PftA Book 5 - Chapter 28 - Preparation

Before leaving my demesne, Niall made sure to tell me the location of the ninth-floor trial since it was well-hidden.

Like the last few trials, this one required a challenger to be at peak-tier before they could enter. Having already challenged the trial a few years earlier, Niall hinted that the rewards were particularly valuable on this floor. Unfortunately, that was all that he could say on the topic, since the dungeon had an absolute geas on any information pertaining to the reward.

The fact that he’d struggled against the geas just to mention the reward was somewhat telling, and I appreciated his effort.

Thankfully, it seemed the reward was the only aspect of the trial that the dungeon cared to conceal.

I was quite interested to learn that the theme of the trial was ‘Back to Basics,’ and essentially limited each challenger to five spells – the same number each person could gain through the system at Tier One.

Given what I knew of ascension, I couldn’t help but wonder if the trial was meant to get future ascenders used to the idea of losing the bulk of their spells. It wasn’t super obvious, but I could see the connection now that I knew more about what to expect when I eventually ascended.

Once I teleported us back to the Challenger’s Market, Niall rushed over to the two companions he’d been talking to when I first saw him. After a hushed exchange, the trio headed over to the Trading Post golem and made a few trades.

Given their reaction to whatever Niall had told them, I wasn’t surprised to see Niall’s party members following him to the portal. Without so much as a glance back, the trio exited the dungeon.

I was glad to see that the kastet had forged relationships so strong that his companions would delay their own ascension to support him. Hopefully, whatever he hoped to accomplish wouldn’t take very long.

= = =

I spent the next few years ranking each spell and skill by order of importance, then studying and learning those at the top of my list as completely as possible.

Knowing that my efforts would also assist with completing the floor’s trial, I was able to keep myself focused for far longer than I expected.

It was both a boon and a curse that the time dilation of my demesne made those few years feel like several decades. However, by the end, I felt confident that I’d be able to use my most important spells even if I lost the system and was forced to start over with nothing.

That confidence might waver if the magic system in the next realm was too different. But even then, I felt sure that I’d eventually figure out how to use the various abilities I’d become so familiar with.

Regardless, I already felt prepared to challenge the floor’s trial, though I wouldn’t be eligible until I was at least level eighty-nine.

Having already reached a point of diminishing returns, I decided that it was time to return my focus to the purpose of my presence within the dungeon – progression.

I spent the next few decades rapidly pushing through Tier Nine. I quickly learned that I could progress far more swiftly than before due to my ability to utilize the time dilation within my demesne.

While the [Time Dilation] formations I’d built into my pods before had worked well, they didn’t come close to what I was capable of sustaining with my demesne.

And it wasn’t just my downtime and crafting time that was affected. I also figured out a way to use my demesne offensively by attacking dungeon creatures through a small portal from within my pocket dimension.

It was an advantage that I wasn’t sure the system intended when it facilitated the evolution of my inventory, but I wasn’t going to complain.

Remarkably, I managed to reach level eighty-nine just a little over fifty years after returning to the dungeon. It was ridiculously fast, even by my own standards.

I was sure there were people taking advantage of the compound time dilation and grinding in rifts on Sira who were able to progress more quickly, but they were probably few and far between.

I suspected Anya was likely one of them since her last message mentioned she’d reached Tier Ten already. I was surprised to hear she’d overtaken me, though it made sense after thinking about it.

She’d been challenging rifts with a team dedicated to helping her gain levels as quickly as possible. Added to that, she had access to an artifact that would speed her progression by a considerable amount.

That artifact would eventually make its way to me since Anya was contractually obligated to give it to me before she ascended, but I wasn’t going to plan on ever actually getting to use it.

Not having any descendants of my own, I’d likely include it in the inheritance that I planned to leave for my family members. Such things were common enough that the Alliance had a process established.

That was good for me since nobody in my family was strong enough to protect the inheritance of an ascendant. Even the items I’d already left for them had to be placed into a quasi-trust to ensure their safety and to prevent misuse.

My family members didn’t need my permission to access anything, but they did have to be strong enough to justify taking an item. I’d also built in protections to prevent a few greedy individuals from taking everything.

So far, it wasn’t an issue, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way, especially after I left. Greed was insidious like that.

“Are you still planning to challenge the trial right away?” Lisa asked as her avatar floated in the hot spring-infused pool within my demesne.

I’d learned the location of the valuable resource early on and had used my demesne’s unique ability to create small portals to anywhere I’d entered from to siphon the regenerative water.

I wasn’t sure if the dungeon knew what I was doing or not, but neither the Trader nor the Masseuse ever said anything about it.

I no longer gained any regeneration boosting effects from soaking in the water, but it was still pleasant. Soaking in the mana-infused water was one of the few things I did purely out of enjoyment.

“Yes,” I answered. “I’ve been curious about Niall’s hint this whole time. I want to see what reward could possibly warrant the dungeon placing such a restrictive geas.”

Niall and his companions had returned to the dungeon just a few short years after leaving, which was a bit of a surprise. I’d almost expected him to try to restore his family name or something.

Instead, he’d apparently tracked down a few siblings that had effectively been sold off when they awakened without a Void affinity. A few had perished during his time in the dungeon, but he’d been able to free some of them from their restrictive contracts, though the methods he used were never mentioned.

While the Alliance did not allow slavery, per se, it did allow people to abuse system-enforced contracts. It was unfortunate, but there really was little the Council or the ruling nobles could do to stop such things.

I didn’t see Niall or his companions very often after their return, even before they ascended to the last floor of the dungeon. Though they occasionally stopped by the market before they moved on, it wasn’t with the same kind of consistency that most of the other challengers maintained.  

It took them another decade to reach Tier Ten, which seemed a bit slow compared to the speed at which they must have progressed up until that point. I wasn’t sure why they were progressing so much slower, but knowing Niall, they had a reason.

We made tentative plans to meet up once I reached the next floor. I suspected he wanted to trade Void mana for a rejuvenation treatment instead of an upgraded E3 talisman since I’d already noticed a bit of silver peppering his navy fur.

Kastets had about half the natural lifespan of a human, which made it far more difficult for them to ascend. They had a far easier time reproducing, though, even at higher tiers.

Even so, depressingly few kastets or cynosons – the canine demi variant – ever managed to ascend. It was the curse of being one of the shortest-lived demis.

And since Tier Ten would take as long as all the previous tiers put together, my kastet acquaintance would be pushing the limits of his natural lifespan to ascend in time.

I was a little surprised he hadn’t gotten a rejuvenation treatment during his time outside of the dungeon, but he probably had his reasons.

Just thinking about how much time the next floor would take to complete, I was deeply glad that Kai planned to join me for that last leg since it would be nice to have more than just Lisa for company.

But before I got ahead of myself, I needed to challenge the ninth-floor trial and obtain whatever reward Niall had hinted about.

= = =

I stood in front of the portal leading to the trial. It was well-hidden, though few challengers didn’t know of its location. Similarly, there were very few who were unaware of the trial’s challenge. Most spent at least a few years practicing with a limited arsenal to prepare.

“You’ve got this,” Lisa’s supportive voice sounded from within my head.

With her words of encouragement echoing in my mind, I stepped through the portal and into a plain entry room.

[Welcome to the Ninth-Floor Trial.
You will be limited to five spells.
Additional spells may be cast without the system’s assistance (based on the challenger's competence).
Please select the five spells you wish to retain system assistance with for this challenge.]

A list displaying all the spells I’d learned over the years appeared before me. I’d spent quite a bit of effort learning every spellform I could feasibly use back when I’d upgraded my interface, and I had plenty of options to choose from.

However, knowing what the challenge entailed, I’d already picked which spells I wanted to ‘keep.’ Thankfully, skills were not impacted, so I didn’t have to worry about losing Direct Casting or Spatial Sense, which were two of my more important combat-related skills.

I selected Teleport, Haste, Find Hidden, Gravity Bomb, and Assess. I wasn’t losing any of my items, so I still had access to [Barrier], [Restore], and [Stealth]. Had that not been the case, then my choices would have been different.

Well, I still might not have chosen Barrier since I could manage something similar via Direct Casting. Similarly, I could use Direct Casting for most of my offensive spells. I could even use it for Gravity Bomb, but it took a lot of sustained focus to cast, and I wanted at least one offensive spell that I could instantly cast without taking the split-second it took to manually create the same effect.

Feeling as ready as I would ever be, I signaled the dungeon that I was ready to proceed.