Arriving back in the hallway, Aaron waved away his quest rewards and headed to check out this communications room.

  He didn’t have much use for a relay stone at the moment anyway, so like many things, it went straight into his pouch.

  Opening the door along the hallway that had been invisible to him, he stepped into the room. Inside, he found himself in some kind of steampunk telephone switchboard office.

  The walls were entirely covered in antique-looking switch panels, and hundreds of the weird, elephant-like alien assistants manned the sprawling office. It was a beehive of activity within the room, and like nothing he had seen anywhere else in the trials.

  “Ahh…” Aaron stammered. He hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t this.

  “G’day, sir. How can we help you?” A nearby assistant said from behind a counter, tipping his hat.

  “I-ah…”

  “Something wrong?”

  There was something wrong. Namely everything, but also the pleated vest and puffing pipe hanging from the alien’s lips. What was up with this place? What was up with this assistant?

  “No, I mean,” Aaron cleared his throat. “What is this place? And why is the theme a little… I dunno, off?”

  “You’re a trial taker, I presume? Well, from here, you can tap into the entire multiverse. Although,” he said, as if inspecting Aaron. “You have the limited privileges of someone with only the first stage available to them. And thematically? I’m not sure how to answer this. All of our communication rooms look like this.”

  Aaron stared at the assistant for a moment. Whether all of their communication rooms were like this or not, it didn’t answer why. No one else had the old-timey look in the trials, and saying this was just what communication rooms looked like didn’t feel like a very adequate answer.

  Oh, whatever. Chalk that up as another oddity of the multiverse.

  “Okay,” Aaron rubbed between his eyes, once again trying to make sense of everything. “So, what does the first stage give me then?”

  “You can call Tutorial takers from your world—chiefly human ones. Any requests beyond that will require that you complete more trial stages. A worthwhile endeavor as our reach expands further than you can imagine.”

  Interesting, he thought, although he didn’t have much use for it. Did he even want to call anyone? What about in the trials? Aaron considered the ramifications. This was more useful than just viewing someone, he figured. Seeing someone he knew in mortal danger without the ability to do anything about it hadn’t appealed to Aaron. But if he could call them?

  He had to think about this. It didn’t completely change the scenario, and he didn’t really want someone begging for their life on the other end of the line. That was one way to drag his mood down.

  But what if he could help them? That was a big if, though. Aaron had to think about what he would even say, and if he could actually help anyone with mere words.

  For starters, he didn’t actually know anything about the Tutorials, really, at least not compared to people who had spent months stuck in them. So it wasn’t like he could help with that.

  Maybe he could give someone fighting pointers if he saw them in person, but over the phone? Yeah, that was less likely. And he still didn’t really see himself as some kind of trainer, regardless.

  “Hold that thought,” he said.

  “As you wish, sir. Come back whenever you please. We’re not going anywhere.”

  He wasn’t yet ready to call anybody. Not until he knew what he was going to say. Not until he felt genuinely hopeful of the outcome.

  That said, there were more than just the people he knew, weren’t there? Maybe it was worth calling some of the other top rankers.

  What would he say and what would the point be, though? He could try to get in their good books, but was he really able to do anything that he couldn’t do when they arrived? Especially with the Tutorials getting ever closer to their ends.

  He decided to scrap that thought for now and turned to leave. But he caught an unusual poster on the wall.

  The poster itself wasn’t that strange, a tropical holiday. It was who was enjoying the getaway holiday that sparked his curiosity. They were the little elephant-like aliens.

  The assistants went on holiday? It was a strange thought he hadn’t considered. But what was perhaps even stranger was that it said. “Sick of working all the time? Book an escape today!”

  Working all the time?

  Aaron went over this because, as far as he was aware, the trials were rather short. Universes weren’t integrated every other weekend. Shouldn’t they have hundreds if not thousands of years to relax between integrations? Unless he understood how they worked incorrectly.

  But what’s more, the communications room was also different as it didn’t appear to purely work for the sake of the trial takers.

  Also, why did Douglas look human? He was the only assistant who did, and it got stranger the more Aaron thought about it. And that wasn’t the only thing that made Douglas seem different to the other assistants.

  The rest all just stood around in their own little rooms. Douglas, on the other hand, roamed around like the manager of the place. He had also been quite defiant and even insulting when he had first arrived.

  Putting his suspicions of Douglas aside, Aaron turned back to the assistant behind the counter.

  “Um, you guys go on holidays?”

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  The assistant looked up from the counter, following Aaron’s gaze. “Oh, that? Well, it’s nice to see something other than your office every day, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah… so that means you can leave this place?”

  Aaron wanted a straighter answer than that. Nothing in this place made a lot of sense, after all.

  “It’s complicated,” the assistant smiled. “That’s a question probably best left unanswered. You’re only new to all of this, remember. I wouldn’t want to confuse you.”

  Okay, that’s odd. Why doesn’t he want to tell me?

  He was starting to get the feeling that the assistants were more than he had first thought. This wasn’t an entirely new thought; he had considered something similar for a while. But this strange encounter drove it home. Whatever the trials were, Aaron was fairly certain they were more than just some place to briefly visit after completing the integration Tutorial.

  Nodding and eyeing the smiling assistant, he left. If they weren’t going to outright tell him, he’d have to keep his eyes open for more clues. Maybe he could figure it out himself.

  Passing through the hallway, he didn’t spot either Talia or Mo’han, and so he caught up with Sooty and collected some cooking ingredients.

  Now wasn’t the time for a massive cooking binge, as he wanted to unlock new ingredients before doing that.

  He could still level and learn things without new ingredients, but it seemed like a waste of his limited time in the trials. He would likely have plenty of time for regular Profession grinding after the trials, and so he would only do it here if he thought he could gain a bunch of quick levels. Also, he had grown so much stronger now, so he really didn’t need a handful of levels for the extra Stats. He now had enough power to complete any trial he wanted to, even if they required dying a few times.

  However, what was useful was taking the time to strengthen his race. He wasn’t entirely sure whether or not he’d be able to take all the ingredients he stashed away from the crafting station and dining hall, and so he took occasional breaks to cook and consume the soul-strengthening ingredients.

  It only took a couple of hours, and by doing so, he took one more step towards his D-grade race, although it was no doubt still a long way away.

  Once that was done, he had another quick look around to see if Mo’han and Talia had returned yet, and when he failed to spot them, he decided to head to the trials.

  On his way, he spotted more strangers. An orc, some big, hairy thing, and a scaled monster with big, moist fish eyes. It seemed every time he looked around, more people were arriving.

  That was good, in a sense. He wanted to meet more people before he left, but it also rang alarm bells. More people meant they were getting closer to the end, and Douglas had mentioned that the trials got quite busy when their end neared.

  And Aaron didn’t feel like he had quite gotten enough out of this place. He still had a bunch of trials to complete, and he wanted to get as many done as he could.

  Eyeing the strangers, he walked up to the trials. He didn’t remember seeing any of their races through the viewing room and decided introductions could wait. After all, was there really much value in meeting everyone who made it here?

  The reality was that most people he would probably never see again. The multiverse was vast, and even reaching the trials early, and being the strongest of one’s Tutorial was no guarantee that you’d survive what followed.

  In fact, many wouldn’t. Aaron knew enough to know that the strongest got to where they were because they were willing to take risks and push themselves. And not every risk was going to pay off. Many of the people who made it here would likely get themselves killed, some even against one another.

  He almost went for a Trial of Survival when he reached the dial, but held his hand. He kind of wanted to see Mo’han and Talia and tell them about the communications room, and so picking a harder trial might cause a delay.

  And there had been another trial nagging at him for a while. The second stage of the Trial of Wit.

  “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” He murmured as he confirmed his selection and chose Yendal to accompany him.

  Seconds later, Aaron appeared in a field surrounded by red flowers and a red sun beam overhead.

  Yendal’s avatar immediately caught his gaze, and Aaron could tell that she had something to say.

  But she held her mouth. Annoyingly, he was going to have to finish the trial first before she said her piece.

  Thankfully, that didn’t take too long. He could tell it was some kind of puzzle, and at first, he tried to complete it legitimately, but with Yendal standing there waiting, he soon gave up and started looking for ways to cheat it. It only took a few minutes for him to find a mana connection between the flowers and the sun, and then a few more to figure out how to break the connection, which somehow completed the trial, though he wasn’t sure why. He was a little embarrassed that his plan to outwit it completely failed, making him look a little stupid, but it was only a second-stage trial, and he was just happy to have completed it in a reasonable amount of time.

  “That’s certainly one way to beat a trial,” Yendal remarked as color filled her shadow.

  “Yeah, well, old habits die hard, I suppose.”

  “I haven’t seen you for a little while. How is your training progressing?”

  “Pretty good, I think? So, does that mean you can’t spy on me in the trial hallway?”

  Yendal smiled. “I saw your duel. That cyclops was no pushover. You did well. But I think you can go further.”

  “Oh?”

  “Your friend Mo’han Khan is likely the person in your universe with the most raw talent. On top of that, he is an asura, one of the strongest races in the multiverse. You are his friend, but it would be a shame to leave the Shadow Trials without properly challenging him. It will be years before you will be able to meet with him again, and opponents who can push you to your limits are to be treasured.”

  “Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.”

  “You’re my herald now. Prove you are worthy of the title. Challenge and defeat Mo’han Khan before the trials end.”

  Quest Received from Patron God: Defeat Mo’han Khan.

  Before Aaron could respond, Yendal was gone, her avatar returned to its default shadowy form. Aaron stayed for a few seconds longer, then sighed and returned to the halls. Getting a mission from Yendal was unexpected, and it sounded difficult as hell, but he couldn’t say he hated it. He knew that Mo’han was strong, and while he would never do something like Voidrin had done, it would be a lie to say he had never wondered who would win if they fought.

  Chain Quest: The Shadow Trials

  Stage two of [ Trial of Wit ] COMPLETED!

  You have tested your memory and perception against the many moving tiles and have passed successfully.

  Quest Rewards: Universal Pocket Watch [ Elite ], Training Hall upgrade to stage 2!

  Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

  Aaron barely noticed the notifications roll past, his attention locked on the mission given to him by Yendal.

  He had gotten to witness Mo’han’s power a little bit back when he was training to unlock his Vitality Heart, so he knew a bit about Mo’han’s power. Still, a controlled experiment like that was very different from an actual fight, and as Aaron walked down the hall back toward the other rooms, he started to feel a little giddy.

  He had barely defeated Voidrin, and he doubted Voidrin was much compared to Mo’han. Aaron would most likely die if he fought Mo’han now, so what if he died? He would just come back fully refreshed and try again. The thought of that made him feel even more excited.

  Why the hell am I getting excited about dying? He thought. Am I going insane?

  Any worries he had about his sanity vanished a moment later as he saw the asura in the distance, towering over a small party of humans he hadn’t seen before. Mo’han spotted him a second later and waved with two of his right arms. Aaron waved back and quickened his pace as he approached.

  Fuck it, he thought. Let’s do this.

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