Rise Of The Dragon Emperor

79 The Cave Of Penance



Ronan had heaven defying talents , Ronan had one of the strongest elemental affinity and Ronan had a formidable background. However Ronan was not the luckiest out there , he was no chosen son of Providence.

His life riddled with struggles , only in his early years did Ronan live a carefree life. Ever since he turned 3 and a half and started training , his life was a uphill journey of struggles with hardships only increasing the older he grew.

However at the most critical moment in his life , as he teethered into an area of emotional instability , he encountered a once in a lifetime opportunity as he entered the legendary cave of penance and hardships.

Created by the god of hardships and struggle ‘VishvaKarma ‘ , it was a mysterious place that changed its entrance every 10 minutes making it so that only the fated could enter this cave.

Once one entered they were given the opportunity to stay in the cave and suffer hardships and for every 3 months that they managed to stay inside the cave they were given a reward of their choosing.

It could be said that fate was smiling on Ronan to give him such an opportunity to enter the cave when he had nowhere to go to , as when the spiritual senses of the three balancers washed over Ronan inside the cave , an ancient and godly voice told them to ‘ F*** *** ‘.

Ronan was baffled once he entered the cave , as contrary to the stone like flooring , he walked on white marble and when he looked around he was in an all white place where everything was plain white and devoid of all color.

A white building stood infront of him , A white horse was out by the stables and shockingly even his own clothes had turned to pure white robes as a dignified man with long oiled hair and extremely handsome face looked at him wearing the same white robes.

The man said ” I am Vishvakarma , the god of hardships and sufferings and i welcome you fated one to my cave of sufferings..

This is a place where only the fated can enter , however you can exit anytime you wish . The place does not forbid you from leaving. However if you chose to stay , you can suffer and recieve rewards proportional to your suffering .

Currently there are 4 distinguished gentlemen living inside this cave and should you chose to stay for 3 months you can be the fifth.

However let me tell you in advance , life here will be full of sufferings. Should you chose to stay , you will have to sacrifice one of your senses or one of your mental abilities to me as rent for staying here.

For every three months that you survive here , i will take one additional sense from you and the rewards would increase in proportion.

The maximum you can stay is 36 months , but you are free to leave anytime before that.

So tell me o fated one , will you chose to stay? “.

Ronan was overwhelmed . He was already emotionally imbalanced and did not have the ability to think straight , however this made him immune to the intimidation of facing a god.

To Ronan vishvakarma looked no different from an ordinary man , but when he tried to probe his strength what he could see was a bottomless ocean .

It was completely different from any man he had seen , as even the strength of the strongest balancer looked like a massive lake at best , however the god was different.

Stuttering Ronan said ” I have nowhere to go. My master told me to go home , but i know that I am a bearer of trouble and should I go home i will bring my troubles back to my family.

For that reason I cannot go… However can I please send a message to my mother that I am fine first?

Should I not send her a letter for the duration of my stay here ,she would worry needlessly “.

Ronan cared for Sierra deeply and it was shown in this exact moment as to how much he cared for her , as broken to the limits he still cared more about his family than himself.

Vishvakarma smiled as he blessed Ronan ‘ Ayushman Bhava ‘. [ May you be blessed with long life ]

However he said ” Your devotion to family is admirable , however you are free to go and send a letter to your mother fated one , but once you leave you cannot come back.

It is regretful , but it is the way … “.

Ronan felt conflicted for a moment , but when he imagined the crying face of Sierra and grandmother Luna , he knew that he could not let his family suffer like that , as he decisively bowed and turned to leave.

” Wait …. “. Vishvakarma said as he raised his own eyebrow.

Ronan turned and vishvakarma said ” You can learn ancient movement skills , Learn alchemy , Learn blacksmithing , Learn high rated martial arts , you can Level up 5 times every 3 months , you can gain strength , you can learn from a library of spells not found on the mortal world , yet you chose to leave without trying ? “.

Vishvakarma had never seen a fated one walk in and walk out without even trying for 3 months.

The cave of sufferings was his home and he seldom left it . He let mortals in and gave them the opportunity to polish themselves through sufferings , however ever since the start of humanity the total number of humans who could stay for the entire 36 months were only 21 , but those to walk out without staying even a month were 0 .

Hence Vishvakarma found Ronan to be extremely odd as he said ” If you want , i will trade your first 3 month reward as a letter to your family .. “.

Vishvakarma was a god , he did not need to appease a mortal , however he still went to such lengths for Ronan as a mysterious force compelled him into doing so.

That force was fate …. Ronan was fated to be in this place , and hence fate played it’s tricks to manipulate vishvakarma into cutting a deal with Ronan.

Accepting graciously Ronan thanked the god as he accepted that it would be fine to write to his mother in 3 months time . Even though he would be 2 months late on his due letter date , it was all there would be to it.

Vishvakarma said ” There are five senses you can give up for the toll to stay the first three months … Touch , Smell ,Taste , Vision , Sound , Chose wisely “.

Ronan thought for a while before choosing to give up the sense of taste , as he entered the white building inside the cave of suffering.

Although Ronan entered voluntarily , he had no idea about the amount of psychological pressure he was about to undergo as the pitch white walls and the constant loss of senses would soon start to cause unbearable pyschological torture to the boy.

Finding his new quarters , Ronan crashed on the white bed and closed his eyes … finally giving into the despair of loosing his sensei as all he gave in to the voice in his head , losing control over his body.

*****

( meanwhile in Avalon )

Pretending to be chirpy and courteous Maddy hopped on happily around Avalonian palace as she craftily searched for the kitchen.

Maddy was given the mission to poison Augustus , however it had not been easy at all.

She was internally disgusted by the clingy first prince of Avalon , as although she genuinely liked his looks and his charisma , overtime he turned from a charming prince to a complete slave as he was like a obedient dog to all her whims and wishes.

The worse part was that she had to pretend to be in love with him and had to spend her time daily trying to keep his mood uplifted by giving him a sense of approval and security by filling his head with fake praises and lies.

With Percy being clingy , he did not leave her alone for even 8 hours in the night , as it had became exhausting for her with every week that passed.

Even right now the only reason she had found time to wander alone was because Percy had to go meet an important official that had visited from another country and in the absence of Alexander , him and Augustus had to greet him.

This provided her with an opportunity to poison Augustus’s food.

Her presence around the palace over the last few months had given her the ability to walk past guards without having suspicious eyes over her back . As with it being public knowledge that she was Percy’s love interest everyone except the Draco family was courteous to her.

Locating the kitchen she saw the plates being filled with food …. the only question now was , how to poison it ?

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