Aaron sat cross-legged in the hallway before the trial selection stone. He had died fifteen times over the last few hours and had nothing to show for it. But he wasn’t about to give up. However, it was becoming clear that he wouldn’t be able to just mindlessly bash his head against the trials and expect to defeat them. He needed to take stock of his situation and come up with some kind of plan.
I bet he’s watching, and I bet he’s loving this.
Aaron gritted his teeth as he imagined the smug grin on the assistant’s face. It was no longer just about learning the System and ensuring he wasn’t turned into somebody’s slave when it was all over; it had gotten personal. His status quo with the smug assistant was not something he was willing to let go unchallenged.
Although he had to concede that, despite his dislike of the guy, he had told him about the status screen and classes. At first, Aaron had decided to hold off on making important decisions until he knew a little more about the place. It wasn’t like he could die, and he didn’t want to regret his decision. However, it was becoming painfully clear that he wasn’t getting far without making a choice.
Exhaling as he struggled to devise a plan, Aaron opened his status screen, hoping that he might glean some inspiration from it.
[ Name: Aaron Dober ]
[ Age: 23 ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Grade: F ]
[ HP: 500 ]
[ MP: 500 ]
[ SP: 500 ]
[ Class: --Select--, lvl 0 ]
[ Profession: -, lvl 0 ]
[ Stats ]
[ Strength: 5 (+5) ]
[ Vitality: 5 (+5) ]
[ Fortitude: 5 (+5) ]
[ Dexterity: 5 (+5) ]
[ Agility: 5 (+5) ]
[ Intelligence: 5 (+5) ]
[ Willpower: 5 (+5) ]
[ Charisma: 5 (+5) ]
[ Perception: 5 (+5) ]
[ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer ]
[ Traits: - ]
[ Racial Skills: - ]
[ Profession Passive Skills (0/3): - ]
[ Profession Active Skills (0/6): - ]
[ Class Passive Skills (0/3): - ]
[ Class Active Skills (0/6): - ]
It kind of irritated Aaron to look at his stats—not just because they sucked, but also because they didn’t round up. This meant that his +10% to all stats was effectively useless until he had at least 10 points.
Opening up his class options, he resigned himself to making a choice. Not that he was entirely against it, or anything. He just felt like he still knew so little, not only that, but the assistant had informed him that the room he was supposed to enter when starting the tutorial was an armory. He wasn’t just missing out on the tutorial and everything that came with it, but also all the starter gear everyone else got.
Dammit! I can’t just sit around. People are already getting stronger out there. The thought of becoming some post-apocalyptic superman’s slave sent a shiver down his spine. Time to get this over with.
Fighter (Starter Class) The fighter is the rudimentary heart of all combatants who are found in the chaotic melee of battle. They excel in hand-to-hand combat and are a perfect starting point for those who wish to stand at the forefront of the battlefield.
+3 Strength +3 Vitality +1 Agility +2 Free Points.
Starter Skill: Power Strike. Power Strike draws on your mana to empower a weapon attack with additional strength.
That’d be just great… if I had a sword!
Acolyte (Starter Class) The acolyte is the magical novice. Not yet bound to any specific arcane art, the acolyte is the foundation from which greater magical casters build themselves. Perfect for the studious and mystically inclined.
+3 Intelligence +2 Willpower +2 Dexterity +2 Free Points.
Starter Skill: Mana Bolt. Mana Bolt fires a ball of condensed magical energy from the palm of the caster, inflicting minor damage.
Acolyte was actually one of the more tempting choices. He still didn’t know too much about how anything was supposed to work, and the assistant was short on details. But magic guys usually didn’t need weapons, right?
What if they need staffs or wands or something? Aaron groaned audibly.
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Ranger (Starter Class) The ranger is a lighter warrior than the fighter, specializing in ranged and highly mobile techniques. This class is perfect for those who wish to attack from afar and for scouting.
+3 Perception +2 Dexterity +2 Agility +2 Free Points.
Starter Skill: Mark Target. Mark Target illuminates a target for up to five minutes and five kilometres away. Illumination continues even if the target is out of sight.
Oh, look at this. I could be the bow guy, that’d be original.
Brawler (Starter Class) The brawler’s power lies within themselves. This warrior rejects the use of heavy armor and most weapons, instead preferring to rely on their superior body conditioning. The perfect class for those who would rather rely more on their own strength than the strength of their equipment.
+3 Agility +2 Strength +2 Dexterity +2 Free Points.
Starter Skill: Thick Skinned. Thick Skinned improves the Brawler’s durability, and hardens their fists enough to land a punch on an armored foe without breaking something… hopefully.
He kind of hated it that he kept coming back to Brawler. He had opened this list dozens of times already, staring at it for long moments before running off to get himself killed again. It just didn’t sound that heroic. Did he really want to give up being some mage or sword-wielding knight to go around punching dudes? However, not only did it suit him in his current predicament, but he also had experience. He had never gone pro or anything, but Aaron was a more than decent kickboxer, and it seemed a shame not to lean on those skills.
Leader (Starter Class) The leader specializes less in their own combat ability and more in helping their companions make the most of theirs. Their skills revolve around auras and boosts that they empower to empower those around them. Perfect for those who wish to lead the group.
+3 Charisma +2 Intelligence +2 Willpower +2 Free Points.
Starter Skill: Aura of Courage. Aura of Courage infuses teammates with courage, dampening their fears.
The only person to lead was himself, so choosing the leader class seemed like a pretty dumb decision.
Exhaling as he flicked through the options once more, Aaron settled on Brawler and accepted the prompt.
Energy flooded into his veins, and his eyes widened. The feeling was electrifying, in a good way. He felt lighter, maybe even a little stronger and sharper.
Brawler Skill Acquired: Thick Skinned
Thick Skinned: An Active Skill that hardens the user's body. For the Brawler, who relies on their fists and often goes without armor, this Skill is essential when entering battle.
Race Skill Acquired: Inspect
Inspect: provides the user with basic details about an item or individual on use.
“Race skills?” Aaron thought as the text appeared before his eyes. He quickly checked his status page and confirmed his race was still human. Perhaps the sudden Skill acquisition was because he had picked a Class. Either way, it was the least of his problems, and he didn’t linger on the thought.
The text prompt before him also informed him that he had two free points, but he decided to save them until he had tested out his new class a little. There was no urgency, yet, and since death meant respawning in the Obsidian Hall, he wasn’t too scared of it. More importantly, he didn’t know when he might get more points, and as such, didn’t want to recklessly spend what little he had.
Still, it wasn’t as if he had exactly solved his problem. He was still weak and didn’t have squishy monsters meandering about to grind easy levels off. If he was going to get through this, he was going to have to think.
Groaning and frustratedly running his hands through his hair as he came up with blanks, Aaron looked up. “Why haven’t I noticed that before?” There were stone plaques carved into the ceiling. It was obvious why he hadn’t noticed them, because he had never looked up.
“He who doesn’t listen, will not hear… he who doesn’t look, will not see. He who doesn’t walk, will not move. Right… bullshit pseudo-philosophy, I probably should have expected as much in a place like this.”
Disregarding the plaques with a shake of his head, he returned to his musings regarding which trial to attempt first. The Trial of Travels was clearly out of reach, at least for now. He couldn’t even get past the start. It wasn’t like he was getting any closer either; the spikes moved far too quickly for him. However, the trials did mention rewards, and after a little probing, the Assistant had revealed that Aaron could indeed grow stronger by completing trials. He just had to find one he was actually able to complete.
The Trial of Wit probably made the most sense, since it didn’t require superhuman strength or speed. Unfortunately, it did require superhuman memory. The first stage of the trial was one of the memory flip games, where you get a second to see the picture side of a card, and then once they’ve flipped over, you have to match pairs. Except to pass, you had to find a hundred pairs out of thousands of cards. Needless to say, Aaron didn’t even get close.
Nor were any of the other trials any easier. There was a Trial of Survival, which sent him to some kind of nightmare world where monsters chased after him. He didn’t even get a chance to see what was attacking him before he was dead. There was an endurance trial, during which he seemed to get poisoned with some kind of toxin. Aaron had no idea how he was supposed to handle that. He just died. There was a trial of magic, and Aaron didn’t know magic. A trial of dominance, which required killing monsters far stronger than himself, and finally, the Trial of the Challenger, which placed him up against one of the shadows in a one-on-one battle.
Somehow, despite having no weapons and only some kickboxing experience, Aaron was leaning toward the idea of fighting. The trials were all clearly designed to be difficult for people far stronger than he was, and the Trials of Survival, Endurance, Travels, Wit, and Magic were aimed at specific skills, or at least they appeared to be. Fighting, on the other hand, was more fluid.
This left him with two choices—either attempt the Trial of Dominance or the Trial of the Challenger. And since the Trial of Dominance seemed to require him to take on an entire village of monsters, he went with the shadow.
First up, he decided to go with Oozagh the Rotund. The ogre stood a good two feet taller than himself and was at least four times as wide. But more worryingly was the huge greataxe it held, which was about as large as he was.
There was only one way to find out just how dangerous the huge axe was, and Aaron had well and truly left behind his fear of death after his first few failures. Charging forward, he planned to start the fight with a flying knee, but was intercepted mid-air by the axe and split in two.
He tried four more times against the ogre before finally managing to land a punch. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear to do any damage. Not only that, but searing pain flooded his wrist, telling him something was likely broken. Not that he had long to feel the pain, as a quick counter followed, decapitating him in a single blow.
However, when Aaron respawned on the obsidian tiles that time, he did so with a giant grin. At least he had achieved something. The first real something he had achieved after dying twenty times, and enduring a shit-load of pain in the process.
But he also got an idea after landing a strike. His punch hadn’t done anything to the ogre, but what about an enemy more susceptible to damage?
Rushing back over the trial dial, Aaron scrolled through the shadows on offer until he reached a promising prospect. Ergil Von Moonwright Illustriarum.
The moment he selected the shadow, he appeared in the arena staring across at it. As he had hoped, a skinny man in a large robe wearing a wizard hat and holding a knotted staff stood before him.
“Perfect!”
Before Aaron had the chance to even move, a ball of fire expanded in the man’s hand and was promptly thrown at him. Shooting through the arena at blinding speed, the fireball engulfed Aaron, burning him down to a charcoal cinder.
Despite his complete failure, he was not deterred in the slightest. Immediately rushing back to the trial, he once again selected Ergil and was once again burnt to an ashy crust.
He tried again, this time jumping to the side as soon as the trial began. He was too slow, though, and was incinerated again. He tried another dozen times, ducking, jumping, diving, and doing anything he could to avoid the first attack.
He finally had his first breakthrough when he started his dive before even entering the trial. Accepting mid-dive carried his momentum into the trial, just barely letting him dodge. He landed on the ground, and the second fireball finished him off, but as he died, he was grinning. If he could dodge one, he could dodge the rest. He just needed to die a few dozen more times.
