Another day of practice and another day of progress as Ben passed the time the best he could, adjusting to his situation even as he did his best to escape it. When he’d finished with his handstand pushups he’d moved to a different exercise, even if it was one he dreaded.

Given the area of the cell he was trapped in, there was barely enough space for one particular activity, something he was hating even at just the very first step but knew getting even a couple more points to it could be handy when he made his escape.

Running. That terrible act that he only committed to when his life was well and truly on the line, Ben pushed his body as he raced around his cell, straining himself in that small space as he made his souls, all to get just a couple more points to his agility.

It was immediately tiring but he had the stamina to keep it up for hours so he didn’t stop, running and making and thinking all at once as the time wore on and his legs burned, fighting past the feeling of it while he couldn’t help but wonder if he was actually going to get anything out of it.

If his cell was keeping him from dying, there was a chance it was just resetting his body to some initial state. That fact that those around him hadn’t aged to dust would seem to indicate it at least, hinting that whatever growth he’d get would be limited, but at the same time, his development no longer seemed to be entirely linked to his body.

It was easy to fall into the trap of thinking that he still operated under the rules of the universe he was born to but in his new reality how strong one could get wasn’t solely linked to the growth and development of one’s muscles. If that was the case then awakening bonuses wouldn’t be a thing, with the first granting so much more power to all of his or anyone else's attributes.

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t also put on a fair bit of muscle in his time there, his work was demanding enough to see to that, but it was clear that there was a non-physical component to strength in the universe he found himself in.

Which means this probably isn’t a waste of time. Okay, still running I guess and I’ll check my card later to see if I’m right.

It almost felt like he’d been trying to convince himself he was wrong to have an excuse to stop but having failed in the end he kept going, feeling his feet slap against the ground below as he went until he had no more in him to give, eventually collapsing to the floor, panting for breath the entire time.

“Was there a point to that?” His fellow prisoner asked him as the galwaxian watched from the side.

“General self-improvement?”

“Running for hours on end counts as self-improvement?”

“It counts as exercise, you’re from a race of warrior mages, you should get the idea.”

“I don’t think I’d describe my people in such a way.”

“Your god did.”

It was one of the first things Galwax had after he’d completed the trial but it left the galwaxian beside him in quiet contemplation as he thought about his people as a whole before responding.

“However he saw us, we were just people in the end,” He said simply. “Did our culture value strength and magic more than others? I can’t say, I haven’t seen others, but I at least was only a farmer, no more, no less.”

“Then tell me about your people,” Ben asked him, seeing that the galwaxian seemed in the mood to talk. “I only know what I’d seen in the archive and that was mostly a combination of people working and trying not to die.”

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“What is there to say? I’m sure we were like any place. People lived their lives, getting up to work and pray and giving their time to those they love. Does that sound so different from your own kind?”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.”

“So what else is there to tell?” The prisoner sighed. “And it’s all gone now, reduced to ashes or whatever those below saw fit to do with it.”

He knew from Galwax they’d lasted until the third wave and wanted to ask how they’d managed it but didn’t in the end. It was a tasteless question, not something that would do any more than worsen the mood of the only conversation partner he had to pass the time with so instead he remained silent for a beat, letting the galwaxian ask something else.

“You said before that someone tried to kill you by throwing you into the trial of Galwax. Tell me about that. Or what little you can.”

“I can tell you anything, I’m not someone that can be bound by covenants either,” Ben said with a shrug, getting a small look for the statement that he brushed past. “The long and short of it was that I pissed someone off whose ego or sense of self-worth was way too high and to get back at me for that he grabbed myself and a friend of mine and threw us through the doors. Honestly, I have a lot of issues with your god. I could spend hours complaining about him if you gave me the chance, but the worst has to be that he didn’t build that stupid thing in a way that would keep anyone who didn’t want to go in from being dragged along.”

“Why would he have? I’m sure he had no reason to believe anyone would be mad enough to do such a thing on my world, that sort of act would obviously be caught.”

“Maybe so, but he should have done at least that much when dropping it on somebody else’s.”

The galwaxian shrugged, not having strong feelings on the topic either way.

“So how many others were thrown in with you then? Did you have some warlord disposing of his enemies through it?”

“No, the guy was, well, basically the mayor of an important city and it was just the two of us going through that hell.”

“...That’s impossible.”

“I assure you it’s not, I have the trauma to prove it.”

“Centuries… No, longer now, I have no clue how many years I’ve been here but in ages past a group of five completed it and their names went down in history. Two people did not complete it.”

“Actually, that’s another complaint I have,” Ben added, ignoring his neighbour’s disbelief. “Almost every other god on my world makes their trials to hold around five people. Sure, maybe a few less or maybe a few more depending, but not twenty-seven! And that asshole didn’t bother warning anyone that that was the upper limit before he bailed so people were getting themselves killed left and right challenging it before just writing it off as impossible!”

“If nobody told you then how do you know the upper limit?”

“I’m an enchanter too, while I was fighting for my life I was trying to figure out the magic that made it up and happened to stumble across that little tidbit on top of everything else.”

“Then how did you live? Or are you also a master of all magics beyond the non-affinitied ones too? You make your range of skills sound overwhelming.”

“God, I wish,” Ben sighed as he laid back, sharing just a bit about himself. “I can’t use any affinitied magics, my soul doesn’t allow me to even have the basic potential for that sort of thing, but I had a couple helpful advantages in the end. The guy I was with was a blessing mage. Right, your people don’t naturally get combined affinities, um, it's a combination of life and light which meant both the healing and buffing effects were boosted compared to what you’d expect while at the same time being weaker in the other aspects of both affinities. Anyway, having him there helped a ton, plus…”

“Plus?”

Ben had trailed off, not sure if he should actually say it but ultimately gave in, accepting that even if it might annoy the other, he was still proud in the end of it all.

“I cheated a bit,” He admitted. “I wasn’t trying to decode the magic on your god’s trial for fun. My original goal had been to see if I could break out of it without having to finish and when that failed I found another option. Don’t know if you know but between each floor of the tower there were rest areas but each area was on a time limit. I broke the gauge to let me stay as long as I’d need to prepare for each floor. I was in there for months but it ended with a recording of your god congratulating me for finishing in near record time.”

He wasn’t sure what reaction he’d expected from that confession but what he got was uproarious laughter, leaving him to wait for the other to settle down.

“Ah, magus,” He said, still chuckling. “No matter how much you may hate Galwax, I can say with confidence that I think he’d have liked you.”

“...Not magus. My name is Ben.”

“I see. Despite it all, it’s good to meet you, Ben. I am called Tenth.”

“Tenth then, whether I’m here forever like you think or if I escape in the end, let’s try to get along while I’m around.”