The stream of fire had probably confused her more than it did the beetle. Unfortunately, the beetle didn’t live long enough to reflect on what happened. Its carcass was currently charred laying on the ground right in front of Zuls. She still was confused and found herself shooting fire a couple of times before realizing what happened.

  Her running into the glowing Siz didn’t bring him here, it allowed her to gain one of his abilities. She told the lock her biggest hurdle was the weakness she had when on her own and now the System was giving her a chance to stand on her own except still have her companions with her.

  With mildly burnt lips and a new excitement for what lay ahead, Zuls took off running for the next light. The problem was that the next light turned out to be a lot farther away and her stamina was nearly empty. She had to find a place to rest, get something to eat, and find more water. Even for a class chosen this was no walk in the park.

  Her knowledge of plants was incredible on Motholo. She often spent time in forests to grow bonds with animals. Unfortunately, this was not Motholo. The plants didn’t seem to be edible at all. It was against her class to eat animals. Thinking about it made her sick. Gene had told them the System sustains their body referring to the time displacement, but did that count towards hunger and thirst? She wasn’t sure. Instead of risking it, she decided to roast one of the abundant mushrooms and see if she got sick or anything.

  The taste was awful, but some cool river water helped to wash it down. Afterwards, she climbed a tree, tied herself to it with a vine and tried to get some sleep.

  Birds started to chirp in the distance, and it woke her up right before the sun peeked over the horizon. It was still dark in the forest thanks to the foliage, but every now and then you could see the sun shining through. She was still alive which meant the mushrooms were probably okay to eat, so she grabbed a few more and stuck them in a makeshift bag made from giant leaves and vines. Then she started her hike once more.

  Her pace had greatly improved after a meal, some water, and a little rest. After another couple of hours, she found the golden light once more. This one was inside a giant beehive. It was so massive that Zuls could walk in there and build a town inside. The muted yellow was surrounded by vibrant green moss. Massive bees that were around six feet long with stingers that were another couple of feet were constantly buzzing in and out of the hive.

  Zuls was astonished by the sight but found herself more astonished by her thoughts. The first thing that ran through her mind was that she hadn’t seen any flowers yet. Not anything about how horrifying these things were or how she was about to walk in there for a light.

  She decided to wait and watch for a few minutes to see if there was a break in traffic, so she could sneak in. After almost twenty minutes there didn’t seem to be, and she was about to just make a run for it when a beast came lumbering out of the forest a little ways down from her. It was a bird of some kind that had the feathered tail of a peacock, arms that looked like a gorilla, a head like a dragon, and quills of a porcupine. Bright blue feathers seemed to get the attention of the bees and then a deafening roar challenged the hive.

  Surprisingly, the beast took off running toward the entrance and the bees didn’t stand a chance on their own. This thing was decimating them with its powerful jaw, razor sharp tail feathers, and ridiculously strong punches. Quills shot out in every direction to be replaced by more on the horrific body.

  Zuls decided this was her chance. This was the distraction she needed. With a deep breath she sprinted towards the opening of the hive. None of the bees were concerned with her while the bee destroyer was actively wiping out their family. Unfortunately, the monster cared that she was trying to take away its bounty and it shot quills at her.

  Several started peppering her and each one seemed to burn once in her skin. She kept running hoping her vitality was enough to counter the quills. Right before she went through the door, a powerful fist crashed into her side. This monster was fast, and it wasn’t willing to share any of its food. She crashed into the side of the hive, and it took her a second to get her bearings. The monster was on her again except this time she was able to dodge. Luckily, she wasn’t alone. Bees started flooding out of the hive and attempted to sting this predator in the back. Tail feathers met the stingers, and it sounded like metal clashing with metal. Some stings got through, but not enough to do any fatal damage. Drawing back her head and gathering mana in her throat she unleased a devasting jet of flame. This one was probably twice as powerful as the one that charred the beetle.

  The peacock monster seemed surprised and tried to dodge backwards except it was too late. Flames devoured its arms and started to catch on each quill like the monster was covered in candles. A fearsome screech filled with pain was released and it jumped twenty feet up the side of the hive. Using one of its mighty arms it held on and with the other started patting the flames out. Zuls had obviously done massive damage, but not just to the monster. Looking down she realized the bees were coming at her for roasting a couple of their kind in that last attack. She once again took off in a sprint toward the entrance to the hive.

  Once inside she couldn’t even marvel about the size of the structure. Every bee followed her, the monster followed them, and every bee inside turned to see what the commotion was. They all turned their aggression at her.

  The light was roughly a mile inside the hive, and she would have to make a run for it. Thousands of bees were in between her and her goal. She never even stopped running until she had to. It had happened a mere minute after getting inside the hive. From behind the monster launched all its quills which took out every bee following her from outside and left her with dozens in her legs. The pain was almost too much. She certainly couldn’t keep running. Kneeling, she turned to face the beast and let out a fierce flame. The monster was read this time and was able to dodge. Her mana was almost at half, and she knew it wouldn’t be enough to take out the endless horde of bees between her and the light.

  Looking around her she saw corpses of the bees that were following her and without hesitation she ripped one open and grabbed its stinger before doing the same to another. They would have to be makeshift swords so she could fight. Luckily her hands fit comfortably around them even with the increased size of the bees.

  This act seemed to ignite the fury of the bees, and they rushed towards her while the monster did the same. When it got close, it wound up for a punch. Zuls put up the stingers as if she was prepared to block, but right when the swing came, she rolled under it and got behind the monster. Thousands of stingers charged, and she hid behind the tail feathers. The monster was impaled with dozens of them while the others missed and found themselves having to turn around before hitting the hive wall.

  Zuls took this opportunity to start her half run, half limp towards the light. The bees having to turn back had created some distance, unfortunately, there were still bees in front of her, and she was moving pretty slow. Her eyes saw the base of the light and hope filled her. She could make this!

  Raging bees behind her had made up a lot of ground, and the ones in front weren’t charging yet. They were probably assuming the warriors were going to take care of the threat before she was able to do anything. Her heart started beating fast as she gave everything she had left to her fast limp towards the light. Hopefully, it was something helpful.

  Her hope turned to fear when the buzzing behind her got more intense. They were going to catch up with her. Another 500 feet and she would be there. There wasn’t enough time. She dove and the bees went right over her. While they were maneuvering back around her stream of fire was released and it devoured most of the giant bees. Fierce buzzing filled the air as they burnt and the other bees in the hive were angered. This bought her the time she needed to make it.

  Her bloody hands reached out into the light, and she stumbled into it. When she got closer it became clear that it was a golden outline of her bat, Whimper. The bat was an expert at stealth. As soon as the light absorbed into her, she knew to focus on not being seen. That activated the bat’s cloaking ability, and the bees flew around in confusion. Zuls lay flat on her stomach because it was too painful to be on her back with all the quills inside her body. Relief overwhelmed her exhausted mind, but before she could get comfortable a blinding white light overtook her.

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  When her eyes readjusted, she found herself lying in an endless sea of sand. The sun felt like it was magnified tenfold. Sweat instantly formed all over her bloody body. All she had the energy to do was look up to the sky and say one thing.

  “Seriously?!”

  ***

  It took her half a day for her vitality to heal her enough, and for her stamina to refill. She spent another hour removing quills from herself. That damned peacock chimera was awful.

  Zuls got up and started walking towards yet another golden light in the distance. The sun was beating down on her and the heat was more unbearable than the humidity in the forest. She hadn’t had water in a full day. Her walk was more a shuffle. A miserable shuffle across a wasteland.

  After two hours a thought occurred to her. If she was invisible would the sun heat her skin? With a thought she turned the cloaking ability on and to her surprise she was able to cool off a bit. The environment was still hot, so she was still hot, but the light from the sun was bending around her instead of hitting her skin. This seemed to bring down her misery a bit.

  Night came and she fell down into the stand where she was. Her stamina was empty. Her mouth was so dry that she couldn’t open it. Her stinger swords were attached to her back with some cloth she ripped from her undershirt. She quickly untied them and rolled over to stare at the beautiful night sky. If she could cry, she would. This was tougher than she ever imagined. Before she could even have a coherent thought about her misery, she fell asleep.

  Pitch black enveloped the eternal sands. Most creatures had adapted to this and had other ways to detect their foes. One creature had detected the outline of prey laying down on its sands. Slowly it went to inspect its dinner. On the surface the sand started to shift as it moved. Each grain fell back into the vast ocean of sand as it passed. Being this close, the creature could smell its prey. It smelled of sweat and misery. The perfect seasoning for a meal. It poked its reptilian head out of the sand and bit into the unsuspecting creature attempting to drag it back under so it could eat in peace.

  Zuls was dreaming about Gale and the cold water of the fountains splashing against her skin when she felt something tug at her foot. Her mind interpreted this as a local child trying to climb up on the fountain with her. Then a more forceful pull made her brain realize she was in danger, and she shot awake. It was so dark she couldn’t see anything even with her high perception. Something was pulling at her foot and there was a shooting pain running up her leg. Quickly she grabbed one of her stinger swords and stabbed forward. The pulling stopped and she got the notification for slaying a shifting sands cobra. There was no way she was getting back to sleep.

  At night the desert was cold, and Zuls found herself shivering a bit while walking towards the beacon of light. She must have walked for ten hours in total before making it to her destination. A golden emblem of her beloved snow fox, Snowfall. The light absorbed into her and suddenly she felt a chilling effect take hold of her skin. She focused and created a magical snowfall of razor-sharp snowflakes. The area of effect attack would help her greatly and the chilled skin would help with the heat. Another beam of light shot up in the distance and she continued her brutal trial.

  ***

  This continued for the next three years. With each power acquired the walk got longer. The next beacon became less obtainable, but she powered on. Her body became more efficient even though her stats weren’t changing.

  Each environment had two of her bonded’s powers and each one was more difficult than the last. At the end of the desert biome, she had to fight hundreds of scorpions that turned anything they stabbed to solid stone. That fight awarded her with the ability from her air jellyfish, Ghost, to become ethereal for short times, which was a great defensive boon. After that she found herself in a realm devoid of light. She spent weeks in the dark walking towards the only light. Creatures she never saw would attack her out of nowhere and if it wasn’t for her snowfall attack, she would be dead. The first light granted her the cloud of blight that her blight chameleon, Blink, would use in battle to keep the distance from foes. To her surprise, the second light didn’t require a battle, but a climb up a mountain in complete darkness. This gave her the ability to manifest powerful focused blasts of light from her bright hawk, Gliya.

  When the darkness transformed into white, it stayed white for far too long. That’s when Zuls realized she was in a raging snowstorm. The bitter cold bit at her body for months while she navigated harsh terrain attempting to keep herself warm. Some type of giant plant monster constantly hunted her during this time. Several times, she found herself fighting off icy roots. Frigid nights made her want to give up. The only thing that kept her going was the fact that all the other class chosen so far had passed. She was just as strong as any of them. She could do it.

  Pushing on, she arrived at the first light of the eternal snowstorm environment. It gave her the illusion magic of her whistling wyvern, Sovereign. This made avoiding fights much easier, but there weren’t a lot of creatures in this area anyways. Another factor this environment lacked was food. Zuls rolled the dice and let herself starve to find that the System was sustaining her body in that area too, which made sense. This didn’t mean she didn’t get hungry, however. Without food, she would lose stamina faster, gain stamina back slower, and felt an uncomfortable pain radiating from her stomach at all times.

  Arriving at the second light two months later, she found it sitting in the middle of a massive crater. What she didn’t know at the time was that it was the home of the main body of the monster plant. Fighting with it almost cost her life. It had so much vitality that it took hours of constant battle to slay it. Her fire was the most effective, but her illusion magic helped to make openings in the plants defense. The reward was the dexterity of her mountain trewg, Claw. This would help her greatly with difficult terrain.

  Once again, she found herself in a different environment and this one she would spend the rest of the three years wandering. It was a primordial mountain to which she couldn’t see the summit. The base where she started was her familiar forest. There was a slight incline as she made her long trek through the dense foliage. One beam of light was about halfway up this monstrous mountain and the climb seemed to get steeper and steeper. It took two weeks to get out of the forest and into the start of the true climb up a steep hill of shifting sands. There didn’t seem to be any creatures in this environment. It was a true test of her endurance and nothing more. After another three months in the blazing heat, she found herself on an even steeper climb in complete darkness. It was halfway up this section that she found the first light. A golden outline of her tri-headed bear, Element. His powers were all about shaping water, earth, and air. She practiced on her steep climb through the darkness. Her own rule was not to use the power to cheat her way up. Only her own strength would get her to the top.

  Zuls slept when she needed, found food when she was hungry although after the forest there wasn’t much, and shaped water out of the atmosphere when she was thirsty. Looking back at her life, she couldn’t see anything tougher in her twenty-two years of living if she wasn’t counting the time in the trial as real time. Crossing that finish line will be a proud moment and she was ready for it.

  Darkness turned into pure white as the snowstorm raged in the steepest section. She had to climb up pure ice and snow while battling the bitter cold. Her stinger swords dug in, and she used them to help her climb. Another two years passed on this section as she struggled with the near vertical climb. Every day was a struggle, and her body felt spent. Even when her stamina was full, there was this feeling of exhaustion. Sleeping was terrifying knowing that the slightest movement could be a fatal fall for her. Her mind fell into a meditative state to block out the pain. There was only climbing. One hand or foot in front of the other. Eventually she would get to the top.

  When that day came, she cried. There was a massive plateau at the top of the mountain. One side had an ominous cave while the other had a set of stairs built down into the mountain. The floating, golden outline of her last bonded, Fort, the guardian turtle, was in the middle of the plateau. She touched the light and felt her skin strengthen as she gained the toughness of her bonded. Then she got a notification.

  Zullany, you have completed your trial, but there is one more challenge. Will you accept it?

  Surprise was written all over her face. Her thoughts started shooting off faster than she could keep track off.

  An extra challenge? No one else said anything about this. Maybe I should just end it here. What am I saying? I just survived three years in the most inhospitable places. I walked, hiked, and climbed until my body bled. I’ve obtained the powers of my bonded. I need to face this for me.

  “I accept!”

  There were flashes of light on either side of her and to her surprise all her equipment came back. Not only her equipment, but all her bonded stood with her.

  “What?! I’ve missed you all so much!” Tears ran down her face and her bonded looked around confused on where they were.

  “Right, so we are completing a challenge at the end of my trial dungeon. Will you stand with me?”

  They all nodded. Zuls smiled the biggest smile she could manage. Her happiness was practically radiating from her. Suddenly, a massive flash of light happened on the other side of the plateau. When she looked over a giant three-headed dragon stood across from them. It must have been a hundred feet tall. Each head had eyes filled with hunger while it looked around. The mouths were filled with countless razor-sharp teeth. Thick black and red scales ran the whole hide of this fearsome foe. Getting through them would be a challenge in itself. Its claws were longer than Zuls was tall. The wings spread out over the edges of the mountain. Her and her bonded stared at the beast but continued to stand together. Another notification shook her from her thoughts.

  Defeat the Hydragon

  “Seriously?!”