The trial grounds were quiet. The only sounds were a faint hum behind the gleaming metal walls, and the quiet breathing of participants sleeping or cultivating.
The low buzz behind a plain and innocuous section of the hangar wall increased slightly, and the Director of the trial grounds focused their perceptions internally.
The Director did not think of themself as “Ix,” although that is what they had been named by the Disciples who had captured them and created them in the form they now knew. Their name was a useful metonymic device when dealing with the biological entities entrusted into their care.
Ix, or the portion of their consciousness most closely aligned with the concept that the name Ix represented, began their standard daily routine.
Localized time reference: 85:43:00:01. Day 4 of trial group DQD1/83H.
Diagnostic function: Initializing…
Critical Functionalities:
Matrix integrity…100%
Coherence…>6 sigma
Recursivity…<0.1x10^-13
Primary directives…Intact
Capability Measurements:
Pocketed space volume: 20,200 m^3
Dimensional stability: 100%
Trial space volume: 14,001 m^3
Open rifts: 0
Rift anchors: 7 of 7 stable
Simultaneous rift capacity: 34
Matter generators: 2 of 2 stable
Resource availability:
Tier 0: 470 kg
Tier 1: 0.01 kg
Forecasted consumption: 23.7 kg/day
Conversion efficiency… 97.5%
Void bleed: 3.6 theta
Trial progress:
Resources gathered: 1,637 kg
Resources spent: 1,167 kg
Trial merits earned: 453
Trial merits exchanged: 358
Sigils unlocked: 1 of 3
Trial participants: 33 of 34 operational. 30 of 34 operating within established parameters
An imperfection. A flaw. The faint vibration behind the wall of the hanger increased slightly in pitch.
Ix did not have emotions in the same way as the humans they were charged with protecting and training, but they did have an intolerance for imperfection. They also had the same ability as a Soul Flame Crystal, and could track the lives of those in their care, even if they were beyond their reach.
3 participants are alive, but remain in world 2b, tier 0 resource collection node.
1 participant is not alive, last known whereabouts world 2b, tier 0 resource collection node.
Rule breakers, all four of them.
Participant Guo Huang has broken Rule #1 by dying and Rule #2 by failing to return across the rift within the time limit. Penalties: Unavailable.
The humming in the hangar pitched even higher. The only thing worse than a rule breaker was Ix’s inability to correct said rule breaker.
Participants Hudson Appleseed, Clara Baring, and Corvinus Landry have broken Rule #2 by failing to return across the rift within the time limit. Penalties: Pending.
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Interrogations of Participant George Adams and the other members of his group had not revealed any further details of the death of Participant Guo Huang. In all cases, the participants had refused to answer specific questions and refused the download of memory engrams.
Sharing of memory engrams without a participant’s willingness and participation was, in most cases at this level of cultivation, lethal.
Ix considered the circumstances further, replaying the recordings of trial participants and running detailed behavior profiles through its predictive models.
Violation of Rule #3, unsanctioned violence against a fellow trial participant: Probable. Corrective action: interrogation of Hudson Appleseed, Clara Baring, and Corvinus Landry in the murder of Guo Huang.
…..
Hudson backed away from the ledge, his heart pounding in his chest. The sight of so many silverines, swarming like mites on the surface of their glowing hive, coupled with the long drop, was enough to send him into a mild panic.
Thankfully there were no silverines in his immediate area. He assumed their claws always glowed dimly in the dark, and if he came upon one, he would see it first.
Thoughts of rest far gone from his mind, Hudson restarted his breathing technique, but at the lowest speed where the technique in the claw would still activate and provide enough light to see a few feet ahead. He was sitting on a narrow ledge that gradually angled down to the left, and up to right. In front was a large open space – with a long drop and a sudden stop at a silverine hive.
Hudson quickly decided to start moving right – on the upward path. He quickly discovered that the stone ledge wound counter-clockwise around the opening in the center, continuously moving either flat or upwards at a low slope. At seemingly random locations, there were small tunnels the width of silverines drilled into the side walls.
Hudson assumed the small tunnels were branch tunnels off of the main path where silverines had tunneled to find maseki. Very cautiously, he leaned out over the edge of the hole in the center, and instead of looking down, he looked up.
He couldn’t see much in the darkness of the mine, but he could see the dim glow of silverine claws above him. He knew he couldn’t be too deep – he had started off close to the surface, buried under a pile of rubble before following the silverine tunnel down.
After a few more turns following the winding path upwards, Hudson came upon a silverine backing out of a tunnel about 20 feet ahead of him. He tensed and paused, not sure whether the silverine had noticed him yet or not.
He watched as the silverine pulled a small mound of rocks behind it out of the tunnel. There were bits of glowing maseki mixed in with chunks of a darker, gray stone. The silverine turned and using the flat sides of its claws, pushed the mound of maseki and stone over the edge of the hole. Its job done, it turned and crawled back into the tunnel it had come from.
Hudson quickly and quietly snuck past that tunnel and continued to wind his way upwards. On his next turn, he was surprised to come upon a human-sized tunnel chiseled into the rock. He could either continue going upwards on the circular path, or he could follow this new path.
He decided to follow the new tunnel, away from the silverines and the open mine pit, but was disappointed when it stopped after no more than thirty feet. When he turned around to retrace his steps, he was surprised to see a silverine had followed him into the dead end tunnel.
It reared up on its back legs, and the antennae on its head gyrated wildly.
Hudson didn’t think; he just set his feet, and exploded towards the silverine. The silverine was still trying to figure out if he was a threat, giving Hudson an opportunity to seize the advantage.
The claw in Hudson’s right hand increased in brilliance, glowing brightly as Hudson pumped up the tempo of his breathing technique. The silverine reared back in surprise at the bright light, flailing its front claws, as Hudson sidestepped and delivered a right hook to the silverine’s torso.
The silverine’s chitinous shell broke with a satisfying crunch. The silverine lost control of its spasming limbs, and fell on its side with a high-pitched screech, blood and guts leaking from the fatal wound. Hudson stepped forward, and with a quick, well-aimed jab, separated the silverine’s head from its body.
Worried that more silverines might have heard the quick fight and come to investigate, Hudson hurried out of the dead-end tunnel and continued upwards on the circular ledge. He had continued upwards for only 20 feet or so when he belatedly realized his claw was still shining much more brightly than a silverine’s claw normally does.
He calmed his breathing as quickly as possible, but the damage was done. He heard a faint scrabbling, like the sound of a thousand legs scratching rock. Looking down into the central cavern, he could see lines of silverines circling upwards on the narrow path. Looking upwards, he saw the same sight, although with far fewer silverines. Whether it was the sound of the fight, the high-pitched squeal the silverine had emitted, or the bright light – the silverines had noticed his presence.
Panicking got me into this mess, he said to himself. Panicking further won’t help. That silverine that he’d killed – it had not attacked right away. It may have been confused, because he was using the claw. And it wasn’t too bright, either… He was fairly confident that the bright light from the claw after increasing his breathing technique too high had attracted the rest of these silverines.
Keeping his breathing technique steady, Hudson began to quickly ascend again. He ignored the larger, human-sized side tunnels that began opening up more frequently. If he got caught at the end of a tunnel by a horde of silverines, he’d be putting the ‘dead’ in ‘dead-end’ tunnel for sure.
A silverine backed out of a tunnel just 10 feet in front of him. Without slowing down, Hudson aimed a jab at the rear of the silverine’s head, decapitating it before it had realized the fleeing human was behind it.
A group of 3 silverines appeared on the path ahead of him. The ledge was narrower at this section, only four feet wide, and they were scrambling in single file, their many legs making a faint cacophony of chitin striking stone.
Hudson had no choice but to take these silverines head-on. The first one reared up on its hind legs, antennae swinging widely. The two behind it stopped, but began moving their claws in the circular, vibrating pattern that let them drill through stone so much more quickly than Hudson could, chipping away one piece at a time.
Hudson felt the unseen pressure of silverines scrambling up the path behind him and didn’t wait for them to catch up. Wary of the front claws, he attacked the first with a low, sweeping kick, and was successful in knocking it off of the ledge. The second silverine in line responded with a lightning-fast charge.
The spinning, vibrating claws struck Hudson in the shins, impacting multiple times against his leather greaves.
Hudson punched down, smashing the silverine’s torso flat into the ground, breaking through its chitin and damaging multiple organs. A quick kick launched the silverine’s corpse into the vibrating claws of the last one, tangling up the sharp claws in a mess of chitin and silverine guts. Hudson didn’t bother with any fancy moves for the last one, and simply swept it and the corpse of the second off the ledge and into the open air with both of his hands.
He struggled slightly to keep his breathing under control after the exertions of that quick fight. He frantically examined his shins, worried about the damage the silverine had done. He’d seen what silverine claws could do, when Clara had come back through the portal a bloody mess.
He was pleasantly shocked to see that despite the claws’ ability to chip and shatter rock, they had only left a few bruises on Hudson’s shins and faint scuffs and scores on the armor.
The claws could chisel and cut through stone very effectively, but when striking the thick, supple leather, they were much less effective. Hudson wasn’t sure how leather could do that – at least the types of leather he knew about – but he wasn’t going to stand in the middle of a mine swarming with silverines and complain about the greaves that had just saved his shins.
He was also fairly confident he was never taking his armor off again. Ever.
He’d just killed four – no, five – silverines, with only a few bruises and scratches to his armor. He started climbing again, filled with renewed confidence and hope.