Dungeons and Dalliances

7.91 – Trials III

When they were done, everything they owned was lined up in neat rows. Their armor and weapons first, followed by all their other gear, including what they'd brought stored in monster cores.

Monster cores could only suck up magical items—that which gave a description when inspected—and so they had packed a number of useful items more than what they were holding and wearing. For example, a bow and some arrows for Vanetta, Natalie's [Cleansing Liquid], among other necessary equipment.

They also had mundane gear and supplies, which they also planned to sacrifice; literally everything was going, so they could take solace in the fact that they'd given the trial their best effort. This included their belts and a variety of pouches as well as a small backpack Vanetta carried around that held drinking water, rations, and a small but efficient amount of supplies that could be useful in the dungeon, like a rope, a towel, bandages, and so on.

Finally, there was the pile of Tokens they'd brought to be enchanted. Not their full supply, but the upper maximum that they had predicted might be—so quite a lot, seeing how the Palace Basement was known as the most efficient enchanter barring the Coliseum.

"It's gonna be a headache replacing all of this," Vanetta said, wincing as she surveyed the arranged gear. "We have a hell of a shopping trip to do, when we're back in the City." She placed a hand over her face. "And I just realized we'll have to walk through the Palace naked. Not even a towel to cover up with. Wonderful."

That hadn't crossed Natalie's mind either. "At least it's nothing that'll surprise anyone." Especially coming out of the Palace Basement. That part of the City had a reputation. If they were lucky, someone would be hovering around that could spare them something. "You think we need to sacrifice the Tokens, too?"

"No idea. But not doing so isn't worth the risk."

Which was the same reasoning used for everything else. "I hate this trial," she sighed.

"I'll hate it if we don't get something good. But I'll reserve my opinion until then."

The worst part was the lack of even a vague guarantee. They might be destroying all their items for no reason. The third trial might be impossible—or the fourth and fifth if they existed—and even if they did get into the Vault, they had no idea what the rewards would be. They were operating entirely on hope and faith.

"Last chance. We sure we wanna do this?"

"I'm sure."

Despite the quickness of Vanetta's response, she hesitated before bending to scoop up her daggers. Stepping up to the altar, she placed the bladed weapons onto the smooth stone surface. Like the [Cleansing Liquid], the daggers shivered and then began to melt. In only a moment, they had liquefied into a vibrant pink goop that spread out across the altar, sizzling as the stone drank it in. In less than five seconds, all traces of the daggers were gone, not even a stain to remember them by.

"This hurts my soul. Those were good daggers. This better be worth it."

Together, they began taking turns melting down and sacrificing everything they owned. Armor, then weapons, mundane gear and supplies, monster cores, and finally their Tokens of Eros, which Natalie had halfway expected the altar to spare—but it greedily absorbed those too.

If they didn't get into the Vault now, and the rewards weren't amazing, this Palace Basement run would be a gargantuan, unmitigated loss. The soundest defeat of her delving career.

Even worse, there was no visual indicator to tell them how well they'd done. After destroying everything they owned, she stood there, naked, alongside a naked Vanetta, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did.

Vanetta rubbed her face. "Let's go find out how screwed we are." She headed for the second trial's vault door, which supposedly had been unlocked from the start.

The one good news about this situation, Natalie thought as her eyes locked to Vanetta's ass, was that they were forced into nakedness for the remainder of this mission. A definite silver lining.

Pulling down on the handle, the vault door yielded easily for Vanetta, hinges whining as the sizable slab of metal swung open. The two girls peered in. Another room awaited them. Oddly, this one didn't have a third vault door—but neither was it the interior of a vault. On the opposite wall was a wooden door with a simple design surrounding it: a perimeter of alternating deep grooved channels leading into circular pools.

Stepping inside, the purpose of the intermediary room became apparent.

Starting from the lower-left engraved circle, pink liquid began filling the grooved design encircling the door—a pink liquid that looked awfully familiar to what their melted gear had become. The magical fluid manifested from nowhere, slowly filling the first circle, then flowing upward through the channel into the second. Once that was full, the liquid continued upward until reaching the next.

And on and on. With every circle that filled, a chiming noise rang through the room, audibly indicating a 'success' of some sort.

"This is an evaluation, I take it?" Vanetta said, watching the glowing pink liquid continue to flow. "Maybe every circle represents a benchmark? A better 'grade'?"

That had been Natalie's impression too. Not that they had any idea what each benchmark meant, practically speaking.

When the liquid finished pouring into the perimeter's design, all seven circles were full. The final chime was a deep, resounding noise—she could tell they had done more than just pass. With no more circles to fill, they had received the highest possible score.

"Does that mean we overpaid?" Vanetta asked.

"Not necessarily. Might be relative—we had to give everything, to get the highest score."

"Or maybe it's judged by an absolute value, and we did," Vanetta replied dryly. "Maybe we went way over. But at least there's not a penalty for that. Can you imagine?" She waved a hand. "Makes me feel better knowing we did well, at least. I have to assume most teams wouldn't give up everything they own on a gamble. You ready?"

Natalie nodded. Together, they opened the door and strode into the next room—where they found the vault door for the third and final trial.