Since I was taking the rooms in order of most to least difficult, at least for me, I headed into the ward room next, hoping that I’d be able to use my one good warding spell to get through it.

The inside of this room was rather similar to the previous one, with lots of materials and solidified mana, but instead of woodcarving tools, there was a chisel, paints, and a hammer.

Instead of a target, however, there was a large piece of glass, cut into a teardrop shape.

“You have twenty minutes to construct a ward capable of blocking the curse that will gradually fill this room.”

I wished that Dusk or Kene was with me. With Dusk’s ability to claim a sort of spiritual dominion, and Kene’s purgation spell, either one should be able to do this.

How could I cheat?

An idea sparked in my head, and I waved my hand, opening a portal to Dusk’s realm, then strode over to the colony of people living outside my house, to whom I’d been giving some cheap liquor.

“Hey!” I said, and one of the rotund, grizzled small folk looked up at me.

“What’cha needin’?” he asked.

“Can I get some help constructing a quick ward to block a curse?” I asked. “Not too long. Just fifteen minutes of your time. I’ll get you an extra ration of beer, as soon as I get back to the mainland.”

“Curse, aye?” the bwbatch asked, scratching at its long beard. “Sure enough, we can do that.”

I stepped outside to wait, and a few minutes later, a procession of three bwbatch and a naiad emerged from the portal, I handed them the paints, and they went to work.

They painted out a circle on the floor, imbuing magical power all throughout, layering spells on. Once it was finished, the bwbatch looked up at me and nodded.

“Fair’s fair,” he said. “We’ll hold you to your promise, but I feel the need to tell you this is pretty slipshod work, it won’t last naught but a few hours.”

“Fine by me,” I said. “And I’ll get it for you.”

They walked back into the portal and I let it close behind them, then sat down and waited.

A part of me wondered if I could get away with looting all of the solidified mana in here, since there was a ton, but I thought better of it. The wards here might be out of date, and thus easier to trick, but they’d still been made by an occultist, and I doubted something so simple would go unnoticed.

Instead, I used the time to sketch out my Material Echo spell.

Once the twenty minutes were up, a navy-blue gas filled the room and struck at the ward lines, but it wasn’t able to pierce through. The glass began to glow from the inside, and after a few more minutes, it faded away and the door unlocked.

Finally, I strode into the alchemy room. Much as before, the room was filled with components, this time dried herbs, pickled and preserved monster parts, and a cauldron.

Instead of a target or a glass gemstone, there was a straw body, with a funnel stuck where the mouth should be.

“You have ten minutes to create a potion that will cleanse diseases from your target, and help heal them,” the sage said.

My eyebrows rose. That was… easy!

I hadn’t made many antibacterial and antiseptic potions, but during the Sage’s era, spellcraft to do that was considered fairly advanced.

That no longer held true. Such things could be done with ungated mana.

I ran my mana senses over the shelves, picking out some dried feverfew, witch hazel, and sunset marigolds, then poured water in the cauldron. I tossed the herbs in and started letting them boil as I harvested the unneeded arrays and empowered the ones that could fight disease.

I picked up a bright red flower I didn’t recognize, but I could sense the cleansing array within, as well as the potent poison.

It took me half a minute to cleanse the poison from it, but after that, it joined the pot.

Quickleaf was next. I wanted this to work fast, after all.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Then a bit of echinacea, half a cap of soultoad’s seat – also cleansed of its poison – and some of my own dewdrop feverfew.

I didn’t have time to let the potion reduce into its most concentrated state, but even as it was now, it should be strong enough to trigger the spells in the dummy.

I ladled the potion down the funnel, and after the fourth lade, the door clicked open.

This time, I seriously debated keeping the rest of the potion I’d made. It was a good potion, after all, and I’d put in two of my own plants – or well, one plant and one fungus.

But… It might trigger the wards, since most of the materials were from this realm.

With a sigh, I left it behind and emerged into the main room again.

The three locks on the fourth door were gone now, so I pushed it open and stepped into a room filled with piles of gold, gemstones, jewelry, and ornate weaponry. Each pile stood at least six feet tall, meaning they towered over my head, and

A thin path through the piles of treasure led to a door clearly marked with an exit sign.

“Welcome to your reward chamber,” the sage said in a warm voice. “Please, take as you wish.”

I bit my bottom lip in thought. There was a possibility this was real, but a thin one.

The sage had been from Mossford, after all. Gold was rare in mossford. If he’d been from Suntorch, where gold was more common, I might have considered it, but… No, this gold had to be fake. There was no way I’d be rewarded so richly for a set of challenges.

Sure, I’d only passed because I’d cheated, but Kene could easily tackle two of the three, and Dusk might be able to do all of them, if she learned enchanting.

No, this had to be another test. The question was, what form of test was it?

Should I take one item, and leave? That would be a much more reasonable reward.

Or was it better to take none?

I mulled that over, then considered that I was supposed to get one seventh of the key to the final floor, so there was no way that exit door could be the final exit. Which meant there were good odds this wasn’t a reward chamber at all.

I strode through the room as confidently as I could while also not touching any of the treasure, even when some of it practically assaulted my mana-senses, showing off how perfect it was.

No.

It was a trick.

I picked up my pace until I practically sprinted through the room and to the exit. I threw it open with haste and leapt into the next room, slamming the door shut behind me.

“Well done,” the sage said, his voice still warm, but… more genuine, somehow.

Like the voice recording he’d used in the last room had been intended to lure me into a false sense of security, but this was a kindly grandfather doting on his favorite grandchild.

I glanced around the room. This was a stark stone room with glowstone lights set into the wall, and a recording of the sage sitting in a chair, and a chair across from him. In between the two was an orb that looked rather familiar.

It wasn’t the same as Orykson’s mana control orb, but it was similar.

“The test of greed catches many,” the recording of the sage said, and then gestured to the chair across from him. “Please, sit. One thing many forget is that mana manipulation, senses, and veiling are also universal skills, not unlike wards, enchanting, and potions.”

I sat down and picked up the orb, sending my mana through its pathways, feeling it out.

“You have thirty minutes to bring your mana into the center of the orb,” the sage said. “This tes–”

I’d always been good at mana manipulation, and my training with my mana senses, spatial sense especially, and with them, I was able to sense almost the entire orb at once, then rush my mana through the maze. By the time the sage had finished, I was done.

I’d hoped for a reaction, but instead, the image just vanished. That was fair – it was a recording, after all.

I strode into the next room, which was massive.

It was easily the size of a small sports field, and scattered throughout the stone floor there were statues with blindfolds on. Each one was radiating small amounts of mana, and I got the challenge – use my mana senses to find where the sensory fields were, then veil myself to hide from their sight while crossing the room.

That was a challenge for most, but I Foxstepped across the room. It left me panting slightly, as if I’d sprinted the entire distance, but I was able to take a breath and open the door.

In the other room stood the sage once more, but standing on an altar, with sixbowls placed around him. Each bowl had a different object that let off power of its own, and I entered cautiously.

“Congratulations on completing my challenge, initiate!” the recording boomed. “I promise, this is not another trial in disguise.

He slammed his wizardly staff into the ground, and a red triangle with a curved end, like a slice of pie, appeared on the alter.

“Take this, the first of the seven pieces of the key,” the sage said. “And take from only a single brazier. Do not be greedy, or else you will never leave!”

There was a flash of light, and the sage vanished. Or rather, the recording shut off.

I stared at the spot he’d vanished from and sighed. I swear, everyone who got an inkling of power felt the need to make their exits as dramatic as possible.

I picked up the sliver of the key and tossed it into Dusk’s realm, then looked over the bowls – or braziers, as he’d put it.

I passed over the first two bowls, as while they gave off mana that was powerful, each one was clearly a tool designed to make enchantments and warding better, and thus, wasn’t the most useful for me.

The third bowl, however, had something more interesting, a large, long wooden spoon, imbued with lunar and solar mana. If I was getting the right sensations off it, it could be used to help strain out unnecessary arrays from the liquid base of potions, amplifying the power of the magic that a cauldron had.

The brazier had a monocle lens that glowed with mental and knowledge mana – doubtless something that could further help me amplify my mana senses. They’d proved to be extremely useful so far, so I had no doubt this would further help them along.

The fifth held an item not unlike one I’d seen before. It was an earring, which immediately turned me away from it, but it held solid abnegation magic throughout, suffusing it with a sensation of a veil. An artifact that could help me hide my power, even while casting in combat.

Finally, the last bowl had what looked like a natural treasure in it, a strangely spinning amethyst crystal. I was guessing that it could be used to enhance or amplify the effects of a mana meditation, but it was easily the one I was least sure of.