In chess, there are thirty-two pieces and a board. It had only taken Cole a couple hours to make the first set of pieces, so he had plenty of time to make the rest. However, he’d started to feel more tired as time went by. Lethargy was the main factor in this, as his arms had become almost sluggish in movement. Tapping his system band, Cole noted that the time read ‘14:13.’

Maybe I should take a break. Cole yawned while rubbing his eyes. Looking over the pieces he made, Cole felt a degree of pride in his work. They weren’t anything special, but they were definitely usable. It had been a while since Cole had made something of value with his own two hands. Unfortunately, a sudden realization dawned on him. How will we be able to tell the pieces apart if they’re all made of ice?

“Lucy?”

“Yes?”

“Could you check the console for paint? Half of the pieces need to be a different color than the other half.”

“Sure.”

“Actually,” Cole said, “I’ll check it myself.”

“Alright.”

Since he could finally use magic, Cole would be able to interact with the console. He was excited to test it out, as Lucy had made it seem pretty fascinating. Meanwhile, Lucy was sitting comfortably on the other end of the couch. She leaned back against the cushion, tilting her rest against its peak.

As Cole tried to get up from his seat, he noticed how tired his legs were. He hadn’t been using them much since he’d entered the room, yet, Cole felt like he’d just spent the last few hours jogging. Slumping back in his seat, Cole pressed his hand against the armrest, giving him additional support for his next attempt.

“You should get some rest,” Lucy said, watching Cole push himself off the couch.

“Probably,” Cole admitted.

He was so excited to keep using magic that he hadn’t considered the physical burden he was putting on himself. Moving Lucy’s mana wasn’t draining at all, but expending his own had apparently taken its toll.

“I didn’t realize magic would be so draining,” Cole said, slowly making his way to the bed. “I barely did anything.”

“It’ll come with practice,” Lucy replied.

“I hope so. Thanks for teaching me, Lucy.”

“Of course.”

“Do you mind?” Cole asked, pointing at the bed.

“Go ahead,” Lucy said. “I’ll keep watch.”

Keep watch? Cole asked himself. Too tired to put much thought into it, Cole slid under the sheet. Resting his head against the soft pillow, Cole passed out almost immediately.

 

***

 

Cole woke to a soothing aroma. Groggily opening his eyes, he flipped onto his side, his back facing the wall. He rubbed his eye with his hand as he read the time on his system band.

“1:27?” Cole asked, surprised by the notion. Cole had slept for over twelve hours, something that was pretty rare for him.

“Want some?”

Cole heard Lucy’s voice from the other side of the room. She held a large bowl in hand, similar to the one she’d gotten earlier from the console.

“What is it?” Cole asked.

Lucy walked over to reveal the contents: more strawberries… a LOT more strawberries.

“Sure,” Cole said, sluggishly reaching out to take a few.

Cole leaned over the side of the bed as he ate, trying to keep it clean. Lucy tossed a strawberry into the air, catching it in her mouth. Unlike Lucy, Cole didn’t eat the top part of the strawberry. Now holding a few leftover pieces of strawberry, Cole was forced to get out of bed to dispose of them. Considering the floor wasn’t carpet, he’d probably have just thrown them on the ground if Lucy wasn’t around. It was something small, but he wanted her to have a decent enough impression of him.

Looking around the room, Cole failed to see a trash can. He saw Lucy had taken a seat on the couch. She’d propped her legs up on the table, the bowl of strawberries comfortably resting between her legs as she ate away. Cole noticed a few additional bowls on the table, though they were empty.

“Still hungry?” Cole asked.

“Always,” Lucy replied as she chewed.

Cole continued his search, but found nothing that resembled a trash can. As he made his way towards the other end of the room, he was faced with the large console he’d seen Lucy get their food from.

Cole placed his free hand against the console, concentrating on pushing his mana into it. Over his hours of creating chess pieces, he’d managed to streamline the process of using his magic. He no longer had to concentrate while using both of his hands to help physically guide the mana. Now, all he needed to do was move one of his hands to collect and move the mana.

However, after a night's rest, Cole noticed something. When he started telling the mana to collect, it began to form before he managed to move his hand. Cole had spent so much time trying to get it to work in the first place that he was genuinely shocked at his rapid improvement. Sure, all he could really do was create small figures, but he’d learned so much in a single day.

Having patted himself on the back enough, Cole released the mana from his hand. Similar to the one produced by his system band, a blue panel appeared across the front of the console. It almost resembled a monitor as it flickered slightly, reacting to Cole’s small input of mana.

In what looked to be the console's main menu, Cole saw six options: Food, Items, Storage, Disposal, Points, and Start Trial. Looking back at the time, Cole wasn’t sure how he felt about starting another trial in less than a couple hours. Shaking his head, he looked back to the console. Still holding the leftover strawberry tops in his hand, Cole tried to tap his knuckle against the disposal button. Nothing happened. Cole awkwardly turned his hand to press the button with one of his fingertips, but it yielded an identical result.

“Lucy,” Cole said, “how do I click the buttons?”

“With your finger,” Lucy replied.

“Well yeah, but that doesn’t really do anything.”

“Oh, right,” Lucy said, tossing another strawberry in her mouth. “It’s not only powered by mana, it’s interacted with through mana.”

“Of course.”

Cole kicked himself for not thinking of it himself. It was so easy to ask Lucy that he hadn’t put much effort into testing things out himself.

It took several minutes for him to get the hang of it, but Cole managed to switch his output of mana to split between his hands. Letting a small portion flow into his left hand, Cole tried to click on the disposal button again. This time, it brought up a blank screen with a “back” button.

Before Cole could question it, a long rectangle slid out from the console. Cole recognized the motion from when Lucy had ordered food, so he wasn’t surprised the process would be similar for throwing stuff out. Cole placed his hand over the thin rectangle, dropping the strawberry tops above it. The end of the rectangle reformed as the foreign objects approached, resizing itself to collect all three pieces in a portal that appeared from its surface.

“Could you take these, too?” Lucy asked, pointing at the empty bowls.

“Sure.” Cole said, removing his hand from the console, “this thing is pretty cool.”

As he did, the blue screen immediately disappeared. The rectangle that had popped out quickly retreated back into the console, leaving no trace of where it’d come from.

As he walked over to the table, Cole noticed the chess pieces he had made were moved. Instead of being on the table, they had been placed on the floor behind the table. Oddly, they hadn’t melted in the slightest. Furthermore, they’d all had their color changed from a light blue to maroon.

“Did you do that?” Cole asked.

“Yup,” Lucy replied, eating the last strawberry in her bowl.

“Thanks,” Cole said. “How’d you make them not melt?”

“I didn’t do anything. It’s composed of mana, so only a mana-infused heat source can melt it.”

“That’s convenient.”

“Very.”

I should probably put them in storage. Cole had taken his time to make the chess pieces, and Lucy had taken her time to paint them. If anything, it was a good team-building exercise to preserve. Cole was surprised by how interested Lucy was in chess. She hadn’t shown much interest in anything else.

Repeating the same process as before, Cole dropped the empty bowls into the console’s disposal. When he was done, he clicked the large back button, returning him to the menu screen. He proceeded to press the storage button, revealing a few more options: Add, Remove, View, and Back.

Cole clicked the add button, prompting the console to shoot out another rectangle. Cole returned to the table to collect each of the chess pieces, carefully dropping them into the storage portal. After he’d finished, Cole navigated back to the first storage screen. Out of curiosity, he clicked the “view” button.

This brought up a new menu, displaying a set of boxes. These boxes seemed to contain a still picture of their content, as Cole noted they were all of chess pieces. However, Cole only counted fifteen boxes. He’d placed sixteen chess pieces into the console, so why were only two showing up? Upon further inspection, Cole noticed there was one box displaying two pieces rather than just one. For whatever reason, a rook and pawn had been put in a single box.

“Weird.” Cole thought out loud.

While Cole continued to stare blankly at the box, a loud ding sounded from his system band.

“One hour remains before your next trial.” IQ’s voice rang out. “As stated in your introduction, you are given the option between trial by combat or trial by dungeon. Your group has yet to select your designation through your console. If you fail to select one of these options before the hour is up, the choice will be made for you.”

As abruptly as IQ started speaking, her voice cut out. Cole didn’t remember being told about any form of option when participating in the trials. From her indifferent face, Cole wasn’t sure if Lucy knew anything about the trial selection.

“Which should we do?” Cole asked.

“Dungeon,” Lucy replied.

“Okay, good.” Cole sighed.

He may have learned a little magic, but Cole was far from using it in a practical fight. Trial by dungeon was Cole’s first choice, but, if dungeons weren’t combat, then what were they? He and Lucy had cleared their first two trials without fighting anyone, but did that really mean they were “dungeons.” If things had gone differently with Tobias, Cole wasn’t sure combat was out of the question.

“Do you know the difference between trial by combat and trial by dungeon?” Cole asked. “The first was definitely dungeon, but I’m still trying to figure out which the last trial was.”

“No clue,” Lucy replied. “I’d guess it was a dungeon.”

“That’s what I was leaning toward, too. I wonder what IQ meant by the ‘introduction’ that we were supposed to have heard.”

“Well, we did leave the starting area earlier than everyone else.”

“You think they didn’t go through the portal, too?”

“I don’t know about that, but I do know we were supposed to wait for a formal announcement before entering The Tower.”

“Oh,” Cole said. “Sorry, you had to miss it cause of… well, you know.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lucy said. “I was looking for a way out of that room since I got there, anyway.”

Cole was always surprised by how indifferent Lucy was to every situation. If they hadn’t met, and she’d had to partner with someone else, she’d surely be better off. Yet, for some reason, she was easily able to reassure Cole that she’d made the correct decision, even without directly saying so. She was an enigma to him, to say the least.

“Well,” Cole said, taking his mind off the subject, “I’ll go put us down for dungeon.”

Walking back over to the console, Cole powered it back on. He hadn’t seen a ‘selection’ page when he first looked, but he quickly found what IQ was referring to. At the top right of the blue screen was a list of numbers and symbols, along with a small circle that read “Selection: Undeclared.”

Clicking on the circle brought up the selection screen IQ was referring to. Cole immediately selected dungeon and was brought back to the menu screen. The bubble now read “Selection: Dungeon.” Before Cole could turn his attention to the sets of numbers and symbols, IQ’s voice rang out once again.

“Less than one hour remains before your next trial. Your group has selected to participate in a dungeon for your next trial. Keep in mind that this preference will be saved for the future. If you wish to change your preference for future trials, you may do so up to one hour before the given trial.”

Well, at least it didn’t default us to combat. Cole thought, wishing he’d learned of all these finer details when speaking with Sensei.

“Your trial will be to find and retrieve a lost amulet.” IQ continued. “This amulet was imbued with the essence of the flower called Scovia: A rare plant that wards off powerful monsters. Items like these are essential in keeping the various dungeons safe. The trial will end either when you bring the amulet back, or when you select the ‘concede trial’ button on your system band. You will enter the trial either when you select ‘start trial’ on the console, or when your provided timer turns to all zeros. Good luck, adventurers.”

On this final note, IQ’s voice cut out yet again. While he had trouble keeping track of everything, Cole was happy to hear their trial was a form of ‘search quest.’ It may have been wishful thinking, but Cole assumed this meant there wouldn’t be any real form of combat.

“I’m ready when you are.” Lucy yawned.

“Okay,” Cole replied, “just give me a few.”

Since he was still at the console, Cole navigated back to the menu screen. His stomach growled as he looked over the food option. After ordering and eating some food, Cole disposed of his dishes before clicking the start trial button. As he did, the console abruptly turned itself off. A portal opened from the same place they’d entered the room. I guess that’s our ride.

Lucy, who had been idly waiting on the couch, stood up to inspect the portal. Unsurprisingly, it looked the same as all the other portals Cole had seen. Without any further hesitation, Cole also made his way to the portal. Lucy was the first to step in, with Cole quick to follow.