Chapter 68: One Single Value
The adventurers still fought back at the tower, but Nara rested for another short break. Andreas continued to sub with John to loot the monsters in the trenches. The poison was noxious—it may even completely dissolve the monsters, given time, but that was time they didn’t have. Nolan was also participating in the trial, but his looting ability was difficult to use and single target, although the rewards it gave was far greater.
What had worn her down was not the fight with the troll, but her skirmish with the pherators. Her fingers gingerly reached up to touch around her right eye, which had healed up without a trace.
Regaining her memories gradually returned her normalcy to her. It was a double-edged sword—with greater normalcy, she more she struggled against the extraordinary. At the same time, she felt more grounded mentally, and her will to return to Earth to see her family strengthened.
She felt an itch within her, something she desperately wanted to scratch but couldn’t. It was like a seed pushing against the dirt, trying to break out to reach for the sun but still could not.
She contemplated why she felt this way. She had undergone great changes and growth since she first hijacked her way to Erras, and was quickly shuttled into the path of an essence user. Those of the retreat were right—essence users had the greatest connections and resources. To find a way home, this path was necessary. It had been an abrupt change she easily accepted due to her previous unusual circumstance.
Something else was building within her, something she wasn’t yet ready to admit.
The test was intense, but it was clearly one meant for iron rankers to survive and grow from. It wasn’t unfairly difficult. The defenses were sufficient, and the adventurers that made it to the end of the trial reaped the rewards, in experience, in loot, and in awakening stones. There was a subdued pride that washed across the adventurers, who basked exhaustedly in their success. For many, it was the first great challenge of their iron rank lives.
Nara stood beside the putrid river that whispers of the atrocities man kind was capable of committing.
She sighed, crouched down, pinched her nose, and conjured her door domain at the bottom of the moat, lying flat. The poisonous concoction dropped into it, which she immediately shoved into her inventory. She couldn’t move her door domain while it was conjured, so she stopped to reconjure it around the moat as needed.
There she had it---a fatal brew of iron rank poison magic and sea water.
What am I going to use this for?
But she was an RPG player, and she knew better than to leave a convenient poison sitting around unclaimed. Someone else could get their hands on it (they couldn’t) so it was best that she cleaned it all up for the safety of the local community. If only she could find explosive fire barrels, but Erras’ ability to craft explosives was questionable at best—mostly relying on fire quintessence and other magical components, and not gunpowder.
At noon, a portal appeared at the top of the central tower. The adventurers climbed their way to the top, taking down some earthen walls to let in light.
One by one they passed through the portal, marking the end of the trial of survival. At the end, 120 adventurers had made it through, while the others had escaped with their tokens. Some had died, but it was distant to Nara who knew neither their names nor their faces. Nara had always been detached from grief and death. Others, like Sen, Vallis, and Qingxi, felt more responsible for the fate of those that did not survive.
*****
Nara passed through the portal to another plain white room. She was alone—none of the other adventurers were there with her.
An awakening stone dropped from the ceiling, which she swiftly caught.
“Awakening Stone of Creation, legendary. About time I got my second S tier.”
She didn’t use it yet, storing it away in her inventory. She walked to the far side of the wall, where another plaque and another portal lay.
“Trial of excellence; surpass yourself.”
To her surprise, another item dropped from the ceiling, which she managed to catch without breaking it.
“Lesser Miracle Potion?”
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Item: [Lesser Miracle Potion] (iron, legendary)
Classification: Potion, consumable
Effect: Fully heals all injuries and restores all stamina and magic with concentrated recovery magic. Concentrated magic takes a longer than normal to disperse, increasing potion cooldown. Ineffective beyond iron rank.
Restrictions: Iron rank.
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“What’s this, Specter?” She asked. She hadn’t seen the being yet, but the astral being was always within these waiting rooms without fail.
“Your reward for choosing the other path, initially, miss Edea.”
“It’s not like the other reward.”
“Evidently, miss Edea.”
She clicked her tongue at the slightly snarky astral being that offered little if not directly asked.
“Why is it different?”
“The Lesser Miracle Potion is of greater use to one intending to reach the final stage of the trial. The final trial has always been the same.”
“To surpass yourself. What is the trial, more specifically?”
“You must fight a mimic of yourself. It will perfectly copy not only your abilities, but also your skills, personality, items. and moral values. You must defeat this mimic of yourself. However, there are but three important changes to the mimic.”
“It has changes, why?”
“You will shortly see why. The mimic knows it is the mimic, and it is also tasked with preventing you from completing the trial. Additionally, it cannot copy the Lesser Miracle Potion.”
“Just those three changes?”
“Yes.”
“So, I’m assuming the mimic can kill you.”
“It can. You are free to give up at any point and retake the trial. Simply say, “I give,” or anything similar and the trial will transport you back to this room. Walking through the other portal—” she pointed to the far wall, “will transport you out of the trial.”
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“This is the final trial then.”
“It is, miss Edea. The path to the library of the Celestial Book is open to those who have proven themselves in this trial. Growth is one step in the path of learning.”
“Growth isn’t something you do in a single battle.”
“It is not miss Edea, but if It was easy, it would not be a trial.”
“Thank you for the information, Specter.”
“It is my duty,” she said. Her voice of reluctance was mixed with the slightest pride.
Nara stepped into the portal.
*****
Nara assumed all the adventurers had been separated; this trial wouldn’t make sense otherwise. She stepped into another room, wide and circular. It was typical arena, with plain white walls and a glass dome which lit up the room with natural light, although no sun was visible.
She was right. She was alone, except for an exact copy of her which stood, waiting patiently for her in the arena.
“Hi,” she said to the mimic.
“Hey,” it responded.
“So, we just fight each other?”
“That’s pretty much it.”
“You can’t just let me pass?”
“Doesn’t work that way.”
“Can’t do it or won’t do it?”
“Can’t do it. I’ve been made not to let you through, so I have to follow that.”
“Uh, nothing personal then.”
“Right back at you.”
Nara dashed forward, starting off with Nirvana in sword mode. She had waited for their conversation to end before setting up nodes. The mimic didn’t bother destroying her nodes, and neither did Nara. Neither had the skill or precision with a bow to destroy them, and they couldn’t destroy them fast enough with a sword that it would be worth it.
Nara didn’t know how to go around ‘surpassing herself’. For starters, she just gauged the mimic, to see if it really was a perfect copy of her. As Specter said, it knew it was a mimic.
Everything was an uncannily perfect copy, except for small differences.
Nara was sure her expression was more inquisitive, while the mimic seemed focused. The mimic knew what it was and its purpose, so it had no reason to try to gauge Nara or the trial, just to defeat her. An advantage, perhaps, but not a significant one. But Nara was grasping at straws for any sort of difference she could capitalize on.
The fight dragged on.
Their swords crossed, time and time again. Occasional kicks and punches, swapping to a new form of Nirvana. They were both afflicted, and Entropy cast on both gradually and persistently escalating the afflictions like an unstoppable clock. The mimic had its own Umbral Wolf, and they skirmished two against two. Sometimes the wolves fought each other, other times swapping opponents, other times double teaming.
There was another thing Nara noticed and was relieved to see.
Nara had awakened the Hand of Time ability, but she did not have all the requisite material requirements to summon the familiar. The mimic did not have access to the familiar either.
Nara recalled Thanatos, as did the mimic. The familiars were injured enough that any further damage would destroy them in the fight. Nara thought for sure the mimic would keep its Umbral Wolf out, but she wondered why it did not. It shouldn’t matter to the mimic if it destroyed it’s familiar, right? That was a card the mimic could play but she could not.
A cut skirted Nara’s shoulder, blowing a hole from the escalated damage.
“I give!” She shouted, before another slice came swiping towards her.
She lay on her back, teleported to the white room.
“Hey,” she said to Specter, who seemed to be staring down at her.
“Hello, miss Nara. You’ve returned.”
Nara sat and waited for her injuries to heal. The room had some sort of magic within it that accelerated natural recovery as well as cleansing afflictions. It was a relief. Once she had healed, she returned to the room.
Again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
“I’m not just making progress,” Nara said with a sigh. She had challenged herself and lost, several times. Each time she had made a mistake that caused a significant injury. Trying to improve meant trying new things, and those things hadn’t panned out yet. She was panning for gold but only found folly.
Encio told her she would be an annoying and untouchable opponent at later ranks, and she began to she the shadow of her future infuriating potential.
Mimic Nara was incredibly annoying to fight. Any attack was liable to be teleported away from, dodged, blocked, or parried. The mimic could also attack from almost any direction. It was less fight and more three dimensional whack-a-mole. Attempting to even properly cross blades was a challenge in and off itself.
“If it was easy, miss Edea, it would not be a trial.”
“You said that already, Specter…Hey, can we chat for a bit?”
“’Chatting’ with me will not induce any additional insight or progress to the trial.”
“I know, but let’s change it up. If you don’t mind me asking, why are you stuck here?”
“The cult created this trial to train their members, to send them out into the world to further their purposes. At first, the trial was fixed. It was still difficult.”
“But like any test that’s fixed, smart students figure out the answers beforehand.”
“That was the case miss Edea. As such, the cult introduced a degree of randomness into the trial. It is a masterwork of astral space and magical manifestation manipulation. However, the cult found that the trial was too complex without a guide to smooth the rough edges.”
“A tutorial helper.”
“I have not heard the term, but I do serve as a ‘helper’. The engineers of the trial bound me to this space with an artifact, so that I may serve to smooth the trial process.”
“Can’t they just make the plaques more descriptive? They did program those things there, didn’t they?”
“Program?” She seemed to wonder in silence for a bit, “I see. I’ve deduced your meaning. Yes, they cult creators did engineer those plaques as descriptors for the trial, however, I served an additional test for a skill the cult sought within their members.”
“What skill?”
“The ability to ask the right questions. For a seeker of knowledge, the ability to ask information when it is offered to you is integral. Thus, I was integrated into the trial as a portion of it.”
“Astral beings have to be summoned to this plane though, right? Were you not summoned here willingly, first?”
“Originally, I was willingly here. The cult crafted a physical vessel through magic, and bound be to an artifact connected to the trial. After thousands of years of serving as test proctor to an ever changing group of iron rankers, the cult long eradicated, and I no longer wish to do serve as it’s…’helper’,” she said with clear bitterness.
“Well I get that. Who wants to do the same thing for eternity? Been there, done that. So, how do I free you?”
“You are genuine in your desire to free me?”
“Yes.”
“If I may pose my own question, miss Edea, why?”
“I think if you want your freedom, you should have it.”
“The trial will become more difficult if you free me. I may not be integral to the functioning of the trial, but I do serve to ease its difficulty. You may find that more essence users will die to the trial in the future.”
“That’s why others haven’t freed you then, right?”
“It is as you say, miss Edea.”
“I still think you should be free,” Nara said softly, “Without you, the trial will still persist. It may be more difficult, but adventurer should know before they enter the risks.”
“Did you understand the risks fully, miss Edea?”
“Not really, if I’m being honest. I don’t think most iron rankers will ever really understand what it means to risk their lives for something like awakening stones. Whether it’s worth it or not. Even this is tame to a situation we may encounter in the future. Even so, I don’t think someone should be used as a tool for eternity to make something easier, especially for an optional trial. We don’t have to come here, and the Adventure Society should warn iron rankers better. Rather then just letting them participate with little to no information.”
“The trial changes every time, miss Edea.”
“But the last trial doesn’t. We didn’t know about this stage. That’s on them.”
The two lapsed into silence for a moment, Nara staring blankly at the white wall above them. The pure white was marred with her red blood, which had been slowly absorbed by the white marble. Spick and span, as if Nara hadn’t suffered wounds she needed to recover from.
“What do you think I lack to pass this trial, Specter?”
“This is but my humble opinion,” Specter slowly spoke. “It may be your resolve is inadequate.”
“I always tap out when I get injured, huh. I didn’t realize it, but fighting myself is hella scary.”
Nara removed the Lesser Miracle Potion from the inventory, holding it up against the white ceiling.
“I guess I need to commit to using this.”
“If I may, miss Edea, the Lesser Miracle Potion is of extreme value. It may recover you from any near-fatal injury. It may be more valuable than whatever awakening stones you could possibly earn from this trial.”
“You’re suggesting I keep it and leave.”
“Unlike the Retreat Token given to those who chose the second option, the Lesser Miracle Potion is yours to keep.”
“I have reasons I need to enter the final space. I think it’s worth it. It’s my sole advantage.”
Specter kept quiet, observing Nara in silence. She hoped for her freedom, but did not want to unduly influence the adventurer.
“You’re kind, huh,” Nara suddenly said, “You may be stuck here, but you had no reason to help us at all. You didn’t have to answer the questions we asked.”
Specter did not say anything.
“You didn’t want to see a bunch of iron rankers die because they rushed into something that a bit more information of could have saved their lives.”
“There is no need to appraise me so highly, miss Edea,” Specter finally said, with reluctance, “I had no other activity to occupy my time.”
Despite her resentment for her situation, Specter still helped the adventurers. She did not beg or plead with them for her freedom.
She really was too sweet. An astral being so sweet she didn’t want to let strangers die.
Now, she had to pass the trial.
Nara had but one value, forged through the torture of her soul. No one should suffer unwilling imprisonment.
…Except criminals, invaders, spies, etcetera, etcetera, as punishment or containment, but that didn’t sound as cool.