Trust is a fundamental necessity for most relationships—without it, no exchange will ever occur. Whether it’s love, goods, deals, and barters, it’s all predicated on trust. After countless lovers, I am certain most trust is skin deep, and only the threat of death will reveal true intention. Or… maybe my blade against their throats doesn’t engender trust? No matter, lovers come and go.

~Aine, Goddess of Love and Vengeance

A week later, they passed through three more Shrines, two were puzzle challenges, and one was a physical one. The physical challenge was interesting and required someone with high agility. Crow could have solved it but not as quickly as Hooligan did. Whoever trained her was good, and he suspected that she’d beat him in hand-to-hand combat.

It didn’t require a spar with her for him to make that determination, either. He’d seen how quickly she moved and saw Munro nearly dropped from one of her punches. Calling her a prodigy of whatever boxing style she used would be an understatement. The only thing was she gave up on hard-hitting power by not using her legs to attack.

Either way, the challenge itself was simple and yet impossible for some. It had a series of pillars that started out as thick as a person, and then as they went upward like steps, their diameter became smaller and smaller. The final sets were like reeds and even bent as she touched down on them. After reaching the top of the wall, she climbed down and triggered a rune that Crow and Munro never saw. Challenge complete.

Crow felt sure he could pass it, but it might take him an hour or two to get his timing down right. However, looking at Munro’s bulky size, he was positive this guy wouldn’t pass it even given the thirty-day time limit. Hooligan beat the challenge in less than a minute but didn’t look like she even strained herself. During that challenge, Crow could only sigh and glance at Munro, who didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities.

Three days after that, they reached the edge of the forest in which the soil turned loamy before transitioning to white sand. The emerald green waters of the glacial lake were serene and captivating. Crow decided not to call it an ocean or sea because it didn’t feel like one. The calmness of the environment made it feel like a lake, and the placid waters were clear as glass with hardly any waves.

“Is that Shrine floating on the water?” Munro asked in a subdued voice. Even he was impacted by the calmness of the place and didn’t dare use his normal loud, annoying voice.

“No. It’s built on top of a massive boulder,” Hooligan said. “The bigger problem is whether there are more Shrines further out, or worse, underwater.”

“Underwater, I’m doubtful. However, if I were setting up this challenge, I’d have one at the top of the glacier and one inside the volcano. Solving all ninety-nine Shrines should daunt and awe the would-be inheritors.”

“You are sadistic. No wonder you loved getting punished during those honor battles,” Munro grumbled. It still irked him that he won, but somehow came out as the loser. No one even cared that he beat Crow, but they all praised Golden Mouth like he was their hero. It was bullshit.

“Bitter words of a bitter heart. You should be careful of turning Crow into your inner demon, or your future will be greatly impacted.” Hooligan’s wise words startled Crow. He knew she was introspective, but wisdom was gained through life experiences. Seeing Crow’s strange look, she turned away guiltily. “It was something my father used to say when I was angry at my mother.”

“Oh,” Crow said, realizing he overthought it.

“Enough flirting. How are we getting out there? Swim? Build a raft?” Munro asked.

“No need,” Crow told him and summoned out his trusty mythical boat. Some day, when he had some time, he needed to research well-known artifacts, legendary items, and more. There was no way this boat was a cast aside object.

“What the hell? You carry a boat around?”

“This boat is special. It’s cruised some interesting waters.”

Hooligan felt that the more she was around Crow, the more she didn’t understand him at all. The guy was full of tricks and surprises. Seeing the boat, she shook her head but climbed in all the same.

Munro snorted and hopped in as well.

Crow suddenly had an idea while shoving the boat away from shore. He hopped in and used his Vine ability. Three thin, broad tendrils sprouted from his hands, and he willed them to rotate. The boat moved a little, but the results weren’t what he expected. The main problem was that the vines became tangled after a few seconds. Rethinking his process, he spotted some fish in the water and observed their movements before coming up with a better idea.

“Now, what are you doing?” Munro was sure Crow had no end of tricks to annoy him.

“Do you think they made this boat out of wood?” Crow asked rhetorically.

“What else do you make a boat out of?”

Crow wanted to retort but felt he’d waste his time explaining things to a fool that would never understand. Instead, he’d show him.

Vines grew out of the side of the boat and along the spine in the back. Initially, they were underwater, so the other two didn’t notice, but it was hard to miss the frothing water as the vines wove back and forth. It was happening so fast that it created froth on the lake’s surface.

“What the hell?” Hooligan jumped up, thinking they were under attack.

“Relax. It’s me.”

Using Oiche and the Shrines as an example, he wove the tentacle-like vines together to create fins. The one on the back spine swished back and forth, helping propel the boat forward. That was the simplest fin to design since it just needed to go from side to side.

The fins on the side of the boat needed some extra care, and what he did was had the vines thicken when they pulled back and thin when they went forward. This allowed them to catch more water and propel forward. The thinning allowed water to pass through without arresting forward momentum.

After thinking about it a bit more, he realized he could use the back fin like a tiller, which would allow him to control the direction of the boat. Satisfied with his new arrangement, the boat sped forward at a speed that was twice that of his manual rowing.

The only downside was the construction of the fins took a third of his mana, and the rest was steadily draining. Maintaining and controlling the spell wasn’t easy, and he already felt sweat beading on his forehead.

“This is an interesting way to travel. How did you move about before the Vine spell?” Hooligan asked. Crow smiled and held up his hand, and a hand-carved, wooden paddle appeared in his grasp. He didn’t speak because he needed to focus, but he didn’t fully trust them either. So part of his focus was split and used to remain vigilant of the surrounding area.

Thump. The boat bumped onto the steps leading up into the Shrine. Curiously, the steps carved into the giant boulder were cut into the rock all the way down to the lake bed. Maybe further, depending on if the stairs went below the sand. It didn’t make much sense to Crow, and the only logical explanation he could come up with was that the lake was once much lower.

After the other two climbed out, he released his vine spell and stored the boat. Standing on the stairs and staring at the building above them, Crow felt something ominous. It was not sinister, but this temple was dangerous and had him on edge.

“What is it?” Hooligan whisper. As a fighter, she was trained to read a person’s body and easily picked up on Crow’s state of mind. For some reason, she trusted his instinct more than her own.

“Mentally prepare yourself. Whatever is about to happen won’t be like the other challenges,” Crow said mysteriously but didn’t intend to. He didn’t know what would happen but felt this was not a typical challenge.

The moment they stepped into the challenge, they were separated into glass boxes while facing each other. Despite their containment, they could still speak to each other like usual. Between them was a pedestal with a white, milky crystal, and as they waited for something to happen, it started to glow.

“Trust is the cornerstone of allies. Choose one of you to walk the gauntlet, and if you can’t decide in five minutes, one of you will be randomly chosen. The others will be provided a list of punishments, and at every stage, they will pick one for the walker. If the walker fails, the punishers pass the challenge. If the walker passes, they become a punisher, and a new walker is chosen. This continues until either one fails or all pass.”

“What happens if the walker fails?” Hooligan asked.

“Death.”

Crow looked at the other two and cursed under his breath.