Zibrek and Boomgar look at Jacob, stunned.

  "Lad," Boomgar says, feeling a tightness in his chest. "Are you sure? Didn't you say you need it for whatever your master left you?"

  Jacob nods, "yes. However, you two are going down two entirely different paths in life--and I was the one suggesting it. The least I can do is help you two like this. I'll find more Star Metal drops, I'm sure. If anything, I'm the luckiest here. So, just decide how you want to settle this."

  Zibrek looks about to argue, but then something stops her. She understands Jacob logic. If anything, if she was still hell-bent to become the Guide of Champions, she understands she would have to behave in the exact same way. Jacob is just showing them what it looks like to be a real reader. Even with so much at stake, he's still willing to take the fall for them.

  "Boomgar," Zibrek says, taking a coin out. "Let's just flip a coin. It doesn't make any sense to argue who deserves it best. It's a 50-50 chance of getting the Star Metal, so we might as well make it a 50-50 chance to go ahead or stay behind."

  "Alright, lass," Boomgar sighs, "I still can't believe that the damn Golem-thingy lied to us."

  "Trials tend to get tricky," Jacob says from the other side. "I'll go ahead and take a look at the next room while you two play."

  Zibrek gives the coin to Boomgar while Jacob's boots tap away toward the next room.

  "What have you got, lass, heads or tails?"

  "Heads," Zibrek says, looking at the Gold coin in Boomgar's hand.

  Boomgar spins it up in the air and as Zibrek raises her eyes to look at it, the Dwarf takes her by the waist and supplexes her, throwing her over the threshold of the corridor.

  Boomgar manages to also snatch the coin mid-air before it falls.

  "Boomgar, what have you done?!" Zibrek shouts. "What is this for?!"

  "Look at your sorry face, lass. Being born a Goblin? You're clearly not lucky at all. I can take this chance and you just get the final reward. Plus, I'd feel bad to leave a friend behind."

  "You..." Zibrek is speechless.

  "Come on, don't waste your time. You got one last room."

  Zibrek scrunches her face at Boomgar before saying, "Boomgar, I'll remember this. I owe you."

  "You don't owe me squat, lass. It's on the house. Now, go. This place gives me the creeps."

  Zibrek nods and looks one last time at Boomgar before walking to the next room.

  When she gets there, she finds Jacob in front of a sign.

  "I was right, apparently," Jacob says. "It only made sense. This is the last room."

  "Really?" Zibrek goes up to the sign and reads it out.

  "This is the last part of the Trial, friends. However, and I'm sorry if I lied to you, you can't go ahead together. Only one of you can receive the reward. The other will have to give up."

  "You're uncanny at times," Zibrek says, looking at Jacob. "How did you know?”

  “Since getting my new Class, my intuition has been working in overdrive,” Jacob confesses. “Anyway, go ahead.”

  “Jacob,” Zibrek says, “Boomgar threw me into the corridor. I can’t take this as well. I know you’re the Guide of Champions, but I just can’t.”

  There’s a large corridor, much larger than the preceding ones. And there’s no end in sight. It’s enshrouded in darkness.

  “You have to,” Jacob replies. “I’m not moving.”

  “You’ll have to,” Zibrek says, putting her goggles on and pressing a button on them. “You are not going to like it, Jacob, but you’re crossing that threshold today.”

  The Goblin’s body starts suddenly being covered in liquid metal that forms an armor full of joints and pistons. From a quite short young woman, Zibrek slowly grows into a seven-foot titanic figure in front of Jacob.

  “Zibrek,” Jacob says slowly, unsheathing the sword at his side and looking at her with a smile. “I’m really curious to see who’s stronger.” He looks at the gun that Boomgar made for her—the revolver is now absorbed into the armor’s arm, with only the muzzle peeking from the metal.

  “You’re not winning this, Jacob,” Zibrek says. “This is the latest armor I’ve made. I might not be as strong as the rest of the Champions since I’ve always tried to optimize my creations to be support-first on the battlefield, but you’re going to lose, badly.”

  “Glad you’re going to make this interesting,” Jacob says, placing a hand over his face. “But I don’t think you’ve got any idea of what you’re about to face.”

  “Show me,” Zibrek says in a metallic voice. “I’m anxious to see who’s stronger.”

  Jacob uses Reverse Domain on Domain of Ruin and Bones, feeling the terrifying energy going inward instead of outward. Even though from the outside everything looks normal, he can feel his body, his organs, everything inside of him, put under enormous strain.

  “Cool trick,” Zibrek says through her visor, pointing the gun-arm at him.

  Jacob feels an impending sense of doom and immediately turns on the Grimoire, feeling all the possible trajectories somehow hitting him.

  How?! He thinks.

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  “Convergence Point. I’ve always thought it would have made me a great Guide, but it appears I was just arrogant. I should have just gone the way every other user of the Skill has always gone,” Zibrek’s metallic voice makes Jacob’s ears ring. “I’ll make sure not to kill you, don’t worry.”

  When the projectile explodes, Jacob breathes in, feeling the world slow thanks to the power of the Reverse Domain. In reality, it’s his perception that has been magnified several times. He has barely scratched the surface of the Reverse Domain, but there’s one effect that he has been able to summon.

  Jacob slowly exhales as he moves the sword in front of the bullet and channels the power of Ruin.

  Normally, if a bullet hit the sword, the fragments might still hit him. And knowing that it’s Boomgar’s creation, it might be too resistant to destroy the metal with anything else. But, thanks to the power of Ruin, Jacob instantly pulverizes the bullet as it hits.

  Frowning, Zibrek shoots five more times, with Jacob using the Grimoire to zero down on the trajectory. He can’t evade. Zibrek’s Skill perfectly aligns the world itself with her shooting. But he can still pick which part of him will be in front of the sword—in this case, the sword.

  One after another, with sparks flying for the moment the bullet hits the sword, the projectiles are turned to dust. Once Jacob is done, he doesn’t wait for Zibrek’s armor to reload the gun; he dashes toward her.

  Zibrek’s other arm turns into a blade, but Jacob simply slashes four times from outside Zibrek’s range. Powerful, but not that fast, Zibrek can’t evade the hits. Yet, she barely registers them.

  “This is it?” Zibrek looks at the thinnest of cuts over her armor. “This is the power you think will—”

  Suddenly, she feels her Mana moving way more sluggishly, she feels a deep burning in her veins too every time she channels Mana—Mana that she needs to keep the armor going.

  “You’re a friend, so, you might as well know that I’ve used the Grimoire in order to make my main slashing Skill, Diavolo Hypercut, focus exclusively on sharpness. Every time I touch your skin, I can inflict a debuff. In this case, you were hit by Smoldering Blood and Cinder Rot, two of my new Class Skills, and then I used the other two hits for Hellbane’s Mark, which increases the effect of my Debuff Skills. I didn’t want to be too cruel.”

  Zibrek, breathing faster because of the pain, feels a deep anger.

  “Do not underestimate me!” She roars, raising her gun-arm. “I’ve already reworked the internal composition of this damn gun through my armor! Try and stop this!”

  Jacob sees the inside of gun’s barrel lighting up with unbridled Mana.

  “Oh shit,” Jacob says, as an explosion rocks the chamber and the next bullet flies at him faster than he can react. The hit takes out a chunk of his thigh, making him stumble. However, it’s clear that Zibrek can only shoot one of those monster hits one at the time without rapid fire.”

  As the gun lights up again, Jacob’s aura suddenly swells and he slashes thrice more.

  Next, Zibrek starts screaming to the top of her lungs.

  The missing chunk on Jacob’s thigh starts regenerating in real time.

  “Armor of Cinders,” Jacob says. “Let me read the description for you: Physical armor, carapace, or any protective layer on the enemy heats up when struck and begins damaging the target. Thanks to two more Hellbane’s Marks, the debuffs’ effects are increased manyfold, which helps since I know you have a good Fire Resistance. But mine is higher than yours, and I probably couldn’t take that heat directly on my skin like that.”

  “YOU!” Zibrek shouts in pain.

  “And while you suffer, my Skill, the Devil’s Engine, makes me stronger and increases my regeneration—the more Afflictions on you, the more I become stronger and the more I heal.”

  Jacob goes close to Zibrek and, covered in bone-like tattoos from head to toe, smiles at her, tearing the metallic mask away.

  “Enjoy the Star Metal.”

  Zibrek flies through the corridor and the moment she hits the ground, Jacob deactivates all the Afflictions.”

  One moment later, the room starts trembling and Jacob hears a booming laugh.

  “Never in my entire stay here I have seen anything like this,” a sigh comes from the air and Jacob turns to find no one. However, he recognizes it as the voice of the Mithril Golem.

  “Where are you?” Jacob asks. “Why aren’t you—”

  Then, something hits Jacob.

  “Is this a projection? An illusion? Wait. It makes sense. Why didn’t I consider that before?”

  “King Lavrev’s Trial, Jacob Cloud, includes powerful soul and mind magic. This was a screening test for his subjects, which is why everyone is manipulated into believing this was the absolute truth. Otherwise, you would have also doubted the fact that the Trial and I provided you with contrasting information. See, Jacob Cloud, I’ve helped the man create this very Trial with my own two hands. And I’ve surveyed every single test-taker and their result. You, Jacob Cloud, have not hesitated one moment. You have not shown one ounce of greed when faced with the possibility of your friends not receiving any Star Metal. Yet, despite your new powers, they remain your betters. If the girl had known the details of your Class, she could have done much better. You took her fully by surprise. And the Dwarf is destined to grow much stronger than even he realizes. Yet, you gave them the Star Metal. I only have one question, why?”

  “I said it already, I’m their Leader.”

  “Technically, you’re not,” the Mithril Golem says. “And even then, those words would mean nothing in front of such a reward. Do you even begin to understand how rare Star Metal is? That it’s practically a once-in-a-lifetime reward?”

  “So?” Jacob asks. “I’ll get lucky again, my friend.”

  The Mithril Golem sighs and Jacob suddenly feels the world shift, finding himself in a cocoon of Mana right above the lake of magma.

  In front of him, there’s the Mithril Golem, floating a few feet away.

  Looking around, Jacob sees that everybody else, except Filr’etk who’s not there, is in cocoons, still asleep.

  “Oh,” Jacob realizes with a big grin.

  “Yes, Jacob Cloud, you have passed the Trial. Not only you have passed. King Lavrev’s true purpose was always to screen not for aides, but for successors. There’s only one other person who’s ever performed like this and has inherited the Kingdom, which he turned into… well, you know him.”

  “Wait, what?” Jacob says, confused.

  “You’ve passed the Trial with flying colors. Higher than most. King Lavrev gave high positions of command to those who showed themselves to be worthy of them, but it was always meant to decide whom would inherit his Kingdom. Sadly for you, his Kingdom has already been claimed and turned into what you know today as Ytrial. Anyway, as for your three drops of Star Metal…”

  “Ytrial?!” Jacob’s eyes go wide. “That was the kingdom?!”

  “It’s not a Kingdom anymore,” the Mithril Golem says. “It was disbanded.”

  “You’re telling me…” Jacob frowns. “No. Was it…”

  “Your Headmaster wasn’t always this powerful and strong. He was a minor entity, in the shadow of his blood. But, he earned my King’s respect. He didn’t want to lord over his people, and divided most of the riches between them, spawning many Kingdoms, some of which are still around today—even though they probably forgot about their inception.”

  “The Headmaster is as old as Rafnov…” Jacob mutters.

  “Roughly,” the Mithril Golem says. “We’ll talk more of this later. Now, it’s time for your reward. We’ll rise above and—”

  “Wait, what about the others?” Jacob asks.

  “They’re coming with us. Your two friends will receive one drop of Star Metal each thanks to your generosity. You passed the real test.”

  “Oh,” Jacob nods. “And what about Nimirea?”

  “The Dwarf has already tried backstabbing her, so—” the Mithril Golem looks at the cocoon holding Narfikara and Jacob’s eyes grow wide as the cocoon pops and the Dwarf falls into the magma, burnt to ashes in an instant by the insane temperature.

  “And since the girl failed too, she deserves death as well. Nothing lost there, just another slave to the Monster God.”