Less than a day later the party approached the Trial of Luck. As everyone anticipated, the trial would take place in a large, empty clearing of stone slabs. At least, that was what the arena would start out as. They had no way of knowing how it would change after they entered the space and started the trial.

What they did not anticipate, however, was what could be seen just on the other side of the trial, through the exit opposite them. While previously the trials had exited back into the labyrinth pathways, this one appeared to have just a short path to another stone slab arena. From this distance no one would make out much of anything inside of the second arena, except that there was some kind of object in the center of it, but the fact there was a second one at all seemed strange. ‘Luck’ should have been the final trial.

Stopping just on the labyrinth side of the arena threshold, the party looked at Cyn. They had already discussed that there was no way to prepare for this, other than knowing Hex had the highest luck stat. If it came down to needing to take a gamble, he would be first in line to do it. But was Cyn, who had been recently injured, ready to jump into another trial?

Her resources had recovered, and the physical wounds had almost healed completely. The only thing that made her hesitate was the feeling that her primary mana veins were still damaged beneath the surface. Any use of Hubris to create needles or syringes felt like she was pulling glass shards through the veins instead of mana. Definitely painful and more difficult than it should be, but not impossible. Circulating mana was out of the question, Cyn did not even dare to test it. She could almost feel her internal alarms blaring just thinking about trying it.

Ideally, she would allow herself to heal fully before stepping into another potentially dangerous trial. But Cyn had no idea how quickly she would recover. It could be just another few hours, or it could be days of waiting with little progress. Cyn did not want to wait, or hold anyone back. Smiling - and shoving any anxiety into the back of her mind - Cyn gave the party a thumbs up and they collectively stepped over the threshold into the Trial.

Everyone was tense as they walked forward together, and just a few feet in the arena changed. Is that… a gumball machine? Right in the center of the arena, a large machine had appeared. It did look freakishly like a run-of-the-mill gumball machine, at least ten feet tall and made of blue painted metal with an opaque glass sphere atop it. There was even what appeared to be a coin acceptance mechanism, although Cyn would struggle to reach it without help.

For a few seconds they just stared. There was a level of absurdity that came from seeing something so normal looking considering their surroundings, and no one was quite prepared to handle it. The recess was broken however as a small creature peeked out from behind the machine. The party quickly took up defensive positions, ready to fight as a little golem shuffled fully into view.

Peat Golem - Level 11

‘Lucky the 34th’

A synthetic creature, created to perform simple tasks for its maker.

This creature has a [Golemancy Bond].

Tampering with, harming, or destroying the Peat Golem may alert the bound Awakened.

Golemancy Bond - A bond between creator and creation. Golem is entirely dependent on the bound Awakened, and will die should the bond be broken.

Based on her experience with Spam, Cyn could guess ‘Lucky the 34th’ was the name its creator gave the Peat Golem. The tiny construct did not even reach Cyn’s knees. Made of what appeared to be a very dark brown substance - presumably peat, based on its name - and shaped into something approaching humanoid, the golem had the number thirty-four stamped into the clay of its forehead above shiny, sky-blue glass marbles that seemed intended to mimic eyes. It appeared as though the golem was once inside of a terracotta pot, or was now wearing one as ‘clothes’. Stubby legs protruded out of the bottom of the pot, and the rim of the pot went about halfway up its body. In the creature’s chest was a third, larger marble, half embedded in its peat body. The third marble appeared to be some kind of azure stone, smoothed down into a rounded shape, and Cyn could see small blue veins that spread out from the marble to form a geometric design in the peat. Growing out of its head was a small, leafy green plant, looking as though it was a hat.

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As the little creature waddled closer - its stumpy legs not having proper knees to bend - the golem opened one of its mitten-like hands to reveal a single, golden coin while reaching upwards towards Scott. Since the Guardian did not seem to be relaxing Cyn spoke, “I don’t know how much you can see with Inspect, but I don’t think it’s a threat. I think it’s trying to help?” She wasn’t entirely sure, but the Peat Golem did not strike Cyn as dangerous. Whoever had made it, though, probably was.

Scott slowly lowered his weapon, staring down at the approaching golem. Once it was directly in front of him the creature began to make tiny hops up and down, holding the golden coin above its head. A little cautiously, the Guardian bent and carefully plucked the coin out of the golem’s hands. Without missing a beat, the golem clasped its hands together again for a brief moment before opening them to reveal yet another coin and hopping to Sam next. Hex was given a coin after Sam, and the Rogue immediately headed for the machine.

“Cute.” Cyn barely heard Dana mumble when taking her coin. The rest of the party wandered closer to watch what would happen when Hex used the machine, while Cyn reached for the golden coin in the Peat Golem’s hands. Before she could grab it, however, Spam’s black tongue shot past her hand and struck the coin. The familiars tongue stuck to the object, similar to when it had saved the potion she fumbled during the Trial of Agility, and when Spam retracted its tongue the coin ended up sitting half in its mouth.

With a small chuckle, Cyn joined the others. The golem - who had also joined them and now stood to one side of the machine, still hopping up and down - had not offered her a second coin when Spam stole hers, but she was not concerned. Since she and the familiar were connected, a reward for either of them theoretically helped her. Cyn wasn’t sure if or how Spam trying to claim the coin would affect the trial anyway.

Cyn arrived at the gathered party in time to watch Hex pull a small, blue orb out of the machine. The Rogue pulled the orb apart, the shell coming apart in equal halves, and everyone jumped back as colorful confetti burst forth. Cyn could not get a good look at the new object that had replaced the two halves of the orb in Hex’s hands, but at a glance it looked a bit like a compass. The Rogue stepped to the side, staring down at his prize with a frown.

Scott used his coin next, the shorter man stretching a bit more than the Rogue had to reach the intake. The Guardian’s orb opened with less fanfare than Hex’s had, no confetti and just a small popping sound, and revealed a pole that was a little taller than himself with a solid-colored, golden flag attached to it. Since Scott had been startled by such a large object appearing suddenly out of a small orb, he did not move in time to grab it before the pole fell to the stones with a clatter. Muttering curses under his breath, Scott quickly picked up his prize and moved out of the way for Sam to take his turn.

The Warrior did not move fast enough for Dana it seemed, and the Archer quickly moved up to take his place. Just another popping sound, and what appeared to be a small, winged statue was left in her hands. Unlike Hex and Scott, she seemed neither confused nor perturbed over her reward as she moved away. While Sam wandered forward, Cyn watched as the small statue took off from the Archer’s hand. It flew around only briefly before dropping out of the air as Dana reached up to hold her head with a wince. Interesting.

The party seemed pretty amused by the whole ‘trial’ at this point, so when the Warrior opened his orb to find that instead of paper confetti it was filled with large snakes, he was quite shocked. Cyn recognized quickly they were just illusions, and thankfully Sam was only at the mercy of his panic for a handful of seconds before the illusions burst into very real glitter. Clearly disoriented, the Warrior picked up his actual prize - which appeared to be a small orb, only a little larger than the one that had come from the trial machine - and trudged a short distance away to brush the glitter off himself.

Bad luck, I guess. He really needs to diversify his stats... Spam, seeming impatient as Cyn hesitated, started making muffled gurgles and chirps around the coin in his mouth. Chuckling, she walked forward. The coin intake was a decent distance above Cyn’s head, but by holding Spam up with both hands, the frog was just able to reach it for them both. Luckily, the familiar did not seem to have much trouble putting the coin in or turning the knob. After a few seconds, Cyn placing the familiar back into his pouch during the waiting time, a small orb identical to the ones she had seen everyone else receive rolled out from a little metal door and into her waiting hands.

Open me!

Not sure what I expected, to be honest. Taking a deep breath and preemptively flinching back, Cyn opened the orb. The preventive flinch did not stop her from jumping when a small burst of confetti popped out, and left in her hand was a single blue seed.

Magic-Eater Seed (Epic) - A fertile seed produced by a mature Magic-Eater.

A semi-carnivorous plant will grow inside of any creature that consumes this seed, forming a symbiotic relationship unique to the host.

Absolutely fucking not. Spam thankfully did not seem interested, warbling in annoyance and repeatedly licking the machine with its long tongue. Cyn made no effort to suppress the shudder that ran through her or the grimace on her face as she stored the terrible prize in her ring.

Within a few seconds of her opening the orb she was done with her prize, and in that time a familiar, soft chime rang through the labyrinth. Unlike previously, this time was followed by a sound much louder and deeper, more like a gong. Looking around, Cyn watched as the twisted branches and sharp thorns of the Hungering Hedge shuddered collectively before small, light green buds began to grow all over the hedge.

The party moved back together quickly, waiting for any more changes, but it was just as though the dungeon had rapidly shifted from winter to spring. The new growth did not even cover the hedges, or have many fully opened leaves, and after a minute they started to relax again. Cyn could see that the exit into the next arena had reopened after the trial, but she had something to take care of first. A very important level up.‎