Luna woke before dawn, her enhanced senses alerting her to movement in the underbrush nearby. She lay perfectly still, controlling her breathing, one hand drifting to the hunting knife at her hip. Her Class Form made the weapon feel like an extension of her arm—if the creature came closer, she'd know exactly how to use it.

  The movement resolved itself into a small animal—something like a rabbit, but with six legs and ears that rotated independently like satellite dishes. It hopped past her shelter without noticing her, disappearing into the undergrowth on some errand of its own.

  Luna released the breath she'd been holding and sat up slowly. Despite sleeping on the forest floor, she felt remarkably well-rested—her Class Form's armor had cushioned her against the hard ground, and strangely she felt more rested than she'd been in a long time. Perhaps resting outdoors was more refreshing thanks to her elven body or Traits. She retrieved some of the Maw Shrum meat from her Space Pouch, still perfectly fresh thanks to the container's preservation properties, and ate a cold breakfast while watching the forest lighten around her.

  Day two of the Trial. Nine days remaining to reach Level 10, and she was currently sitting at Level 5. The math wasn't difficult—she needed five more levels in nine days, barely more than half a level per day. Yesterday's Maw Shrum fight had given her two levels at once, so she was well ahead of that minimal pace. For her, this particular objective seemed almost trivially easy.

  But the minimum requirement wasn't what concerned her.

  Luna thought about Mia, somewhere in this forest with Roger and Sam. Mia had chosen a healing Class—she couldn't kill monsters efficiently, couldn't hunt for experience the way Luna could. How was she supposed to reach Level 10 in ten days? The System had set the same requirement for everyone, regardless of their Class or combat ability. Sam could deal damage with his lightning, but he was fragile without a frontline to protect him, and his Mana efficiency was far worse than Luna's. Roger was capable enough, but he couldn't carry two people who struggled with direct combat. The thought of Mia failing, of losing her memories and her Gift, of being sent back to Earth as if none of this had ever happened—it made something cold settle in Luna's chest.

  She needed to find them. Needed to make sure they survived this Trial, even if it meant hunting for them while they rested.

  And beyond that immediate concern, Luna understood that Level 10 was merely the floor, the bare threshold for not being discarded. Everyone who passed would be Level 10 or higher—and in a competition, meeting the minimum meant falling behind. She needed to aim higher, to push herself beyond what the System demanded. Level 15 by the end of the Trial would put her ahead of most participants and give her a better foundation for whatever came next. More importantly, it would give her the strength to protect the people she cared about.

  Luna broke down her camp, scattering the branches and leaves she'd used for camouflage so that no obvious sign of her presence remained. Then she chose a direction, relying on her intuition and the subtle guidance of her Nature's Blessed trait, and began to walk.

  The forest was different in the early morning light. Mist clung to the ground in patches, swirling around the bases of the tall grass-stalks and ordinary trees. Birds she couldn't identify called to each other in the canopy, their songs strange but not unpleasant. The air was cool and damp, carrying scents of moss and growing things and the faint musk of animals that had passed this way during the night. Luna moved in silence, her Wilderness Stride trait making her footsteps virtually inaudible on the forest floor. She kept her bow in hand, an arrow loosely nocked, ready to draw and release at a moment's notice.

  She'd been walking for perhaps two hours when she heard the sounds of battle.

  Luna froze instantly, dropping into a crouch behind a thick cluster of grass-stalks. The noise was coming from somewhere ahead and to her left—the clash of metal, guttural shouts, and a sound like tearing cloth mixed with an animal's snarl. Something was fighting out there, and from the volume of the shouting, it involved a significant number of combatants.

  She crept forward, using every scrap of cover the forest provided. The sounds grew louder as she approached, and she began to pick out individual voices—harsh, guttural speech that she almost mistook for human speech.

  "Flank it! Circle around and flank it!"

  "Kraz is dead! The beast killed Kraz!"

  "Keep formation! Spears forward, don't let it get behind the line!"

  Goblins. Luna recognized the cadence of their speech from the first Trial, except now she somehow understood the meaning behind those sounds—probably some System shenanigans.

  She found a vantage point behind a fallen log covered in luminescent moss and peered over it carefully, taking stock of the situation before committing to any course of action.

  A clearing opened up ahead, perhaps sixty feet across, dominated by a pit trap at its center—the excavation was maybe twenty feet deep and thirty feet across, its walls smooth earth that offered no obvious handholds. But the battle wasn't happening in the pit. It was happening around it, and Luna took a moment to count heads and assess what she was dealing with.

  Thirteen goblins, though one was clearly dead—a small green-skinned figure in crude leather that had been nearly torn in half, lying in a spreading pool of blood near the pit's edge. That left twelve active combatants, and Luna's Identify ability began feeding her information as she studied each one in turn.

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  Seven of them were small, perhaps three and a half feet tall, dressed in scraps of fur and armed with crude spears or clubs. They moved with the desperate energy of creatures who knew they were outmatched, jabbing at something Luna couldn't quite see from her current angle.

  [Wild Goblin (Bronze) - Level 2]

  ...

  [Wild Goblin (Bronze) - Level 4]

  Bronze rank, no Classes. They wouldn't be much of a threat individually, but seven of them could still overwhelm a target through sheer numbers if given the opportunity.

  The other six goblins were different entirely. They were Gifted, she realized. And she noticed that she only understood the words said by those, but not by the Wild ones. Which explained why she hadn't comprehended the goblin speech in the first Trial.

  Four of the "enhanced" goblins wore identical armor—dark leather breastplates reinforced with iron studs, matching bracers and greaves, the unmistakable uniformity of Class Form equipment rather than scavenged gear. They carried weapons that had materialized alongside their armor: two wielded short spears paired with round shields, while the other two bore curved swords better suited for close combat. They stood half a head taller than their Wild cousins, with more developed musculature and an alert, disciplined bearing that spoke of real combat training enhanced by the System's Gift.

  [Goblin Warrior (Iron) - Level 5]

  [Goblin Warrior (Iron) - Level 6]

  [Goblin Warrior (Iron) - Level 6]

  [Goblin Warrior (Iron) - Level 7]

  Iron rank with actual Classes. These were the real threats among the fighters—equivalent to the humans Luna had been grouped with, capable of using Skills and generating the kind of Mana-enhanced attacks that could threaten her Aether Shield.

  But it was the last two goblins that made Luna's instincts scream the loudest warnings. They stood at the back of the formation, behind the line of Warriors and Wild Goblins, dressed in robes rather than armor. Bones and feathers adorned their clothing, and strange symbols had been painted across their green skin in what might have been blood. Each carried a gnarled staff topped with a skull—animal or goblin, Luna couldn't tell from this distance—and their eyes glowed with a faint, sickly green luminescence that suggested active magical power.

  [Goblin Shaman (Iron) - Level 8]

  [Goblin Shaman (Iron) - Level 9]

  The highest-level enemies Luna had ever faced, and there were two of them. Even the Level 7 Maw Shrum from yesterday hadn't been this strong, and that fight had required her to exploit the creature's own attack to land a killing blow. Granted, monsters were probably tougher than casters like those two were.

  Luna shifted position slightly, trying to see what the goblins were fighting—and finally caught a clear glimpse of their opponent.

  It was a panther—or something like a panther, but somehow more. Its fur was so black it seemed to absorb light, creating a silhouette of darkness against the forest floor that was difficult to focus on directly. Yellow eyes blazed with intelligence and fury as it wove between attacks, moving with a fluid grace that made the goblins' coordinated assault look clumsy by comparison. Scars marked its flanks, some old and healed, others fresh and bleeding—a long cut across its ribs dripped crimson, and a spear had lodged in its left hindquarter at some point, the shaft broken off but the head still embedded in muscle.

  Despite its wounds, the creature was far from defeated. As Luna watched, it flowed around a Warrior's sword thrust and raked its claws across the goblin's shield arm. The Aether Shield flickered under the assault, and the Warrior stumbled backward with a cry of pain, his defenses visibly weakened.

  Luna activated Identify on the panther, and the information that appeared made her reassess the entire situation.

  [Shadow Panther (Steel) - Level 10]

  Steel rank—the same rank as Luna's own Class. Five levels above her current advancement and operating at a tier of power that should have let it tear through these Iron-rank goblins without much difficulty. The fact that it was wounded and struggling spoke to how long this fight had been going, how many attacks it had already weathered, how close to exhaustion it must be running.

  "The spells are charged!" one of the Shamans shouted, his staff glowing with sickly green energy. "Hit it now, while the Warriors have it pinned!"

  Both robed goblins thrust their staffs forward in unison, and twin bolts of poison and earth magic streaked across the clearing. The panther tried to dodge, but the Warriors had closed ranks around it, leaving no room to maneuver. The spells struck its flank in rapid succession, and Luna saw the creature's Aether Shield flicker before cracking under the magical assault.

  The panther snarled in pain—a sound that was half roar and half mental scream that Luna felt in her mind rather than heard with her ears—but it didn't fall. Instead, it lunged toward the nearest Warrior with renewed fury, clearly recognizing that its survival depended on breaking through the encirclement before the Shamans could fire again.

  Its claws found the neck of the Level 5 Warrior, and the goblin went down in a spray of arterial blood. But the other three Warriors immediately closed the gap, shields forming a wall, spears thrusting in coordinated strikes that forced the panther back toward the pit's edge.

  Luna assessed the tactical situation with the cold calculation her Huntress instincts provided. The panther was powerful—more powerful than her, objectively—but it was wounded, exhausted, and surrounded. The Warriors were keeping it contained while the Shamans charged their spells, and each magical strike was cracking its Aether Shield further while leaving wounds. In another few exchanges, the shield would fail entirely, and then the panther would die under a rain of spears and sorcery.

  She could let it happen. Wait for both sides to wear each other down, then pick off the survivors. That would be the safest approach, the most efficient way to maximize experience while minimizing risk.

  But something about the panther's defiant struggle resonated with Luna on a level she couldn't quite articulate. The creature was facing impossible odds and refusing to surrender, refusing to make its death easy for its enemies. Every goblin it killed was a statement: I will not go quietly. I will make you pay for every moment until the end.

  Luna respected that. And besides—twelve goblins, including two high-level Shamans, represented a tremendous amount of experience points. She'd lose most of those if she waited too long. But by tipping the balance of this fight and engaging now, she might gain two or even three levels from the battle.

  Her mind made up, Luna prepared for her attack.