With their mental states being stabilized by using the tree as an emotional crutch, Ben and Thera stopped to take stock of their situation. Thera’s staff broke, her previously erratic emotional situation left her with too little control of her magic, and Ben hadn’t been in a proper state of mind to properly reduce the load on it, leaving her with one remaining staff.
As for Ben, his injury wasn’t so great that they couldn’t continue. He’d need to get it treated as soon as they got out, but as long as he kept it clean and didn’t let it get too bad he could have a healer treat it later; at the queen’s expense of course. As for his tools, well he still had fifteen charm bombs in his bag, the issue was his coat and gauntlet. The coat wouldn’t be able to be repaired until they left, but with only the sleeve damaged it actually wasn’t that big of a deal. Sure that arm would have less defensive capabilities, but looking at how things turned out, whatever defenses it was providing as a church weren’t great enough to protect against the trial. On the more positive side, its temperature control worked fine, leaving him cool and refreshed despite it all.
Then there was his gauntlet. With thick gashes cut through the metal, it didn’t look great, but it wasn’t unsalvageable. He wouldn’t be able to repair the metal itself without the proper tools, but the damage to the enchantments could be fixed, even without access to someone with barrier magic. He hadn’t had too much of a chance to do it himself, but he understood the theory of it at least, he just needed to use his mana to reconnect any sections of the enchantment or fill any holes that could be found within it. This could be a little tricky if he were to try it on a random item brought into the shop, but he was working on an enchantment he’d made himself. He knew exactly how everything was supposed to fit together.
He didn’t need to rebuild enough of it that it would affect its overall performance, but there was a different issue. When he had made the tool he’d tested it out rather extensively, and quickly realized that his level of mana alone wouldn’t be enough to make it last for more than a few seconds. He needed to compensate for that, which meant making the gauntlet from a mythril alloy. Aside from the financial hit, he hadn’t realised just how much of a fortune of mythril he’d wasted on his coat and desperately wished he’d saved a thimbles worth, it also meant that by having gashes torn into it he would have to supply more mana and it wouldn’t be able to make it last as long. Originally it would have lasted for a couple minutes, but now he couldn’t be sure.
Of course, it’s not like it was actually super helpful on its first official use anyway. He thought to himself with more mirth than expected. He couldn’t help but feel a little amused by how spectacularly it failed. Sure it was during the trial of a god, he should have expected it to be tough, but when he tested it out before it had been able to take some serious damage. Oh well.
He maintained the connection with the tree and Thera while he worked. He wasn’t sure how soon whatever effects or spell of the trial would come back to him once he disconnected, and he wasn’t about to let that ruin his work. Unfortunately, it was also going to be a slow process. Neither of them knew if any more of those creatures would show up, and if Ben was still the only one who would be able to see them then that meant he needed to be on watch on top of anything else. It was a bit more multitasking than he would have liked, but in the spirit of trying to make sure they both stayed alive he dealt with it.
As he split his focus between trying to spot any incoming monsters and trying to repair his enchantments he felt something scratching at his mind.
Something seems… off. He thought to himself. It was nothing in the environment bothering him, nor did he think it had anything to do with the trial. The source of his confusion came from his own enchantments. He wasn’t sure how to put it, but they seemed more tangible in a way, as if his mana sense had improved. Perhaps it was a sign his enchantment would level up soon, at least he could hope. The other option he could think of was that it was simply how it felt to repair an enchantment, but he couldn’t be sure. He filed it away in his mind to look into more later though, there were more pressing issues at the moment.
He finished up without any major incidents. Either they were getting a reprieve from the monsters or that section of the trial was complete, it was hard to say without venturing further, but with night being close they decided to make camp where they sat instead.
Unfortunately, the prospect of camping created a problem.
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“So if I’m the only one who can see these things should I just not sleep tonight?” He didn’t want to rely on the creatures waiting for him to wake up again. The act seemed to be one of intentional cruelty, but since they’d shown they could defeat them he doubted he’d get a repeat of it.
“I’m not sure. If the trial is making it so only one person knows what’s going on then I don’t know how we're going to last the night.”
Ben looked to the sky in thought for a bit. “Well I did already get some extra sleep and I’m used to staying up pretty late anyway. Maybe I could just stay up for the rest of the night and continue on in the morning?”
“And risk you getting killed from making a mistake in exhaustion? I don’t think so. Do you think you could at least get an hour nap in?”
“Then the risk is both of us dying instead of just me. Fuck I have no clue what to do about this.”
Ben wanted to pull out his hair in agitation. With no way of knowing if any more of those things were out there he didn’t know what they should do, and the wrong choice was liable to get someone killed. Not for the first time he asked himself why he agreed to this so easily, he definitely should have tried to get some sort of personal gain out of it instead of just accepting followers for Myriad.
“Well, I suppose I can think of one more option.” Thera hesitantly said. “But it may be the worst one.”
“I’m listening.”
“We keep going through the night.”
“Walk through a dense woods in the night when it’s too dark to see anything? Not sure I’m crazy about the idea.”
“The pits stopped shortly after we started feeling angry with each other. If we assume that one section of the trial ends where the next begins then if it's something that won’t actively hunt us we’ll be safe.”
“Kind of a big assumption,” Ben told her, expressing his concern. “You can’t really judge a pattern from just two bits of info. What if even more creatures are ahead? Maybe something more dangerous?”
Thera shook her head, giving it some thought. “There are trials from war gods and the like that are probably mostly combat-focused, but Anailia isn’t like that. She’s a goddess who represents caring and companionship. It’s why the condition is to take the trial with the person you're most close to.”
“I’m who you're most close with?” He said, perking up and looking at her beside him. He remembered asking about the condition for taking the trial before, but he was fairly sure at the time she had just said they needed to be fairly close.
She awkwardly looked away from him, embarrassed to let that slip. “Well it’s not typically supposed to be family from what I understand and I don’t exactly have many friends so there's no real difference for me. Anyway,” She rushed to change the subject. “You may remember when I first showed you this I called it the trial of Anailia and Tolona. Most people don’t mention him since he died fighting for the homeworld before any living succubus arrived on this planet, but the point is that neither of them were gods of combat. Anyone can take the trial as long as they have someone they can work together with. I don’t think we need to expect too much fighting here.”
“Okay. if you’re sure then let’s keep going for now at least.” He didn’t like it, but then again he didn’t like any of the options they thought of. There was still enough light to see by at least, and even though they hadn’t used it yet he had a lighter in his bag, worst to worst he’d make a simple torch for the walk.
They quickly ate some food and had some water before carrying on, making their way through the woods as it steadily got darker. They stopped every little bit to connect to one of the trees to try and keep themselves more stable, but as they progressed it felt like they were able to keep a healthy attitude through their own efforts and stopped less frequently to try and make it to the next section of the trial quicker.
In all that time they didn’t see any other creature, but they faced another problem, exhaustion. A wave of sleepiness slowly overtook them both, and through mutual agreement sat down to rest.
Thera leaned her head against his shoulder and seemed to nod off immediately.
So much for walking to the next part of the trial. I guess she has been up a fair bit longer than me. He thought to himself. Maybe he would rest his own eyes for a moment, what would be the harm…
NO! He shouldn’t be as overwhelmingly tired as he was, it had to be another part of the trial. He tried to force himself up, to shake Thera awake, but the weariness had sunk deep into his bones, there was no escaping it despite how much he wanted to. As his mind screamed out, his eyes closed.