Halina felt much more confident and comfortable when the second trial started. After her training with Gazini, she felt invincible. Even if the rest of her own Tier trained like she did, she knew she would defeat them. This was no longer a question of who started out with an advantage.

It was a battle of who could work the hardest.

Halina knew the answer to that question.

This trial saw her in a location that felt stranger to her than both of the previous two. It was very clearly a city, but nothing like any city Halina had ever seen or read about. The buildings were towering structures of glittering metal. They bent and twisted, resembling plant shoots more than buildings.

The complete lack of windows added to the effect. If not for the occasional door yawning open, she wouldn’t have thought they were buildings at all. The doorways were almost completely flush with the walls around them when closed. After a moment, she discovered that pressing on the sides of the doors caused them to open.

Her mind wouldn’t stop drawing parallels between these strange spires and Stonetooth dungeon. Halina shivered when she looked into the dark interiors of the buildings. She allowed her fear to sway her for only a moment.

With a deep breath she quashed it and entered the building.

Her objective in this trial lay at the top.

The interior of the building was mostly hollow. The only bit of architecture that drew the eye was a staircase at the back of the entryway that led to the second floor. All of it was made of the same seamless, almost organic metal as the exterior.

Halina drew in a deep breath and began climbing the tower.

The second floor looked almost identical to the first, a large empty expanse that led to a staircase at the opposite side. Nothing impeded her progress until she was halfway across the floor.

The floor beneath her began to heat up rapidly.

If she hadn’t been so keyed up the first trap might have been the end of this round of the trial.

Halina kicked hard off the ground, sending her into a backwards roll. She landed slightly wrong, sprawling onto her back. This left her eyes fixed on the pool of lava where she had once stood.

Halina thought as she clambered back to her feet.

She equipped her sword and shield with a thought and began probing around the area. She poked around the center point of the room, moving all across it. Then she tossed small rocks she kept for just such situations further in. With ginger and careful testing, she quickly recognized the pattern.

It didn’t leave her feeling satisfied once she had.

As far as she could tell, there were three rings in the room. Each ring, once entered, set off an explosion of elemental force in the floor. The center was lava, the right was explosions of rocks, and the left was spears of metal.

They all looked quite out of place compared to the pristine metal that surrounded them.

Halina thought wryly.

The thought filled her with trepidation. The lava ring was the slowest to activate. This had worked in her favor when she had triggered it, giving her time to react.

It was also the most dangerous.

If she were caught, the agony would freeze her up instantly. Then she’d be trapped in the molten rock and quickly killed. The metal and earth rings activated much more quickly, but only triggered once on each point of contact with the floor. If she took a spear or a blast on a non-critical area or on her shield she might still make it through.

While she was puzzling all of this out, the room removed the time for her deliberation.

The floor heated under her once again. At the last second she rolled away. Straight into the explosive earth.

Luckily the force of the blast knocked her back out of the rings. Straight into the back wall.

her foggy mind told her, as she rose on wobbling legs.

Steeling herself, she launched forward into the most harrowing dash of her life. Lava rose and burst from the floor behind her. Her still woozy sense caused her to totter into the metal ring for a few brief steps. With the thinnest of margins she dodged the spears as she corrected her course. Shallow cuts opened in several places.

Her mistake in her calculations lay at the far end.

They were rings. They overlapped at the rear of the room. For a few paces before the staircase, all three of them overlapped.

The spears would shoot out first, forcing her to twist and dodge with each step. The explosions would follow, making her balance teeter closer and closer to death. The lava didn’t allow her time to get her bearings.

By the end of it, her run had escalated to an awkward stumbling charge. Blood ran in small rivulets from almost everywhere. Without her shield, she knew she would have been run through at least once by now.

Her mind was so focused on the obstacles that she didn’t notice the wall until it was too late to stop. She collided with it at top speed and collapsed. Onto the staircase.

Even in her pain and exhaustion, she knew better than to fall backwards into the rings.

She allowed herself a moment to recuperate as she felt her wounds healing.

Halina straightened her back and began marching up the stairs.

The surprise of the traps now revealed, the second floor pulled no punches. An obstacle course of whirling blades, pits of acid, and swinging logs awaited her.

Picking up speed, she wasted no time observing the course. Instead, she started running straight through. Her shield flashed into her hand, slamming a swinging log away from her.

This floor was clearly meant to be observed and carefully plotted through.

Halina didn’t have the patience for that. Or the stats to duck and dodge through here.

So she leaned into her strengths, quite literally.

Her shield flashed once more as she activated her defensive buffs. She ran pell mell through the whirling blade and swinging logs. Loud clangs and crashes echoed through the tower.

[Sentinel] kept her safe, but her shield was taking a beating. She activated [Rebound] repeatedly when it came off cooldown. Her sword darted out to intercept some of the smaller blades. All the while, her feet kept her unerringly on the path avoiding the acid pits.

It went perfectly, until it didn’t.

[Sentinel] faded. Almost immediately, as though the tower had been waiting for this moment, she was blindsided by a massive swinging log. It bashed her off her feet and sent he skidding over the side of the path.

Halina hung from the edge of the pit by her fingertips. Her face contorted in concentration and focus. She breathed deeply and worked her way out of the pit inch by inch. With a heroic effort, she pulled herself out and over the edge.

she thought grimly.

Her progress slowed to a crawl. She had to proceed cautiously now. No chance her skills would be off cooldown before the traps got her if she tried to wait here.

Slowly but surely she dragged herself down the path. Each whirling blade was its own obstacle now. Each step was a new threat of death.

After a few short steps she had been cut three times.

Her blood stained a trail on the unblemished path behind her.

More and more cuts opened up as she continued through the maze of pain and potential death. Deeper and deeper paths were traced through her flesh. The traps got closer and closer as she pushed forward.

Halina didn’t allow them to distract her even as the pain steadily increased.

Her eyes never left the swinging of the logs.

They were the real threat. They were nearly instant death.

By the end of it, her breath rattled her chest. Her legs burned like she had just finished carrying a mountain. Her eyes drooped with the strain of her frayed concentration.

She stepped off the path. A click sounded under her footfall.

She found herself at the foot of the stairs.

Metal shrieked as it was rent and torn apart behind her. Halina shrieked in a rage-filled response. She spun around, sword and shield brought up in front of her.

One last trap had apparently been laid for her. The end of the path twisted in on itself. Shards of metal spiked into the center of the vortex formed of the splintered floor. More shards were impaled in the roof.

A second strange sight greeted her as well, in the form of a blue spectral outline surrounding her limbs. A ghostly bear’s image enveloped her body. Strength surged through her. She could hear the tortured metal pinging quietly as it cooled. Unfortunately her nose now also brought her the powerful toxic scent of the acid pools.

Not even that could keep the tears from streaming down her face. Even the pain of her injuries was forgotten.

Halina collapsed on the stairs as a maelstrom of emotions tore through her. Joy blended with relief, contrasting with a strange anger and disgust. She had been waiting for this moment ever since her Player system had activated. When Bjarke’s [Totemic Rage] had activated on the same day as his system, a deep and worrying fear had been planted in her mind.

At the same time, a guilty relief had soothed her. If it never activated, she would never need to live up to her parents. If it never activated, she could avoid the gaze of the Aesir. If it never activated…

… she wouldn’t have to abandon her family.

Almost twenty minutes after the start of the trial, Halina found herself at the top of the metallic tower.

She stood in front of a dais holding a chalice. Her armor hung around her in tatters. She heaved like she’d run two marathons back-to-back. Blood spattered the floor under and behind her.

Still, her back was straight and proud.

Halina lifted the chalice and drank deeply from it. As she did, her wounds healed and her exhaustion faded. Even her equipment knitted itself back together.

Halina thought with satisfaction. She stretched, only to find her body completely limber already. Then a cold chill hit her.

After a moment’s thought she let out a groan.

She quickly checked her remaining time before cursing and running back down the stairs.

This trial wasn’t over.

Which meant the Great Tree expected her to try to reach the top of another tower.