“My, my. Now, what do we have here?”
Roy’s eyes flickered open as the blackness of unconsciousness fled. He couldn’t feel anything, so he just assumed that the pain had become so bad that his body could no longer process it. That, or he was already dead.
A man walked into his field of view then. He was wearing a long black and white Martial Artist’s robe, though Roy couldn’t make out the color of the belt tied around his waist. The man was fair-skinned, just like him, and had dark brown hair and striking silver eyes. If someone had asked him to guess the man’s age, Roy wouldn’t have been able to guess.
“Is this the afterlife?” he croaked out.
It made sense if it was. He was just in the Trial of Beginnings. No one was supposed to be there other than him.
“I’m afraid not, my young Power cultivator. You are still among the living, though it was a near thing, I do tell you.”
“So, I’m not dead?” Roy asked.
“See for yourself,” the man gestured at his body, prompting Roy to lift his head and examine himself.
He stared down at himself, blinking in surprise. Though his robes were bloodied and torn, his body didn’t have so much as a scratch on it. That was why he hadn’t felt anything! He’d just assumed that the lack of pain meant he’d died, not even dreaming for a moment that he could have been healed. Speaking of which...
“Were you the one who healed me? And if so, how did you get in here?”
Normally, Roy would have bowed his head in deference to someone like this. Now, however, curiosity temporarily overrode his fears.
“Yes, I am the one who healed you. As to how I got in here…well, I’m afraid that’s a trade secret,” the man replied with a wink. “Seeing as you did survive the most difficult set of trials I’ve ever seen anyone compete in, I feel as though you deserve a reward.”
The stranger flicked something at him, and a round coin the size of his palm landed on Roy’s chest. The picture of an infinity symbol was etched on one side, the symbol that most cultures used to signify the Martial Arts, and the glyph for Power was etched on the other. Before he could ask what it was, the stranger, as though reading his mind, gave him a full explanation.
“That, my dear boy, is the weapon used by the golem during your fight. Or more precisely, the construct used to forge the weapon. It can only be used by a Power cultivator, and since those are rarer than flying monkeycorns, I’m not too worried about someone taking it from you. Simply feed Power essence into the coin, and it will take the shape of the weapon best suited for you. I would not recommend using it until you have reached Green-Belt, as the Essence requirements are quite substantial.”
Roy nodded, then realized how rude he was being, and quickly scrambled to his feet. Bowing low to the stranger, Roy said, “Thank you for saving my life. I am in your debt.”
“Oh, it was no big inconvenience. It was kind of my fault that you were given such a hard trial in the first place, so it’s the least you deserve.”
Before Roy could so much as ask for an explanation, there was a loud clap of thunder from the sky above. The stranger flinched at that, giving Roy a sheepish grin.
“Sorry, I may have gone just a bit too far with that last one. Better get going before the big man gets any more cross with me. Best of luck to you on your journey, Herald Leroy.”
The man pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment from his robe and tossed it to him as well.
“That should help get you started. I hope we have the chance to meet again someday.”
“Wait,” Roy called out, taking a step forward, “I don’t even know your-”
A bolt of lightning flashed down from the sky above, striking the man in a brilliant and blinding light. When the light faded a moment later, the man was gone, leaving Roy to question everything he’d once known.
11
Stooping down, Roy scooped up the scroll that the stranger had tossed to him before he vanished. He was curious as to what it could be, but he got the sudden feeling that he shouldn’t be staying here for too much longer.
The Power Essence was still thick in the air, so Roy decided to use the little time he had remaining to replenish his spent core. Sitting down on the ground near the exit portal, he folded up his legs and concentrated on pulling the ambient Essence into himself. It was fading fast, so he would have to work quickly.
Breathing in as he had before, he felt the golden Essence flood into his body and begin filling his core. The ground beneath his feet began trembling then, and Roy cracked his eye open to see what was going on. The world around him was breaking apart, cracks showing in the ground and somehow in the very air itself.
He continued pulling the Essence in, doing his best to ignore the ever-increasing sounds of destruction. The ground beneath him suddenly split, causing Roy to lose his concentration. Growling to himself, he got to his feet and headed for the portal. He’d only managed to fill his core about halfway, but he supposed it was better than nothing.
Roy stopped before the swirling portal and couldn’t help but take one last look back at the trial behind him. It was falling apart rapidly. At the rate it was going, it probably wouldn’t last another minute. The sight was bittersweet. On the one hand, this was where he’d become a Martial Artist in full. On the other, it had nearly broken him to do so.
When he exited the portal on the other side, he felt a full sense of accomplishment. He’d gone in and passed, and he’d done it all on his own.
“Glad to see you made it out alive. I wasn’t sure if you would.”
Geon’s voice sounded in his head as soon as the portal winked out of existence. Roy was standing in the forest at the entrance to the Dungeon where Koya and his friends had left him to die. The forest was dim, but judging by the scent in the air, it was the beginning of the day and not the end.
“Yes. I wasn’t too sure of that myself, at times,” Roy responded, remembering just how many times he’d almost given in.
“I figured the trials might be a bit different for you, seeing as you’re an adult and all. Also, I wasn’t sure if you would be able to find an affinity, seeing as I’m a Dungeon core and not a proper one, but I see that you’re a Power Essence cultivator. Care to elaborate on what happened in there?”
“Shouldn’t you already know what happened? I know that we couldn’t talk while I was in there, but you were still sitting in my chest the entire time.”
“Alas, I was put into a dreamlike state. The power of the trials does not allow any outside help, so I’ll need to be caught up.”
So, Roy explained all that had happened while he’d been in there. He recounted everything, from his challenges to the fact that only a single type of Essence suited him, to the stranger that had saved his life. This little tidbit surprised Geon as much as it had Roy, if not more so than he.
“That should be impossible. No one can enter the trials! And you say that you couldn’t make out the color if his Belt either…”
Geon went silent then, thinking. Roy decided not to disturb the Dungeon core, instead removing the scroll the man had given him from his tattered robe. It was old, the corners flaking around the edges and it was bound with a thin piece of flax string.
Tugging the knot loose sent a cascade of dust billowing up into the air, and Roy was quick to wave his hand through it to avoid inhaling it. Dropping the string to the ground, Roy carefully worked his nails under the edge and carefully rolled it out.
He’d been expecting the parchment to be brittle, but to his surprise, it rolled out easily. Roy examined the single piece of parchment in interest once he’d finished rolling it out. It contained a picture of a man sitting in a strange position. There were multiple lines around his body, with arrows pointing in various directions.