Our world is one focused on the individual. The greatest of us rise in levels and attain abilities that awe the common crowd. The path to that capability is one littered with hard work and effort, and oftentimes danger and death. With levels, remember that even the simplest Skill can be amplified and repurposed a thousand times over. A [Healer's] [Numbing Touch], for example, could paralyze a man temporarily. Even if its purpose was never so.

- The Origins of Skills and Abilities, The Untethered Tomes

The giant lobster monster pulled itself forward on skittering legs, cresting a small incline where the tunnel curved and coming into Jayke's vision with enough horrifying theatric to match his old friends back home.

Kufal met the creature halfway between it and the rest of the crowd. He flowed around the large meaty pincers, slicing between their segmented armors. A pillar of stone shot down heavily from the ceiling denting the creature and shoving it violently towards the ground.

Jayke kept a careful eye on where he might need to intervene. Any more involvement from him would only burden the group. He was, unfortunately, acutely aware of what deadweight could cost someone.

Sharp yelled, and at first Jayke wasn't sure what magic he employed, but then the lobster's right pincer just fell off. Jayke had pictured magic as the flinging of spells from a distance, Sharp had formed blades of water along his arms. Kufal's method of attack was different, but the lobster had been slowing ever since he had sliced into its flesh.

Ferr, of course, had been constantly pounding the creature into the tunnel floor. Elemental race Jayke reminded himself. It looked like his guess of something to do with rock magic was correct.

The left pincer fell limp and Sharp and Kufal relaxed when Ferr's magic slammed it seemingly into unconsciousness. Its brains splattered the tunnel floor. That last part was Hush, having somehow in the chaos appeared atop the lobster, a long dagger whipped the lobsters blue blood across the floor. Jayke... couldn't really determine how that was magic. Though in truth, the proctor never specified that magic was strictly necessary, which was a strange caveat.

"Tough bastards." Sharp said breathily, eyeing Hush. "Where did you come from?"

Hush grinned.

Ferr relaxed, she hadn't moved from her spot and neither had Jayke. Their roles weren't on the frontline.

Kufal sheathed his sword.

Oz's hands glowed with odd light. The beginnings of a creature that Jayke now referred to as slime took form. It looked as if it was formed from nothing, and the implications sent Jayke's head in a tizzy. He refocused, observing the grey creature. Oz whispered, lost in a chant.

"What's the slime for?" Jayke asked. He carefully edged over the stone lip and peered around the burrows, most were empty. But it was like the calm before the storm, he didn't trust the silence nor the lack of movement. They were too loud not to be noticed.

"A distraction." Oz grunted, standing. Wordlessly the slime began ambling forward, coating the floor in a slug's trail. "Let's make our way down. Keep away from the slime, it's effectively monster bait."

The rest looked at Oz with some measure of skepticism. Jayke watched the slime leave. "They'll go for that?"

"The slime's moving in their direction." Oz assured them. "Trust me. They won't resist it if they sense it and I sent it straight towards them."

Ferr stepped to the stone lip. "Come then, the path down is treacherous. I will secure something safer. Follow my lead and watch the burrows as we pass them."

They stepped down the interconnecting stone decline with trepidation. The risk would've been much higher if not for Ferr altering the path downward as they passed. The ground became firmer, textured. Small divots for the feet.

There was an insectile keening above. Something triumphant and vicious in the sound. Then another. And another. Until it sounded like a swarm of them had descended, or were even fighting amongst each other. Jayke spared a glance upward, it sounded like infighting as he doubted that slime could cause anywhere near the pain he assumed he was hearing.

"They found it," Oz looked upward, eyeing something no one else could see.

The noise reached a crescendo and Oz peeled his gaze away. They continued downward, picking their way carefully down the rocks. Kufal and Sharp moved in the vanguard while Ferr made their steps safer.

They were halfway down.

"Anyone see the circle?" Sharp spoke into the silence. His eyes were darting around the cavern floor now that they were closer.

"It is unlikely we would run into it this early." Oz tempered him. "The Underways are vast. We were given the entire day after all. There's no way the test would pass this fast."

Hush had adopted the rear of the party as Jayke did. "I don't see anything yet." His voice was reserved but clear that he was searching. Jayke noticed his eyes were cat-like, or snake-like, with slits for pupils. They flicked around the trench.

Due to the nature of the test and lack of capabilities, the objective was almost as futile as looking for a needle in a haystack. All their wandering accomplished was put them in constant danger.

Jayke pondered where the proctor might place it, combing over any memories he had where Hucobb had mentioned it. To his dismay, Hucobb hadn't really spoken about it too much. Only that they needed to find it to pass. The notion that they were somehow being tested differently was one that lingered in his mind, but that line of thinking was pointless. They'd only be more aimless if they adopted it.

"We are almost there." Ferr updated. "The slope lessens."

Just then, as they passed a burrow a lobster exploded from its lip like a true ambush predator.

"Watch out!" Oz screamed.

Kufal jerked and flowed into a defensive stance, his shield came up. "Behind me!"

Sharp dived towards him, pulling Ferr out of the way. The heavy pincer arced upward and fell upon the three in front. Their eyes were locked on the pincer, darting between it and the insectile face cresting the stone lip. Kufal had fangs, evidently, and they were bared, hissing. Sharp formed his own blades around him. Ferr set her stance and called magic.

But the pincer came down with the force of a meteor.

Only to rebound off of Jayke's forcefield. The translucent shield glimmered with powerful light but cracked dangerously. Jayke's hand was pushed out, straining. Their heads darted towards him and Ferr erupted a few spires of stone, restricting the creature's movement.

Oz chucked a ball of slime onto the lobster's face which ate away at its armor. Hush had disappeared but Jayke found him teetering on the lobster's back in an impressive display of balance. His dagger sliced clean through the stalk of one of its eyes and the monster jerked in its stone prison in terrible pain. It keened in anguish.

Sharp and Kufal handled the rest of its death. They kicked the body down the slope, only for its limp form to be snatched in its fall by pincers twice as large as they had seen so far. The entire thing happened in less than ten seconds but the two choked at the pincers that snatched the corpse as it fell.

Kufal and Sharp were staring down at the scene. They were breathing heavily. Kufal nodded deeply at Jayke and Ferr followed suit, showing their gratitude.

Sharp looked more worried at the scene below. "Bigger ones get to stay closer to the water." He nodded to the large pool that dominated a large portion of the cavern. "The strong reap the benefits." Sharp gestured towards the pool and paused, staring. "That thing just now was twice as large." He said grimly.

"They're probably bigger closer to the..." Sharp trailed off looking down.

Jayke sighed in relief before he realized some of his companions had frozen. At first, he thought they were hit but that didn't seem to be the case.

Jayke glanced at the rock woman. "Ferr?" He looked at her in askance.

Oz paused. "Gods above." He whispered. He had frozen too.

He followed their gaze. "What's going on?"

Jayke saw the shadow before it emerged.

A lumbering behemoth of a lobster emerged from the pool with the sound of hundreds of waterfalls. Huge swaths of water fell from its heavy-shelled stature. Large eyes twirled around on their stalks. Giant piston legs worked to move its body and deadly huge pincers across the shore. The sand surrounding the pool. It was digging, pushing sand out of the only den large enough to house it.

Creature: [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] (Epic)

A many-limbed crustacean allowed to thrive unbothered and unthreatened along a deep trench. A Pincer Shell Burrower is effectively immortal. Their size and power are closely tied to their age. This [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] has grown to immense proportions, dominating this section of the Underways.

"A creature recognized by the Great Template." Kufal said hesitantly, a hint of fear in his voice. "We cannot hope to defeat it. It is Epic. " His words were a set in stone belief.

Oz closed his mouth. "It's magical." At first, Jayke thought the blue man was using a figure of speech. "It's glowing in my [Manasight]." He reiterated. "In fact, it's been taking up the whole cavern. I'd been blind the entire time and hadn't realized it."

Ferr nodded, jaw unworking itself. "This whole cavern is muddied with its mana. I had not noticed until it emerged." She said in awe. "It is powerful."

Sharp whistled. "Sea creature like that could guard against some of the worst of the Depths. Epic too. If this place was flooded, I bet it could kill us all in a heartbeat." The shark man's eyes were flitting across the nearby burrows.

A plume of wet sand exploded outward from the pool. It was cleaning out its den from the perpetual sandfall above. It slithered in and out of the pool, causing waves to crash upon the shore, before it simply disappeared among the water.

"It screams danger to my senses," Hush spoke suddenly. "My [Dangersense] never pings this hard." He said. "We best circle around the cavern. Taking any of these burrows out of here is better than this."

The immense size of the creature forced Jayke to take in the cavern as a whole. He had a knack for observation and careful consideration. It was less habit now than a full-on character trait after the apocalypse. None of the mages in his group had noticed it, perhaps they didn't have the perspective, or perhaps their mana vision had blinded them. He doubted any had expected it to be so large, they'd all been looking for something similar to the size from earlier.

But Jayke pointed. "That's... that's the circle isn't it?" He said weakly. "It's looping around the pool."

He saw a few eyes twitch.

They staked out the pool from the safety of a makeshift shelter. With Ferr's magic and enough time they were able to repurpose one of the burrows into a kind of bunker. The fact that these Pincer Shell Burrowers - the lobsters - might be able to burrow through stone meant that they weren't completely safe where they were.

Oz had sent out a number of sensory slimes prior, however.

"There are a handful of them around us, not too close." A look of passive concentration flitted across the blue man's features. "They all seem dormant."

"The Coterie's insane if they think we're getting anywhere near that thing." Sharp exclaimed. "That's an Epic Rarity beast! Recognized by the gods damned World!"

Kufal hadn't stopped staring at the pool. "It is a magnificent beast." He said simply. "To best it in combat would surely level us many times over."

"If you didn't die immediately," Jayke added. "We have all day to think of something. We'll wait for Hush to return before that."

"I am well aware it is nigh impossible," Kufal responded.

Ferr leaned against the stone wall finding comfort against it. She spoke. "He's back." Then with a light tap of her foot, the walled-off burrow opened and permitted Hush through.

He was breathing fast. Adrenaline. "That's the gods damn circle alright." He leaned against the wall and slid down it until his butt hit the floor. "I couldn't get any closer than fifty meters from the pool before my [Dangersense] decided I might die then and there." He frowned. "Something has to be done about that thing before we can get into the circle."

"What's the requirement for this test?" Jayke pondered the semantics, Hucobb hadn't made it entirely clear. "We need to be inside the circle? Once? By the end of the test?"

"The proctor called it the finish line," Oz replied. "If that's so then that thing is the test. Besides, we're not even getting near the circle without dealing with it."

"Then that's that then." Jayke said resigned. "We need to deal with it somehow."

Quest Updated: [Test Underway] (Unusual)

The test to determine those who qualify to be welcomed into the Practitioner's Coterie is underway! For this portion of the test, you've been tasked with reaching the magic circle that lies somewhere through the section of the Underways revealed to you. Beware the creatures lurking within the dark.

A [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] lurks within the magic circle. Defeat it and claim the right to pass the test.

Rewards: Quest, EXP

Frowns all around. The update only solidified their tentative goals.

Jayke pondered, not for the first time, the matter of Rarity. He hadn't known that Quests could update themselves. He was aware that they could chain into other Quests. But if they could update themselves why did the Rarity not change to match the Rarity of the [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower]? He wondered what determined all of these things. He really needed to find a book on the subject.

The next few hours were spent arguing and eyeing the pool as well as the surrounding cavern. They hadn't spotted many other testers and they all found that particularly peculiar. Different ideas were thrown about regarding defeating the thing.

"It's almost like a boss." Jayke ran his hand through his hair. The stress was reminding him of his outside excursions from the facility. Too much tension in his shoulders.

Sharp chuckled. "If it was a Boss creature we'd need more than just us." Sharp said grimly.

Jayke blinked at the revelation. That Boss monsters were even a thing. He felt a small headache coming on, the world kept springing curveballs at him. He had taken to sitting down while the rest of them discussed, content to listen to their strategies.

A direct assault was out of the question. While Kufal, Sharp, and Hush excelled at close distance, they'd be flattened or eaten in moments. Ferr pondered the possibility of dropping boulders from above, but the trench was such that directly above the pool was the opening. It would've been their best bet if they were able to position correctly.

Jayke's role was always support and protection. Since he wasn't aware of everyone's capabilities and generally clueless when it came to Skills or likely ones that someone might have, he didn't participate much in the conversation.

Jayke passed the time visualizing algorithms. His [Code Magic] was satisfyingly relaxing to observe. It was often the meaning hidden in the logic that expressed itself in the motes of light present in the ball of magic that formed. He had spent a small amount of time breaking his head over the why but leaned on the feeling and came to an abstracted conclusion. For now, his explanation was simple; magic. Something about that was unsatisfying but his headache had gotten minutely worse every moment he spent thinking too hard on it. Besides that, it wasn't the motivation of his musing.

He tuned into the conversation regarding the [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] and while the idea of lobbing rocks at it from a distance was definitely an.... idea. He doubted that it was really feasible.

The blue man regarded Jayke with quiet interest. A true scholar's curiosity, Jayke recognized. Especially when he had asked Oz if he could experiment on a slime of his. Oz had initially been hesitant. Something in his gaze looked disgusted at the thought of experimentation but Jayke had caught it before the blue man could hide it. He had assuaged his fears, his [Code Magic] wouldn't do anything untoward to the creature. He was only wondering if he could attach some rudimentary algorithm to the slime. The scholar seemed only eager to lend him one once the harmlessness became clear, though Jayke didn't elaborate on his magic.

Oz was sitting as Jayke was, back against the tunnel wall. "This is one of the simplest forms, my favorite one. It is consequently one of the most adaptable evolutions." Upon his hand, no larger than a baseball was a blue slime. It looked no different than a raindrop with a hairdo.

"Thank you." Jayke accepted the little creature. It settled onto his hand with a quivering bounce. "How does it see? I don't see any eyes."

Oz looked ready to dive into the subject but checked himself. "They have [Sense] but it is weaker than most. Slimes usually live in cramped spaces unless otherwise evolved, they do not need to see far."

"You're not influencing it?" Jayke stared at it. It was happily jiggling in his hand, content to do absolutely nothing more.

"Generally, at least for slimes so new to the world, their instincts are reactionary. At most, it might wander until it senses something absorbable. As is, it is too mild to present you or I with any threat. It might dissolve plant matter within a day but nothing more." Oz explained. "This one is untethered to me. As it is freely given for your experiments."

"What other senses?" Jayke questioned.

"The innate sense of what it is ingesting is hard to qualify," Oz answered. "Aside from its [Sense], that is the only one. Though the two synergize, as I'm led to believe."

Jayke placed the baseball-sized slime a foot or two in front of him. The display of his magic was a simple one, the orb of green-grey magic showed a yellow streak circling the orb lazily. The fact the magic formed was the validation he had made something functional. 'Move' was a hard term to quantify in the algorithm, so he kept the instruction as just that; 'move'. The inner workings of a slime's locomotion and sense of direction were omitted, the detail sat annoyedly with Jayke but he allowed it to pass in favor of learning more of his [Code Magic]. Abstraction, he reminded himself.

Currently, the range of application looked to be touch. He leaned over and pressed the magic into the slime, feeling it settle oddly smoothly into the slime.

The slime began to move in a circle and for the first time, Jayke learned a real-world application of his magic. The excitement that flooded his system was almost child-like. It was an unexpected feeling of creation. Like his very first Hello World program.

Oz blinked. "How did you do that?" He said immediately. "You know slime-mancy?" He said but paused. "No, this is not. What is this?" He eyed the blue slime moving in a small circle.

"One of the more rudimentary things I can do," Jayke observed the slime. It had a great sense of direction, but of distance - less so. The circle was lopsided.

"Why would its sense of distance be any less accurate than its sense of direction?" Jayke mused aloud. "It's supposed to be moving in a uniform circle. It knows direction but not distance?"

"[Sense] is a Skill that is multifaceted. Direction and distance are separate concepts, but even a newborn slime needs to know where it's going. The matter of how far is inconsequential until it has actually arrived." He eyed the newborn blue slime with interest. Jayke looked on the blue man with interest, he was well versed in the subject of slimes.

The fact that monsters could have Skills decided to settle in just then. [Sense] was something that sounded relatively harmless, but from his knowledge Skills were powerful abilities. Some creatures had access to them? The revelation was chilling when he thought about the [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] lurking in the pool not far from their position.

Jayke's focus needed to fuel the magic was somewhat taxing, even on the small effort of an algorithm to direct the slime to move in a circle. He cut off the connection and basically left the spell to battery life the same way he could make barriers. With no charge, the magic dissipated and the slime jiggled to a stop.

Oz picked up the little creature and placed it on his shoulder.

"Thank you," Jayke said. "That sheds a little bit of light on my magic."

"Don't rely too heavily on tests conducted on slime subjects," Oz warned. "Slimes are impressionable and adaptable, especially to magic."

Jayke nodded.

He and Oz returned to the conversation that had been going on in the background. It had been a handful of hours of careful watch and discussion. While Jayke was conversing with Oz the blue man had been keeping his slimes aware of the situation around them. No movements. Ferr had been sensing the stone similarly, while Sharp, Kufal, and Hush discussed strategy.

Now, they had come up with something. Jayke and Oz listened.

Jayke crouched with the others. They had done their own share of burrowing, approaching the pool underground until they hit the water. The rush of water was a sublime force of nature, it broke through the weakened walls of Ferr's tunnel. Before any claustrophobia kicked in, Sharp pushed his arms out and the water bent to his command, sloshing with white water and receding back into the wall. Ferr closed the breach.

"Run me through the plan again," Jayke said slowly, watching his steps on the slick stone.

Kufal examined the wet wall. "With this, we are up against the lake wherein the beast resides."

"I got that part," Jayke replied. "Isn't this a little too close?"

"Bah, between my magic and the lady's we'll not be in any danger unless the creature decides to find us." Sharp waved.

Hush spoke. "Which is a possibility." He said simply.

"You're sure your poison is potent enough?" Oz regarded Kufal. "This creature's den is quite large, will it not dilute the poison?"

Kufal placed a hand on his saber. "It is an inherently magical poison. Given enough time, I could guarantee the deaths of many creatures. One recognized by the Great Template? I cannot be so sure. Too, it is gigantic and magical in and of itself. It may yet resist." His sibilant voice hissed the last word.

"Enough, let us begin," Ferr said. "I must pass this test." She spoke. Jayke glanced at her expression.

A portal of water appeared where Ferr pull back the stone. Sharp held the water back from pouring through and drenching everyone. Kufal inserted his blade into the opening and Ferr closed the hole until only the hilt of Kufal's sword was visible. The bladed section of it was now submerged.

He spoke whispered words. He became focused until his very stature screamed of something venomous. "[Envenom]." He breathed, then the hilt of his sword lit up in sickly green light. A serpentine tongue flicked out from his mouth. "[Envenom]." He whispered once more.

The process continued silently. The only sound in the tunnel was the hiss of Kufal and his casting. Everyone was on edge, their position underground was more vulnerable any of them would've liked, but it was the safest position that afforded access to the water. Ferr, Sharp, and Hush were the most alert.

A distorted rumble warbled through the tunnel. Sounding as if it came from all around them. The noise of a beast larger than life.

"That doesn't sound good." Jayke said into the following silence.

"[Dangersense]." Hush warned, painfully alert.

Kufal held onto his sword, pumping his magic through it even now. The eerie vibrations came from all around them. The most ominous of earthquakes. Like the steps of a giant. Distant but known. The rumbling stopped for a heartbeat.

"It's moving!" Sharp warned. "I can feel the water being displaced!"

Then the tunnel exploded. Kufal lost his grip on his weapon as the entire tunnel wall was demolished by the force of the water. Jayke grunted and caught Kufal by his shoulder, drenched and gasping. The water blasted them both against the wall. Oz slammed into the wall beside them. White water parted around Sharp. Hush ducked behind the shark man.

"Seal the tunnel damn it!" Sharp yelled. "You'll all drown if we stay down here. You need to surface!"

Jayke threw up his own shields and the water was held back for precious moments. Ferr had been knocked unconscious.

Not good.

Jayke forced his shield forward. Expanding it until it blocked off the tunnel. The strain was enough to induce a nosebleed and headache, but the shield held. Sharp relieved a lot of the pressure by diverting the force of the rushing water. Hush grabbed Ferr's unconscious form.

The entire tunnel was drenched. People were gasping for air, coughing up water.

Oz choked up water, catching his breath. "Let's go! Out of the tunnel now!" He yelled. "It must have sensed- " He doubled over, vomiting.

Kufal rushed to his side. "The poison is in you." He said quickly. He focused on Oz and his hands glowed. The blue man vomited again. Kufal looked around. "Who else drank the water?" His eyes fell onto Ferr. He approached and laid his hand on her. She vomited too, still knocked out.

Jayke and Sharp covered the water while Hush and Kufal helped the unconscious ones out of the tunnel.

They had created small areas to retreat to in the case things got too dangerous. The first of them was below water level so they rushed to the second which sat above ground. The squat bunker was a formidable safety net. They didn't want to risk more than they already were. But now, the security of their position was thrown into doubt.

Jayke stared outside from the bunker, nosebleed and all.

It had erupted from the pool in an explosion of water. Water fell off the large creature even now. The [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] was flailing in rage, slamming pincers and legs on the sandy shore of its pool. And then it opened its mouth and decimated a portion of the trench walls with a concentrated blast of water. Rock's exploded as if it were hit with a missile.

Jayke gaped. "What the fuck was that?"

Kufal laid a coughing Oz against the wall and turned to see.

Sharp answered. "Looked like a [Waterbolt]." He said quickly. "Only scaled up a hundred times."

Hush set Ferr against the wall. He pointed. "Look!" A volley of magic rained down on the creature. "Other testers. High up on the walls." He observed quietly.

The giant lobster looked nothing more than annoyed when the magic broke upon its shell. Its targets were high up on the wall, but the lobster just glared upwards and shot something from its pincer. A thin jet of concentrated water sliced clean through the trench wall, carving stone.

There was a spray of pink and red. No more magic came from the area.

Any number of his facilities defenses could've obliterated the poor lobster. Unfortunately, facing the creature as he was, was impossible. Without any offensive magic, and with its offensive capabilities it would be suicide. None of his companions had anything to match it, let alone punch through its armor.

Then the lobster slouched and then there was yelling from above.

A storm of ice blasted down on the lobster with the force of a blizzard. Huge chunks of hail fell from high above landing all around the pool, when they did find their mark the lobster shuddered against them. It threw up its claw and another chunk of the trench exploded.

A beam of light ripped downward and Jayke caught someone glowing. The sand around the lobster turned into blades and cut weakly against its armor, but the [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] was moving weakly.

"The poison has kicked in." Kufal hissed from beside them.

"Look it's that wolfar." Hush blinked.

Someone was rushing toward the creature. Alone. The wolf-like man charged with sword alone. The lobster spotted him and blasted towards him with water. The person dived out of the way and his sword glowed red, glancing loudly against the lobster's pincer. It shattered the rock under the wolf man but he was unfazed, his next strike managed to dent the armor. He looked impossibly small next to the creature.

Jayke blinked.

Hush started moving. "I'm going. It's weakened. Now is the time to strike closely." He glanced at Sharp and Kufal. "Are you two coming?"

They turned to each other and rushed out of the bunker.

Jayke turned to Oz. "You're fine here, Oz?" He asked.

"Expect some slimes to come help." He said weakly. "I'll see to Ferr."

Jayke darted outside. The mad sprint towards the creature was maddening when he could see the fight so clearly up ahead. He had already picked up on some of the lobster's habits. Its eyes swiveled on armored stalks, a feature of the creature different from the smaller ones. They often indicated its ire, and usually showed where its next attack would be heading.

Jayke closed in as the dwei woman appeared behind the wolf man. She called sand to harry the creature, aiming for the joints between the shelled armor. The blizzard stopped and the ice became more concentrated, pulled back for risk of hitting friendlies, he presumed.

It spat water from its mouth with enough force to knock someone down. Jayke formed a shield for a random [Mage] that was throwing fire at the lobster, she looked on in surprise at the forcefield and it disappeared.

Sharp yelled and the water around the edge of the pool moved to his will. Bladed tentacles formed and he dived into the water before anyone could tell him not to. Then he was a whirlpool of danger, the water packing enough force to shove the lobster forward and onto land. Jayke only hoped he knew what he was doing, the water was poisoned after all.

"Keep it out of the water!" Someone yelled high from the trench. "Don't let it retreat!"

People were yelling and shouting. Calling out spells and Skills that Jayke didn't recognize. Someone shouted from above and people cleared away. A purple beam of light slammed down on the lobster, cracking the shell for the first time and drawing blood. He spotted the fair-skinned man from earlier somewhere above, glowing.

Kufal yelled. "The water is poisoned!" He warned loudly. "It is weak!"

The monster's movement became sluggish and pained. Battered and beaten it raged in a final display of magic. Hyperspeed strands of water shot out from its claws in multiple directions, slicing through everything. Walls of sand, magical shields, plain physical shields. People screamed and some were dismembered or sliced open. The force of the water was enough to cut through bone.

It broke upon Jayke's angled shield. He protected another individual casting from afar. The person jerked but nodded and waved at him in thanks before turning his magic towards the lobster once and for all.

Hush appeared on the thing's head. His long dagger omitted to try to chop through the armored shell of its eyestalk, and instead settled for piercing the eye itself. He stabbed for the other eye but a set of smaller claws reached for him and he disappeared.

Someone yelled. "It's retreating!"

Sharp pushed it forward. Small whips of water pushed its mass, but slowly, it was slipping back into its den.

Then the slimes showed up. At first, Jayke didn't realize what he was seeing. He had thought he was looking at beads of water. No, he was staring at slimes. A dozen small slimes, each the size of a dog. When did Oz find the time to make these? Jayke remembered all the quiet moments of concentration from the blue man.

"Hell, that guy." Jayke had to give the man credit.

The slimes oozed forward from the pool. They had been hiding in the water. And now they crawled up onto the lobster. The [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] flailed and whipped its fanned tail around, catching a mage off-guard. Jayke covered him with a shield and the man only suffered the sand ripping against his skin. He was thrown backward.

The slimes oozed into the lobster's shell and it finally began to slow. Its movements became more and more pronounced, slower and slower. Jayke was watching it die. Perhaps from the very beginning, it was dead.

Then it slumped over, a terrible insectile keening marking its death.

Jayke's moved towards the man who been thrown back, eyeing many of the wounded. Another mage had found him first so Jayke looked around for anyone unattended. Jayke wasn't fazed by the dead among their number, but he hadn't been expecting people to actually die.

Ferr came from behind, Oz leaning on her. "It is dead." She said. "I had forgotten the other testers."

Oz looked around wearily. "There are dead among us too." He was grim. "I did not expect so many deaths this early."

Quest Completed: [Test Underway] (Unusual)

The test to determine those who qualify to be welcomed into the Practitioner's Coterie is underway! For this portion of the test, you've been tasked with reaching the magic circle that lies somewhere through the section of the Underways revealed to you. Beware the creatures lurking within the dark.

A [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] lurks within the magic circle. Defeat it and claim the right to pass the test.

Rewards: Quest, EXP

Jayke felt strength rush through them. An exhilarating rush of power and potential coursed through him. Multiple flashes of blue became pronounced in his vision, even though he had already known they were there earlier. Jayke resolved to scour over them later in his [Safehaven].

The other Quest didn't make itself known and Jayke could only assume it would be issued once Hucobb showed himself.

Oz looked about. "Looks like that's over with." He said simply, sitting limply on the floor. "The other Pincer Shell Burrowers retreated." He said glancing at the carcass of the giant version. People were swarming it.

Jayke stared at the odd behavior. "What are they doing?" He asked.

Oz and Ferr looked at him strangely. "They're checking for drops. Items." Oz replied.

Ferr spoke. "You do not know?" She questioned Jayke. "It is no secret for the interested."

"I can't say I've had a formal education." Jayke lied. "I'm still learning the ways of the world."

Oz groaned, standing. "The Coterie attracts all types," Oz said simply. "Come, the proctor may appear soon."

They passed the circumference of the magic circle. The body of the [Giant Pincer Shell Burrower] lay unmoving. It's gigantism was more unsettling up close, Jayke peered at its eye with a shiver. A number of mages, numbering thirty or so were mingling around. People approached the carcass, laying their hands on its shell.

Oz and Ferr did the same. Jayke saw Kufal, Sharp and Hush opposite of them doing the same. Jayke shrugged and placed his hand on the body as well.

Nothing.

Oz wasn't put out. Neither did Ferr seem to expect anything. Jayke hadn't known what he expected. The rest of Jayke's group came away with something. A few others did too. The two elves from earlier, the fair-skinned man who glowed, the wolf man, and a number of other people.

Items like Jayke's [Sand Rabbit's Foot]. He frowned, remembering that his [Sand Rabbit's Foot] had just appeared before him. He tried to examine some people as they approached the body of the creature recognized by the System, but no other Items were forthcoming.

Jayke noticed the looks of relief on the people around him. Some in genuine mirth, the rush from brushing close to death and surviving. Other's were touched by it, haunted looks in their eyes Jayke had witnessed countless times before. The test was brutal and cruel, Jayke wondered if that was the way of this world.

When Hucobb appeared, he simply led people back through the Underways in silence. Nothing threatened them on their trek back and the man moved with unerring confidence. The crowd followed behind him in silence, people were still tense.

Jayke wondered if the continuation of these tests were worth it.