7.07 – Trial Run I


    The morning of the trial shard arrived. The group of five wayfarers ventured forward, trudging through wild terrain as Rosalie''s skill guided them to a nearby shard of the fourth tier.


    A group of five. A full squad by most wayfaring standards. And well-bnced. A mage, a support, a tank, a warrior, and a rogue. Rosalie''s world had specific terminology and a slew of ''eptable'' configurations for wayfaring teams, but theirs had fallen into a traditional arrangement, one even Zoey recognized as familiar.


    The night before, they had raided the d''Celestin vaults, that vast collection of artifacts that the all-but-royal family had gathered over the years. Enzo had offered them each a single valuable boon, which Rosalie had helped them choose out. Rosalie, of course, had received more than one: she''d been granted her spear, her new set of armor which consisted of several powerful artifacts, and a number of trinkets as well. Enzo''s generosity toward Zoey, Maddy, and Delta was less thorough, though. But even one d''Celestin artifact was no small gift. The family added only the best of the best to their collection.


    Zoey had gotten new robes. Real robes, without a strange appearance or a bizarre sexual requirement attached. They were powerful and support-oriented. Magical gear had to be identified by artificers, and didn''t have effects that could be exined with something as simple as a numerical system, but the robes were estimated to boost the efficacy of support-type spells by thirty-percent for a fourth-advancement wayfarer. They also sped up casting speed by around twenty percent, along with giving significant magical shielding and a decent physical resistance as well. As expected of a priceless d''Celestin artifact.


    Frankly, some of the crazy gear they''d earned earlier matched it, but again, these didn''t have weird requirements. Zoey didn''t have to pierce her nipples or stick a metal plug up her ass. It just worked. Passively and consistently. And seeing how it had been acquired from a non-divine shard, its strength was astounding. It was probably worth a small fortune.


    Delta and Maddy had received simr gifts from Rosalie''s family vaults: bracers and a sapphire ring respectively, each with effects suited to their sses.


    Astrid had gotten nothing. She was still a ''trial member,'' Rosalie had awkwardly and unhappily exined to her. The decision was clearly her father''s. The wealth of the d''Celestin family <em>was </em>his, after all, not Rosalie''s, for all she was heiress.


    They weren''t going in with any of their lewd items equipped. They''d acquired a decent collection in the previous shards: nipple rings, metal butt plugs, magical ink to inscribe crude words on their skin, cat ears and tail plugs, and more. Much of it, however, was growing outdated with their advancement. Even thetex suits hade from a third-advancement shard, the highest they''d been in so far, and those suits had a niche use.


    Whether the items hade from a divine-influenced shard or not, low-advancement items were low-advancement items. They had grown outdated. Weak. The ones from the first shard were basically useless by now. They nned to melt down most of them using the [Item Smelter] as soon as they could have that item discreetly and reliably inspected.


    Plus, there was the matter of Astrid. The more relevant reason they were ignoring their lewd gear. They were treating this shard as a normal shard, if at all possible, and that meant <em>not </em>sticking plugs up their asses in preparation, or painting derogatory, lewd insults on each other''s skin.


    A temporary affair. There was no denying Zoey''s nature permanently. Just for now, to get a feel for Astrid.


    "There it is," Rosalie said, putting her hands on her hips. She looked down at a shimmering ck portal. It was set into the sand of a beach; the oceanpped gently at the shore. The fracture they had found it in was two jumps away from Mantle''s.


    "Out in the open?" Astrid said. She grunted. "Must be new, if no one found it yet."


    "Likely," Rosalie agreed. "Fortunate for us, we got to it in time."


    As Zoey understood, higher-advancement shards became rarer and rarer, corrting inmonness to the danger of the fracture they were found in. To locate, for example, an eight-advancement shard… well. It would take some searching, even for someone like Rosalie, who had a skill to identify shard entrances thanks to her Rune of Trailzing.


    The inky ckness emanated danger. It was possible previous wayfarers <em>had </em>found this portal, but while a shard''s danger level couldn''t be identified exactly, there was a palpable auraing from its depths that suggested this one wasn''t to be trifled with as a beginner. If not for such a warning, low-rank teams would be jumping into suicide all the time. Which, to be fair, happened regardless. Wayfaring wasn''t a career with a low mortality rate.


    "Is everyone ready?" Rosalie asked.


    They nodded. All preparations and discussions had happened beforehand.


    Rosalie looked at Zoey, prompting her. As talked about, she pulled out the Shard Stabilizer. It was a device frame made of silver metal, a cube of only edges. The thin metal felt, in a strange contradiction, frail but unbreakable.


    Items needed to be identified to understand their effects, which was an expensive but necessary process. However, items with <em>active </em>abilities were usually instinctual. To activate, at least. Knowing what would happen when activated was … less obvious, if the description didn''t specify. But the Shard Stabilizer imed to ''reduce divine influence upon shard formation'' after it had been ''filled with energy.''


    Energy. That turned out to be, unsurprisingly, Lust. Zoey had filled it the night before. Where before the metal frame had been empty, inside pulsed a mote of pink light. It had been filled to the brim, even if the mere ember of pink didn''t make it seem so.


    "What''s that?" Astrid asked.


    "We got it from ourst shard," Zoey answered. Again, what she should say had been discussed with her team. Half-truths. Lies by omission. But not straight dishonesty, which they wanted to avoid. Zoey preferred the absolute truth, but she recognized the necessity with Astrid. For now. "It makes shards safer, less discordant, at the cost of some mana. I filled it up beforehand."


    "Really?" Astrid seemed overtly interested in her brief description, which wasn''t good. "Strange artifact. Never heard of one like it."


    Zoey shrugged. "Not sure how strong the effect''ll be, but it''s worth trying out."


    Astrid nodded. Thankfully, she didn''t try to Inspect the item. She would have needed to shoot the request down, which would have been awkward. For the same reason a wayfarer couldn''t inspect their enemy''s armor and weapon, Zoey, who ''owned'' the stabilizer, had control over who could read its description.


    "Disciple of a goddess," Astrid said with a shrug. "Would expect strange items from your team." She looked down at the inky ck portal. "We begin?"


    "Let''s," Rosalie agreed.


    After a brief coordination, and with Zoey still gripping the Stabilizer and activating it—the pink light glowing more brightly in response—they stepped in, descending into cold ckness.


    ***


    It was a miracle.


    All five party members came into existence together. Not separated magically by the shard, which was, to the general wayfaring popce, a rare urrence.


    Together. And awake. And wearing all their gear. Not stripped naked, or thrown into a lewdtex suit, or anything equally bizarre.


    And perfectly aware too, no gap in their consciousness. They''d jumped in, and then were just <em>there</em>, standing inside the stone-brick room in a party of five. Fully geared. No items missing from her inventory. No giant nt-monster grasping out to grope them. Not that thatst part had happened before, but, well, it wouldn''t have been out of character.


    They spun around, identifying their surroundings. Seeing nothing of threat, they turned, blinking, to look at each other.


    "Huh," Maddy said. "It worked."


    "What worked?" Astrid asked.


    To her, this was how most shards began. Zoey had described the Shard Stabilizer as something that simply made shards less discordant, which was true, in a sense, but Astrid had no idea that <em>normally</em> they appeared into shards with their tits hanging out and without a single piece of gear on them—besides maybe buttplugs and other lewd items that the shard had given its stamp of approval for.


    "A-Ah, nothing," Maddy said. "I just mean, uh, we''re all here in one piece. That''s good!"


    It wasn''t the best of recoveries, or much of a recovery at all, but Astrid gave her an odd look and moved past it. She nced at the staircase leading up. The room was empty besides it; a safe starting room, simply made of stone brick and not much else. There would be more fantastical sights up above. And danger.


    Real danger. Not that lewd shards didn''t have that, but this was a fourth advancement shard as a regr wayfarer knew it. The Shard Stabilizer had worked. They would be tested as any other group.


    How strange.


    And disappointing? But also exciting? In equal measure. A strange mix of emotions. Zoey <em>liked </em>the influenced shards; the experiences she''d had in them had been overall … fun. Not least because of how it threw her, Rosalie, Delta, and Maddy into all sorts of perverted situations.


    But she did also want to test her team against a regr shard. And she finally had the opportunity.