(Tyler)

Something isn't right. We're going through the maze the same as we did before, and we're definitely coming across more and stronger monsters, but that's not what's off.

After a few hours, something about the maze changed, and I can't put my tongue on it. We've both learned the Disarm Trap Skill, as well as Detect Trap Skill, in here, but even that's not triggering. We're certainly coming across more than we did before.

"Colt," I say when Colt randomly stops in the middle of a passage. "Something isn't right about the maze."

"Some of the entrances have illusions placed over them," Colt states.

"What?" I ask.

"It started after about three hours," he says. "Sometimes, we walk right by a passage that doesn't look like one."

"Colt?" I say.

"Yeah?" He responds.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" I ask.

"Trying to see if we could get through without going through those passages," he answers. "Though whoever's placing the illusions, they're sometimes lifting them and covering entrances we've been through before."

Of course he noticed that. But wait – my natural Perception is higher than his, and our PER stats are the same – twenty-eight.

How come he noticed, but not me?

"How did you figure this?" I ask. "I didn't even notice the illusions – just that something felt off."

"I've been making a mental map of the maze," he taps his head. "Though it looks identical, there are slight differences. We've actually been down this passage six times before."

That explains how he noticed it. He noticed the passages we'd already passed were missing, and probably looked at them closer. That, or he assumed they were illusions, and tested it at some point. But when would he have tested it?

"Why are we still flipping the coins?" I ask. "I know that the Frost Giants left us with some food, and that it'll last us a few days, especially factoring in the rest zones, but-"

"Going about it with the flip of a coin is more fun, right?" He grins at me. "Once I've got a better idea of where we are and where we've been, I might be able to direct us to an exit. Plus – if I led us to a door to death or the beginning, I'd feel really, really awful. Flipping the coin makes it so much more random, and puts it back into the hands of luck."

It is a bit more fun to flip the coin than it is to just go 'down this passage'. Maybe we can do it a little bit longer, before we have to stop and go a way we haven't been before without the flip of a coin.

"Oh," I say. "Okay," I look around. "So why'd we stop? A passage that we can't see?"

"No," he points at the passage in front of us. "That's an illusion."

"Are you sure?" I examine it. "I can't see any difference. I mean, my PER probably isn't high enough, and it's probably created by a god, but-"

"Aure," he says.

"Huh?"

"I'm pretty sure Aure either designed the illusions," he says. "Or is actively placing them. Odds are, Tyr didn't think it was fair that we hit Level 50 again so fast, because of the Frost Giants and Frost Ogres we killed, so he enlisted the aid of a couple of more gods to make this take a bit more to get through."

"So this is a wall, I walk forward, holding a hand out. A few more steps, and my hand presses against something firm. "My hand isn't even partially missing…"

"The power of illusion is incredible, isn't it?" Colt asks, then turns and walks right through the wall beside us. "Can you still hear me?"

"Yes!" I laugh, then run through the illusion, and find him grinning on the other side. "So are we still going to flip the coin?"

"Nope!"

"But I thought you said-"

"I've figured out the pattern to the maze," he grins at me. "I can get us to the winning door."

"Seriously?" I ask.

"With a small margin of error," he nods. "Wanna run?"

I nod, then suggest that we take a small breather. We sit down for half an hour, and once we're rested, we stand up, and he starts running. I'm able to match his speed, despite him having a higher AGI than me.

Why didn't I think to form a mental map of the maze?

Just what kind of world does Colt come from, where he'd just think to do something like that as we go? Did he do that in the first Advancement, too?

We arrive at a set of doors identical to the pair we saw in the first trial, with the same setup as before.

"Wanna risk it?" Colt asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "Tyr's probably given us some sort of protection or something, because of you being his friend."

"Plot armor," Colt grins. "That's what we'd call it, back on my world. Plot armor's when the main character – or villain – or some other character doesn't die, no matter what, and can get through situations easily. Yeah, Tyr's probably made sure that even if this is a death door, we'll survive, especially since it wouldn't be very fun for him if I could return to his realm and play with him more. He's really lonely."

"Yeah," I grin. "I can see that. Let's go, then! The sooner we beat this thing, the sooner we can beat a Tower and go visit him!"

"Time doesn't pass while we're in here, goofball," he sticks his tongue out at me, then touches the door

We find ourselves in a safe room, the standard 'completed' notification appearing.

We run to the table and start eating, and once we finish, lie down to get some rest, waking only when the System wake us. After a bathroom break and another meal, we're ready to go, and wait for time to run out.

If Aure messed with the First Stage, I'm betting another god – possibly Kirta – has messed with the next. Will it be the same as in our first Advancement? Or will be it be different?

Time runs out, and our surroundings change, turning to cavern lit with glowing stones set into lanterns. Colt snorts and looks at me.

"If this were anime," he looks at me. "It'd either be filled with kobolds or undead."

"What are kobolds?" I ask.

"They're-" he starts to say something, then cracks up laughing.

"What?" I ask, and he points behind me.

I turn around, and out of the passage behind me is a trio of skeletal warriors.

"Nailed that coffin!" He laughs as I fire off three Icebolts, killing the undead quickly. I look back at him, and he grins. "We have two ways to go, and if you listen hard, you can hear undead moving through that passage."

"Yeah," I nod. "I noticed, so let's go down that one."

We go down the other passage, which is just a series of winding tunnels. Every now and then, undead catch up to us, even if we're running, and we have to stop to dispatch them.

Sometimes, they're simple skeletal warriors, other times, they're magicians or archers, or heavily-armored warriors, but they're all humanoid in form.

The farther into the tunnels we go, the fewer lights there are, and the dimmer they grow, until we're walking in almost complete darkness. Colt created a flame to illuminate the area, but its light doesn't help much.

He's got another hand lifted up, focusing, and I can sense magic swirling around it, but not what that magic is.

Light. He's probably trying to create light magic. I hold up a hand and try to do the same, and at the same time, we both create a sphere of light over our hands. Colt looks at me and laughs.

"You got it faster than me!"

"We did it at the same time."

"Yeah," he grins. "But you started after me!"

"Look," I hold up the orb. "The light's not taking much effect – we still can't see very well."

"Yeah," he looks around, then looks at me. "You want to worship Kirta – can you ask him to screw off?"

Our light stops working entirely, despite us still using them. I can see the light, but that's it – everything else is darkness.

"I just had to say that, didn't I?" He asks, then fires off a trio of Firebolts. "Reduce the size to as small as you can, Tyler. We're going to run again."

Run? Is he crazy? I mean, yeah, we can see the direction of the tunnels, because of the stones in the walls, but we can't even see the walls around them.

Now that I think about it, Kirta was probably going to do that already, but started it early because of Colt's comment.

"We can't see the undead," I tell him.

"How do you think I hit them?" He asks. "They have flames within them, Tyler. We can see light, just not its effect. Kirta's darkness has swallowed them up. Keep your Light Orb as small as you can – we'll need them to know where each other is."

He turns and starts running, his Light Orb barely larger than a marble. I run after him, reducing the size as well.

We still have to fight off the undead, but it's nothing too much for us.

Eventually, we reach a cavern. I could hear it at first, from the echoes of our steps and the emptiness in the air ahead of us.

When we enter it, braziers around the room flare to life with green flames, a Lich standing at the other end of the room, a quartet of skeletal mages, and another of skeletal knights, awaiting us.

Colt takes several steps, moving his arms around as he weaves magic, and the next thing I know, the green flames are rising from the braziers, swirling together.

"Shit," the Lich looks at the swirling green death as I stare at Colt in horror.

He's manipulating death flames…

The mass of flames washes over the undead, leaving nothing behind, and Colt breathes heavily, the flames dissipating as he releases his control over them. He looks at me and gives me a thumbs-up, then passes out.

A moment later, we appear in the safe zone.

We could have won that fight. We probably would've been injured really bad, but we probably could have won that fight without suffering permanently-crippling injuries.

Death-Fire is magic that drains one's life and soul. He probably lost a few LIF from that. Sure, we'll be able to handle whatever comes next easier, and without injuries, but at the cost of LIF?

Coming from another world, he probably didn't know that was Death-Fire. From what he tells me, there's no magic in his world. He probably didn't realize it would drain his LIF.

I eat in silence, then lie down, getting some rest, but not much. When the System wakes me, Colt's sitting at the table, swinging his feet back and forth and looking happy.

Guess he didn't take that big of a hit to his LIF.

"Hey, Colt," I say..

"So apparently," he grins at me. "That was not a good idea. I lost 7 LIF from that."

SEVEN?

DAMN!

And he still looks cheerful.

"But that's okay!" He says. "Because we're going to gain five more from this Advancement, probably, and from every Advancement after. Or maybe we get more each Advancement? Even if we don't gain more LIF from Advancements past the first, though, as long as I'm having fun, does it really matter? I know not to mess with Death Fire until I've got more LIF and better control, so it doesn't drain me like that."

That's right – Colt cares more about having fun than other things. He's still got fifty years of his life total – so another thirty-seven or so. To him, that's nearly four more decades of fun and adventures.

"By the way," Colt shoves a handful of grapes into his mouth, chews for a moment, then swallows. "The corgi god might be messing with the next Stage, since Aure was the first one, and Kirta was the second."

"The corgi god?" I ask.

"Torgi," he nods. "Though his name sounds like 'corgi', so that's what I'm calling him."

He really wants to piss off the gods, doesn't he?

"What's a corgi?"

"A little tiny dog," he answers. "It's short and stout and a little fat, and in the mythology of one region – I can't remember where – fairies would ride them into battle. But since magic isn't on my world, we can assume they figured that from stories someone from here gave."

Fairies are real, but they don't ride dogs into battle… they look like children. Heck, you often can't tell a fairy from a child, because they look so much like them, and glamours are easy for them to use.

I eat another meal, then use the bathroom, and we wait out the time until the next Stage starts by flipping a coin and trying to call it accurately. We have to flip it fast, or we'll name it every time, because of our PER, combined with our natural perception.

This is actually a really good training thing, now that I think about it. It would be a great way to train a kid's perception.

When we reach ten seconds left, Colt puts the coin away, and then we wait the final few moments until our surroundings change.

This time, we're standing in a large cavern with a massive Fire Elemental in the center.

Please tell me it's a low-Level one, and not a strong one… we are supposed to be able to survive the Advancement.

Then again, we can take a team of five into the Advancements, so it's entirely possible that the final stage on this one is supposed to be beaten by a full team, and not two kids who've only been training only a few months.

"My fire won't work against it," Colt says as the Elemental continues to float in the center of the circular chamber. "So you're going to need to attack it."

We'll probably be safe until one of us crosses the glowing red circle around the Elemental, or attack it.

"If that's a baby Elemental," I say. "There isn't a chance in hell I could kill that on my own. It'd burn me alive."

"Probably," Colt holds his hands up, and the elemental stares at us, almost as if confused. "But I can still provide you with backup."

Magic fluxes around him, and I realize he's manipulating gravity.

Of course.

If he manipulates the gravity and increases it around the Elemental, it'll move slower, and its attacks will drop down faster, in addition to moving slower on their way to me. That would give me more time to attack.

But for me to attack it would do the same thing…

"Use an Ice Lance, you dolt!" Colt snaps me out of my thoughts, and I shake my head, then create an Ice Lance. "Throw it already!"

Dammit, Colt! You have no idea how terrified I am right now!

I pull my arm back, then launch the lance, realizing that Colt's only using one hand to manipulate gravity. Why isn't he using both? Wouldn't he have greater control over it for that?

His magic swirls around my lance, which then picks up speed. The lance slams into the Elemental's fiery barrier, only a small part of it making it through, dissolving into the Elemental's body.

"More!" Colt yells.

I launch several more Ice Lances at the Elemental, which has begun to move, throwing its own lance of flames. My lances pass through the massive field of gravity and continue to pick up speed, while its drops down.

Colt and I still have to dodge to the side, and barely avoid the flames that explode out of it when it crashes. My lances all dissolved into it as well, and repeated shots don't seem to weaken it in the slightest.

I try making them harder, then colder, freezing them more solidly, more densely, yet it barely increases how much is left. Meanwhile, Colt has to be dropping low in Mana. I summon up my icy power, and intone the words for Rising Frost.

The Elemental freezes, but only on the surface. Even that barely did anything to it.

It did slow it down a bit, though.

Focusing, I decide to try something different. Blood Magic is more powerful than regular magic. A lance of Blood Magics probably wouldn't do anything, but what if I combined Blood Magic and Ice Magic?

Not something most people would probably consider, but Colt… Colt's shown me that changing thoughts like this, challenging myself and taking risks, that is what yields results, even when it could mean death.

Drawing my power together, I combine Blood Magic and Ice Magic, forming a lance of crimson ice. A Blood-Ice Lance.

Dismissing my notifications and dodging a wave of flames from the Elemental, I launch the lance.

It pierces through the barrier with more of it remaining than any previous lance, and this time, when it hits, it actually does damage. Not much, before it melted away, but enough to show me that it could.

"AGAIN!" Colt runs towards me, still holding his right hand up as he continues to drain himself with his gravity field. "I HAVE AN IDEA!"

I create another Blood-Ice Lance, and as I draw it back, Colt draws near me. Too late, I realize that the Elemental has thrown more flames at us, and am about to dodge when Colt stops running, dropping his gravity field.

He moves both arms, and takes control of the Elemental's flames. It stops in shock, probably both at Colt actually doing something so reckless – he's going to lose more LIF from taking an Elemental's magic as his own – and at the sudden shift in gravity.

"Throw the spear!" Colt yells.

I turn and face the Elemental, pulling my arm back and throwing the lance. Colt continues to move his arms, manipulating the Elemental's fires. The flames surround the lance, and I realize what he's doing.

He's manipulating the flames to draw heat away from the lance, ensuring it stays frozen solid. The Elemental's barrier of flames, I sense as my lance continues to fly, does nothing to the lance, which Colt has sped up with his Gravity Magic.

The Blood-Ice Lnace slams into the Elemental's chest at full strength, and I sense it pierce through the beast's burning exterior, freezing the flames around it.

The fires of the Elemental fade away, and its form quickly freezes over, then shatters.

Colt drops to the ground before that finishes, and I just know that he's gone. He isn't breathing, isn't moving at all. His blood has become still. His body's… decaying. Rapidly. He's turning to ash right in front of my eyes.

I start to move toward him, and find myself in the 'victory' room.

Congratulations!

You have successfully Advanced to Tier 3!

Your Level has been reset to 0, and each Level will require more effort to gain

+3 LIF!

Select 1 (one) Acquired Class

Every time you gain a Level for the Third Tier, you will acquire an amount of Stat Points equivalent to how many this Class granted upon acquisition

Choose Wisely! This cannot be undone, and you will be stuck with this decision until you reach the Fourth Tier!

I feel no joy right now. Colt died. We won, but at the cost of his life.

The first friend I ever made sacrificed himself to ensure that I'd survive the Advancement. I want to tell myself that we could've survived without him doing that, but I'd be lying to myself.

The battle with the Lich? We definitely would've needed two or three more fighters and magicians, and probably a healer, too. If Colt hadn't done that, we probably would've suffered serious injuries, that would've crippled us for the battle with the Elemental, especially since we don't have a healer.

Then, for the battle with the Elemental? There isn't a chance in hell we could've survived without him taking the Elemental's fire and protecting my lance with it. We got lucky that I only needed to use one Blood-Ice Lance for that. Had it taken a second one, it wouldn't have had Colt protecting it and speeding it up. I might have suffered some more injuries before I killed the Elemental. Or quite possibly, not have been able to kill it quickly enough before it melted the ice and killed me.

"FUCK YOU!" I scream, feeling tears running down my cheeks. "THIS ISN'T SOMETHING TO BE HAPPY ABOUT! FUCK YOU!"

I gain a measly 3 LIF, when Colt lost all of his. All 17 LIF he had, gone. He probably used extra life, just to manipulate that fire. He probably lost more than 7 LIF when using the Death-Fire, too, but didn't want me to freak out too much.

"FUCK YOU!"

Once I can focus properly, I take on Ice Rogue for my Third Tier. I'm not breaking my promise to Colt.

I'm going to complete my Quest of Heirs, I'm going to become a Paladin of Tyr, I'm going to kill those demons, and I'm going to restore this mountain's health. Then, when I'm done with that, I'm going back to Loritar, and I'm going to battle in each of the Towers, making my way to the top.

That's what Colt wanted to do. He told me that, when he was going to visit Tyr, he was going to tell him he wasn't going to return – not until he could do so through the way Tyr wants people to. That he was going to get through the challenges and puzzles Tyr placed around his Kingdom, and become the first to do so.

I was going to do it with him, going to grow strong with him and be able to enter Tyr's Kingdom through the challenges and puzzles. Now, I'm definitely going to do it.

I confirm Ice Rogue, and a moment later, find myself in the snow outside. It's still windy. Of course it is – time didn't pass while we were in there.

Time didn't pass, but Colt still died.

His ashes appeared in the air beside me, but before I can do anything – or even register that I should – they blow away in the wind. I chase after them, but the wind is faster, so much faster, and they're gone.

He's gone.