The journey was worth it. After climbing down the stinking, fleshy wall of the whale’s mouth, we finally reached the glowing green thing. Which was, in fact, the whale’s core. It must have been dislodged when we blasted a hole out of its brain, because it was just sitting there, not connected to anything.

  “Is it just me?” Aerion asked, staring at the orb in her hands. “Or is this one larger than the others?”

  “Definitely larger,” I said. “The others were tangerine sized. This one’s a grapefruit.”

  “Tan-ger-een?” Aerion asked, frowning up at me.

  “I guess you don’t have those here,” I said. “Orange fruit. Very sweet. Delicious. Or at least, it is thanks to hundreds of years of selective breeding.”

  “I have no idea what that means, and I am not in the mood to ask,” Aerion said, giving me a wry smile.

  “Touché. Also, I get the feeling you’re more talkative now.”

  “Really?” Aerion asked, pushing her hair behind her ear. “I didn’t notice.”

  “Well, I like it, so keep it up,” I said, flashing her a thumbs up. Now, let’s see what this bad boy’s all about.

  I put a hand on the orb, bringing up its Status Screen.

  Soul Crystal (Abyssal Warwal) [Rare]

  A Soul Crystal from a creature so colossal, so terrifying, it goes about its days minding its business searching for food. All so it doesn’t starve. Truly heinous! The pit of all evil! And you murdered it in cold blood. Feel proud, Greg. Feel very proud, you horrible human being.

  Grade: Divergence

  Abilities:

  — Resilience of the Deep: For sixty seconds, gain an additional 25% to Vigor.

  Stats:

  — Vigor: + 160

  I blinked. Divergence? Seriously? That certainly explained a lot. If D Rank monsters were this big, I didn’t even want to guess at how big A Rankers were. Though size wasn’t everything, as Cyrus had proven.

  Also, this crystal was utterly broken. In the ‘how is this even possible?’ way. A fixed percentage boost to my Vigor on top of that absurd boost? This would put my Vigor on par with Aerion’s Dominion while she was Reaving!

  I supposed it made sense, considering how resilient the beast it came from was. We could've expended a thousand Siege Bolts and not fazed it, had we attacked it more conventionally.

  This one crystal alone gave me so many ideas about what I’d do once I unlocked another Armor Set. Considering I was currently at D - 3 and such upgrades tended to happen at the half rank mark, I likely didn’t have far to go.

  “Y’know? Between this, the ores we found, and those bolt cores, we managed quite the haul, don’t you think?”

  Aerion nodded vigorously. “I can’t even fathom how much the Siege Bolts will sell for. Not that you’d sell them, of course,” she quickly added upon seeing my expression.

  “How about we chat about this topside? I’m a little sick of the stench.”

  “Yes. Let’s.”

  I took one last look at the yawning cavern that was the inside of the whale. It literally went on for miles. What secrets lay buried deep inside its stomach?

  Were this a game, I would absolutely find out. But the act of physically tearing open dead guts was far more disgusting than clicking a button on a mouse. I didn’t regret not staying and exploring one bit.

  Everyone was chatting amiably when we got out.

  “So?” Philip asked. “Any bets on whether we’ve got another fight on our hands?”

  “I’d take that bet,” I replied, climbing out of the whale’s brain hole after Aerion. “It’s pretty obvious to me that the Trial’s throwing tougher enemies at us since we’re so high-leveled.”

  And possibly because we have two Champions here, I didn’t add. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Trials had special mechanisms to help train the Champions.

  “I take it your whale spelunking was a success?”

  I held up the core. “I’d say so!”

  Richard whistled. “Would you look at the size of that one!”

  The core was passed around for everyone to ogle before it went back into my inventory, where it would safely remain until we were out.

  “So you think we’re in for another fight, eh?” Richard asked.

  I was about to reply when a deep roar from the island made us all turn our heads. Moments later, the dragon took to the sky, beating its wings until it was at the same altitude as the peak of the mountain that dominated the island. It then began circling the island.

  “Well, I guess that means I win,” I said without emotion. “Seriously, can’t we get a break? Just once?”

  “Sorry, Greg,” Richard said, clapping my shoulder. “You picked nightmare difficulty, I’m afraid. What do you reckon it’s doing?”

  “Probably looking for food,” I said. “Hawks do the same thing, don’t they?”

  Sure enough, after a few minutes, the dragon dove for the forest. When it appeared again, it had something in its mouth. It retreated to its lair soon after.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “If we’re lucky, it’ll have the same level of strength as we encountered on floor five,” I said. It almost felt like we were glitching the Trial with this much power and this many Champions present. I wondered how often Champions grouped up to take down Trials.

  Considering how possessive each god was about their Champion, probably not often.

  “Lucky?” Rogar barked. “What in Dominion’s name is lucky about that terror? We nearly got our arses roasted last time!”

  I was about to argue, but it was hard to deny that Rogar and Philip had been just moments away from death that whole battle. Richard, too. Aerion and I, though? While taking a swipe of its claw wouldn’t be pretty, I doubted either of us would die to a single hit. Aside from its black flame breath, of course. I had no idea how we’d fare against that. Remembering the devastation that caused to the forest last time, probably not great.

  “Still, it’s our best bet. Aerion and I have fought it twice now, and we know its weakness—like the material it's made of, it’s strong, but brittle. And unlike the past two times, we now have a weapon that can mince it.”

  “The Bolt Cores, you mean?” Richard asked.

  I nodded. “I’ve confirmed that the bombs will detonate if I fire them with [Launch]. They don’t fly especially far, nor are they particularly stable in the air, but they’ll do. Besides, I’m guessing the stupid dragon’s gonna munch on any projectile we send at its mouth, so it’ll do the job for us, even if the bolt fails to detonate on its own. I know from experience it only takes one of those inside it to end the thing.”

  “But what of our contribution?” Rogar asked. “We should help in killing the beast.”

  I shook my head. “No, you’d better let me handle it. Aerion and I nearly died the first time around trying to lure it into a trap. Just sheer dumb luck that saved us in the end. I’d rather not tempt fate a second time. You’ve all contributed to our fights thus far. Especially against the whale. That was a team effort if I ever saw one. Trust in that, and let me deliver some quality payback.”

  There was no grand plan or devious strategy this time. Aerion climbed down the chasm with Rogar on her back, and I did the same with Philip. Then Aerion went back up to grab Richard and repeated the process.

  Then, cracking my fingers, I set out into the dragon’s lair with Aerion by my side.

  “So,” Aerion said the moment we were out of eyesight of the others, slipping her fingers into my free hand.

  I didn’t resist.

  “Does kissing in your culture not indicate romantic affection?” she asked.

  Her hands were so soft! And so small! I’d never noticed until now. How could such dainty fingers wield all that raw power? Her strength put mine to shame.

  Seriously, it blew my mind. Magic was the obvious answer, but—

  “Greg?” Aerion asked, peering up into my eyes. “Are you well?”

  Damn. Was she always this cute?

  “S-sorry,” I stammered, feeling suddenly hot. “No, uh, it very much does. Especially a kiss on the lips. Gotta say, I was not expecting that.”

  “Quite rude of you, you know? Forcing the girl to make the first move. It’s the man who’s supposed to initiate.”

  “O-oh, yeah?” I said sheepishly, navigating us around a pile of bones. “I mean, Philip said as much. Things were actually pretty similar back on Earth for a long time, too. We’ve moved away from that recently, though.”

  “Then, why the hesitation?” Aerion asked, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. “You did say you harbor affections for me, and yet…”

  “No worries there,” I said. “Hell, I feel like every little gesture you make is cute. No, believe me, you’ve got me wrapped around your little finger so tight it’ll turn blue.”

  Aerion didn’t respond, but I figured she caught my meaning by how her ears turned redder.

  Walking along like this felt… nice.

  “Just, we’ve got some issues to sort through, Aerion. Your Blessing, namely. Stuff we probably shouldn’t get into in the middle of a Trial. Besides, even aside from that, there’s generally a courting period before getting married. That can be as short as a few days to as long as a decade in some cases. Some people never even get married.”

  “Yet they live together? As friends?” The very idea sounded like I was telling Aerion about aliens. Ironic, since I was one. For her to be totally onboard with extraterrestrial life and flip out over marriage customs? Some things would forever remain a mystery.

  “Nope, romantically,” I said. “People usually get together and see if they’re good for each other first. Go out on dates, do romantic things together. That’s honestly the best part.”

  “Is it?” Aerion asked, eyes downturned. “I wouldn’t know.”

  I raised a brow. “You’ve never been in a relationship? Oh, right. That would mean you’d have to marry in your culture, I guess…”

  “Precisely. And no, I’ve never been married.”

  “I see. Thing is, neither have I.”

  “But you’ve been romantically involved before?” Aerion asked. Not one to pull her punches, this elf.

  “I, uh. Yeah, I have,” I said. “Just once, really. The others never really went anywhere.”

  “Others?” Aerion asked incredulously.

  “Just one or two. Look, this is very normal for people on my world. Not uncommon to have a half dozen relationships or more before you find your lifelong partner.”

  “Oh. I see,” Aerion said, looking very conflicted. “This is quite different from how elves court.”

  “Huh. So humans are more like what I described?” I asked.

  “Not quite,” Aerion said, fidgeting. “Though I have heard that humans generally choose their partners. Elven marriages are generally arranged by one’s family.”

  “Ah,” I said, the lightbulb clicking in my head. “Actually, that’s the norm with some Earth cultures as well. Or it used to be. As I said, things have changed.”

  When we stopped at the entrance of the sleeping dragon’s chamber, I turned and held both of Aerion’s hands in mine.

  “So, uh, would you be cool with taking things slow? At least for now, until I sort through all of my baggage? You’re… you’re precious to me, Aerion. I realize that now. Everything we’ve been through? This synergy we’ve got going? I think it’s really something special. Which is why I don’t want to fuck this up. I’ll be honest, I’ve got more jitters about this than speedrunning Diablo II on Hell difficulty. Oh, uh, you wouldn’t get that. Sorry, I meant—”

  “It’s hard for you,” Aerion said with a giggle. “Greg, I’ve known you for a while now. I’ve had plenty of time to catch on.”

  “Right.”

  “And, yes,” she said.

  “Uh, yes?”

  The dragon snorted awake, biting groggily at the air. I really wished it would shut up. Couldn’t it see we were having a moment?

  “To whether I would be alright proceeding slowly. ‘Tis quite unusual for my kind, but, well, there’s little that’s usual about you, wouldn’t you say? To say nothing of our relationship.”

  “True that,” I muttered.

  My words were answered by a deafening roar.

  Aerion and I turned simultaneously and shouted back.

  “Shut up!”

  I extended an arm and fired two Bolt cores.

  As expected, the stupid dragon opened wide and chomped down on them both, snatching them from midair.

  It was the last thing it ever did.

  Anticipating the explosion, I moved forward to shield Aerion, but was handily pushed to the side.

  “I don’t need protecting,” she muttered, as a hailstorm of obsidian glass peppered us.

  I hardly noticed. I was too busy staring into her beautiful half-blue half-green eyes.