Chapter 966 - Daydreams of wooden swords

The tunnel was long, leading to the center of the mountain, where the trial tower was, embedded into the stone in the mountain core. The tower itself was just like the very first one Sofia had ever visited, Skelmie kicked open the door, revealing a large empty circular space inside, with pulses of light coursing through the walls.

In addition to that, there was also a table and a few chairs set up in the middle, with glasses of water and a half-eaten chocolate cake.

“Have a seat,” Skelmie told the group, “I don’t like to talk standing up.”

Pestle was too shocked by someone actually preparing a fairy-sized chair to even comment on the cake.

While everyone sat on one side of the table, Skelmie went to the other, and a stone throne just appeared under her when she sat down in the air.

“So! You’re lucky, the explanations here will not be too long. As you must have seen in the level up message, this trial is named the hostile tower. This is because the trial here is one that is all about hostile environments. The issue is, with overperformers like you, the usual level is going to be too easy. Do any of you already know what the filter is like this time?”

“All I know is the name,” Astelia answered, “the broadening stage.”

Skelmie nodded, “Well informed for someone who graduated from the Ark so recently. You see, it is called the broadening stage because it extends the ‘immediate reach’ of your mana heart to your entire body. What this means in practice is that mana you regenerate will appear directly in your body wherever it is needed instead of within the heart. To add to that, a lot of location-locked spells, such as, a totally random example : summoning a plasma bolt in your hand, can then be done from any part of your body regardless of where the spell circuits are located.”

Astelia seemed to have a revelation, “So this is how the dragons can mobilize mana so fast despite their huge body…” she mumbled.

“Yes, for internal mana, at least,” Skelmie approved, “That being said, while it is a lot less impressive for someone our size, it is still a nice improvement to have, you will notice when you get there just how much strain this takes off of you that you did not know you had. But! Now the trial. Hostile environments, prepared just for you. There are four parts, a main quest you have to complete to qualify, optional sub-quests for bonus rewards, and a special extra hostility rule depending on the environment you get.”

“And the fourth one?” Sofia asked.

“Well, it goes unsaid, but you must successfully broaden your heart through the process of clearing the trial. It should not be too difficult for you all, though. Unlike the Ark where core awakening is more difficult the stronger your mana heart is, the broadening is not so hard, provided the environment is sufficiently dangerous.”

“So it’s being in danger that does it?” Sofia continued to ask.

“Not quite, the trigger is actually your senses getting better. Your intuition, in fact. Subconsciously reacting to changes in nearby mana and lighting, smells, sounds, airflow… Yours should be already pretty developed, so just basking in the danger for a while should do it. And there you have it, yeah? That’s the whole trial explained.”

Skelmie paused for a few seconds, seemingly searching for her words before continuing, “Uuuh, lastly, since your group has special arrangements, that will happen inside,” she told Sofia, “and also due to the current imminent invasion, you will all enter the trial at the highest safe time dilation. So for the special training arrangements, it will last for a year inside, and three days outside, while the trial itself is ten days to one. Ah, and yeah, last tiny detail. Dying during the special training is fine, in the actual trial death is death, and… Yeah. I’m warning you in advance, most resurrection skills can’t save you from the kind of damage dying in the fake world inflicts. So don’t die. Any questions?”

“Is Pesle can get cake?”

“Of course, it’s there for that. Anything else?”

“Are the hostile environments based on past events like the first trial?” Astelia asked.

“Nope. Custom-made for our special trialees by some of our most talented architects and designers, with… A little outside help. I’m sure I’m sure you’ll all like what you’re getting into,” Skelmie answered with a devilish grin.

“Thank you, that is all for me,” Astelia said.

“Pareth and I will be in the same trial, right?” Sofia asked next, “Just checking.”

“Yes. Although the training will be separate. And also… Well you’ll see when you get there. Anyway, same trial together, yes. And no dumb shit like the twin rule or whatever this time, since your level was designed with your entire group in mind, skeletal book and fairy included.”

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“That is also all for me, thanks.”

Seeing Pestle and Astelia eating the cake, Sofia also grabbed a small slice, waiting for Skelmie to announce whatever was next. The dwarf swallowed a slice of cake in one bite and waited for the others to be done with their snacks to stand up.

The entire tower suddenly lit up brightly, a strong tide of mana surging in from underground.

“And now… When you are all ready, just close your eyes, and the trial can begin.”

Sofia felt her consciousness twist as she was pulled into the trial’s toybox. When she opened her eyes, she was in a vast empty white space like the result waiting rooms from the ark, alone.

“Certainly a way to start… Hello?”

[Your trainer is on the way. Please wait.]

“Oh, alright.”

Sitting in place, Sofia checked her current state while she waited. Most of her items and possessions were there and seemed functional, the few exceptions she found were the ring to Zangdar doing nothing and her painted halls being empty for some reason. Beyond that everything seemed normal.

Her connection to Pareth and Bookie was currently basically gone, but that much was not overly worrying considering the situation.

“We must be in different sections of the toybox.”

With nothing else to do, Sofia took the unexpected free time to reorganise her storage.

About three hours later, the scenery around Sofia changed to that of a large and flat flying island surrounded by white clouds, with a square asterite-paved training ground in the center.

“Is it time?”

Sofia stood up and looked around, but she was still alone.

It took a few more minutes for someone to appear, they simply showed up not far from Sofia without fanfare. It was a relatively tall human woman with a figure rather close to Sofia’s, dark skin and black hair. She was wearing rather light, practical green clothes matching her eyes, and held a wooden sword. The numbers above her head slowly solidified to 520.

That is a worthy instructor alright.

Her piercing gaze landed on Sofia, “Hey. Good to meet you. I’m Nolla.”

“Nice to meet you, Sofia.”

“I know.”

There was an awkward silence, so Sofia tried her best to say anything, “Are you related to Kalla?” she asked, remembering the level 499 dark-skinned woman who had visited her in Ser’Extra and looked a bit similar.

“My sister,” Nolla answered with a nod, “Let’s train. I won’t move so try to hurt me, anything goes.”

Sofia nodded and immediately got on the offensive. The fight was short. Sofia tried everything, but Nolla’s blunt unenchanted wooden sword was like a magic-destroying stick. With a casual swipe she could cut an angel bolt in half, poke [Lightsoul curse]’s invisible soul projectiles to nothingness, and a lazy thrust could even turn the [Skull Choir] to dust from a distance.

Even when Sofia tried more unconventional things like using [Lock-Step] to lock Nolla in place and spray her with her toxic blood, or getting her caught in a bolt explosion, the wooden sword cut through it with no apparent effort. Nolla’s serious expression did not change the whole way through until she told Sofia to stop.

“Hmm. Your current training… Not enough,” she calmly declared, “I saw the trial they made for you… Not enough at all.”

“Is the trial that bad?” Sofia asked.

Nolla nodded once. “You will die.”

“Looking forward to your teachings then.”

“Hnn. Let’s start with your footwork and movement. Try to keep up with me, no flying.”

Flying stones appeared above the training ground, scattered in the sky and going up farther than the eye could see. Nolla jumped up, landed on a flying stone the size of a book, and jumped up to another one from there, looking down and waiting for Sofia to get started.

This shouldn’t be too difficult?

Sofia later cursed this thought as she missed a jump and fell back down to the ground for the thousandth time. The flying stones were just a small part of the training, the further up Sofia went, the smaller they became, then they became unstable and started moving. Later other factors were introduced, like strong winds, rains of arrows and random lightning strikes. Through it all, Nolla would always stay just a few jumps ahead of Sofia, pointing out superfluous or suboptimal movement, giving advice and pointers, methodically explaining what had gone wrong every time Sofia failed.

It still took three weeks without rest for Sofia to reach the top, thousands of kilometers above the starting point.

When she finally made it, Nolla offered no praise, only pushing Sofia off, falling with her, and pronouncing a few dreadful words: “Now do it blindfolded.”

It was actually not that hard, only taking Sofia another week, the hardest part being reacting to purely physical hazards while only relying on her mana senses.

Finally when this was done, Nolla seemed satisfied.

“Not bad. We will do magic last. First let me teach you how to handle a weapon.”

Thus began Sofia’s true hardship. Nolla’s training was violent and unforgiving. Her class was [Stormblade], and her fighting style was very much like Sofia’s, close and long range. She was throwing spells and explosions, closing in, striking and backing out, giving the enemy no breathing room.

As part of the weapon training, she only used her spells as a control tool, never actually inflicting any damage. It was always the wooden sword that struck. She used less mana than Sofia did, and swung with less speed and strength.

Yet it was not long before Sofia started having waking nightmares of being blasted to bits by a wooden sword.