They pushed through the door of ascension. The forest materialized around them. The entire forest seemed alive this time, no longer mournful, or reserved as it had been in the previous memories.

  [Trial Two]

  The Trial of Ascension

  Description: You have entered the Trail of Ascension. To become more than yourself, you must face a long and windy trail. For each this trail differs, and though you may travel with companions, eventually each must face their own path.

  The quest box materialized at the same time that the Mother floated in front of the party, wings of vines spread out behind her lifting her above the ground. She moved closer to them, the vines snaking out to catch on new tree limbs, pulling her forward. The subtle cracking of their ends like whips.

  “Greetings, children of man.” Her voice did not emanate from her body, but instead came from the whispering of wind through the trees. Elijah couldn’t comprehend how the wind and rustling of leaves could come together to form the words, but the effect was still there.

  Video game logic.

  “Are you speaking to us?” Nicholas asked in a reverent whisper. There was something about her presence that seemed to suggest that this wasn’t like the previous memories.

  She smiled at them, her ‘wings’ lowering her down closer to them. Before the change, she had been roughly as tall as Elijah, and now she towered over even Nicholas. “Yes, although this is but a memory of mine, divinity allows for some special interactions. You are in my future, and I am in your past, but the powers given to me grant me sight.”

  “Do you know why we are here?” Nicholas asked.

  The mother nodded. “I know I will some day in my future, but in your past I will perish, along with many of my children, but there is still hope. The five of you are within my home tree, searching for my bones.”

  The Mother placed a hand on Nicholas’ head. “This trial shall test you and change you, child.” There was something in her voice—hints of hope but also sorrow.

  She turned from them, moving away on her wings of vines and ushering them to follow her. She led them to a massive tree with dark black bark. Just like the home tree that was the dungeon entrance, this tree also had a rend in its trunk, just large enough for them to enter.

  “Each of you must pass this trial individually. If even one of you fails your trial, you will all fail.”

  Sasha stepped forward, taking a close look at the tree, then turning to the mother. “What will the trials be?”

  The Mother closed her eyes and let her head sag low. “I can not say. Just that each of you shall face a different challenge.”

  Sasha turned back around to the rest of the party. “Well. We’ve come this far, right?”

  Nicholas grunted his affirmation. “Stay safe in there, Sasha.” He turned to the rest. “Each of you, stay safe.”

  Sasha went in first, followed by Nicholas, then it was Elijah’s turn. He wanted to believe that he could face anything this game would throw at him, but this whole trial thus far had been about working together as a team, so he was cautious about this challenge that now wanted to separate them.

  The inside of the tree grew dark around him. The light from the opening behind him blinked out, and a new light ahead appeared. He continued to walk forward, the walls around him shifting as he went until he was walking into a familiar area. The library within the Dragontooth King’s Abandoned Fort.

  Something about it felt wrong. It was too organized, too neat. Taking a closer look, Elijah picked up on the differences. These bookshelves weren’t separate pieces of furniture as they had been in the original dungeon. Instead, these shelves had been grown from the floor itself. The tables that had been stacked against the wall in a pyramid structure were absent, being replaced with alcoves for scrolls, though no scrolls were present.

  No Dragontooth Bats flew through the air, the cacophony of their wings and clicks making the room itself feel even more alien compared to what he expected.

  The whole place twinged against his senses. He closed his eyes as he touched a shelf; he could sense the place. It had the same wrongness he had sensed from the Acolyte once he’d absorbed the Dragontooth King class. As he walked through the maze of shelves, he could sense another presence within the library.

  He made it to the center, the same place the Acolyte had stood before its destruction. He found exactly what he had been suspecting he would. A dark version of Elijah stood there, or something that looked like a vague approximation of Elijah. It was a dryad who had taken his shape, but the most concerning part was its class.

  [Player]

  Name: Elijah (Dryad)

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  Class: Dragontooth King | Level: 15

  HP: 80 / 80

  What a cliche this was.

  The dryad’s skin was the standard brown bark Elijah had grown used to seeing in the memories from the first trial. He didn’t expect this version of himself to have a nose, considering none of the dryads did, but the copy of his face without one was still unnerving.

  “Not really fair, is it? I haven’t had a chance yet to allocate the last two levels’ worth of stat points, but it seems like you have.”

  The dryad didn’t respond; it just stood there—dark and menacing.

  “I suppose this is where we are supposed to fight then?” Elijah tried, though made no move to attack in case he was wrong. He didn’t want to have to fight a doppelg?nger of himself, especially if it meant facing his own skills being used by an AI that could out-think him.

  The dryad reached his hand out, glowing blue bark emanating from his hand and pooling on the floor. After a moment, a facsimile of Bitter Root sprang into existence.

  The recreation of his familiar was just as eerily quiet as the version of himself was, made even more disturbing by Bitter Root’s usually boisterous personality being completely absent. He didn’t have long to think about that though; if the fight started now, he’d be outnumbered.

  He reached his own hand out and activated his ‘Summon Familiar’ skill.

  The goblin formed from Elijah’s pooled mana and immediately began his usual nonsense.

  “Hey boss, why looking wooden?” The little menace laughed.

  Elijah groaned from behind Bitter Root. The little monster was pretending that the duplicate was him.

  “Bitter Root. Can you please behave just once when I summon you?”

  The goblin shrugged. “If Boss want behave, Boss should choose not gob friend.”

  He said it as if it was the most obvious choice in the world, or as if he had a choice in the matter.

  The facsimiles of Bitter Root and Elijah chose that moment to attack, catching the real versions off guard. Bitter Dryad went straight for Bitter Root, ripping at the goblin with teeth and claws. The familiar shifted slightly than faded from existence as he activated the stealth skill, leaving the facsimile spinning around trying to find him.

  Elijah had his own worries as the version of himself drew a mean-looking sword and then enveloped himself in a swarm of bats.

  ‘Dragontooth Teleport’.

  It was a poor copy of his own skill, but still dangerous to Elijah. He dodged out of the way just as the dryad appeared behind him, swinging the blade through the bats before they had even dispersed.

  Elijah skidded across the ground. He could feel wet blood soaking his left shoulder from where the dryad had caught him with the sword. He activated his own teleport spell even before he’d come to a complete stop along the ground. The bats formed and deposited him on top of a bookshelf, where he crashed headfirst into Bitter Root.

  The goblin started cursing him out, a tirade about the state of his parents’ marriage. Elijah hardly heard it as he picked Bitter Root up and flung him to the side, just in time for a swarm of bats to envelop Elijah.

  The bats tore into his clothes and skin, seeking blood, seeking flesh. The pain was excruciating as he tried to focus on his spells and skills.

  He didn’t know yet if this mirror version of him had access to all of his spells and skills, or just the ones associated with the Dragontooth King class. Or worse, if it had abilities that Elijah hadn’t unlocked because he’d been multi-classing.

  He cast his own version of ‘Dragontooth Swarm’, his bats springing forth and beginning to ease the pressure of the wooden versions from Elijah.

  He teleported again, this time landing a few feet from Bitter Root, who was sparring with a copy of himself. “I need the knife.” He called out to his familiar.

  “Little busy, boss.” The mob called back, dodging a slash from the copy of himself before retaliating with a slash from the blade.

  Elijah had to dodge out of the way as dryad-Elijah shifted to his position and attacked again. “Bitter Root!”

  The goblin groaned and flung the dagger at the mirror version of Elijah; the blade sticking itself into the dryad’s chest. Not exactly how Elijah would have preferred it, but he supposed it was better than Bitter Root tossing it at him like that.

  Dryad-Elijah finally spoke. Its voice was a hollow, dry imitation of Elijah’s own voice. “You had a chance for such power. Yet you squandered it, chasing a power that was never yours to begin with.”

  Shadows seeped through the wooden creature’s ‘skin’, pushing the dagger out of its chest. The shadows formed the shape of a bat.

  It flew forward at Elijah, enveloping him in a shadow that just felt wrong. Like it was a living, breathing entity. Being inside it filled Elijah with a deep fear, something ancient and unbidden. He felt like a predator had swallowed him whole.

  The shadows dropped him, and he fell from ceiling height all the way to the ground, landing hard and knocking off over a dozen hit points.

  He didn’t take his time to recover; instead, he rolled onto his back and cast his swarm spell again.The dryad, though still high in the air, dropped the shadowy bat form and cast its own swarm in retaliation. Its version of the spell was stronger and started to overpower Elijah’s.

  This brief exchange had at least told him one important thing. The dryad had stronger versions of all his offensive spells.

  Bat wings made of shadows sprang from the back of the dryad, and it floated easily down to the ground, brandishing its blade once more.

  “You are weak. Pathetic. Give up. You will never succeed here.”

  Bats swarmed again as the dryad teleported away. Elijah was faster this time, springing for the knife that had fallen from its chest. Up above the wood swarm had finished killing the last of his bats and descended on him. He writhed in agony as they began tearing and ripping at his flesh.

  He expected the sting of a blade passing through him as the last of the bats faded. He had just dropped below a quarter health. None came.

  Fourteen health points remained, and so far the only damage done to the dryad version of himself was a measly five points from Bitter Root’s knife throw.

  If the dryad really was a beefed-up version of Elijah’s Dragontooth King class, then that should mean every spell in its repertoire should also be available to Elijah.

  He focused inwards for a moment, feeling at the edges of his power set with his Reality Warp skill. Hoping to unlock a new power, something to aid him in the fight, but nothing happened. He’d have to do this with what he had.

  Dryad-Elijah appeared in front of him. Sword raised for a killing strike.