It was still essence, but not the same as a monster core, and very much not the same as the dungeon crystal. If anything, it made Serenity appreciate the dungeon crystal even more - it was different from monster cores in the opposite way, and was definitely more pleasant.
The patient was doing well enough that they left him to sleep. He needed time to recover before Margrethe did more, but at least he was back to a humanoid body.
Serenity was still feeling a little uncomfortable from the stale essence when he walked into the dining hall to find his friends.
Serenity’s friends were grumpy at dinner over the lost day, and even less happy when he reminded them that the following day would be a Trial day. Serenity proposed that they head to the Dungeon that evening and see if they could open the next floor, then leave. That would give them something to do while he did Trials.
His friends turned him down. They were planning to run “optional” trials while he was in the mandatory Trial. They didn’t want him to get trapped in a mandatory trial when they were in the Great Dungeon and there were still a number of people who wanted help with “optional” Trials. They’d taken care of quite a few that day, but they’d missed the previous day and needed to do some shuffling anyway if they were going to spend all of the three remaining non-Trial days in the Great Dungeon.
Serenity's friends had spent the rest of day putting together the equipment to camp either in the dungeon or at the entrance. Serenity would have to head back to teach for a few hours each morning, but they could work around that. They all expected the camping gear would be the most useful after the Stage ended, so they'd been careful to collect only stuff that would be allowed into the next Stage.
That evening, Serenity used his available Ev to rebalance his attributes. He left them only a little heavier to the physical than the mental, and was very happy with his appearance - he looked right in a way he hadn’t when he was slightly tilted to the mental stats. It looked like he’d be fine with truly balanced attributes, which was good - eventually, he’d have them. In his last life, he’d always aimed to have them nearly maxed each time he moved up a Tier, and he planned to do the same this time. His method was a little different, but the goal wasn’t.
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Day 28
The following day was mandatory Trials. Serenity decided to stand as an instructor for all of them. These were scenarios, and now that he’d seen one he knew that they certainly could be dangerous, but most groups should be able to stumble their way through them - and he could be almost as useful as an instructor when it came to keeping them from getting themselves killed. He’d found the limits during the Athletic Trials.
After the first trial - set at an Arctic research station on an ice floe - Serenity had to admit Sillon was correct: as unpleasant as it was, the near-desert scenario he and his friends had gotten wasn’t really that bad. Serenity regretted that he hadn’t brought warm clothing, but not nearly as much as the students did. He found the temperature uncomfortable but that was all.
Serenity had needed to fish a student out of below-freezing water, carry him to the research station, then start a fire to heat a room and help the students warm up (the group had managed to put it together but was apparently incapable of actually lighting it). He then had to make them all take off their shoes and dry their socks at the fire. Two of the students other than the one who fell in the supercooled water had wet, numbed feet.
The second trial of the day seemed nicer at first, but a hot, humid rainforest still wasn’t better than the hot, dry desert. It was probably better than the arctic one, even though he did still have to fish a student out of water - this time, the water only had a swarm of Giant Piranha, which the students had a fairly easy time defeating as long as they didn’t try to swim with them.
The third trial seemed the nicest - pleasant to a bit cool but comfortable in the sunshine, low humidity. It wasn’t until they started walking and Serenity noticed the students struggling that he realized the problem with this trial wasn’t temperature but altitude. The air pressure was low enough that all of the students had issues any time they had to exert themselves.
Serenity was confident the “puzzle” trials were not going to be popular. He wondered if - maybe - they could get the holdouts who “didn’t want to do an extra trial” to simply do one early, by reminding them they’d get a “puzzle” trial if they waited but could choose if they went early? There was only one Trial day left, after all. Anyone who did an optional Trial after today wouldn’t be called again.
He’d have to remember to propose that. The Strategy trial would be perfect; it was safe and interesting, after all.
Serenity only escorted seven groups through the Puzzle Trial that day. They were all environmentally unpleasant, but he managed to avoid having any die or be seriously injured. It was the earliest he’d ever completed a Mandatory Trial Day, but it was still late and he was still exhausted.