We had conquered countless trials, each designed to test a different aspect of our abilities. Endurance, strength, intellect, or, in some cases, sheer dumb luck. No two were ever the same. Some pushed us to our very limits, demanding every ounce of skill and resilience we possessed. Others were so absurdly simple that we almost felt insulted by their ease.

Take the Glade 159, Glade of Dancing Lights, for instance. That trial was almost laughable. A handful of floating targets drifted lazily through the air, glowing with faint, golden light. All we had to do was strike them with pinpoint accuracy. With Darwyn's uncanny precision and Elena's flawless archery, we wrapped that one up in under five minutes. It felt more like a training exercise than a true test of worth.

But not all trials were so merciful.

Glade 107 was different. It nearly broke us.

That was where we faced the Murkborn Leeches, a swarm of monstrous, multi-eyed creatures with grotesquely stretchable bodies. If they latched onto their prey, they could drain both blood and Mana. Worse, their bites inflicted hallucinations.

At first, we thought we could handle them. We had fought worse.

"How many of these things are there?!" Muradin shouted, slamming his shield into one of the creatures, crushing it entirely.

"Too many," Darwyn answered hastily, barely dodging another lunging leech.

Normally, a few of them wouldn't be a problem. But in the hundreds? Coming from every direction? That was a nightmare. To make things worse, we were in a cramped area where large-scale spells or area-of-effect attacks would risk friendly fire.

"Gosh, I can't use my Flameburst Flask without roasting you all alive!" Orin frustrated, gripping her staff tightly.

Then the hallucinations began.

"Get off me!" Orin screamed, thrashing wildly as she tried to shake off a leech that wasn't even there. Her staff clattered to the ground, her eyes wide with terror as she clawed at her own arm. "They're inside me. No, no, no, get them out!"

Muradin stumbled backward, his breath ragged. He gripped his head, shaking. "I can't see… I can't…" His knees buckled, and he collapsed.

Darwyn managed to keep his footing longer than the others, but his movements were sluggish. His bow trembled in his hands. "Oh, fudge… I can't focus… My hands…" His fingers fumbled with an arrow before it slipped from his grasp. His body swayed, and he barely caught himself against a rock.

One by one, they fell.

I could only hold on for a short while before my Mana was completely drained, leaving me unable to cast Rejuvenation any longer.

And then it was just Elena.

Her Phantom hovered beside her, mirroring her stance. The leeches swarmed, drawn to the only conscious fighter left.

"Figures," Elena muttered, rolling her shoulders. "Guess I'll handle this myself."

A leech lunged at her, then stopped midair, its grotesque body convulsing. Then another. And another.

Elena's Toxic Aura had spread. The creatures twitched and writhed as if something invisible was choking the life out of them.

More came, desperate, frenzied, their deformed bodies stretching unnaturally to reach her. It didn't matter. The moment they entered her aura, they withered, blackened, and fell.

But they kept coming.

Elena didn't falter. She and her Phantom moved with calculated precision, evading every lunge of the leeches.

Strangely enough, her toxic energy didn't affect any of us. It was as if it recognized friend from foe. And even more incredible, her Phantom could use the same skill with the exact same potency. Normally, Phantom's attacks only dealt a quarter of Elena's actual damage.

But this? This was different. Toxic Aura dealt the same amount.

Unfortunately, the poison damage wasn't stackable, though.

For nearly thirty minutes, she fought alone. Or rather, she and Phantom fought together.

By the time the last Murkborn Leech fell, silence filled the glade. The air was thick with the scent of death.

Elena finally let out a slow breath, glancing at her fallen teammates.

She stepped toward Orin and crouched beside her. With a firm grip, she shook her shoulder. "Hey sis. Get up."

Orin groaned, blinking through the fading hallucinations. "Elena…?"

"Yeah. You're okay now, sis."

Darwyn stirred next, groaning as he tried to sit up. He squinted at the battlefield, taking in the scattered Mana Stones. "Holy smokes. Did you just…?"

"Yes," Elena said flatly.

Muradin let out a weak laugh, still lying on his back. "Remind me... never to get on your bad side..."

We were exhausted, battered, and more than a little traumatized, but we survived.

***

One by one, we conquered each trial, leaving only one more before reaching our ultimate destination, Verdant Glade.

The journey had taken far longer than I anticipated. Many of the trials were different from those in the game, forcing us to adapt and rethink our approach.

At last, we arrived at a clearing dominated by a towering monolith, its surface etched with the number 100.

The Gemward Sanctum.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The objective here seemed simple enough: match the gemstones to the statues representing the four elements. In Dreadspire, the statues were clear depictions of their respective elements.

The Earth statue was a muscular figure wielding a massive stone club, its feet firmly planted on a rocky base.

The Air statue took the form of a flowing-robed figure with hair that seemed to ripple in an unseen wind, holding a swirling vortex in their hands.

Fire was represented by a graceful figure, flames flickering from their palms, surrounded by a ring of small fires.

And Water? A robed figure with cascading water streaming from their hands, the base of the statue carved to resemble crashing waves.

But what stood before us now was… nothing like that.

The four statues in front of us were identical. Faceless. Featureless. Like mannequins in a store, standing eerily still. The only distinguishing factor was the small slot on each of their foreheads, meant to hold a gemstone.

At first glance, there were no clues. No obvious hints. But as we looked closer, we noticed inscriptions engraved at the base of each statue.

Orin crouched down and ran a finger over the first one, reading aloud:

"I flow, I move, and I am endless. Still, I am your source of life."

"That's gotta be water, right?" she mused.

A few feet away, Muradin called out as he examined another inscription. "I give life and take it in a flicker. I am your warmth, and I am your danger." He looked up at us. "This has to be fire!"

We all nodded in agreement. That one was easy.

Darwyn, however, frowned as he read the inscription on the third statue. "Without me, you are lost in the wilds. Feel me, and I will guide your path."

He glanced back at us, uncertainty in his expression. "This one's tricky."

"That should be air," Elena said confidently. "If you're lost, you follow the wind."

"But… couldn't the same be said for water?" I murmured, deep in thought. "Rivers lead to civilization. Sailors navigate by ocean currents."

Silence fell over the group as we considered the possibility.

Finally, I stepped forward and read the last inscription. "I am a force that whispers in the silence. Guide me, and I'll carry you where you wish to go."

I exhaled. "Now this sounds more like air."

The trial wasn't as straightforward as we had hoped. The game had always given me obvious visual cues, but here? We had to rely on our own understanding.

We spent several minutes locked in discussion.

Minutes turned into ten. Ten stretched into an hour. And still, no agreement.

No one was sure. No one wanted to take the risk.

But one thing was certain. One wrong choice, and it was game over.

The monolith had made that painfully clear when we first entered the chamber. The moment our hands brushed its surface, an eerie voice had echoed through the room:

"Choose wisely, or let the air itself become your tomb."

That was all the warning we needed. If we placed even a single gemstone incorrectly, the entire chamber would flood with toxic gas.

The weight of the decision pressed down on us like a boulder. But waiting wouldn't change anything.

I took a deep breath, stepping forward toward the pedestal in the center of the room. Four gemstones lay atop it, each glowing faintly: red, blue, green, and white. My fingers hovered over them before I reached for the Red Gemstone.

No more doubts. No more second-guessing.

Fire. That was the only answer that made sense.

With steady hands, I approached the statue with the most obvious inscription:

"I give life and take it in a flicker. I am your warmth, and I am your danger."

I slotted the Red Gemstone into the indentation on its forehead.

For a moment, nothing happened.

We held our breath. Hearts pounded.

The monolith's runes remained blue. They did not shift to red.

Silence.

Then a collective exhale.

"That means… we got it right?" Elena asked hesitantly.

Darwyn let out a breathy laugh. "Looks like it."

Orin crossed her arms, smirking. "Good thing we didn't just throw them in randomly, huh?"

Relief flooded through us, but the tension wasn't gone yet. That was just one gemstone.

Three more to go.

And no room for mistakes.

I stepped back toward the pedestal, my fingers hovering over the remaining gemstones. This time, I reached for the Green Gemstone. The symbol of Earth.

I turned to face the next statue, reading its inscription aloud once more:

"Without me, you are lost in the wilds. Feel me, and I will guide your path."

We had debated this one for a while, but in the end, we all agreed. Earth was the only answer that made sense. The other clues didn't fit.

Still… I hesitated.

I gripped the gemstone a little tighter, my pulse quickening. The weight of our previous success only made this moment more nerve-wracking.

What if this was the wrong choice?

What if I was dooming us all?

"Oi, stop overthinking it," Muradin grumbled. "We all agreed on this one. Just put it in before I die of old age."

I exhaled sharply, shaking off my doubt. Right. No more hesitation.

Carefully, I slotted the Green Gemstone into the statue's forehead.

For a few agonizing seconds, nothing happened.

We watched. We waited.

The monolith's runes remained blue.

A breath I didn't realize I had been holding escaped me.

Muradin let out a triumphant laugh, pumping a fist into the air. "HA! That's two down, suckers! Maybe we're not complete idiots after all!"

Orin rolled her eyes. "Don't jinx it. We still have two more to go."

"Yeah," Darwyn muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "And the last two aren't exactly obvious."

Elena smirked, crossing her arms. "Well, at least we know we haven't triggered the death trap… yet."

I let out a shaky chuckle. Two gemstones placed correctly. Two more to go.

We were halfway there.

But somehow, the tension in the room only grew heavier.

At last, we reached the final decision.

And it was the hardest one yet.

No matter how much we debated, we couldn't agree. Each side had strong arguments, each reasoning made sense in its own way.

But logic had taken us as far as it could.

Now, we had only one option left. Luck.

And if we were going to rely on sheer chance, there was no better person for the job than Orin.

She stepped forward, rolling her shoulders like a gambler about to place everything on a single throw of the dice. With a smirk, she picked up the Blue Gemstone, the symbol of Water, and held it up to the dim light. The faint glow of the gem reflected in her blue eyes as she turned it between her fingers, deep in thought.

Then, without a word, she spun on her heel.

She had made her choice.

No more discussion. No hesitation.

We held our breath as she strode toward one of the statues.

This was it.

Everything rested on her decision.

Would this be our victory… or our downfall?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.