37 days later.
Hudson stood in the dim cave, trusty sledgehammer in hand, ready for the portal to open. Wheelbarrows full of maseki stood behind him. This part of his day was always the most tense and dangerous, but even after doing the same thing every day for over a month, he didn’t let his guard down.
We should be very close now. Hudson was beyond ready for the trial to be over, and the last pieces should be in place with these final loads of maseki.
The plan, hashed out between him and Suzume, had proceeded smoothly, with just a few hitches. Finding new veins of maseki had also been a challenge, but one that he’d risen to. Ultimately, they had all trusted him with his role in the mining rift, not necessarily because they had actually trusted him, but because he had not let them have any other choice.
Hudson had never gone back into the trial grounds through the portal. He had stayed in the rift world, by himself, for the full thirty-seven days it had taken the rest of the participants to accomplish their must-have goals.
At the end of the day, he was the only one he fully trusted. One person had to remain on this side of the rift as insurance against George and his loyal cadre – otherwise, every day would be a fight and scramble for control. And if he ever lost control, then his goal of shutting the trial down would be in danger, if not downright impossible.
The same trick that he was using to deny access, by re-orienting the portal opening, could be used against him quite easily. The people who had designed this trial – perhaps the Disciples themselves – had obviously not anticipated the participants inside of the trial working actively against the interests and structure of the trial itself.
Hudson could easily orient the portal into a rock wall, or facing downwards over a hole, or pointing out over a cliff, and then portal back through to the trial grounds. That was the ultimate plan – hopefully executed today – to prevent any others from coming back to this rift.
A familiar static buzz hit his ear at the same time the familiar, inky blackness of the portal instantaneously materialized. Right on time.
Hudson stood behind the portal, ready to move the mysterious, metallic device from which the portal issued. Footsteps, two pairs of feet, echoed on the floor of the nook in the cave wall that Hudson had carved out for this express purpose.
“Identify yourselves,” Hudson called out.
“It’s us,” Vince said.
“Just Rooster and I,” Clara clarified.
“Roger that,” Hudson said, grabbing the metallic box controlling the portal and moving it back and to the side, setting it on the ground and to the side.
“Who’s Roger?” Clara asked.
“At this point, I think you’re doing that on purpose,” Vince replied. Clara smirked in response.
Hudson ignored them both and got to the point. “Where do we stand? Are we ready to go?”
“Yes, the progress towards the next Sigil challenge is at 99%, and I have enough trial merits accumulated to buy Sigil challenge access for everyone except the cheaters.”
The maseki Hudson had collected behind him should put them just over the edge. If they were short a little bit, then they could use some of the stacks of maseki they had trade trial merits for. They intended to walk out of trial with that maseki, but if it was a choice between some of their stockpile, or trying to make it back into the rift after Hudson had shut it down… it was an easy choice.
One of the things that Hudson had decided in the beginning was that everyone leaving the trial was going to be filthy, stinking rich when they did so. The S.E.C.T. members were free to gain as many trial merits as possible from the daily challenges, and use the facilities (physical fitness programs, visualization practice, information on cultivation) to increase their personal strength however they wished.
Meanwhile, Hudson made sure that every other participant received enough trial merits to exchange for some of the advantages that S.E.C.T. members had come into the trial having already.Basic and advanced meditation, not to mention the all-important cultivation technique. By simply participating every day – and Cor made sure of that – they could earn enough for these basic building blocks.
On top of those basics, they had strongly encouraged adoptions of a martial form – the spear one, in particular – and at the end of these 30 days, Cor had the beginnings of a few spear-wielding platoons.
And finally, 5kg each of their own maseki to take home with them. They received 1 trial point for delivering 10kg of maseki from the mine, but could only exchange 10 trial merits for 1kg of maseki inside of the trial. The exchange rate was terrible, but on Earth, that 5kg of maseki was apparently worth a lot, and Hudson had spread that wealth across all of the participants.
It wouldn’t be enough to crash the global maseki market on their return, but it would hopefully cause some economic issues for S.E.C.T. elite.
“Let’s get these wheelbarrows through the portal then,” Hudson said.
Clara walked over the first wheelbarrow and pushed it forward until it rolled into the edge of the portal. It disappeared in a black flash.
Vince brought a canteen and bag of preserved food over and handed it to Hudson. He took them gratefully, and started guzzling the canteen. He had filled it with the goop from breakfast that Hudson had strangely taken a liking to.
“Thanks, man. How is it on the inside? Are our grasshoppers ready to spread their wings and fly?” Hudson asked.
“A couple of whiners, you know, the usual. Nothing Cor can’t handle. They want more trial merits, or want to milk the trial further. Despite the fact they already have more maseki than is healthy for a lifetime. What do they expect? Being able to cart the stuff out in wheelbarrows?”
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They were playing a dangerous game, taking as much maseki out of the trial as they were. It was unheard of, according to the folks from S.E.C.T. clans. Hudson wasn’t naive – he knew that having that much wealth would make every single one of these participants a target from the power-hungry members of S.E.C.T. Apparently the output of the mines on Earth for maseki was woefully small, and the resource incredibly useful in all kinds of elixirs, pills, and other cultivation aids.
His trump card that he hadn’t revealed yet was Chiang-sensei. He was hoping that she would be able to shield him and the others without established clans. Over the past few months he had quizzed Clara on S.E.C.T., its structure, clans, history, elders and what would happen after they had returned from trial. He had learned that there was an important elder within S.E.C.T. whose name and description matched up with the old woman who had pretended to be a visiting karate sensei at his dojo.
“How’re the S.E.C.T. members?” Hudson asked Clara. Cor usually remained within the trial, keeping a watch on things, while Vince and sometimes Clara came for the maseki and provided Hudson food, water, and any other materials he could use (like a meditation mat or extra clothes).
“Eager to prove their worth in the sigil challenge.” Clara herself buzzed with excitement, glimpses of her future glory curling her mouth up at the edges. “They have grown impatient.”
Suzume, Qian, Clara, and the other two members of S.E.C.T. willing to defect from George’s leadership (leaving George with only three minions) had only one primary desire: to get stronger from this trial. After boiling it down, the most important thing for them was actually going through the sigil challenge. If they left the trial without a sigil, it would be an incredible waste.
The First Trial was structured so that there were three sigil challenges, and three opportunities to gain a sigil. The first challenge had taken place while Hudson, Cor, and Clara had been stranded in the rift world. The resources needed to open the trial were low – only 1,000kg of maseki – but the number of possible entrants was also limited to 3.
Only one participant had actually entered that sigil challenge – George Adams – because he was the only participant with enough trial merits (a whopping 25) to purchase entrance. Qian had also been sore about that. At that time, George had held more than enough trial merits to share and bring in at least one other person with him, but he had chosen not to do so.
For the second sigil challenge, it required significantly more maseki, but it also wasn’t limited in number, or at least it had not been historically. All of this information came from Suzume, whose clan had passed on to her the details her past clan members had experienced in their trials.
There was also something special about the third sigil challenge, but Suzume didn’t go into the details. It required an enormous 100,000kg of maseki to unlock, and Hudson wasn’t going to allow that challenge to happen anyways, so it was a moot point.
Typically, according to Suzume, only the top ten participants (if that) ever experienced a sigil challenge and received a sigil. It had taken a few extra days of gathering trial points through challenges, and they had needed to slow down the accumulation of maseki so that they didn’t hit the trial too quickly, but Hudson’s friends had collectively gathered enough trial merits so that all the grasshoppers could enter the challenge.
Clara pushed the last of the wheelbarrows into the portal.
“Ready to go?” she asked.
“More than ready,” Hudson replied. “You guys go first, I’ll follow behind, after I make sure that no else can come back through this portal.”
“Are you sure about this?” Clara asked. “You may be damaging the trial permanently for future generations.”
“Then good,” Hudson retorted. “They should have designed the trial better. We’ve talked about this many times, and you’re not going to convince me. And I will beat your head into the rocks if I have to. Again.”
Clara shook her head, then touched the inky black portal and disappeared.
“See you on the other side. It will be good to have you back,” Vince said with a smile. He had really started to blossom in the past month under Cor’s tutelage and leadership. He had a cultivation technique – something called the First Breath – as did Cor and the rest of the grasshoppers, and he had dove headfirst into the path of cultivation. He had been meditating, training, and advancing himself in any way possible.
“When we started this trial, my gut told me to stick with you,” Vince said. “I finally have a cultivation technique, man! I am a cultivator! It’s literally everything I wanted.
“All this – I owe you. I owe you too much; I’m not sure I can ever repay it. We all do. All of the grasshoppers, as you call them.”
“You would have done the same,” Hudson said, slightly embarrassed.
“No, I wouldn’t,” Vince said, shaking his head. “I didn’t. I ran away and left you to fight against monstrous odds. But you still gave me a second chance.”
Hudson pulled Vince into a quick hug and slap on the back.
“Thanks. Now get going,” Hudson said, before the conversation could turn even more emotional. Vince stepped up and touched the edge of the portal.
Hudson walked out of the cave and looked up into the alien night sky for the last time. The stars felt so close, and there were so many, he could almost reach out and grab them with his hands. It was a view he had come to love, and a part of him honestly didn’t want to leave.
The past month had been lonely, full of solitude and mind-numbing work scouring the ravine and silverine caves for hundreds of kilograms of maseki every day. But the work had given him a simplicity that was calming. He could let his mind go blank, or wander, or think through his future plans.
His first 10 days within the trial had seen enormous growth, but it had been too fast in some ways. He needed to meditate, to stretch himself physically, and to reintegrate his mind with a body that had changed significantly. He hadn’t just mined maseki the past few weeks; he had continued his physical conditioning, practicing kata and sparring with Clara every day.
He had pondered deeply about what he wanted as a cultivator, and what this new path through life meant for him. Would he let his anger dominate his decisions? Would he continue to repress his emotions, distrusting them completely? Would his desire for justice, or vengeance, become ascendant?
What were the limits he would go to in his journey towards immortality?
He wasn’t sure. He still needed to learn more about himself; but he promised himself that whatever doors opened before him on his journey, he would step through them.
One more thing to do. He went back in the cave and carefully gathered the live portal emitter. He had waffled over the weeks on how he would do this. He couldn’t truly make the portal impassible, not without finding a volcano somewhere and throwing it in. Or launching it into space. With enough time and patience, new trial participants could eventually dig themselves out of most the situations he could create.
Just leaving the portal nestled up against a cave wall was too boring; leaving it facing out over a cliff face was also just setting himself up for accidental murder in the future. As much as he disliked S.E.C.T., he wasn’t at the point where he was going to set up deadly traps for people who may not have personally done him any harm.
No, he had thought of a better idea… He brought the emitter out of its normal cave, and over to a new cave he had dug for a special, specific reason. It wasn’t much more than a shallow hole in the ground, recessed in the cliffside for a bit of privacy. He had even carved a seat so he didn’t have to squat all the time.
He tweaked the position of the portal emitter slightly, so that it was wedged firmly over the top of his makeshift latrine. The next person who came through that portal would land face-down in a dark, shallow chamber full of his excrement. And after they tried to stand up, they’d touch the portal again, and be sucked back through to share the wonderful experience with their friends.
He stuck his hand in the portal, and braced himself as a smooth, inky coldness jolted him through space.