Victory! You have completed a severe Challenge of the Tournament! Claim your prize, Competitor!

  Achievement! “Killing Spree!”

  You defeated ten foes in rapid succession! What a happy little killer you are!

  Reward: Increased soul energy absorption for defeating enemies in a spree.

  Achievement! “Murder Spree!”

  You defeated one hundred foes in rapid succession! What a joyous little murderer you are!

  Reward: Massively improved efficiency of soul absorption for foes defeated in a spree.

  Achievement! “Massacre Spree!”

  You defeated one thousand foes in rapid succession! What a glorious little maniac you are!

  Reward: Soul efficiency of area affecting Skills is significantly increased.

  Achievement! “Genocidal Spree!”

  You defeated ten thousand foes in rapid succession! What a chipper little psychopath you are!

  Reward: Soul efficiency of area affecting Skills is massively increased.

  Achievement! “Lumberjack!”

  You carried a group through a challenging encounter with barely any assistance! Next time, make sure you get paid for the service.

  Reward: Tasks completed in a group award you a greater portion of soul energy than your companions.

  Four chests flash into being on the edge of the clearing. Their mass displaces enough sludged goenta that a ripple spreads through the thick liquid. I don’t want to move. I don’t want to have to feel the squirrel guts on my back slide and move with my body. Please, let me wake up back in Haven, this disgusting shit a terrible dream.

  “You could have just shifted gravity again. So they didn’t land on you.”

  Now you tell me. I didn’t even realize that pyramid was large enough to reach us.

  “Well, if you don’t move soon, it might begin to cake as it dries.”

  That gets me on my feet. I want to rip my dress off and roll naked in the grass, scrubbing at every inch of my body, but there’s no grass in sight past a small outline under each of our bodies. To reach the reward chests, we’re going to have to wade through ankle deep sludge. I don’t think I can do it.

  “This would be a wonderful time to practice your Weaken Gravity, I think.”

  True. I haven’t gotten much time to experiment with my powers since they’ve evolved. Too busy, too much momentum.

  A trickle of power flows into my veins after a moment. The Challenge must have held my soul absorption in stasis until we won. It is a miniscule amount despite my achievements. It’s a bit disappointing, but they were all level one, so I get it.

  Then, the trickle grows, widening, power spreading across my skin and into my bones. The trickle turns into a stream, then a river, energy surging through my veins until I can barely think. My nerves are bottled lightning, my mind a bonfire. There’s so much. So much.

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  Congratulations! You've absorbed soul energy! Spend it to evolve yourself!

  Soul energy available! You have enough soul energy to evolve a Skill or Boon. Choose from among the following options:

  Soul Expression, Gravity Aspected (Rare, Evolutions: 2)

  Weaken Gravity (Rare, Evolutions: 1)

  Strengthen Gravity (Rare, Evolutions: 1)

  Gravity Manipulation (Unique, Evolutions: 1)

  Perception (Legendary, Evolutions: 4)

  Identification (Legendary, Evolutions: 4)

  Ravenous Soul (Legendary Boon, Evolutions: 0)

  Psychic Telos (Legendary Boon, Evolutions: 0)

  My soul energy count speeds upwards, settling finally on 287. My ability to interact with the world using my soul increased by nearly a third in a single moment, and god damn does it feel good.

  It almost makes up for the fact that I have dead squirrel guts on my back.

  Almost.

  “Crush me nuts,” Threenut mutters, his expression rising. “Good rain and soft soil for little effort!”

  “Boss, if you could do that about ten more times, we’ll smoke everybody,” Burl agrees, his expression awed. “I’m gonna be a monster!”

  “Uh, yeah,” I say. “That was a lot of power.”

  I don’t think they have any idea how much. If my achievement rewards can be trusted, I snagged a bunch of their progress and will continue to do so, something I am not dumb enough to share with them. Between my Ravenous Soul and other assorted magical stuff, this one stupid challenge made me skyrocket.

  “Let’s go to retrieve our reward,” Zara says, though she makes no move.

  “Hm,” Threenut rumbles, eyeing the still pool of ichor between us and the chests.

  “Fuck that,” Burl says, retracting his helmet. Squirrel guts splatter Zara, who glares lasers into the back of the little lizard’s head. “I’d say we abandon ‘em, but the barrier wall don’t drop ‘til we get ‘em, does it?”

  “I think I can do something about this,” I say, doing my best to ignore the ridiculous amount of power swirling through my body.

  A hazy field of Gravity Manipulation covers that quadrant of the field pointed towards the sky before I add an overlay of Weaken. Activating both, I pour a bit of power into Weaken until the goop falls upwards gently, drifting towards the sky like Satan’s soap bubbles. Once the ground is marginally clear, I drop the first Manipulation and activate another perpendicular to the ground. The goenta remains splatter against the far wall in magic’s best attempt at a Jackson Pollock.

  “There’s probably still some soaked into the soil, but, well…”

  We hurry through the damp field. I keep my eyes on the prize, closing my ears to the squelch that accompanies each step. Since I’ve already blocked out what my nose is sensing, and I intentionally can’t with whatever the fuck my feet are stepping in, I feel like I’ve almost developed a disassociation Skill. Molly would be so proud.

  Letting my soul lead me to the correct chest, I crack it open immediately. From the white light, a thin sliver of something drifts up and settles onto my palm. I squint at it, frowning. It looks like a thin claw of a medium sized cat polished to a glimmer. It feels, I don’t know, sturdier somehow on my palm.

  Identification: Bone Needle of An’korat (Legendary Artifact, Crafting Tool)

  A claw severed from the legendary Klaspe warrior An’korat Valiru, the last to fall before the hibernation of the Thirteen. Valiru’s claws were said to be capable of piercing even the iron carapace of the ice centipede as if it were sodden parchment.

  Imbuement: This needle has the potential to create extraordinary Artifacts from even the sturdiest materials. With the proper thread and base, the power of Artifacts crafted with this needle are limited only by the Crafter.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter, clenching my fist around the claw. “Ow, fuck!”

  The needle buries deep into my palm. Gritting my teeth, I yank it out with a quick jerk. For a split second, I see the white of bone before my flesh knits together. Painfully. More painfully than the injury itself, of course.

  I glance around at the others. Threenut got a little shield he can wear on his back that disperses blunt force trauma, Burl got an alloy that will join with his summoned metal and make it stronger and more durable, and Zara got a long scarf-like wrap that makes her legs less vulnerable to breaking.

  They’re all Rare, whereas mine is Legendary, but I don’t think it has anything to do with contribution to the Challenge. I think the Seventh just needed to upgrade my shit to give me something largely useless. Again. I don’t even know how to crochet, let alone sew.

  “Zara, here,” I say bitterly, shoving the needle towards her. “Make me something cool.”

  “Human…”

  “Back to Haven,” I say flatly, starting back the way we came. The slop on my back has already begun to harden, and I’m absolutely not going adventuring and risking my life with diseased alien guts plastered in my hair.

  Despite the happy fire burning in my chest and the strength I’ve gained in a few short hours, I’m in a foul mood as I march down the center of the path, not bothering to check if my party is following.

  I’m not normally the murderous type. This whole Tournament and its premise can fuck right off.

  But woe be to the motherfucker that gets between me and a shower today.