Chapter 41 – Floor 2 – Council Trainee Trike

On the second day of their descent into the Second Floor, 21 visited Council Trainee Trike.

"It's time for your solo journey." 21 said briefly.

"Hmm, fine. I trust you." Trike got up from his bed and was as short as 21. Neither of them was that fond of the other, but both held a solid, mutual respect.

21 used a Tier Four Concealment Runestone, hiding them both from the prying eyes of the Deities. Neither Ziphe nor Tyermsy even noticed their sudden disappearance.

Leading Trike up to the deck, 21 silently gave him a Tier Three Spirit Cultivation Runestone.

"Use that when the Tier Four Rune runs out. Good luck." 21 said, pushing Trike off the ship.

***

Trike fell into the abyss limply. When he was young, Trike was considered a genius. Grasping the inner depths of Aura, Trike's potential rivaled the best in his generation. At age 17, Trike was invited to be a Council Trainee. His young age was impressive, making him one of the youngest trainees to ever join the council. Everything was going well for Trike, that was, until the Dungeon Break.

Born in the rural deserts of Pyrite, Trike's immediate family was caught up in the swarm of monsters and Shades. Trike even briefly faced the Shade Lord during the Shade War, but he was still just a Sage at the time. His arrogance and desire for revenge took the better of him.

Lying bloodied on the ground, Trike had wondered when death would come for him. If only he had been strong enough. If only he was strong enough for just one minute, then maybe he could have stopped the Shade Lord. Losing his consciousness, Trike accepted his death.

Yet, death never came for him.

Awaking in a hospital bed, Trike had been saved by Superior Councilman Naxa, but he was not thankful. Instead, Trike was depressed. Because of his injuries, it was unclear if Trike could even regain his peak level of aura of the S Rank Sage Realm again. Hell, his leg injuries made it so it was unclear if he could even walk again.

If not for the Shade War, Trike would have been able to become one of the youngest Councilmembers in history. Now, it was all taken away from him. His family was gone, his talent was shattered by injury, and there was nothing left for him to believe in. At this point, Trike personally believed the Shade Lord to be stronger than Wizard King Xie.

Months of painful rehabilitation drove Trike into bitterness, but one day, a masked man came to visit him.

"Hello, Council Trainee. I, am 21, the personal prophet of the Wizard King. I've come to offer you a free reading, courtesy of the Wizard's Association."

"I'm not interested." Trike indifferently grumbled.

"Come on, what do you have to lose?" 21 smiled under his black mask.

"I guess nothing. Fine." Trike shrugged in his hospital bed.

"Hmm, it might just be better to show you." 21 got closer to Trike, making him uncomfortable.

"What are you doing?" Trike asked awkwardly, but by the time he finished speaking, 21 was already touching his forehead.

"Skill: Author's Impartation." 21 showed Trike a glimpse into the future.

***

"My, my, what do we have here?" A small goblin laughed. Despite its size, the goblin was giving off aura stronger than even that of the Shade Lord. Trike watched from a distance and saw someone standing up to the monster.

"At last, the moment has come!" The man said with passion. Sparks of blue and yellow electricity arose from the man's skin, consuming him in an array of lights and colors. Exploding with an insane level of aura, the man connected his fist to the Goblin, sending it flying.

Trike watched in awe. That skill was beautiful. It was everything he wished he had had in his battle with the Shade Lord. As an electricity focused magician, Trike followed in the footsteps of his mentor, Vice-Councilman Blue. Unknowingly, tears came down Trike's face.

The illusion shattered.

***

"Who was that?" Trike asked 21 as tears streamed down his face.

"It's you, obviously." 21 chuckled.

"How can this be? I can't even walk." Trike laughed in disbelief.

"A few years from now, there will be a great expedition into Hell to subjugate the dungeon and capture Lavilin. You will enter the party and face the Goblin Lord." 21 explained.

"Who is that Goblin?" Trike wondered. It looked powerful, yet it was just a goblin?

"A S Rank Deity and a Sector Administrator in Hell." 21 grimly stated. Trike stared at 21 in disbelief and shock, but he desperately wanted to use the glorious skill one day, even if it was just a fraction of what he saw in the illusion.

From then on, Trike worked tirelessly in his rehabilitation. After a year, he could finally walk.

***

Now, after all these years, Trike had worked hard to make that prophecy a reality. He clutched his prophetic book, Trike's Ultimate Skill, in his hands as he tumbled down the inside of the waterfall. He didn't trust 21 at times, but in the end, he knew that if he did what 21 said, he would one day be able to use the beautiful skill depicted in the prophecy.

Using a similar skill to Clico's air bubble ability, Trike was able to breathe and read the current page of his book as he fell. Addicted to its contents, Trike's lips curled into a grin. Some of the passages in his prophetic book were sealed and could only be opened on specific floors or dates. Trike did not mind though.

Trike flipped to the page, marked, Floor 2 – Trike's Journey.

"At this point, you have entered the real stage of Floor 2. Using the Spirit Cultivation Technique, you can regain the peak of your past, but that will not be enough for your Ultimate Skill.

Remember, everything you do leads up to the moment depicted in the end of the book. With one skill, you will kill a Sector Administrator but will never be able to use aura again."

Trike closed the book and cultivated carefully. Because Trike's Runestone was one Tier stronger than the one 21 gave to Clico, the speed of which the skill worked was exponentially faster. By the time Clico and 21 entered the waterfall, Trike was already well on his way to the Third Floor.

"Let's see here…" Trike talked to himself, pulling out his book.

"Ah yes, Floor Three's passage is readable now." Trike said excitedly to himself. Trike read it out loud to himself.

"Floor 3 – The Past.

The Floor Administrator of Floor Three, Eros, is a Rank III Administrator. As such, Eros can use his Administrative Privileges more often than a Rank IV Administrator. Using the power of the dungeon, Eros has created an illusionary wasteland that puts souls into a trance of their former lives before Hell." Trike exclaimed to himself curiously.

"Using the rules of the Third Floor to our advantage, we will use a skill that will prolong the time you are in your own memories to train your battery-like skill. Only with an excessive amount of time can your Ultimate Skill come to full fruition…"

Trike wondered how his skill could become that powerful. As he trained his skill in the present, the speed of which it grew was painfully slow. At a bottleneck, Trike was curious what 21's plan was.

If he used the strongest skill now, he would perhaps be able to defeat mid leveled Royalty Realm powers, but this was nowhere close to where it needed to be. Defeating a weaker Councilperson was nothing compared to defeating a Deity. Until it reached the level of a F Rank Deity, otherwise known as the Half-God or Demigod Realm, Trike had to be patient. Once his skill reached that level, he could place new restrictions on it to make it even more powerful.

Entering the mist, Trike used the unique skill, invented by 21.

"Skill: Illusionary Eternity."

***

Days later.

"I'm- I'm sorry…" Clico didn't know what to say. 21 looked like he was finally in a good mood, but Clico was unsure if the prophet would have a mood swing. As unpredictable as he was, 21 could strike out at him for all he knew.

"Don't worry about it; a battle like that is something too enchanting for me to care." 21 laughed again.

"Hold on one second, Eros should have the final part of the contract ready for me." 21 ran away back to the veil between the floors. From the mist, a body was thrown back to the Second Floor.

"Trike!" Clico exclaimed. The unconscious body of Trike was thrown over, presumably, by whoever Eros was.

"Yes, yes, Trike is back, but sadly, he will remain in this coma for a long time." 21 sighed.

"How long? Is he okay?" Clico asked. Was Trike hurt?

"Trike should wake up in about a few weeks when we are about to enter the Fourth Floor. Don't worry about it; he's actually training in his coma, can't you tell?" 21 tilted his head. Clico looked harder at Trike. The aura around his body was distorted and strange.

"What's happening to him?" Clico demanded to know. It didn't look normal.

"He is in the Illusionary Realm of the Third Floor. Every Administrator can pose laws of nature onto their floor using their Administrative Privilege. The stadium Eros erected was actually in conjunction with the Administrator of the 42nd Floor and was approved by the Head Administrator on the 98th Floor. That's why no damage occurred to the Third and Second Floors." 21 explained in detail.

"I'm not sure I get it, but why is the aura all distorted around him?" Clico wondered.

"Trike's body is undergoing extreme pressure at the moment. He used a skill that speeds up the perceived time in the Illusionary Realm by hundreds of thousands of times more than normal time. The distortions around him are the aura fluctuations adapting and entering and leaving his body at unprecedented speeds." 21 expounded on Trike's condition.

"What does that mean?" Clico was lost.

"It means that by the time Trike awakens, he will have lived longer than anyone in the party, even more than the hidden regressors and time travelers. There is perhaps only one person who will have lived longer." 21 made it simpler to understand.

"How is that possible? Who can live longer? How long will he be in there?" Clico berated 21 with questions.

"Have you heard of a Unique Skill before?"

Clico nodded his head but was unsure of what 21 was implying.

"A Unique Skill is a skill invented by the user personally. The Runic Spirit Cultivation Rune is actually a Unique Skill I invented. Unique Skills are typically skills created using the Authority Path using the power of the imagination to create a new skill unheard of before its inception.

Trike used the Unique Skill I gave him to remain in the Illusionary Realm for a period of a few years instead of the normal time period, but because I won Eros's staff in our battle, I can prolong his illusion indefinitely. When Trike awakens, he will have experienced hundreds of thousands of lifetimes of time in the Illusionary Realm.

Can't you tell? The aura pouring into his body right now from his training is incredible." 21 marveled at the distortions of aura filling the surroundings. Trike was taking in ambient aura for his skills at insane speeds. The very space around Trike was distorting from the power of the Illusionary Eternity.

"Thousands of lifetimes? Will he even be human after waking up?" Clico marveled.

"It depends on your definition of human." 21 shrugged with a frown.

"Pick him up, I have one last Concealment Runestone stored away. I used up all my Runestones in that fight, and my combat power is much weaker now, so when we sneak back on the ship, don't go spreading any rumors about me." 21 threatened.

Clico was confused. The aftermath of his battle could clearly be seen by the Labyrinthian in all likelihood. Was 21 naïve or just stupid? Everyone who saw them leave the ship would know 21 was the culprit. Sneaking back on board shouldn't even be necessary.

Climbing against the downward current of the waterfall, the trio met the Labyrinthian a day later. Stealthily, the trio got back on the Labyrinthian without anyone noticing. Explaining the situation briefly to Realeh, the doctor, 21 left Trike in her care and parted ways with Clico.

"I hope your horizons have been broadened by this experience. Lavilin is already a Deity, and there is not much time for you to catch up. Good luck." 21 said, taking off his mask and weakly smiling before taking his leave.

Through this strange experience, both 21 and Clico grew to have a strange relationship. Both were weary of the other, but both felt as if they needed the other to survive.

"Goodbye." Clico awkwardly took his leave.

Within the next day or two, they would reach the veil of Floor Three once again. Clico felt prepared to enter his own illusion and clenched his fist with determination.