Serenity was chuckling as the timer ran out for the first Mandatory Trial of the day. Echo was being, well, Echo. She’d decided to go to the Armory for some reason to see Kerr, and dragged Lancaster into it - but she’d somehow done it in the cutest way possible. She’d run into the dining hall, badgered him for Kerr’s name, then literally run circles around Lancaster until he agreed to go with her.

When Serenity looked up, he was standing in the same circle on a hillside as the Athletic Trial he’d done with his friends. A quick glance told him the Trial wasn’t quite the same - instead of a river to swim in, there was a series of platforms set just above the water, probably to jump between, and the last step seemed to be tunnels with dangerous hazards instead of bridges.

Still, it was pretty similar.

There were five other students in the Trial. Serenity looked at his shirt and realized that it was marked with an Instructor’s badge. He hadn’t expected that.

[Instructor Serenity]

[You may participate in the activity if you choose but it is not required and will not affect your rewards or those of the group]

[Your rewards are based on group performance]

[The stages of this trial are:

Running (bonus for time and following arches)

Jumping between platforms (bonus for time and platforms reached, may be restarted from any platform previously reached, cooperation is permitted)

Climbing (bonus for time and difficulty of climb)

Exit trial area through any tunnel. The bonus for determining that difficulty is not a factor will be removed from all scores if openly mentioned

An additional bonus for group cooperation is available but may not be mentioned]

Serenity didn’t feel cheated by being an instructor for the Athletics trial. Being able to get more students through per Trial was a reward in itself. His quest rewards would almost certainly be lower than the Trial participants - but the point of being a student for the Dungeon trials wasn’t the rewards, it was helping people survive and learn.

He could do that just fine in this Trial as an instructor.

Serenity was smiling broadly when he started giving out instructions. “Welcome to the Mandatory Trial, everyone. As you’ve probably noticed, this isn’t a Dungeon. In fact, there aren’t any monsters in this Trial at all. This is an Athletic Trial. The goal is the exit -”

---

When Echo and Lancaster arrived at the Armory, Kerr was nowhere to be seen. They searched for a few minutes, but she simply wasn’t teaching a class in the practice area. Echo marched up to the Armory’s entrance, tried the door, and - when it wouldn’t open - knocked.

A minute later, she knocked again.

It wasn’t long after that when Kerr opened the door. “Do you need something? There are classes already going -”

Echo spoke over Kerr. “We’re Serenity’s friends. And - can we talk in private?”

Kerr looked startled. “You are? Ah - yes, well. Come on in.” She led the way into the Armory, then to a room that seemed to be set up with games. The dart boards were obvious, but some of the setups looked more like a strange variant on ping-pong or …. No, that wasn’t a pool table. It sort of looked like one, though.

She led them to a seating area in the corner. “It’s too early in the day for the bar to be in use, and it has sound isolation,” she explained. “If it’s about Serenity and you need privacy - that seems like a minimum.”

Echo wished she could use her Level 100 skill. She was pretty sure it would make a great sound barrier, but obviously she didn’t have it yet. Until then, well - she could sort of do that with her sound affinity. Maybe?

She concentrated and something happened. She thought it was working.

“I talked to administrator Ekari,” Echo started. “She - she says she can’t help Serenity with figuring out who was behind the attack. It’s pretty obvious she wants to, though, and she dropped some pretty big hints that it was an instructor. And - is there a record of who checked out the bow? She implied there should be.”

Lancaster looked stunned. Echo hadn’t told him why they were going to the Armory.

Kerr looked similarly stunned. “There is, but … Ekari checked …” Kerr stopped herself. “If she’s prohibited somehow - Aesa viin’tath ksleta Ek’re’kht?”

Both Echo and Lancaster stared at Kerr. “What?”

Kerr sighed. “At least you two don’t speak Sterath. I was just wondering what Serenity had gotten tied up in. I shouldn’t be surprised though. Power brings hate.” She gave a short bark of a laugh. “There’s a reason that’s an ancient saying. Not in your language, though. Or Sterath, come to think of it. Let’s go check the register.”

Echo concentrated to keep the sound barrier around the three of them as they walked to the room that had the weapons.

When they got there, Kerr placed her hand on a spot on the wall and said “Register, weapons checkout, ranged, bow or arrows, most recent first.”

Some words swam into visibility. Almost all of them were dated “Day 0, current Tutorial”, but the one at the top said “Day 7, current Tutorial - Trials Instructor Entherys - returned Day 7, current Tutorial - Administrator Ekari”

There was a moment of silence as they looked at the register. Echo was the first to speak. “Entherys. I remember him. He was the other instructor that first Trial day. We’ve only had him a couple times since then, when there wasn’t anyone else available. I think he doesn’t like us.” She paused, considering. “Y’know, Moira was there too. She was unhappy that Raymond wouldn’t be in their Trial and left. I’ll have to see what I can find out about him. Probably not much.”

Kerr stared at the register. “It can’t be him. Entherys was there when the bow was found - he was one of the first people to go looking for the archer when Serenity was shot. I got a list - “

Lancaster was frowning. “That means he’s an accomplice, not the archer. Probably provided the bow. I wonder if he’s the planner or if he was tricked somehow. Hm. You said you got a list?”

“Yes - I wanted to find out who it was. But - all of the Trial instructors are accounted for. They were either still in a Trial or ran after the archer. And - most of the weapons instructors too. That’s not everyone who can use a bow, though. Almost everyone has a combat skill, and bow use isn’t unusual. So - I don’t think it helps us much.” Kerr seemed to be paying an inordinate amount of attention to her toes.

“It does. It helps a lot.” Echo was confident. “It means that whoever it was, it’s not someone Entherys would usually hang out with, right? So we can watch him, and see who he meets with. Maybe not in the instructor buildings but I bet he’s using somewhere outside. We just have to make sure we’ve got eyes on him at all times, like we do Serenity. There are six of us - assuming you’re in, Kerr?”

Kerr nodded, but seemed dubious. “Wouldn’t he just avoid whoever it is? He knows we don’t know who attacked, why would he lead us to them? Why can’t we just confront him?”

“Because it’s not over,” Lancaster broke in. “Do you have a way to force him to talk - to tell the truth?”

“I can definitely beat him in a fight. He’s not as good as he thinks he is, not even as good as he should be.” Kerr looked eager, then pensive. “That might not make him tell the truth. I can see him lying, even in a matter of honor.”

Lancaster nodded. Echo thought he’d been expecting that answer. “Then we can’t confront him. I don’t think he’s the only actor, either. I can’t prove Moira stabbing him was related - but it’s awfully interesting that she’d be dead if Serenity hadn’t noticed her condition, and she still can’t really string words together. Still, I don’t think he could have done that without help.”

“A student’s help. Probably Raymond.” Echo knew Lancaster wouldn’t like hearing that his former partner was complicit in a murder attempt, but was pretty sure he’d accept it. It was pretty obvious that Lancaster had been worried about Raymond since long before the Tutorial started. “So what do we do if he decides to do nothing until the next Tutorial? Serenity will be here, we won’t.”

Lancaster winced, but nodded. “Kerr will be, but you’re right. Still, why would he? He got away with it last time, even if it wasn’t a success. He probably thinks he just needs to do better, and now’s when he has Raymond, or whoever else is helping him. I’m expecting a multi-pronged attack next. That’s why we’re guarding Serenity. We don’t have to stop the first attack - we just have to stop the follow-up. And hopefully catch someone.” Lancaster paused. “Hopefully Serenity will survive. He’s remarkably durable.”

---

Athletic Trial Complete

5 Participants

Rewards increased for group cooperation

Trial Rewards: 125 XP, 125 Ev

 

Athletic Trial Quest Complete

Rewards increased for Running Arches

Rewards increased for Platforms

Instructor Award for rescuing students from flames in tunnel

Quest Rewards: 250 XP, 250 Ev

Rewards for the instructor seemed to be about a quarter what they were for students - though it would help a lot if the students listened instead of heading down the tunnel that was constantly filled with flame. Yes, one of them had a Wind affinity - but what he hadn’t realized was that although he could help keep the flames off the others, the flames that did get through were hotter than they otherwise would have been.

All Serenity could do was fish them out of the tunnel (picking up mild burns himself, but nothing his healing couldn’t take care of), send them off to the Healer’s area, and tell them to check their quest rewards for what bonuses they did and didn’t get.

Hopefully at least one of them would realize the tunnel hadn’t been required. Two of them had made it through before the Wind barrier fell, after all.

Some of the groups were smarter - or more fit - than the first, while others managed to completely disintegrate, with one or two people just going out ahead and finishing while the others struggled.

When Serenity reached his eighth group before lunch, he realized something was up with the time. Few of the groups were finishing in less than an hour, but far less than eight hours had passed in the Tutorial.

When he asked Sillon, Sillon told him “Yeah - it’s the most noticeable for the later Trials, the long ones. It only happens on Mandatory Trials, too. There just aren’t enough instructors if the Voice doesn’t help out with the time. It’s hard on us, but,” Sillon shrugged. “We wouldn’t be instructors if we couldn’t be up for a whole day occasionally. I guess that goes for you too.”

Serenity nodded at that. It did apply to him - though he’d badly need sleep when this was over.

The Ev did progress his Core nicely - as did some of the shimmering fruits. He wasn’t sure why some fruit were a big jump while others seemed to barely move it, but they were all tasty and they all did help.

 

It was a good time to check out his Core. Surely something would be visibly different from 5% to over 40%?

Serenity concentrated and used his Life Affinity to see what was happening inside his brain. It was indeed a major difference. Before, there had been a single large point where his brain and the crystal seemed to interact, and a number of small filaments. Those small filaments were as big as the large connection was before, the large connection was even larger, and the number of small filaments had exploded. He could see where there was still a lot of room to expand - which was probably just as well, since he was less than halfway there.

On a deep look, it seemed like the core had a slight glow from all of his Affinities. It was so faint he couldn’t be certain, but he kept getting glimpses of Affinities.