“That… was easy?” Adrian says.

  “They accomplished what they were trying to do. They’ve scared us, and now no matter which room we pick, we’ll have to waste time and be careful, not knowing which one is hell, and which is not. I expect more of them to come at us, starting from the next time,” Ji-a explains as they quickly pick another door and enter. Time is running away, and only 20 minutes remain on the clock.

  “I get this feeling that neither of the doors on the first floor were meant to be the lucky one,” Adrian says.

  “Very likely. The Tower likes to play with their Trials, so I wouldn’t put it behind them to actually do that.”

  “You should put your weapon away, Adrian,” John says calmly from beside him.

  “Why?”

  “It’s not accomplishing anything except occupying more of your freedom of movement, and putting us at risk to be mauled at by an accidental swing. Not like you can hit the shadows with that thing without some mana,” He explains calmly, as he sheaths his own sword.

  Adrian thinks about it for a few more steps, before deciding that he is right. Although a part of him rebels at the idea to leave himself unguarded like this, he puts it away and focuses more on lighting the area around him.

  “Remember, this is only the third test. You are not in mortal danger, unless you are an absolute idiot, or with a horrendous team. Neither of them are true in our case, so relax and focus,” Ji-a reassures from the side, her voice calm and encouraging.

  He hadn’t noticed it till now, but the woman from before the test, compared to her in the test, is completely different. Now she’s efficient, straightforward, caring in a militaristic way, and very charismatic. Once again, in a very leader-esque way.

  How long has she been doing it?

  Adrian focuses and lets go of the useless thoughts that would serve him no purpose right now, apart from killing him and his teammates.

  The next few floors are then spent in relative safety as no shadow suddenly materialises to assault them and attempt to cut them into pieces, but the tension never disappears. Every single flicker of shadow still alerts the group, even if it may be just a trick of light.

  Adrian finds himself enjoying the feeling a little bit.

  But time is running out, and they are not here for fun and games. It is around the 13th minute mark when they reach the 5th floor.

  “We are gonna increase our pace from here. We can’t afford to make this pace,” Ji-a says. Adrian and John nod and once again descend towards the next floor.

  This time, something instantly changes. There are broken stairs, interspersed between the good ones, and they are somehow not the most evident thing when you also have shadows to look out for.

  Adrian looks at Ji-a to see if she has another plan, but she only frowns a little bit, before saying, “We move according to plan,”

  So they do. A little bit more careful but fast steps, now more focused on the ground than above. It is this lapse of judgement, when a burst of shadows launch onto them from each direction.

  The next few seconds turn into a light show with a bit of screaming, running, a leg in the hole, pain, panic, blows raining down on his body, shouts, a calm voice cutting through it all, and before he knew it they are at the next floor.

  The two doors suddenly feel very endearing as well as horrifying. Another exciting adventure, as well as a trap.

  In that moment, Adrian enters that state of focus where it is like his body suddenly has become just so less of his, but a puppet he operates. He can feel the amount of small blows he has received through the ordeal, as well as the cut on his leg from when it went down a hole.

  The biggest wound is honestly the one he receives from the leg in the hole.

  “Are you okay?” Someone asks, it is the same calm voice, and he turns to look at Ji-a who stands above him. Only then does Adrian realise that he is actually sitting down. He breaks out of the focus and answers.

  “I’m fine. What about you?” He asks.

  “I’m fine too,” She replies.

  “Good thing the Shadows don’t pack more punch. It would’ve been disastrous otherwise,” John says from beside him, patting his pants as if removing a layer of dust accumulated there. Is it dusty here? Adrian hasn’t noticed.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “The real things carry much much more. The Tower must be weakening them to not kill us outright. Engaging with so many of them as a bunch of non-awakened is a guaranteed death deal. They trap you in a dark domain where normal light does not work at all, and kill you as soon as they can. There are also some who can speed time in their domain. Now those like to enjoy torturing their prey,” Ji-a casually answers, as Adrian stands up.

  “Which floor are they usually found on?” Adrian asks, curious.

  “7th or 8th if I remember correctly. The time ones doesn't come until the 10th floor.”

  “How do you know so much?” John asks from the side, his calm tone betraying just a touch of envy. Adrian could relate to that. But now isn’t the time.

  “Let’s get out of here alive before we discuss this,” Both of them nod before choosing one more door. Adrian is glad that they don’t have to argue which door to pick. He could imagine some childish individuals wanting their preferred door to be the one.

  The next floor is once again a harassment by shadows raining down upon them from every direction as they sprint for the next exit, trying and failing to block as many attacks as they could. They prioritised dispelling shadows with weapons as those were some of the ones which could deal more damage beyond some sore muscles. At least at this point.

  The 3rd floor comes and goes with nary a wound nor an encounter, and then 2nd floor comes with a creaking thunder which rings throughout the building.

  “This… is gonna be a problem,” Ji-a frowns harder and says.

  The stairs creak at the lightest touch, sinking onto themselves. Adrian very hesitatingly steps on one with both legs, and he could literally feel himself sinking. He did not dare stand on it for any longer. Adrian has a ‘sinking’ suspicion that if all three of them are to stand on it together, then the poor guy might just break under the stress.

  “You know what the only correct approach now is, right?” John asks stoically. Even he doesn’t seem to like his own plan.

  Adrian looks at him in question, then at the frowning Ji-a and has a ‘sinking’ realisation about the correct approach here.

  Ji-a sighs–the first time he has ever seen her sigh–and smiles. A bit of her personality from the train leaking into her current persona, “We need to make a run for it. The next two floors. No dragging your feet. No dodging. No dying. Those are the 3D’s. Do you understand?”

  Adrian doesn’t understand.

  #

  Adrian understands it perfectly now. Running through shadow monsters, paving a way through them using nothing but light, moving faster and faster as the ground beneath you gives way. This is a rush. This is dangerous. In the back of his mind a voice keeps scolding him for enjoying it. For enjoying it when his revenge is yet unfinished.

  But he ignores it now. He had been depressed for too long. If this is going to be his life from now on, if he’s going to continue for so long and climb so high that he can finally destroy this Tower, then he would very much like to do it swinging and having some fun along the way.

  Even though it hurt him that Martin isn’t here, he’d live better for the sake of his friend.

  The second floor is crossed at break-neck speed as Shadow hunters with shadow knives and tools come to attack them. They try to dispel as many as possible, yet still some of them slip by.

  Uncaring about the small wounds that they accumulate, they quickly reach the entrance to the first floor, slam open the last door, and run for their lives.

  There is a moment when Adrian finds himself smiling even as the monster cuts open a very small wound on his right cheek. There are moments when he has almost stumbled on the breaking stairs, and only been saved by Ji-a and John. There are moments when he saves one of them.

  And there is a moment when even though all of it is over, it doesn’t feel like that at all.

  The three of them lay sprawled on the ground, heaving deep breaths as they regain their strength. The scenery has already changed to the station. That is good. Now that the adrenaline is finally washing off, Adrian really didn’t wanna go in there for a while. At least until he gets back a little of his strength.

  He checks the timer, and there’s still 5 minutes left. Considering everything, they did pretty well.

  John gets up first, nods at them, and then walks back into the train. Ji-a too gets up, but waits for Adrian to finally stand up too.

  “That was something, huh,” Adrian says.

  “Nothing compared to the things I’ve seen, but I suppose it was passable.”

  Adrian decides he’s not gonna ruin this memory even more by talking to her about it.

  #

  The wounds close fast. Even more so under some simple balm. There aren’t as many as he felt at the moment either. There still are many small wounds, but they just aren’t as many as he thought there’d be.

  “Most of these wounds are nothing at all. Some are scratches, while only a few really bring out blood. The punches still hurt though. They didn’t hold back on that,” Adrian is once again half-naked, applying balm on his chest and arms to close whatever remains. Moving and running and fighting again so soon would still hurt and may even open some of them, but this is the nature of the Trial.

  “I don’t think they were aiming to really kill us with that test. It was more of a show of courage and some basic teamwork. No wonder most teams passed,” Ji-a says. She too has her t-shirt off, now only in a bra, applying balm across herself.

  Most of the compartment is the same scene, except some who are too shy to take their clothes off. Maybe they will do it on the station before the next test starts.

  Adrian can also sense a strange shift in the air. As gazes passed around, he could see that some stayed on some figures for a little too long…

  “Kids,” Ji-a sighs as she shakes her head.

  “Kids indeed,” Adrian agrees, and quickly puts his shirt back on. It’s not that he can’t understand what’s happening here. It’s just that he has never felt what they seem to be feeling.

  He sits close to Ji-a and even though he can understand that she looks beautiful and has a nice figure, he can’t really feel what some of the other gazes feel when they land on her.

  The only thing he knows is that she isn’t a bad person, although very mysterious and weird. He feels that it’s a shame he wouldn’t be able to party with her after this.

  #