Since they were the impetus for the rooftop party, Jason and Valdis provided the supplies. Jason set up a buffet, putting out a couple of tables, an array of large bowls full of food, tongs and a stack of plates. He also laid out a good supply of drinks, tapping casks of wine, beer and mead.

“I’ve only got a dozen mugs,” he announced, “so I hope you all have something to drink out of.”

Valdis raided the dimensional space of his offsider, Sigrid, from which he retrieved a small sea of cushions so no one was left sitting on the hard, stone roof. He also supplied glow stones as the day’s light died and recording crystals full of music. Jason and Valdis stood side by side, looking over the setup with satisfaction.

The thirty adventurers were mingling, all sharing the exhaustion of having traversed the city. Beth’s cousin, Mose, approached Jason and Valdis, standing next to them to likewise survey their efforts.

“Not bad for an ancient city in the middle of a sealed-off astral space, right Mose?” Jason asked happily.

“This is what you brought to explore an astral space that was home to an ancient order of assassins?” Mose.

Jason and Valdis shared a nodding glance.

“Yep,” Jason said.

“Getting your priorities right is important in the adventuring game,” Valdis added.

Of the five teams, Valdis’ were the most standoffish, clearly unsure why Valdis was choosing to camp with local teams over more well-known groups. Sigrid took him aside to advocate making connections with the more prominent teams. She knew full well the futility of trying to direct him, but knew that if she started early, then he might actually start to listen sometime in the next few days.

“I’m a prince of the Mirror Kingdom,” Valdis told her. “If I want to meet big-name adventurers, I can do that any time.”

“Val, it isn’t about meeting,” Sigrid told him. “It’s about making connections.”

“Agreed,” Valdis told her, laughing again. “Here’s the thing, Sig. You make connections when someone’s already a big deal and they become someone you know. Make the connection when they’re a nobody and they become a friend.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you only really know one of these people, right? What makes you think they’re worth making friends with?”

“Call it an instinct,” Valdis said. “I’ve spent enough time with Clive to get a sense of the company he keeps and that it’s company worth keeping. Danielle Geller’s son is here; you can’t complain about that. And that Asano is worth keeping an eye on. Dangerous, that one.”

“Really?” Sigrid asked, casting a sceptical look in Jason’s direction.

“Tell me this, Sig,” Valdis said. “You have two men who carve through people like a butcher with slabs of meat, taking on opponents in job lots and leaving seas of blood behind them. Both have mastered murderous skills that kill quickly and horrifying powers that kill slowly. One of those men spends his days dressed all in black, barely speaking. The sobriety of a killer. The other cleans himself off, has a nice meal with his friends and gets a good night’s sleep. Which of those two men would you keep an eye on?”

“You seem fairly certain about someone you just met.”

“He’s like me, I can feel it,” Valdis said. “The way he watches people. The way he seems to be off-kilter but is actually being controlling. I’m not sure he even realises how much he’s doing it. There’s something dark inside that boy and he doesn’t want it to be who he is. I know that feeling. Ask around and I bet you’ll find he’s dropped bodies that weren’t monsters.”

“I already have,” Sigrid said. “And he has. Should I keep an eye on him?”

“No, just tell the boys to behave. He’s not intimidated by my background.”

“He should be.”

“Be nice, Sig. Outworlders make good friends and terrible enemies.”

Night fell and they activated the glow stones they set up earlier. Thirty-one tired adventurers, stuffed with food and plied with drinks lounged on the cushions in the warm night air. With full bellies and full cups, Valdis’ team had finally loosened up as well.

“Mr Asano,” Valdis, said with exaggerated, drunken pomp.

“Your royal princeness,” Jason greeted back.

“I have heard tell,” Valdis said, “that the rather inconvenient plant monster we encounter was a single, giant entity. I’ve also heard that you are the one that killed it.”

“It wasn’t, strictly speaking, a monster,” Jason said. He had bronze rank booze he could have used to get drunk but didn’t want to risk the hangover.

“As for being the one who killed it,” Jason continued, “I was far from the one behind it. There were twenty-five more people there. If it had just been down to me, we’d all still be in the outer city, scratching our bums.”

“But your abilities were what destroyed it.”

“It was just a lucky confluence of enemy and the specific nature of my abilities,” Jason said. “It could just as easily have been completely immune.”

“I’m more interested in the treasure you got from it,” Emily said. The archer from Beth’s team hadn’t been present to participate, hearing about the shared quest from her team mates. Niko, the smoulder from Beth’s team who had been present laughed.

“You should have seen everyone’s faces,” he said. “One moment we’re fighting for our lives against all these thorny tentacles, and the next, treasure starts falling out of the air. A bunch of items, even essences. I got hit in the head by a whole sack of plant quintessence gems. A sack! It was crazy.”

“People got a bit crabby that we were the only ones who got loot,” Neil said. “Jason ended up sharing out the spirit coins. The ones that everyone saw, anyway. Those of us with dimensional spaces split the extra between just our teams after.”

“Why don’t we do a little showing off?” Beth suggested. “I’ll start.”

She stood up, picking up the dimensional bag next to her and taking out a long robe, holding it in front of her. It was green and brown with a forest motif, hanging like a dress. the colours setting off the pretty elf woman’s tawny skin, chestnut hair and vibrant green eyes.

“Bronze-rank spellcaster robe,” she said with a bright smile. “It enhances plant abilities and poison.”

“Sorry, where did this come from?” asked Lance, the leader of Padma’s team. “A looting power?”

“Neil and I both have looting abilities,” Jason said, cutting off anyone from giving more of his abilities away.

The people who participated in the plant monster raid went around one at a time, revealing their haul from the quest to get past the plant. The results of not just bypassing the plant but eliminating it entirety had made for impressive compensation. There were sets of armour, weaponry and items that affected essence abilities, usually with some kind of plant aspect. Hudson, the earth-essence user from Beth’s team, had received a wrist band that looked like a looped vine and added effects to his earth conjuration powers. Jason had looted a similar-looking vine wrist band that could produce a variety of vine conjurations.

All the magical equipment was bronze rank, like the plant creature, so none of them could use theirs, yet. Instead, they had a jump on useful items for when they ranked-up. Then there were the essences, Jason taking out a pair of green cubes and setting them down in front of where he sat, cross-legged, on his cushion. They were both green, one ephemeral and swirling, like the cube was full of liquid. The other was appeared more solid, like an opal with a rich green colour as its base underpinned by lush, overlapping shades of darker green.

“Plant and growth essences,” Jason said. “Both fairly common.”

“Wasn’t there a third one?” Beth asked.

“Indeed there was,” Jason said, taking a third cube from his inventory with a flourish and laying it next to the others. It was the blue of an open summer sky, complete with clouds that seemed to float through the cube.

“Vast essence,” Jason said. “This one’s as rare as they come.”

“How much do you want for it?” Valdis said immediately, eagerly leaning forward.

“What do you say, Clive?” Jason asked. “Should we cut him a deal?”

“Gods, no,” Clive said. “Bilk him for everything you can.”

The group broke up into laughter at the exaggerated look of affront Valdis turned on Clive. The loot reveal continued as everyone showed off their hauls from their journey through the city, accompanied by stories of the tribulations faced to get those treasures.

The storytelling culminated with Valdis and Clive retelling their tower ascent and the items they found at the top. Valdis regaled them in the form of an epic saga, Clive drawing laughs as he periodically interjected with more grounded descriptions. Finally their story reaches the incredible find of growth items at the base of the buildings statues, Valdis pointing out to Clive that it was exactly the kind of haul he had told them would be there.

They ended the story with a presentation to an incredulous Neil of the last pair of items. The first was a fist-sized orb and the other a circlet of gold with a blue gem set into the forehead. With Jason’s ability, Neil could immediately see their effects. He started by looking over the orb.

Item: [Sentinel’s Orb] (iron rank [growth], legendary)

An object with the power to refine barrier energy to its most perfect form (tool, orb).

Effect: Increase the effect of shield-based essence abilities.Effect: Cooldown of shield-based essence abilities is reduced.Effect: If wielding both [Sentinel’s Orb] and [Sentinel’s Crown], your shield abilities bestow a heal-over-time effect.

“Well that’s just ridiculous,” he said, then looked at the circlet.

Item: [Sentinel’s Crown] (iron rank [growth], legendary)

The headpiece of the king of guardians (accessory, circlet).

Effect: Mana recovery is increased. Mana recovery rate is increased briefly after using a shield-based essence ability.Effect: Mana cost of shield-based essence abilities is reduced.Effect: If wielding both [Sentinel’s Orb] and [Sentinel’s Crown], your shield abilities bestow a mana-over-time effect.

“And so is that,” he said, looking up at Clive. “You can’t just give me these.”

“Of course I can,” Clive said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re on our team.”

Neil looked around at his other team members. Humphrey nodded encouragingly. Jason had the usual, self-satisfied grin that gave Neil a near-constant urge to punch him in the face. Sophie simply shrugged.

“Thank you,” Neil said to Clive. “Really, thank you.”

“Pay us back by keeping us alive,” Clive said.

“And you’ll need to buy some new clothes,” Jason said. “A gold headband with a honking great gem in the middle is a bold look. You’re going to have to dress around it.”

The next day saw adventurers washing through the city centre like a flood. The more intact nature of the buildings would seem to indicate more remnant treasure but a day of teams turning up nothing more than a few essences and awakening stones between them proved otherwise. The teams in Jason’s building did not participate in the day’s searching, in no small part due to hangovers. Valdis had been eager to participate but his team was loyal rather than obedient and collectively told him to shove off before crawling back into their camp bedding.

Those who had weathered the night’s festivities better were still exhausted from days of every moment not spent fighting still being in full combat readiness. They were happy to join the hungover in staying inside their bedrolls until the sun was high in the sky. In the late morning there was group meditation session on the roof, Valdis leading a dozen adventurers through a sword-dance meditation, much like the one Rufus had taught Jason. Given the athletic attractiveness of adventurers in general, Jason felt like he’d somehow joined a group of models doing tai chi in the park.

The adventurers that had scoured the central city shared the fruitlessness of their search as they mingled in the tower square in the evening. Most teams would be searching further afield the following day, returning to the outer city where treasure hunting that had proven more rewarding.

Jason and Beth’s teams elected to stay put, waving off Keane, Padma and Valdis’ teams in their “quest for epic loot.” Rather than risk something else happening, Jason and Beth’s groups chose to spend their time recovering their best form before the final trials unlocked.

Beth, Humphrey, Jason, Clive and Neil were spending a languid afternoon in the shade of their building’s top level. They were sat by a window on some cushions Valdis had left behind after the party. The side of the building was open as if there was a missing bay window, allowing them to look out at the central tower within which the final challenges of the trials were located. From the roof above, they could hear Sophie practising with the rest of Beth’s team.

“Why do you think all the rest of the trials only become available on the last day?” Beth pondered.

“Clearly, the city itself is the core component of the trial,” Humphrey said. “I assume the tower has more direct, specific tests. Shade did tell us at the start that the purpose of the trials was to test for five virtues. Choosing whether or not to take the items he offered was the first trial and reaching the tower was the second. Presumably there are three trials remaining, inside the tower.”

“I’m curious about the next one,” Neil said. “The trial for those who chose courage is meant to be easier, now. I didn’t use the items Shade gave me. It makes me wish I hadn’t taken them.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jason said. “We all took bold steps to make it this far. Would we have, if we didn’t have some live-saving protections? Even with them, people died. I’m not sure I would have been willing to take the risks I took without them.”

“Did any of you choose the courage path?” Clive asked. “I know Valdis did.”

The others all shook their head.

As the sun set, Shade appeared before them.

“Greeting, adventurers. I am appearing before you all to announce that the second trial is coming to an end in one day. Anyone present in the tower square at the centre of the city when the sun goes down tomorrow will pass. Those who have not reached it at that time may leave by escape medallion. Those who do not have the medallions will be provided with them. They must be used before the trials completely close, however, or you will be trapped inside. As a final note, the reward for the second trial will be granted tomorrow as the second trial concludes.”

“One more day,” Humphrey said. “It was good to relax and recover, but should we join the treasure hunting tomorrow?”

“Bad idea,” Sophie said, coming down some nearby stairs. She was covered in sweat and poured herself a glass of juice from the refreshments Jason had set out.

“It’s not just the last day for treasure,” she continued after a hearty swig. “It’s also the last day to quietly remove the competition. Either way, there’s a good chance we’d have to kill some people before they killed us if we went out there. I think I’d rather stay here.”

“Perhaps we could socialise with the other adventurer groups who stayed behind, like us,” Humphrey said. “Most of my family’s teams occupied a couple of building not far from here and some of the other foreign adventurers were nearby.”

“Not the worst idea,” Beth said. “I’m curious about this trial reward, though. What do you think?”

“Specialty equipment, maybe?” Clive postulated. “This place was originally a trial ground for assassin trainees, right? It would make sense that they would receive some kind of reward for joining the order, like a uniform or something.”

“Would secret assassins have uniforms?” Neil asked.

“Probably not, now you say it,” Clive conceded.

“Awakening stones,” Jason said. “I’m certain Emir knows more than he told us and he implied to me more than once that there would be a chance at some unusual awakening stones.”

“That makes sense,” Clive said, sitting up enthusiastically. “The great astral beings can’t make essences the way that gods can, but they can produce their own awakening stones.”

“I have no interest in divine essences and awakening stones,” Jason said. “The idea of some god repossessing my magic powers doesn’t appeal.”

“No, that’s the interesting thing,” Clive said. “The stones the astral beings produce aren’t divine stones that the astral beings can revoke. They’re just ordinary awakening stones whose aspect aligns with the great astral being in question. I’ve used some of them myself, although the Celestial Book is a lot more approachable than the Reaper. The question is, what kind of powers would a higher-dimensional death entity grant?”

“Powers like Jason’s I’d have to imagine,” Neil said.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Jason said. “I don’t imagine we’ll be using them until the trials are over, though.”

“That would be the sensible approach,” Clive agreed. “People are going to get impatient to find out what they do, though.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I’m willing to bet there are a bunch of people who’ll be annoyed at how long it takes to reveal what the awakening stones we’ve found here do.”