“Damn,” Alex stared down at the remains of his second attempt at refining an unattuned aperture. It had gone no better than the first one, even though he hadn’t been interrupted this time.

The second hut they’d searched had provided around the same amount of loot. There had been three apertures, but all three were unattuned. There was also more of the veins, but it was similarly unattuned. The attuned items were definitely more valuable than the rest of the lot put together, but they didn’t have any use for them presently.

The surplus of unattuned items was for the best. Alex was not confident that he would get the hang of this Refinement process particularly quickly. The second attempt had been on another poor-quality aperture, and he’d failed in the second sphere. The process of using his mana type was not quick, and his focus had to be maintained the entire time to prevent the item’s destruction.

Apertures were supposed to be pretty hardy, but this blueprint didn’t seem to hold up. The four spheres were smashed together imprecisely, leading to imbalances. It was a marvel that the apertures had even functioned, in Alex’s opinion. The more he examined them, the less convinced he was that either of the two he’d attempted to Refine would function.

Alex’s features were distorted by a grimace as he determined what had gone wrong. Using his mana type was instinctive, but that was actually a problem. He sought out flaws and tried to correct them, and these apertures were riddled with flaws his mana would try to correct.

This meant that the hard part wasn’t removing the creator’s signature. It was making sure that he didn’t remove everything else. The process was an exercise in fine control, where he couldn’t give an inch or else he would cause a cascading effect. The mana, once destabilized, would rapidly fall apart, another sign that the aperture had been poorly made.

“Good thing you started with the worst one,” Anthony grinned at him.

“Oh, shut up,” Alex frowned. There was no malice behind the teasing, but all of the barehanded digging didn’t have him in a good mood. The loot was worth the work, but Alex was feeling sore at this point and didn’t look forward to starting work on opening the third hut.

Trying to break in another way was completely out of the question. Alex could double his attributes and fail to put a dent in the Tier 2 stone. Maybe if they had gear specifically designed for quarrying rock, but even then it would be harder than their current work.

Alex grabbed the next aperture from the pile next to them. He’d decided that he would practice on the lesser apertures, but always make sure he left the best one alone. Once he was confident, he would Refine the best of the lot.

“Let’s open up the next building first,” Jess said before Alex could get started.

“This will just take a few minutes,” Alex was not looking forward to more time spent digging.

“The apertures will be there when you’re done,” Jess replied.

“Sorry Alex, loot is more interesting than watching you stare at a misshapen orb,” Anthony agreed.

Outnumbered, Alex didn’t bother arguing any further. They were both right, even if digging out their entrance was tough work. Alex wasn’t sure if there would be much variation to the loot, but what they were already receiving wasn’t anything to look down on.

Alex’s superhuman Perception gave him an awareness of his surroundings that he struggled to process, at times. The quick progression of both his Perception and Sensitivity over the past weeks forced him to learn to process increasing amounts of sensory information.

Perception was generally considered the hardest attribute to adjust to, and Alex’s talent in this attribute wasn’t quite as overwhelming as it was in Strength and Agility. Inspire had helped, but he’d gained another flurry of attributes in those last minutes before he’d replaced it. Now, he wasn’t quite perfect.

He heard a slight rustle in the nearby grass. It was barely even there, so quiet that he wouldn’t have noticed if his Perception was only a few points later. It was so subtle that his brain didn’t process the noise immediately. He didn’t start moving right away, instead taking a fraction of a second to realize what the noise implied.

By the time he twisted and leapt to intercept the snake, he was too late. Half the distance between the snake and Jess had already been crossed, and his friend hadn’t heard the snake’s jump.

“Snake!” Alex called out as he moved. Jess started to turn around as soon as he began shouting, but she was too slow. The snake’s fangs pierced her back, and the force of its leap knocked her over.

Anthony didn’t hesitate. He was closer to Jess than Alex, and reached her first. Instead of attacking, he immediately started to heal the girl, wary of the poison that was likely flowing through her veins.

He only was able to do so because he trusted in Alex, and that trust was proved valid as Alex reached the fight less than a second after the snake hit Jess. His sword was already unsheathed, and he thrust straight into its thick hide near the center of the body.

The last Neophyte they’d fought had been a more reasonable size, but this one was massive. If Alex tried to grab it with both hands, he wouldn’t be able to make his hands meet around its body. It was over ten feet long, and had to weigh hundreds of pounds. Alex ripped his sword down the body cutting the bottom third of the snake in half.

The snake opened its mouth, releasing Jess from its fangs to turn and face Alex. It flopped as it turned, the catastrophic damage it had already sustained crippled its ability to move.

The snake was, without a doubt, stronger than the last Neophyte they’d fought. It had a powerful stealth Enhancement, but it was so big that Alex had managed to hear it anyway.

The snake recovered quickly, but not fast enough. It completed its turn to discover Alex’s sword bearing down on it again. The monster bobbed out of the way, keeping its head safe. Alex couldn’t be avoided so easily, and his sword cut straight through the snake a foot down the body. It was too close to the ground to avoid this attack so easily, and Alex nearly severed the body.

Stolen story; please report.

The snake lay on the ground dying, and Alex allowed himself a moment to verify his friends’ conditions.

“How’s she doing?” He asked, his eyes not leaving the serpent.

“I started purging the poison before it could really spread, but its potent stuff,” Anthony responded.

“It’s a numbing poison,” Jess gasped. Alex immediately made the connection, if any of her organs had gone numb, it would cause serious problems.

“Do you want the kill?” Alex asked, “Its barely able to move.”

Jess winced, but nodded. She tried to push herself to her feet, but stumbled to her knee.

The serpent tried to lunge at her, but the flat of Alex’s sword smacked its head into the ground. Its magical nature allowed it to survive with an only semi-attached head, but it was slow. Alex’s attack clearly dazed it, and he used the opportunity to grab the body near the head, pushing it into the ground so it wouldn’t be able to attack again.

“Its Toughness is weirdly low,” He stated, “You just have to finish severing the head. Hopefully it will be enough to trigger your tier up.

Anthony helped Jess walk over. Alex had to wonder just how strong the poison was, if Anthony still hadn’t managed to purge it. Maybe there was mana reinforcing it, to make it stickier?

Jess was shaky, but she could still move. Against a tougher monster, she would struggle to land a killing blow, but this enemy was a glass cannon. With Alex holding it down, and Anthony helping her move, it was simple. It took her a few thrusts, but the snake died without putting up any more of a fight.

“That was enough,” Jess stated, and Alex immediately turned to face her. He was eager to watch a tier up in person.

Jess had killed several snakes on the way to the graves, and this was their second Tier 1 opponent. While Alex had defeated it easily, that was because it had chosen the wrong target. If it had attacked Alex, Jess and Anthony would’ve struggled to contain it.

Alex might’ve managed to protect himself, but he couldn’t be sure. This monster had been a mid Tier 1 ambush predator, and it was clearly all in on the archetype. The snake was slower than him, but its Strength was much higher than the first Neophyte they’d faced. Combined with the poison, this snake was a serious threat to any normal Pathwalkers.

The panacea that Jess would receive as part of her tier up would mean that it died accomplishing nothing, and Alex grinned at the thought.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Jess shuddered.

Alex’s grin died, “I wasn’t looking at you.”

Before Jess could respond, the Tier Baptism began. Alex barely perceived a flicker in the environment as high level mana entered Jess’s body. Unlike the other Baptisms they’d gone through, this one was near immediate. One second, Jess was hunched over and short of breath. The next, she was standing up with a wide smile on her face.

“Wow, that’s a rush,” Jess declared, “Even better than the Area Baptism we got from the trial.”

“Feel any different?” Anthony asked. Both he and Alex knew the answer was yes, a Rare tier up would boost all of Jess’s attributes by five points, but details were always nice.

“A lot,” Jess replied, “I can feel my soul, now. A lot more than I could before with the Connection I had.”

“You have twenty-one now, right?” Alex asked. She’d received a Rare Achievement, a Legendary Achievement, a Baptism, and now a Rare tier up over the past days. The result was a Connection double the benchmark all low tier Pathwalkers strived to surpass.

“Yeah,” Jess replied, “But its more than that. I kind of felt it in the Area Baptism, the change to your soul in high quality mana. It’s different, now that its permanent.”

Alex could understand what she was saying. When he’d gone through the Greater Baptism, his soul had been so close. It had felt more a part of him than ever before, but he’d known that the experience was fleeting.

He smiled a bit at the memory. He hadn’t been able to enjoy the feeling of near-completeness, instead focusing on his situation, but the memory was still far more fond than a fight to the death should be.

He cleared his thoughts, returning to Jess, “I know what you mean. The knowledge that it’s not permanent sours the feeling with a normal Baptism.”

Anthony nodded, “Want to go hunting? If that pushed Jess over the edge I should be pretty close.”

“I think the Aspirants grant next to nothing,” Alex disagreed, “We need to stumble across another Neophyte if we want to get you the last level.”

Anthony sighed, “Yeah, I know.”

“It might be sooner rather than later,” Alex reassured him, “This is ultimately a survival trial.The monsters probably have the same compulsion to hunt us as the monsters on Earth.”

“You don’t believe what that zombie boss said in the trial?” Anthony asked.

“It should be true for sapient monsters,” Alex replied, “What’s the difference between a quest and a compulsion for the beasts?”

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Jess stated, “But you’re right that the monsters are likely going to come to us. The buildings we’ve already opened are defensible, if a horde eventually makes its way here.”

“You want to stay around here instead of exploring more?” Alex asked.

“At least until you’re ready to tier up,” Jess nodded, “If we had to fight this snake alongside a few other monsters, I might’ve died.”

The statement put a halt to Alex’s prepared argument. He’d been ready to say that they should go out and earn more points after clearing this area, but Jess was right. If the snake had ambushed them in the middle of a fight, or attacked while most of them slept, it would’ve been a dangerous battle.

Instead, it had come alone. Common sense had been overwhelmed by the need to end their lives, which might’ve saved one of their lives instead.

Were there any stronger serpents yet to attack?

“I’ll start cutting the grass,” Alex declared, “It will make it harder for a monster to approach undetected.”

“Good call,” Anthony nodded, “Next time, we won’t get caught off guard.”

“One of us will have to keep watch at all times,” Jess said, “Probably Alex, most of the time.”

Alex nodded. Sentry duty didn’t appeal, but the needs of the party were far more important than doing what was fun.

“I can do that, I need to start working on my Soul Aperture, though.” He reminded her.

Jess frowned, “After Anthony tiers up. Until then, we can’t have you in a Guidance-induced trance that distracts you from your surroundings.”

She was right, so Alex just nodded. The reminder that she’d almost died had immediately quelled any high Alex might’ve been feeling after her tier up. They could celebrate after the trial was over. Until then, they needed to stay disciplined.

Alex hadn’t been taking this trial seriously, thinking of it as a trial that could be cleared by normal level nines. That had been foolish. The Trialbringer hadn’t put the portal in front of normal level nines. Assuming that something would be easy was a fast way to die. Mistakes like that weren’t acceptable.

Focusing on Refining apertures or building his own would have to wait for now. Once Anthony was Tier 1, his healing would become even more ridiculous against Tier 1 opponents. That trump card would let Alex take the risk of going through Guidance.