Duncan’s eyes were squinted against the sun’s blinding light. He could feel the chill of the winter breeze against his skin and the familiar texture of the rocky beach where he’d entered the temporary realm. Something, a whisper of a presence, nudged against his consciousness, vying for his attention.

  As soon as he could focus his gaze against the bright sky, Duncan was greeted by the sight of a grinning Cinder leaning over him.

  “Congratulations!” the elf said, stretching his hand out. A moment later, Duncan stood beside his master with a matching grin. He could feel the change. It was in his body. In his very nature.

  Unfiltered, joyous laughter erupted from Duncan’s lips as he started to move. His arms twirled around him, and his body lifted from the ground as he leaped with all of his newfound strength. He ran around the rocky beach, never once losing his footing as his body's improved grace, agility, and speed carried him almost twice as fast as he had been that morning.

  He knew he probably looked like a child playing with imaginary friends on the beach, but he didn’t care. He felt free. He felt new. He felt powerful.

  He lost track of all time as he reveled in his new reality. He could have been like that for hours or seconds, but he didn’t really care. He just knew he wanted to always feel like this. This was what he’d trained his entire life for. He finally had a Subject. No, two Subjects. It was the start of his new path. His wait was over.

  Cinder’s boisterous laughing from across the beach pulled Duncan from his inner revelry. “What I wouldn’t give to have brought a mirror with me so you could see yourself. Pheobe told me I should, but I forgot how bad the purge can be sometimes, especially at tier one.”

  That’s when Duncan noticed something different. His advancement had improved his natural perception. That included all his senses. He’d just been too focused on the more apparent changes to his body to notice until that moment. He was flooded with new sensations, the strongest of which was an overwhelming smell.

  A cough burst from his mouth as he struggled not to throw up. The smell that assaulted his nose was worse than anything he had ever experienced. It smelled like every rotting, dead monster he could imagine, all rolled up into one scent.

  He could also feel something between his body and the first layer of his clothing. It felt like some sort of paste was covering him from head to toe. He looked down at his hands. They were covered in a layer of black… something. A closer look revealed the substance was actually a dark red bordering on black.

  “That’s the purge for you,” Cinder said. He walked up to Duncan, summoning a bar of what looked like soap. “You’re lucky you got a trial location so close to the ocean. He gestured at the hands Duncan was still holding up. “That’s a bunch of junk your body decided it didn’t need or want now that it’s been upgraded. As you’ve discovered, it can smell rather foul.”

  It took entirely too long for Duncan to strip out of his armor and underclothes, the latter of which was essentially glued to his body by the impurities his body had expelled through his pores. Now, as naked as the day he was born, Duncan dove into the frigid water of the ocean, bar of soap in hand. He would have marveled at how much less the cold affected him now that he was tier one, but he was too focused on scrubbing every inch of himself clean. He grabbed handfuls of sand from the ocean floor, scrubbing it against his skin to help loosen the gunk that caked his body. This was going to take a while.

  ***

  Now clean and fully dressed in a new set of clothes, courtesy of Cinder’s spatial ring, Duncan sat with his master on one of the beach’s larger boulders. “So, how was it?” Cinder asked, his smile still present, as it had been since Duncan had woken up from his transformation.

  “It was… interesting.” Duncan went on to explain the events of his trial. He described the monsters he had dubbed prairie hoppers and the endless rolling hills of blue grass. He detailed his fights and the impatience he’d eventually given in to. After he’d detailed his battle with the prime monster, he paused, waiting to see if Cinder had anything to say.

  “Sounds like a pretty standard lesser realm. Since only one person is allowed to enter, they tend to be on the smaller size without a large variety of monsters, especially at the lower tiers.” The elf thought for a minute before he continued. “Your prairie hoppers sound like something called a rabbid. Whoever named them must have decided they’d used a play on words between rabbit and rabid. As far as I know, they aren’t native to Dintarnum, or at least not the places I’ve been on Dintarnum. I’ve only encountered them a few times, and only at tier one since that’s where they tend to peak in power.” Cinder’s eyes started to shine with greed. “You didn’t manage to stick any of the bodies in that ring of yours, did you? I don’t think I ever tried cooking with them back in the day.”

  “No, sorry,” Duncan responded. “I thought I’d have time to get some after I finished off the prime. How exactly did I get out of there anyway? I think I passed out from the energy of receiving my Subjects and the changes to my body. When I woke up, I was already out here.”

  “That’s to be expected. This time, it will have happened differently from normal since you didn’t have a Subject Interface for the realm to interact with. Usually, you don’t receive any rewards until you clear and exit a temporary realm.”

  “All rewards are created by the magic that had been used to sustain the realm, so the realm disappears from reality as soon as the rewards are created. The realm will usually interact with your Interface to help determine an appropriate reward. When it didn’t find an Interface to interact with this time, the realm forced you out because it needed to reward you with the magic necessary to unlock your Subjects and your Subject Interface.”

  “Speaking of Subjects,” a familiar voice drifted to them from the direction of the road to Kunora. “I think it’s time we hear from our student what his final choices were, as well as how the Realms have decided to bring his intent into reality.” Duncan and Cinder turned away from their view of the ocean waves to find Neta strolling through the rocks toward them.

  She wore her typical attire: a dark gray, long-sleeved tunic meant for labor and loose-fitting black trousers. As soon as she reached them, she took a seat next to Cinder.

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  “Where have you been?” Duncan asked his oldest master.

  “I wanted to avoid your purge. I’ve gone through it enough times on my own; I don’t need to experience that stench any more than necessary.” The smile on Neta’s face told Duncan she was joking, but he stuck his tongue out at her anyway.

  “Thanks a lot. You couldn’t have warned me about that part beforehand?”

  Cinder and Neta smiled at each other, then chorused, “It’s tradition.”

  “You Kunish have a lot of traditions. The Choosing. The Subject Trial. Sending new tier ones out on their own. Plus all the pranks. I still haven’t gotten all the moss out of my clothes from Pheobe’s nature growth spell last week.”

  “The pranks are more of an O’Leon tradition than a Kuno tradition, but I get your point,” Neta responded with a smirk. “Besides, you weren’t the only one to get pranked; you’re just the only one who couldn’t prank anyone else.”

  “One of these days…” Duncan muttered under his breath.

  “Alright, enough stalling,” Neta said. “Read out your notifications for us.”

  Duncan’s mind returned to the feeling he’d noticed as soon as he’d woken up on the beach. He acknowledged the presence, and it responded.

  Duncan’s heart almost stopped each time he finished reading a new notification in his head. He could access his Subject Interface, whatever that was. He had Abilities. Three of them. He wanted to use them. He wanted to use them now.

  Before he could stand up to do just that, Neta stared him down with her ‘I’m an extremely powerful master swordswoman who could squish you with a finger, so do what I say or I’ll cut you’ look. “Read them, please,” she said in a sweet voice.

  So, Duncan did just that. He reread everything, this time aloud for his masters to hear. They both gave him knowing smiles when they heard what he’d chosen as his combat Subject. Neta was always talking about turning him into the perfect sword.

  Once he’d finished reading off his last notification, Cinder said, “Have you looked at your Ability descriptions yet?”

  Duncan shook his head. “I haven’t figured out how.”

  “Just do what you did before when accessing your notifications, but this time, think of it as remembering what you look like in the mirror instead of trying to remember a thought.”

  Duncan did so, and something new superimposed itself over his vision.

  Even though the information was transparent, its sudden arrival in his vision startled him. After reading everything, he said, “I see a bunch of personal information. Name, race, age…”

  “That’s your Subject Interface,” Cinder replied. “Focus your attention on the lines showing your Subject names.”

  After doing so, Duncan was met with a new screen with a list of his Abilities and their descriptions. This time, he read them aloud from the beginning.

  A long whistle left Cinder’s lips after Duncan had finished reading. “Those are some great starting Abilities.” The elf looked over at his grandmother.

  “Very nice,” Neta confirmed. “Everyone receives a Primordial Ability as soon as they unlock their Subject, and trial takers get them for both Subjects. The Primordial Ability usually helps define a person’s combat style or craft.

  “What about Fusion Abilities?”

  “Only people who complete the Subject Trial can get them since they are Abilities that come from the fusion of two Subjects. They are the greatest advantage successful trial takers have over others. It’s possible to unlock more than one of them, but it’s rare, and you won’t have an opportunity to do so until at least tier four.”

  Cinder stopped speaking and thought for a moment. “Honestly, your [From Prey to Blade] Ability almost seems like it should be a Fusion.”

  Neta nodded. “I’d guess it has something to do with his intent when he was choosing SWORDSMITH. Since he has it, the realms don’t have a problem with it, so neither should we. It will be interesting to see how some of his other SWORDSMITH abilities manifest once he starts using some Ability Slips.” She stood up then, causing Duncan and Cinder to follow suit. “All right, let's see what you can do now that you’re no longer a zero.”

  A sword appeared in her hands, and it only took a glance for Duncan to see it was the first tier one blade he’d watched her forge when she started training him in smithing. It was a simple, perfectly crafted double-edged long sword, just like the one Duncan grew up using.

  Duncan grinned from ear to ear. Not once in two years had he seen Neta wield a sword. She’d always used sticks to demonstrate forms, and Cinder or Jen had always been there to spar with him. He knew he stood no chance, but he was excited to see his master, the matriarch of both the O’Leon family and the Kunora clan, in action.

  However, he was more excited to see how he had changed. He could feel it. The power he could bring to bear was so much… more than just a few hours earlier. It wasn’t just a quantitative increase. It was qualitative. He didn’t just have his own body to rely on. He had his Subjects and their Abilities now.

  A thought was all he needed to summon everything from his storage ring onto the beach. The next instant, they all disappeared into his new Fusion Ability, [Quintessential Armory].

  This was going to be awesome.