The day started as usual. At the crack of dawn, Dallion got up, checked the strands of hair he had placed at the window and door to make sure no one had entered, and did half an hour of real-world exercises as Vend had advised he do. For some yet unclear reason, doing while physical exercises didn’t increase any stats, they allowed Dallion to build up stamina.

Following the exercises, Dallion went down to use the toilet, then washed up. Normally this would be the time that he’d back breakfast, but with neither Veil nor Gloria in the main room, Dallion decided to delay it for later. Strangely enough, Hannah wasn’t there either. Normally she would be up about this time, doing what passed as administrative work, or prepping the place for the day. It was still a mystery why she didn’t hire someone to do the cleaning for her with the money she had been making.

Back in his room, Dallion spent a moment improving his training dagger. At level eleven, the battlers had already become quite challenging. Using music was out of the question, since it had already reached the cap. Instead, Dallion had resorted to the second-best option—Lux’s flight and Nox’s ability to crack armor. There was the option to use athletic skills and a dartbow instead, but that method was proving less and less reliable.

“Copper,” Dallion said once he was back in the real world. He had finally moved through the tin and bronze stages, reaching a third metal. Ironically, the improvement made the dagger less usable in the real world than it had been before. Regardless, it was good practice in more ways than one. Dallion was able to gauge his skills, as well as see the stages of leveling up—when it came to tin stilettos, at least.

Putting the weapon away, he sat on the bed. Hours remained until lunch. Even breakfast was about twenty minutes away. Veil had gotten into the habit of getting up late, and Gloria tended to stay in her room until he was ready.

Technically, there was nothing stopping Dallion from just going to her room, knocking on the door, and telling her about Eury. Actually, there were quite a few things wrong. Other than it being extremely awkward, he feared it might send mixed signals.

I’ll do it after I level up, Dallion told himself.

There was no harm in that, after all. Besides, it was only going to take a moment in the real world. It’s not like anyone would notice?

While Dallion was thinking about it, his glance fell on the stone orchid. It had been a few days since he had played any music to it. Maybe he could do so now? Leaving it unattended wasn’t such a good idea. And why not try out the ringchord? Dallion had literally never played it once since he had won it at the plaza. He definitely had to at some point and now was just as good a time as any…

You’re making excuses… a memory of last night’s conversation flashed through his mind. A lot of things had been said back then, and Dallions till thought that the dryad had no idea what he was talking about.

Five minutes later, Dallion was still sitting on the bed, planning what he’d do the rest of his day. Finally, that proved to be the wake-up call. As much as he didn’t want to, he removed the blocker ring.

PERSONAL AWAKENING

The skill room formed around him. The presence of more walls made it appear even more bare. It was only the forging tools that gave the impression that Dallion was progressing in something. The Acrobatics section, on the other hand, left a whole lot to be desired.

What skills are there in acrobatics? Dallion wondered.

Juggling and balancing, for one thing, Nil replied bitterly. Something you seem to excel at.

Oh. Sorry, Nil. I had a lot on my mind last night.

I know, and I was more than ready to discuss it with you. That is, if you’re still interested. I went through the entire library with Gen to save you time and effort, but it seems you have “other things on your mind.”

I’m not in the mood, Nil… Dallion sighed.

Good! Does that mean you’ll finally do something productive? Like at least attempt to level up? Remember that notion? Leveling up? Or is it something you consider below you now?

Dallion wanted to say that wasn’t the case, that he wanted to level up just as much as before. And in truth, he did. The problem was that he wanted to do it without doing the work. If there was a way to go to a level twenty awakening shrine, he would have gladly gone there. It was already established that such actions would only make things more difficult further on, but there, at level twenty, Dallion was certain that he would have the beans of dealing with them.

You know, dear boy, you’ve changed a lot since you passed through the second gate, Nil continued. It’s not an isolated incident, mind you. A vast number of awakened find that they do not have the will or mental fortitude to go on. You were so eager to continue, however, that I had hoped the gate wouldn’t affect you. Clearly, I was wrong.

You weren’t wrong.

At least not completely. Dallion still could feel a spark of desire deep inside. He just needed to wait for the right moment.

I just need to get my thoughts together, Dallion said.

Dal, have eternity at your disposal. Tell me, how much of it would be needed to get your thoughts together?

That was a question that Dallion couldn’t answer.

The fact that you’re delaying suggests that you’re not ready, and maybe never will be. However, you being here at all says that you are. As the rectangles say, you are at a crossroads. It’s up to you to decide what to do.

It was up to Dallion to decide… In a way, it reminded him of the very first day he had woken up here. The room was completely empty back then. There wasn’t even a door. Dallion had been asked to choose an attribute, then went down a small corridor where a shield and short sword were placed on different sections of the wall. That was the first choice he had made. The thought of remaining in the room wasn’t even considered an option… unlike now.

“Should I stay or should I go…” Dallion hummed to himself. Thinking about it, why not both?

Concentrating as hard as he could, Dallion split into two instances. One of the instances did nothing, but the other went out of the room. A new door had appeared in the corridor, located less than ten feet from the entrance to the library. That was it—the new expansion to Dallion’s realm and his new leveling up challenge. Taking a deep breath, the instance of him opened the door and stepped inside. The moment that he did, the instance of Dallion in the starting room vanished.

You are in the halls of destiny.

Defeat your hidden fears and shape your destiny.

“Here we go.” Dallion smashed the rectangle away and kept on walking.

With each step, his mind created images of the possible opponents he would face. His grandfather and his original team from the time had already been defeated, which meant that there would be a different echo to face. His family was an option, as was the entire village of Dherma… Given the scale of the last test, it was more than possible. Would he end up facing his own mother and father? Given how he had pretty much abandoned them, it was looking likely. The same went double for his younger brother. Nothing had prevented Dallion from writing to them—he had the money and there were more than enough courier services in Nerosal that would do the job. However, it was fear that stopped him—fear of his family responding.

Bright white lanterns appeared on each side of the corridor as Dallion walked on. After fifty feet, the corridor took a sharp turn to the right, then to the left again. Not long after, Dallion reached a doorway revealing a rather large chamber beyond.

Another paradox cube? Dallion asked in astonishment. You must be very lucky. As long as you don’t mess things up, you’ll get to claim another special goodie.

Dallion didn’t think of himself as lucky at all.

Unlike the previous cube, this one seemed a lot smaller and much better lit. Dallion was able to see the other side of it without problem. However, he wished that he couldn’t. The walls of each wall were packed with houses, and now just any houses—these were the same houses that Dallion remembered from Dherma. It was as if someone had cut up the city in squares, then stuck them in the middle of a box. Dallion’s own house was visible on the wall to his left. Floating in the center, connected only through a series of bridges, was the chieftain’s mansion. It looked much more imposing than it had in reality, clearly showing that it was the most important structure there was—the living heart of the village.

“Lux,” Dallion said.

Knowing what to do, the firebird appeared and took Dallion into the air. There was a faint chirp of disappointment that the realm he was summoned to was so small, but even so, the chick was happy to be with him again.

Get me to the entrance of that building, Dallion thought. Nox, be ready. I think I’ll be needing you on this.

I’m not known as one who frowns on ingenuity, but that seems remarkably close to cheating, dear boy, Nil said. Wouldn’t you rather use the more conventional methods?

No, Dallion replied.

A single instant was needed to reach the entrance. No blocking enemies had appeared so far, making Dallion feel somewhat anxious. Clearly, this challenge was more puzzle than battlefield.

The door loomed five feet over him. Distinctly more massive than in the past, it appeared to be locked and bolted. Of course, thanks to Lux, Dallion could just go around the mansion and find another point of entry—like a window, for example. However, since the puzzle was so obviously forcing him to find an alternative entrance, Dallion decided to settle with this one.

Music, forging, and attack, he thought.

Several weaknesses in the metal of the frame became apparent. Despite its appearance, the mansion hadn’t been kept in particularly good condition. Very much like the well. A series of targeting markers appeared all over the frame. They were soon joined by a second set of markers—this time orange—indicating the jumps and spins Dallion had to do to reach each of his targets.

Summoning the Nox dagger, Dallion leapt into action. His body spun and twisted in accordance with the suggested markers, allowing him to bounce off the wall as if there were footholds on it. As Dallion passed by a weak spot, a single strike from the dagger proved enough to crack the section of the frame. After a full sequence of acrobatic markers, the skill’s bonus kicked in. Dallion expected it to be something similar to the other basic skills: guard skills slowed down time, while attack skills allowed multiple attacks in a single instant. This one did none of that. What it did was to create a single disk-like marker floating in the air.

So that’s air walking, Dallion thought. It had been described in some of the skill scrolls he had read in the ring library, but at the time Dallion had thought that to be a picturesque description rather than anything real. As it turned out, he had been wrong. In addition to all the other benefits the acrobatics skills provided, they also granted him the ability to walk on air one step at a time.

It took a total of three seconds for Dallion to strike all the weak points of the doorframe. When he did, the entire thing tilted forward then, fell to the ground, slamming like a fly swatter on a table. Dust filled the air for several moments, making it impossible to see anything beyond.

When the dust cleared, the inner garden of the mansion came into view… along with a person standing there.

“I knew you’d come for me, Dallion.” Gloria rushed forward, giving him a warm hug. “I’ve known it even since you improved my ring.”