Phoenix had spent the st four days locked away with Paul and Bliss, training as if her life depended on it. While she felt much more comfortable with her skills now, she was incredibly nervous about putting them to the test. If she failed these trials, it would not only reflect poorly on her new Mentor, but she wouldn’t be able to take them again until the blood moon finished, which was still rumored to st for almost a year.
She continued racing down the street, trying her best to follow the signs and even using her book to try to map the way, but she kept getting turned around among the towering buildings of these less-traveled streets. Instead, she kept finding herself not at the designated location to meet up for the trials.
Paul had gone over the details with her extensively about what to expect and where she needed to put her focus, all while she had been fending off the chimeric sparring partner. Bliss would shift her form into various amalgamations of what Phoenix recognized as simir to an owl, panther, and giant anaconda. The tter was the most terrifying to her, but thankfully, Paul had deemed most of those abilities to be “above Caste” for her current skills. However, she did get more healing practice with that one.
Needless to say, she hadn’t always been able to catch everything Paul was lecturing her over while trying not to get eaten. She caught a lot, but it was just enough to make her feel woefully underprepared for being judged as an elite monster fighter. Her st hope was that with the impending blood moon, the assessor would be more lenient in their grading in order to get more defenders for the city at such a critical time.
First, however, she needed to actually find the group of trial participants and hopefully not get left behind or marked down for being te. She picked up her pace, even attempting to use her utility-turned-movement ability, [Ruler of Retivity], to empower her steps.
She stumbled a bit at first while trying to get the timing right to push from the ground, but her Crystal Caste Mind and Agility helped her get the hang of it quickly enough. She just hoped it would be enough to get her there before she missed any vital information.
New Quest: For Adventure
Are you up to the challenges of this new path?
Objective: Pass the trials to join the Alliance of Adventurers.
Reward: Epic cultivating magical trinket.
Phoenix shooed her book away hastily as she arrived at her destination. She was relieved at the sight of a rge group of people, mostly around her age, milling about a rge stone ptform. It was located between the southern wall of the western district and the towering buildings all around it, which she had learned were mostly used for mass storage of resources that kept the city alive.
“Alright, people, listen up!” a Sapphire Caste runeforged man who she assumed was the assessor yelled out to the group of would-be Adventurers. Phoenix had just barely made it there in time.
There were sixteen of them taking the trials, and she noticed almost all of the others waiting with her were runeforged and cinderen, like most of the city’s popution. However, she did notice one other participant standing out just as much as she did.
It was the young man she had seen with Warrior. His dark purple hair glinted like stained metal in the little bits of rare sunlight peeking through the dense clouds. Phoenix wanted to approach him –maybe learn more about his retionship with the god– but the others surrounding the beautiful stranger made her hesitant.
The amethyst warrior seemed to have an entourage of other young people listening and ughing with him. His rexed yet almost regal bearing seemed to somehow put others at ease despite the trials ahead of them.
“Smithson! Stop your chattering and listen!” the assessor yelled at the chuckling group.
“Of course, Mister Trayvious. I meant no disrespect. We are all just excited to finally become Adventurers,” the young warrior replied gracefully with a very slight bow.
“We’ll see,” the assessor replied, then gestured towards all of them to address the whole group, “You all know a blood moon is imminent, and this is the final trial until it passes. Make no mistake that this is the most dangerous time to become a freshly licensed Adventurer, as you won’t be given the luxury of getting the experience of normal missions. It’s your life on the line, and you will be fatally disappointed should you not perform above the usual standards,” Trayvious expined to the group with a heavy warning.
Any hope of leniency Phoenix had was killed with those words. Apparently, in a shocking turn of events, the Alliance of Adventurers seemed to actually care about the survival of their members and potential recruits. She had gotten that vibe from Paul when he spoke of the organization, but the few official functionaries she had met so far reminded her that it was an organization. One with a bottom line. It was nice to see that Paul’s positive picture was proving to be more accurate in actual practice and out in the field, if not in the administration of it.
“For the first trial, we’ll be going as a group to do a few missions out by the gorge to the west. Remember, unexpected encounters are likely, especially if we go into the night. If I deem anything too dangerous, you will follow my orders to retreat, or you will be disqualified from ever joining the AOA. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir!” the group said in response, which she managed to mumble along with in time.
“Very good,” the assessor said, then gnced down at a stone tablet in his hands that was slightly glowing from the magic infused into it. He appeared to read some of the information before calling out, “Fraser!”
Phoenix froze, uncertain of what she could have possibly done to get singled out, but the runeforged called out again, “Phoenix Fraser?!”
“Y–yes? I’m here,” she squeaked from the back of the group, which parted to let everyone see her. She felt extremely uncomfortable with all the attention focused on her.
“I’ve been informed that you have a portal ability that can take us to Linnake?” Trayvious inquired.
“Ah. Y–yes, my mentor took me to a bunch of pces across Tulim to learn them for portaling,” she gnced around at the group before saying, “I can take one Sapphire Caster or about ten Crystal Casters every five minutes. It’s not exact, depending on various magic levels of the people going through…” she trailed off when she realized these people probably didn’t care about the nuances of her ability.
He nodded in understanding, “That’s fine. Portals are extremely rare, so having one at all is helpful. Cutting our travel time to fifteen minutes instead of a week will help us get this over with much sooner.”
Phoenix briefly wondered if this was part of Paul’s pn by having her focus on leveling her portal ability as they went from monster to monster, despite him not being able to go through it. He even had her test it out in the ter towns by portaling other people to the other forts she had been to by that point, which is what helped her gauge how many she could get through. She thought it was just for performing logistic missions that he had mentioned, but perhaps he wanted to give her a foot up in the trials, too.
“Alright, keep together, everyone. I’ll be going first to make sure the area is secure, then the rest will follow, with Miss Fraser arriving st,” the assessor commanded and gestured to the clear area behind him, and Phoenix conjured her circur portal floating slightly above the ground.
She had always enjoyed the magical sight of the silver ring surrounding a star-filled night sky, and she felt that adventures waited just on the other side, and in this instance, that was exactly what was awaiting them.
Trayvious nodded at her in approval, then stepped through the portal, which vanished behind him as the magic was fully consumed by his higher Caste. Phoenix felt awkward again as she sensed people murmur and gnce in her direction periodically as they waited for the cooldown of her ability to finish. She looked away from the others, finding her boots and gloves to be extremely interesting at the moment and not wanting to draw more attention to herself.
Once she felt her power was ready again, she conjured the next portal, with ten of the would-be Adventurers making their way through before it vanished again. Only five of them remained now, and one of them made their way over to her with a casual stride, followed by a cinderen man trailing behind like a shadow.
She was surprised to recognize the shadow from their run-in at the AOA, and Uriel seemed just as indifferent to the world as she first remembered. She hadn’t expected these two men to be connected in some way after meeting them in completely separate ways.
“Hello. Phoenix, was it?” the beautiful stranger that the assessor had called Smithson asked her politely.
She nodded, remaining silent, unsure of what the warrior wanted.
“I’m Dazien, but my friends just call me Daze or King, and this is Uriel,” the amethyst-colored man said brightly.
She turned to her former pretend friend, only to be met with that same frown that was borderline a scowl, but he still politely nodded to her in greeting. Both of the young men were dressed in simple traveling gear that was mostly bck with grey fur. Uriel was also carrying a rge backpack slung over his equally rge shoulders.
Phoenix bowed to the pair in greeting as she said softly, “We’ve met before.”
“That’s right. I saw you at Warrior’s temple, didn’t I?” he asked as though he had just now recalled the encounter, and his gem-like eyes seemed to sparkle with amusement. It made her not believe for a second that he had forgotten their run-in before approaching her.
“Yes, and we met when getting our trial passes,” she added, gesturing towards the taller cinderen, who was about half a head taller than his companion.
That caused Dazien to raise his brow in surprise as he gave Uriel a side eye, “Is that so?” he questioned rhetorically, then the young warrior gave her a charming smile and said reassuringly, “Well, I just came over to thank you for saving us the travel time. A portal ability is quite special. Are you more of a group Supporter?”
She gave a nervous shrug and expined a bit, “I, um… I haven’t unlocked all of my abilities yet, so I’m not really sure where I’ll end up when it comes to group roles, but Uriel suggested I go with Midshift Supporter.”
Dazien raised an eyebrow again, giving another look at his friend before asking her, “You don’t know what your Css will lean towards? Was it unknown or something?”
Phoenix nodded her head, “Um, well, I haven’t really asked around, but my Mentor had never heard of it before.”
“Ah. I guess we’ll get to see what you’re capable of in a bit then,” he said cheerfully before turning to leave.
“Um, what roles do you two fill?” she asked in a rush. The warrior turned back to look at her, and she quickly added, “If you don’t mind my asking, that is.”
Dazien gave an amused chuckle and stuck a thumb back towards his companion, “Uriel here is a Backline Mage and all about area attacks while I protect him, among other things.”
She had only been slightly distracted by the fsh of crystalline nails on his hand when he spoke, the same color as his eyes, “I see,” she said softly. Then she succumbed to her curiosity and managed to ask the charismatic man awkwardly, “Um, I hope this isn’t rude, but I don’t recognize your species…”
As she trailed off, he gave her another surprised look followed by a soft chuckle, “While I admit we are quite rare, it’s odd that you’ve never heard of a gemite before at your age.”
She recognized the name as one of the species in this world which the tome of rituals referred to for certain requirements, but the book hadn’t gone so far as to describe them, much like the other species it had listed in pces as required participants or targets. The ritual she recalled about gemites was specifically for changing a Mundane one’s “gem color properties,” which she now had a better reference for what that actually meant.
Phoenix quickly gave a vague excuse, not wanting to chance a kidnapping again, and she briefly wondered if gemites had a simir problem with being so rare and shiny looking, “I never really got out much. Most of what I’ve learned of the wide world I’ve discovered in like the st month and a half.”
Then she felt her ability become ready once more, “Time for us to go,” she said to the pair and conjured the st portal, letting the rest go through as she followed behind.
