I manage to win a game of magical checkers, only to find the next stage being a massive pit. Literally. As soon as the game of magical checkers ended, the ground fell away in front of me and beside me as a wall rose up behind me, revealing a giant pit. I have only the single square tile to stand on.

Even when I extend my [Light Orb]s forward, I cannot see the end of the pit, and I cannot find its sides, bottom, or top, either. There's only two things I can think of for this, either create a stone path myself or fly across.

I opt for the latter, summoning [Flight Wind] to carry me across the pit. A few times, I try to fly down and up some, but never find the bottom. I'm also not entirely sure I return to level with where I'd started, but that's fine. Chances are pretty good I'll come to a wall eventually – unless this is designed to have a single platform for me to land on, hidden somewhere.

If that's the case, then I'm screwed, but I might have been even before moving my position. At least, if it's just a platform I need to find.

Almost twenty minutes of nonstop flight passes before there's a chance, a wall of lightning straight ahead of me. I'm so glad Silvia told me about a trick to dealing with such things.

Activating [Lightning Infusion], I feel my body become energized. Sparks dance off my skin and hair, damaging my shorts and boots as I continue my flight forward. This spell is normally used to speed up one's movement and reaction time while also making one's touch electrifying, but it also works for countering lightning.

It's a Tier V lightning spell, and only advanced lightning mages know it. At least, according to the tomes Silvia had on lightning magic.

This wall of lightning could probably be dealt with another way, but I pass through it with this method rather than trying to find another way. The lightning wall is only half a foot thick, and after I see that I'm clear, I deactivate [Lightning Infusion]. Even at Level 10, that spell drains me like crazy.

Only a hundred feet from here is the end of this stage, a wall dead-ahead. I fly over to the wall, then fly upwards until the wall stops, becoming a flat space stretching forward. It's only fifty feet across, stone walls to the sides. They stretch far, and this chamber is only fifty feet tall.

I might have needed to fly for quite awhile if I wasn't lucky to have found it immediately.

Landing on the platform, I assess the wall straight ahead. Unlike the others, it's not made of stone. No, this wall is made of ice, and my attempt at incinerating it fails.

Flicking my wrist, I try to destroy it with [Air Slash]es, [Air Bomb]s, [Fireball]s, and even [Air Spear]s. The wall of ice takes every attack without damage.

Is it not the way through?

I attempt to breach the other walls, but nothing happens. The wall of ice must be the way through. My hunger and exhaustion isn't helping matters, either. These last couple of stages didn't take long by themselves, but that first stage was time-consuming.

On top of that, I was constantly walking and moving during that, adding physical exhaustion. All of the spellcasting I've been doing since has added on mental exhaustion. There's also the fact that I haven't eaten since breakfast, which now feels like forever ago.

If I don't figure out how to move on to the next stage, I'll definitely starve to death.

What were the odds of me making it to the chamber so fast? There might be others of them, with this one being a dummy.

Laying on the ground, I spread my arms and legs out and close my eyes. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe all I really needed to do was just wait for the Slip to end and make it through. Sure, the monsters are getting tougher and tougher and I might need more powerful to make it through, but that's not a guarantee.

That's only a theory. It's entirely possible I could make it through the Slip without gaining another Level. After all, it's not as if anyone else in the world is as powerful as I am during Slips. This was only so that I could help deal with potential threats better.

Now I'm stuck in a trial that could quite literally kill me. Hungry. Exhausted. I just want to sleep now, but I should get up and leave. I should try to find another chamber. But what if there isn't another, and it takes me hours to find this one again? Even if I use pillars to mark my passage, there's no telling how large this wall is nor how far I'd have to search to know for sure if there are other chambers or not.

If only that mysterious boy deity could help me out here.

"I'm sorry, Dad, Mom," I whisper as I feel tears welling up. "I tried everything I could think of. I wanted to get back home, to get powerful enough to do it on my own. But I'm going to die here. I can't think of anything else. I'm sorry. I'll… try to send you a sign from the afterlife. Is there even an afterlife?"

Tears start to flow a little as I talk. This really is hopeless, isn't it? I was stupid, thinking I should keep getting stronger to forge a way home on my own.

In an effort to keep the despair from filling me, I draw my [Light Orb]s in close and start manipulating them, shifting their forms to keep myself distracted. I really can't think of another way to get through the…

What if I tried something that all the books Silvia has on Rank Advancement Trials is impossible? An [Archon] is an impossible mage, so it would only make sense that something which seems impossible can be solved by doing something that is normally impossible.

I sit up and approach the wall of ice. Rather than attempting to damage it or force my way through, I manipulate the ice. Silvia's books all say that it's impossible to manipulate the Trials' walls, floors, and ceilings, as well as impossible to damage them unless you're supposed to be able to for that particular spot.

That's why I didn't think of this first. My attempt works, too, the wall of ice pulling forward, a passage forming through the one-foot-thick wall into another room. I step through, the wall closing up behind me before the ice turns entirely to stone.

The moment it's done, the entire room fills with water. It doesn't pour in, it doesn't fall out of the ceiling, it doesn't rise up from the ground. All at once, the room is full of water, the ground beneath my feet gone.

Startled, I lose hold of my spells and struggle for breath. A few moments pass before I manage to create a [Water Barrier] around my head, a couple of smaller [Air Orb]s inside of it to ensure I can continue to breathe. Conjuring up my five [Light Orb]s once more, I spread them out and take a look around.

Something about this water disturbs me, and I cast [Air Armor] just in case. After a few tweaks, it gives me the same effect as my [Air Orb]s, so I dismiss those and the [Water Barrier]. They're no longer needed, allowing me to focus on my surroundings and retain this defense.

The water is clear, but everything in the distance is dark, as if there's no source of light other than my magic. [Air Scan] doesn't work here, so I disable it and contemplate figuring out the water version of it. Altering a spell to a new element isn't too difficult, so I decide to invest a few minutes into learning [Water Scan] and raising it up to Level 10.

Alright! I should probably stop letting myself sink downward.

Swimming, I begin exploring in the direction that I'm pretty sure is up, but may not actually be. Every time I stop to rest, I find that whatever direction is above my head is now 'up', and I'm sinking the opposite way. It takes me a few attempts to realize that this isn't going to stop, either.

Now I have no idea which way I'm going, nor how I'm supposed to get out of here. I'm also really exhausted, so I decide to just allow myself to sink. And sink. And sink… for almost twenty minutes. That gives me a little bit of time to recover, but there's no difference in my surroundings. I try swimming upwards until my arms give out, and there's still no change in my surroundings.

"What the hell?" I ask.

This stage is impossible!

No sooner do I think that does something pass through the edges of my [Water Scan]. I couldn't make out what it was as it barely entered and was gone soon after, but I dim my [Light Orb]s and them in closer to reduce how bright things are here. As I do that, I begin swimming in that direction, pushing my burning arms further. I'm halfway there when it enters my range again, this time behind me.

This time, more of it enters my scanning range and I make out a head – it's a sea serpent roughly five feet in diameter and from what I can tell as it passes by, it's about a hundred feet in length.

The beast also charges straight for me this time, and I immediately start shooting [Air Spear]s at it. Shifting its body, the sea serpent dodges most of the attacks. A few of them glance off its scales, but I can make out blood clouding the water some.

As soon as the beast is within my visual range, I use water magics to pull me to the side, launching more [Air Spear]s at the side of the beast. Most of them embed into it, breaking and turning to bubbles after sinking most of their heads into it. Blood fills the water some more, and I continue my assault, sending [Air Razor] bombs at it as the beast continues to swim by.

When it makes another attempt at charging me, the beast opens its maw and my instincts tell me to dodge so I do. A pressurized blast of water shoots forward, narrowly missing me as I feel the temperature of the water increase.

Thank goodness my [Air Armor] is protecting me. Even through it, the heat is quite high.

I attempt to send more [Air Spear]s in the direction of the beast, but its swims away, only a few of them connecting to it.

"Tch!"

Its third attempt at attacking is another forward charge, this time from my left. I pretend to not notice it until almost the last moment. Then, I use water magics to propel me away as I use a [Light Bomb] on the area. The beast screams as the water fills with a blinding light, only a small application of [Shadow Magic] over my eyes preventing me from becoming blinded as well.

Manipulating the water, I pull myself to the beast's side as it screeches and flails. With how dark the water is here, it didn't surprise me that the beast was sensitive to light. My [Light Orb]s kept it from attacking me, up until I dimmed them. It probably couldn't see me due to how bright they were before.

Thrusting my hands forward, I send a multitude of [Air Spear]s at the side of the beast, casting another [Light Bomb] to blind it further as it starts to recover from the first one. After the third round of attacks, the stage ends.

With the water suddenly vanishing, my body falling. I can see the ground a few hundred feet below and rapidly approaching, and I immediately cast [Flight Wind] to catch myself. My descent stops fifty feet from the ground, and I lower myself down and land.

The moment my feet touch the ground, everything changes. Rather than a dark cave or space with just a floor, I'm in a field.

A field of flowers of all sorts of types and colors. There's a clear blue sky above, a sun at noon's peak. As I look around, there's nothing but fields of flowers and hills as far as the eye can see, except a single item: a tree.

This one looks like an enchanted tree, only twenty feet in diameter and more than a hundred feet in height.

Cautious, I approach it while removing a small portion of my [Air Armor]. The air smells sweet here, but not sickeningly sweet. I don't detect any changes in my mind or exhaustion, but I close my [Air Armor] up once more.

My exhaustion may have kept me from noticing a change. It also kept me from thinking that was a stupid idea. Could this be a rest zone? There doesn't seem to be an immediate threat or challenge, and the tree is just a large enchanted tree.

Curious but hesitant, I place a hand against the tree, removing the section of [Air Armor] from my hand. Nothing happens, so I send a pulse of Mana into the tree, as was needed in order to enter the trial.

[Archon] First Rank Advancement Trial completed! You may once again earn Experience. Rewards are now available for you to choose from. View Reward Choices Rest

This is it? I'm done with the Trial? That was… significantly shorter than I'd expected. Far less hazardous, too. Sure, I was exhausted and risked starvation, but… how could it be over? Hell, that final fight was way too easy!

"How easy or difficult the trial is," a voice says from behind me. "Can vary from person to person."

I turn around to find Maztlit standing there, dressed in black shorts and a violet sleeveless, his sneakers black with violet accents and laces. This time, his outfit doesn't shift or alter like it did when I saw him in town.

"It only does that when I manifest in the mortal plane," he tells me as I disable my [Air Armor]. "The space used for the Rank Advancement Trials is… different. Because of that, my outfit remains stable throughout rather than shifting through the varieties of the world."

"That's not exactly an outfit from Yggril," I say before remembering that I'm not supposed to just talk with the gods when they simply appear.

I'm too confused by his appearance, though.

"It is, actually," he says. "Yggril had clothes like these in the time of the Ancients. And that rule is only in place for when I'm on the mortal plane. Every person who completes a Rank Advancement Trial meets us in this zone. You're an [Archon], so I chose to come. Should Terrence complete his, it will be Aizdelin for him due to his love of fire and devotion to my son."

"Aizdelin is your son?"

"The seven Elemental Gods are my children, yes," he nods. "And before you ask, I am not allowed to discuss your arrive on Yggril. I've already bent the rules enough, we're only supposed to discuss the Rank Advancement Trial."

Just telling me about the Elemental Gods being his sons bent the rules enough. I guess the Shrine of Illusions really is the best way for me, then.

"It did seem too easy," I tell Maztlit. "What did you mean, that the difficulty differs from person to person?"

"Let's begin with the first stage," he gestures, an a visual of me attempting to complete it appears. "Contrary to what you thought, you spent six hours in there. Six hours wandering around, creating pillars and being hungry. The exit always existed in the same spot, but it could only be passed through in one of two ways.

"You went with the more 'normal' way," Maztlit tells me. "Which is to figure out where the exit is and pass through. Had you extended the distance between the markers by a little bit, however, you could have ended up wandering for even longer."

"I could have?" I ask.

"Yes," he nods. "The exit was a five-foot gap in the looping realm. One [Archon] spent a full day in just that stage because her distance was too off to allow her to find the exit. Another starved to death in that stage."

"Oh," I say. "So if I'd made the distance different, or had started off, I'd have not found it with that method."

"Correct," he says. "If you knew dimensional magics, you could have used that to detect the anomaly in the loop and walked through it – or teleported through."

"So this tests not just our elemental magics, but others?" I ask, and the god nods. "But the fire stage didn't really do that."

"It doesn't necessarily test them all," he says as the visual changes to my attempt at completing that stage. "But you certainly wouldn't have passed fire checkers if you didn't know how to create fires. You knowing the rules to normal checkers helped you out with passing it. You were correct in your assumption that the punishment for incorrect placements would have created worse pain each time. Ten failures, and you'd be dead. Losing, you'd be dead."

I'm glad I didn't fail that game of checkers. Lyssa really will tease me when she finds out.

"For the flight stage," he says. "There was exactly one exit. Several [Archon]s died without ever finding it, having run out of Mana and fallen to their deaths – or soared too far down or up to find it before they did. And that wall of ice? Could only be bypassed in one of two ways."

"Manipulating the ice," I say. "Which is counter-intuitive due to that not normally being possible for a Trial-made thing, or teleporting past?"

"Correct," he says. "And some [Archon]s have failed that stage because of it, starving to death there. A few even through themselves off the edge because of their despair."

I'm glad I didn't get that far.

"Finally," he says. "The water stage. The reason Silvia was insistent that Terrence learn [Air Armor] was because that's a known stage for Tier IVs with the basic elements. It occurs around seventy percent of the time."

"Wait," I say. "That was a stage that can occur for even a Tier I?"

"All of them were," he tells me.

"…what?"

"The test for an [Archon]," he says. "Pulls from the other tests. The first stage you faced is an uncommon one for those with earth-affinities, showing up more often at higher Tiers. Your third stage shows up around eighteen percent of the time for someone with both air and water affinities. Twenty-four percent of the time if they're a Tier IV."

"Oh," I say. "So the tests are basically a pool of tests, and they tend up randomized?"

"For the most part," he says. "Though the tests for [Archon]s are usually the same. There can be deviations."

"Oh," I say. "Okay."

"Now," he says as the visual changes to the final stage. "For the last stage. The beast usually waits until the mage is exhausted. Then, it strikes, taking advantage of their exhaustion to challenge their abilities. Among [Archon]s, the danger level is higher."

"Because we're going to have the lights," I realize.

"Because you're going to have the lights," he confirms. "And so the beast stays away. This results in you becoming even more exhausted as you undertake that stage of the Trial. A few [Archon]s have died because they passed out from exhaustion due to their lights keeping the beast at bay. You cannot win that stage until it's dead, either."

"Okay," I say. "So normal people have stages where they can't see?"

"Sometimes," he says. "Other than that water stage, all of them have a light source for non-[Archon]s."

So normal people aren't screwed because they can't see.

"Alright," I say.

"Now that the review is done," he tells me as the view of the challenge fades away. "I'll let you go back to your choice. Before I part with you, I do wish you luck with the Second Rank Advancement Trial, should you do it. It's not really necessary for you to undertake it, but I do wish you luck if you do. Goodbye, Reid."

Maztlit vanishes, and I face the tree once more. I place my hand on it and send a pulse into it, then accept to look over my reward choices.

There are a total of thirty-nine items that I can pick from, and each one has a point value of 1 to 13. I can choose items up to a maximum of 13 Points total, meaning I can choose between one and thirteen items.

As I go through the list, trying to decide what I want, an item at the very bottom, worth 13 Points, catches my attention. Maztlit's words about the Second Rank Advancement Trial comes back to me, and I can't help but wonder if he was trying to tell me something.

Something relating to my rewards… and my goal. However, he couldn't outright say it because of the rules he didn't want to bend or break further.

I select that item and confirm it as my reward, and a moment later, I find myself back in the plaza.