanished into thin air as if it never existed in the first place.

The walls of the hall that had disappeared before for the battle reappeared as the path forward opened.

And it turned out that path forward was actually the same staircase that he had used to ascend to this hall.

’Tch, now I need to go down using the same stair? This place is so confusing and dis-orienting...’

Shaking his head in helplessness, Zephyr took the torch, and this time the torch came out of the holder pretty easily, as if it were never stuck in the first place.

Carrying the torch, Zephyr made his way downstairs once again.

"Sigh, the stupid bird said that I have cleared the ’Stairs of Despair’ part of the trial; that means there are more parts still left to be cleared..."

"I must be the only person in the world that had to clear such demanding trials just for the sake of a glass of water... Why am I so unlucky..."

"I just hope that this trial is worth it... if I ended up finding nothing at the end of this, I might go crazy on the spot."

Zephyr had a nagging feeling that with how bad the personality of the creator of the trial was, it was very likely that whatever was waiting for him at the end of it was not just a simple basement filled with water.

There was likely more to this than Xinran had told him about.

’Come to think of it... she did mention killing the spiders, and also mentioned not losing myself to miasma... was she trying to give me hints about this trial or was she holding back information on purpose?’

Zephyr didn’t know what Xinran was thinking and what her motives were for sending him in such a place, but at least this decision of hers had led him to awaken his mana.

So, he could at least complete the trial before making any judgements on whether she was plotting against him or was wishing him well.