Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

"I think I need to rescue Mag."

Shawn frowned. He looked at Ike. "Can you do that? Go into someone else's trial, I mean. In the first place, do you even know where his trial is?"

"I don't know, but it's worth a try. As for where… all our doors are lined up, but only one hasn't opened yet." He approached the door next to his. The one to the left of his had held Wisp, and the one past this one had held Shawn. It only stood to reason that Mag remained in the only door left unopened in their set of four.

Shawn thought to himself, then shrugged. "I guess it doesn't hurt. Count me out, though. I don't want to go back in there."

Ike looked over his shoulders. "What, something in there scare you that bad?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's just nasty stuff in there. Cold. Dark. Unpleasant. No one wants to have their fears prodded at," Shawn said, shrugging.

"Right. Well, tell fearless Wisp that I'm going to be even more fearless than her when I go back into the trial," Ike said. He rolled out his arms and pulled his sleeves up.

"She's not going to be very happy about that," Shawn said.

"Her fault. Tell her to be less of a glutton," Ike commented. Aether built up around him. He slammed his fist into the door. The wood shattered, giving away easily. A dark space opened up beyond the door, dark enough to swallow him whole. He took a deep breath. The image of Lord Brightbriar appeared in his mind's eye, puppeteering him from on high. If I step inside, will I end up back in that place?

Ike shook his head, banishing the image. He wouldn't go back there. He'd already overcome that fear. There was nothing left that this space could hurt him with. But if Mag wasn't going to come out, he'd have to drag the kid free.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Ike looked up. Rufus approached him, his brows furrowed. He stopped not far from Ike and crossed his arms. "You can't interfere with the trials."

Turning, Ike looked at the shattered door. "Looks like I can."

"If you go in, you'll invalidate the trial. You're only hurting your own team," Rufus informed him.

"Yeah? Is a true king meant to abandon his subjects?" Ike asked.

Rufus opened his mouth, then froze. Shock crossed his face, and he took a step back, flabbergasted. "That's… I…"

Not that I really care one way or another. If someone set this up to get Mag here today, then it's likely they have a plan to succeed at getting the other half of the skill, one way or another. Whether I clear the trials or not is ultimately irrelevant. I just have to be stronger than whoever gets the other half of the skill.

In fact, this might even be their plan to get rid of Mag… though I doubt that. There was a limit to paranoia, and he had no idea where people who failed the trial went… if they even went anywhere. Maybe they just died in the room. Or maybe they all went to the same place, and the mastermind expected to find Mag there.

That's more likely, isn't it? Didn't Mag say he'd challenged this before? …He did, right? Ike thought for a second, then shrugged. It didn't matter. He'd already made his mind. He lost nothing by helping Mag.

"Right, then, see you on the other side," Ike said. He stepped into the darkness.

"You—"

The second the darkness closed in around him, Rufus' voice was cut off. Ike once again found himself in that indeterminable darkness, with no end in sight. He checked over his shoulder, but even though he'd blown away the door and taken a single step inside, darkness stretched infinitely behind, as if he'd been running in the corridor for days.

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He lifted his hands. Unlike the first time, he could see himself. He almost glowed, perfectly visible in the darkness. Is that a sign that I've already beaten the trial? Then, if there's a differentiation between someone who's beaten the trial and someone who hasn't, was I actually right? He was only spouting nonsense. "A true king never abandons his subjects," but honestly, he didn't care much about Mag; it was only that Mag still had value to the trial, so he couldn't abandon the little shit here. But maybe he'd accidentally hit upon the truth at the heart of the trial, when he was just absently agitating one of his opponents.

Facing your own fears was a quality commendable in a ruler, after all, but the willingness to return and put yourself in danger in order to accomplish your greater goals—was that not, ultimately, more central to a ruler's role than individual bravery? After all, kings weren't knights, battling on the field. They stood in the back, but if the army lost, their surviving knights would find other employment. It was the king's head who was on the line if he failed to secure his ideals through martial might. Rather than needing the courage to face what scared them, a leader needed the resolve to see their goals through to the bitter end, no matter what.

Ike snorted at himself. It isn't like me to overthink this much. Let's go get Mag and get out. If I get bonus points, that's great, but if not, then so be it. I'm pretty confident they won't kick me out for this, and that's all I need.

Up ahead, a small form laid scrunched on the ground. Ike didn't see it at first, cloaked in darkness as it was. Only when he drew close did he make out the lump from the smooth floor.

Ike knelt, tilting his head to examine Mag. The boy laid in a ball, curled up on himself. Hands over his head protectively, he shivered.

"Hey, kid. You alright?" Ike asked, nudging the boy.

Mag shivered and curled up tighter. "Don't leave me. I'm so cold."

"No one's leaving you. Remember? You're in a trial," Ike tried.

"Come back. Don't leave me. I'm your child, aren't I? I'm still your precious egg. Don't leave me…"

Ike sighed. He scratched the back of his head. "Man. I'm not the right person for this. Mag, can you hear me? Come on, kid. Wake up." He patted Mag's shoulder again.

Mag shifted. He shook his head, curling tighter. "Don't go…"

Ike stood. It wasn't that he couldn't sympathize with Mag. He'd been abandoned, too. No one knew what had happened to his father. With his mother dead, too, there were nights where he cried himself to sleep, imagining himself unwanted from the start, imagining that his mother had died rather than raise him and his father had thrown him away and taken off into the wilds rather than raise him.

Of course, that was only when he was a child. The days of those fears had long since faded away. His mother had brought him back to the city and desperately put her all into ensuring her brother raised him. What else could show how dedicated she was to giving him the best she could, however that turned out? She couldn't have known how much of a dickbag her brother would be to him. As for his father, well, the man probably died in the wilds. He couldn't begrudge the man for that. He'd incurred his fair share of near death encounters out here, and in any case, his father would have been low-Rank. Rank 2 at best, but more likely Rank 1. If he'd really tried to forge a life in the wilds at Rank 1, then the man was nothing but bleached bones by now.

Unless he was…

Ike banished the thought before the puppeteer could reappear. Now wasn't the time, and in any case, why the hell would Lord Brightbriar stoop to impregnating some low-Rank mage like his mother? The idea was ludicrous from the start.

"Kid, it's okay. Your parents love you," Ike reassured Mag.

Mag just shook his head obstinately.

Yeah. Well, he is a kid. Mentally, at least. Unlike our other baby-faced member of the party—that is, Shawn, Mag really is thoroughly a kid inside and out, huh? Then again, maybe he's young for a dragon, or something. I don't know much about beast lifespans or growth rates. And given that my only point of reference belongs to a species of invertebrate that reaches adulthood within a year, I can't exactly count myself an expert.

Sighing one last time, Ike scooped up Mag in his arms. If Mag was a kid, then it was his job, as an adult, to ward off those fears. If that meant carrying him to the end of the tunnel, he'd do it. If it meant invalidating the trial, then all the same. Mag was powerful enough to take on the battles associated with such an event, but he wasn't mentally mature yet. It was unreasonable to expect him to clear a trial like this.

The boy was lighter than he'd expected, as if his bones were hollow. To his surprise, Mag stiffened slightly, then relaxed, snuggling up in Ike's arms. Ike looked down at the bird-boy. He snorted. He really is just a kid, huh? Relaxing that much as soon as someone picks him up… Ah, well. There's no helping it.

He marched into the darkness, carrying Mag back the way he'd entered—toward the exit. "Come on, kid. No one's abandoning you today."