LOCATION: THE CRUCIBLE, 50TH FLOOR
PLANET: LAPIS DIVINUS, ORION LUMINARY INSTITUTE
YEAR: 1 | DAY: ?? | TIME: ??
The purple and gold swirled slowly in the portal, and Kaela walked through.
She felt a rush of wind as her body was teleported from one place to another in the space of a single step, and as her foot landed, the darkened, moldy cave was replaced with the familiar environs of the safe room.
System messages began assaulting her vision, but she ignored them. Kaela walked the few feet to the cot, plopped down on the edge, leaned forward, and began sobbing into her hands.
High Warden Telvannis and Ambassador Skrixx watched as Kaela sat there for two full hours. The only movement came from her shoulders shaking from the waves of emotion she was experiencing.
“Why doesn’t she check her messages?” the High Warden asked. “She was truly impressive.”
Skrixx smiled.
“I told you she was. For such a young person, she has incredible depth of character.”
Finally, Kaela stood up, hung her armor, and set it to self-clean while she took a long shower.
She put on the casual clothes on the dresser and went back to the cot, falling back and resting her head on the pillow.
She closed her eyes and slept for two more hours, then her eyes opened, and she finally checked the System messages. There was a lot to go through, and they were sorted into a list.
She began with the top one, the evaluation from the floor.
---
The Crucible
51st Floor
Congratulations on completing the 50th floor.
This floor tested many variables, and included 850 tests of character, wit, and strength.
You have performed in an exemplary manner.
Objectives completed: 848 / 850
You have been awarded 1,500,000 Lumens.
You have been awarded 120,000 XP.
For completing the highest number of objectives in The Crucible’s history, your awards of both Lumens and XP are doubled.
You have earned a new title:
[Vision in the Fog]
You have expertly navigated complex relationships, moral quandaries, and dangerous situations. In the midst of a maelstrom of events and tests of your character, you have seen clearly.
The following permanent boost has been awarded:
+5% to all stats
Welcome to the 51st floor.
You may return to the portal to exit The Crucible.
If you wish to proceed, step through the door.
NOTE: No further guidance will be provided on The Crucible floors. You must discover your objectives and find the exit on your own.
---
Kaela laughed.
“I missed two objectives? Out of 850?”
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After everything she had been through with the people of Greyhaven, spending almost a full year living amongst them, she found it absurd to have missed two things.
She assumed Marris Halford dying was one missed objective, and made a mental note to ask later what the other one was.
Not that Kaela was a perfectionist, but…
Well, actually yes. She was. Especially when she had come so close!
Realizing she had just received three million Lumens and 240,000 XP, Kaela allocated all of her free points and checked her newly updated status.
---
Character Status
Name: Kaela Sirova
Race: Human – Augmented
Class: Phantom Blade
Level: 43
Profession: Student at Orion Luminary Institute
Year: 1
Lumens: 3,912,500
Health: 691 / 1,665
Stamina: 805 / 1,230
Mana: 640 / 1,140
Core Attributes (Stats):
Strength: 111
Dexterity: 107
Endurance: 123
Vitality: 111
Intelligence: 90
Wisdom: 95
Charisma: 95
Perception: 112
Free Points: 0
---
She stared at the screen in her vision for several minutes. She had started at the Institute with 50,000 Lumens, and now she was on the verge of four million.
Not to mention the four levels she had just gained from a single floor. Never mind the fact that it took her nearly a year in real time to achieve it.
But the power felt incredible.
“Well, Kaela,” she muttered. “You said you’d make a decision after the 50th floor…”
It didn’t take her long to make up her mind.
She would continue as long as she could. She only hoped she wasn’t missing too much school in the meantime.
She heard a beep sound out in the safe room.
Her armor was done cleaning.
She stood, put on her armor, and pushed through the door onto the next floor.
The years stretched on as Kaela worked through objective after objective on one floor after another.
She had learned from the 50th floor, however, and while she became friendly with the people in the various scenarios she faced, she held something back in her heart, refusing to truly care for them.
The heartbreak she had felt when running back out of that cave and finding everyone gone without a goodbye was heavy, and she had no intention of repeating it again if she could help it.
She went through scenario after scenario.
On the 58th floor, Kaela found herself on a merchant ship, traveling from city to city and trading for various goods.
In between ports, they would go hunting for the hides of rare creatures. Once, she even had to dive deep into the water in search of a small chest that was rumored to have been lost there.
She spent every minute of the daylight for three days sucking in a lungful of air and swimming down over a hundred feet, scouring the seafloor for a box the size of her fist.
Late in the afternoon on that third day, she spotted something glimmering in the sunlight. Just as she was swimming for it, a black squid appeared out of nowhere and snatched it up.
Kaela was struggling for breath, but she held on, thankful for her high Endurance that eventually started converting her health into stamina so she could stay underwater long enough to fight the sea creature.
She came up with the chest, and the crew of the ship ate for six months on that bounty alone.
The floor ended when the captain had been abducted and she helped to parlay a release without any bloodshed. She returned to her cabin on the ship that night, and found a portal waiting for her.
The 62nd floor was another standout.
Kaela landed in the middle of a war between three factions. Spies were everywhere, and it was exasperating how everyone just kept talking all the time.
She rose in the ranks of one army, only to be ousted when someone accused her of working for another. She was blindfolded, knocked out, and dumped into the center of the battlefield in the darkness of the night.
She was certain this would be her last floor, as she was just as likely to die from shrapnel in that place as by assassination. But someone from the third faction recognized her and took her in.
The scenario on the 62nd floor was the shortest one.
Kaela thought for sure her objective was to negotiate a trilateral peace agreement among the three parties.
But after working for two months on it, and finding everyone in the entire scenario horrible, she ended it by blowing the entire scenario up.
Seriously.
There wasn’t a single person worth saving in the entire thing.
Or at least that’s what she told herself in the safe room while she watched her left foot slowly grow back after being blown off by a landmine as she escaped the destruction.
Assholes.
She had set bombs in all three camps and escaped under cover of night, to watch it all go up in smoke. The portal appeared right next to her as if it had been waiting right there all along.
Her score on the floor surprised her.
She failed twenty-five out of thirty objectives, but the speed bonus almost made up for the lost XP.
Overall, Kaela found the new scenarios longer and more involved, but far more interesting than the endless grind that comprised the first forty-nine floors.
She determined to go as far as she could, resolving in her heart to not give up until she was killed in one of the scenarios.
It was floor 100 where The Crucible truly raised the stakes again.