The city of Nerosal had experienced much during its existence. Long before the succession wars, back when it was a small hamlet between domains, people used to go there to smuggle, trade, or settle duels without fear of breaking laws or arrangements. As it grew into a city, it changed owners many times, but the principle remained—almost anything was allowed in Nerosal, and as long as it didn’t threaten the province or the empire, people didn’t mind rules being bent or broken. That was one of the reasons that the awakened underground was allowed to exist, as long as they didn’t stir things too much. It was also the reason why the Order’s curates allowed two people to participate in the awakening trial, provided the right price was paid.

Falkner was all too happy to pay the twenty gold coins, despite already being at level ten. For that reason, as the curate explained, he would only be able to observe while Dallion proceeded with the trial. Given that they had already been together on two missions while at the guild, Dallion didn’t see any logic, but that was what they had agreed to so… At the end of the day it was Falkner’s money and he could do whatever he wanted with it.

“Have you been to an awakening shrine before?” the curate guiding them asked.

“A few times back home,” Dallion replied. “It was very different from this, though.”

The inside of the shrine was even more magnificent than the outside. The blue marble was covered in thousands of strange symbols, as if someone had attempted to recreate the script from the Matrix but ended up doing something much better.

Had the ruined awakening temple near Dherma looked like this once? If so, it had to have been centuries ago, at the very least. The main corridor broke into seven more, then into seven again, ending in a small chamber with an altar inside. As they were moving in, Dallion passed dozens of people, all awakened just as him. Each was escorted by a guide from the Order, dressed in cyan garments. Looking at them, Dallion thought about Cleric. Hopefully, the success of the hunt had made things easier for him. Or maybe he had been sent to help another noble track down some other beast of the wilderness. There was just no way of knowing.

“You’re allowed one attempt,” the curate said with the tone of a bored bureaucrat. “The attempt commences once you put both hands on the altar and awakened the item. You are allowed to take the observer with you, but he is only to observe. Breaking that rule will result in serious body harm.”

Dallion arched a brow.

“Err, I meant that the process will harm you,” the curate quickly clarified. “Also, it recommended that you don’t use echoes. Every now and again the shrine ends the trial abruptly when there are echoes involved.”

That was good to know. At least Dallion was warned not to rely on Nox during the trial.

“Anything else?” Dallion asked out of habit.

The question must have been quite unusual for this world, for both the curate and Falkner stared at him as if he had a booger hanging from his nose.

“Err, no, nothing else,” the curate explained. In all likelihood this was the most interesting thing he had seen all day, even if it was shocking for some reason. With a slight now, he moved to the side, letting Dallion proceed.

Grab the Altar, Dallion thought. Making sure he was in contact with his harpsisword and the armadil shield, he stepped forward.

“Here.” He offered Falkner his left hand.

When the boy grabbed hold of it, Dallion put his right hand in the central part of the altar. The realm around him changed.

You are in a medium Awakening shrine.

Complete the trial to improve your destiny.

So this was a medium one? Dallion thought. Looking around, it was no different from the one he’d been to before, only larger. Eleven columns surrounded him this time, indicating the doorways to the trials. The sky was still the same, filled with the outlines of the seven moons. For some reason the moons looked much more colorful, although that could also have been a result of Dallion’s improved perception.

“Wow,” Falkner said, even more bewildered than Dallion.

“First time in one of these?” Dallion couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah. It’s a real dump. You can’t even see the sky properly. And the doorways—” the boy pointed in the distance “—they’re not even complete. I didn’t know there were shrines like this in cities still.”

Dallion felt so out of place. Maybe now was not a good time to mention that the shrine he had been to previously was a complete ruin.

“How do you even know where to go?” Falkner asked.

“They change when you move closer.”

Dallion stepped directly towards the column to his right. As expected, an arch formed with the letter X on it. The tenth trial. After this, he would have what it took to step through the gate and beyond his level cap.

“You coming?” Dallion looked over his shoulder.

“Can’t. Observers aren’t allowed to step through the doorways. I’ll still be here watching, though. Don’t worry about it.”

It’s your money, Dallion thought, then took out his harpsisword and stepped across the threshold. The moment he did, everything around him changed. It was the shrine’s way to present each battle in an entirely different environment. Mentally Dallion had prepared himself for ending up in a field of smoke and fire. Instead, he was in a peaceful meadow that stretched as far as the eye could see.

“Nice! It’s the same as my trial,” Falkner said from behind.

Dallion turned around and saw that the arch was still there, but more importantly, that Falkner could be seen behind him, as well.

“Told you I’ll still be here,” the boy said with a smug smile. “Now good luck. This one is a bit tricky.”

Tricky… Dallion looked at the sky, then at the ground beneath his feet. Given that there were no obvious enemies, it stood to reason that the creature, whatever it was, would either swoop down, or would emerge from the ground like a giant mole. Personally he hoped it would be the former; fighting moles sounded bothersome, not to mention there was no guarantee his music skills would work.

Music, Dallion thought.

As far as he could tell, the only source of emotion was Falkner, pulsing with several blue spots in the chest and head. The ground and the meadow were completely emotionless, wrapped in a faint state of calm.

“Are you sure there are no invisible guardians?” Dallion gripped the hilt of his sword, ready to pull the strings at a moment’s notice.

“I can’t be sure of anything, but that’s not it.”

If there were no invisible guardians, then what could it be? Based on the logic of the past guardians, each guardian was part of the surrounding environment. The sand dragon was in a desert, the slime was on an island… given that Dallion was in a meadow, it was likely that the creature was either an earth elemental of some sword or something linked to plants.

“I’m ready,” Dallion said loudly. “What about you? Are you alright to start this trial?”

The sound of a thousand rustling leaves filled the air. Blades of grass from up from the ground as if plucked by an invisible force, merging together like invisible knitting on a grand scale. After several seconds, Dallion took a step back. He had seen enough of the shape to recognize what he was about to face—the grass had formed the tip of a rather sharp and long horn.

“A unicorn,” Dallion said beneath his breath. “I’ll be facing a unicorn.”

“Close,” Falkner shouted from beyond the archway. “But yeah, pretty much you’ll be fighting that. Remember to keep your distance.”

SHRINE GUARDIAN

Species: Bladicorn

Class: Earth

Statistics: 100 HP

Skills

- Entangle

- Rain of blades

- Charge

Weak spots: Hooves

Bit by bit the parts of the guardian came into existence. The rest of the head was first—far larger than what Dallion had imagined it would be—followed by the neck, shoulders, legs, torso, and finally the tail. No doubt about it, the creature was majestic to the extreme, towering five feet above Dallion. Every part of the body was made of blades of glass merged in seamless fashion. Only the eyes appeared to be made of orange balls of light. Guided by the white rectangle, Dallion looked at the hooves. They were made entirely of hardened dirt.

So those are the weak spots? He thought. They seemed quite solid; Dallion wouldn’t appreciate a kick from that, that was for sure. A majestic calmness resonated throughout the creature, combined with the determination to see the trial through.

“I know a draw isn’t an option,” Dallion said as he attempted to use his music skills on the bladicorn. “But maybe we can wish each other a good fight?” All the attempts to put doubt in the guardian failed. It seemed that creatures could be impregnable against music skills the same way they could against blades.

Stomping on the ground before it, the creature nodded. At least that had gone well.

COMBAT INITIATED

I want to attack and defend, Dallion changed his grip and dashed forward. Fractions of a second later, so did the bladicorn.

Red and green markers appeared on the field, suggesting possible courses of action. If Nil were here, he would probably have advised Dallion to start with a double feign. Given the creature’s size and reach, that was the optimal action to take, and so Dallion did precisely that. Several dozen feet from the charging bladicorn, he swirled to the left, then to the right, then to the left again. The speed at which he did that managed to confuse the guardian. Trying to move his horn to match Dallion, the creature gradually increased the swing until it could no longer target adequately. Taking advantage of the momentary confusion, Dallion leaped in the opposite direction yet again. With a spin, he slammed the side of his enemy with his shield. There was a sound of crunching glass.

That was close, Dallion thought. He suspected there might be something special regarding the blades and was glad not to have scraped against them. A red arc appeared, indicating the perfect angle with which to hit the back hoof. The harpsisword followed it, slicing the target in half.

FATAL STRIKE

Dealt damage was increased by 500%

This was the first time Dallion had dealt a fatal blow. The difference between this weapon and the starting short sword was immeasurable. Even so, it quickly turned out that even such an attack had only decreased the bladicorn’s health by ten percent. While a good start, Dallion knew he couldn’t rely on the same trick twice. From this point on, the guardian would be prepared.

A green semi-sphere appeared around Dallion. Without waiting to find out what was going on, he dashed in the opposite direction. Barely an instant later, blades of grass rained over a large part of the meadow like hail. The only difference was that they had the strength and sharpness of industrial nails.

“Seriously?!” Dallion grunted as he drew his dartbow. Talk about going all out.

It was obvious that defeating a level ten trial guardian wasn’t going to be easy, but the creature’s attitude was very much unlike that of almost any he had seen before, with the possible exception of the grand colossus. Even during the guild exploration jobs, the creatures were scary, sometimes outright terrifying, but they weren’t nearly as aggressive. The bladicorn was putting its all into this fight, as if its life depended on it. And it was at that point that it dawned upon Dallion.

Pausing for a moment, he smiled and uttered the words he never thought he’d utter to a guardian.

“You’re afraid of me.”