Wow, this is exceptionally not good.

What he should have been seeing was a grassy plain when he got through the door, the beast standing at its center and ready to fight the second they were all through, but what he got instead was nothing like what had appeared in Jake’s memories. Instead, he found himself in front of a dense forest, whatever the goal of the floor was being left as a mystery to him as his minds rushed to understand just what had gone wrong, ending with a guess quickly enough, even if the implications of it were terrible. Not just for the floor, but for the trial as a whole.

I’ve been stuck on a false assumption from the start, haven’t I? Galwax’s trial was eleven stories high and had eleven floors, but the towers stretch into the sky despite having five. I thought that was just a side effect to let them be more complex, but that isn’t really what I’d seen the last time, is it? So if that’s not the case and based on what I’m seeing now, this probably means that there’s a range of floors a person can end up on. Shit, if that’s right then who knows if I’ll even be able to put anything I’d seen from Jake to use beyond the first floor? I mean, it makes a bit of sense that there’d be different options since I doubt the aquatic races would be able to do the same floors as the terrestrial ones, but then how many different options did the gods make in the end?

It was a question he wouldn’t be getting an answer to as the others stepped through and he rushed to connect his minds to each of theirs, using his mental symbiosis to force his thought speed skills on them to explain the problem as quickly as he could, not wanting to waste a second when he had no idea about what was to come.

“So isn’t this really bad?” Sachel asked first as they all took it in. “Wasn’t the whole reason we were doing this because you knew what was ahead?”

“It just means we’re back on the same level as anyone else who does a trial,” Steph told her, trying to be practical about it despite the concern tinting her thoughts. “Worrying about it won’t help now, all we can do is keep going.”

She was right of course, they were already on the floor, all they could try to do was make it through.

And then have a serious talk about where to go from here.

Things had just become dangerous enough that his previous confidence had vanished, but he would worry about that later. As things stood, he needed to focus on what they needed to do now, so with that frame of mind he focused entirely on the woods before him.

It seemed like the intention was to go into them, or at least that was how he interpreted it. After all, why have a forest if not to explore? Sure, it could have been another combat-type floor that was hiding whatever beasts they were meant to find, but even if that was the case the exit could still be hiding within it all.

“So then should we explore?” Sonya asked, giving voice to exactly what he was thinking. “If we don’t know what to do and there’s an entire forest right there, that seems like it would be a good starting point.”

Seeing no other choice they all agreed and walked up to the edge of the woods, with edge being the best word to describe how abruptly it started, as if a line had been drawn for it to begin, with the trees, bushes, and other bits of plant life so densely packed that they couldn’t walk shoulder to shoulder if they wanted any chance of squeezing through the trunks.

Without a word Ben went first, not leaving any room for argument as he pushed ahead. As far as he was concerned, he had gotten them all into whatever they would be coming across, he refused to accept the idea that any of the others should face more risk than he would when anything that would happen would be his fault, and to lower the odds further he pushed out his connect as far as it would go, feeling the subtle minds of the plant life for anything he could get, as well as hopefully for any warning there was to be had if anything showed up as they began their trek through the trees.

None of them were comfortable as branches snagged their clothing and cut at their skin, but that was clearly going to be the case from the start. There was barely even any light trickling down from above, creating a cold and cramped atmosphere as they just kept going, waiting for something to happen.

Maybe the trees will start moving and attack? I haven’t felt anything like that from them yet, but it could happen. Come on, this is a life magic trial. There’s got to be something here, so what? Trees are alive, forests are vast ecosystems filled with life, but I’m not seeing or sensing anything else. There doesn’t seem to be any animals or even insects, so how could life magic be used here? Damn it, I’m actually completely at a loss.

No matter how he kept pushing his brain, nothing felt right. There was always the chance the forest had some sort of defense mechanism in it in the event they cut any down, but there wasn’t any real point to that as far as he could see. So maybe it was a time limit of sorts? It was always possible the trees were growing, slow enough that none of them could tell as they moved, but fast enough that if they didn’t get out in a few hours then they’d be trapped within a mass of wood, swallowed by the forest itself.

And my imagination is definitely going to give me nightmares. I guess I’ll at least try to keep an eye out for that.

A few of his minds were pushing his thought speed skills as far as they would go while the rest observed the world in real-time, creating a strange contrast in the way his thoughts met that he did his best to put up with. Having both let him process things in different ways and he would take any small advantage he could get as they went through.

For the first twenty minutes, things seemed fine, marking it as a trial that was sure to build up in his mind. A slow start could mean a rough finish, especially when they still don't know what to expect, but as each passing branch and thorn picked at his few bits of exposed skin, just what they were going to go through became clear to him.

It started small at first, just a bit of a persistent itch that wouldn’t go away that he attributed to the constant feeling of sticks scraping at his exposed hands, but as the feeling changed to one of numbness what they were dealing with exploded in his thoughts as he called out to those behind them.

“Pretty certain we’re being poisoned so you all might want to start treating yourself.”

He tried to sound calm, even as his mind flooded with potential scenarios. If their bodies were being numbed then there was always the chance it would keep getting worse until they collapsed on the ground from the lack of sensation, or else it might keep them from detecting other problems, opening the door to their organs failing without them noticing until it was too late.

Hell, if the floor is poison themed then for all I know the issue isn’t any cuts or scratches I’m getting but pollen instead. This might be bad.

As the others focused on healing themselves, Thera finished and walked up to him, placing her hands on his face to treat him in the same way.

“Did you notice any other symptoms?” He asked her, wanting to get an idea of what was happening. “I noticed a bit of itching before my hands started to go numb so I’m thinking there might be multiple poisons at play.”

“A bit of lightheadedness,” She told him. “Which doesn’t leave us with a lot of options, does it? I’m not good enough with barrier magic yet to protect us with how dense this all is so all we can do is keep going and hope it doesn’t become more than we can take.”

“Not really a fan of that when you consider how trials typically only get worse with time. How’s your mana doing?”

She could only give him a funny look with the question. “Compared to the rest of you combined I might as well have an infinite amount. Why?”

“I’ve got a very fun, very cool idea for how to not have to deal with this. I’m assuming there’s earth beneath all of this?”

He couldn’t actually see any himself, the roots of the plants being too thick and dense and blocking out even the smallest patches of ground, but his girlfriend gave him a confident nod.

“There’s a couple feet of it till it stops, why?”

“Well, miss infinite mana, we’re presumably looking for an exit amongst a forest of poisoned trees. As far as I can see, the quickest way to get through them would be to knock them all down.”

Her eyes widened in understanding and she couldn’t help but break into a smile at the prospect of putting her power to the test like that.

“Sounds like a plan,” She told him before turning to face the others. “And are the rest of you doing okay?”

They could see that Steph was helping to treat Sachel as Sonya focused on herself, but none of them seemed to be in any danger for the time being as Thera went on.

“Okay, I’m going to do something so everyone just watch your head for falling branches.”

It was all the notice they got as she held forth her staff, directing her magic far enough into the distance that she was fairly sure nothing would come down their way as she rolled the very earth the forest was bound to, tearing roots and bringing down dozens of trees in one go as her spell went on, carving a wide path for them to get to and keep going as the others watched the display of sheer power.

“Be on your toes,” Ben chimed in, breaking them all from what just happened. “There’s always a chance that bringing things down like that could have released something into the air. If you think you feel anything, say something and start healing yourself immediately.”

Warning given, they continued on their way, enjoying the bit of extra space they now had as Ben used it to subtly connect to their thoughts, wanting to be conscious of how they were feeling in case any of them were poisoned again, along with their thoughts on what happened with the trial, though in that regard their minds were too preoccupied with the matter at hand to give it the proper consideration.

I guess there will be time for that once we get out.

If anyone wanted to leave he had no intention of stopping them. In fact, he would encourage it. Getting into Jake’s memories had been such a slim chance to begin with, but considering how it directed things, they were actually worse off for it. Ben had plenty of tools prepared for going in, he even had a few general antidotes just in case anyone ended up poisoned, but he’d left almost everything outside when he’d thought he knew what he was getting into, only taking whatever seemed like it would help, with everything he’d chosen likely ending up useless if they didn’t come across any of the same trials in the end.

Thera’s covering us all pretty well for now, but who knows what the future holds?

He could still remember the last trial where they’d been separated and Yuzu had almost died, it wouldn’t have shocked him in Uliel and Vasta had only allowed the young soul mage to join them specifically because they hadn’t known she would be separated despite having done the earth tower themselves for that very reason. Thinking you knew something and being drastically wrong was so much worse than just not knowing.

He didn’t want to distract himself with the thoughts, but a couple spare minds couldn’t help but keep going back to them as they continued their march, only stopping occasionally when any of them felt something for a round of healing.

Each effect was slowly getting worse, from burning pain to hallucinations, but without brushing against the plants causing it, each event was infrequent and quick to treat under their constant vigilance as the forest was slowly destroyed, until after only a few more hours the exit finally appeared amongst the trail of destruction, letting them all step through and leaving a feeling of confidence in the others that Ben wasn’t ready to believe in himself.