The answer was made when the beasts settled into their improved homes.
[Oh, this is nice. I can feel the power soothing my muscles. Whatever you did today, do it again.] Rae commended him as she spun an expanded web between the new trees.
[Yes, this is the right improvement. I can feel myself getting more powerful.] Hawk agreed.
The two of them waited for Thor to say something, but he was staring in wonder at one of the stone pillars.
[Did you make a smashing pillar for me? You are too kind.]
He was nearly tearful with joy over the addition of the pillars, and the other two beasts immediately discounted anything else he said for the evening. Like giving Hawk an extra rare species of meat, the Lightning Cerro had been bribed with the thing he wanted most, and his opinion was unreliable.
Karl considered their answers for a moment, and then replied.
[Alright, I will go back to the mana training tomorrow and see how much I can improve the spaces for you all. After all, the faster you grow strong, the faster I grow strong in return.]
A good night’s sleep brought about some notable changes to the trio. Not so much to Hawk, but Thor was a full hand taller than he had been yesterday, enough that it was immediately noticeable to everyone when he came out for some attention in the morning, but Rae was the one who caught everyone’s attention.
She was not only larger, but the armoured chitin on her legs was beginning to turn the deep crimson that helped to give the Bloodbath Spider its name. As they grew older and more powerful, the red would spread up from the claws until her entire legs and portions of her black underbelly were deep crimson, as if she had been standing in a pool of blood.
She wouldn’t lose the short black fur on her body, but the carapace underneath would change colour as a warning to others that she was not to be trifled with, and no longer needed to hide in the darkness.
Karl hadn’t expected it to begin so early, as she wasn’t even fully grown yet. The training must have been good for her, not discriminating against users, even if they were not human.
“Rae is looking really powerful. I didn’t know that spiders got that big.” One of the warriors noted.
“That’s not even half grown for a Bloodbath Spider. When she’s full-grown, she will be able to grab and flip an armoured car with her legs. They’re scary enough that even the team that took me to the wilderness to find new pets didn’t want to meet the adult version. I got Rae here as an egg.” Karl explained.
The warrior wasn’t quite sure he believed Karl’s bragging, but that spider was huge, and if it was still growing, it was going to be nightmare fuel for countless students. All the ones here had met Rae, and knew that she was friendly, but if she crept up on them in the dark, they would still freak out.
Karl returned to the mana enhancement stairs, and slowly made his way to the fourth, and then the fifth stair to begin his training. That shocked the mages a little, as they had all expected him to go work with the warriors today to complete the rotation, but with two of the three pets there already, Karl was more concerned about making sure that their homes could keep up with them.
That day, the progress up the stairs began to really increase for Karl. He was getting the hang of pulling energy in from the outside to feed the beast space, whereas before he was only converting food to energy to build them. With him starting at rock bottom, he had nowhere to go but up, and by the end of the day, he had moved from the fifth step up to the tenth, where the pressure was immense on him, but he could still effectively channel more power than the step before.
That was enough to get ahead of their growth needs, and the beast spaces were actually starting to look like islands in the void. There was no real sky or anything like it, other than a few fake stars Karl had put in Rae’s darkened space to simulate nighttime, but they had a fair amount of land after two days of training on the stairs.
But compared to Karl’s internal improvements, the others were beginning to show real signs of the gains that they had made here.
Both of the clerics eyes shone with a faint golden light, the mages were all filled to the brim with power, and the warriors were becoming the toned and muscular Elites that they had dreamed of being since they found out that they were compatible with the Serum.
They were well into the afternoon, and everyone was exhausted and ready to turn in when the Golems made an announcement. Speaking in unison, their magical voices reached every one of the students.
[You now have twenty-four hours remaining in your trial. Choose your last day’s event wisely.]
Those words sent a wave of panic through the group. They had no idea that there was a four-day time limit on the trials. Many of them had intended to try to push through to the Awakened Rank, then spend a few days checking on the other sides, just in case they could gain something important from them.
Karl didn’t have any particular regrets. His body was already stronger than his mind, so testing his willpower and mana made the most sense. The question was: What would he do for the last day?
He could balance it out, and go for the willpower side again, but something told him that the neglected stairs, the random gamble that was the Fate Challenge was going to be much more entertaining.
It might only be good for a story around the campfire, but all of them should have some sort of affinity with fate, since they all passed the trial of the Divine Serum, and proved themselves compatible.
That settled it. He had gained what he needed from the stairs. He learned how to more effectively expand the beast spaces, and he could ask Rae and Thor about the effectiveness of the body training. So, he would take a chance on the final day, and he would go for the fate stairs to see what would happen.
