CH266

Going through the portal was as violent of an experience for him as the tornado, leaving him grateful to be alive, even if he was worse for wear.

The speed he had been moving at left him rolling across the floor until he crashed into the wall at the other end, breaking his arms and legs as he went, and he was sure a few ribs too. His face felt wet from what was undoubtedly blood, but his first thought wasn’t about his own pain, but the safety of the crab secured in his pocket, which he forced himself to unzip, already afraid of what he might find.

“Legs, what the hell was that about!” Greed yelled as he got out, looking no worse for wear and leaving Ben relieved. “What happened to the plan? What-”

He only stopped as he got a good look at Ben, seeing him broken and bleeding cut his complaints short. “Alright, Let’s get you to a state where you won’t die on me and then tell me what happened,” He said as he began using his powerful healing spells, swearing as he did. “Infinite hells, why is this going so slowly?”

Ben personally thought it was going far faster than he was used to, but then, for a person with an awakened magic to have any difficulty, it was probably a surprise.

God, I don’t mind my resistances much but having the effectiveness of healing spells cut by over thirty percent is still rough. Now that I think of it, was all of that powered by air magic? How freaking bad would that have been if I didn’t have my resistances?

He couldn’t be certain given that Anailia’s trial seemed to circumvent them somehow, but with what he’d just gone through he decided he would take whatever win he could. He was alive, that was all that mattered.

After many hours, Greed had all of his more serious wounds treated and moved on to fixing his face, making it so Ben could explain what happened as he worked on the rest of the injuries.

“Damn it,” The crab spat. “Of course there was a fucking time limit. So what now?”

“Well, I thought I could get us out because we were at the entrance, but now I’m not sure. For all I know, we’d have to go through that again, but honestly I vote no on that.”

“Agreed. It was crap enough before you threw me in your pocket.”

“So that just leaves us with one option then,” He said as he got up and looked around. They were in a room nearly identical to the first one they’d been in before falling into that endless sky, with a fountain and table, as well as a door that he was sure to take him to some equally horrible place as the last. There was just one difference he could see. Along one wall was a pile of discarded items. There must have been hundreds sitting there and he could only worry about what that might mean for whatever was coming next, but the thought was broken off by Greed.

“The problem is, that last option means I’m either dying in the trial or dying as I starve. Not really a fan of either.”

“…Give me some time to think. I need to check how long we have first.”

He went along the wall to look for more moving rings and found them shortly, seeing that they were configured in an identical way to the previous area, meaning that they should have nearly three days. It felt like a small amount of time to prepare when he had no clue what was to come, but it was better than nothing as he spent a few hours examining the rest of the area, looking for any variance in the enchantments he was seeing from what he’d seen before as he went around, continuing to build up his theories on just what everything did.

It was only as he’d finished that he made his way to the pile of items, finding Greed already digging through it.

“Find anything interesting?”

“Just a bunch of ancient junk.”

Ben couldn’t help but agree as he started digging through it himself. Weapons of every size, their item quality no greater than lower rare with many enchantments almost completely broken down from lack of upkeep, the weave and other methods of arranging the magic being pointless to repair. He doubted anything he was seeing could have helped during the last part of the trial, though he couldn’t know for sure if they would be useful for the next.

As he stared at them something was picking at his brain though, the same way it was when he’d realized what was happening before was a countdown, he just couldn’t put his finger on what.

There’s just something about these all though… Maybe I could organize them?

He didn’t have any better idea so he did just that, going through the pile to gather together knives and spears and shields and all manner of other weapons into their own groups, before moving on to what was left. Small things whose purpose was lost to time, clothing of all shapes and sizes, and other items he could only consider pointless nicknacks. He went through all of it until he got to the bottom of the pile, stopping at the last three items as just what was bothering him snapped into place.

The three he was seeing seemed the oldest by far, and yet their enchantments looked pristine in comparison to what else he saw there. The rings of mana that made each up were still holding strong after what could only have been thousands of years in there, but it put the rest of the items he was seeing into perspective. The creatures that worshiped the god of this trial used their magic in the same way, the fact that he was seeing other systems of enchanting in place, no matter how decayed, could only mean that they weren’t left from the god for the next section of the trial, but from the people thrown into it.

A lost and found maybe? For anyone to pick up their stuff that ends up lost in the last part? Honestly, I could see that happening a lot, but…

He looked again at the clothing. Some of it fresh, some undoubtedly centuries old, with what he first thought was grime far more likely to be the ancient blood of whatever race shed it. If he had to bet, he would have said it was a combination of both options. The trial storing not only whatever was lost, but the items of anyone who died.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He couldn’t begin to guess why, but he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, especially not for the nearly pristine items that must have been made by the race of the trial’s god. What looked like a cup, an armband, and a metal circle. They were all built with the same enchantment arrangement as the trial but on a far simpler level. A mortal level, meaning he could experiment with it and learn from them, seeing how they worked in a way he simply couldn’t with something as large as the trial, and after gaining every bit of knowledge he could from the limited form of analysis his ninth level enchanting gave him, he took the plunge and poured his mana into the cup to gauge its effect.

It was sad to say, but it was underwhelming in a way that he felt supported his theory. The items around were nothing special, even if they were valuable clues on how he might learn about the magic structure of the long-dead race. The cup did exactly what he’d guessed from the fact that he could see the enchantments on it were water and air affinitied. It pulled moisture from the air to fill it.