Passing through the green light caused my body to tingle. It felt like falling through a gentle electrical current, as if all of my body was touched by a 9 volt battery at once. It lasted just a second, and then I was through. The ground wasn't quite where I expected it to be however, and I fell to my knees, gasping for breath as the sensation faded.

I could hear the two kids with me, both of them having fallen as well. I wanted to check on them, but had to get my bearings first. Outside, before the archway had lit up, it looked like it would have led down a flight of steps into the castle's basement. Now, looking about I felt that was both right and wrong. Behind us was an empty archway, no green light, or even anything past it. Just a few inches of empty air and a stone wall. The three of us seemed to be in a room. I'd almost call it a prep room or an armory.

The walls were lined with weapon racks, filled with every kind of medieval weapon I had ever thought of, and a few I had never seen so much as a picture of before. Swords, spears, flails, maces, axes. There were racks filled with shields of all different types. There were even tower shields and tiny bucklers that would fit around your bicep. Armor racks standing from the floor held all kinds of armor, from simple robes to full plate. Though that looked quite complicated to put on.

“What is all of this?” I was talking aloud, a bad habit of mine I suppose. I didn't expect an answer, though the girl replied anyway.

“I think this is the Trial's way of making its test possible.” She was already up, examining the weapons and armor. Contrary to her previous fear and tearful appearance, the young lady in front of me was the height of confidence. I gave her a long look, eyeing her up and down. She was short, even for a teenager, probably just over five feet tall. Her ears were long, the tips pulling up towards the back of her head to form pointed tips, like an elf. She had blood red irises that seemed to shine in the dim room, and hair of a similar color. An elf? But what was up with the eyes....

“What exactly IS a trial? What is all of this, and what is a focus stone?” If weapons and armor were the trial's version of fairness, then I needed information. I couldn't let fear rule anymore. I knew nothing, had no idea what was going on, and the less I understood, the more fearful I grew. I needed to learn anything I could.

She turned, facing me, an eyebrow raised. “How old are you?” She asked, her voice more steel than I would ever expect someone that young to have.

“27.” I answered plainly. “I'm from a place where none of this exists. I'm not even sure how I got wherever we are. One minute I was on my way home from work, the next I'm butt naked in a forest and get clubbed over the head from behind.”

She snorted, amusement playing over her surprisingly pretty face. Her teeth even flashed, white and perfect, with pointy little incisiors that pressed into her bottom lip. Maybe she was older than I thought? Her face and expressions didn't really belong to a child. The boy on the other hand.... Well, he was currently sitting on the floor, hands around his knees. He certainly wasn't going to be any help like that.

“Alright, I'll explain.” She took what I said at face value, making me think that maybe we were in danger, even here. “We are in a special type of dungeon called a Trial Ground. In this country at least, they are established in every major village and city, by burying dungeon cores into the earth and flooding the ground with magic. Typically, dungeons grow with time, creating monsters and traps. They feed on the mana given off by those who come to try and take their treasures, using that to grow stronger. The ones known as Trial Grounds however, have their growth stunted by the magic used to artificially start them.”

She moved as she talked, picking out a set of leather armor. A chest piece, guards for her arms and legs, and even boots and gloves. She finished it off by covering her hair with a leather helmet as she spoke. “The reason for this, is that at the bottom of a dungeon, you can typically find the dungeon core, and either take or destroy it. However, the artifically stunted dungeons in cities and villages don't produce dungeon cores. Instead, they produce focus cores. A focus core can be absorbed by someone to grant magical powers.” She picked out a pair of short curved blades. I think they were called scimitars, if old gaming experience served me right.

“So, if you can get a focus core by going into a trial ground, why are they sending us down here? Why not just go themselves?” I asked, following her lead. I picked out similar armor, but added a chainmail shirt over the leather. It was a lot heavier than I expected. Instead of a sword, I found a kite shield and a short spear with a head that looked like a long, narrow leaf. Distance would be better since I had zero idea how to fight. I also grabbed a pair of long daggers though, and attached them to a leather belt around my waist.

“Trial grounds are special. You can only enter them once, ever. It's all part of the magic of their creation. They are the only way to get powerful focus cores, instead of the generic ones you can buy at the market. You can purchase focus cores at the store, but those ones are always common stones like farmer, or smith. Even the combat ones are super generic, like swordsman or hunter.” She glanced down at the boy and crouched, giving him a shake.

“So what's the problem?” I asked, giving the spear a few testing thrusts. I was already tired with the heavy metal shield and the chainmail. I wouldn't last in a fight like that, so I tossed both away, and picked out a much lighter circular wooden shield with a metal bulge in the center.

“The problem...” She gave the boy a shake, lifting him up and handing him a few pieces of armor and a spear as well. The poor kid was shaking, still not talking, but started to put on the items she handed him. “... is that most trial grounds get cleared out once a year. This keeps the dungeon from growing or over producing monsters. This one has been abandoned for years, decades maybe. My family sent me to clear it and gain my own focus core.”

“Then what is the issue?” I still didn't understand. It was a beginner dungeon, which years of videogames led me to believe meant it had to be easy enough to clear. Especially if they commonly sent teenagers in. “If you came here to clear it alone, then it can't be that difficult, can it?”

All three of us were armored and weaponed up now, staring at the exit to the armory. The girl... woman? She glared at me. “The issue is that I MIGHT have been able to clear it. Alone. But with three of us, there will be three times the monsters, and three times the traps. And I get the feeling that the two of you aren't exactly trained warriors, are you?”

A part of me wanted to be angry at her words, prideful and indignant. But she wasn't wrong. “Well, no. But neither of you can be older than 15, so how were you expecting to clear it on your own?” I paused for a long moment, staring into the dimly lit hallway ahead of us. Torches hung in sconces from the wall at regular intervals, giving off a dim light. She didn't seem to have a retort to that, but her face was angry for some reason, I could see her brows lowering and knitting together, as if she wanted to spit venom. I did have one more question though. “So you can get a good focus core by going into a trial ground, but what makes an old one special?”

This time, it was the boy who answered me. It was the first time he had spoken, and I took a good long look at him like I had the girl. He was more obviously young. His face still had the gentle curves of childhood fat, and he seemed to curl in on himself under the weight of his light armor. He had sandy brown hair, cut short to his head, and a nose that had obviously been broken at some point but not set properly, giving it a crooked tilt to the left. “Like she said, the focus cores that you can purchase are all very generic. They are almost always production or crafting focused cores. Sometimes you can find a core that can grant some basic combat abilities, but if you want a core that can grant you more, you have to go into a trial ground. Trial grounds that haven't been cleared out in a long time have more mana flowing inside them. They can produce rare or even unique cores.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Okay.... I think I understood that. Was this world really so dangerous? Did monsters roam about, was there going to be an adventurers guild or something? Oh god, was it going to be one of those generic guilds with ranks from F through S or something like that? I suddenly remembered every generic isekai manga and anime I had ever consumed. Maybe I would get some kind of really cool awesome cheat power that would make my life in this world super easy?

Suddenly, I remembered that I still had that trial thing active. I had started to believe that when the timer ran out, I would be returned to my own world. So none of this mattered, right? I could just go home, get away from bandits and monsters and be safe again, right? I glanced at my wrist, willing the trial timer to show itself once more.

> 42 hours and 47 minutes remaining.

Still, that was a lot of time left in this world. Maybe getting magical powers to defend myself would be worth it?

“Well, fuck it. Lets go then. I'm Niles by the way. Pleasure to meet you.” I nodded to each of them, figuring this whole thing would go by a lot easier if we were at least a little friendly.

“Ophellia.” Said the girl. She gave us both a nod, and walked up beside me, facing the hallway.

“Alex” The boy came up as well, on my other side and a little behind. I glanced at them both, and had a thought.

“Ophellia, Alex. What do you say to a little cooperation?”

I ended up ditching the small shield, instead grabbing a much larger tower shied. It was a mostly wooden construction, with metal around the outside of it. The bottom of the shield was wider than the top, allowing it to be rested on the ground easily, and I could fit my entire frame, just over 6 feet, behind it without anything sticking out. I still had the short spear, and could jab around the side of the shield relatively easily.

The other two had also grabbed much longer spears in addition to their other equipment. I took a few steps in front of them, and had one to either side, behind me. It was not exactly what I would call an enjoyable set up. I had no idea what kind of monsters we might face, But with the tower shield I could block up most of a hallway on my own, and the other two could jab around me at least.

“So, we take it slow, I go first, you two behind me. If anything comes, I'll keep the shield between it and us, and you two stab it, yeah?” They both nodded, Alex looking relieved, and Ophelia looking slightly put upon. From the way she handled the weapons and armor, I got the feeling she had undergone at least some training, and it seemed she much preferred to use her swords to a spear. But if there really were going to be triple the monsters, it would be smart to work as a unit.

We started down the hallway, taking slow measured steps and keeping quiet. All of us were straining, twitching at every sound, unsure what might be coming out. The hallway seemed to stretch on for eternity, never branching or turning that I could tell, but eventually when we turned back, I couldn't see the more well lit armory behind us, just a trail of torches on the wall. Whether it had dissapeared, or the hallway just gently curved to one side, I couldn't be sure.

“Watch out!” Ophelia shouted, just as I heard a sharp twang in the air, like an overtightened string on a guitar being strummed. I ducked behind my shield, and heard a dull thud, as well as an impact like a hammer on the wood of the shield. I glanced around the shield, spying a poorly made arrow on the ground. The initial sound was quickly followed by two more twangs. Only a single arrow hit the shield this time, with the other wizzing by, through the air my head had occupied just a moment before.

“Well fuck! Get behind me, I'm going to charge them!” I was shouting now, desperate to be heard over the now repeated twang of bowstrings and thuds as arrows hit my shield and the walls around us. Ophelia and Alex both crouched down directly behind me, and I ran forward. The pace was slow however, considering the hefty weight of the shield, and each of the arrows that hit the shield pushed my balance off just a little.

Soon however, we heard the sound of bare feet hitting stone, and the bows stopped firing. Whatever had been shooting them was running towards us as well. “Spears out!” I shouted, looking around the shield to try and get a look at whatever the creatures charging us were.

Goblins. They had to be goblins. Six green skinned creatures about three feet tall were charging at us. All of them had large, long ears, thick, crooked noses, and black lips. There was all variety of piercings, tattoos, and shoddy clothes on the creatures, and they all had some kind of short, rusted swords out and at the ready. Once they were 20 feet ahead of us and charging, I stopped, bracing behind the shield.

The hallway itself was only about five feet across, and the shield covered a good two and a half of it. Alex was behind me and on my right, his spear near mine as we waited. Ophelia covered my left, similarly prepared. We could hear the goblins shouting, baying for whatever nasty things goblins bayed for. Our blood and meat, I imagine. As they closed in, all three of us shoved our spears out. Ophelia and Alex each caught a goblin on their spears. I couldn't see as well, and missed as I stabbed out blindly. But I also pushed out with the tower shield, catching two of them and tossing them back. The sheer mass of the thing made it a weapon in its own right.

I could see Ophelia pulling her spear back, thick red blood coating the head and part of the shaft. She stabbed out again, catching a goblin about to get by my shield in the eye and out through the back of it's head. Alex's spear however, left his hands, the shaft arcing up into the sky and staying there. He trembled, pulling out a short sword from his belt as a second goblin tried to push past me to him. I could hear him start to scream in fear and terror.

I jabbed out with my spear, catching the goblin going after the boy in the gut. The goblin swung out though, not quite dead, and its rusty blade buried into the leather armor covering my arm and wrist, sinking in but not through. I twisted the spear around a bit, jerking it back, and pulled it free as the goblin fell. “Two more!” I shouted, about to charge in. The last two were getting up off the ground, where I had knocked them with my shield bash.

But then Ophelia jumped in front of me. Her spear was on the ground, forgotten. She had her twin scimitars in hand, and started slicing, carving up the goblins in front of her without mercy. For the first time, I saw someone truly fight. Sure, we had stabbed out blindly, Alex and I. But Ophelia was fighting. Each movement was fast and graceful, not a single wasted motion. The goblins only lasted a moment before falling, coated in blood and gore. It was over so damn quickly once she did that.

The smell was almost unbearable. When you read books, or watch a show, you don't get to know what its really like firsthand. Blood and viscera was everywhere, sure, but there was more, everything that could come out of a body seemed to have hit the floor at some point. The smell was almost unbearable. I could see Alex gagging, before bending over and throwing up, and to my shame I quickly followed suit.

Ophelia however, seemed to be doing just fine. She wiped the blood from her weapons on the goblin's clothes, and resheathed her swords before turning to us. I watched her, noticing that her crimson eyes seemed to be glowing brighter than before, lit from within somehow, and that her incisors were peeking out over her bottom lip just a bit. What in the world....