The Final Trial

The following day, they repeated the routine—four hours of movement with brief rests. That day, Che’s attitude had shifted slightly, fueled by a multitude of things. Instead of sulking over her embarrassment or self-perceived uselessness, she actively used her free time to practice other forms of magic and refine her control, often giving sharp comments to Joseph to get his input.

While he was somewhat confused by her drastic change, the others were less surprised. With no reason not to play along with her current state, Joseph focused mostly on his own work. Like Che, he practiced as they moved—multitasking and casting small magics while keeping their steady pace.

During breaks, he tried combining his Condensed Fireball skill with an arrow. First he condensed and reshaped the fireball to coat the shaft. The attempt failed instantly—the imbued arrow couldn’t handle the heat and pressure.

On a second try, with a buffer to prevent direct contact, the arrow still burned mid-flight, leaving the fireball soaring through the air and poof out, loosing yet another arrow.

He switched tactics: make the fireball as small as possible and mount it on the tip. With his current mana control, he couldn’t condense it to a practical size, and the balance looked suspect—accuracy would suffer with a wobbling blob on the nose.

Thinking between breaks, he tried attaching the fireball behind the fletching with a mana tether. The first few attempts failed: the “rope” snapped under velocity. So, he broke the problem down, perfect the rope first.

In time, he managed to create several thin strings of mana. Attempting to braid them into a rope caused the strands to merge uncontrollably, collapsing into a useless mass that dissipated instantly.

He knew it would take time, especially with the short rest periods, but slow, steady progress was enough.

Hours passed—maze, turn, dead end, repeat—until at last they halted. Before them loomed not another wall, but a pair of colossal stone doors, carved on the same scale as the first gate.

Joseph glanced at Han, who was gauging for signs of traps or an ambush. Han only smiled before stepping forward.

Han pressed with both hands. Light knifed through the cracks, blinding them after so long in torchlit dark. The doors parted onto a vast grassland: rolling green, scattered trees and wildflowers. In its center stood a colossal figure—motionless, mannequin-still. A ring of standing stones enclosed a broad arena, its entrance marked by a towering stone gate, carved with ancient marks, moss and vines just starting to take root.

Han crossed the threshold first and motioned them toward a nearby tree as a prompt appeared:

[Clear the final trial!
Defeat the Giant Elder Rukvar!
The trial will start when participants enter the arena.]

“To leave, we kill that boss,” Han said. “It’s on a different level to anything else we’ve come across—very high defense, heavy strength, decent speed, don’t underestimate it.

Its weaknesses are clear: limited range and intelligence no greater than the others. Che and Joseph will strike from afar, while Logan and I draw its aggression and work to break its stance.’

With a nod from the other two, Joseph was left speechless at how they didn’t even bother to question the source of the information. Noticing Joseph’s narrowed, suspicious eyes, Han continued, “First, we’ll rest, prepare, and run a few mock battles. Once everyone’s at one hundred percent, we’ll go in and end this.”

They nodded and sat down at a nearby stream, drinking and eating their fill. At one point Joseph leaned toward Han, avoiding the ears of the others. “What kind of voodoo magic do you have them under to just believe your bullshit? Share.”

Amused, Han shook his head. “I’ve done nothing, all this information is available in the first section if you search it out.”

Joseph shot him an ‘is that so?’ side-eye before dropping it and moving on. “After we kill it, do we auto-leave? What about your camp?”

“After the kill, the arena becomes a teleport ring with the option to leave,” Han said. “We’ll need a few days to bring the others here. We’ve already cleared out most of the monsters—maybe some goblins will remain but those pose little threat. I doubt any Elder Rukvar are still roaming the maze—and even if there are, all four of us together can handle it.”

Lost in thought, Joseph finally nodded. “…Alright,” he said. “Can the boss leave the ring? And can we?”

“No to both. If everyone dies, it resets. Also—when we enter, hold back a little. I want Che and Logan to get real boss experience. From what I saw of your damage on the Rukvar, you’ll be fine. Your agility’s high enough to avoid everything, and you’re not the type to stand still anyway.”

Mulling it over he agreed, “Easy enough,” Joseph said. “How does the experience distribution work? Is there even such a thing?”

Han took a moment to explain it as simply as he could. “The system is influenced—though only to a certain extent—by our thoughts. Since we think of ourselves as ‘in the same party,’ the system recognizes it the same way. If you haven’t already figured it out: yes, we’ll all gain levels once we hit the threshold. I assume it’ll be distributed equally, though I can’t say for certain.”

Nodding at the simple concept the two spoke for a little longer about other details related to the trials and system. Ending off the conversation Han asked Joseph for a simple favor. “Keep an eye on Che, would you? After seeing that magic of yours, I think she’s begun to look up to you.”

The two got up to go and Joseph rolled his eyes. “If it’s not inconvenient or unsafe, can’t say the feelings mutual though, and to me it looks more like a competitive spirit than ‘looking up’.”

Not denying the possibility, Han thanked him despite the unclear answer. Joseph drifted a little apart, opening his status screen in thought. ‘Well, I’ve got at least some answers now—not that they’re much use at the moment. The most useful part was what I learned about my class.

It’s a little bit of a weird system, in that multiple people can have the same class but varying ranks. That’s hella weird, I can’t even imagine getting given a basic bitch class like caster as an S-Ranked.

Still, at least the class matters less than the rank so even in those cases it’s not too bad or detrimental. Its also unusual for classes to have series, spirit series, swordsman series, god knows what else.’

Letting out a deep sigh, he gave the subject only a passing thought. ‘I guess time will tell what happens, at least I know now the specific class matters less than the rank, skills or stats it provides.’

Taking a deep breath he let the thoughts release from his head, moving onto his next target, while the others started doing some mock battles in the back.

‘I think it’s time I started working on that water barrier magic concept. Working on my concrete magic may also be useful—faster casting, longer range, better control. Skills are efficient, but freeform magic offers more long-term advantages.’

He weighed the pros and cons, settling on water magic as the more immediate need. Han’s rough estimate gave him a few hours, so he got to work.

Conjuring water wasn’t new to him. He’d learned the hard way that mana-made “water” is nothing more than a hollow construct—undrinkable—so for drinking he relied on condensing real moisture from the air. But for a barrier, the fake stuff was perfect.

He conjured a sphere and set it spinning. Faster and faster it turned, the rotation hollowing out its center until a thin shell of water curved around empty space. Adjusting his focus, he tore away chunks—first wedges, then whole halves—reshaping the sphere into a rough dome.

It wasn’t easy, and certainly not efficient. He simply forced mana into the shape until it held, burning through his reserves with each adjustment. Still, it worked. A crude water dome settled around him, proof of concept. He repeated the process again and again, refining it as much as his mana allowed before resting to recover.

When everyone felt ready, they formed up at the stone archway, weapons out. Joseph kept his staff in hand—bow on his back, quiver ready but out of the way. Despite this being his first head-on boss, his pulse stayed steady, mind clear.

Logan and Che were composed too—only a light edge of nerves. They’d already fought their way through the first area; this was just the next step forward as they similarly tried to survive.