CHAPTER 214

Tom stared at the trial that was blocking the exit with wide eyes.

Around him, everyone else was in the same state. They understood the implications of it appearing only too well. That the theoretical risk they had been talking around, but never really believing, was now very real.

“Don’t panic.” Michael said immediately even as he backed away from the trial. If they hadn’t known better, they would have assumed that it was a permanent trial from its shape. “Everyone, stay calm and don’t get too close.”

“Talk for yourself.” Jingyi snapped as he hurried over towards the portal and glared at the healer when Michael went to intercept him.

“Don’t touch it.” Tom squeaked out.

“I’m not an idiot.” The scout growled at him, brushing past Michael who at one point had looked like he was going to physically intercept the other man but had obviously chosen a different pathway. Jingyi immediately looked at the trial from both sides. Positioning himself against the wall to see if he could look past it and then dropped to his hands and knees to try to peer around the side of the portal closer to the ground.

As he did his reconnaissance, the look on his face became darker and darker. Finally, he sat back on his haunches and stroked his beard. Frustration was clearly visible on his face. “There’s no sneaking past. The trial is literally embedded in the stone. There are no gaps. I had to dispel my bird because it was stuck on the other side. So she’s out of action for a few hours.”

“Why would you dispel?” Tom asked before he could help himself. “If we left the bird on the other side, we would have an early warning.”

Jingyi glared at him. “If you had a spirit animal skill, you would understand.”

“He needs a link to maintain them,” Everlyn volunteered. “Distance or blocking material rapidly escalates the cost. I imagine with the trial in the way he was being forced to communicate through the underground rock.”

Jingyi nodded. “The good news is that Keikain can move underground stone. And he’s fresh and the rock that he has already imprinted is in place.” The scout nodded at the entranceway. “He can break through.”

The earth mage had set up a number of spots where the underground stone would be receptive to his magic. Because the battle had gone smoothly, Keikain who was being kept as their reserve force, had not needed to use those prepared areas as an emergency attack.

With confident steps, Keikain approached the trial and then dropped to the ground right in front of it. He put his head firmly against the stone, his hair centimetres from the portal. The man was in that position for just moments before he jumped to his feet. He ran to the wall next to the trial with his movements jerky.

Tom’s eyes met Everlyn’s. She grimaced and did her little eye roll. They both knew that it was going to end in failure.

As before, Keikain placed his head against the rock. “What’s happening? It doesn’t… I can’t connect. It’s not right. I…”

Everlyn arced her eyebrows, and he gave her a small nod, giving her permission to explain what was happening.

“It’s a known property of trials,” Everlyn said. Her voice slightly biting. “You all should have been aware of that. Trials always create extra permanency around themselves.”

“I know.” The earth mage was facing the wall, putting his forehead firmly against different spots as he moved away from the trial. His agitation was growing the entire time. “But this isn’t a normal trial. Its rules should be different.”

“Really?” Tom asked, amused despite the situation. “A trial appears perfectly blocking an exit, just as we’re about to use it and you think it will lose features that trap us. That it would give us a chance to circumvent what is an obvious instruction from the GODS.” He shook his head. “There was never a chance of that property being lost.”

“It is too early to panic.” Michael reminded all of them.

Keikain rounded on him. “Well Michael, when is it ok to panic. Because being trapped in a room and the only way out being a death trap trial seems like a fucking good time.”

Michael raised a hand to encourage him to calm down. “Do we even know if it’s what Tom dreamt about?”

“It is.” Tom answered definitely.

“How do you know you haven’t checked?” The healer asked.

“I just know. It’s a different colour… maybe a different feel.” Tom clarified because visually, if he only looked with his eyes, it looked the same as any other trial, yet there was something on edge about it. Something alien, other.

“We’re being forced.” Keikain concluded. “They’ve given us an offer we can’t turn down.”

“That depends on how long it lasts.” Michael said reasonably. “If it’s going to exist for a day, then nothing’s changed. If it’s a couple weeks but less than six months, then only you and Clare are forced. We could easily feed ourselves for that time.”

“We’re a team!” Keikain shouted.

“How can you say that? Michael.” Clare demanded simultaneously. “We were friends.”

“Were.” Michael jumped on that word. “I don’t agree with your choices.” Then he seemed to reconsider and raised his hands in the gesture of peace and patience. “I’m just pointing at the facts. I’m not signalling you out, but there are options.”

“There might be an exit in the other room.” Keikain said hopefully. “I doubt the gods would leave us with no options.”

Tom burst out laughing unable to help himself even as he cringed at how offensive the action was. It was just so funny… to think the GODs cared. “We didn’t get any options on earth. Why would we here. Plus, I suspect this is DEUSs doing, anyway. If so, we might as well accept our fate. There is no way we can avoid it.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It doesn’t matter which of the gods is behind… that.” Michael gestured at the trial. “The only consideration is what do we do now?”

Tom started walking towards it. “I think the next step is to confirm what the trial is.”

“Wait, Tom.” Michael said. “We should all be touching you when you do that.”

“It’s not going to just suck at me up and deposited me in there. Trial’s always let you read and assess your suitability before you enter.”

“We don’t know that. I can…” Michael hesitated a frown on his face. “Feel the difference between this and a normal trial. It’s twisted, distorted.” The healer’s nose wrinkled. “Abnormal. There’s no guarantee it’ll behave like any other trial.”

“Fine. You can hold on to my shoulders and whatever.”

Two firm hands landed on his shoulders and another on his elbow.

Tom reached out and touched the trial. Instantly he found himself floating in blackness with bright blue writing in front of his face.

Welcome to the Competitor Champion Race Trial

With your current ranking on the ladder of second, you are qualified to take this trial and may bring your team with you.

Representatives from all seven competitor races will be present and this is a variable zone trial. Each zone has a challenge ranking varying from rank sixteen on the outer ring to thirty-two in the inner.

Competitors will start on the outer ring and once they have cleared the challenge exits will open to adjoining zones.

Every sixteen days the outer ring of zones will be destroyed.

Rewards will be based on the order each competitor species exits the trial by reaching the centre zone and completing its final task. Please be aware that this is a GODs trial for competitors and your species will be disadvantaged if you waste the slots assigned to humans.

Tom’s teeth ground together when he read that lie. The sad part about it was that it was probably true. Used honestly, it was probably a blessing. If every species played it how it was intended, it was likely the different races would never meet. Unfortunately, the GODs had interfered. But with the interference, the outcome was diametrical opposite to the intent. The dragon would arrive at the centre first and then kill all the other races as they tried to exit.

He knew he needed all the information before discussing options with the others, so he kept reading.

Trial will begin in 54 minutes.

If you enter early, you will be put in suspended animation until the start time. After the trial starts, this portal will remain active until the end of the trial. You may enter at any time and will start on the outermost ring that still exists, providing no other human champion has found a trial entry and entered on your behalf. Entry is only possible for the first 32 days.

Would you like to enter now with your eight companions?

Tom, without hesitation declined.

Then he stepped backwards. The hands dropped from his shoulder as everyone shuffled away from the trial.

“And?” Keikain demanded.

“It’s what I warned us about. Couched in a different language. According to the context text, this is a can’t miss opportunity.”

“And will the trial disappear?” Keikain asked. “Can we wait out a day and then be able to go back to the circular.”

Tom shook his head sadly. “No. Probably not for months, maybe as long as a quarter of a year.”

The earth mage sagged in disappointment. “No time dilation?”

“It didn’t sound like it. And practically speaking we only have an hour to make up our minds.”

“Why?” Michael asked. “Is there a hard cut-off or something?”

“Not hard.” Tom said. “The trial starts in less than an hour. If we’re going in, we want to be in it for as long as possible to maximise our chances. It would be an absolute disaster if we wait it out and then discover later that we need to…” Tom’s gaze snapped over to Clare and Keikain. “Enter despite our misgivings.”

“Opportunity cost.” Michael summarised. “Any time we delay is time not spent completing it. Does it look hard to complete?”

Tom shrugged. “I don’t know… It’s not a linear progression. There are zones, you clear a zone and it will open exits to go sideways or deeper into the trial.”

Michael looked thoughtful. “Do you think the sideway option is there because sometimes you want to go sideways before going forward? I mean, if the way forward is something we can’t deal with, then we might be able to find a safer way to go forward by going around it.”

“Maybe.” Tom wrinkled his nose. “I was also thinking it could be to let those who need it gain experience.”

The healer suddenly looked excited. “Wait what rank is the trial?”

“Sixteen to thirty-two.”

“We should treat this as a farming opportunity. Go around the outside of the trial completing all the zones then by the time we reach the dragon we’ll be rank thirty two and have all the skills we could ever need.”

Tom shook his head. “Can’t, well, not how you’re imagining it. The outer zones are destroyed after sixteen days.”

“How many layers are there?”

Tom shrugged. “The trial is locked to us entering after thirty-two days, so at least three. But I’m guessing four or eight.”

“Eight seems like a lot,” Michael said thoughtfully. “But four is too few. We can hope for eight. The more there is the more we can close the rank differential between us and the enemies.”

“Yes. I agree eight will be ideal. A quarter of a year is not perfect, but if we walk out of this close to rank thirty I think it’ll make the next stage of my plan easier. It’s like farming the monsters in the canyon, but better.”

“It will certainly make the circular trivial.” Everlyn said with a laugh.

“If we survive.” Jingyi reminded them.

“If it wasn’t for True Dreaming, we would be accepting this without hesitation.” Tom reminded everyone.

“We can’t just ignore your skills when it’s convenient,” Jingyi snapped.

He raised his hands defensively. “Not what I meant. Not what I was suggesting we do. Just pointing out that from the description this seems to be a great opportunity.”

“We would have been suspicious given how it appeared.” Jingyi stated confidently. “Something blocking the exit screams’ avoid to me.”

“We would have gone through.” Tom said definitely. “We would have been excited about the chance. After all, the flavour text plays it off as a reward for me being the second highest ranked human. I doubt we would have hesitated for more than a few minutes.”

“But that’s not the situation now is it Tom?” Everlyn said. “We have you True Dreams and that changes everything.”

“No, it’s not,” he admitted. “I promised an Oracle question, and it’s available. Well, two are, but I would prefer not to use the second.”

“We won’t.” Michael promised.

“Does this new information change anything?” Everlyn asked the healer.

Michael shook his head. Then cleared his throat. “Actually exclude Keikain and Clare from the question. They’re going in any way so we’re only interested in the benefit of the other seven of us.”

“What are you saying? Our lives don’t matter!” Clare snapped. Keikain immediately put a warning hand on her shoulder. Clare shrugged it off. “If you all don’t come, we’re almost certain to die.”

“No, Clare, your lives are important and the chance of you surviving will be factored into the result of the question.”

“We don’t even know if we can go in without Tom.” Keikain pointed out.

“Then we’ll try to break out of here before you go insane.” Michael continued evenly. “And if we can’t you’ll tell us before you go mad.”

The earth mage studied the ground a great shudder going through him. “Yes, I will. But since the alternative of not entering guarantees mine and Clare’s death, then maybe we should change the ratios…”

“No,” Everlyn snapped. She might have been warming to them after Sven’s sacrifice, but somethings were a step too far. “We’re not changing them. They were debated and agreed.”

Tom raised his hand. “I didn’t agree.”

“It doesn’t matter. The question was unanimously approved by the rest of us.” Everlyn looked at him and held out a hand. “We should do this. Can you come into my system room?”

Reluctantly he took it and found himself sitting at her reading table with a book, more a pamphlet in front of him. “What’s this?” he asked.

Everlyn smiled. “The question we want you to ask.”

Tom flipped through it. There were graphs, mathematical equations, and a detailed glossary of terms. “Are you serious?”

“We are.” She smiled when she looked at the pamphlet and then looked away embarrassed. “It might have been slightly over engineered but it asks the question that satisfies everyone. You can read it later, but first since I’ve got you here privately. How are you?”