Chapter 51

He was holding what was best described as dark blue leggings and a skivvy.

Underclothes (Soul bound) (Tier 3)

Non-staining, self-repairing underclothes. Provides two ranks of piercing resistance on covered areas and moderate spread of blunt force damage. Automatic dry clean of garment occurs every hour. Continuous low-level healing of all skin in contact with the cloth. Actively removes chaffing from armour and reduces penalties from poorly fitted gear. Delivers minor temperature moderation. Can be automatically equipped from a soul bound storage.

No one else could use them, so with a thought he sent them into his soul storage.

Hands free once more, he reached into the portal and continued his search. His arm went up to the shoulder joint, and he felt around to find any more loot. His explorative fingers found nothing just an empty void.

That was it? His mind focused on the sensation coming from his hand. The vacuum in the portal was cold and unwelcoming. The icy phenomenon bit into his skin and entered his joints.

Just like what happened in the trial.

With a sigh, he pulled out his arm and studied the flame.

It still existed, rising to the same height. It appeared to be as bright as previous, but its feeling was that it was no longer as pure as it had been a moment before. It felt slightly empty and diminished. Yet the flames danced as tall as ever, showing that there were still contents buried within its depths. “Apparently, each person gets their own loot. Based on my gear I’m guessing that it’s tailored.”

“What did you get?” Everlyn called out.

His cheeks heated. “Tier 3 under clothes.”

“Oh,” she clapped her hands. “Come on show us.”

With a thought, the undergarments appeared on him under his armour. The leggings went to his ankles, and the tops were long-sleeved so they could clearly see them

“Interesting,” Sonya said instantly. “It’ll be nice to have something decent to sleep in.”

Everlyn was still assessing the look of his clothes. She wrinkled her nose disapprovingly and then blushed and appeared embarrassed at letting the expression slipped through. “They’re very functional.”

Tom glanced down at himself and agreed with Everlyn. He looked ridiculous. His thick ugly tunic, the small shorts and then the navy silk leggings and skivy poking out from under the clothes. While they were practical with his current lack of clothes and armour, they were absurd. With a thought, they vanished.

Once they got away from the wasps and he started wearing proper armour, then they would be useful, particularly the bits that would make armour more comfortable.

“Sonya.” Everlyn waved at the portal.

The red-headed woman went up reached her hand in and pulled out a small leather pouch. She opened it to reveal a single seed.

She squealed in delight.

“What is it?” Keikain asked.

“It’s a tier three seed.” She held up the small object, studying it. “Requires sun, water and dirt, but if I plant it in the right spot, it will sprout, and in just over twenty minutes grow to sapling size. At that point, it’ll be large enough to make one of my half-spears or maybe even a full-sized one for someone else.” She nodded at Tom’s weapon. “After that, I can use my magic to keep it growing to create something larger or harvest it straight away. When I finish, I can turn it back into a seed and a day later, I can use it again. Better still, it’s guaranteed to produce tier two wood with a chance to upgrade further. It’s perfect..” She jumped up and down on the spot in delight.

“I think that’s slightly better than my silly clothes.”

“Your clothes looked good.” Everlyn said positively.

“Everlyn,” Tom responded sternly. “Everyone in this room knows you don’t mean that, and you’re just saying it to make me feel better.”

“Is that so wrong?”

“Hey.” Tom objected, laughing inside. “You’re not supposed to admit that.”

“I dislike the skivvy look.”

Keikain was busily giggling. But at a simple look from Everlyn he walked forward to the portal reached in and his hand went down like he was patting the ground and he came out with a ring. He looked at it, slipped it on his finger, and shrugged. “It’s not very good. It increases my skill level in all earth spells by one.” He frowned disinterested. “Limited to tier four spells of course.” He sighed despondently. “It’ll do till I get better.”

Tom recognised the same feeling he had got. For a tailored reward, it was pretty disappointing especially in the context of them almost dying. It could very well be that the rewards were good for their current rank. It was just after existing for so long at a higher level… well, it was possible their perspectives were distorted.

Finally, Everlyn walked forward and reached in. She pulled out a larger axe than the one she was currently using. She held it out for everyone to appraise.

Light Axe of Sharpness - Tier 2.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

This axe is enhanced to be 40% lighter than usual and to keep prenatural sharpness at all times.

Tom nodded as he read the description. “Solid upgrade.”

Everlyn picked up her other axe. “Yeah, when I bought this I was thinking it would help with chopping firewood and monsters. It was never a long-term fighting weapon.” The flames rising for the portal flickered erratically before getting smaller and fluttering out. “Well, rewards are done. Everyone’s healed. We might as well leave here and see if Tom screwed us over or not.” She grinned at him.

“Hey, low blow.” He acted hurt, clutching his heart.

“Hopefully you did,” Keikain said. “The rewards were lack lustre for the effort. Hopefully, we’ve qualified for a performance award and we all know the only way we’ll get something good from that is if we’re in a trial that’s stronger than rank 7.”

At her instruction, Tom focused his mind on exiting, knowing that if he was not in combat, he would be immediately taken out of the trial.

A lock has been placed on this trial. No one may exit for another 102 minutes.

Tom read that message in disbelief.

A lock, he thought. How could you lock a trial?

Adrenaline blazed through him. He opened his eyes.

“What’s happening?” Sonya squealed.

“Why can’t we get out.” Everlyn asked a focused expression on her face.

“I don’t understand.” Keikain muttered to himself, his eyes blinking regularly like he was trying to force a way out repeatedly.

Everlyn grabbed his arm. “Tom. Do you know what this is? I mean, from your reading?”

Tom tried to exit again and ran into the same message.

A lock has been placed on this trial. No one may exit for another 102 minutes.

He shook his head. He hadn’t even known that something like this was possible. A hundred and two minutes didn’t seem like that big of an issue if this was done by the GODs, but if it was targeted.

“It looks bad.” The Earth mage said more forcefully. “It doesn’t say anything about who or what placed the locks. We need more information. We need to search the experience shop and the encyclopedia of facts that came through with us to see if there is a method of breaking out of here early. If it’s not the GOD’s then mucking up their plans has to be the priority.”

Everyone looked at each other. “Do you think an enemy’s done this?” Everlyn asked

The earth mage nodded. “That’s my guess. If it’s GODs, I would have expected a different message.”

Tom’s mind raced.

They were in the middle of nowhere, with wasps all around them. Insects that anything other than the truly powerful would struggle to deal with. The problem with the wasps is that for a rank 1 creature they had ridiculous levels of resistances and their stingers could probably inject their venom into people with a vitality rank in the twenties. Anyone below that level of vitality would need to obliterate them before they got close, and that’s when those rotating resistances became problematic. To have a chance, they’d have to have mastered multiple elements, and that didn’t seem to be possible. He was effective against the wasps only because he could adjust his attack to strike at their vulnerabilities and his unique build that let him develop venom resistances.

Even with those advantages, eliminating them was slow going. What that meant was that Tom doubted that anything other than something that was truly powerful could get close to them. A weaker stealth type might get through, but the way the wasps flew randomly through the air might end up in them being discovered despite their Skills. Nope, you wouldn’t send a stealth expert on this mission. You would use someone physically powerful.

That meant anything from outside… If their enemy was not human, then they would need to be someone strong enough to ignore the wasps.

And if that was the case… then… they wouldn’t be resorting to a trick to split the camp to kill them they could instead have just marched in and finished the job.

As for the GODS… Keikain was right, they would not have gotten involved at this level. And if they did, then they didn’t need to put a block on a trial to influence whatever they wanted.

It wasn’t them.

“Two researching, the other two standing guard.” Everlyn said. “I’ll check the manuals. Sonya, can you please see if you can find something in the shop that can lock a trial?”

Both women sat down, and their expressions went slack abruptly as the animation left them. They remained seating rather than slumping. As always, it was disconcerting.

Tom shook his head at the sight. Despite having seen it enough time to be comfortable with it, the way living, breathing flesh transformed to look like animated dolls continued to… He looked away. It was so unnatural.

Tom’s mind raced. What was happening? Why the lock?

His mind focused on Jeffrey’s death. Was this related? It almost had to be. He could not think of any other reason someone would put a lock on the trial.

Unless it was a targeted betrayal and there was going to be a team to attack him when he got out.

But then what would 102 minutes do? If they wanted to get him, they could have done it any time. It was not like he was that hard to ambush given that he took the mounds on individually.

“What do you think it means?” The Earth Mage asked.

Tom caught the other man’s overly wise eyes. Keikain appeared worried and Tom was sure he was thinking exactly the same as him. The earth mage’s eyes twitched, and his hands twisted anxiously.

Tom sighed heavily. “It’s the serial killer. I can’t see another logical explanation.”Keikain nodded. “I still don’t understand what they hope to get from killing and if this is cover for an additional murder. How it could work. Surely someone would have seen if a single person went up to the trial immediately after we came in.”

Tom shrugged. What other options were there? The terrible ones were the answer. If he was an enemy warlord and saw the humans and judged his force to be probably strong enough to defeat them, then locking a third of their strongest members away in a trial turned a probable outcome to a certain one. “In some ways, Keikain, I hope it’s the serial killer. Provided they only kill one person. Better that than some enemies having put the lock on us. If it’s an enemy, then they’ve stranded a large portion of our strength in here.”

The earth mage grimaced. “Yep, let’s pray together for it to be a serial killer.” The other man’s eyes did not smile. “If it’s an external force, we’re screwed. But I’m going out fighting. When we leave, we go with our weapons out. You’ll definitely need to summon another elemental. If enemies are waiting for us...”

“I will and even if it is only available for a few minutes an elemental could very well destroy even a much stronger enemy,” Tom promised, but Keikain’s words reminded him of something. He had not checked what had caused the triumph cords when he had summoned the elemental. In the fight’s rush and then getting bounced by the trial lock, he had forgotten all about it.

His eyes went to Everlyn, and he decided it was probably best to stay on guard till she came out. It felt like it would be a mistake to leave only one of their team on watch even if the trial was complete. Theoretically, the moment they finished the trial they were as safe from an external threat as they ever would be. But Tom lacked knowledge and in this world he hated to assume stuff. Who knows what happens when these trial locks were in place. Did the trial reset, or worse, did it reset and get more powerful?

Anything could happen.

Everlyn came out first, her face grim. “There’s nothing in the manuals. Should I check the shop as well?”

“Wait,” Tom said. “I need to check something.”

“What?”

“I summoned an elemental.”

“So?”

“It was with a wisp summoning spell. I heard trumpets when I…”

Everlyn’s face broke out in a huge smile. “Why didn’t you check straight away?”

“Man, you definitely need to see that announcement.”

“I…”

“Don’t wait,” Keikain insisted. “Check it now.”

Tom shut his eyes and reappeared in his system room. The plain metals and empty floor felt inadequate after being Everlyn’s space. Once he got a bit of time to do anything other than grow, he might look at enhancing it.

He took a deep breath. “Show status changes.”