The blood forest only got creepier from there. It felt like we there were eyes on us but nothing worked. Neither of us detected anything which only made me more nervous. It felt like a monster was in the darkness ready to slit my throat.

  "Are we sure we don't want to burn this place down? We might be able to skip the entire trial like that. Or at least make it an all out battle." I asked only partially joking.

  "Forest bad. Forest on Fire worse." The slight edge to his mental voice made it clear he wasn't completely convinced.

  It wasn't until a familiar ache spread throughout my body that I began to get worried. This wasn't because of the black energy or the trees. No this was my body finding something it wanted. Which meant there was a treasure somewhere in nearby. For the first time sense all this went down I seriously considered just ignoring it.

  "I can't. I could probably use whatever power boost it would provide." I sighed and ignored Xerxes' confusion. I adjusted our angle and picked up the pace into a brisk job. It didn't take long for us to find where we were supposed to be. Which only made me confused. There was a small blood-red fruit hanging from a tree in the center of red marshy spot. The fruit reminded me a bit of a pomegranate only it looked like it dripped blood.

  The weirdest part though wasn't the fruit. It was the three humans trying to rip each other apart. At first I thought it was just a battle but there were a lot of things wrong with it. First the trio attacked each other indiscriminately. Second none of them used the weapons that were scattered around them nor did they even attempt to use their spiritual energy. It was like they had all lost their minds. The fourth thing was what sealed the deal for me.

  I felt something pushing against my mind and then Intellect Fortress activated. The effect wasn't anything notable but I had a theory on why. The black mist from before had already been expelled from my system but what would have happened if was still there? Would this treasure's influence have made the mental attack worse? Either way it didn't matter. The trio had different token than I did so taking them out was obvious.

  I formed blades imbued with the Tao of Lucidity and shot them at the trio. They each got two mostly because I wanted to see if saving them was even possible. As soon as the blade sunk into their bodies the trio stopped fighting and turned toward me. The scene was like something out of a horror movie. My gaze drifted between them and the tree. The damn thing was controlling people. What is with the System and the evil plants?

  I activated Psychic Aegis in its wall form and waited. The trio ran straight into the wall as if they expected it to break. Another six blades slammed into them this time each pair had a different imbuement. They stumbled back a step and were slow to rejoin the battle. Not that I planned on giving them a chance. I unleashed a compressed Psionic Rain to finish this off. Their kill energy flooded into my dantian a moment later. Next I decided not to just walk up to the tree. On the off chance it could do something special.

  This was also an excellent time to practice with my Psychokinesis. I reached out to the fruit and gently tugged it toward me. It took me nearly ten minutes to bring it over. I wished I could say it was because of the tree but that wasn't true. As far as I could tell the tree wasn't able to do anything.

  When I had the fruit in hand I almost wished I didn't. My body definitely wanted it but here was something else there. A sense of danger that made me not want to eat it. There was also the things texture. It was cold and slimy. "Are you able to use this?"

  "Eat!"

  I considered handing it over but decided against it. I decided to trust my danger sense that and it was really nasty. I put the thing in my ring. "Alright now should we destroy this place? I could probably carve through it. If you set it on fire."

  "Let plant kill other people. We should leave."

  I sighed and collected the three tokens. All three tokens had the same image, a blood red drop. I started to put together how this trial was set up and I had to admit it was interesting. The trial was likely divided into five zones. Each zone had a single type of token. Someone who wanted to win would need to grab a token from each zone.

  Which meant that the most optimal play would probably be to wait until someone grabbed the other four and then kill them. Of course the danger was that whoever could gather four would be strong and that might have only gotten stronger with treasures. Not to mention the number disparity. The best target would be a solo traveler or perhaps a duo? I grinned as an idea began to form in my mind.

  What would happen if one person gathered all the tokens? Or perhaps almost all the tokens? "Hey Xerxes what do you think if we made people come to us instead of going to them?"

  The plan was more of a loose idea at this point. If we were going to pull it off we needed a spot that was beneficial to me while being central. Which meant I needed to find like a hill or something. Once there I needed to get the word out. There was also the risk of the prince. I didn't think I could beat that whole quintet in a 5 on 2 let alone if it was the entire trial.

  For now though there wasn't much to do and I wanted to find a few more treasures. I might be able to create a dinner bell of some kind if I get enough of them together. "Which direction?"

  "That one" Xerxes replied while pointing toward the west.

  I couldn't come up with a reason to reject that so we left. I expanded my Tao field again and scanned the environment. The further we walked the stranger the place got. It wasn't just the trees there were vines, flowers and other plants that were freaky for lack of a better word. It was as if some crazy person randomly combined several different things. As if they wanted to see what would happen.

  We came across a massive flower that made my stomach turn. It looked like the corpse flower from earth only it was four times as big and dripped a syrupy blood red gel. The worst part was that it smelled sweet. Like it was filled berries or candy. I felt something tug at the edges of my mind as if I was being drawn to the flower. Or rather that the flower was trying to draw me to it.

  The effect wasn't anywhere near strong enough but it made me want to destroy the thing. "Do you think this would be valuable? Or should we just break it?" I asked the question though I was pretty sure I already knew the truth. If the System was anything it was balanced. This place was designed to make us kill each other but their were plenty of rewards.

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  The question was how do I harvest it and what did I harvest? Was it the gel I wanted or the plant itself? I pulled a sword out of my ring. "Do you know how to do this?"

  "Nope"

  The smugness in his mental voice made me seriously consider tossing him into the plant. I tossed the Qilin some meat and made my way up to the plant. Its allure intensified but it wasn't at the level where Intellect Fortress activated. At first It tried to find any kind of seed or whatever this kind of plant would use but either there was nothing or I had no idea where it was. I gave up after a few minutes and grabbed the plant with my psychokinesis. When I was sure I had it I used the sword to cut through the base of the plant.

  Once the bulb was free I placed it into my ring and dug up the roots. The roots were oddly normal. A tangle of black and red thorn like things. I half expected them to crawl about or some insane scary movie shit. Those also went into the ring and then I stepped away. Not wanting to get involved in whatever this was any longer.

  I drew out a water skin and washed the syrup from my fingers as we walked through the forest. I had just convinced myself that my fingers were clean when a scream shattered the calm. I raised an eyebrow at Xerxes just to confirm that we both heard it. We didn't exchange words as we jogged through the forest. My initial instinct was to sprint to the voice but this forest was able to lie. Also who knew just what I would find.

  Despite my hesitation we arrived at the source of the voice within a few minutes and what I saw made my blood boil. There were four people in the clearing. Three of them were men in full plate style armor. The armor was the color of steel though it had a small amount of spiritual energy flowing through it. A stylized two headed raptor sat in the middle of their breast plate. The bird was beautiful and was done with a mix of blue and gold that made it feel like it was heavenly. It somehow felt like it would just fly off the armor if given a chance.

  Based on the energy that flowed to and away from it I realized that I might not be far off. The fourth person in the scene was what made me angry. It was an older man who lacked his right arm. He was covered in dozens of cuts and bruises. The black energy that poured into him was waging a way against the energy in his dantian. A war that the man struggled to endure let alone fight. A process that was made infinitely harder by the attacks from the other three. It wasn't even like they were trying to kill him. They were just making his life harder.

  "Please I will pay you when the trial is over. I have already found several herbs." The old man pleaded.

  "Like we care about that. We were told to collect the payment from you today. If you can't pay..." The leader's grin had a predatory glint to it. A glint that made me want to punch him.

  A wolfish grin spread across my face as I made my choice. There was something I wanted to test. When three test subjects so eagerly volunteered who was I to refuse them? I pushed energy into Inverted Dimension. I took control over the domain as it spread out across the forest. I released slowly, letting it slowly replaced the world until it extended well beyond the foursome. The act was uncomfortable to say the least. It was like trying to restrain an unruly dog. A dog that wanted nothing more than to jump leash and rush forward.

  Once it was done I leaped up into the branches of the tree. I did my best to imitate a relaxed and mischievous posture. Even while the branches poked into my back. The moist things felt like bloody fingers and every part of me wanted to just break the whole thing.

  "Fellas!" I pushed a small amount of spiritual energy into my vocal chords. Just enough to have my voice boom throughout the domain. They turned to face me but of course they faced the wrong direction. Next I activated Realm of Consciousness. The mist bellowed out from my actual position which only increased the confusion.

  The old man's eyes widened and he became praying to someone called "The Traveler" which added yet another question to my long list. I tried to protect him from the spell but I couldn't. For some reason the only person I could interact with on that level was Xerxes. He wasn't my target so I pushed him to the back of my mind. The trio had a very mixed reaction. They had a fallen back into a formation that left no avenue for a surprise attack. Except either below them or above. They all had drawn short swords. Though none of them were relics. They all had storage bags connected to their hips.

  I briefly considered stealing them but it would take too much time. "I would give you the chance to apologize to the man on the ground but lets be honest. You won't. You will answer a question for me though. Are you with one of the princes?"

  My only source of hesitation was that I didn't want to start a two person war against a royal family. If they all had armies with them in here than I would die just from sheer numbers. I also didn't want to start a rebellion or anything like that.

  "That's right bastard. We are members of Prince Scythan's Honor Guard." The lead man began. His eyes scanning the distance. "Reveal yourself now and we will give you a painless death."

  I stared in utter confusion for several seconds before I realized he was serious. "Why the fuck would I do that? Do people actually agree to that? I mean I could understand if we were on your world but I could just break my token to leave."

  It wasn't until I finished my sentence that I realized my mistake. I just revealed that we weren't from the same world. I wasn't sure if that information could be used to hurt me but I wasn't going to take any chances. I activated a compressed Psionic Rain wanting to end the fight as soon as possible. Unexpectedly a ring on their fingers shattered and a transparent barrier appeared.

  For a moment I was worried the barrier would be strong enough to make this a fight but I was proven wrong. The blades all went through the shield as if it wasn't there. The trio barely had the time to yell out as they were pelted with dozens of mental blades. I conjured another six psychic blades just to make sure they died. Every instinct I had warned that his was probably a trick to get me to reveal myself.

  When three sources of kill energy flooded into me though I relaxed. Did they not have mental defenses? My mind was brought back to a conversation with Desbera about the rareness of my particular class. People who specialized in psyche based attacks were very uncommon out here in the edges. Which also must mean that defenses against such attacks are equally rare.

  That still didn't account for just how weak these three were though. A honor guard should be strong enough to protect their prince so either this "Prince Scythan" was weaker than the last one or these guys were the scraps that he could send out. Either way there wasn't much I could do about it. I was just about to end my domain when a second ring shattered. This one was on the lead guards finger. When it did a bolt of blue energy shot up and into the air.

  It reached the ceiling of my domain before shattering in a display of blue and gold sparks. At first I thought it was just weird fireworks. Then I realized that it was a warning system. It was meant to let people know that this person was dead or at least in trouble and where to find him. Of course it was pretty useless inside this dimension so it didn't matter.

  I waited another few minutes before I decided it was time to move on. There was a chance that there was a secondary signal that would trigger as soon as we returned. The spell would on its own eventually so there wasn't much to be done but give it a try. I ended the Inverted Dimension. The world shattered and we were back in the real forest. I made my way over to the trio and collected all their valuables. I was about to transfer all the stuff in their bags into my rings when I thought better.

  You couldn't really put a spatial item inside another one. Without the risk of the two spaces breaking. Instead I transferred the stuff into one bag and hid that one inside my robes. The now empty bags were then slung over my shoulders. That way if someone tried to rob me they would go after these bags and not search for the ring. Or the third bag. The idea wasn't perfect but it worked for me. I then stuffed their armor, weapons and tokens away. I already had their token so it wasn't a positive for me but I might be able to trade it later.

  When everything was taken care of I turned my attention to the man who hadn't gotten up. He looked like he couldn't decide if I was an angel here to save him or a demon that would kill him. Which was fair since I had just killed three people in the span of a minute. A process that wouldn't have made any sense unless you knew that they were mental attacks.

  "Hey there how's it going?"