When the two of them got to the magic towers, they found the other three exactly where they’d agreed to meet, waiting by the one representing the life affinity, each of them coming to terms with their own feelings on what they’d be stepping into as their internal thoughts were hidden away with determined expressions.

Thera’s dropped to a more comfortable look when she saw Steph as the two girls went to greet each other before Ben did introductions.

“Alright, Steph, this is Sonya and Sachel. Sonya and Sachel, this is Steph. Let’s all work really hard on not dying together, okay?”

“I’ve met Sonya already,” She said, giving a friendly smile to the two. “I was in Stonewall for a bit trying to help put you back together.”

Ah, guess I was too busy not dying to see that. Makes things easier though.

“Alright then, in that case just give me a minute and then I’ll give you all a rundown before we go inside.”

He hopped into the back of the cart where crates upon crates were being stored, all for the sole purpose of containing items that might need to be enchanted upon. He’d hoped from the very beginning he’d succeed in being able to see what the trial contained through the mind of Jake, and since he had, he got to work on making custom items for each floor to be thrown into his spatial bag, the amount it could store exploding after being remade thanks to the new way he could enchant.

It was as he worked that the rest of them mingled, with Sachel and Steph in particular talking to have a better idea of who they’d be putting their lives on the line with.

“So if you don’t mind, what level are you?” Sachel asked, getting to the heart of it and deflating with the answer.

“An awakened level one so don’t worry, I should be able to hold my own.”

“Wait, so I’m the worst one here?”

“Technically that’s Ben,” Thera chimed in. “You can’t get much worse than being completely incapable of the magic after all.”

Hurtful but true.

“It’s still ridiculous though,” Sachel sighed. “What are these connections? How does he know two different awakened life mages? Do you just meet these sorts of people if you awaken a skill?”

Shit.

Before he could say anything, Steph answered happily, having no clue he was keeping any secrets.

“Oh we’ve been friends for a while before coming to this world is all, I’m glad he was comfortable enough asking for my help.”

As Thera and Sonya kept their faces stony, Sachel was left looking between Steph and Ben as confusion changed to uncertain understanding.

“Wait, so you’re both…”

“Yes, I’m one of the summoned,” He told her, cursing himself for not thinking to tell Steph that Sachel didn’t know. “Do me a favour and don’t spread it around.”

“Um, I have a lot of questions.”

“Can they wait, or is this going to distract you when we’re busy trying not to die?”

“This is one hundred percent going to distract me!”

“Fine,” He sighed. “The cliff notes are that I was the one person who didn’t get an awakened skill or enhanced attributes from being summoned and as a result, no nations wanted to take me in. From there I moved to Stonewall, started my life, found a job and fell in love, and have been dealing with way too much of this world's crap since.”

“But you're an apostle!”

“Me and Myriad hit it off.”

“You could only have been here for what, three or four years?”

“That’s right.”

“And you came with no awakened skills?”

“I did just say that, yes.”

“Then how do you have two already?”

Seven, but I guess she doesn’t need to know that.

“Because I’m exceptionally good at what I do. Is there anything else or can we move on to the more important stuff now?”

From the looks of it, she was still struggling to process everything she’d heard, holding her head and feeling it pound under the weight of the reveal before seeming to come to terms with it.

“No, this is fine. Myriad always warns me that you’re a little insane and I already knew that you’d do crazy things like making those enhancement potions and giving away ultra-rare items. This is just another thing.”

“Alright, ignoring the fact that Myriad still talks crap when I’m not listening, glad we got that over with. Now give me one more second.”

Using his magic, he sealed shut all of the remaining boxes and bound them to the cart, before moving to bind the cart’s wheels to the ground, all to ensure nothing would be stolen before he focused on the trial.

Just like the last time it towered above him, reaching up into the sky in all of its might before he turned his gaze to the door and got to see exactly what the clue within it meant.

Aside from the magic symbols it displayed, it was a picture of exactly one hundred and thirty-six animals of all shapes and sizes along with a couple plants, with dead ones mixed into the group and small, subtle lines connecting them all together.

It was a clue he was sure would have clicked when he actually went in, but by then they might have missed the easier way out of it, something he was thrilled to take advantage of once he knew it.

“Alright folks and watching gods, don’t mind just how much I shouldn’t know this and focus entirely on how useful it is. For our two newcomers who haven’t done a tower trial yet, you should both already know they come in two parts, with the first being where you can get a blessing after three floors and the second being where you can get one or two skill levels depending on the various conditions. The main thing you need to know is that on the first three floors you’ll be facing life magic, but you might encounter it mixed with other things too. In the earth tower for example we encountered both petrification, golems, lava, and more. You stop getting the mix after the third floor, but the trade-off is that on the fourth and fifth you can only do spells that match the tower's affinity so I won’t be able to help with my magics at that point.”

The explanation was mostly for Sachel, who was already looking shocked to be told such a thing when it should have been a well-kept secret of the gods, but the rest of them got a surprise as he continued.

“So for the first floor of this one, we’ll have to kill the creatures on it. The catch is that they are all splitting a buff, and as they die off the buff will concentrate onto the remaining ones until whatever remains is super powerful. The two tricks to finishing it are protecting the few plants around since they’ll take up some of the buff too, and if possible, killing as many as one can at the very end of it all so it doesn’t leave one super buffed creature. The second floor is also a creature feature, and an extra annoying one too since when you kill it once it revives with a different mixed affinity with life and all of the other nine so it will keep you on your toes. The third is dealing with an area comparable to an extreme version of the life valley. You’ll be flooded with life mana and it’s going to play havoc with your internal systems and microbiome so you’ll need to do your best to regulate it for about ten hours. Plus mine too please; like, I’ll probably manage pretty well with my resistances but that’s still going to suck. Since I don’t want to bog you down with info too much I’ll tell you more in greater detail before each section and we’ll worry about the last two when we get to them, but for now, how do you all feel?”

“I feel like I want to know how the hell you know any of that!” Steph yelled at him, looking just as shocked as the others by that level of detail but being the first one to get any words out. “How did you find that out? I can’t even talk to Will about the stupid space trial I was stuck in!”

“Ah, well I have this excellent little mind-reading skill, along with another that makes it a lot easier to get information on these things so don’t worry. Since I’m not under a covenant I’m fine.”

He didn’t mention how deep connection let him read memories along with minds, nor king of sacrilege. He didn’t want Sachel finding out about the latter, and as for the former, he figured it would just make the others uncomfortable to know.

After all, reading minds is already a big enough invasion of privacy, who would want to hear that I can read their memories too?

“But, is telling us any of that even a little okay?” Sachel wanted to know, looking up briefly to the sky as she worried about some potential divine punishment while Ben shrugged away her question.

“The gods made it so ridiculously hard to get around a covenant that if you manage to beat it I personally think you deserve the benefits you can get from it. Either way, if doing this is wrong may I be struck down here and now.”

If I succeed here then the world as a whole benefits. Besides, this is the only way I can poke at whichever ones wanted to toss me into hell.

The rest of them breathed a small sigh of relief as he continued to live despite how little any of them could have argued if he had received some sort of punishment.

“So there we have it. Nobody’s complaining and it’s not like the risk has vanished, only reduced a bit. It’s just the perks of proper planning, so unless any of you have anything else, let’s give this a go.”

While they still felt uncertain, no one knew what other point to raise. Things were lined up as well as they potentially could be, the chances of anyone else in history taking on a tower and knowing so much ahead of time was basically nil, so they each tried to put on confident faces as Ben went forward to the door and stopped.

For as confident as he sounded talking, at that moment he couldn’t make himself move farther as nearly a thousand minds second-guessed him all at once.

There’s always something that’s missed.

It was whispered in his ear again and again as he forced the thought away.

I’ve practically seen what the trial holds firsthand. I’m not missing anything. Even if some stages will be hard, this will still be fine.

Still, he hesitated for just seconds longer as he kept trying to psych himself up for whatever was to come.

Come on, it’s just a few steps and I already know what’s in there. I can do this. I didn’t freeze up last time, there’s no reason to now.

Of course, last time it wasn’t his idea to challenge the earth tower, in fact, he’d been against it. In the current case, he was not only the person who brought the idea forward, but talked everyone with him into it as well. Sure, he had good reasons, wanting to see if he could force an awakening for the potential that would have on the world as a whole, wanting to help Sonya get past her insecurities so she could have a chance at happiness with his teacher before they were all dead, wanting Thera and Steph to be just a little stronger to increase their personal odds of survival and wanting to get a few personal benefits that would come with reaching the top as well, but that meant that whatever happened to anyone with him was his fault.

Which means everyone has to get out of here even if it breaks me.

He took a deep breath and one final look at the door before pulling it open and taking his first step inside, telling himself he’d be ready for whatever was to come.