PftA Book 5 - Chapter 39 - The Trial

I shook off my feelings of melancholy and stared at the portal leading to the dungeon’s final trial with focused determination. I was as ready as I’d ever be to face the trial’s challenges.

I’d trained my skills and spells so much over the past decades that I was confident I’d be able to use anything I needed without the system. Even the spells I intended to select as my legacy skills hadn’t been neglected.

“Well, I guess I might as well get to it.”

I stepped into the portal and immediately felt myself grow weaker. It was almost as if I’d been shackled with mana suppressors or something similar.

“What was that?” I silently asked Lisa, only to get no response. “Lisa?”

Before I could get too worried about my Interface Assistant’s sudden unresponsiveness, a notification appeared before me.

Welcome to the Tenth-Floor Trial.
The goal of this trial is to determine your true proficiency with each of the skills and spells listed on your status.
To facilitate this challenge, your consciousness has been placed in an avatar, while your physical body is held in stasis.
This trial is not limited by time and will continue until the challenger dies or verbally requests an end to the trial.
To begin, please select a skill or spell from the list provided.
Note: System functionality, affinities, and access to your soulbound artifact have been suppressed for the duration of this trial. Accumulated experience will be distributed at the conclusion of the trial.

The realization that the dungeon could block access to my demesne AND my affinities was more than a little alarming, as was the fact that it could remove my consciousness from my physical body.

I shivered at the thought of how such an ability could be misused.

I’d already known the dungeon could limit the system, so learning that my system access would be restricted wasn’t much of a shock. However, the loss of Lisa was an unpleasant surprise.

Though I knew it was probably pointless, I attempted to access my demesne, only to find that I could no longer even sense the soulbound space. It was a strange feeling – one that I could only compare to the feeling of losing a limb.

Though distinctly unpleasant, I tried my best to ignore it.

I glanced down at my avatar, noting that my robes and talismans had not transferred with my consciousness. Instead, I wore a simple linen tunic and pants. It was such a stereotypical starter outfit that I laughed aloud.

Choking back my giggles, I looked around the empty space in which I found myself. It wasn’t an empty room or a place devoid of furnishings. The space was literally empty.

There was no ground or sky, no walls or objects. I was literally standing in a void surrounded by nothing.

Not wanting to remain in the empty space any longer than necessary, I pulled up the list of options.

As my highest-level skill, Enchanting stood at the very top of the list. Figuring I might as well start at the top, I made my selection and watched with interest as my surroundings shifted to a basic crafting hall.

In front of me was a large Enchanting workstation, with several Enchanting bases available to select from. My options included talisman blanks, gemstones, jewelry pieces, wands, and a selection of weapons.

Figuring it was probably a good idea to start with something I was most familiar with, I selected a plain silver band and attempted to create a storage ring.

Within a second, I realized my error. The avatar I inhabited didn’t have access to my Space affinity.

The unexpected restriction was certainly going to make casting spells a lot more difficult, especially for Time and Space spells.

Shifting my plan, I decided to create the simplest enchantment I could think of: [Durability].

Durability didn’t rely on any of the elements to function. Instead, it took the natural durability of an object and enhanced it. For intent-based Enchanting, it was one of the simplest effects to manifest.

I focused on the ring and willed the ring to become more durable while attempting to feed mana into the forming enchantment. This led to my second complication – I had yet to unlock a mana manipulation skill.

Further, my avatar didn’t seem to have any mana at all. In fact, I couldn’t even sense the critical energy.

I leaned back with a groan.

“This is going to take a while.”

= = =

I soon learned that my trial avatar did not need food, water, or sleep to function. Though I still got tired, my fatigue was something that was easily remedied with a short break.

Having realized my error when selecting my first skill, I eventually returned to the list and shifted my focus to the skills most easily acquired.

I theorized that reacquiring and improving several relatively simple skills would indirectly reduce the difficulty of later reacquiring some of the more complex skills. I could have been wrong with my theory, but it wasn’t like I wouldn’t have to eventually dedicate time to the basics anyway.

The approach had a secondary effect of resulting in several hand-made Enchanting bases, which I soon learned were much easier to work with than the items provided by the dungeon.

When I eventually attempted to create a simple enchantment again, success came swiftly. A large part of that success was due to the reacquisition of several fundamental skills such as Mana Sight, Mana Manipulation, Refining, and Imbuing.

With my success in Enchanting, my progress in the trial seemed to accelerate.

To demonstrate my proficiency with the combat skills I’d gained since my awakening, the dungeon trial granted access to a set of hunting grounds. Though no experience was immediately gained, I spent a bit of extra time in the hunting grounds in hopes that the bonus experience would be included in the final reward.

I slowly regained my previous proficiency after what felt like years of grinding away at skills. Eventually, I reached a point where I didn’t feel like there was any more improvement to make without genuinely pushing my skills to new heights.

I still tried to improve a few of my weaker skills that hadn’t gotten much attention over the decades, but without the system’s feedback, it was hard to know how successful I really was.

The only skills that I didn’t feel I had successfully demonstrated were those that directly related to spell casting, such as Direct Casting and Spell Manipulation.

To my utter surprise, I found that without my affinities, I was almost completely incapable of casting a single elemental spell.

I was able to cast a few neutral spells with which I was particularly familiar. But when it came to Time, Space, or Arcane spells, no amount of training or experience casting made any difference without access to my affinities.

It really made me wonder what the real purpose of the trial was.

Did the dungeon just want to highlight how utterly helpless we were when it came to casting spells without the system’s assistance? How was that knowledge supposed to help us when we ascended?

“I guess I’m done,” I said after finally coming to terms with the fact that I was not going to be able to demonstrate the elemental spells I’d become so reliant upon.

I’d been able to enchant the spell effects into weapons since I could clearly visualize the effect I wanted, but I couldn’t actually cast the spells without access to my affinities.

The dungeon’s response appeared almost instantly.

Would you like to end the trial?

“Yes,” I answered, only to find myself once again surrounded by nothingness.

Your trial is now complete.
Calculating rewards.

That was a change from the response I was used to seeing at the end of a trial. I couldn’t say I was surprised after my lackluster performance.

Considering Kai’s demeanor and the fact that he’d experienced some form of enlightenment due to his reward, I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d had an easier time dealing with the spell portion of the trial.

I couldn’t really see how, but maybe there was some advantage to undergoing the trial with fewer affinities.

Before I had time to consider the topic any further, another screen appeared in front of me.

Please choose from the following reward options:

·         Memory crystal containing the memories of a native Dian who died at Tier Three.

·         One virtual life set in a typical mid-sized Dian town.

·         Minor affinity boost/soul strengthening.

·         Virtual training to learn a new skill or improve an existing low-proficiency skill to high proficiency.

·         Experience bonus sufficient to reach level 101

A/N: Which reward do you think she should pick and why? I haven't decided yet, so I'd love your opinions on which one she should select. Please keep in mind that I will not be covering her time with any of the memory/training options aside from maybe a synopsis and reaction to the experience afterward if one of those are selected. At most, it'll get a single chapter dedicated to it.