The four of them gathered outside the closed doors. The chains that had once sealed it were long since gone, but it looked ominous. They were all dressed in their full armour, or, at least, in what their rank and age could sustain. It was only a light mixed chain link and leather jerkin along with a helmet to protect their torso and head, respectively. It wasn’t much, but it was all the weight they could bear. The rest of them remained exposed.

  With a single long exhale to brace himself, Tom marched through the door. The staging area was the same as last time, with the only difference being the exit on the other side of the small room. Now, it had the number two engraved upon it.

  They gathered at the entrance to the next floor, and he wondered absent-mindedly what type of monster would they be facing. Not that it would matter. Kang had spent over six weeks directing fate at it, so it was going to be susceptible to shadow, but he wondered in what manner. Despite the warlike way that Kang used the affinity, shadow was more about deception than killing, and he knew he wouldn’t be surprised if the floor required him to use his affinity in that manner.

  “I wonder what’s in there?” Eloise said quietly.

  “We’ll find out,” Kang answered seriously. “Remember, we’re just looking. In and out, that’s our agreement. After the third fight, we retreat. This trip is for information gathering only.”

  “We know,” Eloise pouted and rolled her eyes. “We know. You’ve been talking about it nonstop since that awful cat. ‘For the first week, we have to be careful and take no chances. Understand, girls?” She finished mimicking Kang’s usual tone.

  Briana giggled, and Kang smiled indulgently. The other reincarnator enjoyed the teasing and had adopted the second girl. Tom was pickier. There was something about Eloise that got on his nerves. It was unfair, but he was past caring. His focus was on keeping Briana alive and no one else. Of course, he would try to protect the other girl, though – at the end of the day, she was Bri’s friend, and that meant something.

  “Let’s see what we’re facing.” Kang said finally.

  Tom did the honours and pushed the doors wide open.

  Light assaulted his senses.

  It was enough to almost cause him to step backwards, but he resisted the impulse. Forcefully, he took a small step forward to partially fill the doorway.

  Through squinted eyes, he peered into a garish giant hall. It was almost the size of a football field in terms of area, but the roof was only ten metres-high. That was over three stories, and it should have been enough, but the rest of the space made the ceiling feel low and the overall space slightly claustrophobic. It was the opposite of the dark, narrow corridors that greeted them before. Instead of dull, dark grey, rough-cut rock, here, every surface instead was of polished marble with beautiful lines and colours in its grains. The walls and ceiling were dotted with clumps of crystals, some of which were light stones, so each cluster was glowing like a fancy chandelier. Then, on the floor, there were features like fountains, each of them only a little larger than Tom and kind of squat and ugly in their dimensions. However, they were covered in gems that reflected the massive amount of light around them. Unconsciously, his eyes tracked over them and catalogued them, searching for patterns. There were none. They were dotted through the enclosed space irregularly. Sometimes they clumped together, and other times they were so spread out that their closest neighbour was over seven metres away.

  “It’s so, so pretty,” Eloise cooed.

  “Pretty terrifying,” Kang finished for her. He had stepped up to be right next to Tom having abandoned the rear-guard position that he was supposed to be holding in order to stand guard against any hostiles that might come at them from the larger room.

  Eloise appeared to almost steam in annoyance, and did everything but stamp her foot. “It is not.”

  “It is,” Tom told her flatly. The place was the opposite of a lightless hell hole, but also the same. There was so much glare that it was hard to see anything. “I don’t have anything to counter the brightness,” he warned his companion. Placing his hand over his eyes to shade them didn’t work, as the intense light was coming from everywhere. “I can’t see a bloody thing.”

  “I do, and I can see perfectly,” Kang told him. He had taken another half step forward, so he was in the large room and stood protectively between the certain monsters and everyone else. “But I can’t extend it to anyone else.”

  Kang’s head was on a swivel and his eyes were black as he studied everything he could. Tom guessed he must have adapted one of his illusion spells on the fly to give himself the functionality. It was easy to forget that those chosen to be reincarnated were literally the best humanity had to offer. Even if Kang seemed so average most of the time at heart, he was talented.

  “I’ve seen something like this before. It’ll get brighter the deeper we go,” Kang warned.

  Internally, Tom groaned at that pronouncement. It made sense, and he had already concluded the same - the problem was that it was already nearly impossible to see anything. Deeper in, he would be blind. That knowledge didn’t stop him from looking. If he squinted and opened his eyes for micro blinks, he could watch out for enemies.

  Time slowed dramatically.

  Adrenaline surged as Tom recognised what that meant.

  All of his instincts went on high alert and he focused on Danger Sense, but its pitch hadn’t changed. It was the same continuous grumble that had been making since he had gotten into the darkhole trial. An indication of a likely unavoidable death, but not of the imminent form.

  There was nothing coming from his skill, but it being silent changed nothing. Time had slowed down to a crawl. He was looking at a staggering four times dilation. A monster that much faster than him was focused on him. He stopped blinking and opened his eyes as wide as he could, despite how much it made the tears flow.

  He searched for the culprit that he knew was out there. However, everything was obscured by the equivalent of floodlights being locked onto him.

  There was a blink of movement

  Tom found himself squinting at where he had seen the flicker as his mind attempted to understand what he had glimpsed. Briefly, there had been something like a slender man, or maybe a stick figure drawing, one that had somehow been made both real and huge. It had been there, running, and no matter how his mind tried to reconcile it, that moment of motion made no sense in terms of reality.

  He watched the area he had seen it. The silhouette had been over eighty metres away, in the other half of the room. Even though it remained focused on him, there would still be seconds before it could close the distance and become a threat.

  While Tom was physically struggling to keep his eyes open, he had magically created the strongest version of a javelin that he could, having pumped over thirty mana into it. The spell took a second to cast and set up, but, once it was created, it was going to react at the speed of thought and then leap at the target like a bolt of lightning. Once he targeted something, he would hit it.

  With tears running from his eyes, he watched and waited.

  A way too long second passed.

  Kang, next to him, was reacting. He must have spotted the same threat, but the other boy, without the benefits of traits, was horrifically slow.

  There it was, framed by the bright background once more, a silhouette visible only because of the fountain behind it.

  The javelin was unleashed before he had consciously made the decision to do so.

  It caused a flash of light, which, amplified by the glittering chaos around them, was enough to almost give him a migraine. Tom shut his eyes, and there was a boom, and a rush of hot air struck him as the blast wave of the explosion reached them.

  It was more violent than expected, but that was a good thing. It meant it was more likely to have made the targeted monster dead.

  The time distortion stopped.

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  Blinking furiously, he glanced around an edge of panic in his movements. He was worried that he had somehow missed the creature, that it was still coming at them.

  “It’s dead.” Kang reported. “Great reaction speed, Tom. That thing was fast.” Then he said nothing as he searched the surrounds for more monsters.

  “What was it?” Eloise asked.

  Tom wanted to snap at her for breaking the battle discipline, but Kang answered before he could do so.

  “We’ll have to examine the remains to tell, definitively, but Tom’s attack burnt most of it way. However, I’m not sure it’s not the only monster type out there, so stay on guard.”

  “There will be others.” Tom told him confidently.

  “Guaranteed.” Kang continued his meticulous search of the surrounding. “I hate this place. It’s like it’s been decorated by a two-year-old. It’s horrible.”

  “No, the glittery lights are pretty.”

  Tom ground his teeth together, but said nothing.

  “Don’t call it horrible, Kang. That’s being mean.”

  “But it is horrible.” Tom hissed at her before he could help himself. Being barely able to track his surroundings was frustrating.

  “But there’s so many gems.”

  “Who cares. It’s not like we can take them back with us, and we’re not here to sightsee.” Tom continued angrily. “It’s a bad battlefield for us.”

  “Bad battlefield for you,” Kang corrected wryly.

  “For us,” Tom repeated. “We… I,” he corrected before Kang could interject. “Can’t see what’s happening. That puts us at a lot more risk of something going wrong.”

  Kang abruptly raised a hand and pointed.

  Tom instantly manifested a free javelin and waited for instructions or until he spotted the enemy. He blinked rapidly while staring at where the other boy was pointing.

  There was another flicker of movement. Long, thin lines; a monster substantially taller than himself, with limbs no thicker than his fingers.

  The missile hurtled away and struck it. This time, the explosion was smaller, as he had only invested his ten free mana into it.

  “Dead,” Kang reported.

  Tom was not satisfied with that announcement. Everything was too easy. These creatures were supposed to be rank five and yet a ten-mana spell had killed one? It didn’t make sense.

  “What’s happening, Kang? They’re too weak.”

  “They’re obviously vulnerable to electricity.”

  “Even so, how did I hit them? I was at the furthest point of my range both times, and they weren’t the biggest of targets. I should have missed one of them. It’s like they’re a lightning rod as well.”

  “Maybe they are?” Kang shrugged his attention focused outwards. “We put enough fate into this that an outcome like that’s possible.”

  Tom nodded. In the tutorial, he had spent a month entering no lairs and had done exactly the same - pumping fate in the hope that whatever he found in there would be vulnerable to Spark. When he had eventually gone in, the slightest zap of electricity had blown them up. It was possible that the same sort of effect was happening here.

  Without warning, Kang leapt forward, his axe swinging. Shadows wrapped around him, and, seemingly from nowhere, a creature made of light was suddenly made visible, fighting against Kang’s magic. Tom, through his sensing cloud, could feel it easier than he could see it.

  Instinctively, Tom stabbed out with his fear even as a free cast of the Extended Lightning Bolt spell struck the monster. The spear, empowered with a full Power Strike, struck the body of the creature. Chips of light came off it before they vanished with a flare. The spot he had chipped reformed perfectly smoothly a moment later.

  Internally, Tom cursed. Both of his main avenues of attack had failed.

  Mentally, he assessed the situation and calculated how he could beat the creature. If it was immune to electricity and highly resistant to even an empowered spear thrust, there was only so much he could do: he had to focus on chipping away to get to the probable core that sustained it.

  Kang’s shadow-wreathed axe went through the centre of the monster’s chest, and the solid body of light that had been larger than Dimitri blinked out of existence.

  Tom blinked in shock and his mouth opened in an ‘O’ of surprise as a rain of crystal shards, most no bigger than a grain of rice, tinkled as they landed and bounced on the hard floor.

  “I think that’s enough,” Kang declared. “Retreat.”

  Tom was only too happy to escape the infernal brightness and led the girls back into the staging room. While theoretically, there was a chance of monsters being present, it hadn’t happened yet, and today was no exception.

  Kang followed, and, with a clang the entrance to floor two shut and sealed them safely away.

  They looked at each other.

  “Why did we leave so quickly?” Eloise asked, sounding confused. “You’ve only fought one monster.”

  “The ones Tom destroyed with his javelin counted,” Kang answered her simply. “Tom, thoughts? Particularly anything relevant to the light statue.”

  “Danger Sense didn’t trigger at all. I hope that’s not a block and just a factor of us never being in danger. Regarding the light elemental specifically, it definitely wasn’t susceptible or vulnerable to electricity like those stick figures were.” He shook his head. “There’s not actually much I can do to hurt it.”

  “Damn. That was my guess too. That statue’s too strong for me.”

  “You’re saying statue. Is that like a golem?”

  “Only tangentially so. You saw its core, right? That’s what you have to break. Its body is just condensed light. You can’t actually hurt it, just deplete its energy. Golems are, in many ways, easier to fight. You can break limbs off and wear them down more easily over time.”

  Tom grimaced at that explanation. He had been wondering if some offensive earth magic was going to help him, but apparently that wasn’t the case. If an empowered spear couldn’t get through its light flesh, an earth spike would have even less chance.

  “Excellent matchup for me. Bad one for you.”

  “And, I’m guessing, the stick is the opposite?”

  His friend shrugged. “I’ll need to fight one first, but it doesn’t really matter. They’re super susceptible to electricity. It’s going to be your job to kill them.”

  “In summary, you can counter the tank, and I counter the ranged ones, or scouts, or whatever they are.”

  “Yes. It looks like that.”

  “That means we need to reverse our roles. You take vanguard, and I take the role of ranged damage dealer.”

  “Pretty much. But that’s not a problem. These are our natural roles. I like being a tank, and you wanted to be a damage dealer. This is your chance.”

  “I don’t like being forced into roles.” Tom complained.

  “We should be thankful we have a chance in this trial. If it means you have to focus on doing damage, well, then, I hate to say this, Tom, but it’s time for you to pull up your big boy pants and stop complaining.”

  “Very funny,” he said dryly, and then glanced at the girls. “I’m going to have to use a shield, aren’t I?” The reason didn’t need to be spoken out loud. Against the light statue, his spear would be good enough to protect him, but not the girls.

  Kang nodded. “Yes, your job will just be to distract it until I can kill it.”

  “And intercept,” he agreed grimly.

  “And that.”

  The idea of being helpless rankled, but he had no choice, and his lack of any defensive shield skill wasn’t that big of an issue.

  “I’m up for it. My danger sense will provide some additional cover.” He didn’t look at Bri or Eloise, but he knew that Kang would pick up the subtext.

  “I’m sure there’s more to discover. Is everyone right to go again?” Kang asked. He got determined nods from the girls and Tom gave him a thumbs up. “Great. Before we jump into it, Adam, how did we do?”

  You inflicted less than 5% kill rate, so everything was regenerated when you left the room.

  Kill more than 5% if you wish to have a longer-term impact on floor numbers.

  “Well, colour me surprised.” Kang quipped. “What do you think we’ve got? Point one percent? Ha. Five percent! We weren’t even in the ballpark. Well, we can improve. Let’s do this.”

  Briana hesitated. “I don’t want the lights to hurt my eyes.”

  “Nor do we,” Tom told her instantly, giving her a little hug. “But this is something we have to do.”

  There were no immediate time pressures, so they didn’t care if all the monsters kept regenerating. They needed practice fighting against the higher ranked opponents in order to be able to beat them reliably, and with as little expenditure of their resources as possible. Once they got more experienced and knew all the monsters’ habits and quirks, killing them would become faster. For now, they were happy to enter the bright room twenty times a day and make no progress beyond improving their technical skills against these specific enemies.

  Then, once they knew the challenge inside out, they were going to push and start making some measurable progress.

  Even if Kang was officially on point, Tom didn’t allow his attention to waver for a moment. The light statues were visible to his Spark-sensing spell, and he kept a continual eye out for them. Kang was the conductor of their party.

  It was he who would spot the stick figures and direct with his fingers where Tom needed to watch to kill them.

  It was not a bloodless fight.

  They might have had massive mismatches in terms of vulnerabilities that completely bridged the difference in ranks, but they were still fighting creatures that were three or more times faster than them. Physically, Kang, even with regular use of Quick Step, was too slow. He created openings to kill the light statues by tanking a hit. That was where all of Tom’s mana went.

  It was his role to patch Kang up after each fight, but the other reincarnator didn’t complain. He didn’t even push for a change of strategy. He was happy to get beaten up to give them a chance to gather the information they needed in order to turn future fights in their favour.

  They were cautious in their movements as they made a point of staying close to their exit. Despite how often Kang suffered major injuries, Tom only had to use his shield sparingly. It still meant that, almost every time they retreated, Adam had to create a new shield and replace all of Kang’s armour.

  They were not pushing over the magical five-percent kill rate, and still were suffering significant injuries. It was a brutal process, but not one complaint slipped out of either of their mouths. Eloise was more verbose, but when has she been anything but?

  They would leave, recover, and then go again. Kang refused to slow down, which was something Tom was infinitely grateful for, because, if Kang hadn’t been openly pushing to go as hard as he was, Tom would have been insisting on it himself. An attempt that, he was sure would not have gone over well. He was very thankful that such efforts were unnecessary. They were running out of time, and this floor was both harder and easier than they had predicted. While they hadn’t been in mortal danger yet, nor had they pushed beyond the first room.

  Two days had passed, and, once more, they spilled out of the holding room into their quarters.

  “And Adam what’s the result this time?” Tom asked with fake cheerfulness.

  Congratulations! You killed 5.3% of the monsters present on the floor. As a result, when you next enter it will only be 99.7% full.

  Tom stared at the message in shock.

  Finally, they had made measurable progress. He started laughing as though it was the funniest thing he’d ever read.

  “Look at that! We’re three thousandths of the way there.” He chortled.