Just in case you’re wondering, I’ve been trying to think of a name for worlds making it the full cycle as Earth did, like I have for garbage and turd worlds. I’d rather not use another word for excrement, but that’s all I can think of. Any suggestions?

[I wasn’t wondering and no.]

Oh well. Moving on. XP cores can be stored in the belt for free. They aren’t considered to have any value. On the other hand…

[Really? What about beast cores?]

I was just about to explain that. Beast cores are considered very valuable. That’s why I was mentioning the XP cores. I think it’s because XP cores can only be cultivated by the mortal that earned the XP and cashed it in.

[How is that done? How does the XP core know when the correct mortal is holding it?]

No idea. Not even a guess. You have one?

[I do not.]

For this next part, there were a lot of questions and talking, so I’ll blow through it quickly and just hit the important parts.

Dan pulled a bag filled with beast cores out of his backpack and handed one out to everyone besides Leena.

He walked them through how to cultivate a beast core, how to level up, clear channels, breathing and cycling techniques, the whole nine.

When he finished, everyone but Leena was level 1, and it was late into the night. They all decided to sleep in the Class Trial.

Dan slept outside away from the rest, but close by to the Trial. After only four or so hours of sleep, as soon as the dawn phase started, he woke everyone else up.

“Okay,” said Dan. “I got to take off a little before noon to meet up with a couple folk, but I reckon it won’t take long.”

Nick interrupted to ask, “Who you meeting up with?”

“Y’all’ll meet them tomorrow,” replied Dan. “This morning, y’all doing exercises, meditation, and heading right to the Mana Trial after breakfast. Combat Trial after that. If SS is on the table, y’all’ll get 1 Star-Souls, a new Class, a real Orbment, and level up to 10.”

The stupids on my team chatted excitedly for a few moments. Once things settled down, Dan said, “The requirements for level 11 is a 1-Star Soul, cleared channels, and at least one Stat at C-grade. It’s smarter for y’all to stay at 10 and use the time y’all got in the Sanctuary of Revelations. All y’all touched on something, right? From the full revelations y’all saw?”

Everyone replied that they had.

“Good. Don’t forget to reflect on it during meditation. And remember, don’t share what revelation you working on with anyone. Your Spirit Nexus is for you alone. Ace, Chet, I forget anything?”

Ace shook his head and Chet said, “Uh, one thing – why have we been sleeping outside instead of sleeping in the Combat Trial every night?”

“It’s a trap is why. Last night was an exception. When y’all get to the Castle area, y’all’ll sleep inside again. There’s plenty of windows and ways out of that place, unlike this Trial.”

Chet asked, “Aren’t we safe for now though?”

“Yeah. Should be. But always assuming you ain’t is life from now on.”

“Understood,” replied Chet. “Nothing else, sir.”

Dan nodded. “Chet, you running with me today. I’m fixing to see what kind of shape you in. Leena, I need to talk with you too. You can exercise with us or wait till after. Up to you.”

She said, “I’ll go with you.”

It was clear Leena was in bad shape as soon as they started running. She could only hobble and winced painfully with every step.

Dan told her, “Stop.”

“I’m fine.”

“You ain’t,” said Dan. “Chet, go get Luke and Austin. Or Ace if Luke ain’t up to singing a little.”

Chet took off and Dan talked to Leena about some plans he had for her. He also told her once she had a Class, she’d be able to cycle a healing pill when injured.

When Luke and Austin showed up, he had them all party together. Luke got his Lesser Healing Song going and Austin cast his Minor Heal invocation on Leena as fast as it came off CD.

Dan gave a beast core to Luke and Austin and told them to keep going until he got back.

He left them there and went with Chet to exercise.

The kid was pushed past his limits in every way possible. When they were finished, Dan said, “You need to do that every day. Push yourself and then keep pushing yourself. Every day. All day. It never stops.”

“Got it, sir,” replied Chet. “It sucks, but I understand it’s necessary.”

They went back to check on Leena. Her vitals were looking much better, as were her eyes and skin. She wasn’t 100%, but close.

[It took that much healing?]

Remember, Austin’s core was just rated acceptable and wasn’t full. He only got off three heals before he was tapped and had to meditate with the beast core. And he sucked at meditating, so he was still filling his core when Dan returned.

Once they were back with everyone else, Dan asked Ace if he was doing alright or if the Soul Trial messed him up too.

Ace said he was fine. That was mostly true. He had some hairline fractures, but according to his vitals, he had had hundreds over the years, so it wasn’t a huge deal for him.

While sitting about 20 meters away from the group, Dan observed and joined in on how Leena instructed meditation and yoga.

After breakfast, they all ran to the Mana Trial. Everyone took turns completing the Trial’s training to familiarize themselves with the basics of invoking.

The plan was to have everyone complete it on F rating when they felt capable of doing so. With a 32-minute reset there’d be a lot of waiting.

They all practiced a little with their Orbments and meditated while Chet instructed Leena on the Reaction Trial.

Nick went up to them and said to Leena, “I think you could do the Strength Trial too. Carlos is stronger than me. Has been since we first started training, even with my Trait. I don’t think the ball weighs the same for everyone.”

“Correct,” said Chet. “According to the information in the Profile Reader, and judging by Leena’s size, height, weight, and tier, she’d get the lightest ball.”

At some point, Leena left to do the Reaction Trial. Honestly, Bob, Az’ga, and I tried to make sense of Chet’s instructions. None of us could. I believe Leena’s answers were instinctual, so I don’t think she understood his nonsensical blather either. Anyway, she got SS.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She barely pulled off an F-rating in the Strength Trial. And I mean barely.

The tacks really bothered her. She almost got herself killed a couple times right at the beginning. She wouldn’t commit to just grabbing and hefting the ball. She kept looking for a way to hold it without her hands getting penetrated by the tacks. That can’t be done. She almost didn’t get the ball up in time to avoid death.

Then, when it was up, she almost dropped it trying to roll it up to her shoulder. She gave up and just held it to her chest with both arms as best she could. The look of absolute torture on her face as she shuffled around avoiding the light caused Bob, Az’ga and me to crack up laughing the whole time. A clip of it went right into my favorites folder.

When she got back, she was wearing her yoga pants and tight shirt again, and everyone had started running the Trial on F rating.

Dan was taking turns arming and sparring with the other members of my team. They’d get their own from the exhibit, but they needed weapons to run the Combat Trial.

Ace got one of Beelzebub’s swords, as did Carlos. Dan only had one shield Austin and Chet would share. He had a bow and a quiver that went to Luke. Becky could make her own bow. Nick and Leena wanted a weapon with some reach so had the spears that came from the Combat Trial.

Dan sparred with everyone multiple times. A few others sparred together too. Chet and Becky sat off to the side and focused on clearing their channels.

When Dan had to leave, he told everyone he’d meet them at the Combat Trial when he got back.

A decent sized tent-city was growing outside the Sanctuary of Revelation. Dotty and Andrew waited for Dan at the spot they had talked at last time.

Things were going better than expected and most participants had no issue with the prudish rules Dotty and Andrew were enforcing. There were only a few, but still, I was hoping most participants would’ve rejected such tyranny.

“We did have to kill a couple people,” said Dotty. “I wish we didn’t, but some of these guys are just animals. The stories I’ve had to listen to are heart wrenching. I can’t understand how some people are acting so crazy. But thankfully most people are behaving and fitting right in with no issues at all.”

Dan nodded his head in response.

“There’re some guys we’re looking for too,” said Dotty. She turned to Andrew and asked, “Did you bring those wanted posters?”

“I did.” Andrew handed Dan four drawings of participants wanted for various crimes. Murder, rape, the usual. One of the drawings was for a group of nine men supposedly outside the Trial of the Shining One, robbing or extorting everyone they could.

I believe I mentioned it before, but the Profile Reader recommends participants complete the Boneyard Trials in a specific order. The story order. Trial of the Shining One first, then the exhibit, Rapture, Scouring, Bak’ung, and Savages last.

Doing the exhibit first is smarter. In fact, that order is mostly wrong if participants want to live.

The Trial of the Shining One isn’t all that hard on F rating, so that being first isn’t truly bad advice. And because of the recommended order, it gets a lot of traffic, especially early on.

Dan said he’d deal with the nine participants at the Trial now and keep his eyes out for the other three, but the whole reason why he had wanted to meet with them that day had to be postponed. He rescheduled a new meeting for the next morning.

Then he headed for the Trial of the Shining One. When Dan was a good distance from it, one of the three men waiting outside of it yelled out, “What the hell is that thing with you?”

As Dan continued forward, he loudly replied, “My summons. From an Orbment.”

A few moment later, the same guy said, “You better freeze where you are if you don’t want to be filled with a bunch of new holes.”

This guy was speaking my language. Dan stopped. The man said, “Smart of you. You can leave with your life and go about your business, but only if you do exactly what I say. Strip naked and leave everything on the ground right where you are.”

“Naw,” replied Dan.

After a pause, the man said, “What do you mean?”

“I mean I ain’t doing it.”

There was another slight pause. “You don’t have a choice.”

“I reckon I do. I done made it.”

One of the other guys yelled out, “What?”

“I ain’t giving y’all nothing.”

The first guy to talk yelled out, “Alright then. It’s your funeral, son.”

All three men were close to level 20 with 1-Star Classes. They had different mana-types but all three had the Missiles Orbment slotted, and they all invoked at the same time. Two of the men never finished their invocations. They were too close together. Ashen Ruin’s Incinerate killed them both.

Dan was running forward as he knocked the missile streaking towards him aside with a lava-covered left hand. He tried shooting a little ball of lava at the last mortal but missed.

There’s a 16 second cooldown on First Rank Missiles so the guy was trying to grab a bow from one of his dead friends as Dan split his head open with a lash from his whip.

As Dan was looting the corpses, he whistled and said, “You see these boots, Ashen? These are Lucchese. Expensive. About Nicky’s size too. He’ll love these.”

As Dan was cutting the heads off the corpses, six participants exited the Trial. That’s how they were farming it. Three outside extorting anyone that approached while six ran the Trial.

So, the six guys saw what Dan was doing and went to attack. Not one of them got an attack off before STORM killed them all.

Dan finished up looting, threw what was left of the corpses in the Trial, and ran it once on SS. He had only cut off three heads. They were tied together by their hair, and he was holding them as he ran back to the Sanctuary of Revelations.

A few moments later, he saw another wanted participant heading to the Trial he just left. The man looked to be beat up and in rough shape.

Dan called out, “Hey! Hold up,” dropped the heads, ordered Ashen Ruin to stand in place, and ran to the man.

The man froze and put his hands up as soon as Dan yelled out. Once Dan reached him, the man said, “I don’t want any trouble. I don’t have anything left to steal. Search me and see.”

“I have this here drawing that seems to be your likeness.” Dan fished the drawing out of his backpack and held it out to the man.

Without even looking at the offered drawing, the man, with a big smile of amusement on his face, said, “Only in this place would I ever come across a redneck barbarian with a monster companion. I’m guessing that thing’s from a summoning Orbment? No offense meant, but that outfit and accent don’t mix well.”

Dan asked, “This you in this drawing?”

The man took the drawing and looked at it. “Looks like me, but I certainly didn’t do this. I bet I know who said I did. I woke up with this girl rummaging through my pockets. I grabbed her and she went apeshit. I yelled a little, mostly to get her to calm down, but that’s it.”

Dan looked the guy over as the man spoke.

The man added, “I swear I didn’t do this. This place is insane. That girl is the first person I saw since leaving the starting place. I got jumped after, chased away from another big group, jumped again, and…I’m not even attracted to women.

“Look, I don’t want to come off as callous, and I know it sounds terrible to say, but look at me. If I were interested, I’d have no issue picking up women. After arriving here and seeing just how insane people can be, believe me, the last thing I want is to join their ranks.”

Dan asked, “How long you been in the Boneyard?”

“This area? I got here last night. The incident with the girl happened, uh, a couple hours after dawn. There’s a big group of people outside the building in the middle, the…what’s it called? Uh…”

“Sanctuary of Revelations.”

“Yeah. A bunch of guys chased me when I approached. Now I know why. The tablet thing said I should do a Trial over this way first. I was heading there. I’m just trying to keep my head down and stay alive, maybe hook up with a good group. Believe me, I have no intentions of kidnapping and raping women or whatever else I’m being accused of.”

Dan asked, “No one in your tutorial area to party with?”

The man laughed and said, “Plenty. We started with about 200 people. There’s well over a hundred still, but some assholes took control the first day. I ran Trials at night while they were sleeping. I got lucky by escaping. I’m hoping I can find enough people willing to help the rest out.”

“Yeah,” said Dan. “There’re ways to help.” He nodded towards the paper. “We got to take care of this first. Describe the girl you say tried robbing you.”

“Younger. Late teens to mid-20s. Dark, straight, short hair. Slim, waify. She had a cut on her left cheek and a scar on her chin.”

“Any moles?”

“Yes. Above her lip. Kind of a big one. That’s the only one I noticed or remember. She kind of smelled too.”

Dan said, “That’s her. Let’s go clear your name. What is it, by the way?”

“Luke.”

“We got a Luke in my tutorial,” said Dan as he shook hands. He walked with the guy to collect his heads off the ground and brought him to the outskirts of the growing tent city.

Dan called one of the guards over. He told the new Luke, “Sorry, but I don’t like being crowded, so we got to wait here.”

The guard was the little mortal, Kurt. When he arrived, he said, “Hey. You’re Dan, right?”

“Yeah,” said Dan as he shook Kurt’s hand. “It’s Kurt if I’m remembering right.”

“Yup.”

“I killed those wanted guys at the Trial of the Shining One. Here’s three of their heads.”

Kurt just looked at the heads and asked, “What’re we supposed to do with these?”

“I thought Dotty and Andrew might want to put them on pikes or whatnot. To warn off other folk thinking of doing similar.”

Kurt made a face as he took the heads. Dan said, “This guy’s wanted too, but I think he’s innocent. The girl accusing him also said I done the same. I didn’t. I think she ain’t right in the head and needs help. If a rancher named Bill from Texas showed up here, he can confirm. He’d be an older guy in his forties with someone that don’t talk named Quiet.”

“I know them both,” replied Kurt.

“Good. This’s Luke. Like I said, I don’t think he done it. I don’t know what system y’all set up, but I hope y’all treat him fairly.”

“We will,” said Kurt. “Dotty and Andrew are in the Sanctuary. I’ll let them know when they get out.”

“Thank you. Much appreciated,” replied Dan. He turned to Luke and said, “Good luck, man. Nice meeting you.”

Dan ran back to the Tutorial area trying to avoid people. A lot more participants were entering the Boneyard, so it wasn’t easy, and a lot of monsters were spawning. If he was paying closer attention instead of being a crazy, he would’ve seen one of the two remaining wanted men.

He helped kill all the spawned creatures. Since there were a lot of people there, he just left the loot and hurriedly entered the tutorial area.