After realizing the potential of combining the feather and the leaf into something stronger, Vicente waited for his companions to recover before sharing his thoughts with Victor and Elmo.",

They agreed that there seemed to be a connection between the leaf and the feather, and that perhaps the next challenge prize on its way would also be compatible with these magical artifacts.

They decided to test it later when they completed the following challenges, which didn't give them much time to talk or prepare.

After 10 minutes on top of the mountain, the barrier moved again behind them and came very close to them, forcing them to move on.

They continued down the mountain until they reached a rocky area that resembled a labyrinth.

A barrier appeared on the "roof" of the area, at the level of the rocks in the area, showing to the group that their next challenge was to pass through this area.

They moved on, trying to gather their strength to find their way to the end of the maze, but right at the beginning of their journey, they would face walls spewing fire, flames rising from the ground, and hidden traps.

The dead ends would be the group's worst challenge, with extremely agile and fast fire golems waiting to terrorize them.

In the first moment of the challenge, the party would suffer, being surprised by many traps and encountering several dead ends. But after an hour of working their way through it, Minos and Elmo combined their powers to better understand the area and the right way to follow.

They would go through yet another of the challenges left by the dragons in this border area, and would come even closer to death in this challenge than in the previous trials.

At the end of the maze, Elmo would find a magical jewel that would help him recover and become stronger, in his case by giving him resistance to fire, similar to what had happened with Vicente and Victor.

After completing the third challenge, they had 20 minutes to rest when the area's special barrier moved again, forcing them to move on, this time to a large river that ran through the area.

But this was no ordinary river. Aside from the dangerous water creatures that each of them sensed when they encountered it, this was no ordinary water. As the creation of an ice dragon, this point on their journey would test their resistance to the ice.

With ice creatures that would attack anyone who attempted to cross this river, this journey, though seemingly simple, was perhaps the cruelest and most difficult of their journey so far.

Forced by the approaching barrier to cross the 200 yards of river before them, the group improvised a boat of wood and metal before taking on the challenge.

They were all stronger than when they began their journey through the Dragon Tribe's territory, so the many problems on this river didn't frighten them at first.

But as they progressed through it, they would feel the terror of the low temperatures, and Elmo would lose one of his armscompletely frozen by the enemies' attacksand Vicente would have all of his metals frozen, greatly hindering him in this journey .

Even by fusing his strength with Torne's and using potions to increase his power during the battle, Vicente could only protect himself all the way.

Fortunately, although Elmo and Victor suffered during the crossing, the two of them could join forces and withstand the ice enemies together.

Even so, they experienced the worst pain they had ever felt in their lives, with Elmo and Victor nearly freezing to death at the end of the journey.

The shadows of Vicente's darkness helped him a bit by repelling the elements associated with the characteristics of this Ice Dragon River.

On the other side of the river, a crystallized dragon's claw was waiting for them to collect, something capable of freezing any liquid.

Getting his hands on this artifact, the young Fuller helped his two companions, giving them a chance to regenerate quickly, with their body temperatures returning to normal.

Using his subatomic manipulation skills with cardiological control, Vicente helped them to rebuild their lost limbs and restore the mana in their bodies.

Even though they didn't get the precious dragon claw for themselves, they both felt their strength improve after being pushed to the limit in the Ice Dragon River, and both of them gained some cold resistance.

Vicente benefited the most of the three, something Victor and Elmo wanted since he was the weakest and also the one with the most potential for growth.

If they became stronger, little would change on the continent. Opportunities would hardly bring them to the level of Advanced Archmage. But Vicente, being only a Mid-level Paragon, could easily rise to the level of a Beginner Archmage with such excellent opportunities coming his way!

Neither of them had expected Vicente to achieve this in the Dragon Tribe, but they had hoped that he would be able to do so at the end of their pentagram hunt and a few victories against the vampires.

Once again, Vicente felt his powers improve a little more, gaining a new elemental affinity, something he would not fully understand until he had completed the challenges on their path.

As soon as he recovered, he joined the dragon's claw to the three artifacts his group had collected and assembled so far.

They seemed to be putting together something quite powerful and with many possibilities, but without having much chance to test it or even improve it, they were forced to continue with the challenges.

By their reckoning, they had already gone through more than half of the trials they would have to go through when they were forced into a huge tunnel that seemed to lead to the end point of this journey.

In this challenge, they would once again have to find the heart of the trap, find the crystal of darkness, and use it to gain access to the other side of the tunnel.

Meanwhile, they would be assaulted by mental attacks designed to lead them to illusions, hidden traps, and creatures of darkness.

But since Vicente was the lord of darkness, this would be less of a challenge for him, although it was certainly very dangerous for Elmo and Victor.

At the end of half an hour in this dark area, he would reach the special crystal that would complete the amulet of five magical fragments!