Aldrek Misch stood in a recently created clearing. The trees had been tightly packed together in this part of the forest, and he’d needed to clear space for the massive ritual designed to help him reach Tier 2.

The creation had required decades of work. He’d spent years studying the memoirs of his homeworld’s original inhabitants, looking for clues that would help him design something capable of beginning his Attunement. To his chagrin, even Meld couldn’t easily elevate the mana of a Tier 1 world.

After over a century spent at the peak of Tier 1, as the end of his life was approaching, he’d finally succeeded. The ritual circles themselves still covered the clearing, pathways designed from mana as pure as he could create. They painted an elegant picture across the turned-over topsoil, despite the foggy, viscous fluid protecting them from the mana in the environment.

They were, unfortunately, entirely useless.

Aldrek no longer needed a ritual to surpass his lifelong Neophyte status. He was still in a trial, instead of the world that he would soon be unleashed into, but the environment matched the Tier 3 world where it could be found. He could step into Tier 2 at any time, in theory.

In practice, the Trialbringer had interceded to break the mana he utilized at every turn. It had prodded him with a reminder that he had to give the invasive delvers four hours to find him and slay him before he would be allowed to proceed.

It was enough to make him regret accepting the quest, no matter how lucrative the rewards and easy the foe.

He’d initially thought it a joke or a punishment when the Trialbringer requested his presence as a boss in an Aspirant trial. He’d assumed his powers would be significantly hamstrung, that it was a form of punishment. The prompts had easily answered his every doubt, and the rewards surpassed his grandest dreams for life after reaching Tier 2.

Nobility status on a Tier 3 planet, with already present sapient undead? The rewards far exceeded the difficulty of acting as a trial boss monster.

He’d accepted, after a small amount of thought, assuming that this must be a reward for the genius he’d shown in designing his own tier-up.

Now, staring at a timer that prevented his growth, with the vast majority of his forces back home, Aldrek was not so certain. He’d only been allowed to bring a single one of his Neophyte students along, and the cost had left him with only five golems and half a dozen woven zombies.

The force should be absolutely overwhelming when placed against a group of Aspirants, but Aldrek had not lived for so long in a broken world covered with monsters like himself by fighting his enemies face to face.

His Tier 0 followers possessed some intelligence, but the resources required to awaken sapience in an undead was more than he could stomach for all but a few. Fortunately, their connection to him made it easy enough for them to accept orders. Without his presence, they would be reduced to little more than the natural idiocy of an Aspirant monster, but they were tough to kill.

And they were loud. They would bring his enemies straight here, well before he was allowed to ascend.

Aldrek stared at the prompt again, wondering if this level of caution was really necessary against a group of Aspirants.

“Scatter,” He declared. He did not specify his intended recipients, but they knew. Four of the golems left towards the North and East.

“Mori, take one of the golems and head to the South .” Aldrek addressed his student, “Attempt to distract the delvers, but retreat if you are at risk. Do not bring them back to me, instead guide them to the other golems.”

“As you wish,” Aldrek’s decision to bring Mori instead of one of the others was reaffirmed by the young undead’s immediate acceptance of the orders. Mori wasn’t his most powerful follower, but he was loyal and lethal.

With only his woven zombies surrounding him, Aldrek returned to his contemplations after a few minutes. The golems and Mori would act as a screen, keeping the delvers away from him until he could ascend and immediately leave.

The obvious flaw in this plan was the trail his golems would leave, bringing the humans straight to him. A quick command sent to a few of his woven zombies fixed that problem, but also left him nearly completely unguarded.

The question was if this much was enough, and Aldrek felt quite certain that it should be. The golems would be more than capable of delaying Aspirant delvers if they couldn’t kill them outright.

Still, settling for good enough seemed unnecessarily lazy. He had nothing to do for the next few hours, the time might as well be used creating a few surprises for the delvers if they did manage to reach him.

Getting to work helped to calm his mind, but even all of these precautions seemed inadequate to a small part of Aldrek’s mind.

The histories he’d read described trials with a good amount of detail, thanks to their importance to the Trialbringer’s realm. Aldrek had never lived in a world with active trials, but he knew the facts.

Aspirant trials, even Hard Mode, weren’t meant to kill Pathwalkers. They were meant to test them.

What kind of Aspirants was he up against, if a peak Neophte was meant as a test?

*****

“That’s stronger than we had hoped,” Jess grimaced. The others had all quickly followed Alex’s example of checking the prompt to see what the trial required of them. Learning that it was a monster mere hours away from reaching Tier 2 was well beyond their expectations.

After hearing the Stirlings’ story, they’d assumed the boss for their own trial would be around the middle of Tier 1. They had been unsure if the boss would have a mana type, but assumed that it would.

Alex wasn’t concerned by the knowledge that the boss monster was at the peak of Tier 1. The exact level of the monster didn’t matter too much when the Trialbringer could raise the attributes regardless.

What worried him was the knowledge that the monster could reach Tier 2 in a matter of hours. Not only did the monster have a mana type, it was proficient in using it. The monster being level twenty-four guaranteed that it would have an overwhelming attribute advantage against them as well.

“Just how far can Inspire boost you?” Becca asked Alex.

“I’m not sure of the specifics,” Alex admitted, “I can go significantly further than I have in Hard Mode trials, though.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“That’s probably why it’s so high level,” Muhammad theorized, “The Trialbringer gave us a monster that’s a serious threat even when you’re boosted as far as you can go.”

Alex agreed that the theory made sense. Earth’s warriors hadn’t challenged Hell Mode with anywhere near enough frequency to understand its intricacies, but the difficulty scaling to match the challengers wasn’t unreasonable.

Jess nodded, “We’re not going to give up just because the monster is stronger than expected. Because of the time crunch, we have to move quickly. Muhammad, stay close by while scouting, we’ll engage the first monster you find.”

The alien trees provided good cover, but they weren’t densely packed enough to make moving around as a group difficult. They moved with Jess at the front and Alex at the back. They hadn’t yet faced any undead monsters with a talent for ambushes, but that didn’t mean they could relax.

There was a nervous tension building in the air, as minutes went by without Muhammad returning. No one worried about his absence, but they did wonder what it meant that they hadn’t yet found any monsters. The boss was a sapient, was it drawing all of the monsters together for one massive battle?

Finally, after what felt like a half hour but was only a bit more than twelve minutes according to their trial quest, Muhammad returned.

“Found a trail left by a big one,” he stated, “It’s alone.”

The group was spurred on by this finding and quickly rushed to follow Muhammad. They weren’t the stealthiest bunch, but they did their best to remain quiet. A monster by itself in Hell Mode would likely be a strong foe, and fighting it alone to get an idea of what they were up against was exactly what they wanted.

They caught the monster in minutes, and it was immediately a surprise that it had taken them so long. It was a tall, clumsy thing. Reminiscent of the golems they’d faced as Hard Mode bosses, it was taller than any human.

Those weren’t the only similarities, as the golem was clearly made from the flesh of multiple people. The skin had decayed unevenly thanks to mismatched years spent unanimated, while other parts had mismatched tones. It was an odd sight that lacked the stitches that held together disparate flesh in Hard Mode bosses.

Instead, the monster’s flesh seemed to fit together near-perfectly. Borders between parts of the body sourced from different people blended in an unnatural merger. Whatever had designed this golem clearly put a great deal of effort into making sure it wouldn’t be made clumsy by ill-fitting body parts.

Alex didn’t waste time considering the differences, instead charging forward to meet it alongside Jess. Becca stayed back, as her Mana Body was poorly suited for the confrontation. Anthony was similarly avoiding the engagement, but close enough to heal if needed.

Before Alex reached the golem, an arrow struck it directly in the right eye, sinking several inches deep. The monster let out a bellow of pain, reaching to pull out the arrow. Alex punished the distraction by slashing into its guts.

Jess followed up immediately, her spear crashing into its knee.

The expression of pain was interesting, as the previous bosses they’d fought hadn’t even shown that much intelligence. It was another difference between this monster and the ones they’d fought previously, but in this case, it was a boon. The golem was driven onto the back foot immediately.

Alex and Jess showed no interest in letting it recover, keeping it off balance. The golem lashed out blindly, and Jess took the strike on her shield instead of dodging. Alex saw the value of her Mana Body as the blow that would’ve at least sent him staggering was weathered with only a slight step back. The shield also held up easily, but Alex saw a grimace on Jess’s face after she took the blow.

It looked impressive, but she clearly hadn’t gotten out quite as unscathed as it appeared.

Alex took advantage of the monster’s focus on his friend over him. Lunging forward and thrusting up into the monster’s unprotected throat. Its reaction was surprisingly swift, and Alex had to abandon his sword to leap back. He’d committed to the strike expecting the clumsy stumbling he’d seen in previous golems, but this one’s smoother physique translated to better reaction times.

Still, he’d expected something like this. It wasn’t fast enough to actually hit him, and the decision to lash out at him with its second arm was immediately punished. An arrow from Muhammad pierced its left eye, leaving it completely blind.

Alex couldn’t help but appreciate his friend’s skill as he took out his second sword from its sheath at his waist. No need to get close and recover his primary weapon, with the monster blinded that would be nearly the only way that it could locate him.

Becca stepped forward to assist. Without any Enhancements improving her Strength, she couldn’t kill it fast, but they needed to maximize her contribution as much as possible. If they hadn’t been on a timer, Alex would’ve likely stepped back to let Becca finish it off from its already crippled state. Instead, he continued hacking away until it finally fell to the ground.

“Dammit,” Jess groaned, “Help me get this shield off my arm.”

Alex rushed over to do so, pulling it off gently.

“I think it’s broken,” Jess continued, “The Enhancement helped limit the force, but that thing hit hard.”

A quick visual examination didn’t reveal a break, but Alex trusted her judgment. Before he could spend too much time examining the arm, he was pushed to the side as Anthony took his place.

“I can heal this,” He said after a glance, “But I don’t have anything that will help with the pain of setting the bone.”

Jess nodded, gritting her teeth, “It already hurts plenty.”

Anthony grimaced in sympathy, placing his hand on her arm near the break. Alex watched as the mana flowed to his hands, where his healing Ability had been placed.

Jess whimpered slightly as the mana flowed into her arm, which Alex didn’t blame her for. He’d broken bones before, but he’d never had one fixed without pain relievers.

“You’re lucky it was so minor,” Anthony stated as his healing finished, “If it was a more severe break I might’ve needed to take a break and regenerate my mana halfway through.”

That sounded horrific, but Jess just nodded, “I was a bit too confident in my Enhancement.”

Muhammad had a concerned expression on his face but hadn’t interrupted until now. With Jess recovered, he hurried over, “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes,” Jess smiled reassuringly, “Anthony fixed me right up.”

Remembering that they were in a hurry, Alex went to recover his sword, “It was faster than a Hard Mode boss, but the Mana Body is nowhere near as impressive.”

“It appears to have been designed with a different goal,” Becca stated, “The pain it showed was proof that it has some low form of intelligence, while the Hard Mode bosses were far more instinctive.”

Alex nodded, “The lack of stitches is worth noting as well. Whatever animated it thought it was worthwhile to make it fit together well.”

“Might be because they’re meant to last longer?” Anthony asked, “Do the monsters escape alongside the boss if we fail?”

“Your parents didn’t specify, but it’s possible,” Becca nodded, “If they’re meant as a more long-term honor guard, it would make sense to create monsters that don’t tear themselves apart over time.”

“The important part is that they’re noticeably more agile,” Jess stated, “The monster didn’t hit Alex thanks to his quick reactions, but the rest of us will have to play it a bit safer.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, “It worked out well, since the golem abandoned defending its eyes to attack me, but that was a bit dangerous.

“It’s good for you and me to be the ones probing their limits,” Jess stated, “I’ll have to be more careful in the future, but you can bait the golem around easily thanks to your reaction time.”

Alex nodded, “Haven’t seen what Inspire does to the Enhancement yet, since we didn’t need the help for this fight. Seems like the normal monsters are strong but manageable.”

“Let’s see if the tracks can lead us anywhere,” Muhammad stated, “We’ve already used up a half hour.”

Alex double-checked his own status and saw that his friend had exaggerated slightly. The point remained, though. They didn’t have time to waste.

The monster's tracks were easy to follow, but they couldn’t rush or else they’d risk running straight into several monsters. Muhammad led them for several minutes before there was a change in scenery.

The tracks vanished. It was as if the monster had simply appeared in the middle of nowhere, with no explanation for how it had gotten there.

“We haven’t come across any other trails,” Muhammad muttered, “Where did the monster come from?”

“We could continue in the direction we’re going,” Alex said, “But if they’re able to cover their tracks there’s a decent chance this was meant to mislead us.”

Muhammad sighed, “Back to looking, I guess. This might take a while.”