“Please proceed,” B-354 made a helpful sweeping gesture with her free hand. The giant claymore didn’t move at all even though she was only pinching the end of the hilt with her fingers.

“I kind of think you mean that other thing,” Amelia said dryly as she considered the construct. The construct had said please, but Amelia really just saw the laser focus that the other woman was using to consider her. The gesture she had made made it seem more of a demand. Instead of please, Amelia only really heard ‘now’.

Amelia ignored the woman and her ridiculously contradictive outfit and eyed the next door. This one was different. The doorway wasn’t dark but openly inviting in a soft and warm sort of way. It was difficult to describe but the golden light that was pouring out seemed welcoming.

“Bonus points for the fog machine on the inside and the smell of cookies…” Amelia muttered. “Am I talking more than I usually do?”

Amelia frowned and stared at B-3. “If I am, it’s your fault for not holding up your end of the conversation.” Amelia lifted her nose and stepped through. The second stage was supposed to be some sort of puzzle so she might as well get this over with so she could log out without angering the almighty system.

Marshaling her courage she stepped through. Despite her mentally preparing herself for some sort of discombobulating or disorienting experience, there was no weird loading sensation. The light faded at the edges of her vision almost immediately like she was simply walking through a fog. A quick look behind her confirmed her suspicion that the door would disappear. It had, the coward.

This new room was small. As small as the living quarters, if you were being kind, that she had been stuffed into with Quark. The walls were bare stone this time, smooth and cool looking like they had been carved directly out of some subterranean system. The floor and ceiling were comprised of the same dark and cool feeling stone. Amelia kind of dug it. The room was one again illuminated. No obvious lights or flame suggested the light was being provided internally through other means. There were no surfaces that suggested the source of illumination, the room was just lit up somehow.

Puzzle room? I don’t see any puzzle. No doors or fixtures or cranks or lever or really anything else. Amelia began to frown as she took another step forward. Almost as if someone was watching and waiting for to have the thought of where exactly this puzzle was, wording began to appear on the wall. Character by character words were formed in a long line going across the wall.

Instead of instructions, Amelia found herself reading another orientation line.

Welcome to your first puzzle and mental trial stage. The puzzles chosen reflect the class and experience of the user. The puzzles will range from word problems to pattern solving. Other forms of puzzles may appear. These puzzles will have a rarity associated with them. If you cannot solve a puzzle you may leave at any time by saying ‘I surrender to the Quester Race’. If you are unable to solve a puzzle of rarity you may ask for the puzzle to be relegated to a normal puzzle without being asked to leave.

Amelia frowned. What was the reward for solving a puzzle with a rarity? Why would she give a crap if they were rare if there wasn’t any difference.

The words began to scroll across the wall again. Amelia’s eye twitched. Someone was watching her expression and trolling her, that’s what was going on. Certainly that had to be it. They were just waiting for Amelia to make a stupid face before answering obvious questions that anyone would have.

Solving a normal quality riddle will allow you to advance to the next stage. Solving a riddle with rarity will provide a special reward of knowledge relevant to the participant based on information gathered from similar participants in the past.

“Hit me,” Amelia finally said after she read the line a few times. It was still pretty vague and left Amelia with a lot of questions. Past participants was a vague enough description. Were they people that had passed the trials? Had they asked to leave? What exactly were the rarity levels themselves? Was she just going to know one was a harder difficulty?

As it grows tall it also grows round.

Proof of the age, from within can be found.

Amelia stared blankly and resisted the urge to ask the surrounding air if this was some sort of sphinx testing. She read it three times and resisted the urge to just answer immediately in case it was some sort of trick question. In fact, to Amelia, the answer seemed so obvious that she feared this was some kind of deception. Was there some sort of special Aspiria creature or construct that was supposed to be the answer?

Amelia finally spoke her answer aloud. [1]

The writing on the wall instantly vanished leaving the surface smooth to the touch once more. The room hummed for a moment and a door appeared on the far wall. Amelia started to walk toward it when there was a slightly loud crashing noise that shimmered throughout the room. The door instantly disappeared before Amelia had recovered.

Writing started to crawl across the wall again.

Calculating past participant response time with current participant response time. Decision reached. Congratulations! You have been selected to have your puzzle room upgraded! Would you like to attempt an uncommon rarity riddle? You may say no and proceed through to the next stage of testing.

“Show me an uncommon rarity then…” Amelia said slowly. She’d feel really dumb if she flunked out of this research facility testing on the second stage. Honestly this was more like the first stage since all she had to do for the first one was listen to the aviator robot motorcyclist knight.

Contained within me are the lives of many,

From Princes and Princesses with riches to Paupers without a penny.

Countries and oceans and lands and mountains are easy to find,

Captured within and free to any with the mind.

Amelia smiled briefly. Was this really the ‘harder’ riddle for her?[2]

[You Have Received A Skill Book Related To Your Job].

Amelia’s grin widened as she put the book in her inventory. Uncommon was pretty good after all. The stick that these Questers used was pretty menacing but their carrot was pretty good too. She wanted to use the book now or look it over but she was being forcibly drawn to the next stage. Apparently they didn’t want her lingering in the puzzle room.

“Probably too much like resting…”

⇹⇹⇹⇹⇹⇹⇹

Amelia was spit out into the next room after having been roughly swallowed by the door in the other room. It felt kind of like having her whole body vacuumed inwardly toward the next room. Though it was weird to admit it, the experience actually wasn’t that bad?

“Halt Knave!” B-354 was standing in front of her and smiling brightly in that artificial way. “Welcome to testing stage 3, the practical combat stage. Please acclimate yourself to the stage and either make your way to the door at the far end of the level, or defeat the opponent contained within. Each time you enter a combat stage you will have thirty seconds starting from the time you enter to acclimate yourself to your surroundings before your opponent is allowed to attack you. Congratulations! Your thirty have ended!”

“Are you kidding me?” Amelia shouted. She jumped to her feet and immediately stopped focusing on B-354. She had been a little disoriented being spit out onto the ground and had spent a good five to ten seconds just re-adjusting her center of gravity. Then she had listened to the stupid construct talk for her remaining time.

Amelia looked around and tried to gather an immediate feel of her surroundings. Her skill Survival Awareness was starting to warn her to the increased likelihood of danger. She had gained the skill on a world where bugs popped out of walls and tried to eat your face, and even though it was useful for when you were traipsing around it wasn’t all that useful for when you knew there was danger anyway.

Amelia frowned as she took in the environment. The space seemed to spread out endlessly around her, almost as if she weren’t in a room at all. She looked behind her but didn’t see a door, or even a wall. The space extended in a flat grassland filled with gravemarkers. Tombstones and aboveground sarcophaguses, half moon headstones and full rectangle space markers, and most all the -- the creatures.

Amelia looked around and saw that in the near endless grassland, or huge cemetery as it was more and more looking like, the space was polluted with statues of creatures. Big creatures, small creatures, land creatures, flying creatures. The largest one that was nearby was a bear that was standing on hind legs, towering over her by two meters or more.

Amelia started to grin. Really? Was this like the puzzle room? Did this Research Facility have any idea who the heck she was? Putting her in a land full of stone statues? It would be more dangerous to her if they were somewhere with same level goblins with sticks and rocks!

While she was feeling superior and much more confident she finally noticed the figure in the black cloak. The hood was drawn over her face so Amelia couldn’t get a good look at her features except for a general sense of a mass of long unruly black hair that was winding its way out from underneath the black fabric on her head.

[Pride - ??]

Pride? Amelia blinked slightly, wondering if the name was powerful or not as she straightened. Her quick study of the person revealed nothing. The figure was faced directly toward her but held no weapon and didn’t seem to have any equipment. Despite the lack of gear and information Amelia started to feel her hackles rise. There was no need to draw this out. Amelia knew exactly what to do.

“[Transfo--”

The bear began to slowly lower itself right next to her.

Amelia whirled around to face it, taking several steps backward in the process of putting space between herself. “[Aura]!” The stat boost immediately made her faster and more agile. A good thing, too, because Amelia had started to trip over the hem of her robe before a better sense of balance filtered through her body.

She turned again and turned, stretching her arm out toward another creature on the field and opening her mouth to yell out the Transform Stone spell. This one was a wolf. It wasn’t Skrilla but it would have to do. The statue shook and shuddered to life, tossing flaked stone from its body.

Amelia lowered her hand after looking at it for half a second. She eyed the wolf as a bunch of thoughts began to clamor in her mind for priority.

Did I use Transform Stone without the spell? Did I unlock it? Profound magic?

The hopeful thought was crushed as the lips of the wolf split open and a snarl tore from its throat. The hair on the body of the wolf began to bristle and become more life-like, immediately losing the lustrous marble glow it had been throwing off moments before.

Okay! Then…

Amelia turned toward the black cloak even as she began running sideways in order to give herself some distance from the wolf and the bear that were shedding their disorientation. Her opponent hadn’t moved from her spot though she had both arms raised. Amelia readied herself to counter or reflect the transform spell but never got the chance.

The area within ten meters seemed to pulse around Amelia and she looked around critically with a growing sense of danger. Every statue around her was coming to life. Her opponent was using profound Transform Stone. Amelia had no idea how to counter it with her abilities as a member of the Order of the Black.

Amelia frowned and looked farther afield.

If I can’t get the one’s close to me I’ll…

Too late.

The ripple appeared to spread to the rest of the field as far as Amelia could see, leaving a strange translucent mirage in its wake as it traveled further and further away.

A quick look revealed that the dark figure was waving an arm casually in a long and sweeping gesture in the direction Amelia had been looking. Then the figure faced her and lifted an arm again. Almost lazily, the sleeves of the cloak slid down from a pale arm to show a fist, a fist which soon revealed a single crooked index finger that seemed to slowly unwind from the rest of her hand to point at Amelia in a damning fashion.

The roar of a bear and the howl of a wolf behind Amelia were enough to make her think that she hadn’t misunderstood the hostility of the gesture.

Amelia stared blankly at the dark figure for a moment and then looked into the distance where the creatures were starting to slowly wake up, the nearest ones faster than the ones further away.

“When danger reared it’s ugly head…” She began to mutter.

Amelia put her hood up and swung the staff under her arm and glared at the dark cloaked figure one last time. Then she picked up the hem of her robe as best she could and started running as fast as she could through the graveyard toward what she believed might be the way out.

At the very least, it seemed like the direction she should be heading since the doorway had spit her out facing that direction.

“...she bravely turned, she bravely fled…” She finished.