7.07 – Trial Run I

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-balanced. A mage, a support, a tank, a warrior, and a rogue. Rosalie's world had specific terminology and a slew of 'acceptable' 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 explained 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 similar gifts from Rosalie's family vaults: bracers and a sapphire ring respectively, each with effects suited to their classes.

Astrid had gotten nothing. She was still a 'trial member,' Rosalie had awkwardly and unhappily explained to her. The decision was clearly her father's. The wealth of the d'Celestin family was 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 the latex suits had come from a third-advancement shard, the highest they'd been in so far, and those suits had a niche use.

Whether the items had come 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 planned 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 not 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 black portal. It was set into the sand of a beach; the ocean lapped 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."

***

It was a miracle.

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

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

And perfectly aware too, no gap in their consciousness. They'd jumped in, and then were just there, standing inside the stone-brick room in a party of five. Fully geared. No items missing from her inventory. No giant plant-monster grasping out to grope them. Not that that last 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 normally 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 glanced 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 regular 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 liked 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 regular shard. And she finally had the opportunity.