Jumble shoots me a look of confusion. Can't blame her; I don't have any idea what I'm supposed to do here either. No time to think. Gotta act. I raise my nose at the Quest and nod for it to lead the way.

It nods back, then turns and walls over to the largest glass cauldron. Jumble mouths 'what's going on' as we follow it, the heretic slowly following behind us. I hold up a finger apologetically.

"I'll explain in a minute. Gotta do this fast."

She purses her lips, but reluctantly nods. "Okay. Two minutes, right?"

"Less now," the Quest interjects. "Shelby has all the pieces in her. I didn't even think this was possible, but here we are; a human with all the paindne markers, shellraiser markers, and a little too many system permissions for the system's liking. All this stuff with the uplifting trials? Jumble, you probably remember what yours were like."

"I do. Why?" Jumble asks as she watches the Quest climb a rickety platform to the cauldron. "And what's with this place? It's… pretty much exactly like the first time I was here. Before the system closed all the practical magic rooms off."

The Quest hums to itself as it trails a finger around the cauldron's edge. "I remade this place for the quest. The intent was to give you a way to upgrade your towers with different colours of magic; make this place safe and livable for the foreseeable future. Then… the system showed up. Took more control over everything than it should've ever had."

"Because of me helping Click," I say. "That's what set all this in motion."

"Yeah, no. It's… more complicated than that. Hell, I didn't even understand it myself until you gave that old bastard the end they needed," the Quest pauses, then looks down into the cauldron. "I'm the collective knowledge of this city. Its manifestation from a long, long time being stuck in phase. That's what I'd thought for all this time; a natural quest spawned from this place. But that's not true."

It looks back at the heretic, Ursula's form slowly bleeding away into a formless grey blob. "Is the system watching?"

The heretic shakes its head. "You made this place, whether you remembered it or not. The system has no hold here."

Shudders wrack the Quest's form. It turns back to the cauldron, hands planted firmly on the thick rim as bits of it fleck off into the empty glass basin. No… not empty; the pieces get caught on something utterly immobile and invisible not a few inches from the rim, slowly sinking down as if settling on the bottom of a pristine fishbowl. Each fleck makes the Quest shudder a little harder… but it also gives its body a slightly more intricate shape.

"I'm so confused and curious," Jumble whispers as ears appear atop the Quest's head. "Are you following along, Shelby?"

I slowly nod. "So far. Have a feeling that's about to change, though."

The Quest's making itself look like a paindne. That's not an outrageous idea, considering that's probably the closest thing to its actual form, but there's almost a certainty to this. Finality. It turns to me, facial features slowly etching themselves into it with the grace of a master craftsman. One eye. Two. A simple mouth. An elongated snout, into which nostrils carve themselves.

Yet… something's off about it. Instead of hardening like fired clay, the Quest seems like it's getting squishier as the precious seconds drag on. Its features are lifelike and obvious, but everything else about it is simply a mass of grey sludge.

Pearl gasps. The Quest flinches and looks away, a slight white blush rising to its cheeks as newly formed sharp teeth gnash together in a snarl. They deform like jelly under pressure which seems to surprise the thing.

"Thirty seconds," the heretic warns. "Now."

The Quest clenches even harder, bringing its gums together in an expression that no fully solid creature could ever hope to replicate. It vaults over the side of the cauldron and splashes into a perfectly clear liquid that sloshes over the sides, coating the sides and floor in a thin sheen of magic. Veins of deep black, colour-flecked magic rip through the clear stuff and snake up the cauldron like the tiniest cables I've ever seen.

Shattering glass fills the air. Clear magic surges from dozens of cauldrons to coat the floor, turning it into a mess of tiny magic veins that connect the Quest's cauldron to every corner of the room. Now I'm completely lost. PLus, we only have about fifteen seconds left before the system wins.

I'm perfectly calm. Inexplicably so. Jumble says something in a shaky voice, as if it just hit her that we're only seconds away from losing. I blink, slow and steady, to a rhythm that Pearl hums in the back of my mind. It's deep, emotional, and full of hope.

My heart beats steady and strong, carrying with it the essence of Body.

My clear head, untainted by panic embodies the raw strength of Mind.

My essence, the unexplainable thing that makes me me brings forth the concept of Soul.

And everything around me, the events and people that have shaped every second of my life since I found my Class Coin, give shape to this strange thing called Fate.

All the aspects the system put in this place to uplift the paindne. But it's missing one thing. Worth. I reach out for Jumble's hand. She looks at me like I just lost my mind, but quickly grabs my fingers anyway. Probably because she thinks I've given up. It couldn't be further from the truth.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Mind, Body, Soul, Fate," the Quest says uninhibited by the fluids that surround it. "The aspects the system instilled in the paindne to uplift them. Yet, without Worth, everything else diminishes. Without a reason, nothing happens. Without a spark, there can't be fire. Worth is the catalyst of catalysts. And now… I need this city's story to end."

"Five," the heretic states.

Jumblel's book starts to glow. She frowns down at it, then pales.

"Four," the heretic continues.

Her fingers reach down and tap the book.

"Three," the heretic finishes.

"You lived," Jumble whispers.

The Quest smiles. A true, joyous smile that feels more genuine than anything else I've seen it do before. "The coin, Shelby."

"Two."

I summon the Master-Servant coin. It squirms and squeals in my fingers like a horrendous parasite thanks to the system's designation as the master. Jumble snatches it out of the air and pours magic into it that reeks of finality. Like a thousand stories coming to abrupt ends without any closure whatsoever. Then she hands it back to me–all in a split second. I feel the coin's parasitic nature latch onto the very core of my being.

"One."

I press it to the cauldron. The Quest places its hand against the glass, and the coin simply phases through to land gently in its palm. Another sensation settles into mine, much like the strange bond Pearl and I have, and sickeningly close to what I have with Fleur.

"Zero."

A horrid noise shrieks through my mind. Manic laughter like the wind went mad echoes out from every inch the city's stone, filling the room–and most likely the entire city–with the horizonguard's gloating. Jumble squeezes my hand tightly. Wide eyes, though not with fear, meet my own when I turn to see her.

The Quest raises a hand and shatters their cauldron. No coin remains; just a new Worth Class with far too much raw power for their own good. They flex their fingers with a squished grin as the laughter hits a crescendo.

"I can't change the rules too much. But… maybe I don't have to," the newly paindne Quest says gleefully. "After all… whoever's in the tombs when time runs out wins, right? A small change back to how it was before I had to put that horrible timer on your head."

A shark-wolfish grin of my own creeps over my lips. "That's all I could hope for."

"Well, then, let's go on ahead and congratulate them," the Quest bows deeply at the waist. "If that pleases you, of course, madam."

"Yes, lets," I hold up my hand and focus on the coin Clutter's holding for me.

The world shifts. Suddenly I'm back in the tombs, along with two other visible–and visibly confused–people. Clamber's dad and the guy I didn't recognize. Luckily for me, the horizonguard hasn't made it back yet. Since there hasn't been an announcement for the new winner yet… well… it's a damn good thing I dropped a coin here twenty minutes ago.

"You!" the unknown screams. "We won! Why isn't it–"

Blood sprays from a newly missing chunk of the man's throat. He stumbles to the side, eyes wide with fear, then collapses to the ground. Clamber's dad's eyes widen in surprise, but before he can lash out, I summon a shield sphere around him. His attack lands limply on the inside as blood-soaked jaws without a body slink back into the shadows.

Clutter did his job perfectly. Without me having to send him a single message.

One of the petrified paindne shudders, then erupts into shards. The Quest emerges from the sludge inside, brushes itself off, then taps a foot against the ground with a slurping noise. A circle of stone spins a hundred and eighty degrees like half a coin flip, carrying Jumble into the dim light of the tombs. She looks around, then breathes a sigh of relief.

"We did it," she says. "We're done."

The quest shakes its head. "Sorry, but not yet. By upholding this rule, I have to uphold it for everyone."

Which means… shit. I grimace and grab the side of my head as something… starts to unravel. Pearl's essence and thoughts grow quieter by the moment, and when they're fully quiet, we'll both be completely out of commission for… who knows how long. One of my knees buckles.

Jumble casually props me up before I can start to fall. She locks eyes with the Quest, the same understanding flashing in them as I felt a second ago. "The horizonguard gets a chance to fight for this. How close is he?"

Moisture wells up against my cheek. Wet, cold fingers full of hate. Jumble lets out a cry and yanks me away, her whispering magic whipping up to a fever pitch to protect me from the forming horizonguard. Disdain colours his every movement as water slowly takes on his form, walking over to the body of the man Clutter killed with absolutely no hurry. He silently kneels down at the corpse's side for a moment, then stands and turns to look at us. Fully formed and fully powerful.

"Here we are again. The outcome isn't going to be any different. You can't kill me. I can't kill you," he says directly to Jumble, "But I can easily remove all of you from these tombs. All you've done is waste everybody's time."

Jumble clenches her fists. "Please, see reason. So many people are going to die."

The horizonguard cocks his head to the side. "And hundreds of thousands more will die when I get the reward I deserve. Save your breath, system-despised. Your Class is only as strong as the Worth in your reserves, and the system assures me you are running dangerously low. Terrifying for how much of a fight you still manage to put up, if I'm being honest, but just that; terrifying in comparison."

"Prick," Jumble mutters under her breath. "When I get more Worth, you're a dead man a thousand times over."

Hesitancy briefly stills the horizonguard. I doubt it's because he's having second thoughts, and more because he knows Jumble's telling the truth. Grim compensation for the fact that he's effectively going to give the system a win. And I seriously thought that we'd done enough.

The quest gently taps my mind. I weakly look over at it as it pats the form of a petrified painidne turned into a signal amplifier. My eyebrows knit together in confusion, but before I can open my mouth to say anything, a message appears before my eyes.

Your servant wishes to give you access to the city's signal amplifier.

Accept this gift?

My eyes nearly bulge out of my head. I mentally confirm it as quickly as I can.

Gift accepted.

Access to the city's signal amplifier now granted through your servant.

…

Way to teleport immeasurable distances attained.

Relocation evolution requirements fulfilled.

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