by Aaron Oster
Roy felt like an idiot, but in his defense, it was hard to think clearly while in so much pain. Heading back up to his camping spot, Roy fetched the three fruit shells filled with the small seashells, as well as the six small cases, each containing a key. Coming back down to the chest, he dropped everything to the ground.
“So…Now what?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Geon said. “Why don’t you try figuring it out for yourself?”
“Because I have you here with me,” Roy replied. “You’re a Dungeon. You’re supposed to be knowledgeable about things like this.”
He was getting sick and tired of Geon’s attitude. The Dungeon could be extremely helpful when he wanted to be, but was a total asshole the rest of the time. He didn’t understand where this change had come from. It had been gradual in the beginning, but it just seemed to be getting worse and worse as time went on.
Maybe Geon was always this way, but after he’d had his power and memories wiped, he’d begun reverting to his old ways? If so, Roy could understand why his power had been restricted in the first place.
“I can’t do everything for you,” Geon replied haughtily. “Do it yourself!”
The Dungeon Core went silent then, refusing to talk no matter how much Roy probed. Finally, he had no choice but to give up and try it on his own. Reaching into one of the fruit shells, Roy removed one of the glowing blue seashells and tapped it to the surface of the chest. Shockingly enough, there was a flash of blue light, then the shell dissolved in his fingers, the Essence contained within flowing into the box and leaving a small spec of blue on the top.
Excited, Roy reached down, lifting the container full of shells and carefully poured them out on top of the box. The flash was much brighter this time, and the immediate area was illuminated in blue as the shells dissolved. Roy watched the surface of the box as the blue lines began to trace once more, and after a few seconds, he began to realize what he was seeing.
A circular pattern appeared on the box, tracing six very-familiar shapes into its surface. They were very light, as though they’d faded. Roy knew how to fix this, and upended the other two containers full of the shells. The lines grew more substantial as the shells dissolved, and within just a few minutes, Roy was staring at a glowing pattern with six distinct indentations.
Excited, he began flipping open the cases and placing the keys into their correct slots. With each one, the space lit up, the key fusing with the chest. Roy held his breath as he placed the last key, watching as it fused with the chest, leaving all the slots filled. A light whirring filled the air, and a line of light appeared on the top, tracing a wide circle. Then, with a hissing sound, a circle of the chest rose up a few inches, glowing with blue light.
Reaching down, Roy tried first to lift it, but finding it stuck, he instead pressed down. A line of light traced across the side of the chest, and with several more clicks, the chest sprang open. By now, the anticipation had been building for quite a while, and with all the keys required to open this chest, Roy was practically jumping in anticipation.
That was why he felt a distinct sense of disappointment when he found a new key sitting inside the chest. Letting out a long sigh, Roy reached in and removed the glowing blue key, etched with the number seven. It was a good deal larger than the others and felt far more substantial. He got an odd feeling from the key, one that was almost familiar, but that he couldn’t quite place.
He knew that this key had to be fashioned of Qi, as there didn’t appear to be a carrying case for it, and it seemed to be holding its shape extremely well. Not even a trickle of Essence leaked off its surface, and aside from the light springy feeling, it was a completely solid key.
“I got the chest open, and found another key,” Roy said, knowing Geon could hear him. “So, what now?”
“I suppose we wait until tomorrow,” Geon said.
Roy sighed and was about to walk away when he noticed something sitting on the bottom of the chest. A small box that had been hidden by the key sat in a small indentation at the bottom of the chest. Curiously, Roy reached inside and removed the box. Flipping the lid, he was greeted with a burst of rainbow-colored light, along with the smell of damp grass and the ocean.
The pill was just about the largest he’d ever seen, and Roy carefully lifted it, turning it in his fingers and reaching a tendril of his Essence out to get a feeling for what it did. As soon as his Essence interacted with the Pill, it began to stream into him, following the tendril of Essence and pouring into his body.
Roy tried to stop it, but his muscles locked up, his mind going numb as the foreign Pill’s energy poured into him. The last thing Roy remembered before the world faded around him was an odd rumbling that sounded like thunder, but seemed to be coming from under the water. Then, for what felt like the hundredth time in the last week, he fell into unconsciousness.
29
Aika raised the key made of solid water Qi and turned it one way, then the other, examining its faceted surface and trying to find some deeper meaning behind it. It was clear that she was at the end of this part of the Trial, though she had no idea what this key would unlock. Tucking the key inside her robes, Aika began feeling around the inside of the chest, looking for hidden latches or anything she may have missed.
Along the bottom of the chest, her fingers ran across a smaller box. She removed that, but continued looking, her fingers probing carefully and searching for any additional seams. When she didn’t find any, Aika concluded that this was all she’d be getting. Slumping back to the ground and letting out a hiss of pain as her shoulder – which had been dislocated in the fight and since reset – bumped the corner of the chest painfully.
That last creature had seriously challenged her. So much so, in fact, that she’d nearly failed. The monster had used water Qi and seemed to have an almost limitless supply. It was only because of a few well-timed attacks and a lucky break that had seen her to victory. Still, the gains were unmistakable, and Aika was getting close to her next Dan, which was incredible considering how far she’d been upon entering.
Flipping the latch on the box, Aika beheld something she’d only thought of as a fairy tale told to children about the fantastic things the world outside their small clan held. Yet there, in the center of a small cushion, radiating a multicolored light and smelling exactly as described by her mother in all her bedtime stories, was the Martial Elixir Pill. It was a Pill so rare that it had to be crafted using seven near-mythical ingredients all crafted into Elixirs before being put through the process of refining into a Pill.
She had no idea what something so rare and valuable was doing here in this Trial, nor how it had even been crafted. But as soon as she saw it, Aika knew that even going through these Trials would help her advancement improve by leaps and bounds. Owning a key to these Trials must have cost the Itachi clan a fortune. Something like this could not be crafted by mere mortals. She doubted that even a Sovereign, with all their immense power, could have created this place.
This meant that despite how they’d been thrown in here, the Sovereign of the Itachi clan was actually helping them. These Trials had been far from easy, but the reward was such that it was well worth the risk. Aika carefully lifted the Pill, examining it from all sides and breathing in its relaxing scent.
If the stories were to be believed, all she had to do was connect a thread of her Essence to the Pill, and it would do the rest. She’d immediately lose consciousness upon taking it, but that was simply because the process of absorbing the Pill into one's Core was supposed to be extremely painful. There was no way she wasn’t going to take it, though. So, lying down where she was, using the chest as cover, Aika reached for the Pill with her Essence.
Roy was the last thing on her mind before losing consciousness. She hoped he’d made it through the last test and received this reward. Then, the world mercifully faded around her, taking with it all the aches and pains she’d accumulated over her time here.
***
Roy awoke to the sou
nd of birds chirping and the slightly damp feeling of the earth beneath him. Groaning, he cracked open his eyes, trying to remember what had happened before he’d fallen unconscious. This time, thankfully, he didn’t have much trouble remembering. He’d beaten the creature, opened a chest and touched a strange Pill, then…nothing.
He winced, expecting pain to come rushing back at any second from his broken arm, but instead, Roy felt fine. Slowly, he sat up and began to look himself over. He was shocked to find that every single injury he’d accumulated over the last few days, including injuries from the fight with the monster, were all gone! Removing the splint from his arm, Roy twisted it this way and that, running it through a full rotation before he was satisfied.
“That Pill really must have done something,” he commented to Geon as he stretched his arms overhead.
The Dungeon Core didn’t reply, but that was nothing new to Roy. He was about to give his Core a once over, checking his channels and Essence-level, when he finally noticed the odd sound. Birds were chirping.
Looking up, Roy’s eyes widened at the miles of swampy land stretching out before him. Small trees poked from the ground, dotting the landscape, but for the most part, it was bare brown earth interspersed with large pools of water. Turning in place, Roy looked behind him and once again beheld the massive lake. It stretched for as far as the eye could see, disappearing over the horizon. Roy wondered what would be back there now if he were to go out onto the lake again, but now that he’d found dry land – relatively speaking – there was no way he was going to go look.
Rising to his feet, Roy took stock of his bearings, checking the position of the sun and noting that he’d been out for at least the entire night. Reaching into his robes, he removed the key and held it up to the sunlight, wondering if it would give him directions like the last. Nothing happened, leaving Roy with an odd feeling of unease. Still, he was on land, which meant that he could now walk or even run, which was far faster than paddling his unwieldy raft.
Before he set out, he headed to the lake to grab a drink and fill the now empty fruit shells with water. He had no idea if the water in the pools dotting the landscape was drinkable, so he wasn’t going to take that chance. He collected what fruit he could and then set out, expanding his Spirit Sense and seeing if he could find a direction in which to go. His range was far greater than it had been, which was why, when he finally felt the familiar presence of Aika’s Core, it was to find her some mile to the west and approaching fast.
A wide smile spread across his lips as he felt her coming, the knowledge that she was safe and on her way causing him to relax in a way he hadn’t been able to since coming here. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed her due to all the training and fighting he’d been doing. Now that he felt her familiar presence once more, he was overjoyed.
It was then that he noticed his disheveled state and winced. His robes were bloody and torn, his hair, which had grown longer over the last few months, was unkempt and he had at least a week’s worth of stubble on his face. Roy was realistic, though, and didn’t panic. There was nothing he could do about his hair or clothes, so there wasn’t any real point in trying to fix them. His facial hair was a simple and easy fix, though.
Concentrating inward, Roy pulled a tendril of Essence up and pulled it out through his face. With a few quick sweeps, his facial hair was cleaned away, leaving his cheeks and jawline clean once again. It was then that he noticed that something was off about his Essence. Before he could look into it, a streak of light flashed in the distance, and just a few seconds later, Roy was driven to the ground as Aika caught him in a flying tackle.
“You’re alive!” she yelled, squeezing him so tightly that Roy began to wheeze.
He would’ve liked to think that he’d have gotten used to Aika’s enthusiastic hugs by now – he’d felt them often enough – but each time, he was reminded just how strong she really was.
“It’s good to see you, too,” Roy wheezed, hugging her back despite the rapidly depleting air in his lungs.
Aika’s tackle had driven him to the ground, and she now lay on top of him, arms somehow wrapped all the way around him despite that.
“I was so worried about you,” she continued, squeezing him even tighter. “But, I can see that you’ve gotten even stronger than before!”
“Yeah, you too,” Roy gasped as his ribs began to creak. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind…”
Normally, this would be the part where Aika immediately loosened her grip, apologized, and helped him to his feet. Instead, she did the exact opposite, hugging him even tighter and making him wonder if she might be trying to kill him.
“Don’t mind me,” Aika said. “I just need a few more seconds to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
Roy was pretty sure this was real. If not, then they were both having an extremely vivid hallucination and he was really about to die. Thankfully, Aika loosened her grip after a few more seconds and finally sat up. Roy finally got a good look at her as she did, and noticed that as bad as he looked, Aika looked even worse.
Her hair, while still in its long pony, was limp and tangled. Her robes were just as torn up as his, the white of her underclothes peeking through in several places, and her face was smudged with dirt. It seemed she hadn’t even taken the time to clean up before coming here, which made Roy feel just a little vain that he’d taken the time to shave, instead of running to meet her halfway.
Aika was beaming, despite how disheveled and in pain she looked. She wasn’t crying, as one might expect at a reunion like this, but Aika had never been much of a crier. In fact, Roy couldn’t remember her ever shedding so much as a tear. Instead, she preferred to smile, and despite the dirt and grime, the effect wasn’t diminished in the slightest.
“Would you mind getting off of me?” Roy asked after a few moments. “As happy as I am to see you again, this is not comfortable at all.”
Aika looked down, noticed where she was sitting, blushed, and quickly got off of him. Roy noticed no apology forthcoming, even as she held a hand out to help him up.
“So, care to fill me in on your adventures over the last few days?” Aika asked. “I can’t help but notice the two new stripes on your Belt.”
Roy smiled at that, glad that she’d mentioned it. Geon hadn’t really felt the need to congratulate him, at least not without an insult mixed into it, so it was nice to hear praise, especially from someone like her.
“I see that you’ve gotten stronger, too,” Roy noted, looking down to her Belt, which now contained three slashes of blue.
“Yup!” Aika said cheerfully. “It happened right when I woke up this morning after absorbing the Martial Elixir Pill…Please tell me you got one, too, and that you took it!”
“You mean that colorful Pill that was sitting in a hidden compartment on the bottom of the chest?” Roy asked, wondering now if they’d both been through the exact same Trial.
“That’s the one!” Aika said. “I’ll tell you all about it once we’re on the move, but right now, you have to tell me what’s happened to you over the past week.”
Roy was now very curious about the Pill he’d taken. At first, he’d simply assumed it was some sort of healing Pill, something that the Trial provided to freshen him up before continuing. But Aika seemed to know exactly what it was, and the name alone was intriguing. Instead of pressing the issue, Roy did just as she asked and began to tell her everything. She would tell him all about the Pill when she was good and ready, and until then, no amount of prodding or pleading would get her to talk.
Aika could be extremely stubborn when she wanted to be, and for some reason, when it came to hearing about him, she allowed nothing else to get in her way.
30
Ferry followed the familiar, yet oddly different, scent through the city, weaving between the throngs of people as she tried to close with the person in question. Strangely enough, they seemed to be moving just fast enough for her not to be able to, which was both frustrating and i
ntriguing. Several times now, she’d debated simply giving up and heading back, but each time, she told herself she’d follow for just a little longer.
The crowds were beginning to thin out now as she was led deeper into the city to an area that she’d yet to see. She wasn’t worried about getting lost – she never got lost – but she was starting to feel a bit of an uncomfortable itch on the back of her neck, as though she were the one being followed, and not the one doing the following.
Several times, she took a few covert peeks over her shoulder, but each time, she saw nothing. By now, she was convinced that whoever this was, it wasn’t Aika. Sure, they smelled almost the same, but there were a few small differences. Even if there hadn’t been, the odd behavior would have given it away. The scenery slowly began to change from the bustling marketplace to rows of small hovels, all set near the city gates.
Ferry’s nose continually twitched by now, as the area smelled quite unpleasant. She could detect an undercurrent of violence about the place and could smell blood in the air. Her fur continuously prickled as she swept her gaze from side to side, noting the odd person walking about. They slunk through alleys, giving her the sorts of looks that would make most humans cringe in fear.
She could sense their Cores, though, and knew that they posed no threat to her. Even if they attacked all at once, she’d easily best them. That alone told her which part of the city she was in. This was a place for the outcasts, those who’d never quite made the cut, who’d never advanced far enough along their Paths. This was the place that the weaklings were sent to live out their miserable lives, away from the shiny, pristine buildings and compounds of those who actually had futures.
Had Ferry not been a Beast, she might have pitied them, but in her mind, these people deserved what they got. The weak had no place in the world. Only the strongest survived, and it was through strength alone that the world continued to turn. True, Roy wasn’t all that strong now compared to others his age, but he’d gotten a late start and was now playing catchup. In just a year, he’d advanced further than some would in a lifetime. She trusted he’d be one of the strongest one day, especially with Geon there to help him.