Lucy watched as Cole sluggishly walked through the portal before him. She hadn’t been kidding about not going easy on him, all while keeping the heat of the lava-infested room at bay. He’d done surprisingly well in keeping his protective shell of ice up, but it still lacked in potency. Before he could learn much else, Cole would have to strengthen and refine his output of mana.

Turning back to the vast pool of lava, Lucy could detect a few more golems hiding in crevices around the room. It didn’t seem worth going back for them, but it was strange that they were there to begin with. Weren’t there only supposed to be ten golems to kill?

Shrugging off the inconsistency, Lucy walked through the portal leading back to their new preparation room. She hadn’t told Cole yet, but his training wasn’t over. If he wanted to protect himself, while training at the same time, he’d need to learn to keep his shell active while he slept. Anytime he didn’t...

Lucy’s thought process trailed off as she entered the room. Cole was already sleeping face first on the room's singular bed. He hadn’t even given her time to explain the next part of his training. Walking quietly beside him, Lucy prepared a small shard of ice. Whenever his ice shell weakened or faded away, she planned to hit him with a small bit of ice. Not powerful enough to hurt him, but enough to get him motivated.

Watching as Cole slept, not a worry in the world, Lucy lowered her hand. The shard of ice returned to her hand, fading into nothing. Maybe later.

***

“OW!” Cole yelled, shooting out of his bed. His arm felt like it’d been poked by several needles.

“Ah, you’re awake,” Lucy said, looking over him with a telling grin on her face. “You’re too vulnerable when you sleep. We’ll need to fix that.”

Cole wanted to protest the harsh treatment of his arm, but Lucy was right. Kate was the first person to try and kill him in his sleep, and she surely wouldn’t be the last. At least he felt wide awake now.

“Alright, so what do I-“

Mid-sentence, Cole’s stomach began to growl. He hadn’t eaten since before the golem trial, so he was more famished than usual. Checking his system band revealed he’d been asleep for over 10 hours.

“Actually, wanna get some more chicken and stuff?” Cole asked, placing his hand over his stomach. “I’m a little hungry.”

“Sure. I need to get rid of my dishes, anyway.”

As Lucy went to grab them some food, Cole realized she wasn’t kidding when she said she ‘needed’ to. Empty plates and bowls were scattered across the table behind the couch. How much can she eat??

“Damn,” Cole said.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing.”

Not wanting to potentially offend Lucy, Cole kept his thoughts to himself. If anything, though, he was jealous. Lucy had a pretty slim figure, making it even more surprising that she ate so much. Cole, on the other hand, would gain pounds at the drop of a dime in his past life. A thought then popped up into Cole’s head.

“Lucy,” Cole said, “does using magic burn a lot of calories?”

“It depends on the magic,” Lucy replied, tapping away at the console. “Internal magic, like Felix’s Amplify magic, requires a lot of calories because of how involved the body is in using it effectively. External based magic, like ice shards, typically does not.”

“Gotcha.”

“Are you worried you might starve to death in battle?”

“No, just curious.”

Before he could give Lucy’s binging spree more thought, a large platter popped out from the console. As requested, it was the same assortment of chicken, potatoes, and greens that they’d eaten on their first day in The Tower.

Rolling out of bed, Cole joined Lucy on the couch as she placed the platter down. The aroma of the freshly roasted chicken filled Cole’s nostrils, almost making him drool from hunger. Within minutes, Cole devoured the entirety of his share.

Ah, Cole thought, leaning back and patting his stomach, that hit the spot.

His eye’s eventually wandered back to his system band. For whatever reason, the time it displayed remained at 13:52, the same time he saw a few minutes ago. Just as strange was the color of the numbers. Instead of the usual blue, they were a light red.

“Hey Lucy, how long has the clock been like that?”

“Been like what?”

After conveying his concerns, Lucy checked her own system band.

“That is strange.” Lucy agreed. “I don’t remember anything like that before now.”

“I wonder what’s going on.”

As if on queue, a loud ding rang out from around the room. Cole and Lucy were subsequently greeted by a familiar voice, though they hadn’t expected to hear it with so much time left on the clock.

“Greetings, adventurers.” IQ said. “A new event shall be starting soon, so all clocks have been stopped for the time being. As there are now enough potential participants to safely start, we will now place a temporary fifteen-minute timer on your system band.”

“What the hell’s goin on?” Cole asked, noting the new time of 15:00 on their clock.

“Do not worry,” IQ continued, “your timer will return to its previously displayed time after these fifteen minutes run out. In this time, you will be given the opportunity to enter the “gridlock” event. If, at any point, you would like to do so, please enter your respective portal.”

Surely enough, a portal opened where it always did in the room.

“In this event, you will be given an hour to survive and conquer. Each participant will be given a cell in an eight-by-eight grid. At the start of the event, and every ten minutes after, a barrier between your cell and an adjacent cell will open. If someone in the cell surrenders, or is otherwise put out of commission, they will be removed from the event. Points will be distributed based on the number of participants and how many are left standing at the conclusion of the hour.”

“A little convoluted,” Cole said, “but interesting. What do you think, Lucy?”

“It’d be good to give you actual combat experience.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Additionally,” IQ interrupted, “each point will be applied directly towards your trial score with a one-to-one conversion rate. With that, you now have fifteen minutes to decide whether or not to enter the event. Good luck, adventurers.”

IQ’s voice cut out, followed by another dinging noise. Looking back to the clock, Cole saw that it had indeed begun ticking down. With these fifteen minutes, he would have to decide whether or not he wanted to participate in this “gridlock’ event. Unless the decision was already made for him, of course.

“We should definitely enter,” Lucy said.

“You think?” Cole asked. “What if we have to fight someone like Susie, or worse…”

“You’re worried you may run into Felix?”

“Well, yeah.”

“That’d be even better.” Lucy insisted. “you’d be able to get a real sense of how much you’ve learned.”

“And what? Get revenge?” Cole asked sarcastically.

“I doubt you’re the kind of person to seek revenge, but sure. A little ‘showing who’s boss’ never hurt anyone.”

“Is that something your master taught you, too?”

Unintentionally, Cole had phrased his last question kind of snidely. He wasn’t sure why, but the idea of fighting other people wasn’t that appealing to him. When faced with Felix, Kate, and partially Tobias, Cole had frozen up. He didn’t want to get hurt, but he also had no desire to hurt anyone, even Felix.

On the flip side, he’d felt a strange calmness when fighting the golems in the previous trial. Though, considering the injury he’d sustained, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to enter a trial so soon, regardless of who it was against. Training was what he wanted to focus on, and he had assumed Lucy would think the same.

“No.” Lucy finally replied. “It’s something a friend taught me. Now come on, let’s go!”

Feeling a sudden grip on his arm, Cole was dragged out of his seat by a determined Lucy. To Cole’s annoyance, it seemed like she was enjoying herself quite a bit.

“Geez,” Cole said, regaining his balance as he was dragged through the portal, “alright, alright.”