"And what is this?" the elf girl leaned over, a hand gently on his shoulder. "It's so complicated!"
Her presence was a seam in reality, distant from his work, and Axl remembered. This wasn’t real. He was sleeping in the Shrouded Crescent Valley, escorting Alifren's party to their transit rift. This was an intruder on his mind.
"Who the slit are you?" he asked, putting down the solder and picking up his microdrill, the tool now a weapon. "And why are you here?"
The workshop dimmed until only empty darkness was left, Axl holding his drill, the elven girl looking up at him with large, smiling eyes.
"Marvelous! You can be a dreamer true, already! It's just like the lightning said, and the sullen void, even the whisper of it hanging around you."
Axl paused at the mention of the void, but then reached out with a meaty hand and grabbed the elf's throat. "I don’t like it when people invade my soul."
He squeezed, but it was as if her neck was made of immovable marble, her chuckling easily vibrating against his grip. "This is just a chat to get to know each other. Strugglers in this firmament are so particular about their dreams, it's quite charming."
The elf reached up and gently poked his nose. "Peal!" Then she did it again, with just enough force for it to start hurting. "Peeeeeeal!"
Axl let her go, stepping back and rubbing his nose. "Alright, fine, you did all this to talk, so talk. What do you want?"
"I'm a scrying oracle, currently under the employ of another void-touched like you, but I want to leave. She most likely won't let me, so I want you to take me out and move me to a safe haven I have prepared."
"Is she a metal dryad? With some artifact that produces void?"
"Yes and yes," the girl replied. "Come get me at the periphery of her grove, in the ribcage enclosure—Meet me in a dream again when you are within sight, and I can give you a further scrying. But don't try to fight her or her main forces yet, you're still too weak."
Axl grumbled, all this feeling far too convenient. "How do I know this is not a trap?"
She shrugged. "Maybe because I could kill you now if I wanted to?"
Suddenly, he was on his knees, one of the elf's small hands on his throat, squeezing, effortlessly choking him out. He flailed, stabbed at her side with the drill, a sword, a fist, nothing even marring her simple white dress. In a slow, deliberate gesture, she let go.
"See? In here, I'm much stronger than you. Your soul-shielding has improved impressively since the last time we met—a promise of a bright future, or at least an interesting one. But not enough to hold up in my domain just yet."
Axl rubbed his neck, slowly regaining his voice. "Point taken."
Still, this was good news. He finally got a lead on the metal dryad, his previous discrete inquiries using every scrap of Charisma he could muster back at the Longhouse yielding nothing. This was a part of the reason he didn't feel so bad leaving—he needed to find his target, and if she was at the opposite side of the vale, it would take months just to get there. The last thing he wanted was to burn his two years aimlessly crisscrossing the wilderness.
"So where is she?" he asked. "Where's the dryad and her void artifact?"
"I'm near the source of the void, it's at her inner sanctum."
"Great, where?"
"Ah," the girl laughed shyly, twirling the hem of her dress side-to-side with her outstretched arms. "I don't know."
"What?"
"There are a lot of houses behind the wall nearby? And many elves and kobolds in them, from their dreams."
Axl exhaled deeply, trying not to let the frustration get to him. It was at least somewhat of a hint that the treasure was in a large encampment of sorts. There shouldn’t be so many places like that in the vale.
"Fine," he finally replied. "But why should I rescue you? What's in it for me?"
"Savages, all of you," She rolled her eyes. "At the challenge rift of your destination, show mercy to the final challenger, and you will obtain a greater reward than a more complete victory. And you will be less likely to die."
Axl's eyes widened, suddenly realizing the value of the brat, why the metal dryad would keep her captive. This kind of intelligence was beyond valuable. "And you can give me more hints like that if I set you free?"
She looked at him carefully, her face set with a measured calm. "Interesting that you phrase it as such. Even at the prospect of my service, you would set me free?"
It was his turn to roll his eyes. "I could be lying, kid."
She laughed uproariously, head back and hugging her gut. "If you say so, if you say so."
The elf then stopped and straightened, suddenly a head taller, her previously girlish body filling out, her plain white dress more elaborate, her purple eyes deeper. The childlike glee was still there, but so was a palpable depth, the touch of technique and deliberate practice, the dream twisting into her command from the force of her will.
"My name is Sky-of-Deepest-Night Arianess," she said, voice a touch deeper than before. "And I look forward to meeting you in waking."
She held out a hand, dainty and pale, limp at the wrist. Axl took it, his large fist enveloping it, and gave it a solid shake. "Nice to meet you, Sky, and I will see you soon."
She chuckled, eyes joyful as she awkwardly returned the shaking motion, clearly not expecting it. "You may call me Aria, struggler."
The dream then started to fade, the darkness enveloping him, warm with the promise of a deep, restful slumber.
Axl woke up, slowly, his mind clearing in an unusually gentle rise to see the sun above, shimmering past the ephemeral dancing glyphs of the forest's translucent canopy. He sat up, feeling his body being lithe and ready, fully rested, his soul safely encased in the 12-sided defense of [Mind-Soul Bulwark]. His soul within had three jagged scars upon it, each an angry red, and he was alarmed by how heavy the damage was from his final push the night before. This was a significantly deeper injury than from when he harvested the lunar fulger.
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"Ah, good, you're up," Nalpol was next to him, making minor repairs on his armor. "We were worried about how damaged you seemed yesterday. It looked like it came from nowhere, and even your potions did you no good."
"Yeah, I went a bit overboard with that last battle, and had to pay a price," he lied, rousing his Charisma to sell the vague deflection, not wanting to reveal too much about his soul attack. "Sorry that I held up the works. I should be ready in a bit, but I won't be able to use the disabling attack for a while, I fear."
"As expected from our prodigal scion!" the orc leader laughed loudly. "That you can even sit upright is a miracle. But be not concerned about the delay, frankly, we all welcomed the break, as this has been a brutal trek. I've never heard of creatures being so eager to attack a full party. We have been truly unlucky this final attempt."
Axl felt bad, knowing exactly why they were unlucky. His Perennial Prey title was most likely a powerful lure to every mindless monster in these woods, and probably even synergized with the Geas of the Weak as well. He wondered if that giant mantis even got a quest to go after him, like he did with the centipedes.
Nalpol turned back to his field repairs, and Axl felt a small tufted leg on his cheek, Moxlin pressing her foreleg against him, her spidery face scrunched up in a frown.
"Sorry," he whispered at her, but then felt he couldn't say anything else, embarrassed by what was, in retrospect, a gross overreaction.
Moxlin pushed harder, her frown deeper, accompanied by an indignant grunt. She wasn't wrong.
A few hours later, they were off, Axl largely steady on his feet, this time walking in the middle of the three shield-wielding orcs, just in case. He focused entirely on [Mana Shroud], since if he saw any mantis, they'd try to circumvent the threat instead of fighting. However, Axl found none anymore, even as the day turned to the early twilight hours, a relief, and by the time they camped for the night, his soul was feeling much better, and he figured that in a pinch, he could even use his Deathshroud once or twice before the strain started to build up again.
His party again let him sleep throughout the night, glad they were able to spend an entire day without encountering creatures—largely because Axl managed to have the party circle around three groups of tuskful boars that were clearly on the prowl, as if hunting for something specific. Something like a juicy Perennial Prey.
Axl woke up the next morning feeling fully refreshed, his sleep unusually deep, and he wondered if Aria had anything to do with that. Regardless, they set off, and by midday were at the small hill at the top of which the familiar circular opening of a rift shimmered with swirling orange light. As he saw it, a message popped up into view.
>>Challenge and Transit Rift: Greenhouse Crossroads
>>Update: Entrance to the Greenhouse Crossroads found, engage in up to 5 rounds of trial by combat, singly or within a group.
>>Reward: Proportional to performance, boosted by Geas of the Weak, unlocks additional transit nodes.
There it was, it even said in its description that it unlocked other options for travel. Rather annoying that the Longhouse kept this kind of knowledge suppressed. If he hadn't stumbled on this distraction, he likely wouldn’t have found this incredibly convenient opportunity.
"Finally," Brillhit muttered. "Alright, everybody, hold onto each other when going in, or else you risk being sent to a different instance of the challenge. We can talk more about approaching the challenge when we enter. There is a buffer zone within where we can reconvene safely before starting the trial itself."
This felt unusually convenient, but it was also the case for the challenge rift he unlocked earlier to get his poison rewards. Axl expected it not to always be the case, however, so kept his guard up even as he stepped through, Alifren holding one arm ahead of him, Gumul his other behind.
Stepping inside, he felt a sudden shift in the air, and he was inside a large area, bigger than his previous trial, the distance a blue sky with a spattering of lazy, purple clouds, illuminated by no visible sun. They were in a small clearing encircled by trees, these fully material, unlike those in the vale proper, and had streaks of stone all along their trunk and branches, the dark wood in stark contrast to the light grey stone. Beyond, he could vaguely sense the edge of the area, its limits blurring within the forest.
The clearing was a filled with short, light-green grass, small plants with three leaves, spreading evenly to make for a rather peaceful-looking meadow, at its far end was a large building made entirely of grey stone, a flat rectangle with flowing decorations along its surface, as if somebody idly painted the surface of the stone with curling brushstrokes, lending it an oddly organic look. It had a single arched entrance facing the party, large enough for three people to enter side-by-side. The insides were obscured, as if protected by a barrier of shadow.
>>Challenge and Transit Rift: Greenhouse Crossroads
>>Update: Participants and supporting staff to enter the trial chamber. Remaining staff will have a minimum of one day and an hour should trial be successful, further time allotted proportional to performance. Failure in first round will eject all participants immediately, location randomized.
The message seemed to explain it all, and Axl looked at the chamber with curiosity. Aria figured it out in her prediction already, but this was something Axl had already planned to do, given how their journey over had been.
"I want to do this trial myself," Axl said, the rest of the party turning to him in surprise.
"W-What?" Nalpol stuttered. "You can't be serious. This is a challenge for a full party!"
"I'm not surprised," said Brillhit, voice even, almost bored. "As to be expected from a G-Grade willing to challenge an F-Grade sanctuary—and actually manage to survive."
Nalpol stepped forward. "Wait, please reconsider, you saw what the notification said. If you fail the first challenge, we all get ejected to a random part of the Vale. That's a death sentence to the rest of us."
"He won't be satisfied with just the first," Brillhit continued. "He wants to do all five."
Axl shrugged. "I'll see how it goes, but you can consider this to be my choice of payment, since we haven't come across anything else I'm interested in."
Alifren simply stared aside, her face unreadable.
Moxlin crawled out from her backpack. "Promise to stop if the rounds get too intense?"
Axl smiled at the small spider, relieved she still trusted him despite his recent mistake in pushing for the 12-face mental defense. "No need to promise, you can make sure firsthand. I'd like you to come with me as my support, in case things get a bit difficult."
Moxlin visibly relaxed, as if a deathly worry was wiped away. "Okay!"
"The support position is barely more than an observer," Brillhit said. "They can't do anything during the rounds themselves, only between them, and still count in terms of how the rewards are calculated."
Axl nodded, expecting as much, but wanting the extra security just in case. Moxlin was quite well-versed in bringing him from the brink of death already, so it was worth having her. Plus, she needed some rewards for all her hard work, and Axl felt it was right to include her in these rewards, even if he was doing all the fighting.
Nalpol kept trying to convince him to at least take a few more people in for a while longer, and they eventually settled on waiting for another half day for Axl to fully rest up before going in, the others setting up a rudimentary camp on the meadow.
As he started to engage in some meditative cultivation, Axl started to appreciate the rich Mana in this area, a smoother mixture of various nature attunements, from the trees nearby and the rich soil, even the grass. This also had a smaller undertone of the pure breeze that swept the area in regular intervals, and the vast, clear sky. It was a far cry from the busy mess of Mana that filled the vale, one that actively resisted being purified and cleared up, dense, yes, but he figured that trying to take it to make into a Core would ensure it was about as mottled and unattuned as possible. Maybe there was a use for that, but it wasn't at all what he wanted.
Still, this trial's Mana was ideal for him to compress in his core and bring into his soul, the small marble healing substantially, so much so that Axl even experimented with purifying some of the more prevalent Mana types with [Mana Shroud], finding the practice quite satisfying, even if it didn't heal his soul any better or worse. He could see how cultivators could get used to meditative cultivation as a way to progress, it being downright pleasant in an environment like this.
He could also see how staying in this trial, even when not undergoing it, would be a reward in and of itself, even if one that the orcish Intent cultivators likely couldn't make use of, but he figured Brillhit would, given the elf scout's encouragement of Axl to go at it alone. After all, going solo would mean better results, and likely also earn more time in the rift compared to a group passing the same number of rounds.
After a handful of hours, the three scars on Axl's soul were much less angry-looking, but he knew it wouldn't really fully heal for a while, since even the leftovers of the small injury he got when training with Ramsen were still noticeable. It was somewhat alarming that soul injuries took so long to heal fully, but he had enough experience with them at this point to know he was about as fine as he could get.
It was time to rig out.