Maiz’s first step felt normal, comfortable. But as he took his second, his foot slipped, scraping against the ground. For an instant Maiz thought that the ground was simply uneven, but instead of settling back on the ground, his foot flailed out in the open air, and in moments his entire body was tipping over.

Oh hells. Maiz realized what was happening an instant too late. This isn’t ground.

In desperation, as he felt his balance fail and his weight begin to topple, he shot his stable foot out in the opposite direction, and bore as much of his body in that direction as he could. It was an awkward, difficult maneuver, and he would not have been able to do it before the trial, but his new Dexterity served him well. Though Maiz was no longer on his feet, he was in no danger of falling.

As Riala stepped through the portal after Maiz, he was glaring up at her, his hands gripping a tree branch for his life.

“Why didn’t you tell me that this test would start on a gods-damned plant?” Maiz began shifting his weight so that he could stand up without falling over the side of the branch. It was fairly large, Maiz supposed. Certainly larger than any tree branch that he had ever seen before taking the trial; it was big enough in diameter that Maiz thought he could have just barely wrapped his arms around the entire thing. It was also flat enough on top that walking on it probably would have been no problem, if he had known what to expect.

“I’m sorry!” Riala’s face was once again contrite. “I really wasn’t allowed to tell you, it was part of the test! In fact, it’s practically the only difficult part of this test, so I couldn’t say anything! But you did it!” Towards the end her voice began to edge back towards its normal enthusiasm.

Of course. Maiz grunted, turning away from Riala as he got to his feet. “I understand.” He began to look at his surroundings, and almost fell again in shock.

Maiz had gotten used to the ideas of the gigantic trees populating this forest. He had even admired their height and majesty from the ground on the path. But he hadn’t quite realized exactly how high they were. Maiz glanced downwards, saw the dozens of meters between him and the ground, and snapped his gaze forward. Don’t worry about that, just focus here. Around him there was a surprising amount of open space, but his view was partially obscured by more branches and leaves from the trees near him.

“What should I do now?” There was silence behind him, and Maiz didn’t want to risk his balance by looking back at her. Right. Got to do this by myself, it’s part of the test.

Maiz began walking forward carefully on the branch. His balance felt sure, but he kept his gait slow, walking towards the center of the tree this branch was attached to. A few time his gaze began to drift downward, but he kept his eyes firmly in front of him. Stay focused. In a short time, he was approaching the trunk, and there was more greenery surrounding him, gently tickling his face.

For a moment he began looking around for a path forward, or any sort of direction as to what to do. Then he saw an arrow carved conspicuously into the trunk of the tree, pointing upwards. I guess you don’t need too many observation skills in this test. Looking up, Maiz could see plenty of branches that could act as hand and foot holds, so he began climbing.

It was surprisingly easy for him. He knew that climbing could often require a good deal of Strength, at least on rocks, but this tree had so many branches that it felt more like walking up a staircase than anything. All Maiz had to do was keep his balance, which was relatively simple for him now, and keep his mind off of the immense drop that awaited a misstep. Soon, he felt comfortable enough to resume his conversation with Riala.

“So,” Maiz began, his breath slightly unsteady from the exertion, “what do you do here when there isn’t a Seeker to test?” Gods, that was terrible. Maiz couldn’t claim he was any good at conversation, especially with women as beautiful and, frankly, strange as Riala.

But she did not seem to mind his awkward overture. In fact, she seemed surprised, and even a little pleased. “Oh, I mostly watch things happening from above. You humans can be really interesting if I’m bored enough, and I can see all of Saleria from this plane. Sometimes I get to speak with other Celestials for instructions or even my god, if he has something important to tell me! That’s only happened once or twice though.”

“Uh… wow!” Maiz was stunned. He almost missed his next step from the shock. She had spoken directly to a god? “W-what do you mean, your god?”

“Well, I’m a Celestial! We’re like fragments of a god’s power, and each of us works for the god which created us.” Riala seemed quite proud of her species.

“Oh.” This is absolutely ridiculous. “So which god is your parent?” As he spoke, he continued ascending somewhat unsteadily. They were getting quite high.

“Hah! You can’t tell just by looking at me?”

What did she mean? Wait. Green hair and green glowing eyes. The same color as…

The same color as the Names above every person’s head. And the text of his Name Sheet. And his Title Sheet. And the icon which opened his Notifications. The color of Nomenadon, god of Names.

“O-of c-course!” Maiz stammered. “I-I get it.” She’s seen the most powerful god in the entire world? Nomenadon was the reason that every human could gain incredible skill and power through hard work in the profession related to their title. He had Named even the other gods, and his strength was acknowledged by every other being on the face of Saleria. Father Gavrel had said once that Nomenadon had all of the knowledge in the entire world, and thus all of the power on Saleria originated with him.

Suddenly Maiz was having trouble gripping onto the next branch. His palms were feeling sweaty, and he had to stop for a moment.

“But anyways, that’s enough about me, why don’t we talk more about you? You were saying something about your father earlier?”

Normally Maiz wouldn’t have been able to talk about his father, but he was still stunned at the thought that he was speaking to a direct servant of Nomenadon. “My father was a book merchant. I read some of his books whenever he got shipments.”

“Wow! I didn’t realize humans bought and sold books now! Does your father make a lot of money?”

“He did when I was younger, yes.” Maiz continued his climb.

“What happened?” Riala’s voice was mildly curious. She was following him up the tree, so he couldn’t see her face. She couldn’t see his face either.

“There’s… not much of a market for books in my city. Only for rich people, remember? My father had a big business though, he was the only bookseller in the city. But a few years ago, a noble house in the city decided to get in on the bookselling business.” Maiz’s throat began to feel tighter, and he stopped speaking, silently climbing the branches.

“Oh, so I guess it was tougher for your father to make money with competition, huh? That’s too bad, I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” The word came out choked, and he wasn’t sure Riala heard it. However, he could see directly above that the tree’s branches simply stopped ahead, leaving the trunk bare. I suppose we’ve gotten as high as we’re supposed to, then. It was a relief to focus on the test.

As Maiz climbed the last few branches, he could see several vines attached to the branches, knotted tightly in grooves near the trunk of the tree. Maiz followed the vines outwards as he reached the top seeing a veritable web of vines extending across a gap in the trees in front of him in a triangular pattern.

They were incredibly high up at this point, and Maiz did not dare look down. He could, however, easily see that there were only a few trees as tall as the one he was on at the moment. In fact, three of those trees were in a line on the other side of the gap, the vines attaching to all three and forming the triangle with the tip pointing towards Maiz. More vines made the network denser but did not appear to connect to any trees. It was very clear what he was supposed to do.

“Will the vines break if I go on them? Are you allowed to say?”

“Yeah that’s a valid question, and no the vines won’t break unless you try to cut them somehow.”

All right then. Not all of the vines were taut--several looked like they were just resting against other lines, so he’d have to be careful. After taking a moment to catch his breath and ensure his clothing was all secure, Maiz stepped out onto a pair of vines. He laid his entire body over the lines, preferring not to take chances with walking upright just then.

While this was certainly more difficult than climbing the tree, it only required a bit more concentration and care on Maiz’s part. He edged out slowly, deciding to make for the leftmost tree in the distance. The one time he glanced back, he saw Riala following him of her feet, a serene expression on her face. Her steps didn’t appear to wobble the vines at all, for which Maiz was grateful. His own movements often resulted in some instabilities in the web, and he suspected that if he had not spread his weight over multiple vines it would have been far harder to keep his balance.

Indeed, after perhaps fifteen minutes of traversing the web of vines towards the large tree, the vines began to become sparser, and Maiz found it more and more difficult to keep himself from tipping over the side of the vines. If that happened, he was not sure he could save himself from falling completely--he still only had 6 Strength, and he was getting tired from this exertion.

As Maiz stretched his hand forward to grab another vine, it fell away from his hand, leaving him momentarily unbalanced. It had been one of the vines laid across the others without being secured to anything. A trap. Oops. He righted himself just in time to avoid tipping, holding tight to three other vines. This was the widest they got—Maiz could see that this was the last point where he could easily choose which of the three trees to move to. After this the vines began to converge again on each tree’s branches.

From this distance, only a few hundred meters or so away, Maiz could see that the trees were all massive, much taller than the one he had been climbing earlier. He hadn’t bothered to worry about choosing which of the trees to climb to--he planned to visit all three. Presumably he would get some advantage from doing so, and if not it didn’t matter much; there didn’t seem to be a time limit for the test.

In a few more minutes of--more careful--climbing, Maiz reached the leftmost tree. He was near the top of the gargantuan plant, and its huge amount of leaves and branches made seeing out much past them rather difficult. Maiz spent a few moments catching his breath, then looked around carefully. What am I supposed to do? He began to look around, trying to find some other indication of what to do. He even checked the trunk of the tree again in case there was another arrow giving him directions. There wasn’t, but as he looked up and down the trunk, he saw something odd nestled in the branches above him.

It was a pair of black boots. Huh. They looked to be extremely well made, but he couldn’t see anything else unusual about them from that distance. Oh well. Maiz could guess that there wouldn’t be a pair of boots stuck in the branches of this tree for no reason. He began to climb up the tree to attempt to take them.

This time climbing the tree was a much more difficult proposition. Maiz had to stop several times to rest, analyzing ways to use the sparse handholds to ascend up to the level of the boots. Every time he could get up a few meters, but found himself with all of the handholds just out of reach. He could see the small branch he felt sure he was meant to grab onto, but even stretching with all of his might, he couldn’t reach it. Riala, watching him from below, hadn’t said anything. He had to do this on his own.

He took a moment to rest as he considered. Why did this test have to be so hard? But even as the thought crossed his head, he answered his own question: weak people have no business holding power.

Fine. Flexing his knees, Maiz felt the power of his body in a way he hadn’t before he’d gained his Dexterity points, and jumped. The branch beneath him had sprung slightly with his jump, giving him extra power, and he was suddenly launched farther up than he’d expected. Luckily, he managed to react quickly, grabbing two handholds and bracing his feet on the trunk. Holding himself up was extremely difficult, but with a grunt of effort he managed to use the last bit of momentum from the jump to pull himself upwards, getting his foot on the small branch and stabilizing himself.

“Nice job!” Riala called from below.

“Thanks!” Maiz was quite proud. As he took a minute to rebalance himself, he noticed the flashing green ‘N’ in the corner of his vision again. The symbol for his Notification Sheet. That was odd, considering he hadn’t been fighting. Frowning slightly in confusion, Maiz opened the Sheet.

You have learned the skill Climbing!

You have improved Climb to Rank 2! +5 exp (15/40 exp to next rank)

You have improved Climb to Rank 3! +5 exp (20/40 exp to next rank)

You have learned the skill Jump!

Interesting. As far as Maiz knew, people of most titles could learn skills like Climb and Jump. They were not restricted in the same way as more powerful skills often were. What was surprising was that he had apparently increased the rank of his Climb skill during his ascent of the first tree. Maiz had assumed that the Seeker title functioned like a normal combat title, which would only allow experience gain and skill ranking through combat. Even non-combat titles only increased in rank when skills were used in a relevant profession. Perhaps Maiz shouldn’t have been surprised, considering that the Seeker title appeared to be designed for this trial. It made some sense that using any skill to complete its challenges would count towards his ranks. Either way, it was a welcome boon, though apparently the benefits from learning the skills were minimal for now.

Continuing on, Maiz found it fairly easy to get to the boots from there, though he almost fumbled them when he stretched up to extricate them from the tangle of branches. He was standing on a rather large branch, and it was fairly easy to keep his balance as he examined the boots more closely. They had faint lines traced into the soles, indicating that they were enchanted somehow.

“Riala, can you tell me what these do?”

“Uh, no. But I can say that they’re safe to put on!” She sounded apologetic again, but Maiz decided to take her words at face value. Unlacing his own cheap leather shoes, Maiz set them beside him on the branch, and put his feet into the enchanted boots. They fit perfectly, which was unsurprising to Maiz at this point. He had been past the point of true surprise since he found himself in this green hell. Lacing the boots up, Maiz didn’t notice any change in himself or his surroundings, so he supposed that the enchantment had not activated yet. Items like these were fairly rare, but he knew from reading that most enchantments needed some sort of condition to occur before they activated.

Cautiously, Maiz stood up. Nothing. Making sure he had a hand on the trunk of the tree and could see a few branches below to grab just in case, he kicked a foot out. Nothing. What is the enchantment on these things? Maiz thought back to how he had obtained the boots. Perhaps their function was intended to enhance some skill he’d already demonstrated. Climbing? How could a pair of boots help me climb? But was there anything else special that he’d done to get them? Oh. Jump.

Maiz looked up. He could see several branches he could grab onto, should his theory prove correct. Bending his knees, he recalled exactly the feeling he’d had when he had made that first leap minutes before, activating his new Jump skill. But as he pushed of the branch, it bent down much farther than last time, and he flew into the air.

Maiz felt a moment of shock as he saw the branches he’d meant to grab pass him on his way up. Hells. He had a flash of insight and threw his arms up above his head an instant before he registered a sharp pain in his forearms, and his ascent came to an abrupt halt. He’d struck a branch of the gigantic tree, but luckily he had already been slowing down before he hit. Not so fortunately, he also managed to smack several branches with his body as he fell back down, breaking several smaller ones, until his torso slammed into a massive branch and he finally stopped. A groan escaped Maiz’s lips, and his heart belatedly began to hammer, the feeling of panic having been too slow to affect him while he was in the air.

“Are you okay?” Riala was suddenly also on the same branch as Maiz, putting a hand on his shoulder. Her voice was full of concern, without a hint of its usual exuberant mirth. She gently but swiftly rolled Maiz over, examining his head and chest for injuries. At several spots on his chest Maiz felt flashes of pain as her hands felt at them. “This is all my fault, I’m so sorry!”

Another inarticulate groan was Maiz’s only response. He opened his eyes slightly to see Riala’s eyes glowing brightly. Her voice took on that same ominous quality it had in the glade. “I take responsibility for this damage. It occurred because I failed to properly execute my duties, and I shall repair it so that the Seeker may continue the test.”

There a sudden deep warmth permeating Maiz’s body, and then a flash of ice cold, and... he felt perfectly fine. He did not have so much as a headache. Blinking, he stood up, looking at Riala.

“I feel like I should be angry at you.” But Maiz didn’t actually feel anything but completely calm. At peace. Probably an effect of the healing.

Riala’s face flushed slightly, the pink showing more easily on her pale skin than it did for anyone he‘d met before. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d do that until we got to the next bit in the test, but it was stupid of me not to realize that you’d want to figure out what the boots did.”

“Yeah, probably.” Maiz rubbed his chest absently, though the shooting pain had vanished. “I didn’t know you could heal me like that though.”

“Well I was the one who said the boots were safe. In my professional judgement, I caused your injuries, so I was allowed to heal them! Also, they weren’t fatal, which meant that if you’d just laid there long enough you would have recovered. This was faster.”

“All right.” That meant that Maiz couldn’t rely on her to heal him of any mortal injuries, or at least any injuries he caused himself. Wait. Suddenly Maiz’s artificial calm vanished. “Hey! That was absolutely terrifying, why would you say those Massahn-touched boots were safe?”

Riala winced. “Well, you see, most people don’t actually test out the boots until they get to the next part of the test.”

“What? That’s ridiculous! Why would you wait to find out what a pair of potentially dangerous magic items do until after you use them to climb a gigantic tree?”

“Um, well I don’t think they realize that the boots are magical.”

“That makes even less sense! What exactly do they think a pair of boots stuck in a huge gods-damned tree in a gods-damned magical world are?”

“Uh, usually they say something like ‘wow, those boots look really nice, my feet were starting to hurt.’”

Maiz threw up his hands in exasperation, and then steadied himself against the trunk of the tree as he almost fell off the branch. “Whatever. Will the boots activate if I just take a step the wrong way?

“Nope! They only activate if you use the Jump skill!” Riala appeared to have decided that answering Maiz’s questions about the boots was not cheating, for which he was grateful.

That’s good news, at least. “And how exactly am I supposed to avoid breaking my legs when I land?”

“Well, if you land on your feet, the boots will absorb the energy from your impact!”

“Oh.” Maiz supposed it made sense that the boots also tested his Dexterity by making sure he could land the jump properly, but he thought the penalty for failing to do so was more than a little harsh. “Do they do that even if I don’t use the jump skill beforehand?”

Riala frowned. “No, they have to be active in order for the enchantment to work.”

That was disappointing, because Maiz had been hoping he could use the boots to simply hop back to the level of the net, but he wouldn’t risk another disaster by Jumping to activate the boots. Giving Riala a grunt of acknowledgment, Maiz began his climb back down.

In only a few minutes he was back on the net, carefully balancing as he made his way to the next tree. He had considered Jumping to the next tree, but he didn’t think that he could make it that far and there was no reason to risk it. His earlier jump had been cut short, but Maiz suspected the boots let him jump something like a dozen meters--an incredible height, but not enough to get close to the second tree. Besides, he was becoming quite proficient at moving atop the vines, meaning that in only a quarter of an hour he was already at the middle tree in the line.

This time as he stood on a sturdy branch to survey his surroundings, Maiz was surprised to see that the portion of the tree that he had been unable to see till then, the part that faced away from his starting point, was completely bare except for a single long branch. He quickly made his way to that side so he could get a better look at the scene in front of him.

This area of the forest was completely devoid of the canopy that covered the rest of it. Instead of massive trees with branches swaying in the breeze, there was a series of wooden poles spaced far apart and forming a path to what looked like another tree in the distance. The ‘poles’ looked to be flattened trunks with the branches stripped away--they were wide enough for three or four people to stand on without difficulty. They were also spaced too far apart to reach either by stepping or leaping. At least, not without the help of the boots.

Looks like this is the way forward. But Maiz wondered what he would find at the rightmost tree if he went there. There were two possibilities: either the tree would hold some item like the boots that would help him later in the trial, or it was a trap of some sort. Considering that the test likely wouldn’t present a trap that was impossible to circumvent, Maiz decided to check what the last tree had to offer.

As he made his way back, Riala spoke up for the first time since the disaster with the boots. “What are you up to?”

Stepping back onto the vines, Maiz answered. “I’m just going to check the last tree before I move on.”

“Oh.” Maiz hadn’t expected her to tell him anything about the third tree, as it was definitely part of the test. But then, he heard her voice again behind him. “Um, you shouldn’t do that.”

“What?” Maiz stopped, his body splayed across the vine web, and looked back at Riala.

“Yeah, there’s a… trap there. A, uh, monster called a leafling. It’ll attack you when you’re climbing or something and try to knock you off the branches.” She sounded extremely uncertain, even frightened as she said the words. Her face was flushed, and her glowing eyes were wide.

“Thanks…” Maiz said in a voice almost as unsure. “Riala, why are you telling me this?”

“I just… I feel bad! I mean, you’ve been working so hard ever since you got here, and I haven’t given you any help! I totally could have told you more about the tests before we started, but I just wasn’t sure what I was allowed to say! And this whole time, I’ve basically been using you to try and get out of here, but you’ve been so nice! You asked me about me! No one has ever done that, not since I first became a Judge. Father, no one’s talked to me in a literal age! I felt like, I don’t know, I should repay you somehow.” Her voice, which had been grown stronger during her initial outburst, trailed off at the end.

Maiz was almost speechless. “Riala, I… thank you.” He felt a stinging in his eyes. “This really means so much to me: I haven’t had many people to talk to either, and no one’s done anything remotely nice to me in the last few years before you.” He felt a few tears leak down his face, and he turned away from Riala, breathing deeply to control himself.

He half-expected Riala to say something else, but she let him get ahold of himself first. After a few minutes, Maiz felt better, and he awkwardly turned himself around on the web so that he was facing Riala again.

“Maiz?” She spoke tentatively.

“Yeah?” Maiz replied, his voice soft.

“Is your father cruel to you?” The question was delivered in a near whisper.

“What? No!” Maiz was stunned out of both his happiness at Riala’s gesture and his melancholy over his own words. “Why would you ask that?”

“I’m sorry! I mean, you just said that no one has done anything nice to you and--”

“--my father is dead.” Maiz interrupted. The words came out easily, perhaps because of the shock of her question. Moreover, Maiz felt close to Riala, like she was his friend. He could share this with her.

“What?” Riala’s face registered surprise, but she listened attentively as Maiz went on.

“I didn’t finish the story earlier. That noble house, the Sharir, they weren’t content just competing with my father for customers. My father… started losing shipments from the North. I remember seeing him worrying over it, more and more as time went on. He had to take out loans from different traders to get any stock because of how many books never made it to him.” Maiz paused for a second, taking a deep breath. “Then, after that had gone on for a while, and my father didn’t have enough money left to pay off his debts, they bought all of it up.”

“Wait, I’m sorry, could you explain what that means?” Riala asked gently.

“Well, he didn’t have debt with just one person: he borrowed some from almost every merchant in the city. But in Caelos, it’s legal to buy someone’s debt even if you’re not the person who originally gave out the loan.” Maiz hands were clenched tightly to the vines he was sitting on. “So the Sharir bought up all of his debt, then demanded he pay it back immediately. Of course, he couldn’t.”

Riala’s face was a mask of tension and sympathy; she was extremely wrapped up in the story.

“The Sharir are fairly powerful in the city, certainly more than my father was. They were able force my father into bondage to pay off the debt, and they claimed that, in order to keep him from running away, they would need to keep me in prison until the debt was paid.”

Now Riala’s face showed a hint of puzzlement, but before she could even open her mouth Maiz continued.

“The thing is, the Sharir are known for their debtors prisons. A healthy man with fifty Constitution couldn’t survive a year in one of them. My father requested them to put him in the prison and me in bondage to pay off the debt.” At this point, the tears were streaming freely down Maiz’s face, but his voice remained steady. “He died in two weeks. A disease, they said.”

It felt like there was an oppressive silence around the pair of them as his last words disappeared into the air. Maiz couldn’t hear the forest sounds of small creatures climbing up and down the trees, or of birds chirping as they flew above. Riala was saying something, but he wasn’t listening. He was remembering the day, three years ago, when a short man with a messenger bag barged into the scribe’s office where he worked as a slave, looked at him, and said ‘Your father is dead’ before leaving.

No one else had said a word to him that day. Just ‘your father is dead.’ The other scribes hadn’t looked up from their work as Maiz cried beside them.