Leo stumbled into the same white sterile room he’d been in prior, head hung low. Ellie popped out of his soul-space in response to his worried emotions. She looked at him with a concerned head tilt.

“I’m fine Ells, just realising how badly I fumbled that last trial.” Leo’s voice came out like a sad sigh.

Why hadn’t he used even a fraction of his useful skills during that last trial? He had a skill literally called Earth Wall for Iskarion’s sake, and didn't even try to incorporate it.

Nor did he use his Cloak of Wind to help him move around easier. Heck, he hadn’t even adopted an elemental stance!

If he could, he’d blame it on inexperience, but what it actually came down to was just rushed impatience. If he’d taken a moment to assess and work out how he could incorporate his myriad of skills better, then he might not have the same disappointing result as he did now.

Congratulations!

You have cleared the Trial of Strength!

Calculating rewards…

Time taken for first trial: 12 Minutes 14 seconds

Gem and case stability: 64%

Silver rank reward achieved

All subsequent Bronze rank rewards have been granted.

All wounds have been healed. All cooldowns have been reset.

Bronze reward:

10 F-grade Essence Crystals

1 Weak Strength Elixir (Basic)

Silver Reward:

1 E- grade Essence Crystal

1 Lesser Strength Elixir (Basic)

It must have been just on the cusp of getting gold. Or at least, he hoped so. Leo stared at the silver coloured chest and just trilled his lips. At least he would get his last skill unlocked. Although with how terribly he did with his skills in the trial he was less than enthused to juggle another right now.

Ellie playfully—yet aggressively—chomped on his leg, eliciting a yelp of pain from Leo.

“Hey! That hurts!” Leo playfully cried as he shook his leg, trying to get her to release him.

The pain in the bite was minimal at worst and helped him out of his stupor faster than expected. The little dragon was right, this was no time for moping around over a lackluster performance. It was time to learn from his mistakes, adapt better, and move on.

Leo scooped up the two elixirs, downing them and gaining +3 to his Strength. Storing the ten F-grade crystals, Leo picked up the last reward and activated it, fully forgetting to brace himself in the rush of wanting to move on from this room.

It was as if he was bathed in a tub of razorblades. His skin felt like it was being flayed from head to toe, regrowing and then it happening again. Leo was roiling on the ground, a silent scream coming from his mouth as Ellie looked on in concern.

The feelings of all his other Essences completing were something he shouldn’t have forgotten, yet here he was, on the ground, hoping for it to end.

His eyes opened slowly, taking in the light of the room once again.

That might have been the worst one. Leo groaned.

Ellie’s body appeared in his line of sight before he could blink, landing on his body in a dull thud. She still wasn’t heavy but it was the force of the tackle that he wasn’t ready for with his body still in the state that it was. Or was it?

Looking down at his body, he expected to see blood pooling beneath him and his armour torn to ribbons from the razorblades of wind, yet when he inspected himself it was as if nothing happened. All his resources had returned to full upon entering the room and they had stayed that way even after his Wind Essence tribulations.

You have unlocked the Wind Essence Skill: Tailwind (Uncommon)

Wind Essence Skills unlocked: 2/2

You can now channel Wind Mana with greater ease and intensity

Tailwind (Uncommon)

Your connection to the wind deepens, drawing a constant breeze around your body that moves in harmony with you. Drag and strain are carried away as the air shifts to support your motion.

The surrounding wind responds instinctively to your intent, aiding balance, direction, and control while moving or airborne. This reduces stamina expenditure during sustained movement.

Scales with Endurance

Cooldown: None

A slight breeze formed around him in the tiny room. It wasn't all that noticeable at first, but after a moment, Leo felt that he could shift the direction of the breeze with a thought, causing his hair to move around depending on the direction chosen.

“Neat. At least I can’t forget to use this one during the trial,” Leo joked to himself in self pity.

Ellie growled at him, as if threatening him if he was going to start his descent back into sadness. In order to not feel her dragony wrath, Leo quickly got himself up to his feet and then jumped at the small dragon.

She yelped in delighted surprise as Leo chased her around the small room. It sounded like she was having the time of her life.

A thought came to him as he was doing this, reminding him of time with Natalie. He used to chase her around their small garden as children, pretending to be an evil monster. The sound of her child-like giggling echoed out in his head, the pure joy elicited from them.

He tried not to picture her running from an actual monster, hanging on to the fonder memory as best he could.

He would see her again. And to do that it was time to keep going. To conquer this tower and get his rewards, open up the city and become the strongest he could.

A portal appeared like it was summoned by his resolve, a notification coming along with it.

Quest updated:

You have conquered two of the three trials in this Tower.

Only one challenge remains for you to complete the Tower and shatter the crystal atop it.

The next trial will be different from those previous, where your skills will be put to the ultimate test.

Please select your next Trial:

Group Trial

Solo Combat Trial

Luckily it wasn’t just a blind gamble and he could see what the trial at least pertained to. Looking at the Group trial, he was surprised to see how game-like it truly was.

Group Trial:

The Group trial consists of a battle against a War-golem, designed to challenge a group’s teamwork and coordination.
In this trial, you will be aided by ghostly allies that take the roles of those you lack in.

For example, should you choose the Defender role, you will be judged on your ability to defend your attackers and protect your supports, all while taking care of the boss.

Rewards based on completion

So going inside this one would be like fighting a boss in video games where one took on the defensive role, with attackers to deal damage and a healer or supports to help the group. Or take the role of the others with the allies taking on what was missing.

Whether or not this was a constant theme of the multiverse or just this tower, Leo was unsure. It was interesting though, and helped people who were more support focused or defensive focused have a trial suited to them.

Leo guessed he would come under attacker or damage dealer, although his ability to be defensive would likely work too, even if he lacked a reliable skill to defend his allies and gain the attention of monsters.

It sounded fun, but Leo would check out the other trial first before he made a decision.

Solo Combat Trial:

The solo combat trial is not for the faint of heart. It will test you and you alone on your ability to survive the toughest of trials.

You will fight a War-golem, the same as in the Group trial. But where you would have allies to assist you, instead it will be you alone.

Challenge this Trial at your own risk, as once chosen, you cannot choose the Group trial, even if you should abandon the challenge.

Greater rewards await those who win alone.

Uh oh.

This ticked all the boxes of Leo’s excitement checklist.

A trial to really push himself to the limit, greater rewards, and no chance of his allies being killed. It wasn’t really even worth the fake internal debate. He’d already made his choice the moment he’d seen it.

“Are you ready for some combat?” Leo asked the little companion beside him that was itching its own growing horns.

She nodded excitedly, jumping around in circles like she had the zoomies.

Leo laughed, then selected the Solo Combat Trial. The swirling blue portal changed slightly and he and Ellie stepped through it.

His vision returned, and what met him was a staggeringly large colosseum.

White marble pillars were dotted around the red sand floor. The stands that would usually be filled with countless people were instead empty. The only other occupant in the arena—if you could call it one—was a roughly nine-foot tall golem looking construct.

The War golem, Leo assumed.

It was a fierce looking monstrosity. Its body was forged from something that was neither stone, nor metal. A dense, matte like texture in an obsidian black colour, laced with golden lines of power that seemed to run like veins down its body. It was armed with a giant sword made of what looked to be the same material, and a shield to match.

Without even identifying it, Leo could already tell that this thing was possibly the strongest thing he’d ever faced. It likely would have laughed in the face of one of the Goliaths, cleaving it in two with one swing. If that was his assessment of what would happen to a Goliath, then all of a sudden his Toughness stat—which was his second lowest, if bond counted—was filling him with a twinge of worry.

“We might have bitten off a bit more than we can chew with this one Ells,” Leo spoke to his companion.

It didn’t seem to be taking the initiative, apparently awaiting Leo to make the first move. First things first was to identify this thing and figure out how fucked he was.

Taking the brave, slow steps towards it, Leo finally got into range and the result was as expected.

War-Golem - Level 37

Ten levels higher.

Not insurmountable by any stretch, but definitely Leo’s biggest challenge to date. The dread he’d felt initially had given way to excitement once again. Likely the aura Leo had first picked up was the reason he’d felt such a way, but with all his advantages, who was to say he was the weaker of the two?

Ellie however, he was worried about. She was 17 levels lower. Her Toughness might be similar to Leo’s but her experience and Agility were a lot lower. Yes, she might be technically immortal but that didn’t mean he would risk her life.

“I’m not sure how I feel about you fighting that thing Ellie. One swing and it could be over for you. Maybe you should stay inside my soul-space and just help by using our Draconic Equip.”

Ellie was not pleased, and her face made it obvious. The poutiest frown he’d ever seen her make adorned her features and it was working.

“Argh, Fine! You win,” Leo conceded, ruffling his own hair in frustration. “But you need to stay as safe as possible, okay? Only attack when it’s safe, and if I tell you to retreat back into safety then you do it, no buts.”

Ellie nodded and started leaping around excitedly. He hoped he wouldn’t regret this decision.

“Alright Ells. Let’s do this!”

Before he committed any kind of blunder by blowing his entire skill load at once, he needed to test the waters. What better way to do that was to launch the first hit.

A lance of frost coalesced in his hand, thin, sharp and deadly. The air next to him chilled. A moment later it was flying towards the War-Golem. The first stone officially thrown.

The Lance soared through the air with speed, aimed directly at the golem's matte-black head. Its eye slit suddenly started shining in response to the attack, and just before it connected the golem tilted its head slightly. The lance went right past its head.

“Nice dodge.” Leo smirked.

*Snap*

A snap of his fingers and Absolute Shatter triggered, detonating the Frost Lance into dozens of razor sharp shards that flew towards the back of the golem.

As if expecting such a feat, it spun with speed belying its large figure and held its shield up, blocking almost all of the shards. A few managed to graze it, though the damage was negligible on its robust armour.

This is no time to be in awe of how cool the giant stone looking robot is Leo! It just completely disregarded that attack with ease.

“Change of plan Ells, let’s use our Equip to start with, try and get some kind of advantage.”

Ellie didn’t say anything and leapt into Leo's chest. A feeling of determination was coming from her. She clearly realised that this golem was no time for joking around.

Leo exhaled a long, smooth breath as the golem started its march towards him.

It wasn’t charging yet but its speed was starting to pick up as it got closer. Crackles of blue lightning started flowing down his arms and through his veins as his Lightning stance took hold. It wasn’t time for the Draconic Equip, that had to be sparingly used and Leo would wait just until he was about to land a punch to maximise its effectiveness.

His feet were barely touching the sand as he pushed his Agility to its maximum, wind rushing past, but barely feeling it thanks to Tailwind. It might have been the first time he’d fully pushed his speed in E-grade and it was showing. He’d arrived in front of the Golem before he was anticipating yet the golem didn’t share the same sentiment.

Its blade cleaved out in front of it, aiming to slice Leo in half in a decisive swing. Not needing his Reflex for an attack so straight on, Leo slid underneath it, his speed carrying him through the Golem’s legs.

As he slid, he kicked out with Echoing Talon at its foot and expected a crunch of either his bone or the dark metal like material.

He definitely wasn’t expecting to hit nothing, losing the follow up strikes of his skill and leaving himself somewhat exposed.

The Golem pivoted, and stomped down with all its might, attempting to crush the ant beneath it. Thankfully Leo’s Reflex warned him and he Spark Dashed just out of reach.

Not stopping, Leo took the momentum of his dash and pushed against it, launching himself upwards towards its torso that was currently undefended. The golem’s shield raised in response as Leo predicted.

Another Spark Dash put him directly above the Golem’s head and gave him the opening he needed.

Draconic gauntlets of gorgeous, intricate metal instantly coated his hands and arms. Leo instantly felt the power from them and decided it wasn’t enough. Fuel the Fire started burning his stamina whilst the power from Volt Crash coalesced in his right hand.

His body was screaming due to all the different energies fighting for control through his body, but he ignored them all. This strike would easily be the most devastating he’d ever unleashed.

The golem’s head snapped up to him as if tracking his every move, and as his fist descended it was like slow motion as Leo somehow instinctively knew this golem was about to dodge.

No you fucking don’t.

His aura flared out with all of his pent up frustration from the previous trial, stunning the golem as it felt the sheer pressure of a storm’s approach.

It was like the heavens descended as both his aura and fist crashed into the head of the Golem, completely knocking it backwards as it tumbled through the sand.

Leo landed heavy on his feet and took a sharp breath from the backlash of such large amounts of power.

The golem stopped its momentum by sticking its blade in the ground and carving a chunk out of it. It then stood up, clear damage showing on its face.

It stepped forward, blade drawn once more.

The fight had only just begun.