Unbeknownst to Val, the jingle of Rick’s spellcuffs became a signal that a battle was on the horizon. It seemed peculiar to brandish a weapon without a team at her rear, or a Hunter lurking in the shadows.

“We’re going into this alone, Cee. No backup.”

“I know that,” Caro replied. “I mean, they’re the ones that got us into the mess in the damn first—”

An intense bout of dread punched Val in the gut, and she wheezed in a breath. Knees buckling, she crashed against the clay floor. Crippling fear took hold of her, like she regressed into the inexperienced adventurer she once was, face-to-face with the motherwolf in the confines of the Ashless Forest. As someone nearing the double-digits in rift dives completed, the sentiment was vastly misplaced.

She’d witnessed one too many hair-raising creatures for the spider’s mere movement to weave visceral terror into her bloodstream. An unknown variable tinkered with the playing fields, undetectable and somehow surfacing as a crippling consequence. Lines of scripts ran across her vision, her artifact hard at work in compensating for the event.

Through squinted eyelids, she witnessed the creature fall to level ground on nimble feet. Val demanded her calves to tense, ordered them to fortify and lift the rest of her body upwards. A faintly-discerned barrier intercepted her thoughts, terminating her intentions before they had a chance to manifest a reaction. Heavens.

The infiltrative feeling demobilized not her muscles, but her capability to deploy them in the battle. It burrowed into her mind, akin to the urge to shut your eyes in the face of danger, despite knowing its futility in the circumstances.

Except, Val knew her actions would very much save her life. Yet the knowledge remained trivial to the issue at hand. By default, it meant her incapacitated state was through no fault of her own. Val grimaced as her mind swiftly fell into the sole answer left.

The spider could use attenuation.

A subset to the Discipline of Alteration, attenuation spells retracted from their targets, sidelining their objective’s abilities. In Val’s case, it happened to be her physical prowess. But this is stronger than anything I’ve faced.

Alteration flourished in the little things—a small boost here, a tiny debuff there. The creature’s spell seemed to cross into the threshold of Tier 2, intensifying the passive discipline’s clutch. Though the effects were evident, the presumed Tier 2 spell took its toll on the creature.

The spider’s strides were laced with tangible strain, as if someone tied dumbbells onto its phalanges. That said, Val couldn’t so much as twitch a finger under its control.

Caro forged past the spell, taking a haggard step forward. Val detected the surge of energy into her channels as she raised a quivering palm at the spider. “Sand Limb!”

The dry grains along the bottom shook awake, forming an extremity that lunged for the chimera. Veering to the side on countless legs, the spider escaped the spell unscathed, but the distraction alone was priceless.

The superficial shackles on her consciousness receded, and Val exhaled a stream of stress-laden air. Prickles and needles were shards in her joints, functionality returning under her reigns in dribbles. Not in the business of allowing its captives free, the spider spewed a gush of webbed strands.

“Oof!” Val was sent flying off her feet, rammed by the silk-like substance. She collided back-first with the cavern floor, strapped to the earth in a sticky mess. Feeling for her trusty dagger on her thigh, she unsheathed it and began nicking the stretchy material. “Cee, I’ll be out in three minutes, buy me time!”

“What did I tell you about unreasonable requests, V?” Caro yelled, ducking under a swish of the spider’s appendages. Its pincers snapped forward and she retreated a step, aiming her weapon for its feet. The strike connected, drenching the Striker in a spray of blue blood. Retrieving her stained greataxe from the awkward angle, she backpedaled furiously, an angry spider on her trail.

“Sand confluence!”

The soft murmur of swishing grains paused Val’s endeavour to break free, pulling her gaze to the particles vibrating to life. The might of a sand-based technique always started as a menacing rattle of congregating motes. Then, it multiplied manifold, upgrading from a whisper to a sustained, strident hum.

Streams of light-brown converged before their controller. “Sand Limbs!”

She split the warbling ball of sand into twelve limbs, one for each leg of the spider’s. The chimera hissed, wrestling its appendages back from the invocation spell. Skittering to the three-side, it aimed to use its speed to shred the sand-formed arms to pieces. Its efforts were vain as troops of particles rallied to the worn locations, swirling atop the spell to reinforce it.

C’mon. Val hacked away at the cobweb on her legs, half-surprised Caro’s technique… held. From the Lifemonger they encountered in Dark Mineshaft, to the varying creatures they’d come across in rift dives, Sand Limbs couldn’t do more than hinder. As a whole, sand wasn’t built to restrict, and yet here the enormous chimera stood—or crawled, rather—fighting to escape the spell’s hold.

In its struggle to shake off the sand, she perceived a well-known plight in its ambiguous features.

The trouble of being weak.

Val didn’t hide her smirk. Welcome to my world. Untangling the last of the webs, she jumped to her feet. “Caro, can you stall for two more minutes?”

“Make it one!” Her shaft parried a horizontal slash, a sand limb grabbing the spider’s stray leg en route for her head and tugging it elsewhere. “Scratch that, thirty seconds!”

Snatching all the items stored on her toolbelt, Val cut a circle around the battle. She counted five G1 scrolls in her grasp, a premeditated Metal Spike inscribed onto their surfaces. Not a whole lot, but it’ll have to do.

The sheets wrinkled in on themselves as she placed them on the damp floor, but she went and flooded the required aether strands anyway. She reenacted the movement on a tight circumference around the ongoing tousle, the resources in her Aetherial Vessel waning each time.

On the fifth placement of the scroll, she hurried to down a tonic. Her brain seemed to groan, a throb pulsing along her forehead. Seven potions in, she hit her alchemical limit, no longer capable of consuming the supplemental elixirs. Good thing my plan's in place. “Evac, Caro! Get out of there!”

The Striker conjured a minuscule Magma Pane over her gloved palm, shoving it flat on the chimera’s face. Smoke rolled off its burning flesh and it released an ear-shattering hiss. Caro turned tail, putting twenty paces between the spider. It’s on you, Caro mouthed amid desperate breaths.

Val gave a nod, tripping the five scrolls at once. A crown of Glazen spires surfaced in a ring around the creature. Two Metal Spikes gorged the chimera’s rounded abdomen, the rest missing its target, as intended.

“Metallic Reformation!”

The other rods twisted unnaturally, angling for the spider’s spindly limbs. Coiling onto its frame, the spell latched its hooks and fettered its feet. Persisting against its ensnares, a sense of hopelessness laced its actions.

If it could barely hold its own against sand, how would it fare against metal?

Slamming a light-based talisman on her blade, Caro let loose a battle cry and charged in. Val withheld her hand, narrowed eyes on the advancing striker. Just one pace closer…

Caro reached close-range territory, sliding under the creature.

Now.

Val tugged the metal prongs downward, and the act brought the creature to its knees. Caro swung upward for its rangy nack, a streak of yellow tailing the greataxe. The attack burned through the creature’s fibrous exterior, and the life in its eyes, all twelve of them, dulled.

Caro dove as the body fell forward, caught in its tangle of limbs. “Ew, ew, ew!” She scrambled, slicing its limbs apart and emerging drenched in blue. “Ugh.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

A dry chuckle left Val, shoulders sagging in relief. She assessed the dimming of the creature’s energy channels through Vague View, an indication of its passing. Keeping an eye on the walls for the slight chance of a sneaky aether creature, she crossed the chamber.

“Damn.” Caro salvaged a fist-sized energy core from the corpse. “Definitely three-starred alright.”

Massaging her drooping eyelids, Val plopped next to her and examined the arachnid horror. It appeared so frail when it was motionless, like a prodding finger would be enough to crack its leg in half.

In the end, the girls accomplished a feat impossible a year ago—they defeated a three-starred aether creature. A being capable of decimating over thirty participants in Thunderstone. Albeit a significant milestone… Val had to wonder. “What now?”

A familiar rumbling silenced Caro’s answer and she whipped her head to the blocked doorway.

Or better put, they appraised a formerly blocked doorway. During the time they reacted, the clay had withdrawn as silently as an assassin.The two looked at one another, suspicions visible in their eyes. Gaze returning to the entrance, Val bristled at the sight she observed.

“You.” Caro pushed off her hands to stand, a livid gaze on the entering adventurers. Setting foot inside the underground space, a lighthearted ambience surrounded the four.

“You’ve got some nerve,” Caro began, likely irked by their nonchalance. “I assumed a highly-acclaimed guild like Age of Atera would be the last people to… to,” emotions overflowing, she inhaled to put a stop to the stuttering. “To actually haze newcomers. My report’s going straight to the CAU, unless you’d like to throw me into a different tunnel.”

The statement earned grins in response, and Aeron turned to his teammates. “We trained them well.”

“Trained us well my ass,” Caro scoffed. “Shoved us off a cliff, more like.”

“Hold on.” Val raised a hand, her gritted teeth loosening as she picked up on something. “What aren’t you saying here?”

“Look around,” Rick said. “Did this seem like a regular tunnel?”

“No,” she admitted. “Doesn’t change the fact that you threw us into danger.”

“No one was in danger,” another voice added, turning Val’s attention behind the squad. Footfalls resounded from within the burrowed corridor, the measured gait recognizable anywhere. Magus Kane strolled into the discussion, a textbook-sized tablet in his grasp. “You’re the sixth assessment we’ve had today.”

Nowhere to place her frustrations, Caro decided to sit on the ground. “My head hurts.”

Val’s lips bent downwards. Who else lingered behind the scenes, reviewing their performance with a clipboard on the side? “I get hidden tests, but this one pushes the limit by far.”

“We evaluate more about a person when they believe their life is at risk—it’s the best method to detect how one might act when everything is on the line,” the metal mage replied. “You two have undergone growth in this instance alone—you’ve changed.”

“And that change is vital to detect before you head inside a rift,” Rick added. “Not after.”

“You’d be surprised how many abandon their teammates once death stares them in the eyes.” Silann clicked her tongue. “It’s a leading cause of death in rifts for a reason.”

“In your case, you two rose to the occasion,” Aeron exhaled. “The same can’t be said for your mates.”

“We’ve been in rifts already,” Caro said. “We’re legit in one as we speak.”

“Not in truth,” Magus Kane fired back, jotting on his device. “You were embedded inside a team to practice rift diving in safe conditions.”

“We chose this team straight off the request board.”

“There was more in place than we could explain,” Aeron supplied. “I mean, a team in need of two Strikers right as you wrapped up your training… a little convenient, don’t you think?”

Val couldn’t help but shake her head at how early the test appeared to have started. “You made us pick you by ensuring you were the best deal available.”

“Precisely,” Silann said.

“We’re glad you passed your test,” Aeron chuckled. “The rocky start had us all biting our nails.”

His mirth was lost on the Striker.

Down the line, Val had a feeling she’d be grateful for the test. It sieved the true adventurers from the worst kinds of cowards, ensuring she’d be able to trust her guildmates to have her six. Still… the experience didn’t leave the best taste in her mouth.

“So,” Caro tilted her head. “Are you guys faking anything else or…?”

“Cee,” Val hissed. “Come now.”

“What?” She shrugged. “It’s a valid question.”

Silann crossed her arms, head swivelling to her teammates. “Shall we?”

“Way ahead of you.” Aeron’s robes billowed and the air humidified, nebulous puffs of steam leaking out of his cylindrical water tubs.

“I… I don’t believe this,” Caro sputtered, staring at the dual-bound mage. Rick continued the show, pressing his knuckles together. A cinnamon-coloured veneer encased the groves of his fists. Grazing the material on his armour, the distinct ring of metal-against-metal raised Val’s eyebrows.

Silann cupped her hands, a storm of lightning crackling within. The element was divergent from its usual self, unaccompanied by the boom of thunder. Instead, a quiet coop of writhing, black snakes peaked through the gaps of her fingers.

Val turned to Bo, and he gave a soft snort. “Not happening.”

Caro rolled her eyes, sprawling her limbs outward on the ground. “Wow.”

The one word summarized Val’s feelings quite aptly. She’d known there was a puzzle piece missing the day she scoured the internet, snooping for details on the crew. Although she wouldn’t call herself tech savvy, even she estimated a sort of censorship when it came to the four.

All for a secret test.

“It’s finished,” Magus Kane’s tablet disappeared from his hands. “Your run inside this tunnel was well done, you two—I don’t say that lightly. I believe it’s safe enough to give my congratulations.

He offered a rare smile. “Welcome to Age of Atera, adventurers.”

----------------------------------------

First Halo of Ciazel,

Atera,

Hall of Eons

-One week later-

Val scanned the room, browsing the items in the administrative service tucked away on the guildhall’s 57th floor. To the left, a rune-clock shuffled the numbers as the minutes flowed, the act comforting, in a sense. Rain pelted at the window pane, regardless of being quite a distance from today’s weather. Another sheen.

For the past few moments, she’d twiddled her thumbs and counted the number of books on the shelves. The office worker's incessant typing put Val on edge, and the mindless gesture helped calm her nerves.

“Miss Efron.”

Val's posture straightened, gaze flickering to the worker behind a waist-high counter.

“Here you are.” He slipped a card under the bordering glass. “I’d advise you to head over to the Association to make sure it’s in the system.”

Val nodded her thanks and left the nerve-wracking space, taking a seat on the benches lining the hallways. It’s official. She grinned, inspecting the guild-issued I.D. in her hands. Outlined by an emboldened black line, a photo of her carefree smile filled one end of the card. Scripts decorated the other side, possessing her age, rank, affiliation—the whole works.

Beside [Status], the word trainee faded away to reveal member. All there was left was to add sponsored to the card, elevating her level as assigned and checking another goal off the list. A door cracked open, raising her head. Caro exited the adjacent compartment, face stricken.

Val shot up. “What happened?”

“Oh. Well I’m…” She ambled forward, whisking out the white card. “I’m enlisted!”

“Don’t scare me like that,” Val muttered, hand on her chest.

“Couldn’t help it.” Caro grinned. “We’re adventurers, V. Finally.”

That we are.

~

Claiming she needed to drain her excess excitement, Caro ran off to one of her duelist centers. In her absence, Val didn’t know what to do with herself until a vibration shook her leg. Opening her phone, she discovered Master Winsford wanted her up in his office.

Making her way through the guildhall proved to be an easy task after three months on the job. Before long, she was knocking on his door and entering his place of study.

“Hello there, Valory.” Winsford dropped a bundle of papers to the corners of his desk. “Or should I say, newly recruited adventurer?”

Val sunk into the bench opposite him. “It’s been a week and a half, Master Winsford.”

“What can I say,” he smiled. “It never gets old.”

Perhaps out of habit from her time on the 57th floor, her attention wandered throughout the room. The foreign text etched onto his walls seemed a bit more recognizable to her. She could determine a few of the runes at play, as well as the managlyphs stringing parts of the picture together. Squinting, she found herself leaning forward. Something’s there.

Engaging in Vague View, her irises glowed and the tea-stained colour faded away to reveal cluttered lines. An acquaintance of the chaos, she was able to briskly connect the dots and spot the entry points of the enchantments. “You installed Recognition Rectangles in your office?”

“I had hoped you would notice it today,” Master Winsford said, sipping from a steaming mug. “It means you're ready.”

“Ready to throw out my Recog Rectangle?” Val asked. “For sure.”

He stifled a laugh. “I see you’ve made an enemy of it.”

“It made an enemy out of me.”

“Enemies or not,” he said, “I don’t doubt for a second that you’re ready for tomorrow’s Rookie Competition.”