After Vaan stored the bottle of blood essence inside his Heaven-Swallowing Space, he entered the lava pool and continued with his body tempering.
The Fire Dragon God's blood essences contained unbelievable power and benefits, but the means to acquire them were limited.
Considering the Fire Dragon God Bloodline would also interfere with his Immortal Lycan Bloodline, it was better to save the Fire Dragon God's blood essence for when he hit a bottleneck.
That said, the bottle of blood essence did not go to Vaan unnoticed.
The second stage had over three dozen Rank 4 True Dragons, and they were particularly sensitive to the Fire Dragon God's bloodline.
As such, they noticed Vaan's bottle contained more than just a single drop of the Fire Dragon God's blood essence.
Although they didn't know how Vaan acquired more blood essence, they all revealed covetous gazes.
They were the true descendants of the Fire Dragon God. Thus, logically, only they can fully use the Fire Dragon God's blood essence.
How can they leave the precious blood essence of the Fire Dragon God in the hands of a human and let the person waste it?
Over a dozen Rank 4 True Dragons of the Red Dragon Clan were quickly consumed by greed and wickedness.
They thought it would be easy to steal the Fire Dragon God's blood essence from Vaan.
However, they were immediately disqualified from the trial the moment they decided to approach Vaan with ill intentions.
[Offsprings of Kyrsiss, Joranth, Nendrunty, Qierdor, Brembit, Teoryna…!]
[Henceforth, your trial qualifications have been revoked. You are all forbidden from entering the Trial by Fire again. Leave now!]
[If you fail to comply, your bodies and sins shall be purified by the divine flames!]
The Quasi-Divine Fire Spirit easily listed over a dozen names, shaking the second trial regions with its mighty voice.
The dozen-odd Rank 4 True Dragons immediately woke up from their greed with shock, fear, and regret and left the Trial by Fire without a complaint.
They did not doubt the Lord Fire Spirit's words nor its capabilities.
After all, it was the most powerful existence in the Red Dragon Clan, second only to the late Fire Dragon God.
Meanwhile, the other two dozen dragons remaining in the second trial region felt cold shivers run up their spines.
Luckily, they had more self-control. Otherwise, they would have all ended up in the same situation.
Even so, it was crazy how easily they could lose themselves at the sight of the Fire Dragon God's blood essence.
It was clear that they lacked spiritual training.
Meanwhile, Vaan continued to train his body inside the lava pool wholeheartedly. He didn't need to keep both eyes open to understand the situation in his surroundings.
'Interesting,' Vaan thought.
Although he had expected the Quasi-Divine Fire Spirit to act whenever a problem appeared in the trial, he was still surprised to see it act so swiftly.
The banished dragons did not even manage to get close to him. No, they didn't even take a second step before the Quasi-Divine Fire Spirit interfered.
As such, Vaan grasped a better understanding of the Trial by Fire.
The moment they act on their impulse to harm other challengers, they will immediately lose their qualifications to challenge the Trial by Fire.
'The Trial by Fire is a great training ground, but it is ultimately a place to find the successor to the Fire Dragon God. And from what I've comprehended in the first stage, the successor must be diligent,' Vaan mused.
Seeking shortcuts at the cost of others was the quickest way to lose one's trial qualifications.
'However, diligence alone isn't enough to become the Fire Dragon God's successor. Talent is ultimately still more important,' Vaan thought.
If one had talent but no diligence, they could at least achieve something in the Trial by Fire. On the other hand, no diligence would be enough to clear the trial if one lacked talent.
It had taken him a whole week to pass the first stage perfectly. But while this might not seem very impressive and complicated, very few could actually replicate his feat.
After all, without his talent, others would take much longer than a mere week to temper their bodies to the absolute limit permissible by the first stage.
Vaan wouldn't even find it surprising if the dragons had to take up to three months to achieve the same feat in the first stage.
That said, it was still weird that the dragons hadn't figured out the Trial by Fire's conditions. After all, they weren't stupid.
'The dragon lords would have at least figured out the perfect clear condition in the later stages. It is also likely that they have already gone back to the previous stage to achieve perfect clears after realizing,' Vaan thought.
And yet, there was no information about it. Narvim and Khaleesi didn't inform him either.
'That means… Trial challengers aren't allowed to share the information because it's considered helping other challengers in the trial,' Vaan guessed.
The one giving information would be disqualified, but there's a chance that the one receiving the information would also be disqualified.
Nevertheless, Vaan didn't dwell on the matter. He didn't plan on helping or receiving help from anyone. Thus, it had nothing to do with him.
He only needed to rely on himself.
It took three hours before Vaan was notified.
The effects of tempering the body in the second stage's lava pool were evidently more potent than in the first stage.
Not only did it take a short time to raise his fire affinity, but his physical improvement was also greater.
His subsequent notification came after an extra six hours of tempering.
After that, it took another twelve hours for Vaan to reach 68% fire affinity.
Before long, an entire day went by since Vaan started tempering his body in the second trial region.
Although the remaining Rank 4 True Dragons didn't look for trouble, they became very conscious of Vaan's presence.
At the same time, they didn't want to leave before he did.