“So,” Kyle placed the mana heart down in the air it floated by itself where he let go of it, “What is a mana heart? In short, this is a bit like a second soul. A part of you which exists in the mana plane more than in the other ones. You do not have one, currently, which gives you the unique opportunity to make one for yourself. And this is exactly what this entire trial is about. There will be no other reward for this trial, no free stats, no items, no skill points, nothing, except for whatever your mana heart turned into.”

So these are the ‘stones’ high-level people use to trade… The reward is the mana heart. It makes sense why people said there’s no way to get a specialization point here, then. Still, how does the wager play into this?

Kyle could undoubtedly hear Sofia’s thoughts, but he kept going with his speech he had repeated thousands of times. “Now, here come the specifics of the trial. These empty mana hearts can be upgraded by slaying monsters, and having the heart absorb the traces their death left in the mana plane, simple, isn’t it? We call those traces imprints. Fill the heart with enough imprints, and it will evolve. Have the heart evolve enough, make your way to the center of the planet, deep underground, and congratulations, you passed the trial, there is nothing more to it. Your core will then be made one with you, and it will be yours until the day you die.”

The center of the planet… He makes it sound simple but it’s probably anything but. And how big is the planet? Just from the surface to the center would be one hell of a journey…

“This leaves a few questions to be answered,” Kyle continued, “First of all, about the passing rank, Mana hearts are ranked with inverse letters, like the hero blessings. All four of you understand how that works so I’m skipping the explanation. This empty heart here is F rank. It is so weak that using it would actually be a net negative on your power. And once you have a mana heart, you cannot replace or upgrade it, hence why, the passing point for this trial is a B rank. At a B rank, the mana heart will provide a very substantial upgrade. Nothing to be extremely proud about, but not garbage either. Of course, you’re free to try to upgrade your heart as much as possible before tapping out. You have a deadline of just under one year to do so, after which the heart will begin to set and become unusable. I would urge you to start going down to the center of the planet with at least a month to spare. If your heart sets before you reach the end point, you fail.”

Kyle gave everyone a few seconds to digest all the information before he continued, “Mana hearts are fragile things before they set, if it breaks, you fail.”

Reach B rank, reach the end before the heart sets, don’t break the heart, don’t leave the trial area. That’s starting to be a lot but it’s still fine.

“You all have a lot of questions, no doubt, and it is by design, I will not actually be answering many. Figure this out by yourselves. Now for one last detail : wagers. Your four are already aware, makes things simpler, even if one of you in particular will be a giant pain to deal with,” Kyle explained while insistently staring at Sofia.

Well, it’s your job.

Kyle sighed. “Lucky for you, your friend came before you, so I already have things mostly figured out. But still, what a royal pain in the ass. So, wagers. You wager a divine essence or gold, the system gets to keep it if you fail, you get it back if you don’t. Now here’s why you want to wager something: the wagered essence will be used to strengthen the heart. If you wager gold, the scribes will do it, which isn’t quite as good, but has its perks, as wagering gold comes without a downside.”

Downside?

“Because yes, the wager gives two things, first of all, it changes the progression of your heart, depending on the essence, it could be anything from ranking up faster, to getting more out of the imprints you collect, to gaining an entirely new ability through the heart that will end up stronger as your heart ranks up. And understand that this is not up to me, you get what the essence does to the heart, end of story. Now, with this comes a downside. The stronger the essence, and the better the bonus it gives, the worse the restriction it will come with. This is the cost of connecting to the divine planes. For example, should you wager the essence of Victory,” Kyle said with a smirk,”you would be getting stronger imprints relative to how worthy your fight was, but on the downside, your heart will be getting permanent negative attributes should you flee from a fight.”

So I will have to deal with a very nasty downside, huh? High risk, high reward. So just a trial like any other.

After a short silence, Kyle addressed the four again, “Any questions?”

Astelia was first to raise a question, “You said nothing about cooperation or sabotage. Are there no rules?”

“No hard rules, no, but we will be monitoring you at all times, so do what you want with that knowledge. Of course, external help is strictly prohibited. And I was going to say this later, but just so you know, you cannot steal someone else’s heart and use it for yourself. Next?”

So you could come as a group of four and stomp on fights meant to be 1 on 1s? Or do they expect cooperation from the get go?

I should ask about the ranks, though… This is what I really need to know. “What is the maximum rank for the heart?”

Kyle shrugged, “Without any wager, A rank is about the absolute best you can do, but no one doesn’t at least wager gold. The exact maximum depends on the wager, hitting the limit is not exactly a common issue, though.”

So it goes into the weird S ranks, noted.

Michael also had something to ask about, “Are all the monsters on the planet meant to be hunted?”

Kyle said nothing and only answered with a creepy wide smile.

An ominous answer.

Sofia threw a glance at Astelia, she seemed to be taking the situation well. Sofia knew her well enough to see that it wasn’t a façade, Astelia had managed to stay calm, for now. Which was a bit of a surprise considering how much of a bundle of nerves the vampire usually was beneath her dignified demeanor.

Doing some real growing up.

“Well that does it for the questions,” Kyle announced.

Already?

“Let’s get to the wager and then you’ll be on your way. I will not be coming. Let’s start with you boy, Essence of Sleep, am I right?” he said walking closer to Michael, empty heart in hand.

“Yep. Let’s hope Sleep’s effects are good.”

“You will be satisfied with it, I’m sure,” Kyle answered, before pressing the stone against Michael’s forehead. Three seconds later as the heart started glowing blue, he stopped, and embedded the stone in a pendant made for this purpose. This stopped the glow, turning the heart back to an unassuming rock, which kyle then put around Michael’s neck. “You’re next, skeleton. Made your choice?”

“His wager is an essence of Knowledge,” Sofia told him from her seat.

“I see. Knowledge. Good,” Kyle said, doing the same thing he did for Michael, reaching Pareth’s forehead just a matter of effortlessly flying up. The heart shone white and the pendant was tied around the cervical vertebrae of his front head.

Kyle walked up to Astelia next, “Let me guess, Moon?”

“How insightful,” Astelia answered sarcastically.

“Listen, it’s in the instructions that I have to ask even if I already know. Don’t give me shit for it alright. Spare a fellow Vampire. I still have the curse too, you know. Anyway, Moon it is, quite the special one.”

After he put the pendant around Astelia’s neck, extinguishing its purple hue, Kyle finally walked up to Sofia, clearly dreading to even approach. “And… The last one…” He sighed. “You’re going to say what I think you’re going to say, right?”

“I will wager the essence of Aphenoreth.”

“Fuck me…” Kyle said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Here we go…”

Mana gathered around Kyle’s right arm, slowly, his arm turned to light. With flickering and stars inside, it looked like an Archangel’s arm, existing in many places at once, yet nowhere all at the same time. The flickering images overlapped until there was only one arm left, holding the empty heart. Carefully, it reached out, and pressed the heart against Sofia’s forehead.

The contact only lasted an instant, Kyle’s arm disappeared in a harmless explosion of light. His flesh arm regrew in its place almost instantly as the Seraph cried out in pain.

The mana heart fell on Sofia’s chest. It was glowing with an intense red light that hurt to look at, illuminating the entire cabin.

It flew to Kyle’s hand, and he hurriedly slotted it into a pendant. The red glow died down somewhat, but unlike the other mana hearts, this one was still a bit red and luminous.

“Here you go,” he said, tired, as he put the pendant around Sofia’s neck, “have fun with that.”

Kyle wiped the sweat off his brows and walked back to the middle of the shuttle. He made the image of the planet disappear, and addressed the group one last time. “This is it. Have a good trial, I have high expectations for all of you. Identification is key in this trial, keep that in mind. Good luck.”

Kyle disappeared.