Level One God

The second outpost was loud with the sounds of the wounded. It was ours, along with another altar that let us claim a second piece of equipment and a crafting station designated for metal works, but the cost had been high.

Both a slave and an aspirant had died to take this place. I'd hoped to be wrong, but when the aspirant girl took a claw to the neck, her stasis had never triggered. She simply died, eyes wide with confusion and betrayal.

Victory or not, the ghoul-like things defending this outpost had left everyone who took a wound poisoned and weak. We had the wounded gathered in a wooden building in the outpost's courtyard. Yolo was alternating meditating and using his vine cocoons to help the poisoned recover.

For my part, I'd already drained everybody's mana to the last drop and couldn't do more for them.

"Do you think it'll pass on its own?" Lyria asked, careful to keep her voice quiet.

I studied the scene. Ten people were laying on their backs, faces scrunched in pain and sweat beading on their brows. Each had wounds left by the long rotted claws of the ghouls we'd killed. The wounds turned black at the edges and dark, writhing veins spread from them.

Thorn, Ramzi, Sylara, and the soup-loving Protus were all among the wounded.

"I don't think we should count on it," I said. "That's why I claimed my Alchemist's Kit at the altar. I've already drained everybody's mana. I think it's time I go out and look for some kind of antidote."

"What?" Lyria turned toward me, brow furrowed. "There could be nobles out there, Brynn. And there are definitely more monsters. And it's the middle of the night. You'll hardly be able to see a thing."

"Maybe I'm wrong, but if the tournament organizers put creatures in here that can cause this poison, maybe they put a cure nearby. Maybe we were supposed to recognize what those things were and get the cure first, even."

She hesitated. "Then I'm coming with you."

I shook my head. I could see how tired she was already. Everyone was. They had only slept as much as they could afford before we all marched on this keep earlier in the evening. Now it was well past midnight and we'd all just finished fighting for hours and now dealing with the stress of trying to keep the wounded alive.

I turned suddenly, gripping the knife Zahra had given me tightly and watching the doorway. Everyone else was on edge, too. Weapons shook in the dim torchlight, faces were tight. Nobody wanted another round of fighting, but we were ready to do what we had to.

The crooked wooden door opened slowly to reveal three small figures. Hairy figures.

Grimbo was at the front, wide eyes taking in the scene from behind scraggly brown hair. To his left, I recognized Meat, the leader of the Coil Gromville. He had a small scar above one eye and told a different story about where it came from every time he was asked. To Grimbo's right was a familiar face.

The grommet wore a white robe, had streaks of gray in his beard, and walked with a gnarled staff that appeared to have been chewed on a great deal.

Timbo. The grommet "hero."

"We are bringing help," Grimbo said in his shaky, high-pitched voice. "The hero is here."

All around, the others lowered their weapons and went back to their tasks. Timbo shuffled toward a wounded aspirant who was clutching his leg. The aspirant flinched back when Timbo got close. Very close.

The grizzled grommet brought his face mere inches from the wounded man, made a lot of grunting and pondering noises, and then raised his staff overhead with two hands. "Timbo will help."

The aspirant shook his head. "No, it's okay. I'm fine. Really."

"You are speaking nonsense. Accept. My. Healing. POWER!" Timbo brought the staff down hard, whacking the aspirant on the leg right next to his wound.

He cried out in pain, clutching the area and wincing. But to my surprise, green light spread over the area of impact, lingering and seeming to provide some kind of healing effect. The poison was still there, but…

"Grimbo, did you guys get him a class corestone?"

Grimbo smiled wide, and I saw there was a thick piece of root stuck between his front teeth.

I left Timbo to his work of traumatizing the wounded and stepped outside, promising Lyria I wouldn't do anything stupid. Hector stopped me just outside the door, his face spattered with blood, eyes wide. "Helmet."

"What?" I asked.

"You planning to run off on us? Got another couple people killed and now you're going to leave us to your mess?"

I pulled my arm from his grip, turning to face him. Hector was big and burly, but advancing to Iron had given me some extra height and size of my own. "Nobody's forcing you to stick around."

"No?" he asked, lips curling. "What other options do I have?"

"Good question," I said simply before walking away from the man. We needed all the manpower we could get, but only to a certain point. If Hector was going to be a mutinous pain in my ass, I'd rather he slip off in the night and vanish.

I nodded to Ras, the pale-skinned kiergard who was manning the front gate winch. With a dip of his chin, he hauled on the wheel, pulling up the spiked wooden logs so I could step out into the night.

Admittedly, I didn't really know where to start my search. I was operating almost entirely on the idea that if there was supposed to be some semblance of fairness from the people who set all this up, there might be an antidote nearby.

The first outpost we took was in a grassy valley without much tree cover. Heading further northeast from the first outpost had taken us into thick forest again, and it was surprisingly humid here, making the forest more like a jungle.

Vines, ivy, moss, and all types of vegetation I'd never seen before tangled itself between trees. I had to use my knife to carve through the shrubbery several times, inspecting everything I could with Voidgaze. I knew anything with a rarity meant it could be used, possibly for making potions. So far, everything I inspected only gave simple, generic descriptions.

Bugs landed on me and bit me occasionally and I suffered plenty of scrapes and cuts from thorned vines as I pushed deeper into the forest. It gave me plenty of opportunities to use Devour Mana in small doses to repair the damage and then meditate to recover my mana. With any luck, the skill would hit Tier 3 soon, granting me a choice of evolution. It had been at Tier 2 for what felt like ages, and since it was currently my only skill, I was using it far more than usual lately.

I tried to keep track of how much time had passed. Every day, I had seven hours of activity the others didn't. Using some of that time to look for an antidote felt more than worth it, but I also didn't want to risk being gone too long.

Even unconscious people would slowly recover mana, meaning I'd be able to help fight back the damage from the poison in another hour or two. Then again, Yolo did have Timbo there to help him with healing now, but I wasn't sure how much good that was doing.
I settled into something like a trance, head constantly on a swivel as I hacked away strange plants and walked in what I hoped was a roughly circular path around our newest outpost. Other than the viewing portal that showed a small collection of grommets watching me, my activity apparently wasn't exciting enough for the main crowds.

But that was good. I still had no idea if I was kidding myself for thinking there was a chance Ithariel might not recognize me. Then again, there wasn't really much to be done about it at this point, so I'd just count myself lucky when the portals weren't around and leave it at that.

It had been maybe two hours when I finally started to lose hope. If there was an antidote out here, I didn't know how someone without Voidgaze was supposed to find it. I couldn't even seem to locate it with the ability to magically identify objects at a glance.

I was thinking of turning back to help with healing when I spotted a downward slope and some rocks. So far, all I'd seen was green and brown, so the gray rocks stood out in the moonlight. Frowning, I picked my way through the bushes toward the rocks and pursed my lips in thought when I realized what it was.

A cave.

It seemed like exactly the kind of place I could expect to find unusual plant growth. Maybe something I could use my Alchemist Kit to brew a potion with.

I cautiously chose my footing down the damp slope until I was standing in front of the cave mouth. It was huge, but the darkness inside seemed to be supernaturally thick. I could barely see a few inches past the opening, despite silvery moonlight bathing everything outside.

I considered waiting, or maybe gathering a small combat party to explore the cave. But with all the injured and the number of people we had dedicated to other tasks, we were spread thin as it was. I thought I needed to either do this on my own, or not at all.

I took one large step inside the darkness and felt the sudden, odd coolness wash over me.

Text appeared in front of my face, but it didn't look quite like the style Voidgaze usually showed. I suspected I'd see this text even without my helmet on.

[You have entered a challenge area. You may exit on elimination or victory.]

"Nope," I said, turning to leave the cave immediately. But I bashed into solid metal bars that hadn't been there seconds ago. "Oh fuck."

The cave entrance was completely sealed by thick iron bars, trapping me inside.

Outside, I could see viewing portals rushing in from every direction and crowding in outside the cave.

Fucking vultures.

Slowly, I turned to look back inside the cave. The shadows seemed to be moving and writhing, but it was too dark to make anything out. I could hear shifting, like stones grinding against stones and the hiss of a strange creature.

I strained my eyes against the darkness, only for torches to suddenly roar to life pair by pair, showing a long cave tunnel ahead. Bones lined the walls, and where there had been no smell before, the place now smelled like death and decay.

Was this some kind of magic? Something like the way dungeons supposedly reshaped themselves?

But that didn't make sense. They only did that because of dark mana, and I seriously doubted the tournament organizers could control something like that.

The portals swirled behind me, eerily quiet. Some were having to shrink down, giving an odd warped appearance to the crowds or small viewing rooms on the other sides. Usually, the announcers were always chattering. This time, it was as if the sound was shut off.

That was a small victory, at least.

I could feel my ears straining to pick up any stray noise. Any hint that I wasn't alone in here or that something was coming.

I gave the bars at my back one more look before slowly stepping deeper into the cave.

The torches only lit the first twenty feet. Beyond that, the cave curved into darkness so complete it seemed solid.

I moved forward cautiously, knife in one hand, the other trailing along the bone-studded wall for balance. My mind wandered, maybe as a way to keep it from imagining what might be waiting for me ahead.

I found myself thinking instead of how this all worked. Did strong adventurers simply capture deadly creatures and drag them here, dropping them in place. Or was this some kind of high-level magic? The creation of hallucinated beings that could kill and be killed?

In the end, I decided it didn't really matter at the moment. The rules of this place were simple enough. Win or die trying.

I gripped the knife tighter, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness as I went deeper and deeper in the cave. The ground sloped downward, and I had to be careful where I placed my feet because the stone floor was slick with some kind of algae growth.

I took another step and then paused at the strange sound, head tilted.

The echo was wrong. Like it was bouncing around too many times. Like something else was matching my pace deeper in the cave.

I stopped. The echoes stopped a heartbeat later.

The air grew colder as I rounded the curve, and the torchlight revealed a natural chamber ahead. Water dripped somewhere in the darkness, each drop unnaturally loud. The walls here were covered in a thin film of moisture that made everything glisten.

That's when I saw them.

Flowers. They were growing in clusters from the bare stone and dripping something orange that made little starbursts of light when it landed on the floor. Their pale petals gave off their own faint luminescence, like tiny stars in the otherwise dark rock. I already knew these weren't just ordinary flowers, but inspecting them confirmed my suspicion.

[Brightbell Flower (Common)?]

For a moment, I wondered where the extra description about the herb's classification of either destruction, restoration, or modification was. Then I remembered I didn't have my Herbalist's Lens in here. Unless I got a lot of equipment unlocks before the tourney ended, I doubt I would any time soon, either.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But I could easily guess what this potion would do. Some kind of light source.

Keeping an eye on the strange shadows filling the room, I moved to let some water drip into my empty Alchemist's Kit. Next, I plucked a Brightbell Flower and dropped it inside. The reaction was instantaneous, filling my potion bottle with a fluorescent yellow fluid that glowed like a lightbulb.

For good measure, I started plucking more of the flowers from the wall and stuffing them in the pockets of my uniform. It wasn't much, but it would do. And for all I knew, this stuff could even cure the poison on my allies back at the outpost.

My pockets were nearly stuffed to maximum capacity with the flowers when something made me stop in my tracks.

Movement. Just at the edge of my vision. I spun, but there was nothing there. Then again, behind me. Always where I wasn't looking.

My hands moved on instinct, knife at the ready. With how many of the flowers I'd harvested, I realized the room had gone nearly pitch black now. I looked down at the bottle in my hand, heart pounding, and unstoppered it. With a flick of my wrist, I sloshed about half of its contents out across the room.

The glowing liquid flew, spreading in droplets and sending out little starbursts of light that reminded me of fireworks. Most of it hit the ground, creating another beautiful explosion of light, but there was something else.

A few drops didn't hit the ground. They landed on the air and seemed to stick there.

I stared at the spots of yellow seeming to float in the air a few feet off the ground.

What the fuck is that?

To my right, I could see a cluster of portals all shrunken down and watching. The announcers were talking very fast, pointing and exclaiming silently.

And then the floating drops moved. They drifted to one side, moving up and down slightly, as if they were…

Oh shit.

I tried to jump out of the way but the droplets flew straight toward me. I stuck my knife out but it was no use.

Red hot pain ignited in my stomach and I shouted, nearly dropping my Alchemist's Kit and spilling the rest of its contents.

I looked down, eyes wide at the fresh blood dripping from what seemed like a bite mark. I flooded the wound with mana and used Devour Mana to heal myself, picking my knife back up with shaking hands and looking around the room.

Another flicker of movement. Closer this time. Close enough that I felt the air displacement.

Something struck me from behind, claws raking across my shoulders before I could react. I stumbled forward, the potion sloshing in its vial. A few drops splattered on the cave floor.

I half-crawled and half ran toward the center of the room. I knew what I needed to do, there just wasn't—

I cried out again, falling forward at something sharp bit at my calf.

I healed the wound, but could already feel how quickly I was burning through my mana. These wounds were deep, crushing layers of skin, muscle, and even bone. Mending it wasn't coming cheap.

But if I tried to splash more potion on the thing to get a view of it and missed… I wasn't sure what the hell I would do.

I lifted the potion, whirling in the room and trying to strain my eyes for any drops of light that were moving instead of standing still. I spotted them almost too late, whipping my Alchemist's Kit toward the spot and seeing the vague impression of hollow eyes, sharp teeth, and a cat-like body before I was tackled to the floor and bit on the shoulder.

I stabbed blindly upward and felt the thing screech in pain, jumping off me.

I blinked through the agony, using more and more mana to heal the massive damage this thing was causing me. In less than a minute, I was already below half mana.

I staggered to my feet, located the creature, and tried to inspect it.

[Void Crawler, level 30 (Iron)] "Deadly creatures that can wrap themselves in shadow and become nearly invisible under the right conditions. Known to lurk in jungles and prowl by night, and largely responsible for the common wisdom among locals to keep entire towns brightly lit at all times.

No wonder this thing was kicking my ass. It was almost twenty levels higher than me and it was Iron, making it one of the strongest common creatures I'd faced yet. Worse, I was having to do it with only one of my spells.

I could see its catlike head now as it prowled around the room, sticking to the corners as if it still didn't know I could see it.

And then an idea struck me. Why would it think I could see it? This thing was probably used to being nearly invisible and would assume I was blind. So maybe…

I fought against every instinct and pulled my eyes from the Void Crawler, staring at a point several feet to its right and pointing my dagger there. "Come on, asshole. What are you waiting for?" I asked the air.

I could see the yellow light moving in the corner of my vision and was careful to track it without looking directly at the creature.

Slowly, it came closer, making my skin crawl with effort as I tried not to react.

When it was close enough to swipe at me, I lunged toward it, knife held in a reverse grip as I tried to tackle the thing.

Something sharp lit my leg up with pain as I landed in a confusing tangle, stabbing what felt like thin air but seeing dark blood gush from the wound. It was bigger than I expected, and I wasn't tackling it as much as I was riding it.

The beast flipped itself over, bleeding from several wounds I'd already cut into its back and gave me another heavy paw to the face.

Something in my neck snapped with the force of the blow as my head was whipped to the side and my helmet rang out like a tin can, making my ears scream.

I barely clung to consciousness, too desperate to be careful with my healing and simply releasing massive spurts of mana into my body and healing everything I could.

It kept clawing and biting at me and I kept stabbing, healing what I could while putting the majority of my focus into staying conscious and blocking out the pain. I felt its teeth scraping against my bone, its claws pulling away flesh, and the weight of its body crushing the air from my lungs.

But I kept stabbing. I head butted it. I kneed it. I punched and yelled, shouting until its blood covered me completely and my hands were matted with clumps of ripped out, purple-black fur.

I couldn't heal anything else. There was no mana left. But I kept stabbing.

And at some point, I realized the thing wasn't moving anymore. I had system notifications in my helmet waiting to be read and I could hear the announcers chattering and the crowd roaring.

[Challenge Area Completed. Congratulations. Please select an active skill to unlock.]

I rolled the limp creature off of me, most of which was now visible because of the ridiculous quantities of blood everywhere. It thumped to the side and I tried to stand, wobbled on my feet, and then crashed to the side.

Fresh blood pumped out of a few of my wounds and mouth and I instinctively reached for mana that wasn't there to heal myself.

"Damn it," I muttered, voice weak. "Where is Timbo when you need him…"

I could feel my brain trying to pass out, whether from blood loss, pain, or exhaustion, I couldn't say.

Passing out seemed like a terrible idea, though, so I crawled to my knees, not-so-gracefully flopped to my ass and crossed my legs.

I did my best to ignore the viewing portals, which seemed to be keeping a respectable distance at the entrance to the chamber. I could see that people were cheering, laughing, or pumping fists victoriously. The announcers were talking excitedly, and I couldn't hear a word of it.

Good.

I meditated, ignoring the pulsing notifications Voidgaze was trying to show me. I guessed I'd gained a level or two and probably earned an accomplishment. That was great, but I needed to get some mana and heal myself before I passed out and some creature or noble wandered in to finish me while I was unconscious.

I used the peace method of meditation because it was fastest, and within a few minutes, I'd healed the worst damage. I considered waiting to heal the rest of the damage, but considering the nature of the fight I just survived, I didn't see the point. Everybody watching in those view portals would know I could heal myself. A lot.

Once I was fully healed, I meditated more until I was over half mana just for good measure, and then I finally turned my attention to the notifications.

You've Reached Level 12!

You've Reached Level 13!

I'd jumped two levels from our attack on the second outpost, but that had involved killing a metric shit-ton of Level 50 Wood Rank ghoul things called Rotclaws. Getting the same amount for a single kill made sense, though. That thing had pretty much been triple my level, Iron Rank, and I'd fought it solo. Sure, I nearly got myself killed, but it was all the more motivation to keep using my extra hours of wakefulness to go out and grind solo when I could.

I smiled softly, feeling like Silver Rank actually seemed within reach for the first time. All my weeks of training in Thrask had yielded little to no actual experience. This place was an experience goldmine, assuming I could survive long enough to benefit from it.

[Rare Accomplishment] Defeat (1) elite enemy within the tournament. [Reward - Rare Tournament Master's Token] "What is it with you and knives, Seraphel? You were never a knife guy before, but now it feels like you always wind up with something sharp and pointy in your hand. And wow, was it just me or did you almost die back there? Can I advise you to be more careful when stepping inside strange cave mouths or otherwise suspiciously out of place geographical features going forward?

"Congrats on not dying though, by the way. Well done!"

[Rare Accomplishment] Complete (1) challenge dungeon within the tournament. [Reward - Rare Tournament Master's Trophy] "Oh, you're going to like that, aren't you? Another little trophy for your collection. I'm sure you would disagree, but I'm personally hoping this trophy isn't bug themed."

I read through the notifications, but couldn't bring myself to get too excited. Even if I used my Guild Recall Stone, I wouldn't be able to leave the guild and visit an arcanery. In other words, no matter how awesome my rewards were, I still had to survive this tourney first.

But the other reward was something I could use right now.

I pulled up the note about choosing another active skill and considered my choices.

As tempting as it was to take one of my favorites, Mana Shield, I wanted to focus on balancing offense and defense. Devour Mana was almost entirely a defensive skill, except for the fringe situation where I might be able to drain an enemy's mana by healing them.

Offensively, that left me with Elemental Projection, Awaken Mana, Forge Echo, Elemental Spike. Unfortunately for me, the tournament counted my class corestones as equipment. In other words, if I wanted to bring either my Shield or Sword corestone in here and equip it, I'd have to spend one of my equipment unlocks to do it. Considering I was still stuck with only two active skill unlocks, that didn't seem ideal yet.

One other problem? Awaken Mana required a corestone as a target. My current corestone was a Heart and Soul corestone fused together, meaning I could summon Caterpriest and… the other guy. I'd barely experimented with him because he was basically a massive maggoty larvae thing with a beard who did nothing but smoke a pipe.

For now, that ruled out Awaken Mana.

Elemental Projection was a great spell, especially with the fusion evolution turning it into Elemental Chain and my Cloudfall evolution. The catch? It was useless if I didn't have a potion worth projecting, and I couldn't exactly count on that. Elemental Spike had the same problem. Without a potent potion to draw from, it was hardly more useful than the dagger Zahra had given me.

That left me with Forge Echo, and I honestly wasn't too upset about it. I loved the spell, and the idea of having one of my summons back felt like a huge weight off my shoulders. Before I fully locked it in, I decided to give one more look around the room to see if I'd missed anything.

As if triggered by my attention, the void crawler began to disintegrate like tethered items did after their owners died—turning to black flakes that blew away in an unseen wind.

Beneath its body, there was a bundle of mushrooms and a large clump of mossy clusters with yellow centers.

[Rotbane Moss (Common)?]

[Bloodrage Shroom (Rare)?]

Rotbane Moss… that would either be the antidote for what my allies back at the outpost were suffering from or a way to inflict it on others. As deadly as that poison seemed, I was desperately hoping it was an antidote.

I gave the remaining Brightbell potion in my kit a look before dumping out the last few drops and watching them spark into miniature light shows. I filled my bottle with some dripping water, tossed in one of the Rotbane Moss and watched the liquid hiss and turn a deep brown. I gave the stuff a sniff and didn't feel entirely at ease.

If this stuff inflicted the Rotbane poison on its target, I couldn't be sure I would even be able to cure myself. The only advantage I had was a massive mana pool I was capable of refilling many times faster than the others. Then I remembered my Cursed Bedroll and Voidgaze. Voidgaze resisted most poisons in the first place, and even if it didn't, all I'd need to do would be stay alive until I could sleep and my bedroll would cure me.

Better to find out now than wonder, I figured, holding out the palm of my hand and tipping a drop of the brown potion onto my skin.

It landed and hissed, but felt cool to the touch. I watched the liquid bubble more intensely, as if my skin was a hot surface and it was burning away or seeping into my pores. I waited, expecting to maybe even see Voidgaze tell me it had resisted something, but no message came. No pain. No apparent poison.

I smiled to myself. Not poison, then. That made me reasonably confident this stuff was an antidote. That only left one other question.

What the hell was Bloodrage Shroom?

I repeated the brewing process, pouring the rest of the Rotbane Potion on the ground and then using one of the mushrooms to make a black and red liquid that smelled like blood and had a similarly thick consistency.

I felt my lips turn up at the sides as I studied the stuff.

My mana pool was full and I knew I could heal myself if it went too badly, but I started by drizzling a drop of the potion on the ground. No effect.

Next, I dripped it on a Brightbell Flower growing from the cave walls.

Again, nothing.

With a bit of recklessness and a lot of confidence in my ability to heal myself, I let out a single drop on my palm. Nothing happened.

I frowned. The ingredient was rare, meaning there was no way this stuff didn't do anything.

And the name was an obvious clue. Bloodrage.

Did I have to drink it?

Drinking an unknown potion was a hell of a lot more committal than just drizzling a little on my hand, but I needed to know what this stuff did.

I tipped my helmet back slightly, took a deep breath, and then drank the smallest mouthful I could manage.

Within seconds, I felt a swelling of energy and strength. It felt like my muscles were straining against my skin and I was overcome with a sense of power, like if I drank enough of this stuff I could tear a fucking mountain in half.

I reached out, gripping a piece of rock on the wall and squeezed. After a few moments, the rock exploded between my fingertips.

I didn't feel like I was raging though. I looked down at my forearms and my eyebrows raised in alarm. The arm I'd used to squeeze the rock was sweating blood, reminding me of the way Bloody Steve looked when he fought.

Sure enough, there was a kind of delayed weakness setting in on the limb, as if I'd spent something for the temporary strength. When I reached inside the arm with my mind, I found little black holes, as if the arm was dying from the inside out. Healing it was easy enough and only used a small portion of my mana.

I lifted the potion bottle and studied it as a picture of how this might work formed in my mind.

I'd get immense strength potential, but every time I used the strength, it would cost me health in some sense. Without Devour Mana, I suspected someone could even kill themselves by drinking too much of this and asking too much of their body. But for me? I just needed to make sure I had mana ready to fix the damage.

Smiling, I realized what an incredible training tool this would be. It was a painless way to make myself need constant healing, and with my mana pool, I'd be able to practice Devour Mana at an incredible rate.

Hell yeah.

The portals still seemed to be watching me and I could see from the reactions of the crowds and announcers they'd known what the potion would do. Were they expecting it to kill me, though? Was that why they'd stuck around while I took forever meditating and waiting to test this?

I smiled to myself. "If you assholes are watching because you want to see me die, you're going to be disappointed." I tipped back my helmet and chugged the rest of the potion, then smashed the bottle on the ground.

The magic of my Alchemist Kit went beyond just letting me brew potions out in the field like this. It would also regenerate after a brief delay full of whatever the last potion I'd brewed was, giving me an endless supply of one potion at a time.

The Bloodrage Potion flooded my body and I felt like I could've jumped through the goddamn ceiling of the cave. Instead, I was careful not to call on the extra strength as I took off my shirt and used it to bundle up the remaining herbs and all the Brightbell Flowers I could carry.

Looking down, I couldn't help but smile. I looked ridiculously shredded with this potion in my system. My chest bulged, veins and striated muscle pressing against my skin. My abs all stood out in clear definition, and my arms were twice their normal size. I almost laughed at the thought of what the others would say if they saw me walking back to the outpost looking like this.

I tied up my gray offering's shirt around the herbs, threw it over one shoulder, and then jogged toward the cave exit. Each step called on the enhanced power of the potion, propelling me twice as far as I should've gone and eating away at my muscles in the process.

I automatically healed the damage, keeping close tabs on my mana as I went.

I skidded to a stop at the cave's exit, noticing the iron bars were still in place.

"What the hell? Did I not complete the challenge?"

I realized I never selected my final skill. Maybe that was the trigger for the bars to lift. Considering I still didn't have a great potion to use Elemental Chain or Elemental Spike with, I locked in my choice of Forge Echo. I felt a warm glow in my corestone as I made the choice, but frowned when the bars didn't move.

The portals all waited just outside the bars, faces watching me silently.

I looked at my bulging arms, then the bars. With a shrug, I called on all the strength I could from the potion and punched. The bars exploded outward with a terrible sound.

Smiling beneath my helmet, I stepped through the broken gate and realized I could hear the crowds cheering now. Some of them were chanting my name.

"Bloody Brynn! Bloody Brynn! Bloody Brynn!"

I healed myself and then started sprinting toward the outpost with a speed and momentum that must have been terrifying. Once, I accidentally clipped a thin tree, but I was moving so fast the bark just exploded, hardly slowing me down.

I was down to a quarter of my total mana by the time I reached the outpost. I was also shirtless, bulging with unnatural amounts of muscle, and my body was sweating thick rivers of blood, drenching my pants and shoes. So it was hardly a surprise when my own allies didn't recognize me from the gates.

Someone shouted in alarm, a grommet on top of the gates screamed, and I saw a slave drawing her bow and aiming it straight for my bare, bloody chest.