The shimmering light receded from Rylan's eyes, revealing that he had stepped onto a hexagonal platform of glittering green stone, floating inside a massive violet bubble.

Rylan's mind was only half there, however, as he brought his fingers up to his tingling mouth, still feeling the ghost of Tammi's lips linger there.

[What was that, right Boss?] Arphin asked. [Like, seriously, what was that? I mean, I've seen other people do that before, but so far, you've refused to expl—]

"Let's talk about that later, Arphin," Rylan hurriedly said out loud, already dreading that future conversation. "We need to focus."

Am I really going to have to give Arphin 'the talk?' I barely know about that stuff...

[You're right, Boss, let's focus!]

Right at that moment, Ethereon suddenly spoke.《Welcome, administrator, to Champion Dungeon AW. Challenger difficulty set to: Emerald Grade. Arena template selected.》

Rylan blinked, a little surprised at Ethereon once again calling him an administrator, and outside of the context of the console, but he was quickly distracted by the world blossoming around him.

It started with the platform he was standing on expanding in all directions, leaving no gaps one could fall through. Then sections started to rise up, or tilt down, creating a hilly—if still blocky—landscape, that curved upwards at the edges into a bowl shape. Finally, hexagonal pillars of stone started to rise in various places, dotting the landscape.

《Warning,》Ethereon suddenly continued.《Participation in the Champion's Trial may result in significant injury, or even death. Once the Trial has commenced, there will be no option to forfeit. The Trial will continue until either you defeat the selected Malequint, exit the Dungeon through the external membrane, or perish.》

So there is an escape option. That's good to know. Wouldn't be too easy to get out of this massive bowl though...

《This is your final chance to back out,》Ethereon spoke as the glittering green landscape finally settled.《If you wish to proceed, say 'Start Champion's Trial' to commence. If you wish to turn back, please say 'Exit Champion's Trial.'》

Rylan took a deep breath. "Blessed Ethereon, may I see my Status one more time, please?"

As usual, the answer came in the shape of a glowing window.

Status

Mana Pool: 13/13

Mana Shell: 6/6

Attributes

Strength 3

Dexterity 3

Endurance 2

Mind 3

Perception 3

Presence -1

Skills

Knife-Throwing, Rank 3

Jumping, Rank 3

Quint Structures

Mana Core, Tier I

Mana Pool, Tier I

Mana Shell, Tier VI

Quintessence Credits: 48

While Rylan had originally intended to start saving up Credits for a Mana Core improvement, he'd decided to take the sixth tier of Mana Shell after all, in preparation for this Dungeon.

After all, he'd need to be alive to upgrade his Mana Core.

Though frankly, what he wanted most of all right now would be the upgrade to his Mana Pool. Now that he had two Skills, a Mana Shell with decent capacity, and Arphin all vying for his mana, he felt the constraints of his limited reserves more and more.

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I'll just have to make do.

He took a few minutes to limber up and stretch out his limbs, not that he really needed to after walking all the way there, but it felt good to do so. Squeezing in some final preparations, he glanced over at a nearby pillar. He could try climbing it, but the grooves in the stone looked pretty minimal. Realistically, without the fog, he'd have to use Jumping to get up there, and he didn't want to waste any mana.

Once he ran out of excuses to postpone it any longer, he took a deep breath, drew his chef's knife and called out, "Start Trial!"

《Malequint selection started. Malequint selected. The Champion's Trial will commence in three seconds. Good luck, Challenger. In life or death, may you bring honour to the Empire.》

Those last words struck Rylan as rather unexpected, but he didn't have much time to think about it, as to his right, in the distance, a shimmering bubble of violet appeared which grew, and grew, until finally, it retracted.

A massive boar emerged, of a type that Rylan had seen only once before. A ramtusk. Except this one was absolutely huge, standing taller than Rylan even on all fours. Its two low-hanging tusks each had a gleaming ball of deepmetal at the end, similar in size if not shape to the head of the captain's new hammer.

Finally, it had a ball of white light superimposed with its chest in Rylan's spirit vision, and it looked pissed.

[Woah! That's a big one, huh Boss?]

As Rylan studied it wide-eyed, the ramtusk tossed its head, snorting while it looked around. Then its gaze settled on Rylan, and its beady black eyes narrowed in rage.

It lowered its tusks, hoofs digging into the stone below. Then the bulbs at the ends of its tusks started to glow, and it charged.

Fog!

Rylan shifted his stance, lowering himself and bringing his arm up as he started to charge both his Skills. The white glow around his knife brightened as he brought it up to a full 1.4 mana; his current limit. For his Jumping Skill he was more conservative, charging it up to a 'mere' 0.4.

With the beast bearing down on him, he finished charging, and whipped his arm forward. His knife soared, and a slight pull on his mana caused it to straighten out in mid-air.

It hit the ramtusk on the brow, just above its eye, carved into its flesh, and then was sent flying in a spray of sparks.

[Woah!] Arphin exclaimed.

Rylan's mouth dropped open, but he had no more time to consider what had just happened, as the beast was nearly upon him, the stone trembling beneath its hooves.

So he jumped, leaping out of the enraged creature's path towards a nearby pillar. He actually had to pull up his knees to properly clear the ramtusk as it came thundering by beneath him, in part because he hadn't jumped straight up, but a little to the side.

He twisted mid-jump and grabbed onto the top of the pillar there.

"What the fog was that?!" he exclaimed as he hauled himself up.

[I think there's deepmetal embedded in its skull as well, Boss!] Arphin replied. [You did leave a nice cut that's bleeding into its eye, but I don't think—woah! How did it do that?! Ehm, Boss, I think it might be back sooner than you expect!]

Rylan turned his head, confused when he found the ramtusk charging in the opposite direction compared to before. The sight didn't immediately strike him with worry, as the ramtusk wasn't heading straight for him, but rather on a trajectory that would take it past Rylan. However, just as it drew parallel to the pillar he was on, the creature performed a truly mind-boggling manoeuvre.

The mana around its tusks seemed to shiver and take on a weird texture, full of triangles with right angles. Then its head snapped around ninety degrees, straight towards Rylan. And a split second later, its body... followed.

Before Rylan could blink, the creature was mere feet from his pillar. He barely had time to jump before it smashed straight through the glittering green stone, disappearing into a cloud of dust.

Waving his arms in mid-air, Rylan pushed a sliver of mana down his legs to assist his landing, and thankfully managed to stay on his feet as he did.

[It's cornering again, Boss!] Arphin warned.

Rylan did not stick around to watch, taking off into a sprint to a nearby cluster of pillars, already charging up a new jump.

Within seconds, the stone beneath him began to tremble once more, as the sound of stampeding hooves closed in on him.

[Boss!] Arphin urged.

Rylan activated his Skill, using almost twice the mana he had previously to launch himself up towards the pillar in front of him. He needed the extra juice, because it allowed him to rise up the full distance and step directly onto the top of the pillar.

There, he kept his momentum, angling swiftly towards the right to hop to another pillar.

And not a moment too soon.

A fraction of a second after his rear foot left the first pillar, the stone structure was smashed to bits, the ramtusk running straight through it without even slowing down.

It smashed through two more pillars before exiting the relatively pillar-dense section on the other side and performing another scarily abrupt ninety-degree turn.

[Well, at least we know what its textured mana does, right Boss?] Arphin sent, his chipper tone belying the accompanying sense of dread.

Rylan swallowed as he absent-mindedly drew another knife with shaking fingers, his eyes tracking the beast as it actually slowed down for a moment and turned to face him. Great Spirits, imagine if I had tried to dodge by going left or right rather than jumping! I'd be a smear across the stone...

[So, ehm, what's the plan?] Arphin prompted anxiously.

Rylan took a deep breath and straightened his spine. "Just as we've discussed. We're going to tire it out... and make it bleed."

The ramtusk charged, and Rylan lifted his knife.

Unfortunately, Rylan quickly found that making it bleed was harder than he'd made it sound.

With the beast's bones clearly laced with deepmetal, what he really needed to hit was some softer tissue, like its belly or flank, but that was easier said than done while scrambling from pillar to pillar to escape the beast's mad charges.

Moreover, it seemed like every time he had a shot lined up, the ramtusk suddenly changed direction.

Should I go for its eyes after all? Fog, I can barely see them from up here with its head angled down like that!

To be honest, the beast barely ever seemed to need to look for him before it charged anyway, giving Rylan the impression that it didn't really need to see to detect his presence.

As pillar after pillar turned to dust, and his pool of potential footholds shrank, Rylan grew more and more anxious. Worse, the ramtusk did not seem to be tiring or slowing down at all!

So on the next go around, he took a page from Soren's book and performed a spin through the air, throwing his charged boning knife mid-jump.

He didn't get to see what happened after he'd hurled the blade, as he had to focus on his landing, but that's where Arphin came in.

[Ah, you hit a rib, Boss,] the spiritgear commiserated. [Isn't it my turn yet? Come on Boss, I'm so ready, just let me at him!]

Gritting his teeth, Rylan pulled the chatty blade out of its ornate sheath. He'd hoped to avoid using Arphin too much, as Recall was a mana-intensive runework, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice; his normal knives just weren't cutting it.

[Yes!] Arphin cheered.

"All right, Arphin, pay attention; I'm going to need your feedback if we're going to get this throw right," Rylan warned.

[You got it, Boss!]

Rylan tried to keep his breathing low and steady as he charged his Skills, tracking the beast with his eyes. It took its time to slow and turn this time, giving him a little more breathing room.

Moreover, it meant the ramtusk came straight at him from quite some distance away.

His hand tightened around Arphin's hilt as it started its charge. Not yet, wait for it...

Finally, at what he deemed was the right moment, he hopped down off of the pillar, without using his Skill. Instead, he activated it only as he was in the air, using just a little bit of mana to soften his landing as he kept the rest in reserve. That subtle buffer allowed him to waste no time straightening up before he took aim at one of the ramtusk's manic eyes, and threw.

He could feel Arphin's joy as the blade left his fingers and straightened out, heading right for the ramtusk's eye, while he prepared to Jump out of the way.

But the beast seemed to have learned from Rylan's first attempt to take out its vision. Right before Arphin could penetrate its beady eye and hopefully sink through the back of the eye socket into its soft brain tissue, textured mana flickered into life, and the beast cornered.

With a thunk, Arphin sank into its flank instead.

Fog!

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