Touch it.

Ultimately, Elias had to touch it. Before he brushed up against the thorny monstrosities in an awkward moment, he'd just do it here, fully braced and prepared. He flared his skill, and translucent energies coursed out from orange runes around his body. The mana moved to not only encompass his face but his right hand as well.

Significantly more power channelled into the mitigating barrier he'd conjured as he pressed his hand towards the plant in front of him. He was deliberately avoiding the plants with thorns, and the one in front of him was relatively plain. It was more infected with ivy-like growths. The growths throbbed, which certainly unnerved Elias, but they were seemingly the least threatening to him.

As his hand made contact with the red-purple plant he braced and grimaced, his stomach tensing with anticipation.

The sensation of the warm floral flesh passed through the mana barrier he'd erected. It wasn't painful and nothing erupted from the plant to attack him, instead, he felt a familiar warmth flood through him, it came from the centre of his chest and pulsed towards his hand, the one touching the plant.

The ivy pulsed slightly more quickly.

Surprisingly, Elias began to relax, it wasn't out to kill him, at least not yet. Instead, it was interacting with what he could only imagine to be the corruption within. He checked his stat screen:

[Essence: 711 / 15]

"Hmm…" Elias sounded, he tried to recall if that was any different than when he'd emerged from the crimson lake. Despite it only being an hour or so ago, his memory of it all was foggy and distant.

[Essence: 710 / 15]

As soon as he read the decreasing Essence he pulled his hand away, his essence was going down.

The plant was drawing it away from him. "This could be… good?" He said, hesitantly.

"It could be", he thought, "or it could be very bad…"

His mind went immediately to one thought, this was his saviour, he would be able to empty out his Essence by simply touching these plants. A smile began to creep onto his face but, quickly fell as he was halted by two thoughts: one, what happens to a plant that absorbs over seven-hundred essence? And—two, what happens to my feet if I lose the essence?

Elias shuddered and rubbed his arms with his hands, glancing around at his surroundings again.

"Maybe I won't try that just yet…" He said as he remembered the pain he'd felt in the pool, his broken feet searing in agony. He couldn't face that pain again yet.

Regardless, Elias knew that the plants weren't going to immediately attack him and that the Essence drain wasn't instantaneous. He could brush up against them without lethal repercussions.

And with that, Elias pressed on, moving closer and closer to the pull within. He pushed past the overgrowth, exercising his new limbs through the gravelly floor and finding his mind almost empty of thought—instead he found only exhaustion, both physical and mental.

Enthralled in the numbness of his pursuit, he'd began to lose his sense of time and a little of his sanity, if he had any left. He'd forced himself to focus only on a step at a time. Where he'd place his hand or his claw. How to avoid the thorny-looking branches that stood erect on the flora—because he still didn't like to tempt fate, painful 'stabby' looking objects would still be 'stabby', regardless of their touch by corruption.

But now he found himself pulled from the passivity of his focus and drawn to the large opening that he found himself in. The opening consisted of an almost hundred-meter wide gravel and rock clearing surrounded on all sides by the familiar red-purple flora. Inside the clearing was a number of crystals, albeit they were unlit and the warm glow of the plants provided the only light.

Elias peered into the opening, awkwardly standing behind a particularly tall thorn tree as cover—but due to his anxiousness of making contact with the thorns, he was quite clearly visible to any onlookers he was attempting to shield himself from.

He knew the draw of his chest pointed him to the centre of the clearing—he just couldn't make out anything unusual in the space. He had a clear line of sight from his current vantage point and he could neither see nor hear anything from within.

A few more minutes passed before he decided to just enter the space. As if by magic—a notification appeared:

[You are entering the Trials of Orus - be prepared Aspirant, for how you advance in this Trial will shape your future path]

Elias swallowed before taking a deep, calming breath. He admired how linear the System had created this place. He guessed that it'd be a waste to generate such torturous encounters if 'Aspirants' only came across one or two… if it generated Dungeons like this, they'd have to endure all of it, "Typical," He said again.

Whilst the notification had given him the indication of him being in the right place, he still couldn't see anything indicative of a trial.

He decided now was as good a time as any to rest, something he hadn't done much of since his tumble into the pit. Elias pulled his arm from the leather strap and slipped his backpack around to his front. It was soaked through, the not-so-generous water resistance it provided was no match for being submerged in the crimson waters. He sighed, scratched a hand through his matted hair and shrugged, "It is what it is at this point."

Reaching around in the container, he found that the Tier 0 Skill Enhancement Crystal was still present, as well as the Elixir of unknown energy—"Good," but the abundance of edible moss he'd collected was now pulsing with the same reddish hue that the flora around him did. If he ate it now, would it drain his essence? Rather than replenish his Life and Mana?

Helplessly he tried to wring out a small helping of the moss and, as he had thought, it simply withered into a mess in his hands. "That was stupid, Elias… What was going to happen? Magically wring out all the deadly corruption…" A soft smile crept upon his face. He was in a tragic situation, trapped in an unknown Dungeon, beset by the Systems whimsical nature, claws for feet and now completely out of food. As well as all of that, he felt—free? For some reason, the push from crazed objective to even more ludicrous objective, focussing only on his survival had honed him into a single point in time—now. Focussing so completely on the immediate moment had felt almost revitalising.

He shook himself, maybe he was just going mad?

As he pondered on both the feeling of freedom and his need for another food source he heard a noise pierce the silence, he froze and his eyes shot in the direction of the source.

Towards the centre of the clearing crimson energies crackled through the air and he was immediately reminded of the portal that brought him to the dungeon. The red lightning pierced both the emptiness and silence in the area. As it grew in intensity a vortex of the same energies began to form, the familiar void growing in its centre.

Hairs stood up on his arms and a shiver ran down his spine. He pulled himself as close to the thorny barrier as he could without making direct contact.

In only a few moments the portal had formed to the same size as the one in the catacombs had, it was almost exactly the same, save for there was no orange light leeching across it. Maybe this was his way out? Or forward? "Maybe…" he whispered.

His thoughts were interrupted as a thick furred leather boots crossed the threshold of the vortex, followed by a leg, an arm and everything else attached to the body of the grizzled man that had stepped into view. Elias's heart didn't know whether to crash out of his chest or stop altogether. Mana and energies radiated from the man like nothing he had ever felt. The man in furred thick leather attire spoke "Well, this is strange," his voice was soft and not at all matching the power that Elias knew coursed through the man. "The energies here aren't right… Knew it was a mistake trying to create this before the third stage."

Elias tried to rationalise the mans power, it was both entrancing and intimidating, not even Jacob could compare to the man in front of him, not even close.

A loud jolt echoed through the cavern as the air near the man split open revealing a glass-like crack opening up to the void, from it a thrust of orange lightning shot out straight at the man.

"Watch ou—" Elias began.

"Eh?" The man said, casually raising his hand with such speed Elias's eyes missed the movement, only seeing the limb perfectly positioned to block the lightning. The orange power touched the mans hand and immediately dissipated, the mans eyes curiously looked over the glimpse of the void that presented itself in the air and grunted. "Yeah, that'd explain it…" he said.

The man waved his hand slowly and the void-crack closed, he turned to face the portal and waved once more, the energies fell back into the vacuum of the central void and within a second, the energies ceased. Elias then saw the man's eyes move to him, as they stopped on him he felt time almost freeze, then the energies that had so brutally encompassed the area faded.

"Oh, sorry! Didn't realise a youngling was in here! I guess I was distracted, surprised you're still conscious."

"Wha—?" Elias began.

"Yeah, quite a silly mistake on my part, I know, I know. Forgetting to mask my Stage in an infant's dungeon is like Cosmos one-oh-one. I get ya'."

"I don—" Elias tried to say.

"Ok, ok. So why don't I make it up to you eh? Come here, I'm sure I've got something for you." the man said and beckoned with one finger, his free hand reaching out to his side. As the man's hand reached out, another crack in the air appeared--directly in its path this time, it was pure darkness, the man's hand reached in and faded from Elias's vision.

Elias felt an unnatural pull willing him to approach the man and he began to step towards the unkown entity. His mind was racing with thoughts—who was this guy? What was he saying? It wasn't making any sense to him, let alone how he'd managed to conjure a portal of corruption. His mind told him that this man was the most dangerous entity Elias had ever come across, and yet his heart had settled once the mana coursing through the air had simmered down. His instincts told him that he was safe in the man's presence. He didn't have long to process the thoughts.

"Ah, yes, well this might do…" The man brought his hand back out of the small void he'd conjured and as he did, Elias saw the hilt of a sword that was being drawn out. It was solid gold with rubies embedded in its body—as it drew further, revealing the blade, Elias's jaw dropped and he pulled an arm across his face to cover from the heat emanating from the flames that wrapped around the glowing blade. "Wait, no… what did Kiros say…" the man said distractedly and his eyes darted from the sword to Elias, "What level did you say you were?"

"Leve—" Elias began again

"Don't worry, I got it—" the voice said energetically as a smile gleaned on the man's face.

Elias felt a hollow energy pierce through him, it was similar to the time Jacob had used scan… but more, it seemed as though the energy had embedded itself into every single part of his body. That it was soaking into his channels, his spirit and his soul, it was over as quick as it came.

The man's smile froze and for the first time throughout the exchange he spoke to Elias directly "Elias. Level - Not applicable, now that's just not right, Elias, what's going on here?"

Elias spoke in response, as quickly as he could, afraid his words would be cut off as soon as he started, "Help me, please! I don't know what's going on, I'm trapped in this place and you can help!"

He didn't know if he'd have another chance at escape like this, whether the man was part of his trial or just an outsider stepping into the dungeon, but Elias knew he had to try to take advantage of the situation.

The man paused and pushed the sword back into the void. The void closed and the man brought his hands to a neutral position before turning his head slightly as he faced him.

"Elias… What have you done to my dungeon?"