The Caves of Darkness Challenge was shockingly easy.

  Unlike the Spirits of the Woods Challenge, there was no guide, human or otherwise. Fortunately, they didn’t need one; the Caves of Darkness Challenge didn’t set its own internal challenges in any way that wasn’t innately obvious.

  There were traps, but they were easy for Dav to see; the tripwires were wide, the pressure plates were obvious tiles that weren’t set level with the rest of the floor, and the pits were covered in leaves and branches that obviously did not belong in the cave. It might have been a different story if they’d depended solely on the less distinct vision of the alchemicals, but Sophia doubted they’d have had any true issues even then. It simply wasn’t that hard.

  It reminded her of some of the dungeons she’d done on Earth, dungeons that were considered suitable for a beginner. Those dungeons didn’t have the handicap of not being able to use light, though, so they were even easier.

  It took them about twenty minutes to find their way through the maze. It was very clear when they reached the end; not only was there not a wall a few feet in front of them, there was light. It was dim and purple and didn’t light the walls or even the floor, but it was still easy to see and follow.

  The light came from a strange floating construct that was probably in the middle of a large open area. It was wide at the top, with shoulders formed of crystalline feathers, and narrow at the bottom, culminating in a single crystalline stalactite. Gold filigree set with purple glassy gems surrounded a silvery central face, like the face of a watch or a compass.

  Sophia thought it was more like a compass; there were even four indicators like a compass on the top, bottom, left, and right, along with an eight-pointed star around a circle in the middle. Glowing purple symbols filled the space between the arrows on the “compass” face.

  The whole thing glowed dimly with internal light. Small balls of purple light seemed to rise from it, glitter for a moment, then dissipate. It was bright enough that Sophia couldn’t see anything other than the thing itself, even with the help of the alchemical.

  Sophia walked all the way around it, but the back of the floating device was simply more crystal, as if it were nothing more than an internally lit stalactite that somehow floated in midair instead of being attached to the ceiling.

  Like the tree-pillars, obelisk, inscribed stone, and winter tree of the Spirits of the Woods Challenge, this was obviously a written spellform. Sophia was really beginning to wonder how much the appearance of each one mattered; she’d managed the three pillars in the Spring Pavilion well but flubbed the Winter Tree by changing where the golden symbols fit.

  This one seemed unlikely to have that problem, at least, but there ought to be a reason it was shaped the way it was. The impression of a stalactite made sense with the Challenge’s theme, and the compass face probably had more to do with the way the Spell or Ability manifested than anything else, but why were there feathers?

  Sophia shrugged to herself. It bothered her a little that she couldn’t ask the Challenge what it was thinking, but she couldn’t. The spellform looked simple enough, at least. They had all the time they’d need; apparently, the individual sections of the Caves of Darkness Challenge weren’t timed. There was an overall time limit, but it was most of a day; there was no chance they’d need to be in the cave that long to learn one Ability.

  Sketching it was going to be a pain without light. Maybe she could use the light of the crystal itself to let her see her notebook if she got close enough? She really wanted a written form of the spellform for later, and writing it down in her preferred notation would help her build it as well.

  The light wasn’t good, but it was sufficient as long as she held the notebook next to one of the crystal portions. Holding it next to the metal circle didn’t work; there wasn’t enough light from it and her notebook was shadowed and the writing was invisible. It made taking notes a real pain, but it was certainly possible and still better than doing without the notes.

  Half an hour after she finished scribbling her notes on the spellform, Sophia was ready to smack herself for calling something simple before she tried it. The spellform did not want to cooperate at all. The obvious way to build it was one loop at a time, but every time she tried to complete a loop, it fell apart instead of joining to the start of the loop. She’d tried starting at the outside and starting at the center, but it just didn’t work. It was like she was trying to build a castle on sand instead of rock.

  Sophia growled in the back of her throat. She had to have written something wrong, or maybe she’d gotten it right and was just misreading it. She definitely needed a stable starting point to anchor the spellform, and she just didn’t have one!

  Sophia spent the next few minutes rechecking her notes. Some of the lines were a little hard to read, so she darkened them and in one case entirely moved a line, but it was on a portion of the spellform she hadn’t reached in any of her attempts so that was clearly not the problem. She finished her check and sighed; she hadn’t found anything that could cause the problem she was having. She’d have to go over it again.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Really complex, isn’t it?” Dav’s voice was soft, clearly intended to avoid bothering Amy, who was busy trying to get the Night Sight Ability she needed. He didn’t have to avoid bothering Taika; the sleeping chinchilla was not going to wake simply because of a few soft words. He couldn’t start his attempt to gain an Ability until all of the others were done in case his illusions counted as light and disrupted the chance they had.

  “It doesn’t look that complex,” Sophia answered, “But I can’t get either of the circles to stabilize.”

  “Either?” Dav sounded puzzled. “I counted seven, though I’m not sure the center boss had anything significant on it. I’m pretty sure the outer gems don’t, though I did include them in the image, along with everything else, just in case.”

  “You’re done?” Sophia closed her eyes for a moment, then reopened them. Dav’s method was faster than hers, now that he knew what he was doing, which was a little frustrating. She knew she shouldn’t envy him for his speed; he was using a method that was innately faster but less accurate. She could manage it as well, though since she didn’t have the ability to perfectly hold an image she probably wouldn’t be quite as good as he was before she added the understanding of what the spell was supposed to do. With that understanding, hers would be better but it wouldn’t be as good as if she properly replicated the spellform.

  “Yes,” Dav agreed. “This one is apparently very aligned with Eldritch mana; it turned into an Eldritch Grand Ability, Eldritch Acuity, and stole Eyes that See, Eldritch Splice, and Eldritch Mental Diffusion. Those slots are open now and I have three filled slots in the Grand Ability. I think that’s what’s supposed to happen when you put Fragments together and make a Grand Ability, but I got it without the effort because this turned into a Grand Ability that was already close enough to my existing Abilities. We’re going to have to test what that means later.”

  Sophia glanced at Dav, startled. She definitely hadn’t expected that; one of his Summons and two of his Species Abilities had been moved? She blinked again as she realized that it wasn’t only words on his Status that changed. “Your eyes, are you using the Eyes that See?”

  They were the same eyes, radiant purple with a vertical pupil, as when he used his Eyes that See Ability to see mana. Sophia hadn’t expected to see it here; he didn’t need it to see in the dark.

  Dav shook his head. “No. I was afraid of that; it’s not listed as a possible Species Ability anymore, and I can’t summon it; I think it’s always active.”

  Sophia could hear Dav’s discomfort in his voice. She felt one side of her mouth quirk up in a smile. “It’s a good thing I think your eyes are hot, then.” She leaned forward and kissed her boyfriend before he could react to her statement.

  Dav stood there in shock for a moment, then his left hand rose and touched her kiss. He yanked his arm back down the moment he realized what he’d done and shook his head. “Ah, shouldn’t you be working on your own Ability?”

  Sophia grinned. She liked the fact that he didn’t take her for granted and could still be surprised when she spontaneously showed her affection, even if he tried to hide it. “You’re right, I should.”

  She watched him for a moment longer, then turned back to the floating example of a spellform with new determination. She could definitely do this; she had to. She hated depending on alchemical potions to do things, and Night Vision was supposed to be an Ability that meant she wouldn’t have to. She expected she’d get it as a spell, which was different but still very useful; sure, she’d have to cast it instead of simply activating it, but she’d probably also be able to grant it to someone else.

  Dav definitely wouldn’t need it; he could see just fine even without the Ability, far better than she could with the alchemical concoction Amy had sourced for them to use in the Challenge.

  Sophia froze as Dav’s comments floated back to the top of her mind. He thought there were seven circles while she only saw two? There were a series of circles other than the ones that she’d identified as holding the spellform; was it possible that they actually meant something?

  Sophia leaned forward, then stepped even closer to the glyph. From this distance, she couldn’t see the whole thing at once, but the parts she could see were far clearer. She focused on the circles she’d mostly ignored, then groaned. “There are really really tiny glyphs on these, too!”

  Dav didn’t say anything.

  Sophia turned and saw that he was watching her; the soft glow of his eyes made that obvious. “Thanks.” The words were surprisingly hard to say. “I’m not sure I’d have noticed if you didn’t say anything.”

  Dav fluidly shrugged his shoulders. “Makes me wish I’d said something earlier. I didn’t realize just how bad the potions were.”

  Sophia nodded. She wasn’t sure why the fact that he easily blamed the potions was important to her, but it was. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Thanks.”

  Dav’s warm arm closed around her shoulders moments after she turned back to the floating sideways compass. She started sketching in her notebook once again, but this time Dav was checking her notes. Some of the things he pointed out were important, while others were simply differences in how she noted the spellform, but a second pair of eyes that could see better than her own and directly compare her notes to the original was surprisingly helpful.

  It still took an hour before Sophia was content with her sketch of the spellform. It was far more complex than she’d originally thought, but she could definitely build it if she took her time and the first ring formed a solid foundation once she completed it. She’d start with the innermost ring and work her way out.

  At the last minute, Sophia added the outer crystal feathers, stalactites, filigree, and gems to the sketch. Some of them could be traced as part of the spellform, but some of it wouldn’t work well that way; she’d have to complete the spell the same way Dav did, with a final image-based flash of mana. Hers would simply also trigger the spellform itself.

  It seemed worth a try. As long as she kept in mind that it was a spell to let her see better, it would be limited to that. If the worst happened and it failed, well, she could probably build a usable vision spell out of the components; it would take time, probably months, but it was possible. Learning something about the Abilities available in Challenges seemed worth the risk.

  They aren’t all this easy, but the experience is as carefully curated as possible. They’re sending their most promising youngsters into places far too dangerous for them and want them to survive; if there was any other way to reach the “better” first upgrade Spheres, I’m sure they’d take it.