If I sat down and considered it, dealing with an extremely irritating and ancient entity that might kill me might be worth gaining magic superpowers. Maybe. If I had a choice between that and going back home, I might have been uncertain about it. But when the choice was between learning magic or going back to being a slave who hauled poisonous rocks, there was no question. I’d never had claustrophobia, but the room the soulstone gave me made me feel like I was developing it, the trials were deadly and difficult, I really wanted a bath, and I hated pretty much all of what little I’d seen of this world.

But magic. So I rested in my new creepy room that had no shadows thanks to the sourceless nature of the lighting, banged my shins into the side of the basin because depth perception is hard, drank nearly all of it, waited for the basin to refill, and had a weird sort of splashy bath in it.

After that, I extended a sort of mental tendril into the mana crystal to leave the room and was back in the Domain’s entrance. I took a deep breath, turned around, and left. Doing trials was all well and good, but I was hungry.

I hauled a deer thing with tendrils on its face back with me, then cooked and ate parts of it. The rest I kind of … shoved to the side of the entrance chamber and left there. I’d never stored any of what I hunted before, and I was used to bringing back a lot more than what I needed.

It was time. I reached out to the stone in the middle of the chamber—

And was in another extremely similar room, except without the pedestal in the middle and with two arches, one behind and another in front. They were decorated now. The one leading back was bone-white and the mana crystal set at the top a pale blue.

Leave?

Nope. It was time to advance. I was almost Awakened if I trusted what the soulstone had told me when I’d asked, and I’d been sleeping in an area with enough mana that it could illuminate the entire room. That had to count for something.

I turned around. This arch was now a dull copper shot through with streaks of gold. The crystal was a ruby red.

Continue to the second trial?

The message had changed there. Better for me, I guess. Easier to remember which trial I was actually on when it told me. I stepped toward it and a small circular section in the middle of the chamber began to glow.

I threw myself back in case it was about to explode or something, but the golden pillar of light eventually resolved into a … chest. I laughed like a lunatic until I had to sit down. I smiled and wiped my eyes. Nothing about the situation was funny, but for a moment I was forcibly reminded of some games back on Earth. Roleplaying games, dungeon crawlers, stuff like that. I strode forward and tossed the lid open.

I was kind of disappointed. I’d been hoping for a magic sword, or gems, or armor. What I got were three copper coins and a heavy stone spike. I held it and jabbed it at the wall. The tip broke off.

“Really?”

There was no response. I tossed the rock in the corner. Maybe it would have been useful if I didn’t already have a weapon, but my spear was just all around better. I studied the coins next. At first I’d thought them to be just plain copper, but now that I looked more closely they had a crystalline sheen to them. As for the design on them, one side had a cloaked figure looking forward but with nothing beneath the hood. The back showed a large eye.

Kind of weird, and I suspected they weren’t the local currency, but I saw no harm in keeping them. I swept the three coins into my pack. The chest’s lid swung closed with a snap and I jumped away. The same golden glow obscured it before it disappeared entirely.

“I see someone’s made it here before me.”

I whirled around, spear pointed at the voice.

The robed figure raised his hands innocently. The effect was rather ruined by the bloody knife in one of them. “I’m Corin. You’d be the hunter for Chennai’s group, yeah? I was in Sesha’s, until the attack. Glad there’s someone else that spider didn’t get.”

I slowly lowered my spear. “I’m Ember. What happened? With the people the spider … got?”

He sighed and absently rubbed his knife on the exit arch. Red streaked across the white stone. “The good news is that the magic in that fire does run out. Eventually. The bad news is that anyone caught in it goes insane way before that happens. There are a bunch of lunatics eating each other out there.”

“And how’d you find this place?”

He shrugged. “Just like you did, I presume. I stumbled about like a mule, nearly died to the wildlife, found the entrance, and thought it’d make a good shelter. Then I made the mistake of touching the stone to the jungle and now I’m here. It’s a Domain, most likely one set up to Awaken people. But it’s been abandoned, and I’m guessing it was abandoned for a long time. The Braithen Hellmouth is old, and whatever civilization set up this Domain has long since crumbled to dust. If we’re lucky the soulstone here is asleep. Otherwise, it’s probably gone dangerously insane. They can survive without any socialization far longer than flesh and blood people, but after long enough it’s not smart to get near their Domains.”

After he finished speaking, the center of the chamber disappeared in the golden glow, leaving another chest behind.

“Huh. One second,” I said, and tried to flip it open.

It didn’t budge.

“It’s probably locked to me,” Corin said. I tensed as he approached, but he only bent down and opened the chest. There were five copper coins for him along with an actual weapon. Sort of. He got a sword with a plain wooden hilt and blade made out of the same crystalline copper as the coins.

“Seriously? It only gave me three. And a rock.”

He put the coins in his own pack, then drew the sword and felt its weight. He nodded. It seemed he liked it. I felt a flash of jealousy. That looked like a proper magic sword.

“I’ve heard of Domains like these. Usually, they’re set up to give rewards proportional to the challenge. I assume you had a light of some kind?”

“Yeah…”

“I didn’t.”

I winced. “But you’re not injured?”

“I was.” Then he grinned and punched the wall. It hit with a blue flare. There was no damage to the rock, but his hand didn’t look hurt either. “Got mobbed. I found my way to the edge of the jungle. Bunch of spiders ambushed me. Thought I was going to die there, and then I felt better than I ever had before. And I could see. Sort of. I admit I’m a little tempted to risk going further before the Domain’s soulstone fully wakes up. But being Awakened at all is rare enough for most people.”

“Yeah. Including me,” I said.

I wasn’t bitter. Just … disappointed. And maybe a little angry.

“Ah. Look, I get it. But staying here longer is not a good idea. The closer we get to the bottom, the greater the chance of awakening the soulstone. I’ll give you my sword if that makes you feel better. It’s just an alloy of copper and crystallized mana. Pretty common.”

“That doesn’t make it any more attractive. Look, the soulstone talked to me a few times. It’s not going to kill us.”

“You don’t understand,” he said, stepping to the exit arch. “They can set up automated operations to keep the trials running, like the chest. You didn’t hear the real thing. We need to go.”

Welcome. I’m Temul, the soulstone in charge of this place. Now that we know each other … what was that about automation?