When Logan jogged up the stairs and caught up with Asthea, he couldn’t help shuddering in relief. The damp stone staircase felt like he’d just walked into a cooler. His skin was as red as a lobster, and it felt even worse—like flayed barbeque. At least the cool breeze helped relieve his itchiness. This System ‘reset’ couldn’t come soon enough.
“Asthea,” he said. “We’re going to be in the thick of it soon. We’ll have our hands full with your guards. Can I ask a question before we join them?”
Asthea glanced at him with a frown. The stairs were wide enough that they could stand side-by-side without touching elbows. “What is it?”
“That communication marble you used when we first met. You mentioned the cost, but not how you bought it. How can I get one of those?” Not to mention the resurrection marble.
Asthea had said the communication marble cost 150,000 KarmaCoin, but he had enough to burn and if he didn’t manage to hurry everyone along, having the option to contact Lara would be a literal life saver.
Asthea absently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Ah. You received a hefty trial reward, didn’t you?”
“Well…” Logan scratched his face and then promptly regretted it when it irritated his skin.
Asthea resumed her climb up the stairs and Logan followed. “It’s not a secret. We all know the System hands out rewards to the winner. But that’s nothing compared to what awaits us in the Tactician Trial. Hah! Don’t worry, you’ll soon be eating fur.”
…Eating fur? Was that like eating crow?
“But I’m afraid I can’t help you. The communication crystal came from the System market. If your world hasn’t received Classes yet, you won’t have access to the market either.” She paused on the stairs and punched him in the shoulder. “But you shouldn’t have to wait too long! System Integrations are brutal; your population will reach the threshold soon enough.”
The threshold? What threshold? But before Logan could ask, they’d reached the base of the stairs. Asthea paused, suddenly hesitant.
“What’s wrong?” asked Logan.
“I’ve been acting under the expectation that everything will be normal. But the way the System has been acting since your AI infected ours… well.” Asthea bit her lip. “What if he doesn’t come back?”
Arsen.
Asthea had used the resurrection marble. The fact that Arsen hadn’t immediately woken up must have been eating at her for the last hour. Logan was surprised that she’d managed to do so well in the perception trial if she’d been that distracted.
“It was an S grade item. From what you told me, those aren’t something you have to worry about. They do what they’re designed to do. Asthea, I’m in no way an expert at any of this… I’m just going through a System Integration, but the only way to find out is to face it head on.”
Asthea’s face was pale. “You’re right. You have to be right.” Mumbling underneath her breath, she whispered, “You better be right.” Striding forward, she stepped over the top of the stairs and Logan followed.
Just like that, Logan couldn’t think of anything but what the hell, what the hell, what the hell. It was as if he’d entered a mutant human car wash.
The first thing he felt was wind, blasting the dirt and dried blood off his body, followed by a surge of pure adrenaline, as if the System had inflated him like a balloon, wind him up and watch him go.
Looking down, he could only gape as his skin healed as if someone had snapped their fingers and said, okay, reset time. His pain and fatigue washed away; he felt refreshed and raring to go, and he could even tell that his swim trunks had been repaired and washed as if they’d been drycleaned.
Holy crap.
As the feeling faded, Logan peered around the clearing. The same purple pockmarked moon dominated the sky, the bright sun making his eyes water after being subjected to the System’s artificial blue bulbs for so long. Long green grass crinkled underneath his feet, a breeze sending the scent of flowers wafting past his nose. Thirty feet in front of them were the same odd, free-standing white doors that went nowhere.
Next to them, Arsen, Errol and Thorin looked around in confusion. Their hair looked pristine, back to long ponytails, their armour intact, and each man was spotless without a speck of blood or gore. But although the System had returned them to the state they’d been when they’d entered the chamber, something wasn’t right.
Thorin kept glancing at his chest, touching it and bracing himself as if he were expecting pain. Errol went through contortions as he glanced at his back, lifting his armour and checking that his skin was intact. Shaking his hand, he kept peering at his fingers as if wanting to make sure he had all five digits.
And worse yet, Arsen was scratching his skin, brushing his clothes, hitting himself as if looking for insects that were no longer there. Aww, man. Logan had been hoping they wouldn’t remember their deaths. Thorin and Errol’s demise had been run of the mill, but Arsen had gone through literal torture. The poor man deserved a break.
Asthea let out a cry of relief. Bursting into a run, she rushed over to Arsen and hugged him, clinging to him as if she never wanted to let go.
Arsen rested a gentle hand on her back. The System had transformed her, healing the rips in her armour, her hair clean as if she’d just walked out of a shower. “Asthea, what did you do? I shouldn’t be here. How…” Arsen’s eyes widened, and his hands clenched on her back before he pulled his hand away and stared at the spatial storage bracelet on his wrist. “You didn’t.”
Interesting. Now that Logan knew it was there, he could see the bracelet, but it blurred in front of his eyes and his gaze kept wanting to go elsewhere, as if he were compelled to look away.
Thorin and Errol had brightened when they got sight of Asthea, but now they looked on in confusion.
“Oh Asthea,” said Arsen with a sigh, pushing her back so he could look her full in the face. “Why didn’t you just let the insects finish me off? That resurrection crystal was for you and the direct line of succession. Now you’ve wasted it on a lowly guard.”
A sudden fire burned in her eyes. “Wasted?” she spat. “You were going through agony. Why shouldn’t I save you pain? It was only KarmaCoin.”
Arsen closed his eyes, his expression pained. “Only KarmaCoin. Your mother is never going to forgive me.”
Asthea jabbed him in the chest. “If she gives you trouble, send her to me.”
“That fails to solve the problem you created, girl. That was our only crystal. What am I supposed to use now if I need it?”
Astha snorted. “Are you planning on killing me anytime soon? No? I didn’t think so.”
Errol gave them a look of confusion. “Why did you need to use the resurrection crystal?”
Asthea stepped away from Arsen and turned to face them. “There were problems. Problems outside of our control.”
Thorin went to say something, but then he narrowed in on Logan. He nudged Errol with his elbow. “I think I know what these problems were, or rather who.”
As one, both Thorin and Errol shot him narrowed eyed glares, their necks bulging, a red flush overtaking the skin underneath their fine white fur.
“You,” Thorin spat, removing his massive sword from his spatial storage. It was ten inches in width and double the length of Logan’s baseball bat. “What did you do?”
Errol removed his bull whip from his spatial storage and fingered the metal cable, his eyes dark, his mouth in a snarl. “A cheater! Tell me you beat him in the agility trial, Asthea! Tell me he didn’t take your prize!”
Shit. The last thing Thorin and Errol remembered was how they’d ended their trials, both of them convinced that Logan was doing something to take advantage. The men needed a reality check. The only advantage he’d had was the skills the System had given him.
Arsen gave Logan a hard look. “The off-worlder stole what was rightfully hers. Every trial. He did something to the tigers and walked away with the endurance bonus, and then in the dexterity trial….” Arsen hesitated.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“What?” said Errol, as if imagining the worst. “What did he do?”
Arsen gave Logan a penetrating, considering glance. “We had trouble in the dexterity trial. System trouble. If…” Arsen swallowed, and his expression looked far away.
“If what?” Asthea nudged him with a soft smile.
Arsen looked back at her before sagging in place, his stance becoming less severe. “Without the trickster, Asthea would have gone through an ordeal.”
Errol blinked, looking speechless. “But why did you bother competing? It was the dexterity trial. Why not feast and relax?”
Arsen crossed his arms with a glower. “We had to. We were trying to get Asthea at least one bonus.”
Asthea’s smile wobbled. “And I did triumph, I won the perception trial!”
Arsen’s frown was so deep it emphasized newly formed wrinkles around his mouth. “Oh Asthea,” he said sadly. “I’m sorry.”
Asthea bit her lip. “Don’t say that!” she said, her eyes shining. “Mother will be impressed that I made it through each attribute trial and pulled out a win at the end.”
Thorin and Errol looked at each other and then Thorin turned towards Logan with a wide, unhinged smile. The scar across his nose combined with his expression made him look like a textbook illustration for the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. “We can solve your problem right here. He has the rings—I can sense them. His aura is immense! Why does the queen need to know that you didn’t win?” He panted with a toothy grin. “You could win them all.”
Errol looked confused at first before something dark seeped into his eyes, his grey wolf ears standing straight up. If he had a tail, it would be swaying back and forth. He fingered his whip and eyed the space around Logan’s neck. Taking a step forward with his incisors flashing, he got ready to aim.
Seriously? Murder? Why don’t they carve him up and have a feast while they were at it! Logan felt like rocks were roiling in his guts. That had escalated quickly. What’s worse was that he had nowhere to go. He couldn’t retreat—there was no escaping this trial—and if he ran away, darting around the clearing, he’d looked weak and an easy victim. And yet he had no guarantee of victory in a head-to-head fight.
There was only one way they’d get these rings—by killing him. Although Logan had advanced in the trials to a massive degree, his level was nowhere close to the others. Even accounting for his stealth player status, he knew this hadn’t been the first time Asthea’s guards had made it through the trial. Logan had no way to quantify just how high their attributes were, only knowing what [Idiot’s Inspect] told him.
[Thorin Silverdagger: Level 92. A Silverthorn male. Highest stat: Strength.]
[Errol Silverdagger: Level 76. A Silverthorn male. Highest stat: Strength.]
[Arsen Silverdagger: Level 89. A Silverthorn male. Highest stat: Endurance.]
Against one, he’d have a chance. Maybe even against two. But he had no confidence that he’d win a straight up fight against all three of them.
His muscles tensing, Logan planted his legs wide and bared his teeth as his mind raced through the possibilities. If this ended up in a life-or-death fight, Logan wasn’t certain he’d come out on top, but he couldn’t let them know he had doubts.
“If I were you, I’d rethink that.” Reaching deep, Logan consciously tried to project strength and anger, radiating his aura outward. Mess with me? See what you’ll get.
Thorin and Errol growled in response, blue veins standing out on their necks.
Just when Logan was contemplating removing the Cursed Rope out of his spatial storage, Asthea sighed and strode forward.
“Thorin!” she snapped, flicking him on the nose with a sharp nail. “I’ll pretend I didn’t understand what you were suggesting, but you best not say that again or the rest of the clan will hear of it.”
Thorin’s growl cut off like a chastised dog. “But—"
“No buts! We aren’t thugs. We’re civilized. Principled.”
Errol lowered his whip and looked sheepish, but Thorin was still enraged, his fingers white-knuckled on the handle of his sword.
Arsen blew out a breath of agitation. “Stand down. Before the dexterity trial, there would have been nothing more I’d like better than to stab the off-worlder, carve out his heart and present it to Asthea on a platter, but not now. Not after what he did. She’s right. She’s to be your ruler one day. Are you suggesting she start her reign with deception, murder, and theft?”
Thorin let out one last growl and then his head drooped. “But it’s not fair. He ruined Asthea’s Trial of Awakening!”
Asthea rested a hand on his arm. “His world is going through a System Integration. His tactics weren’t appreciated, but we can give him allowances considering the stakes.”
Thorin scowled and shot Logan a murderous glare. “So he says.”
Gradually, Logan’s tension decreased, but he kept a careful eye on Thorin’s grip around his sword. The debt he owed to Asthea had just gotten steeper. Without her, this would have devolved into a situation he might not have been able to avoid.
Logan cleared his throat. “I didn’t set out to intentionally ruin your trial. If we could have both won, I would have been happy. But…” He blew out a breath. “Asthea’s right. I have people depending upon me. A world depending upon me. But there was nothing malicious to any of this. Down the road, if I can pay you back, I will.”
Asthea gave him a soft smile. “See!” she said to her guards. “He can play nice. That means you can too.”
Asthea turned to the white doors with a spring in her step, grasping Arsen by the arm and nudging him playfully. But as soon as she was facing away, Thorin and Errol shot Logan dark, murderous glances.
His hair standing up on the back of his neck, Logan clenched his fists and followed.
***
Unlike the last door, Logan knew there was an immediate change as soon as he stepped across the threshold. Instead of entering the same meadow, the dimension within a dimension had sent them to a… white room. Nothing but white floor, white walls, white ceiling. All he could see was bright blankness. Worse of all, the room led nowhere.
They were trapped.
Ding!
[Welcome to part two of the trial! Capture the egg! Objectives: become a master tactician and lead your army to victory by stealing the enemy’s egg and protecting your own.]
[The winner of this trial will receive 25 levels and an extra reward that is dependant upon overall performance. The runner-up will receive 5 levels but no extra reward.]
[There is no reward for third to fifth place. We’re not running a daycare here, Idiot.]
[XP is available but only awarded for every Non-Player Character (NPC) that you kill directly. Army kills will not award XP. If an NPC kills you, your death will not be permanent.]
[The death nullability applies to NPCs only.]
[Enjoy your trial.]
Logan felt like he’d walked into a brick wall.
He couldn’t believe it. Was he reading this right? Twenty-five extra levels?! That would mean… He gulped. If he won, he’d have 125 free attributes that he could dump into intelligence and wisdom, skyrocketing his Karma pool and regeneration rate. If he decided to dump them all into intelligence, that would mean he’d expand his Karma pool to over 1,410.
Hell yes.
Not to mention that it would jack up [Regenerate] since the level of the skill was dependant upon his Grade.
Until now, Logan had viewed the army trial as more of a pain, something that he needed to get through to exit the portal and return to the real world. Now? Now he was rethinking everything.
Logan paced, doing calculations. When he’d entered the portal, he’d had a cushion since he was ahead of schedule due to the snake swarm chase. That cushion was gone now that he’d lost a day, but he’d gained something just as good. Endurance. He should be able to run full out along the shore and jump into the canoe to get around rocky terrain. Realistically, he could cut at least two days off his journey, maybe even three if he cut back on sleep.
He had time here. A couple of days at most, but time enough to win.
With a bright grin, Logan turned to Asthea. “How do we get started?”
Ding!
[As the winner of part one of the trial, please select the order in which the members of your party will compete. Rank the participants from one to five, one being first, fifth being last.]
This just kept getting better. With a surge of excitement, Logan mulled over his choices.
There was no question. He needed to expedite this as much as possible, which meant that he’d have to nudge the hotheads along and make them rush through the trial. That left only one person for first place.
Thorin. The man had been triggered by just the thought of Logan beating him in the strength trial, ruining his body and making it impossible for him to compete in the agility trial. He should be easy to rile.
For Errol, he was less certain, but he seemed less stable and experienced than Arsen, so the chances of Logan working him up were good.
Arsen was a head-scratcher. He had seemed to have a level head on his shoulders when they’d first entered the trial, acting like an advisor to Asthea, but as they progressed and Logan continued to beat him, his temper had gotten worse, his bitterness like a living thing. But now, he’d mellowed out as if the dexterity trial had taught him patience and humility. Logan gave himself a fifty-fifty chance of forcing Arsen into a rash decision.
That left Asthea. His fiercest competitor. She was a princess, which meant she had to have been schooled in warfare and tactics. Out of all the Silverdagger Clan, she was even-tempered and less likely to make a rash decision due to a taunt. She was the one he was the least certain about.
Decision made, Logan went through the list, mentally sorting them in the order he wanted:
1. Thorin
2. Errol
3. Arsen
4. Asthea
5. Logan
[…]
[Selection confirmed!]
The others looked off in the distance, that faraway look everyone got as they read their stat screens. Thorin looked thrilled, but Arsen and Asthea were giving Logan knowing looks.
“Hah hah!” said Thorin. “You needed a master to show you the way, didn’t you, trickster?”
In front of them, a doorway formed as if someone had used a massive cookie-cutter to scoop it out. White light shone around the edges, making it difficult to see the other side.
Thorin clapped his hands in excitement. Without any hesitation, he rushed through, his ponytail swinging behind him.
One after another, the rest followed until Logan was the only one left.
He had no idea what awaited him in this trial. Capture the egg sounded ridiculous, but it was possible that it was a warped version of Capture the Flag. Leading an army was so far out of his wheelhouse it was laughable, but he could say the same for everything that had happened since the System Integration.
Whatever awaited him, he welcomed the challenge.
Taking a deep breath, jumping in place and bouncing on the balls of his feet, Logan rushed towards the doorway and let it swallow him whole.