After another quick look at my skills and abilities, I stepped onto the circle in the control room and selected the Trial mission. A bright light surrounded me, then when it faded I found myself in a canyon. I looked around and saw an almost sheer cliff, the colors striated between many shades of brown. They then wrapped around me and ran ahead about one hundred yards or so then curved just enough that I could not see what was beyond. A few seconds later a gender-neutral voice started to speak.

“Welcome to your trial, the difficulty increased with each segment you complete, and increases even further with each section completed. Currently, you are in Section 1: The Canyon, Segment 1. Each Section and segment will have their own rules. Please think or say ‘Rules’ for the current rules. Please note the Trial is a semi-free-roam, meaning other than the rules and a boundary, you may do as you wish until you fail.”

With a shrug, I said, “Rules!”

Section Rules:

- No Flying.

Segment Rules:

- None

Time Limit:

- None

I noticed the time limit section at the bottom, and shuddered at the thought parts of this trial would be timed. After I dismissed the rules, I moved towards the curve ahead. After twenty feet or so into the curve I found a green boundary, and once again the voice came back.

“Once you are done in your current segment, cross over the green boundary and you will enter the next segment. If you find a red boundary, you may not cross it.”

After I heard about the boundary I turned and went back to my little box canyon, then started to inspect the walls with care. I spent about an hour on the walls before I found a place that looked easy to climb. I jumped up and grabbed the handholds I had found, and almost fell back down as I got an announcement.

“You have gained the skill Climbing.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I waited for my startled heart to settle down then, climbed up to the top of the canyon wall. Ten yards from the lip of the cliff was a red boundary.

“Hmmm, it’s red, must not be able to go past that,” I said to my self as I got halfway between the boundary and the cliff edge. I then walked over until I found the blue boundary, then turned around and started to scan the ground as I walked back towards where I had started. When I got to the dead end where I had begun, I saw a chest between me and the cliff and headed toward it.

As I approached the chest, something started to tug at my senses. There was something off about this chest, a quick flash in my past lives reinforced the oddness that I had started to feel, so I stopped about two feet from the chest and crouched on all fours and used my senses to scan the area. There was an odd depression halfway between the chest and the cliff edge, and still, I had the sense that something was off about the chest. I scanned the chest for another ten minutes before I finally found what had set my senses off, and got another announcement.

“Through the intense and careful use of your senses, you have gained Perception, due to listening to your instincts you have gained Danger Sense. You have gained Power Sense, through detecting various forms of power.”

With a sigh, I sat all the way down and started to meditate. As I meditated I used my new Power Sense skill and looked at both the chest and odd depression, and much to my surprise the depression had some magic around it also. I moved around the chest and looked at the magic on the depression, it wasn’t a trap but an illusion. I sat down next to the depression and started to meditate again. Once I reached the right point, I reached down with the feeling of my own magic and gently started to probe and pull at various parts of the illusion, careful to catch each reaction.

It took two hours of concentration until I was confident I could take off the illusion, and did so, which revealed a hole, just big enough for me to crawl down into. I looked over at the chest, then to the hole several times before I moved back near the chest and with great care started to probe the parts with both magic and physical abilities.

After I had examined the chest and its mechanisms for another few hours I got some more skill notifications, “You have gained Trap Detection, this skill has been merged with Perception, you have gained Power Manipulation.”

I stood up and stretch a few times before I sat down with my legs crossed, and started removing the traps on the chest. Twenty minutes later it was open and I got even more notifications.

“You have gained Trap Removal, you have gained Lock Picking.”

“Nice, now to see what I got,” I opened the chest and looked inside, and found a dagger, two keys, and a blank map, with a compass and a pen. I picked up the dagger with a frown, and as expected got an announcement.

“You can not use the dagger as a weapon, only as a tool.”

Then as if it hit me upside the head, I got an idea and used my absorb skill on the dagger. It felt odd as the dagger melted into my hand, at first it was slow, then the speed picked up and it took a total of about ten seconds to absorb the dagger.

“Dagger has been successfully absorbed you gain +1 to damage with your claws, and have gained 1 mass.”

I let out a giggle, then grabbed the rest of the items from the chest and put them in my inventory.