I appeared in a gray stone room, facing off against a large minotaur. The monster let out a bellow, and red light exploded around it, then it rushed me.

I doubted that the lesson would be the same as the last one, but I also wasn’t foolish enough to bet everything on that, so I spent some time dodging back and forth, teleporting out of the way of attacks, waiting to see if anything changed.

When nothing did, I shifted to go onto the offensive, slicing at the minotaur with Briarthreads and Pinpoint Boneshards. It was slow work, but the minotaur was slow and predictable, and I eventually cut it down.

The body vanished, and a door appeared where it had been slain. Beyond the door lay one of the altars with a statue of the sage, and I started to step towards it, ready to take my prize, but paused.

It had to be fake, tempting me with the promise of easy power. I didn’t think the final temperance trial would just be fighting a random minotaur.

I took several steps back and waited, watching the stone walls around me, as well as the door.

Minutes ticked by, and I started to get bored, waiting for anything to change. I waited, and waited, then turned and focused on the air, working to open a portal to Dusk’s astral plane. That took a long time and continuous effort, after all, and while it wasn’t fun, it was at least something to get my mind off the boredom.

Only a short while into the summoning of the portal, however, another monster appeared, this time a large lion, glowing with golden skin, dense with telluric power. I grinned and spun, launching bones into its mouth.

Nemean lions were a rare monster, and if I ran into one in real life, I’d be focused on leaving it alone, or bringing it to a place that could preserve and protect it.

As was, though? It was a classical battle, told in many tales, and its weakness was even more well known – its skin was protected, not its inside.

It felt incredibly gross, bouncing the bone around inside the lion’s gut, but it was undeniably effective, as within a few moments, the lion dissolved, and another door appeared.

I expected this would be a trap too, so I dedicated myself to working on opening the portal to Dusk’s realm, until a new monster appeared, a giant spider. Its carapace was thick, and the webs it spat would have cut down my mobility, but Foxstep let me escape them easily, and I was able to cut it down.

On and on it went, with the wait getting longer each time, and I was beginning to wonder if the sage understood temperance, or if he was really just tasting my patience.

Finally, when I cut down the seventh monster, the Sage appeared.

“Well done in passing the tests of temperance. There remains but one test now, and I warn you… This is a true one.”

The hall slowly began to fill with physical mana. Blades of gray force forged themselves into the air and swung down at my head.

I teleported out of the way, then spun as physical mana started to concentrate behind me. I just barely had the time to dance out of the way of this blade before it formed and sliced through the air.

Already, though, mana was gathering to my side, and I lunged forward.

Had that blade formed faster?

As another formed in mere moments in front of me, and I turned, the blade striking my suit and leaving a thin slice in it, I nodded to myself.

They were definitely forming faster.

I ducked as one slashed out next to my head, then jumped as one appeared next to my feet.

Again, I was grateful for the Magister’s Body, my extra pools of physical energy allowing me to move faster than before. A blade sliced up, slowing only for a moment as my force aura pin pushed it back, and I teleported out of the way.

A line of swords followed in my wake, and I jumped backwards, spinning and stepping back as another erupted from the ceiling.

Not only were they getting faster, they were getting larger, too!

I teleported forwards, getting out of the way of the blade that started to form under my feet, then ducked down in order to dodge a strike to my head. I dove forward and rolled, then teleported out of the way, popping up next to the sage.

That was where I had an idea. I paused for a moment, then just barely stepped out of the way as another large sword lanced towards me…

And struck the sage’s illusion. The illusion vanished, as did the physical mana, all vanishing in a rush of abnegation mana. A moment later, spatial magic flickered over me, and I was brought into the next challenge.

I had hoped that I’d appear in the altar room, given how the last temperance challenge had teased me about it, but I had no such luck.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I did suppose that was fair. The higher levels of the tower and the further you went in the trials, the more time they were supposed to take. I’d only taken a day in the spell room, which had been a time saver to completing it regularly over the course of days or a week, but I still probably had one long haul room left before I was able to complete the trial.

I appeared in a high tower, though, with a dragon curled around the base. It was a large one, easily able to wrap its body around the base of the structure, and it was a deep green color that reminded me of Ivy or Azalea. Judging by the mana it gave off, it was probably around fifth gate. Weak for its gate, a false ascension, but it was still fifth gate. I wasn’t sure how I’d be killing it to escape, if that was the goal, so I really hoped that it was defending my tower, not keeping me as its prize.

That set a pit of dread in my stomach, and as the sage appeared, it grew worse.

“Ah, fair maidens, you seem to have found yourself kidnapped by a fierce and powerful dragon,” the sage said.

I gritted my teeth. I was not a maiden, no matter what he said. His stupid spells were probably going off of my biological sex, and he thought that was…

Wait, maidens?

I turned to see Mallory and Aracelli appearing next to me. Mallory’s left wrist was poorly bandaged, likely something she’d done herself. Aracaelli looked fine, but was clearly tired.

“Many a knight has come to make you all his bride, yet none have succeeded,” the sage continued. “Perhaps…”

“He really is a prick,” Mallory said. “He’s lucky he’s dead, or I’d offer to punch him for you.”

That might actually be the kindest thing that Mallory had ever said to me, come to think of it. I gave her a smile, trying to banish the embarrassment burning in my stomach, feeding it into the anger.

“He’s not great, yeah. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, after finding out he enslaved his familiars, but it still stings to hear someone so far above me degenerate my identity.”

Mallory winced, and while the sage rambled on about the scenario, I tuned him out, waving Mallory over. I carefully redid her bandages, getting them wrapped tighter and stronger, and she tilted her head, like a confused dog.

“Are you a healer too?”

“No, but my partner is, and I’ve seen them bandage me up a few times. I can also do some basic stuff – do you know how many times I burned myself as a kid?”

Mallory’s eyes widened.

“No, not that way,” I said hastily. “I grew up in a bakery. That’s all.”

“Ah,” she said, nodding. “Well, I guess we should get going, looking for the supplies to kill this dragon, aye?”

“Is that our goal?” I asked, “I honestly started tuning him out.”

“Apparently we need to assist the next knight coming to rescue us in two days,” Mallory said. “There are warding, alchemy, and enchanting rooms in the tower. As well as our own combat abilities.”

I glanced at Aracelli, who began to spin in a circle, then lay down to nap.

“I don’t know how much help she’ll be, but I’m a fair alchemist,” I said. “I don’t suppose you know anything about the others?”

“A little bit of enchanting, picked up from Qwin’s family,” she said. “I’ll do what I can.”

“I can make alarm wards too, but I don’t think it’s going to be that useful,” I said.

“Probably not,” she agreed, and we split off to our respective tasks.

The sage may have have been a right belland, but at least he wasn’t cheap. There was an entire room full of dried herbs, powders, crystals, and metals, alongside a set of three cauldrons.

I got excited when I saw a row of sun lotuses. Even though they were all dried, there were still nearly thirty of them.

I swept my mana senses over the room, checking to see if any of the materials were real. Most were composed of mental mana, just illusions, but there were a few things… One of the crystals was radiating a mix of mental, life, and soft, warm solar mana, so I snagged that, and one band of metal was clearly glowing with fiery solar mana. Finally, the stock of the healing components and four cornerstones of alchemy seemed to be real as well.

With the real items stored away, I took a stock of my dried ingredients. Twenty-nine sun lotuses, but only fifteen dried firecreep vines. I could try and supplement with my own, but I wasn’t entirely sure how the illusion would react to me introducing new elements to it.

No, it was best to work on just the resources I’d been given.

There was dried vigor camas and muddy armroot, which meant strength boosting potions were on the table… I’d never made them before, but in a way, that was encouraging. Since this was all an illusion, if I messed up, there would be far less of a problem than usual.

There was a good amount of mist-larkspur, dried mushrooms that gave off mist, and the standard trifecta of breath-aster, sunset-marigolds, and dewdrop-feverfew for healing potions.

Finally, there were huge stores of the four cornerstones: Slowleaf, quickflower, bindingroot, and managrass.

That did give me an idea, though… It was ambitious, but I could start working to combine some potion effects. I would make some ordinary healing potions, but I could also make some blended with slowleaf to spread the healing over time, then use that with bindingroot to try and combine the effect with a strengthening potion.

I pulled down the vigor camas and drained it of the standard plant arrays, then studied what was left.

There were two main arrays that I could clearly see, so I set it to the side, and drained the muddy armroot. That also had three arrays in it, but only one of them was also in the camas, so I drained the other two away, as well as the extra one in the camas itself.

It was possible I was overdoing it – I’d never made a strength potion before, so the other arrays might have been beneficial, but it was better to not risk it.

I measured out the slowleaf to spread the power of the array over about ten minutes, then overcharged my mana to fuel the array in the armroot and camas.

Once it was as packed with energy as I could manage, I mixed it in with the armroot, then allowed the array to start to form in the simmering cauldron. I started prepping my healing potion, measuring out more slowleaf so the effects would have the same duration. That might do nothing, but I was hoping that it would make fusing the two spells easier.

I tossed the leaves into the cauldron, and tried to guide the spell arrays to form. They started to, but some of the parts that hadn’t connected together yet started grabbing onto the strengthening of the potion already in the pot, leaving me with a half form lump of sludge, rather than a viable potion.

I poured it out, frowning. I didn’t think my process had been entirely wrong, but there had clearly been a flaw in the process.

I repeated my experiment, this time forming the healing potion in a second cauldron, then adding bindingroot to both.

With nothing to stick onto, the bindingroot just sat there, the lines of its energy swirling, and I grinned, pouring the two cauldrons together.

The bindingroot connected, and the two arrays, both complete, bound together tightly. The potion turned a vibrant green, with flecks of brown, and I dipped a finger in to taste.

A slow trickle of illusory power and real healing, working together in unison, flowed through my body. I grinned.

It was time to get to work.