“Lara? Your gift?” Tara asked, waking Lara up from her stupor.

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  Lara shook her head slightly before looking at Matt, a serious look painted on her face.

  “As ordered by her eminence, Lady Bastet, I have prepared a suitable reward for your achievements in the trial,” she stated, making Matt wince as he could already imagine what she would consider ‘suitable’.

  Lara waved a paw, and a green crystal that looked exactly like an emerald appeared in front of Matt.

  He warily inspected the floating crystal from all sides, refusing to touch it, before finally identifying it.

  Forest Heart (rare)

  Crystal

  A rare crystal from the heart of the elf forests of Ishdal.

  Imbues an item with the properties of a Life tree from the Ishdal forest, improving its ability to channel, charge, and handle life mana significantly.

  Adds an extra effect based on the nature of the enchanted item.

  Matt's brows furrowed as he stared at the item in question. It actually sounded incredibly useful. While he would’ve preferred a more offensive option, according to Tara, they couldn’t offer that. The crystal, however, was incredibly useful, especially for his weapon that made use of life mana in an offensive manner. It was perfect. Too perfect…

  “I… don’t understand,” Matt confusedly said. “This is an incredibly useful item,” he added.

  “Don’t misunderstand, human,” Lara responded. “I still don’t like you and think you have no place here in this temple or trial,” she said annoyingly. “Lady Bastet is displeased with me, and by offering an item that is useless to anyone but you, which, mind you, you need a jeweler to place, a role you don’t have nor will come across for the foreseeable future, I earn back her favor. Now begone. You’ve overstayed your welcome,” she finished.

  Matt felt a vein in his forehead about to burst as he struggled to contain the tirade of insults he wanted to spew on the annoying cat. Thankfully, he felt something on his foot, causing him to lower his gaze.

  His eyes fell on Tara, who was shaking her head at him as if to tell him it wasn’t worth it.

  Matt closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths as he attempted to not let the annoying cat piss him off. He had received a good item, and that was all that mattered.

  Feeling calmer now that the annoying voice wasn’t scraping his ears like nails on a chalkboard, he gave Tara a calm smile.

  “Anything left?” he asked.

  “That should be everything,” Tara responded with a smile of her own before motioning for him to follow her. “Come, I’ll walk you to the gate.”

  Matt said goodbye to Kara and a silent fuck you to Lara before following Tara as she started walking to the other side of the temple.

  “Your new items will serve you well, but they’re not enough, so don’t rush into the next trial,” she warned. “Take your time. Level up, train your skills, practice and prepare. Every little thing helps.”

  “That’s the plan,” he agreed, Tara nodding at him.

  It was true. He had even thought about it a few times. While he hadn’t known what to expect when he had first entered the dungeon, now he did, which meant he needed to be better prepared.

  There were a few close calls. More than he would’ve liked when his life was on the line. And while he wasn’t entirely sure yet whether he wanted to go through with the trials, the world itself was full of dangers, and he needed the strength to contend with whatever this new reality of his threw at him. The issue will be getting out of the desert and finding a safe place to settle for a few weeks.

  “Which reminds me, do I get sent back to the same spot or can I pick a different place?” He asked, the fact that he was stuck in the desert completely slipping his mind during his entire dungeon dive.

  Tara looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Same spot… what did you do?” she asked, clearly getting the wrong idea.

  “Hmm? Nothing, I’m just stuck in the middle of a desert and was hoping the dungeon would send me to the nearest city or something,” he shrugged. She had already labeled him a troublemaker after only a few hours together. He didn’t know if it was telling or if the cat was just too judgy…

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  “It’s the same for all dungeons. Some have more than one entrance, but you’ll always exit through the same portal you used to enter,” she clarified.

  “And about my mana control skill, we still not talking about that?” Matt asked warily, glancing at Tara a few times, who didn’t answer right away. When he was about to speak again, something seemed to trip him just as a portal appeared right where he was falling.

  The last thing he saw before he appeared back in the desert was the grinning face of a cat, waving at him.

  Tara watched as the human, Matt, fell through the portal, giving him one last wave.

  It had been, dare she say, a ‘fun’ few hours. There had been no new trial takers for the past few millennia, and most of those who walked through the trial portal did so knowing what they were up against, and so they held themselves with poise, trying their utmost not to offend nor disrespect.

  Matt, on the other hand, was very distinct. Perhaps things were different on his planet, but while he had shown them no disrespect, he had also shown no fear, treating them as he would any other person. It was refreshing, especially for those with a reputation similar to theirs.

  Oddly enough, the strangest act of the encounter had been Lara.

  While her sister was quick-tempered at times, there was no reason for her to attack the human. Baiting him was the goal, and with his witty responses and refusal to back down, they should’ve gotten on well, yet that wasn’t what had happened.

  “Lara?” Tara called for her sister, who immediately responded by turning her head her way. “Why did you attack the human? I had expected you to like him,” she asked freely now that their visitor had left. “Even the Forest Heart that you gave him. It’s an important catalyst that younglings would kill for. You wouldn’t give it to someone you despised.” It was a question that had weighed on her mind the entire time, and hopefully now she could get an answer.

  The question itself seemed to catch Lara off guard, as she looked fearful for a second. “I… don’t know. Something came over me on hearing his remark. It had impressed me at first, but then anger filled me at his blatant disrespect. Looking back on it, he hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary,” Lara recounted before falling deep in thought, her words confirming Tara’s suspicions.

  Tata warily turned her head towards Kara, who had her eyes shut as she lay on the temple’s enchanted sand.

  “Was this your doing?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady and calm, yet it still came out slightly shaky.

  Kara opened a scanning eye that Tara felt peer right through her soul, but she knew better. It wasn’t her soul Kara was looking at, it was her emotions.

  “I might’ve influenced events, yes. Why? Disapprove?” she asked mockingly, her eyes never stopping as they read every one of Tara’s emotions. Her wariness… her distrust… her confusion. Her fear.

  She steeled herself, trying not to let her sister play with her emotions. “He could’ve died. She could’ve died,” Tara said, her anger flaring and leaking into her voice.

  “Are you scolding me?” Kara asked, aghast at the notion, even if she knew Tara wasn’t. Even if she was the reason for the flaring anger.

  “Don’t. This went beyond testing him,” Tara responded, her posturing sounding fake even to her own ears.

  “And? I fail to see the issue. Plans change all the time. This was but an instance of that occurring,” Kara answered, not caring in the slightest for Tara’s words. It was all a game to her.

  “The issue is that you not only endangered the life of the first trial taker to step foot in the temple in who knows how long, you did so Lara’s too!” Tara yelled those last few words, even if she had never intended to.

  “If a little aura was enough to kill him, then he was too weak to continue on. Besides, it was his own fault for resisting so hard. If he had shown any fear like he should’ve when under the effect of the auras, I would’ve amplified it and neither of them would’ve been harmed,” Kara explained, slight anger leaking into her calm voice as she blamed the entirety of what had happened on the boy who hadn’t even known he was part of her ploy all along. “If he doesn’t value his own life, then you shouldn’t either,” she finished.

  In that moment, Tara felt it. One of her sisters did resent the human, and had wanted to hurt him. To make him suffer. But it wasn't Lara.

  Kara's gambit with retrieving his shoe had failed. And while that had surprised her, she tried using it to her advantage. To make him feel indebted to her. To lower his guard so she could claw her way in. And yet, the human managed to rebuff all her attempts, locking her out, which only served to fascinate and intrigue her even more, to the point she upgraded his stat boosting item, damaging her path as she did, all for a chance to once more get him in her debt.

  “And what do you think would’ve happened to Lara if he had died?” she was fuming now, her words coming out malicious. Accusatory. Those weren’t her words. It might've been how she felt, but she hadn't put her feelings into it. Yet she couldn’t control it. No one could.

  “Lara is Lady Bastet’s favorite. Nothing would’ve happened to her,” Kara said, brushing Tara’s worries off as if they were all unfounded.

  Lara seemed to perk up on hearing that last statement, deciding to finally say something. “Did she say that? Did Lady Bastet say I’m her favorite?” she asked with giddy excitement. “Did you hear that, Tara? I’m Lady Bastet’s favorite,” she looked towards her sister, her eyes beaming.

  “Did you not hear the rest? She was the reason you were hurt!” Tara shouted the words at her sister, even if she had never intended to.

  “Stop amplifying my emotions!” she turned around, letting out her anger on Kara this time. The flurry of emotions was so much that she had no idea whether it was her own anger, or it was just being amplified.

  “I’ve done no such thing. That’s simply how you feel, so don’t blame it on me,” Kara denied it just like she had always done. “And yelling at sweet, injured Lara? How heartless of you. Are you perhaps… jealous that she’s Lady Bastet’s favorite?”

  Tara turned around to a wide eyed Lara, staring at her in disbelief, before turning her head back towards a grinning Kara, rage and anger barely contained as she said her next words. “Drop your damn skill. Now!”

  “What skill, oh dear sister? Don’t try to blame your temper on me. All I’ve done was enjoy the breeze of a nice, calm night,” Kara said with an infuriatingly calm smile.

  That was the problem. Once her skill had taken root, it was impossible to prove. Impossible to get rid of. The only way was to prevent it from ever sneaking in. Resist with all your might.

  The human, Matt, had managed to do so unwittingly. A boon and a curse. Because while he managed to stave off her attempts, he now had her attention, her interest, which was much, much scarier.

  Demons were infamous for their cruelty. Their sadistic nature. Their lack of empathy. It wasn’t true for all, yet common enough to be their truth. And yet, her sister had earned the moniker The Demoness of the Heart. One she truly had earned, because once it was in her grasp, she never let go.

  What the system was attempting. What was hiding in Matt's soul. She could never learn about it, no matter the cost.