I blink my eyes for a second, praying that when I open them again, something will change and I will find a way forward before I suffocate in this abyssal expanse. When my eyes open again, the universe seems to expand before me—hundreds of star-like dots appear throughout the sky, some are brighter than others. Each of the dots gives off a different aura, and their colors are slightly different from one another. Still unable to breathe, I try to move to the closest dot, which is duller than some of the others—I’m surprised to find that only thinking of the direction I want to move is enough to bring my body forward. Finally reaching the star, I reach out—the second my hand touches it, a System prompt appears before me.
COMMON WEAPON SPIRIT (UPGRADABLE)
AGE: 100 YEARS
AFFINITY: FIRE
BOND? Y/N
I quickly toggle “No” on the System prompt and look around. I think I understand the trial a little more. I need to find a weapon spirit I want to bond with before I run out of air. The slight tinge in color most likely represents the affinity of the spirit and the brightness will probably dictate its rarity. I take stock of my surroundings, around me there are a few orbs that are significantly brighter than my test spirit, but most of them are colors I wouldn’t associate with my affinities.
Finally, on the outskirts of a small cluster I see two separate dots, both around the same brightness. One is blue, reminiscent of my water affinities mana—and the other is bluish green, similar to wind. I can feel that I am starting to get low on oxygen, without hesitation, I push myself forward, quickly reaching the two stars. I check on the blue first and as soon as the System prompt appears I’m ecstatic about my find.
RARE WEAPON SPIRIT (UPGRADABLE)
AGE: 500 YEARS
AFFINITY: WATER
BOND? Y/N
I don’t want to miss out on something better, just because of my impatience, so I reach over and see another prompt appear before me.
RARE WEAPON SPIRIT (NOT UPGRADABLE)
AGE: 1000 YEARS
AFFINITY: AIR
BOND? Y/N
I am surprised and a little disappointed to see the “not upgradable” tag on the air affinitied spirit. I’m not sure what differentiates this spirit from the upgradable water spirit, but it definitely makes it a worse option, since it will not be able to grow with me. I remove the air spirit as a contender for my companion weapon and turn my full attention to the water spirit. I can feel my body becoming more sluggish as the oxygen in my body continues to deplete, but I don’t see any other spirits in my immediate surroundings that would be as good of a choice.
Quite happy with my choice, I reach out to finalize my decision with the System. Before I can reach the spirit and bring up the prompt, I see a subtle flash of mana from the corner of my eye. Turning around, I spot what caught my attention—a slightly duller green spirit. What was most surprising though, is that while you have to focus hard on the other spirits to see what color they are, that’s not the case with this one. The deep green of the orb seems to originate at its core and radiate throughout the whole thing.
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Indecisiveness, quickly takes hold of me and my hand is frozen midway to the water spirit. I know my time is coming to an end, but I can’t let myself regret not knowing. I push myself forward as quickly as I can to the new orb. When I am only a few feet away from the orb, I can see its body spin around and take off away from me. Surprised by the first sign of intelligence from the spirits I hesitate for a second before following after it. I know this is a huge risk, the longer the chase goes on the less likely I will have enough time to return to the water spirit if this one isn’t compatible or I can’t catch it. But, I can’t stop myself from smiling. This trial is turning out to be a lot more fun than I was expecting. I keep my head down and chase after the spirit, it always stays just out of reach, but I am able to zig and zag through the other orbs and keep up with the little star. The chase continues for almost a minute more, before exhaustion starts to lap at my mind. Little black dots start to float in my vision and focusing on the chase takes more and more effort. I only have a few more seconds before I pass out—I don’t know what that would mean for me, but I can only imagine that best case scenario I will only fail the trial and not die here in the trial’s oxygen-less void.
Darkness starts to creep further and further into my field of vision, the periphery has since disappeared into nothingness. My tunnel vision remains on the little green runaway, a wild fire is burning in my lungs. I start to lose any hope of catching it before my time is up, but I can’t bring myself to give up on the chase. My hands are stretched out in front of me, hope clawing at my heart that I will get close enough to trigger the System prompt. At this point, I am only holding onto consciousness through a pinprick of light—my head is fuzzy and the world starts to black out. All of a sudden, the orb hesitates for just a second, long enough for my fingers to graze its outstretched aura. The prompt appears before me, but I don’t have enough left in me to focus on what it says. The last thing I am able to do before I pass out is toggle what I know will be there… “Yes”.
When I came to, I found myself lying in face down in rich, fragrant dirt. I slowly pulled myself up until I was sitting on my knees. Around me there was nothing except rows and rows of freshly plowed dirt. A throbbing headache sat in the back of my mind and made it that much more difficult to understand what was going on. I accepted the prompt to bond with the weapon spirit, so I imagined that the trial would have spit me out in the room guarded by Croff and his men. Eventually, I was able to pull myself to my feet. I decided to pick a direction and walk—I imagine that sooner or later I should come across anything. I don’t know if I am in a different portal world or still in the trial somehow, but I can’t just sit around and wait for something to happen.
Half an hour passes and still nothing has changed. I look around me and there is no indicator that I have made any progress—each row of tilled dirt looks the same as the last and I begin to think I will eventually become new fertilizer for this manicured field. With nothing else to do, I drop into the lotus position and begin meditating. I try to breathe in the ambient mana, but I feel it resisting my pull—finally, a trickle of begins to flow through my meridians. Something about the mana is different, it seems to be heavily skewed to a specific affinity. It seems to be a blend between earth and water mana, but I can’t feel where the two affinities differ. After a few minutes of meditating and feeling how the new mana strains each meridian—they are feeling more strengthened and nourished. I notice my mana flow has more elasticity, and under the constant strain my pathways are growing more resilient.
I open my eyes hours later, drenched in sweat. I made very little progress in my Inheritance, but for some reason the mana I circulated resonated heavily with Breath of the Petal. I slowly stand up and stretch out some of the strain.
I jump as a voice behind me breaks me from my trance. “I didn’t give you permission to take my mana. Nor did I give you permission to bond with me.”
I turn quickly to see something green floating just a few inches from my face. I hop back a few steps and see a deep green dragon-shaped orchid staring at me. A System prompt popped up next to the creature.
GROWTH TYPE WEAPON SPIRIT (UPGRADABLE)
AGE: 20 YEARS
AFFINITY: PLANT
BOND: CAMDEN DARJEAN (MID TIER ONE)
The creature is staring at me intently. “WELL! What do you have to say for yourself??”
