The two strangers in the room looked as wary of me as I was of them. Of course, I was made of green magma and the ground was smoking and bubbling under my feet, so I couldn't really blame them for being a bit unsettled. "So." I said cheerfully. "I'm guessing we beat each other with sticks now?" I held up my staff. "Because I feel like if that's where this is going, I have sort of a home field advantage."

One of the other two guys, a short dark haired man with incredibly wide shoulders, a goatee, and huge muscles, laughed at that. "Well you're certainly direct. I like that in a...whatever you are. No need for things to escalate, Mr. Poisonous Lava Monster."

"That's Doctor Poisonous Lava Monster, thank you very much." I said with a grin. "I didn't spend six years in Poisonous Lava Monster medical school to be called Mr." Seeing that they weren't attacking, I chuckled and dropped Belial. I could bring it back up nearly instantly, and it seemed like these guys might not want to fight. Still, I made sure my overlay remained active.

He sighed with relief. "I'll be honest. I feel way more comfortable talking to you when you don't look like a modern art piece someone pulled out of a toxic waste dump. I'm Vinnie, by the way. Vincent Barder to my enemies."

"Solomon." I said with a wave. "Wish Curse Palace. Which faction are you with?" I glanced at the other guy, a tall blonde man with telltale pointed ears. "Either of you, actually. I'm a candidate, so I'm not really too familiar with the larger factions outside the six. Don't be offended if I've never heard of you."

The blonde smiled slightly. "I'm from the Ostwallen family. We're elven nobility in the Faerieland. My grandfather, Bartholomew Ostwallen, is part of the Queen's council. My name is Simon."

Vinnie nodded. "Heard of you. The Barder family are Imperial. My gramps is a king. The WCP huh? I didn't realize they sent anyone this time. Lot of Churchies, a few Cultists, and the usual mix of Empire and Faerieland, but the Palace having people here is pretty interesting."

"Not to be like...indelicate, or anything. But does this mean we're not going to fight? Because if so, I'd love to sit down while we talk." Using Belial didn't strain my soul too much, but it was still an effort to maintain. Some downtime would be appreciated, and might take the edge of my headache. It was so mild I barely noticed it, but it was definitely there. Plus I could learn some more about the other contestants.

Simon laughed and gestured to the center of the room. "Why not. This isn't a race like the first trial. And it's not like we can get the gold key fragments. I'm not sure who got first in the first two trials, but last I heard, Adrian of the Fist God Temple got the second silver fragment. Personally, I think that for those of us who don't already have an Azure Soul Body, it's more beneficial to take our time and get as much as we can out of the trials."

Despite having claimed the first two key fragments, I nodded. He was right. I was in no rush. If anyone wanted to assemble the gold key they'd need to go through me anyway. It seemed like people couldn't tell who had a key piece, and neither of these guys felt confident in getting to the end. I left the overlay up to warn me in case of attacks, but I headed to the center of the room and sat down in a chair I pulled from my spatial ring.

Weirdly enough, the chair came out just fine. Apparently everything here was made of the same simulated material. It was pretty damned realistic, and I could barely tell it wasn't a real chair. I hadn't expected our spatial rings would be mimicked by the temple too.

The others grabbed their own chairs and sat down. Since we were hanging out, I decided to provide snacks. I had some jerky in my ring, and a few bottles of craft soda from back on Callus I'd been holding onto. Sadly my stock of Black Cherry was gone, but I had a few bottles of melon soda. I passed one to each of them with some jerky, and they both nodded their appreciation.

My food and drink were pretty low level, so I wasn't expecting them to flip out, and they didn't but both seemed at least pleasantly surprised. "This is pretty good jerky." Said Vinnie as he snacked. "Dessert will be on me." He withdrew a small table and some plates, and then started cutting slices of cake for us both.

"So." I said as we ate. "This Adrian guy. He famous? I've never heard of him, but like I said, I'm a candidate so I'm a bit out of the loop."

Simon nodded. "He's a Master ranked boxer. Fist god boxing is pretty famous in terms of unarmed martial arts, and Adrian is considered the most talented student the temple master has ever had. He already has an Azure Soul Body. The Temple is part of the Empire, and rumor has it the temple master is friends with one of the princes. He got his student access to their heritage."

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I whistled. "Lucky bastard. What's with the Fist god thing? Is the Fist god one of the vanished gods or something? You'd think the other factions wouldn't approve of that kind of naming sense."

"Nah." Said Vinnie with a wave. "There's no actual Fist god. It's some philosophical bullshit. Anyway, the six don't care who or what you worship. They don't allow new gods to show up, but it takes a lot to get to that level. It's not something that's quiet or easy to accomplish. There's even more than a few Demigods around."

I hadn't known there WERE Demigods, but I didn't want to sound too ignorant of common sense stuff. I'd ask Zeke or Killian about Demigods later. "So." I asked the others. "If this isn't a race, what is it exactly?" I hadn't seen any signs of a test or task besides beating armors. Which was nice, but if there was some overarching goal I'd rather know what it is.

"Pretty straight forward." Said Vinnie. "Just fight and progress. The key is hidden somewhere among the armors. There's no specific end point. Once someone finds it the door to the next trial will open behind the throne. We just have to backtrack once that happens. It might be a while though." He gestured around. "As you can see, there's not always a fight in every room. They tend to be randomized numbers, though the deeper you go the more there are. The first few were one, two, and three for me."

I nodded. "Same. So we just keep fighting until it ends. What about rooms like this?" I glanced uneasily at them. "Are we expected to fight?"

Simon shook his head. "Not expected to. Some people will. I'd be on your guard. Of course, some people will simply sit and talk, exchange information and such. The trial isn't just about winning. Like I said, it's also about growing. Most of us are people without the connections to access the heritages that let people like Adrian reach Master so early."

I felt a bit relieved. They'd told me they wouldn't attack, and the overlay was bearing that out so far, but paranoia was a healthy thing in my world. It was nice to be able to make actual friends in here though, even casual ones. "So, Simon. I have a friend from the Faerieland, she's an elf too. She can control trees and stuff, I guess she's a wood elf noble? Are you the same kind of elf?"

He shook his head. "I'm a high elf. We tend to be born with light based abilities. Often healing or other types of support roles. We get along well with the Red Revenant church, actually. Quite a few of my relatives have entered the clergy. I don't know many wood elves, but I know several prominent families of them number among the council."

I nodded. "Of course. I met a Naiad too. Apparently those are rare around where Celine's family hangs their hat. You ever run into any?" I hadn't known about other variations of elves until I met Anna-Marie, and I was interested in how many there might be, but I wanted to feel out Simon's reaction. 'List all the different kinds of elf' seemed like it might be an annoying conversation for him.

He seemed surprised though, when I mentioned meeting a Naiad. "Really? That's a shock. They're incredibly rare. I think aside from dark elves, sea elves are the least commonly seen among our peoples. There's actually several variations of them. Naiads tend to be more comfortable in shallower waters. They're also called river elves and lake elves."

Before we could get too deep into the elfy stuff, Vinnie cut us off. "We can talk about that later. Have you seen anyone here that might be a problem later on? I haven't run into anyone that stuck around, but it's nice to be forewarned about running into some nutcase."

"I don't know anyone involved." I said with a laugh. "I did meet a guy in a weird black bandana mask and armor. He tried to kick the shit out of me and my girlfriend, but we ended up throwing him off one of those islands back in the first trial."

Vinnie looked amused. "Sounds like Kelix. He's with the Robber Barons. They're a thief faction, roaming pirate fleet and all that. He's a tricky guy to deal with. More power to you for the win. I'd watch out for him though. Robber Barons are notorious for being vindictive assholes. He'll definitely have it out for you if he made it this far."

I just shrugged. "Let him try. It's not like I die in real life if I die here. Not much point staying in the trials if I'm going to back out at the slightest sign of fake danger."

That got a barking laugh from Vinnie. "Well said. If you get got, you weren't meant to be here to begin with. Might as well give it your all and see how far you make it." Finishing up his cake, he put his chair away and stood up, stretching. "In the meantime, I think it's time for me to be to hitting the road. It was great meeting you guys, glad it was under these circumstances."

He turned and headed in the direction Simon had come from, and the elf smiled as he saw me cock my head. "The rooms are different for each of us. Except multiple entry rooms like this where we can meet." He paused. "I wonder if this is the trial trying to get us to interact more peacefully? Or hey, maybe it's just trying to confuse us. I'll be going. See you soon."

He headed out the door I came in through, which left me with two options. The one Simon came from or the one on the opposite side of the hall that was left over. As I walked toward the door, I let Belial take me, my face splitting into a grin as I drew my staff.

It felt good. Being the hunter. Being able to stand on my own two feet and challenge anything that came my way. After the trial of solitude, I was able to just enjoy the journey more than I had been before. I didn't feel so conflicted or lost. Of course, I did miss my friends, but I'd see them when I saw them. Until then, I had training to do, and the more armor I destroyed the stronger my soul got. I spun up my staff as I stepped through the door I'd chosen. Time to play can opener.