Dungeons and Dalliances 7.89 – Trials I

7.89 – Trials I

The hallway led forward nearly forty feet and eventually ended in a wooden door. Swinging that open, Natalie peered around inside a much spacier room. No threats jumped out, and she saw no obvious traps, so she eased her way in, hamr held at the ready.

They had found the Palace Basent's Vault.

Cautiously, she approached the circular steel door inset into the opposite wall. There was a thick turn-handle on the right, and writing inscribed in the center. A bright-pink outline encircled the writing, around three-quarters full—an indicator of so sort.

First Trial: Trial of Persistence. Victoriously complete twenty encounters throughout the Palace Basents.

Vanetta, to her side, blurted out, "Twenty? That's it?"

"That does seem low, for a supposed trial," Natalie said doubtfully.

The two of them mulled it over.

"Then again," Vanetta said. "We're better prepared than most teams." After a second, she muttered, "Than all teams, really."

"You think so?" Natalie replied idly, though she agreed.

"A trial is supposed to be difficult, sure, but you're a freak of nature when it cos to … dealing with those encounters."

Natalie had been the one to take care of the bulk of the sexual challenges, especially when only one person was needed.

"And, with you having used that skill to empower , we've been making short work of the real combat rooms too," Vanetta continued.

She and Vanetta were an excellent pair, stand-outs even at Tenet, much less the collection of far less elite individuals that had been drawn into the City of Eros. The only remotely comparable combination would've been her and Elida, and Natalie suspected that Vanetta was the more truly skilled individual. Elida was god-sponsored, and thus cheating sowhat. And yes, she recognized that applied to herself as well: she had confidence in herself—she had qualified for Tenet from the remote region of south nowhere of Valhaur—but her class was definitely doing so heavy lifting too.

"So we're over-prepared from both ends," Vanetta finished. "Twenty rooms probably is an insanely difficult trial for most people."

Natalie nodded slowly in agreent. Then her lips quirked. "But 'freak of nature'?" she asked. "Really?"

Vanetta paused, then coughed. She had clearly applied the label automatically, not as a deliberate insult. "I don't think most girls could last as long as you have, and as many tis," she said dryly. "That's all I'm saying."

Guilty as charged, she supposed. Even the hour of recuperation she'd gotten during the scouring of the library had brought her nearly back to full—she was ready to go again. Her stamina in that regard really might be superhuman. Despite having co to climax more than a dozen tis in the past few hours, now that she'd had a chance to catch her breath, the idea of finding another busty sligirl to play with sounded appealing.

So yeah. Maybe a Trial requirent of twenty rooms was a significant challenge for a normal group, but not for their two-woman lineup.

"So, what?" Vanetta asked. "Five or six more rooms? That's it? Won't take much ti at all." She stepped forward to tug on the Vault's handle, but of course, it didn't budge. They would need to complete the first trial before they could see what was behind it. Natalie expected that there would be more trials afterward. "Let's get to it, then, and see what's next."

They did so. They t two sticky scenarios early on. The encounters went lewd, combat, lewd, then three more combats. The fights in the Palace Basent certainly weren't easy, so her muscles were aching by the end. They'd co out fine, but there'd been at least two or three adrenaline-inducing monts. Which confird what Vanetta was saying earlier: regular teams would be seriously strained, if even the two of them were having so difficulty.

Back at the Vault, the pink progress bar had filled up. When they stepped close enough, the writing glowed, then faded away. Sothing heavy clunked inside the door. Natalie tugged on the handle and it yielded easily. She dragged the door open, and behind it was …

A second vault door, identical to the previous. And also, an altar made of stone.

"How many do you think there'll be?" Vanetta asked. "Two? Three? More than that?"

"Three is usually the magic number," Natalie said, shrugging. "Could be any number, though." She approached the second door and the altar, inspecting each in turn.

The Second Trial's requirent revealed itself in writing, as the first had:

Second Trial: Trial of Sacrifice. Demonstrate your dedication. All items set upon the altar will be destroyed completely. The door is already unlocked: proceed at your discretion.

"What does that an?" Natalie asked. "Is it … a puzzle? Is there sothing specific we need to sacrifice? Or are we supposed to just give up as much as we can?"

Vanetta alternated her frown between the altar and the writing on the vault door. "I'm not sure," she admitted. She spent nearly a full minute in contemplation, which Natalie also used to churn over the possibilities. "At a guess, the final reward would be proportional to how much we give up? Everything sacrificed improves the rewards?" She grimaced. "Could be what you said though. Maybe if we don't sacrifice enough, we'll lock ourselves out, or screw ourselves sohow. Or maybe there's so other puzzle."

Natalie grunted. They thought it over for a bit longer. "The first idea seems most fitting. It is called the trial of sacrifice."

"So, what? Should we give up everything?"

"Everything?"

Vanetta screwed her face into a grimace. "Unless we can't live without it, put it on the altar. If we're going by reasonable dungeon rules, we'll be rewarded twice over for everything given up, right? Or if it doesn't work like that, and there's so hidden minimum, we should do everything we can to et it. Sounds like we only have one shot."

"That does make sense." Natalie hesitated. "But …"

"But what?"

"But we should talk about what the third trial might be, in that case," she said with a wince. "So we don't waste all of our items, only to fail there."

Before, she hadn't brought it up because they would 'deal with it when they got there'. But for the reasoning she'd ntioned, she couldn't ignore her theory anymore.

"You do know what the last trial is going to be, right?" Natalie asked.