*As Earth was cut off and the highest Trial was challenged, The Realm began preparing in earnest for another Realm expansion.

  - There's like five more drills than last time??? @Starvorld (Realmer)

  ? Son, what are you still doing on realmnet? @Reliter (Verified, R9)

  ? I’m in a shelter right now, we have wifi here. Welcome to the modern age, old man. @Starvorld (Realmer)

  ? Alright, when this is over I'm taking you out camping. @Reliter (Verified, R9)

  ? Aw man. Anyway stay safe, dad. @Starvorld (Realmer)

  For once in Ryan’s very short career as an adventurer, he felt free. No bullshit with the Manager, no dealing with some crazy ass mental apparition of a Tyrant, no dueling with a prodigy of the blade, no dealing with ancient ass veterans from another generation.

  He landed in the middle of a scouting duo with a grin on his face. Ryan blasted his Epic in full and saw one of the demons run and trip over himself. The other tried to raise the crossbow only to find a throwing knife had snapped the string. The highly tensile crossbow string snapped into the demon’s arm and flung the bolt wide.

  When the crossbowman, crossbowdemon? Flinched at their injury another knife flew into their skull.

  “Crossbows are a terrible weapon against me in this forest? How have you guys not learned this yet?”

  Ryan yelled out to the fleeing demon that wasn’t carrying a crossbow. The rude demon didn’t deign to answer him as he fell to a knife to the back and found a knife in his throat.

  He didn’t even flinch anymore. They were just Trial people. Fake. He kept telling himself.

  “It’s almost like they don’t have a strategist or something. Oh wait, they don’t! I killed him in the last Trial!”

  He’d been in this sickening forest for over three days already. The background was all so stupidly similar that he sometimes climbed the fragile branches just so he could look at the sky without any trees.

  “I wish I could burn down this forest.”

  The fights weren’t even fun. The one close call he’d had was when he landed in a group of ten demons and almost got stabbed because one of them tripped in panic.

  Ever since then the demons had stopped sending larger parties, in fact this was the only scouting team he’d managed to find in the past half day.

  He kicked at the snow on the ground. He didn’t want to admit it but he finally had to.

  “I miss Gamielle. Maybe I’ll be nicer to her next time.”

  Maybe he really had lost his mind.

  “Just a bit of banter, is that too much to ask?”

  The dead bodies around him didn’t answer back.

  –

  “WHEN THE FUCK IS THE TRIAL GOING TO END GAMIELLE?!”

  It was the end of the sixth day when he finally lost all sense and just started yelling into the sky, scaring all the animals nearby. Ryan promised himself he was going to find a way to take revenge on Gamielle after this.

  Even if her plan was working.

  The last two days had been just him with his thoughts and nothing to do but chase down monsters and tackle them so he could shiv them repeatedly. When you included the other days, he’d gained one level on [Instant Dodge] and two levels in [Double Stab]. A decent achievement considering the combat had stopped being interesting.

  Not a single demon scout or party dared to venture outside of their encampment.

  And even Ryan wasn’t insane enough to challenge thousands of soldiers at once.

  Yet.

  “If I have to keep shitting in the forest and sleeping in ten minute intervals I’m going to end up charging into that fucking army.”

  Food, water and other basic necessities weren’t an issue, he’d stolen a bunch of canteens from the demons and the monsters made good meat… most of the time.

  The issue was not having someone to talk to.

  “A phone, a phone, my Epic for a phone with mobile games.”

  If Gamielle had appeared in front of him, he’d rejoice, maybe even apologize for his earlier prank.

  “I really have gone crazy.”

  Ryan wondered how the other team was doing, surely they were doing better than he was. They had a much easier job than he did. After all the enemy encampment thought they were friendly, they could just join the army and play along until they stabbed the leader.

  Man they must be having it so easy.

  –

  In the middle of the human army encampment.

  “I can’t believe it, we didn’t even -”

  “Shut up Fels. We could be being spied on.”

  “Didn’t you say nobody’s close?”

  “Doesn’t mean that there aren’t magical listening devices or skills.”

  The original plan was for Valee and her team to join the human side and gain their trust. When they had come into the encampment declaring they had information about the fugitive; they had apparently done something wrong. They were immediately detained and put into a large cage.

  It was in the middle of the encampment, somewhat close to the leader’s tent so… yeah Valee had no way of calling this a good outcome.

  “What the fuck do they mean the fugitive’s a human?” Felsley asked, confused, “he’s like the most elvish elf I’ve seen.”

  Marickle the half elf shook her head in annoyance.

  “More like someone’s fetish of what they want elves to look like.”

  Valee shushed her team again.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Look, I suggest we stay silent until we know what’s going on,”

  That was probably the most difficult order for Felsley to follow.

  It was just too convenient. They were all put in the same cage and made to look like nobody was in earshot, she certainly couldn’t hear anyone nearby trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

  All of their gear had been taken, including their phone and walletbands, Valee scratched at her tusk. This Trial could get even messier if they were questioned about those.

  The last thing she wanted was to get tortured.

  Footsteps approached their cage not five minutes later. That confirmed everything she needed to know. They had been listening to them.

  The man that entered the tent looked at her with disgust.

  “You, orc. Come with me.”

  It was that damned racist scout. In fact, most of the people here were giving her dirty looks. That shouldn’t have happened considering she was damned near heroic in her previous Trials.

  Artigan must have been the worst demihuman in his previous Trials for all of them to be like this.

  The tent she was led to didn’t quite seem like a torture tent. She was pretty sure it was the leader’s tent actually. The height and gold engravings made it stand out above the others.

  The scout cleared his throat outside. An authoritative voice answered from within.

  “Enter.”

  The scout shoved her in and Valee glared back. She turned around to lay her eyes on a tall human in [Mage] robes. His eyes pondering over the map of the forest indicated that he might have been the strategist of the army. He certainly was the leader.

  The man was flanked by three guards, all of them wearing enchanted gear and glaring at her.

  What kind of Trial is this? How is this objective even possible?

  “You may leave, head scout.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The man glanced up at her, the disdain for other species was absent in his cold and calculating eyes.

  “It seems you were right, the fugitive is an elf, that’s concerning because all our original reports said he was a human.”

  That was the issue? She let the tension out of her shoulders.

  “Yes, we have some information that we are willing to--”

  The man cut her off.

  “Unfortunately, we are under wartime rules and I cannot have random adventurers roaming around the forest. Not when my King has taken a direct interest.”

  Out of everything so far, that was the biggest red flag. You never wanted either king showing interest before the fifth Trial. The third?

  She had to get her team out of here now.

  “I understand.”

  Valee said, completely yielding to the strategist of the army.

  “It seems you do, then you understand that we are requesting all information regarding the fugitive. Let it be known that I will interview each of you separately and will tolerate no lies.”

  Valee’s face was stoic. She just had to hope that Felsley wouldn’t give them away.

  –

  Ryan closed his eyes, letting darkness hold him as he jumped towards a tree. Then he used [Instant Dodge] to throw himself the other way. His body felt like it was tearing as the skill pulled against his own top speed. He tried to add a [Double Stab] in the middle of the movement but felt the [Double Skill] activation fail. He froze in midair and tumbled to the ground.

  In the end all he ended up with was a throbbing arm and a vague feeling of wrongness at the base of his spine.

  Skill combinations could be finicky. Even with the Trial System’s assistance, you basically had to learn the right timing and body position on your own. He hadn’t managed to figure it out yet.

  It would be easier if he’d maxed out both the skills’ levels and they were learned skills but who knew how long that’d take.

  He’d hit a wall with skill grinding on his own and was getting impatient that he was no longer making any progress. Ryan checked realmtime for the fifth time that day. Ten days since he’d entered the Trial. Four days since he’d seen another demon scout.

  “At least I’m not losing my mind.”

  Talking to himself was probably not the best indicator of his sanity. At least he was no longer bursting in frustration. He was still bored, but there was work to do.

  [Double Stab], [Quick Stab]

  [Instant Dodge] into a [Quick Stab] into a barrel roll.

  Forcefully deactivating [Dangersense] on his own.

  [Quick Stab] was the real key to his progress. The skill didn’t even feel like a skill, just something his body did. Same with the other precursor skill [Lesser Dangersense]. They both–let him feel the skill as something that didn’t just activate on its own. It would go easier if he could go back to Earth to practice but it wasn’t necessary.

  He could feel his [Lesser Dangersense] about to go off and it helped him guide his progress to the real [Dangersense].

  Surely the same thing could be said for [Double Stab]. He needed his body to just do [Double Stab] without thinking it was a skill… just double… stab?

  Ryan lost himself in stabbing the air, then he moved onto stabbing a tree. He dismissed the level ups, they weren’t important right now, what was important was making the skill his, not the Trial System’s but his own.

  Focus.

  Guide the [Quick Stab] but just imagine a secondary hand next to it stabbing at the same time–

  He heard something crunch on nearby snow and sighed.

  “P-peace! Elf! Peace with the forests.”

  “Come out. I won’t kill you.”

  Whoever it was had been far too close for comfort. Ryan may have added too much frustration in his voice as the man, no, demon came tumbling out behind a tree. The red skinned demon looked at him with fear while waving a white flag desperately in front of him.

  “I come at the orders of the great General Grivkas. Good elf.”

  “Where I come from, the white flag means surrender, are you all surrendering to me?”

  That was a funny, albeit unlikely thought.

  “N-no sir, I mean, yes I am surrendering to you.”

  Ryan shook his head and took a step back, then he sat down, leaving himself a little more exposed. Barry might have yelled at him for it but he had unfortunately found that this was the easiest way to make his Epic be less… intimidating.

  “Alright, what do you want?”

  “The General wants - wishes…” The demon soldier cleared his throat, “he wishes that you would fight with him one on one. The-”

  “You think I’m stupid enough to walk into an ambush?”

  The poor demon looked indignant despite the fear.

  “General Grivkas is honorable! We are not opportunistic human scum.”

  Ryan, who was actually human and almost definitely an opportunist… and probably scum in many others’ eyes, chuckled.

  “So they sent an idiot that believes in their own propaganda to try to trick me?”

  “I-if you do not believe me then you may take him to an undisclosed location after meeting at the initial location of your choosing. Our army will retreat if you can defeat him.”

  This had to be a trap, he just couldn’t figure out how it could be one. Yes they could try to sneak up on them while they were fighting but he just had to drag the General far away. A duel in their realm did not last long.

  This might have been the reason why this Trial objective was possible in the first place.

  Then he remembered that he’d made this objective himself. Personally created objectives weren’t always possible.

  Either way you never wanted to treat a Trial like it was always possible, that thought was only helpful in desperate scenarios. Or if you were crazy…

  His mind flickered back to the bullipede and the feeling of progression in the advancements in his skills. He’d learned [Quick Stab] and had almost done something with [Instant Dodge] that went beyond the Trial skill.

  Take it safe?

  No, he’d rather risk everything so he could be stronger for when the inevitable came.

  –

  Ryan kitted up, he’d dropped all his daily necessities under a random snowdrift and readied himself. Soulbound sword in his right, ten throwing knives holstered throughout his body and another shortsword taken from a dead demon soldier. Avale’s shield on his back.

  He arrived at the meeting location a little late.

  An impressive figure sat waiting for him, he was even bigger than Barry. That might have been intimidating before, not so much after having killed a bullipede. What little of the demon's skin that showed was purple. Two horns jutted out from holes on his helmet, one curled and gnarled, the other had been cut in half, a stump.

  Ryan was casual and confident.

  “You really did come alone, I’m surprised.”

  He felt his Epic clash against something, presence? Aura? He couldn’t tell which one it was just yet.

  “Unlike the humans I keep my word,” a richly deep voice answered him, “no demon will come to my aid.”

  “Good, then follow me.”

  …

  “Seems we are going far,”

  “Should be a full day at this pace.”

  Ryan was somber as he answered the General. Now that he saw the demon in full, his confidence was waning. He had killed the human General with a surprise attack last time. This time? It wouldn’t go as easily

  “I was told by my King to give you an offer.”

  Of course he did.

  Not too unexpected given the shit that had gone down in his previous Trials. It was still a stupidly excessive thing to happen in the Third Trial.

  The Kings and Queens of the Trials were supposed to be faced on the fifth Trial, if they took an interest by the Fourth Trial it was to meddle and cause chaos as they saw fit. Unexpected challenges, difficulties and even appearances themselves could happen on the fourth Trial.

  The fifth Trial would always have something to do with at least one of the ruling figures of either kingdom.

  Them showing interest in earlier Trials was considered a hallmark of being an impressive adventurer.

  Despite that, nobody ever wanted it to happen for them.

  The reason being?

  They knew they were Trial bosses. But unlike the Skeleton Lord that was locked up from the start, they were free to do whatever they wished. Like trying to force a deal on him this early.

  “What deal?”

  “Join our army and attack the human side. Swear fealty to my King.”

  A notification pinged in his head, Ryan dismissed it.

  An offer like this was a classic.

  Swearing fealty then backstabbing the demon General was always an option. But it wouldn’t give him the fight he wanted. Neither would fighting in an army and slaughtering more rank and file.

  No, he wanted to truly take down a General, an upgraded [Warrior] class. He felt it, he was so close to maxing out his [Double Stab] skill, so close to learning it. Probably so close to an S+ achievement as well.

  “I decline.”

  “And here I thought you’d accept it only to try and stab me in the back.”

  “Didn’t even cross my mind.”

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