A group of ladies were sitting on the terrace of a city restaurant, drinking tea.
"Why is the Immortal Goblin running through the streets in just his boxers?"
"You have not seen him do this before? They say he got attacked by the Crown on the path back from the dungeon. Apparently he was shouting 'More. More.' while they were hitting him."
A third chimed in. "And they say that ever since then, for the past few days, he has been running back to the dungeon with no clothes on."
"No one knows why."
"And no one wants to ask."
"But most people think he is taunting them. Trying to get someone to attack him again while he is defenseless."
"Did you hear what else he has been doing?"
"No. What?"
"One of those fighting gyms. The famous one with the giant champion."
"What about it?"
"He started going there. People looked in through the windows and saw him paying the giant to pummel him. Over and over again."
There was a brief silence.
"Maybe the Crown hit him in the head and he went crazy again?"
Rune sneezed as he stood inside the dungeon once more, positioned at the base of the stairs leading up to the third floor.
He was wearing nothing but his boxers and a leg pouch. The cold bit at his skin, but he barely noticed. Focused on the task ahead.
Over the past few days, Rune had paid the giant to hit him. Over and over. Not to spar. Not to teach him how to win.
The goal had never been endurance either.
He wanted to understand what it felt like to be on the receiving end of his own mistakes. Where his guard dropped. Where his stance opened. The moments he relied too much on instinct instead of control.
More importantly, once he found those flaws, he made sure not to fix them.
If Rune had them fixed, then the copy would too.
The giant was a champion fighter. A legend in his own right. Humans lined up constantly, asking to be trained, to be taught how to fight, how to survive.
He ignored them all.
He had heard the rumors about Rune, of course. His kind usually did not bother separating truth from exaggeration when it came to humans.
But no one had ever approached him before and calmly asked to be beaten senseless for hours every day.
And no one had ever asked him to make sure their flaws stayed.
"Okay. All the tests lead up to this. Today is the day it comes together."
Rune reached into his pouch and pulled out a vial filled with thick, murky liquid.
Skin Hardening Potion. Version 3.0.
'Gretta told me she did not want to make this. She really did not want me taking it.' His jaw tightened. 'But I tested it over the past few days. The copy gets everything I have on my person. Temporary buffs stay mine.'
He drank it in one go.
Pain hit him instantly.
Rune folded forward as his body reacted, muscles locking and grinding as flesh densified, skin hardening layer by layer. This version was meant to push him past reinforced flesh, turning most of his body into something closer to living stone.
The pain was brutal. Far beyond what a normal person could endure. Every movement felt like stone grinding against stone inside his own body.
Rune gasped, breath tearing in and out of his lungs as he forced himself to stay upright.
With shaking fingers, he reached back into his pouch and pulled out one last item.
A vial filled with the darkest orange liquid he had ever seen.
He stared at it for a moment, chest heaving.
He pulled the stopper free and poured the contents over his hands.
The orange liquid clung thickly to his skin, sinking in and spreading across his knuckles and palms. It was the explosive salve. Sticky. Volatile. Unforgiving.
Rune flexed his fingers slowly as the salve settled, coating his fists and seeping into the hardened layers beneath his skin.
Ready to detonate on impact.
He straightened, breath still uneven, pain ringing through his body like a warning bell.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's finish this."
Rune stepped into the first chamber of the third floor.
The same messages surfaced immediately.
[Law of the First Room: No element.]
[Win without using element. Any use of element will forfeit the current challenge and impose a 24 hour lockout.]
[Know this: for every person who follows the rules, there is at least one who does not.]
Rune did not bother reading them twice.
Dust stirred across the stone floor, sand lifting and gathering as a familiar shape formed in front of him.
Another Rune, wearing only his boxers, just like him.
He moved the instant the copy finished forming.
Rune closed the distance, forcing the copy to react immediately rather than dictate the pace.
Over the past few days of testing, Rune had learned one critical detail.
The copy would not use element until two minutes had passed.
That was his window.
Rune blocked most of the incoming blows, letting a few land on purpose. Each strike slammed into flesh that had been pushed close to stone, the impacts dull and heavy rather than sharp. The copy's knuckles were already swelling, every punch coming in just a bit weaker than the last.
Rune waited.
Then he saw it. The same flaw the giant had pointed out.
The copy overextended its left arm, dragging it too far across its chest. For a brief instant, its side was completely exposed. No guard. No recovery. No way to block what came next.
Rune stepped in and drove his fist into the exposed ribs.
The impact detonated.
The copy's ribcage shattered as it collapsed to one knee. Rune did not slow. He brought his other hand down into its temple.
Another explosion.
The blow ended it instantly. The copy broke apart, collapsing into dust that scattered across the floor and settled into stillness.
A message surfaced in Rune's mind.
[Law of the First Room Passed]
[Physical Power increasing… +11]
"Ha. It really was that easy," Rune said, breathless and grinning. "All I had to do was pay a giant to beat me senseless, take off my clothes, turn my skin to stone, and make my fists explode."
Smoke curled up from his hands, skin blackened and scorched where the detonations had gone off. Despite that, his fingers flexed without resistance. The hardening potion had done its job. Not a single bone was broken.
He looked down at himself, then snorted.
"You know, maybe this is how you are supposed to pass this trial. If I end up with a memory where this god just walks around in his underwear all the time, I am going to be upset."
Rune paused, scanning the chamber, half expecting something to answer him.
Nothing happened.
No memory came.
He let out a slow sigh of relief and rolled his shoulders as a door formed in the wall of the circular room, beckoning him to move forward.