Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sudden movement to his right shot his spear downward, only to miss the scaly blur as it slithered up his leg under his robe. He glanced inside to find the small snake with even more cards packed in its mouth. So much so that it had to extend its jaw just to fit them all.

Once it deposited its growing horde in its chosen pocket on Arden’s left side opposite his quiver, it slithered up and coiled atop his head and stilled. Like before, it released a poisonous aura now noticeably more potent, alluding to where it went.

No wonder the snake slithered off. Once it realized it could enter the trials, it probably conquered the poison trial. Based on its growing horde of cards, it was successful, though it could’ve hunted on its way. Who knew what the snake was up to.

Even with the snake warding off most threats based on his scans, he remained on guard. Just because many creatures backed off, that didn’t mean all of them would.

Fortunately, none of those creatures attacked by the time they reached the next clearing, which Arden assumed was the biological trial.

Now that he paid attention, he spotted several tells beyond the aura given off by the hut above. The surrounding plants gave off an odd mix of sterile and warmth. He wasn’t sure if it was his mana sense or his mundane senses that gave him the feeling as everything felt muddled together.

The environment summoned flashbacks to the few times his parents brought him to a healer. His eyes scanned the surrounding plants, curious about what their effects may be. It would be stupid to grab plants at random, but maybe once he wasn’t on a timer, he could investigate further.

Arden pushed away the temptation to play with his new epic rarity card to find out more. He didn’t want to put his bracelets into cooldown when he needed them to create a wood spike ladder. Fortunately, he now could create the entire ladder without entering cooldown. Either he became more efficient or the card itself did. Either way, it was a nice improvement.

If only a ladder like that would be useful outside of the dungeon. There was no way the desert environment could sustain the ladder, so that meant he needed to maintain them himself. What if he got distracted and broke the connection when he was a dozen meters up?

Yeah, definitely not worth the risk. That didn’t mean the card wouldn’t find use as an offensive weapon. Growing sudden spikes out of his spear would come in handy.

Not wasting any time, Arden strode over to the platform and climbed his way up. Despite showing the capability of climbing far faster than he could, the snake remained on his head as he worked his way toward the platform.

Wood spikes came almost effortlessly, though he wasn’t pushing them out fast, as he wasn’t in a life-or-death rush. He would need more practice with them to use them in combat.

The moment the top of his head reached level with the platform, a certain lazy snake slithered off and into the hut before Arden could climb the rest of the way up. Unlike the previous trial, the presence within didn’t pull him in, though he felt a flutter that almost felt like interest.

Without delay he entered the hut, spotting a limp snake just inside the entrance just before everything blanked.

Used to the feeling, he immediately took in his changed surroundings the moment his awareness returned. He stiffened upon taking in his dark, but red, surroundings. For the first time, there were no plants in sight, not that he expected there to be, as the attunement didn’t have a focus on flora but fauna.

The flashing of his bracelets illuminated his surroundings a little better, sparking realization. It almost looked like some of the biology books he read. Was he inside something? That thought caused his hands to gravitate to where his bow should be, but as with previous trials, all weapons vanished.

In fact, even his clothes disappeared. He wasn’t sure he liked the implications of that, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The only thing that mattered was milking the trial for all it was worth. It would be difficult to get his hands on biological attuned cards outside of the trial. Even if he didn’t use them, it would be stupid of him to throw away the opportunity.

With that mindset, he opened his Ortus bracelet menu to view the notification.

Welcome to the lab.

Trial begins in 10 seconds.

Arden tensed, waiting for the trial to begin. Even without checking his bracelets, he knew the moment it began. A faint melody played in his surroundings, not unlike the previous trial, but this time, it wasn’t as pronounced. Definitely not enough for him to fall into a trance, but it was a clue.

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With senses he didn’t quite understand, he followed the melody. Each separate melody pointed at growths protruding out of the fleshy walls surrounding him.

Upon looking closer at the nearest one to his left, he recoiled when he noticed a stench of rot permeating off the nub. Once he got over the stench, he recognized what it was and how to fight it.

It was like each one of his attunements had connections beyond their shared affinity. Lessons he learned from previous trials applied to this one, at least he hoped they did.

To test his theory, he pushed his mana into the fleshy nub, following both the melody and his lessons from the poison trial. The rot reacted as he expected, just like the itchy poison he learned to fight off.

It struggled for a few moments, but in the end, it lost the battle. The odd thing he noticed was the fleshy nub almost felt like his own body with the ease he imputed his mana.

That thought summoned a shiver. He really hoped he wasn’t inside his own body. Almost hesitatingly, he approached a wall and poked it. When he didn’t feel anything, he punched the wall just to make sure.

A sigh of relief escaped him as he returned his focus to his surroundings. He clenched his fists and strode toward the next nub. Like the previous one, it gave off a rotting smell and a slightly different melody, though he wouldn’t consider the tune a melody as it was, as it wasn’t happy. The tune was a slow and sickly sequence of notes, not the vibrant, upbeat melodies he experienced in his previous trial.

Not thinking about it any longer, he attacked the rot just like the previous one, eradicating it without issue. It was almost too easy. The rot seemed to run away from him. It made it harder to catch and expel the hazardous mana, adding a different type of challenge, but he welcomed it. Challenges now would prepare himself for the future.

He went from nub to nub, eradicating the rot for each one of them. One thing he noticed was each eradication proved slightly more difficult. That didn’t mean any of them proved impossible. He rose to the challenge each time, purifying each malicious tune from the nubs. Before he knew it, he made a full circle around the room.

That was when the room changed. A glance down at his bracelets told him he completed the stage. When the room came into focus once more, there were gashes in the walls all of different sizes and levels of jaggedness.

Without pause, he got to work, picking the nearest cut, which was the smallest and cleanest. When he reached out with his mana, he paused in indecision for a moment before an idea came to him.

As if he had a needle and thread, he sewed the cut closed with his mana. Or at least tried. Pressure built with each pass as if he was holding back some rushing water. Though that wasn’t far from the truth. He needed to hold off blood from wounds. Inspiration hit just as his messy sewing job broke apart.

As if sensing his idea, blood began flowing from the cut. Like when he fought back poison, he pushed back at the blood. When he thought he pushed it back far enough, he sewed the cut closed.

This time, no pressure fought against him. Within moments, the cut disappeared, leaving an unblemished fleshy wall behind.

A smile formed as he moved onto the next slightly larger cut. Now knowing what to do, he made quick work of the wound, then continued on. Before he knew it, he was a dozen wounds in sewing them closed in moments.

However, when he reached the jagged wounds, he paused.

First, he pushed the blood inside, then eyed the wound. As usual, a random idea came to him, prompting him to treat it like a puzzle. He pulled the jagged parts together, then used mana threads to keep it closed.

His idea seemed to be the correct one as the wound disappeared a moment later, prompting him to move on.

The next several were similar, but soon another challenge came to him. Instead of a wound he could simply sew closed, a hole in the wall presented itself to him. He tried to pull the sides together, but the walls had too much tension to seal together.

To make it worse, blood shot out of the wound like a geyser, forcing him to push it back in before it covered him in blood.

For the first time in a while, he listened to the ailing melody for clues. That was when inspiration struck, or maybe the melody told him what he needed to do. Either way, he knew what to do.

Instead of trying to pull the wound closed, he crisscrossed mana across the wound. A headache built, but he kept going. Another problem presented itself after he sealed it closed. He needed to maintain his connection to keep it closed.

Without even consulting the melody, he fed ambient mana from his surroundings into the sealed wound until it equalized. Tentatively, he weakened his connection before cutting it all together. A sigh of relief escaped him when the wound vanished, proving his success.

The headache persisted, but he kept going. Though even if he knew what to do, he struggled to seal closed the next several wounds. When he reached a hole as big as his head, he stopped. He knew his limits. He needed to save himself for the next stage.

Agreeing with him, the remaining handful of wounds vanished. In fact, the entire fleshy room vanished, replaced with a black void.

Before he knew what hit him, a burning pain hit him on his left side. His gaze shot down to find a familiar rot attacking his body. Anger flashed. Without mercy, he crushed the rot. However, the damage it caused persisted.

Unfortunately, he had no time to find a way to heal the damage as burning in several other parts of his body appeared. Like the previous attack, he eradicated the foreign mana without trouble, but the damage built. It seemed endless. Every time he beat one, more came. Still, he didn’t give up.

Soon his body had more sores than healthy skin. That was when cuts entered the picture. Beyond pain, he instantly shifted his focus. Cuts closed just as fast as the rot inducing mana entered.

As he fell into a trance, he became more efficient, even if a pounding headache assaulted him. No extra thoughts came to him. All his focus worked to fight off the never-ending assault of rot and cuts.

Unfortunately, like everyone, he had limits. The attacks only grew more frequent, pushing him to his limits and beyond. Blood gushed from his body from wounds he couldn’t keep closed.

As time passed, his efficiency dropped, whether from blood loss or mana strain it didn’t matter. The outcome was the same. Wounds built up far faster than he could fight off until his body simply shut down.

The next thing he knew, he stared up at the ceiling of the hut. Instinctively, he tried to seal the next wound, but there was none to be found.

Even if there were, the tools he needed no longer responded to him, as he no longer had them.

That realization shot him sitting upright, eyes landed on the crystal.

A warm feeling filled him as the presence fluttered happily.