"Wait! What the actual fuck?!" Andragoth stepped out of her mom persona, too shocked to care.

"It can't be that rare to see people from Essence Deserts, the way you guys throw the word around," Rafe said reasonably.

Both Quin and Andragoth were looking at him with wide eyes. In the end, Andragoth sat back and looked at him with a thoughtful frown.

Quin wasn't looking at him anymore. She had been shocked in the beginning, but the shock had quickly morphed into disappointment. She looked studiously disinterested in the end, and Rafe had the feeling she wasn't acting.

"You being from an Essence Desert changes things a little."

"Yeah? How come?" Rafe asked.

"For starters, you now have a higher probability of surviving before we come for you. Essence Deserts are weak. Even after your world's promotion we'll have time to get you before the core of the multiverse knows of you."

"Wait, wait, hold up! I feel like you're glossing over a lot of details here. Promotion? Weak? I don't know anything!"

The woman frowned at him. "Clearly." She chewed on her lips a little. "I suppose you were yanked from your little world before the tutorial then?"

Rafe nodded.

"That's too bad. I don't know much about that whole process, as the knowledge this image possesses is only the knowledge I had when this copy was made."

Rafe processed her words. Then he frowned.

"But you know everything about Skyholm and the trial?"

"That is because, dear boy, the trial is famous in the high circles of the multiverse. Or should I say, infamous. Of course the lower wrangs don't know much. They don't even know who created the system. They don't know that the guardians were weakened, or why. Of course it's not like we know that either. They can't afford for the likes of us to know. What is known though, is that the enchantress fought every single one of them. That is the excuse they give those of us who know more. For both their current weakness and for their hatred for anything Skyholm."

Rafe felt a headache coming on. Still, he needed more information.

"What do you mean about promotion? And about coming for me?"

The woman shrugged. "They will kill you the moment they sense your blessing. Few who leave the trial survive to the A grade or higher. You have a great disguise skill, but it cannot work all the time, as your resources cannot be deep enough to sustain a skill semi-permanently. You should know this. You will be forced to turn it off eventually.

"As for promotion…well, integration is basically a system event, though it has multiple stages. The tutorial, dungeons spawning, a few incursions. The incursions shouldn't be a thing, but the barrier is not perfect. None of the celestials is. Over the centuries, people have found ways to trick the system. Mostly by sending demons, which may still be confused as dungeon duelers.

"All these stages are used to rank the world. Once it is ready, the world will be sent into a…starter zone befitting its performance. Essence Deserts are weak as I said, so mostly worlds like yours end up at the frontiers, millions of years of travel from the multiverse heartlands. Anyway this is another advantage of your home planet. You'll be far enough that I doubt the guardians will be able to sense it if you slip up. We'll start making way for the frontiers once word of you reaches us. Probably once you're done with this tower."

"Ah," Rafe said as he considered with a frown.

It wasn't that he did not care for Earth's fate. It was just that he cared about Aeon as well, if not more. And he couldn't afford to spend hundreds of years stagnating while Noid healed and got ready to destroy his home. Speed running the system apocalypse on Earth seemed like a terrible idea. He would force them into early promotion. They wouldn't be ready, and he would have to leave soon after that.

Was there no other way? There had to be another way, right. He shook his head firmly. There was going to be another way. He was going to make sure of it.

For now all he could do was make use of all this tower had to offer in terms of opportunities.

"Now, as I was saying," Andragoth continued once Rafe looked at her again. "We will come for you. We will take you in and protect you until you either join some other faction, or are strong enough to fend for yourself."

"Who are you?" Rafe asked. "And how will you even know about me? You said this image or snap or whatever was taken when you climbed the tower, presumably a long time ago."

"All true," the woman told him. "But… well. When you're truly strong. When you've developed your truth to a point where you're basically connected to reality…well. I don't know how to explain it, but if you're on the same planet with a C- grade, and say their name, chances are they will hear it. They may choose to ignore you, or might pay attention depending on circumstances."

"..."

Andragoth shook her head at his open mouth.

"Yes. Well I can't be sure what the gods were thinking using our images, but if we are strong now, if we still live, chances are we'll know what happened in this trial. I suppose the clarity of the memories will depend on how strong we are currently. I do have a strong belief Devila is very strong though, and she and I aren't on good terms if I'm reading the threads right. You must remember my bloodline is just a high copy of the original."

"Hence why you didn't want me to talk with her. She'll likely remember everything that happened here very clearly." Rafe lost himself in thought for a while. "But…won't you? Won't Quin?"

Andragoth waved him off. "I already told you I knew the moment we crossed blades. I do have a connection to Quin in the outside world, as far as I can see. Ours is an amicable relationship. I trust her."

"Yeah…" Rafe said hesitantly, looking at the girl's uninterested posture.

Maybe it was because they both had scaled ancestors. Yeah, that was probably why Andragoth trusted the woman.

"Now," Andragoth said, "listen to my little theories for why our images were used in this trial."

Rafe considered before nodding. "Sure."

"Skyholm made this trial to train people. Probably looking for a way to make a new member of their pantheon as creating the system had used up whatever resource they likely used to make new gods."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Make new goods?! For a theory, it was pretty out there as far as Rafe could see. It was also very close to the truth, but that should not surprise him. They had both seen the same legacy visions, after all.

"Unfortunately," she continued, "many of their trainees die once they get back to the multiverse, and keeping them in the void until they are strong enough is not a feasible idea, for many reasons I'm sure you were told.

"Luckily, a few survive and even become influential figures. Still, even after tens of thousands of years none of them had reached the level of a guardian. Admittedly, it takes more than a few thousand years to reach such heights, but the Skyholm pantheon prides themselves on being exceptionally fast at manufacturing new guardians."

She stopped to catch her breath for a moment. "Anyway I digress. What is important is that the trial is made to make the trial takers stronger. But they can't keep them here that long. Why then, they'd need a creative way to keep training their disciples, don't you think?"

"Ha," Rafe said, rubbing his chin in thought. "You think they made it this way on purpose?They want the memories and experiences to return to the trainees even thousands of years after they finished training here."

"Close, but my theory is a bit different. This is not the floor the images were made for."

Rafe frowned at her, not understanding.

"Think about it. This floor is a bit hit and miss. If they want to train us in our absence like I think, wouldn't it make sense to make the floor mandatory."

And then he remembered Sam's words once. On floor four and five, no matter what colours he chose, he'd received the same challenges but with a different set up or something. He gulped as he stared at Andragoth, considering.

****

A few hours after the talk with Andragoth, their teams set off to participate in the last hunt. It was going to be a battle royale for the end of the floor.

Rafe remembered Andragoth's last theories, and he was worried. He had been doing it for other purposes previously, but now he needed to study how the others performed. He needed to know his adversaries. Not just his team members this time. Everyone else.

"Are you sure you want to be upfront?" Andragoth asked for the tenth time.

"Yes," Rafe said simply, patiently.

"At least let me buff you a—"

"It will be fine. I think I figured a few things out."

"Well, maybe you are more deadly now, but you are not fully recovered yet."

Rafe was starting to lose his patience with the woman.

"Let him go," Devila said, rolling her eyes. "He will at least distract them for the rest of us to finish off."

Rafe didn't bother looking back at the woman. He was trying hard instead not to show his discomfort at the information he had. Basically, meeting these images meant meeting an echo of a real person, if they were still alive.

They'd remember whatever information about himself he passed on. For now, they knew his name and not much else. He intended to keep it that way. They'd remember which Skyholm god he favoured. They would also be much stronger than him. At least in the beginning.

Andragoth had all but confirmed Devila was alive in the multiverse. Rafe found it hard to imagine himself being friendly with the woman. Especially if he somehow had the potential to reach her power level. She had been venomous since he returned from his bed rest, and he knew she was wary of him. She watched him like a hawk when she thought he wasn't looking, and snapped whenever he said anything.

He was pegging her for a very competitive type maybe. Maybe she even got violent in her competitiveness.

And when they fought at the top of the cliff on that devastated world, Rafe saw the potential which had made the enchantress as interested in Devila as she was in Rafe.

Once only ten teams were left after the battle atop the cliff, the room officially ended.

Rafe acquitted himself well enough, but the only reason their teams were left largely unscathed was the foursome of Devila, Andragoth, Quin and Aska.

Their two teams were not going to be together for the next room, or so Andragoth assumed. Adrian and Devila nodded curtly toward each other. Quin and Andragoth shared a long embrace. Aska tried to speak the assassin's head off. Rafe and Raedis shared a small embrace and a few back pats.

He nodded to the assassin, then hugged Andragoth briefly before stepping after the rest of his team.

"Well, now we don't have anyone to cover for you," Devila said. "Do not slow us down."

Rafe had broken through a level in the last free for all, even with Devila alone taking thirty percent of the kills on the cliff top. He still had no intention of increasing his stats just yet. He did distribute his specification points though. He was starting to understand the importance of defense mainly. And mana density too, even if he never used any mana skills.

****

As Andragoth had suspected, even though they crossed the threshold together, they ended up in separate locations.

At least Rafe thought they did.

'Ding' Side Quest Received.

Objective: Finish ahead of your whole team.

Rafe raised a brow. Finish what, he wanted to ask.

Room objective: Traps and tribulations. Run through a series of escalating challenges as a team. This covers the last four rooms of the third floor.

Hidden objective: Find a few treasures along the way. Who knows, they might be of use further ahead.

Rafe stared at the hidden objective. He had missed the one in the previous room, though he had received a floor objective rather than a room objective back then so he hoped the objective was still valid. Which one of his teammates to get to open up though?

There was an open door ahead of them featuring a sign. A sign of a man jumping over a hurdle, with words below it in some script Rafe couldn't understand. Even as he watched the script started to float from the sign and rearrange itself in a familiar alphabet.

"It's an obstacle course," Quin said excitedly as she limbered up.

She had a right to be excited. She had an assassin subclass, apparently, and those were agility focused. Rafe frowned as he considered the woman. In the multiverse, she was also that much stronger than him. He wondered what kind of monster she was, having had two classes as an F grade. A competent melee fighter who could heal herself. A truly frightening combination.

The girl in the witch's robes clicked her tongue. Even if she was trying to adapt the enchantress' sword fighting technique, Devila was primarily a mage. Her initial stats had gone into mental. She was just trying to get her build in order.

And yet she could still kick an army's ass with her crippled hybrid fighting style.

"Yeah, this is going to be bad for us," Aska said.

At first, Rafe thought the man was talking about himself and Devila with their mage builds. Then he saw the formerly gentle giant frowning at him. Rafe took a big sigh.

"What is the problem?"

"It is…well," Devila seemed to be struggling for words, though they both knew she wasn't. "You can fight, Rafael. We've all seen your…technique. However, skill is not a big factor in the multiverse. Power is. And your stats are the lowest here. You will slow us down."

Rafe watched the big man he'd thought neutral before give him a blank stare. Quin wouldn't meet his eyes for some reason. She knew his problem. She had judged him for it even before, Rafe remembered. He took a deep breath. As for the problem of which of his teammates to get to open up…well.

"There is no announcement of how the challenge is going to be set up. Maybe it's not even a group event," Rafe offered helpfully. He did remember his side quest had made it seem like he was competing against these guys rather than with them.

"This obstacle course will be taken in teams of four. Team members are expected to combine their abilities to run the gauntlet. Each room has a time limit which will be communicated before said room. If you purposely sabotage a teammate, they will take your spot. Teams will not lose if one of them is eliminated," the mechanical voice from before announced.

"See. What did I tell you? It's all good," Rafe went on to announce with his arms crossed. "Even if I don't make it, there is no reason you guys should lose, right?"

"But refusal to do everything in your power to help a teammate in need will lead to elimination. Good luck."

Everyone stared at Rafe again. He shrugged in denial. He didn't make the rules. At least he thought he didn't.

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