Chapter 57: Part One of the Trial (Patreon)

Logan was starting to think there was a factor to the integration that he hadn’t considered yet. He’d thought he’d understood the power of [Regenerate] and [Life Cycle Master], but he may not have been thinking big enough. If an alien princess dreamed of [Regenerate] as if it were a flying unicorn, he’d managed to grab the good shit.

Right now, [Regenerate] took hours to regenerate severed limbs, but it leveled up with his Grade. If he continued to level up, eventually, it might do just what Asthea had said—make him a powerhouse in battle, someone who could heal or regrow anything in a blink.

As far as his epic level [Life Cycle Master] skill, there was yet another factor to consider. If [Regenerate] was that valuable and the System only rated it as a rare skill, what did that mean for [Life Cycle Master]?

He needed more information. But he had to be careful. If he asked questions that were too pointed, he might get himself into trouble. The aliens thought he was a weakling now, but if they learned he had pandora’s box-level skills, they might decide to eliminate him rather than let him grow too powerful.

Logan could be overthinking things. They could be perfectly nice aliens who would never hurt a fly, but Thorin’s scar-ridden face said otherwise.

As far as the System, he’d learned two important things. Logan had been raging against it, assuming it was the cause of all their problems. It hadn’t helped that it had seemed to derive pleasure out of taunting him and making his life as difficult as possible. A quest that took a toe as a penalty for failure? Who did that?

Apparently, a glitchy AI minion did that.

Still, according to Asthea, correcting the glitch wouldn’t stop the System from killing ninety-nine percent of the population in less than one year. Lara didn’t have child battle prodigies on her hands; Hunter and Sawyer were smart, but they were kids. Many of the other kids would be the same. There was no way they’d be part of the one percent by the time the purge rolled around.

Logan refused to believe that nothing could be done. That would be too brutal, too cruel. No, the solution had to be with the people who held the true power, the ones behind the System, these ‘sky people’ that Ernie had mentioned.

For now, he couldn’t do anything while he was stuck inside a training dungeon. Although the ability to increase his attributes by an unlimited amount in 24 hours was tempting, Logan didn’t have time to lead an army to victory, whatever that entailed.

Logan was on a strict time limit. If he didn’t show up at Richton’s Tomb at the agreed upon time, that meant Lara and the kids would have to fend for themselves. Fend for themselves without a boat. And even if they found one, they’d have to go through monster swarms and who knew what else.

He had to get out of here.

“I think it’s time.” Asthea was stretching her hands above her head and cracking her knuckles. Squatting, she put her left leg behind her right, her knee cracking as she flexed. Then she jumped into a standing position and bounced up and down while slapping herself on both cheeks, her skin blooming with color.

“Are you ready?” she asked with a manic grin. “The others think you’re not up to the task, but I think differently. You must have leveled up your Karma to get through the portal. That’s not normal for someone of your level. I think you’ll surprise us.”

“About that… I have somewhere else to be. I overheard you say that I had to compete, but that doesn’t seem fair to you all. After all, I crashed your party. Is there no way out?”

Her grin grew toothy. “Yes, there’s a way out.”

“Great! What—”

“We kill you.”

Asthea guffawed, as if it were the funniest thing she’d ever said, her eyes twinkling.

What a riot. Logan held back a glower when to add insult to injury, she pushed his shoulder fondly, forcing him to stagger. For level 45, her strength must be immense.

“Don’t worry,” she said, patting him more gently on the back. “The first part of the trial only takes a day, and we’ll get through part two in six days if we rush.”

….What.

“Did you say six days?”

She raised a white eyebrow. “That’s quick. When Errol completed his first trial, he took two weeks.”

Logan didn’t have a week! Panic surging, he almost willed his cell phone out of his spatial collar before catching himself at the last minute. He still needed to hide his spatial collar. Fuck.

And yet, he knew that Asthea had one of her own based on her sleight of hand trick. Logan had no idea where she had it—he saw no collar around her neck. For all he knew, it was a marble in her pocket.

Logan ground his teeth and then shot her a smile that likely came across as a grimace. “I noticed that you pulled out that communication device—” What the hell was he going to call it, a communication marble? “—from thin air. Are spatial storage devices common on your world?”

“We all have them. Poor Errol’s is only E Grade, but he’s saving up.” She lowered her voice. “He was an unexpected child, and his parents didn’t have one to hand down. But he’s almost raised enough for D Grade. Then he’ll stop whining, the big lug.”

“And D Grade is… good?”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, you poor, poor man.” Curling her hand around his shoulders and shaking him, she laughed, a short, sharp bark. Somehow, he didn’t think this was a laugh ‘with you’ situation.

“F Grade is the worst, the poorest quality. You can store a fistful of material in those things, if that. Quality goes up as you progress from E Grade to A Grade. If you’re ever lucky enough to come across an A Grade item, take it and run. Clans have gone to war over lesser items. You can store a whole castle worth of weapons inside of it. A castle! And finally, you have the noncalgonson—most desirable. But we are back to dreaming again, little man! It’s not even worth mentioning.”

A sizzling of intrigue temporarily pushed aside his sense of urgency. “What’s the most desirable?”

“S Grade. And then of course, the highest of high—SS and SSS. Rather than a clan war, you’d have a world war. Now if you came across that prize, you’d not just run, you’d have to escape to another dimension.”

Logan’s grin became unhinged. “No chance of that. But I did manage to come across a spatial storage device. Garbage Grade quality, of course.”

His eyes were now wide open to the power of the tree fridge. It had given out S and C Grade items. Errol was excited about an E Grade spatial storage device? Holy shit, no wonder the System classified the tree fridge as a mythical being.

Logan willed out his cell phone, pretending to be focused on turning it on, but keeping Asthea in view out of the corner of his eye.

“Is that one of your technological devices from your world? How quaint.” Logan’s shoulders dropped as his tension dissolved. There was no hint of suspicion in her voice. She must not have the ability to recognize the quality of a device. That was one less thing to worry about.

Logan’s attention went to his phone. Please work. He tried to power it on, pressing again and again, but the screen remained black. Had the battery died?

“That won’t work in the training dungeon. Getting any communication out is almost impossible, which is why Thorin didn’t want me to use the communication crystal.”

Logan looked up from his phone. “Could it get a message to someone on my world?”

She gave him a gentle smile. “They cost 150,000 KarmaCoin. And I only had the one.”

150,000 KarmaCoin might as well be a pipe dream. But he couldn’t help looking at Asthea more favourably. If she’d used a one-time device that cost that much just to help him, he was in her debt. Someone that altruistic didn’t usually surround themselves with shitty people, so despite their appearance, Logan couldn’t help slightly lowering his guard.

Talking about her guards, Thorin was coming over, his big sword swung over one of his shoulders, his mouth in a scowl. “Fifteen minutes. We can’t wait any longer.”

Asthea bounced on her feet again. “We’ll be ready. Did you already stuff your faces?”

“We had a snack. You know we’d never say no to more.”

With a snap of her fingers, Asthea willed out a huge roasted animal, sides glistening in spices and fat. It was the size of a wild boar! She handed it to Thorin with both hands.

Thorin took it, licking his lips, and then dashed over to the others. They bellowed in excitement, each one grabbing a side and then tearing into it like a pack of animals. Holy shit. Logan was starting to reconsider that whole ‘they could pass for human’ thing.

Asthea willed out another hunk of meat—this time it looked like a humongous fried chicken leg, only the skin was red, and the animal’s green claws were still attached to the foot. “Do you want some? You have fifteen minutes to prepare and then we’re starting the first trial. Unless you’re planning to spend 24 hours increasing your perception, I’d suggest protein.”

Despite the grotesque, foreign appearance of the leg, it smelled like barbeque chicken. Logan’s stomach growled as she tore into the meat with sharp incisors. Knowing his luck, though, the meat would be toxic to humans. Sighing, he removed a fistful of green beans and grimaced through a mouthful.

Logan eyed Asthea and her guards behind her. He needed to make the best of this. He couldn’t escape without completing the trial, and if there was a chance he’d get out of this with massive attribute increases, all the better. Still, a persistent pang of worry had him pacing. If it took a week to get out of here, who knew what would happen to Lara. Not to mention Ernie. If he’d somehow managed to survive, that was a long time to be surrounded by the undead.

The quickest they completed the trial, the better. It sounded like 24 hours was just that—24 hours, but who’s to say the second part of the trial had to take six days. If he could hurry them along, he might have a chance to make the deadline. Logan had been ahead of schedule already due to the fight with the snake swarm, so there was a cushion there. Three days at most.

Well, there was no time like the present.

“Let’s start the trial,” he said.

Asthea swallowed a mouthful and then dabbed her mouth with a long torn off strip of fabric. “We still have ten minutes.”

Logan cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, trying to mimic Asthea. “Humans are different. Eat too much and we get lethargic rather than battle-ready. If I eat anymore, I’ll fall asleep.”

“Huh.” With a blink, the hunk of leg disappeared inside her spatial storage. She clapped her hands. “You heard the little man! Let’s get started.”

The guards grumbled, but by now, they’d already scarfed down the whole roasted animal. Thorin came over with his sword over his shoulder, gave Logan a glower, and then his expression became far away. In one blink, his sword disappeared.

Errol followed behind Thorin with his chin covered in grease. Scanning Logan, he gave his talons another careful glance, his mouth in a thin line. “Shout if he tries anything.” Then in another blink, the metal coil looped around his shoulder disappeared.

“Weapons aren’t needed in the trial?” asked Logan.

“They’ll just get in the way,” said Arsen, but his attention was focused on Asthea.

Asthea closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her chest moving up and down as if she were in a meditation class. When she opened her blue eyes, she looked determined, her face firm. “I can do this,” she said softly. “I’ll show mother that I’m ready. I’ll show the clan.”

“You’ve prepared, you’re focused, you’ll push your body past its limits,” said Arsen in a mantra.

“I’m prepared, I’m focused, I’ll push my body past its limits,” repeated Asthea. Clenching her fists, her brow furrowed in determination, she streamed past them, her guards trailing behind her.

Logan followed.

They headed to the portal and then walked past it. Logan was about to ask where they were going when he saw their destination. Right behind the portal on the other side were two doors. They were large, white doors, but they weren’t connected to any structure or any wall. They were random doors, as if a carpenter had decided to make a frame, latch it into the ground, and stand up two doors that went nowhere. There was nothing behind them, nothing to the sides, nothing on top.

Just two doors.

Asthea strode up to the first door and pushed it open.