I didn’t wait for the bear to make the first move. All my mobility meant squat when I was stuck in the ground. Using every ounce of strength I had, I surged up, throwing a punch at the bear’s stomach.

  The bear clearly didn’t expect me to attack, because it just froze up for a second, buying me enough time to whip around to its back and yell at Rogar, who’d just poked his head through the opening.

  “Stay in the tunnel if you don’t want to die!”

  Rogar’s head vanished almost instantly. At least the guy knew how to keep himself alive.

  That left me free to give my full attention to fighting this bear. The tundra around us was mostly flat and devoid of trees or any sizable shrubs. That meant no cover, but it also meant fewer obstacles.

  I’d never seen a polar bear in person, and I couldn’t be sure if this thing was the same as the bears on earth, but I never thought they’d be so… huge. Standing on its hind legs, the thing was easily as tall as a tree, towering over me like a giant.

  Except unlike the giants that made up a third of Axius’ civilized population, this thing must have weighed as much as a house. Augmented or not, I was under no delusion that this monster couldn't rip me limb from limb with nothing but its physical strength alone.

  Good thing I was in a suit designed for mobility.

  The bear fell back onto all fours and charged, and it was a lot faster than I would’ve thought possible.

  Even with my 62 points in Grace, I barely avoided its strike, thanks mostly to a split-second decision to activate [Snap]. That ability had already saved my life more than once, and would only continue to do so as it got stronger.

  The issue wasn’t dodging the arm, but rather knowing what sort of attack it was about to throw—it didn’t rear up to swipe at me, which meant I could expect either bites or slashes. Both were deadly, and it didn’t help that the bear moved much faster than its size ought to have allowed.

  The bear went all out, unleashing a flurry of paw swipes and lashing out with its mouth. I dodged each one, waiting until the barrage finally stopped. When it did, I found my opportunity, activating both of my sword’s abilities and slashing down.

  I expected the strike to take a leg, or at least render it useless. What I got instead was a thin red line—a surface strike. It was like the bear had metal armor under its hide.

  Even so, I managed to get a handful more strikes in before another paw swing forced me to I hurl myself away, narrowly avoiding it.

  Well, if melee weapons were out, projectiles were next. Leaning low, I shoveled a bunch of dirt into my inventory. The nice thing about not having to physically touch things to store them was that I could store a ton of it really quickly. Just dirt, of course. Nothing fancy.

  Just that my spar with Aerion had proven that dirt almost always had plenty of rocks embedded within.

  To make it count, though, I’d have to get close. Too far, and they’d lose the explosive force of their [Launch].

  That wasn’t a problem—the bear was currently hurtling its way to me, spittle flying from its open maw, black eyes full of rage like I’d just murdered its child. Seriously, what the hell had I done to warrant such hate?

  The bear pounced, and I fired. The entirety of what I’d just scooped up came blasting out, blinding the bear and smashing dozens of pebbles, stones, and rocks into its thick hide.

  That had more of an effect. When the dust cleared, I found the bear twitching, swiping at empty air, clearly still unable to see. Or smell, judging by the sorry state of its snout. Injuries covered its formerly pristine white hide, dying it red.

  While none of my stones seemed to have gouged especially deep, they definitely put the hurt on. With an unlimited supply of rocky dirt, I could probably have killed it this way, eventually.

  But not only did that risk the bear regaining its sight and coming after me, it would burn precious time.

  No, I had to end this, and I had just the tool that could. Not the bombs; those were liable to get me killed at this range. My other projectiles.

  With the bear still distracted, I approached as close as I dared. Close enough for the bear to whip around, staring blearily in my general direction.

  [Launch].

  I was the last thing it would ever see. My forged dart fired with such speed that I didn’t even see it, and for a moment, I thought I’d missed.

  Then I saw the gaping hole in the bear’s face, where its right eye used to be.

  The bear went suddenly still, then keeled over, collapsing in a heap.

  Walking over, I nudged its paw, ready to fire another dart, just in case.

  Then I found a piece of metal lodged halfway through its skull, sticking out. My dart.

  “Is it over…?” Rogar’s feeble voice was barely audible as he peeked out of the hole.

  “All clear. Now get over here and help me remove my dart from this thing’s brain.”

  This was not going to be fun.

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  The task was not fun. In fact, it was the exact opposite of fun. After trying and failing to pull it out, we resorted to breaking open the bear’s skull. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more traumatic time recovering anything of mine, but we did finally get it out and cleaned up. The dart’s nose was a bit blunt, but the projectile was straight and still had plenty of Condition, so I chucked it back into my inventory.

  Then we set out for the far wall to dig another hole. As I occupied myself with that process, I looked over my newly earned stat gains. That bear had been no joke, and the System had rewarded me handsomely.

  Congratulations! Grace has increased from 62 to 65.

  Congratulations! Light of the Fearless[Rare]’s ability [Light of the Fearless] has leveled up from Emergence - 2 to Emergence - 3.

  Congratulations! Light of the Fearless[Rare]’s ability [Shadow of the Fearless] has leveled up from Emergence - 2 to Emergence - 3.

  Congratulations! Basecrest City Guard Suit[Uncommon]’s ability [Snap] has ranked up to Emergence!

  Congratulations! Basecrest City Guard Suit[Uncommon]’s ability [Snap] has leveled up from Foundation - MAX to Emergence - 0.

  Congratulations! Steel Dart [Common]’s ability, [Ouch in So Many Ways!] has leveled up from Foundation - 0 to Foundation - 4.

  Congratulations! Wisdom has increased from 27 to 28.

  Snap’s rank-up had me giddy. Abilities got noticeably better when they did, and considering how it was the lynchpin to my superspeed build, I tested it right away.

  The difference was like jumping from a family sedan into a sports car. My acceleration was in another league from before. Where I’d struggled to dodge the bear just minutes ago, I was willing to bet I could run laps around it now. Even Rogar was shocked.

  I couldn’t wait to see the look on Aerion’s face when she found out how much I’d improved.

  The other surprise was my dart. I’d used the one that I’d crafted with Wisdom. From the results, it was pretty clear the increased damage was a result of its stupidly-named ability, [Ouch in So Many Ways!]. It allowed me to visualize and modify the damage—though being F - 0, the effect was extremely limited.

  I’d visualized the dart penetrating deeper before firing, and it had penetrated, so I counted that as a win. Especially since it had only lost half its Condition, putting it at 7/15. That meant Rogar could repair it, and with it having jumped four levels to F - 4, the ability would be noticeably stronger next time. I really had to make more of these out of [Rare] materials. A dart with an ability at Emergence grade would be absolutely devastating. Devastating and reusable.

  The biome we’d just entered was a wet jungle, covered by a thick canopy, ants, worms, snakes, and all sorts of other jungle goodies—only, they were about five times the size of normal ones.

  Because of course they were.

  After slicing a ten-foot-long snake in half, I gave Rogar the all-clear, and we quickly made our way to the other wall.

  This was the last wall separating us from the cell Rogar had scouted—one that looked like a gray, mottled mess from afar. I hadn’t been able to get a good look at it on the way in, so this would be my first opportunity.

  Unfortunately, we ran into another issue before then. The dirt on the other side wasn’t dirt at all, but rock.

  “Good sign, I guess?” I said, crawling out of the hole I’d dug.

  Rogar grunted. “Promising. But how will we get through?”

  I grabbed one of the pickaxes from my inventory and handed the other to Rogar. “How else?”

  We made good progress, trading off when the other got tired, but even then, it was slow-going.

  “Y’know,” I said after some time had passed, “When we first met, I never imagined we’d be working together to dig a hole in the middle of a Trial, of all places.”

  “You and me both,” Rogar grunted. “Never thought I’d be crazy enough to delve a Trial. Always thought the danger was too great.”

  “And what are your thoughts now?” I asked in between swings. “Now that you’ve had a taste of delving life?”

  “I think you delvers are not right in the head. Only a madman would go through this.”

  “Probably right about that,” I muttered. “Considering we’re far stronger for this Trial than the average party…”

  It seemed obvious to me that the Trials would scale its difficulty accordingly, but Aerion hadn't known enough about the Trials to be sure, and with how C Rank and above delvers—those who'd evolved their soul—couldn't enter lower level Trials, I'd been hopeful the Trials were static. No such luck, it seemed. At least the average monsters were still the same. Silver linings and all.

  “It’s a deathtrap,” Rogar said. “Plain and simple. Designed to tempt fools who think they’re better.”

  I’d had the same thought. Several times, in fact. As a training mechanism, the Trials felt far too dangerous. Not to mention all the insider knowledge available for purchase. They pretty heavily favored the rich and the well-connected. If you knew the shortcuts and had the money to pay for Emergence Rank bodyguards, chances were good you could make it all the way to get a Blessing.

  The system really made me wonder if that was what Dominion had in mind when he set this up. Surely, he knew a more fair system would produce stronger warriors with fewer casualties?

  Which could only mean it was designed to be this way. For whatever reason, Dominion wanted this level of brutality. He was alright with people buying their way through…

  “Say, Greg?” Rogar said softly.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you… for bringing me. I understand you had no reason to accept my offer.”

  I shrugged. “Not like I’m being selfless, either. We wouldn’t even have come to this ‘castle’ were it not for my own desires.

  “Even so,” Rogar said. “If we survive all this, I will owe you a debt. The sort that can’t be repaid easily.”

  I put a hand on the stocky blacksmith’s shoulder. We really had come a long way, hadn’t we? For the longest time, I’d thought of Rogar as nothing more than just an asshole.

  Turned out he had a pretty decent heart, and an even better pair of smithing arms.

  “Let’s get out of here alive, first. Then we can talk. Sound good?”

  Rogar nodded, and for the next three hours, we worked tirelessly to dig through the rock to the other side.

  We did finally break through, though, and the acrid smell of sulfur was the first thing that assaulted my senses. Vents dotted the black, cracked rock landscape, and there wasn’t a single animal in sight. Small miracles…

  “What do you think?” I asked, helping Rogar up.

  Instead of answering, Rogar wandered around, picking up rocks every now and then, or getting on all-fours. He eventually stopped and grinned up at me.

  “I think it’s your lucky day. Not often one finds veins of Aurorium and Voidsteel intermingled.”

  My face lit up. “First good news I’ve heard all day. Sounds like we have more digging to do.”

  I’d just handed the pickaxe back to Rogar when the cell chose that precise moment to explode.