After the first encounter with the Stone of Heaven, the borders of the world shifted. Many cities crumbled, while many more rose up to take their place. Shining brightest amongst them was Valheiros, a sanctuary of white cobblestone built by all the human races of Loktharma. Any forlorn souls who wandered here would be greeted with open arms and the promise of equality.

But, as the years went by, that promise was broken.

A race of man called the Solodian claimed that they were the ones who had contributed, and even sacrificed the most for the city in its foundation, therefore it was their birthright to rule it. Their preposterous claim, of course, didn’t sit well with the denizens of Valheiros, especially the Luxomun, people who honored freedom above all else. In an act of blind rage the head of the Luxomun challenged his Solodian counterpart to a brawl, betting their livelihood on the future of Valheiros.

The Luxomun lost.

[. . .]

What followed after was years of darkness. A new law was introduced into Valheiros. Only at night and away from the sights of any Solodian could the other, “lesser” races start their day. Anybody violation of this law would be punished by death. It was because of this that the Solodians also earned the title of “Sunwalkers”, for only they could move freely under the Sun.

As for the once proud and noble Luxomun, they suffered a fate worse than all. Having lost the brawl, they were reduced to a life of slavery and were forced to murder their own brothers and sisters in fighting pits below the city for the entertainment of the Solodian elites.

That was, until the arrival of Guinness, the Liberator.

Excerpt from "The Legend of Guinness"

Melodi Baggardo

After we learned the Stone Guardian's movement sequence, speed, weaknesses, and skills, there isn't much else to do. We deploy our coordinated attacks, and soon we manage to destroy to the last of its armor. Our adversary doesn't have any other surprise, so we slowly chip away its health while staying out of its arms' range. We can take it slow. There's no time limit for this test.

After a while, we reduce the Guardian to its last 100 HP. It retreats back to near the entrance, kneeling against a half-broken ice spike. Eugene is about to barge in for the final slash, but Lek stops the guy.

"He's yielding. No need for rashness," the SC says.

"Neat time to yield, aye?" Eugene huffs as he reaches his hand out to me for a high-five. "After thirty minutes of smashing against the air and losing every single direct combat, the hulking giant decided that he's not going to win this one."

The guardian falls on one knee, his head droops low, his left hand reaches to touch the back of his neck. That's the universal surrendering signal. The simulated dungeon entrance dissolves afterwards, and a clapping Tamara emerges through the dissipating white dust.

"Good job," she says. "You two shows dang good coordination for a pair who never practice exams together. Let's get the last test going then."

We walk to the starting line, and the final test soon rendered: a huge heap of piled rocks that formed the very peak of a mossy hill. I walk forward and Eugene follows. We scramble up the side of the heap of boulders, scrabbling for foothold as we climb. Passing the last step to the peak, we approach a smooth, sheer wall higher than us, with not so much a crevice in sight. Edging our way around the wall, we approached a cave where there isn't a hint of moss on the ground, but instead, charred marks on gray rock.

"Do you smell that?" Eugene sniffs the air. "It smells like smoke and charcoal."

It indeed smells like smoke, with a whiff of alien tanginess weaved in. The inside of the cave lights up with a burst of fire before returning to darkness.

"I have a feeling I won't like whatever we'll face," says Lek, hovering behind Eugene.

I signal for Eugene to walk in after me. The cave floor slants downward and gets more spacious the further we descend.

What lies on the cave floor is a fire dragon. A giant scaly snake with glinting sandstone orange eyes, a barbed crimson tail, that's what it resembles. The creature spots us immediately, but make no move. The test only starts when we enter its lair.

"Where are beds of golden coins that the dragon lies on? Where's the princess taken captive? This dragon sucks."

"Dragons only hoard coins in old books, Eugene. Real dragons take things that are of actual uses to them, like enchantment relics and artifacts."

"That reptile is at least twenty times bigger than you guys," Lek narrows his eyes before flashing the stats.

Name Kleisow Level 542 Breed Dragon Type Fire Health 368,920 Attack 15,455 Endurance 2,012 Speed Enhancement LV 476 Flying LV 500 Fire Breath LV 602 Drake Wisdom LV 304 Tail Swipe LV 558 Blazing Inferno LV 403 Combustion LV 569 Thick Scales LV 345 Flair N/A

Eugene replies, "Yeah. It'd be great to know about the mindset behind the design of these tests. They're like, 'congratulations, you've beaten up some rock! Here's a dragon.' So when are we going to take this dragon on?"

"We don't fight the dragon," I say.

"Then what do we do?"

I point to the dashboard above the stalactiles which says Objective: Take the chalice, then to a shiny golden chalice next to the dragon's tail.

"Wait, what? That's it?" Eugene says.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. This seems. . . deceptively difficult." The dragon is a fair distance away, and it's literally staring at us. There's no point we enter that can shroud ourselves from its vision.

"Ah, yes. We're facing a huge dragon twenty times our size and ten times our level, and you think it's deceptively difficult."

"Let's try the classic distraction tactic. My barriers might hold its attention long enough so you retrieve the cup."

"Sure."

I rush down headfirst, setting up my Sonic Barrier. The dragon takes a deep inhale and ejects a fireball, breaking my barrier in an instant. Red lights ignite all over my body as the fireball pushes me against the cave wall. I grunt as I push myself up, yelling at the dragon, "Is that all you got? Come at me!"

I run across the cave to the opposite side of where the chalice is, seeing Eugene already very near to the dragon's tail. Kleisow releases a Fire Breath, turning its neck to match my movement. I can't feel the heat from the simulated fire, but as long as the lightbulbs aren't illuminating, I'm outrunning it.

I observe Eugene sneaking in behind Kleisow. The creature still seems unaware, and the red-haired swordman is very close to the golden chalice. He reaches out to the chalice as it's within his arm's reach.

Then the dragon's tail moves.

"Beware!" I shout.

As the sweeping tail wallops at Eugene, he bounces into the air, tumbling as the tail swipes just underneath him. He lands with a smirk on his face, reaching the chalice. "All too easy—"

All of a sudden, fire shoots up from around the dragon's body like fountains before wrapping around its scales. The blazing blanket turns into a mini-explosion, tossing Eugene back to where he started. His shoulder slams against the side of the cave.

"What the hell was that?" Eugene clutches his shoulder as he staggers up on his leg.

"That's Combustion," Lek answers. "And you just lost half your health bar."

In a fit of distraction, I let the Fire Breath hit me, but manage to roll behind a boulder to hide from it. I feel an weight douse upon me by the suit: the artificial handicap to mimic the state I'm in when I'm at low HP.

"How much health do I have left?" I yell out to Lek.

"2,000," he answers.

I freeze for a second. Two breaths from the dragon took away 20,000 HP, even with a barrier on?

We still have a chance. We must've worn the dragon out after all that show of stamina. I'm not too far away from the chalice. I can grab it.

I jump out of my hiding spot, aiming for the chalice and nothing else. I'm only ten footsteps away. Eight. Five.

Blazing orange-yellow light envelopes my entire vision, followed by the sound of explosion. I can't see anything; I can't feel the ground I'm standing on. The sound subsides as I fall on a craggy surface, then I make out the rough, reddish outline of something in the middle of blinding whiteness. Then, that outline smashes on my body. It feels like the weight of the world just dropped on me.

A single beep rings out from the part of the suit near my ear. I'm dead.

"Maybe Eugene got the chalice—"

"Yo, you good?" I hear Eugene's voice, then hear his footsteps. It's only then that I can see properly again. In front of me was no cave ceiling, only the inky night sky.

"You died too?"

"Did you really expect me to survive a Blazing Inferno?" He extends his hand and pulls me back to my feet.

That dragon is incredible. It doesn't even need any preparation to execute its skills back to back.

"It's as smart as a hundred Eugenes. There's no way to divert its attention." Lek bobs on Eugene's shoulder as he says.

"I can't fail this! I've passed every other fifth test I've tried. Why does this have such ridiculous difficulty?"

Eugene shrugs. "There are only four different final tests, so the chance is only twenty-five percent, right? You don't need to practice for every scenario, you know. Just be chill and hope that the system doesn't give you the dragon lair."

"It's my promotion test! You can't tell me to just be chill."

"The kid's not wrong," I hear Tamara's voice and turn around to see her walking up to us with a glass of pomegrenate juice on her hand. "The worst thing you can do is overthink yourself. I remembered that one mission I had back when I was raiding a Luxomunian camp in Cheonju tundra. The general entrusted me with leading a hundred-men raid on their food storage at night and plug our flag atop of their camp. The most people I'd led before were two, and they were my cousin, and I was leading them to the local market. I sweated myself to sleep thinking about how I'd mess it up."

"Did you mess up?" Lek asks.

"I did!" She declares with the most cheerful voice ever. "We never successfully raided that camp .But thinking back about it, my hand was shaking when I held our flag. It was probably my anxiety that failed the mission for me, not myself. It wasn't until a year later that the general gave me another mission of the same kind, and I told myself to just wing it. Well, wing it with preparation. It went flawlessly."

Tamara's words set me at ease for a second. She always knows what to say to lift my mood up.

"Still, I need to make sure," I say. "I can't calm down because you tell me to. I can only calm down when I'm sure."

Tamara grows silent for a moment. She glances at the sky and nods at herself. "Did y'all see the things that look like stalactiles to the left and right of the cave ceilings?"

"What about them?" Eugene inquires.

"They aren't stalactiles," she says. "They're secret levers."