Bismuth Promotion Trial

The Bismuth Ascension Trial is the System’s formal path from Peak Platinum to Bismuth, and for Raine and Leese it becomes a test of whether a rigid advancement ritual can still measure beings transformed by Cato’s technology. The trial begins at the Bismuth Ascension Grounds on Akea, where the sisters’ accumulated accomplishments satisfy the System’s requirements, but its staged challenges prove radically easier for them than the System appears to have intended.

Requirements and Preparation

Raine and Leese had been technically eligible for ascension for more than a year before entering the trial. They had spent that time cutting a route through the frontier worlds, distributing Cato-spears, collecting incremental equipment improvements, and preparing for the practical dangers of becoming Bismuth-ranked figures in regions where even Platinum adventurers were conspicuous. Their delay was partly strategic: every additional advantage could matter, and neither sister knew how long the ascension process would take.

The quest formally required Peak Platinum rank, one Feat of Glory, fifty dungeon delves, and seventy-five World Elites. By the time Raine activated it, every requirement was complete. The sisters’ Feat of Glory had not come from defeating enemies above their own rank, as they had expected, but from surviving fifty assassination attempts by the Assassin’s Guild. The contract remained active even after the sisters reached Peak Platinum, although it had been upgraded to a Bismuth-only contract after repeated failed attempts to kill them. Their specialized jewelry also altered the results of Appraise, helping preserve the cover identities they used while traveling through the System.

Their preparations included more than equipment. Because few Sydeans traveled openly through the System and most outsiders did not know what Sydeans looked like, Raine and Leese presented themselves as members of a vaguely similar reptilian species from Kellach. Their armor concealed many differences, and the disguise was expected to withstand casual scrutiny unless they encountered someone from Clan Kellach. Raine also relied on the sensory capelet extending from her shoulders, whose perception exceeded ordinary tracking Skills and benefited from multiplier gear, making surprise attacks especially difficult.

Arrival at Akea

The quest directed them to the nearest Bismuth Ascension Grounds, located on Akea. Yaniss had told them that the inner worlds contained easier and better-equipped grounds, but the sisters avoided those sites before ascension. They could not yet withstand Azoths or Alums, and without direct clan backing they would have been unwelcome in the inner worlds as mere Platinums.

The grounds occupied a remote mesa far from any town. A glowing dome surrounded the site, blocking entry to anyone below Peak Platinum and, in an unusual upper limit, anyone above Low Bismuth. Inside stood four circular metal frames, fashioned from copper, silver, gold, and platinum, apparently representing the sequence of trials. Raine suspected that the enemies inside would not necessarily correspond neatly to those ranks.

A pillar stood between the four frames. As Raine and Leese approached, two pedestals rose from the ground, each bearing a slot marked with the symbol found on the Estate Tokens they had received at Platinum. They inserted the tokens, activating the copper frame and opening the first portal. At nearly the same moment, the System recognized Cato’s invasion and issued a Crusade quest. The timing connected their private advancement ceremony to the wider crisis: while the System called its inhabitants toward a campaign against Cato, the sisters stepped into a trial designed to make them stronger and help prepare the way for his expansion.

The Copper Trial

The first stage was explicitly titled the Bismuth Ascension Grounds: Copper Trial. The System restricted both Skill and equipment strength to Copper and allowed each participant to choose only four Skills; all others would remain locked for the duration of the trial. For ordinary Platinums, such a reduction would have meant relearning how to fight as a drastically weaker version of oneself. Raine and Leese, however, had not been Platinum for very long, and Cato’s augmentations made them vastly more capable than normal Copper-ranked combatants.

Raine selected her Platinum Skills despite the restriction, then stretched and practiced weapon movements while her combat algorithms adapted to the altered conditions. Leese performed the same adjustment beside her. The arena offered almost no cover, only low dunes, but Raine judged that even with Copper-ranked strength they could probably defeat Gold-ranked opponents.

The first enemy wave arrived as a black tide of Copper-ranked scorpions. Hissing and shifting sand announced the swarm before it rushed across the desert. Raine changed her weapon into a broad-bladed poleaxe and met the attack directly. The sisters cut through wave after wave, while the defeated scorpions’ corpses melted into the sand before they could form walls around the battlefield. The attack continued for minutes, then withdrew as the ground began to tremble.

A single enormous scorpion erupted from beneath the dunes, towering over the sisters and raising its claws. It was destroyed within seconds. The trial then escalated through successive waves of different combat forms: hook-beaked birds, monsters armed with pikes and spiked balls, stone golems, and sand elementals. Each wave demanded a different tactical response, but none presented a serious threat. Raine and Leese had extensive experience, adaptable combat algorithms, and Cato’s enhancements, allowing them to pass the System’s lessons with ease rather than endure them as desperate tests of survival.

Interruption and Continuation

The Copper Trial occupied most of a day, despite its low difficulty. The sisters received no Essence or ordinary loot drops, only a single token that opened the Silver trial. Once outside the trial environment, they immediately recovered their normal Platinum strength. At Platinum they could continue for extremely long periods without sleep, and Bismuth advancement promised an even more radical change: at that rank they would technically never need sleep again.

They took only a short break. Leese stretched and flexed her fingers while Raine prepared one of Cato’s special rations, heating a hearty stew for them both. The Crusade quest had not yet produced another update, but less than a day had passed, and Raine expected the wider crisis to develop before they completed their ascension. The pause therefore served two purposes: physical recovery after a day of combat and a brief acknowledgment that the System’s new campaign was unfolding alongside their personal advancement.

Meaning of the Trial

The trial’s immediate function is procedural: it verifies the conditions for Bismuth rank through a required sequence of restricted battles. Its deeper significance lies in the mismatch between procedure and reality. The System attempts to reduce Raine and Leese to Copper-level Skill and equipment, yet Cato’s modifications remain decisive even inside that imposed limitation. The result is not a conventional underdog ascent but a demonstration that the System’s categories can be made obsolete from within.

That contrast also recalls the System’s broader reward structure. When Cato killed a plant-flesh creature to fulfill a quest, the System rewarded him with essence and a pleasurable rush, turning completion and killing into linked reinforcement. Muar, by contrast, experienced the System as direction, reward, and meaning after the terror of a System-less void, and his meditation at a temple was rewarded with the Divine Insight Skill. Raine and Leese occupy a more ambivalent position: they exploit the System’s advancement machinery while preparing for the campaign against it, treating the trial as useful infrastructure rather than as a sacred authority.

The trial therefore embodies the book’s central tension between imposed progression and chosen purpose. Quests feel rewarding, and their objectives are embedded in System reality strongly enough to create a path of least resistance. The Crusade quest becomes a powerful attractor drawing people across worlds, while the sisters deliberately concentrate on ascension and preparation instead of responding to the System’s summons against Cato. Their passage through the Copper Trial is consequently both an advancement milestone and an act of appropriation: they use the System’s own ladder to acquire the strength needed to undermine the order that built it.