“You have each been given a bag of holding with which you may store whatever treasure and resources you manage to find. The rules for this trial are simple. Listen carefully.”

  Caen stood with nearly a thousand participants on the trial grounds. Various entrances to a vast maze loomed before them, its walls almost thirty feet high.

  The maze was divided into different elemental-themed zones. Within an hour, participants were tasked with locating treasure to earn points for their team. Every treasure was worth five points. Forty points were needed to pass the trial, and as soon as a team secured their points, they could leave the trial grounds. This would result in them leaving all their treasure behind, however. Losing three members of a team would completely reset the team's points to zero.

  The announcer went on to briefly describe each zone. The Liquid zone, for example, consisted of walls and floors made entirely of ice or of other strange liquids in various phases and consistencies. It had pools, suspended droplets, and creatures made up of water. All sorts of liquid-themed treasure and resources were hidden all around.

  Caen was more interested in the Flora zone. He’d decided on this days ago. Even without having overheard the plans of his cousins from the Faithful Descent faction, he’d already been mindful of choosing a zone that would offer him as much protection as possible.

  “Remember, all hostile actions are prohibited within the first ten minutes of the trial. Her spirit encompasses all things. Now, begin!”

  “Let’s go,” Caen said, breaking into a light jog as he headed for the Flora zone entrance.

  His teammates kept up. The ground here was covered in vines and moss of different colors. Trees were growing in the walls, and some walls were made entirely of plant matter.

  “Where are we meeting up with your friends, boss?” one of his teammates asked. She was a muscular Body-enhancer in thick, metal armor.

  “They’ll find us,” Caen said. Rithya had assured him that she would be able to direct Goat Mask to his location easily.

  “I personally think that we should be taking advantage of this grace period to explore the other zones,” the Metal practician said. He had an enchanted rifle slung across his back.

  “We can make more points in the Flora zone,” Caen said. “I’m certain of that.” It wasn't technically true, but Caen did have a reliable means of securing points.

  Diviners were the most advantaged participants in this round, and while Caen wasn’t remotely skilled enough in the discipline to use it in this trial, there were other options available to him. Practicians sufficiently practiced in certain disciplines could locate relevant treasures by sensing the Planar creatures guarding them. This wasn’t so simple because Planar creatures couldn’t be sensed or located easily with Saffronan spells, unless the practician in question was particularly skilled.

  Caen, however, could feel the souls of living things around him and even isolate them with some concentration.

  A section of a wall of stone up ahead writhed, then parted to reveal Goat Mask and his team.

  “That guy?” the Fire practician on Caen’s team asked. “Didn’t he kill all his batchmates in the last trial?”

  Caen and Goat Mask exchanged nods of greeting. And Caen led both teams around a bend. He’d been paying attention to his senses, and he could feel a bunch of creatures nearby. They were huddled on the ground underneath a tree by the wall. Bushes and brambles lined the walls here.

  “Spread out and search the area,” Caen said. “Move in threes.”

  They all complied. The man with the rifle and Moon Mask followed Caen, who headed straight for the tree.

  “Be ready,” Caen said as he used a spell chain to part the roots and reveal a glowing rose amidst a swarm of lizard-like creatures with beaks and iridescent skin. The creatures shrieked and sprang forward. Moon mask tore into them with the pair of shortswords in his hands, while the Metal practician shot down the creatures with his rifle, as two metal discs swirled around him, cutting down whichever ones he missed.

  The rose did not have a soul structure, implying that it was not ‘alive’. It also didn’t respond to Flora spells, which meant that it was a Planar substance. He sent a vine wrapped around his torso to retrieve the glowing rose. It had a sharp, acrid scent.

  “Pretty,” Moon Mask said.

  Motes of light rose from the rose and formed the Thermish glyph for ‘5’ in the air. Then the glyph dispersed in various directions, pieces of it shooting for every member of Caen’s team. Some flinched away in surprise. Caen’s identifier necklace grew warm.

  His vine deposited the rose in his bag of holding, which was strapped to his belt.

  “This goes to my team,” Caen said to Goat Mask. “Next one we find goes to yours.” He then set up a system for the distribution of treasure, which ensured that everyone got an equal amount of treasure until both groups had their forty points.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  They proceeded through the maze, remaining in the Flora zone. Caen wasn’t the only one who located treasure, though he found the bulk of it, often opting to hold back on doing so at times. He would usually lead them to a specific location and let them rummage through till they located their prizes. Caen stuffed his bag of holding full with carcasses, plant matter of all kinds, and various treasures.

  Other teams were present here, and more than once, they’d found themselves searching the same area as another team. Most of the time, their fellow participants were intimidated enough by the sight of Goat Mask and Herb Mask that they’d just go somewhere else, lest things devolve to violence. Most participants were interested in accruing points and loot, anyway.

  At one point, his speculon noticed how a certain tree fern that heavily populated this zone released a thin stream of tiny spores into the air around them. A few people sneezed, and one of his team members coughed lightly, but beyond that, there didn't seem to be any particularly harmful or notable effects.

  Caen was intrigued. He hadn’t noticed this before now. While his teammates rummaged for treasure, he walked over to one of the ferns growing out of a wall and scanned it with a Flora diagnostic spell.

  Interesting.

  “We’re ready to move,” Goat Mask called.

  “Give me a moment,” Caen said.

  Using a spell chain, he caused the fern to produce more spores. A great deal more. There was soon a dense cloud above them.

  “Uh… what the fuck is that?” someone on Goat Mask’s team asked.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Caen said, funneling the dense mass of spores into his bag of holding. He split off a sizable stream of the spores and inhaled. It caused his eyes to water and itched his lungs, making him hack furiously.

  These are perfect, he mused, as he expelled the inhaled spores with Flora magic and used some Blood-healing to get rid of the effects.

  He had been collecting and grinding toxic leaves and flowers all the while they’d been here. These spores would serve him much better, should that become necessary.

  Nearly thirty minutes into the trial, both teams had gathered their forty points.

  “We’ll be taking our leave now,” Goat Mask said to Caen.

  “What? You’ll lose all your haul if you leave before the end of the trial,” Crane Mask said.

  The Earth practician in Goat Mask’s team laughed. “We’re not bowing out yet. We’ll tunnel into the ground and wait out the rest of the trial.”

  This was not an unusual tactic. Any participant who had secured the minimum number of points would still make it to the next round if they were eliminated by another participant. But they would lose all their treasure and gathered resources.

  After bidding each other good luck, they parted ways and continued scouring the zone for treasure. Caen adjusted their points distribution system. Once forty points had been acquired by a team, any new treasure located no longer counted towards the team as a whole, but accrued to the specific participant who found it.

  He led his teammates to choice areas and still helped them locate treasure, but he prioritized himself, naturally.

  Forty-five minutes in, Caen had accrued thirty extra points for himself, bringing him to seventy total points in this trial. He was sure he could do more. The current record for most points earned in the second trial was a hundred and twenty points, and he’d been hoping to earn just as much.

  There’s still time. I’m sure I can make up the rest if I hurry.

  It surprised him that Fahptis and Gebda had not made their move. He knew that they were in the first batch with him. Perhaps, they’d—

  “What’s that in your glove?” the Body-enhancer asked the Fire practitioner.

  “Nothing,” she answered a little too quickly.

  “This is the sixth time in as little as ten minutes that you’ve fiddled with something in there. You’re hiding something.”

  “Mind your fucking business. I’m not hiding anyth—h-hey!”

  The Body-enhancer had seized her gloved hand. Something fell out of her glove.

  A vine snatched it up and dropped it in Caen’s open palm. It was a flat, rectangular block of engraved stone with a crystal dial on its short edge. A transmitter.

  Vensha and her party members used a version of this to track and locate each other whenever they needed to split their party in a Plane.

  “She’s working with Cullers!” Crane Mask accused, her voice rising.

  “No one is untouchable,” the Fire practician said to Caen, her expression turning grim.

  “How close are they?” Caen asked.

  “Oh, it’s too late for any of that now. The Blood Birds faction sends their regards.” She vanished in a pillar of light just as Moon Mask cut into the space where she’d been.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Caen saw the Metal practician reach for his rifle. It sped into his grip. The man was quick, but not a Body-enhancer, and thus could not react as fast as one.

  By the time Caen grabbed Stormsong, he’d already cast Kinesis and Body-enhancement spells. The gun went off just as Caen’s sword slammed into the neck of the man, smashing him into the wall beside him. He vanished in a pillar of light. The bullet had grazed the side of Caen’s armor.

  “Fuck!” Crane Mask said. “We need to get away from here.”

  Caen could feel the press of approaching presences. People; coming from two directions. About a dozen of them. More.

  He parted the wall of brambles and woody vines beside him. “Go,” he said to the remaining members of his team.

  “Tough son of a bitch,” Moon Mask mumbled, but he ran through the parted wall.

  The others followed him without arguing.

  Caen closed the gap behind them. After a second of deliberation, vines darted out from the same wall, grabbed the two bags of holding that the traitors on his team had left behind, and pulled the bags into the wall for safekeeping.

  Then Caen turned in the direction he felt the largest bulk of approaching people.