The hustle and bustle of Slipstream was overwhelming to Laurence and Yun. Neither of them had ever been in a city before, so the sights, sounds and smells were like being dumped into an unfamiliar jungle. Slipstream was not a large city, but it was a sizable port. There were hundreds of people passing through the port every day, going …

Cleo walked amongst the decay of the small town. It was not the first time that she and Winoa had come across such a desolate ruin of a town. No matter where either girl turned they would find mummified corpses in various states of desiccation. It was disgusting, but their path to the next gateway cut through this town directly. …

The air was frigid. Nighttime always was on the fifth floor. During the day it was comfortable to the point of being hot, but right now Peter could barely feel his fingers for lack of warmth. He looked at the two skulls that floated behind him then sent one down to the estate below. It was a rocky fort, surrounded …

The strike that would have taken Laurence’s head swung towards him but never arrived. Moments before it would have landed, Yveth was knocked aside by a human cannonball. The speed of the human moving was slightly beyond what either of them could see, so Yveth had no chance to respond before being flung aside like a ragdoll. She crashed into …

A magma cleft room was what Laurence was confronted with when he arrived at the next testing stage. He and Yun had apparently made good time despite spending a large amount of it messing about and improving in his creative art. He had come a long way, but in his eyes he was still just beginning. To the young boy …

The fourth test room was like the others, it showed the same motif as the floor before it, but intensified to the nth degree. When Laurence and Yun walked into the area they were confronted by walls and floors of gemstone. Everywhere their eyes moved was sheathed in crystal. It was beautiful, but screamed decadence in a way that nothing …

Laurence looked at the gems in front of him. There were ten that he could use as enchantments, but only one he could make a weapon out of. A large sheet of Salamandrite had smashed in front of him while he was exploring the cavern and the stones he had salvaged from the accident were paltry. If he could have …

Cleo stood breathlessly in a bizarre abyss. The place was like an Escher painting that had been torn into pieces and scattered in every direction. There were stairs leading nowhere, doors that connected to themselves and odd windows that looked into parallel universes. It hurt her head to think about the area too much, it obviously was not meant for …

Out of the darkness came a pair of men, one fat and the other muscular. The fat man Laurence recognised, but the muscular one he did not. Before he could even say a word the muscular man shouted “PRISON BREAK!” Trevor moved to the side and began panicking. On the journey Laurence had learned that Jake was Trev’s best friend, …

Chester Jorr was sitting at a table inside Cie’Awll’s inn. He nursed a beer as he contemplated getting to the next test room. It was through the massive wall that he had to pass, but after talking to several people in the town he had become very uncertain about the safety of the area. He was not a coward, but …