Chương 53

Round Two Rel and I burst from the tunnel into the very welcome light of the forest. With how silently the draeven moved, it was impossible to know if we were being followed, but I had no interest in hanging around to find out. One of the bastards had been more than enough to deal with. A whole pack? No thanks. Kaelis, Allaria and Voklum turned to face us, still shaken.

When they saw me, each reacted in a slightly different way, but it was essentially a combination of gasps, wide-eyed expressions and mouths hanging open. I understood why as soon as I glanced down at my shirt. It was soaked through with blood, to the point that it was nearly impossible to identify its original colour. The self-cleaning function was going to have its work cut out for it. Again. Once the initial shock had passed, Kaelis strode over to me.

He fell to his knees, shaking his head so furiously that I was a little concerned he'd pull a muscle.

"I'm sorry, Master! You were only hurt so badly because you had to step in and save me. If I hadn't been so arrogant… so foolish, it wouldn't have been necessary." I snorted.

"Get up, Kaelis. I don't blame you for what happened. In fact, it was probably a well-needed lesson for all of us. The Trial Zone is no fucking joke, and it's important we remember that moving forward." I glanced back at the cave entrance.

"Although saying that… it wasn't all bad. In the space of five minutes, I gained four stat points, ranked up in Aura Mastery, and actually got to use my swords against something that didn't die instantly. I can't wait to tell Osian that I impaled an enemy and then gave the swords a good ol' twist… say no more, Kaelis – you've convinced me. I'm going back in!"

"I… wha… no!" Kaelis spluttered as I stepped around him and strode back towards the dungeon.

"You're not going anywhere just yet," said Rel. There was a note to his voice that made me freeze. It held a mixture of self-importance and eager anticipation. I turned, hesitantly, to face him. He stood with his arms crossed, three ribbons of flame whirling around his body. Doctor Rel. I sighed. Knowing arguing would be pointless, I pulled off my shirt. I tensed as the ribbons coiled through the air. They moved slowly at first, like a predator trying not to startle its prey.

Then, once they were close enough, they snapped forward and… Started licking my wounds like enthusiastic puppies. The heat that spread through my body felt different to the potion. The healing from the ribbons felt more… primitive. Its effects were also not as absolute. Back when we'd first met Kaelis and saved his life on Floor Two, he'd been an absolute mess after the trolls had finished with him. Even so, one potion had been enough to return him to perfect condition.

Well, perfect other than the trauma and recurring nightmares. The ribbons of flame closed the wounds and relieved the pain, but they didn't entirely mend the flesh. I was going to end up with some impressive scars… My face! I withdrew the mirror I'd bought for squint practice from my inventory and examined my face. Three fresh scars, the lines still an angry red, ran diagonally across it.

They started at my forehead, trailed down my face, with a small gap where the claws had just missed my eyes, then continued over my nose and across my cheek. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was still handsome. If anything, the scars added a sense of rugged danger. *"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Rel as we emerged on the other side of the barrier.

"You know I like taking risks as much as the next arboreal observer, but this feels a little reckless even by our standards."

"Don't worry," I said.

"I have a plan." He stared at me for a few moments.

"When people say, 'don't worry', it's usually a good sign that worrying would be a very wise thing to do."

"Not this time," I replied, leaning in and lowering my voice.

"I noticed something in the last fight that might give us an advantage – the draeven really didn't like the light from your spells. Which, to be fair, makes sense – they live in a really dark cave."

"That's… actually, that's a good observation. Now you mention it, the creature did raise its arms to cover its eyes when I blasted it with the first few bolts of lightning."

"Exactly. We couldn't take advantage of it last time because we were caught totally off-guard by how powerful the draeven was. It had time to get used to the light before the fight really started. This time? We won't give them the chance. You blast them with fire and lightning, then I'll blitz the fuck out of them before they can adapt."

"Huh, this might actually work. I'll stick to a small fireball to light the way until we find a draeven. When we do, I'll go full god-of-thunder mode and melt its retinas." As we travelled down the tunnel, I was surprised to see the marks that Kaelis had carved into the walls were still there. It seemed dungeons weren't like the Tower of Potential, which completely reset when you left. The theory was confirmed when we found the corpse of the draeven we'd killed earlier, just before the tunnel split into two.

There was also blood. Lots of it. Most of it was black – a thick pool of it gathered around the draeven's body – but there was also an uncomfortable amount of red. I might've sounded like I was being flippant when I told Kaelis I was going back into the dungeon – which I absolutely was – but I wasn't lying when I said the fight had been a learning experience. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. The Trial Zone clearly had its dangers.

I'd let how easy the first six months had been lull me into a false sense of security. For some bizarre reason – whether through pure dumb luck or Rel's creative training methods – I'd ended up as the most powerful person in our Division, and nothing we'd faced had really been a challenge. The Tower of Potential was designed to gradually escalate in difficulty as Trialists progressed through the Floors. There were no sudden and unexpected spikes in power from one Floor to the next.

The fact that the first eight Floors were accessible at this point suggested that G. E. C judged them to be suitable for this phase of the Trial. The quests that occurred randomly out in the world? They clearly didn't play by the same rules. It was entirely possible this dungeon wasn't meant to be attempted until the final month of the Trial, when Trialists were at the absolute peak of their power.

After all, if the draeven could hurt me like that, any other Trialist who entered at this point would be completely and utterly Fucked. Yes, I know the capital letter is grammatically incorrect, but I figured it was worth emphasising just how fucked they'd be. As the first draeven had emerged from the tunnel to the left, we decided to go that way. Rel took over mark-making duty, using a claw to scrape numbers into the wall.

We'd learned the first time round that the draeven were incredibly stealthy – Rel and the others hadn't realised the creature was there until it entered the light. My Aura Sense had made me aware of it much earlier, even if I hadn't known what it was at the time. Fortunately, the experience was enough to allow me to put two and two together. Bright light equals powerful. Bright light in this cave equals draeven. I activated Aura Sense as we continued.

At first, the light of Rel's Aura in my peripheral vision was a huge distraction, but I quickly learned that I could filter it out. During our previous visit, when I'd felt the draeven's approach, its Aura had felt… wrong, carrying a taint of corruption. I found I was able to tune my sense to detect that particular signature. I really was an outrageously lucky bastard to have received the Essence of Knowledge for Aura.

*"There's a draeven about two hundred metres ahead," I whispered, my fingers tapping restlessly on the pommels of my swords.

"The way it's moving – trying its best to be a sneaky little shit – makes me think it doesn't know we're onto it."

"It might be a complete moron," replied Rel, "but if you keep acting like that, it might realise something's wrong."

"What? What am I doing?"

"What aren't you doing? Your eyes are darting around, looking everywhere except the spot where it's actually standing. You're tapping your swords like you need the toilet and are desperately trying to hold it in, and you've suddenly slowed to half your normal speed." Oh. I cleared my throat. Quietly.

"Right," I said, trying to look casual as I withdrew my sunglasses from my inventory and slipped them on.

"I want a lightshow so intense it needs an epilepsy warning. Three, two, one…" Rel did not disappoint. Blinding bolts of lightning tore down the tunnel, one after the other, punctuated by the occasional fireball. The creature stumbled back, hissing as it threw up its paws to shield its eyes. I exploded forward, drawing both swords as I closed the distance. I struck first with the frost blade – a powerful backhanded strike that severed both its paws at the wrist. It shrieked, as much in shock as pain.

Not only had it lost both paws – it now had no protection against the lightshow that Rel was putting on. I flowed straight into the next strike, a combination that would've made Osian proud, bringing the flame blade around in a slash that tore its chest open. Black blood fountained from the wound. It wasn't dead. They really were tough fuckers – on an entirely different level to anything we'd faced before. It tried to turn and run, but the blood loss and stack of Winter's Touch had sapped its strength.

It now moved far more slowly than the first draeven we'd encountered. A bolt of lightning struck its back, staggering it. It collapsed and tried to drag itself forward with its bloody stubs.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" snarled Rel as he darted past me. He held out both paws, a continuous stream of lightning pouring from each palm. It hammered the creature, making it buck wildly as violent spasms tore through its body. Its flesh blackened, the acrid stink of scorched meat filling the tunnel. I was a little disturbed by the fact I could now identify several types of creatures just by how they smelled when burning. * Over the next half hour, we eliminated several more draeven.

Using our newly devised blind-then-hack-the-shit-out-of-them method, we made short work of them, and much of the apprehension we'd felt when we first entered faded away. Who knew coming up with a plan and devising tactics would be so useful? The last stretch of tunnel led into a large cavern. It was a dead-end, with the tunnel we travelled down acting as both the exit and the entrance. The place was creepy.

The sort of creepy that told you a dungeon boss was about to show up and there was a very good chance they'd be completely unhinged. Unlike the rest of the dungeon, it wasn't swallowed by darkness. Patches of faintly glowing lichen clung to the walls, casting an eerie green light across the space. Jagged stalagmites jutted up from the ground, some reaching impressive heights. Pools of fetid water dotted the ground where the rock dipped.

"Six of my children have met their end at your hands." The voice was a low, hissing rumble.

"I have been eagerly awaiting your arrival." A figure stepped out from behind one of the patches of stalagmites. Like the other draeven, it was a tall, slender creature, its features that of a twisted caricature of a bear. Unlike all the others however, this one wore dark, hooded robes.

"I would say I'm sorry," I said, drawing my swords.

"But honestly? I'm not. Your kids would have torn us to shreds if they had the chance." The draeven laughed, the sound deeply disturbing. As it echoed through the cavern, I couldn't help but think my first impression had been right. This was exactly the sort of place a completely unhinged dungeon boss would call home.

"Nor should you be sorry – in fact, I am grateful. Their deaths are irrefutable proof of their weakness. There is no place in draeven society for such pitiful creatures."

"Well…" I said.

"Exactly how grateful are we talking? Grateful enough to leave voluntarily so we can complete our quest without having to kill you?" It laughed again. Rather than respond with words, it unleashed its Aura. A wave of foul power washed over the chamber, crashing against my mind. I winced under the bombardment… but honestly? It wasn't that bad. Was it my developing Aura Mastery providing some resistance? Or was it the fact I'd been on the receiving end of Sensei's Aura?

Compared to that, the draeven's felt like a gentle nudge. Either way, I was pretty pleased with the result. Rel, on the other hand, was not having such a good time. I heard him gasp and glanced down to see he'd fallen to one knee, his face twisted in a pained grimace.

"Th– this g– guy's a di– dick," he hissed between ragged breaths. I knelt down beside him, resting a hand on his back. I tried to speak, but a sudden and blinding anger stole my words. How dare that emaciated, wannabe-bear piece of shit try and fuck with my friend's head. My Aura clearly agreed, crashing against the bars of its cage like a wild beast, desperate to be unleashed. I rose to my feet… and let it loose. When I'd been training my Aura Manipulation in the Tower, it had all been about developing control.

Sensei had compared it to grip strength – the idea of learning to exert the appropriate amount of pressure in any given situation. I had no interest in control in that moment. Imagine the contest of our Auras as a handshake. We were both trying to be macho men, seeing who could squeeze harder and assert their dominance. I squeezed so hard that the motherfucker's fingers snapped and ended up sticking out at weird angles.

As my Aura invaded the draeven's mind with vengeful enthusiasm, its control over its own shattered, and I heard Rel take a deep, relieved breath as the pressure vanished. He sat up, looking a little shaken, but otherwise fine. Turning my attention back to the dungeon boss, I put my swords away. It was in much the same condition as Rel had been only a few moments before: on its knees, clawing at its head as my Aura ravaged its mind. I was going to kill it, but this one was personal. I put my Aura back in its box.

The draeven shuddered for a few more moments, then pushed itself unsteadily to its feet. I launched myself forward, slamming into it at waist height with a truly magnificent tackle. We went crashing to the ground, and I clambered on top of it, pinning it beneath my weight. And then I started punching it. You know those cartoons with superpowered characters, where they unleash a barrage of punches and their arms move so fast they're a blur? It was exactly like that.

The only difference was the gore – what they don't show you in those cartoons is the absolute mess you make by throwing hundreds of punches in the space of a few seconds, each with enough force to level a small building. You have gained 1 strength. Current strength: 53 By the time I was done, I looked like something out of a horror movie, covered in blood and pulped flesh. As I wiped blood out of my eyes and then glanced down at the disaster that was my clothing, I had a very important realisation…

I needed to find some sort of portable bathing system I could store in my inventory.