Too Stubborn to Die

Antler roaches were the bugs Aaron had been bursting apart atop the mountain, and now he had a hundred of their eggs stored away in his pouch. They were apparently industrious little workers if tamed correctly from hatching. Of course, Aaron didn’t know how that was supposed to help him; he just hoped that his pouch’s ability to stop things from spoiling also extended to stopping the eggs from hatching. Not that he couldn’t take on a hundred of the little guys, but he certainly didn’t want to respawn to them pouring out of his pouch one of these days.

Maybe I can trade them once someone else arrives in here?

Since he was still broke, there was no point in checking out the system store upgrade. Instead, he moved straight onto his next trial. He only had a year in the Shadow Trials, and he had been here a while already. He had lost all track of time, thanks to the nature of dying and being brought back to life fully rejuvenated, combined with there being no clocks or anything else to keep time with. But he was fairly certain he needed to pick up the pace. He still hadn’t even caught up to the level of the top rankers last time he visited the viewing room, and was, quite frankly, scared to see how much progress they had made.

Thinking about that, he decided it was time for another Trial of Travels, mostly because he wanted to see what the viewing room would do once upgraded. It was a mixed bag of feelings. A slight anxiety made him not want to check in on the top Tutorial takers and just focus on his own gains, but ultimately, he knew that the information could prove valuable. Who knew what he was going to find when he got out of here?

There was also a glaring problem he faced. He couldn’t take the Trial of the Challenge until he was ready, and the next stage of the Trial of Dominance was supposed to be a serious upgrade on the challenge scale. It was no good wasting time stuck on the same trial for days on end, even though he had already done just that. The second stage had been hard enough as it was, and Aaron wanted to get a few more levels before attempting the third one. Besides, it wouldn’t push him to level 20, anyway. So even if he did manage to find a way to pass the trial, he would be in the same place, staring down stage four.

He still wanted to complete another Trial of Dominance before challenging Yendal again, but doing it at the tail end of his run toward level 20 seemed like a better idea. For one, it’d be easier with a few more levels, and two, for some reason, he figured it might affect the level-up more that way. After all, that way he would be fighting it out when he broke through the highest levels, and surely that counted for something?

The second stage of the Trial of Travels was an endurance-based traveling trial. He had to swim across a freaking ocean. The swimming part was actually pretty easy, and of course, Yendal glided across the water, easily outpacing his breaststroke.

Thanks to his Faux Core, as long as he didn’t push himself too hard, Aaron could essentially swim forever. But after a couple of dozen miles, the sea serpents came, and he was promptly devoured when their razor-sharp teeth stabbed into him from below.

This didn’t bother Aaron, however. He had already decided that swimming wasn’t how he wanted to complete the trial, anyway. His mastery of body control was already so high that walking on water didn’t sound completely impossible anymore. However, a few attempts later, he found himself rethinking that. The tabi shoes helped, but it was a struggle keeping up with their mana requirements. Sure, he could eat and cycle his mana, but unlike during the fight with bugs, he couldn’t just dodge and avoid to reduce mana expenditure.

He considered other tricks like jumping high into the air and hurriedly eating as he fell to recover mana, but ultimately, relying on a Skill provided by an item wasn’t how he wanted to pass a trial, either. It was fine as a backup, and perhaps a tool that would save his life in the future, but the trials were about testing himself and growing stronger. And using items wasn’t the way to do that.

There was an obvious solution he had been kicking about for a while. Form anchors on his feet. The problem was that more anchors weakened their overall potency, since the mana was spread more evenly throughout his body. And since his objective was to show off his power to the smug shadow, he was hesitant to make any decisions that might weaken his power.

Forming a mana anchor wasn’t a lifelong decision. They could be broken if the user decided they preferred to have one elsewhere, but they could take months to heal. In fact, Douglas had alluded to them taking years to heal for stronger people at high grades.

Either way, Aaron was fairly certain that if he added more anchors for his feet, he wouldn’t be able to remove them afterward and heal before the trials were over. And once the trials were over, he might not get a chance to ever meet the gods again, and he knew deep down that missing out on Yendal’s blessing would be a major blow.

So he did the only thing that made sense. He learned how to do a handstand. It wasn’t Aaron’s first time doing a handstand, and he did possess supreme control over his body at this point, but none of that stopped his first few attempts at running across an ocean on his hands from becoming hilarious failures.

But once he set his mind to something, he was determined to see it through. Besides, the way he saw it just opened a glaring hole in his technique. Sure, maybe he didn’t need to learn to fight whilst doing a handstand, but his training was about having total control, and running on his hands seemed like a perfectly good extension of that, Aaron thought.

The handstand part itself wasn’t that hard, but he was trying to run at full speed, or at least close to it. That took a little practice.

But thanks to the mastery he already possessed over his body, it wasn’t long before he mastered his goal.

There was only so much an F-grade mortal could do, and it fell short of walking on water. But that all changed with the help of mana anchors. Using mana anchors, he could create magical barriers on his hands and use them to stay afloat, and with them, he glided across the water like some kind of freakish, superhuman circus entertainer.

The sea monsters still attempted to attack him, and Aaron would have enjoyed having a crack at fighting them if they weren’t in the middle of the ocean, which wasn’t really his first choice of battlegrounds. And Aaron had enough on his plate as it was. As helpful as learning to fight in the ocean might be, it was something for another time.

Thankfully, the huge sea monsters gave themselves away with giant approaching shadows, which were rather easy to see when he wasn’t in the water.

Bursting some mana out from his palms, he just shot up into the air whenever one attacked him, and then landed back on the water and kept going.

This did end up in him sinking a couple of times, and becoming sea serpent chow, but it also helped him gain a little more control over his mana. It also helped him gain a little more control over circulating his stamina, since he was relying on it to power his body and aid him with his handstands.

In total, it only took four attempts for him to beat the trial with Faux Core constantly humming away. His body was making use of every point of MP and SP, and he was able to achieve a considerable degree of mana and stamina regeneration, equaling near-perfect efficiency. Thanks to this, Aaron was more than capable of reaching the other side of the ocean in one piece.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Chain Quest: The Shadow Trials

Stage two of [ Trial of Travels ] COMPLETED!

You have tested yourself against the vast oceans and the monsters that hide within and survived.

Quest Rewards: Ring of Acrobatics [ Rare ], Viewing Room upgraded.

Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

Ding!

[ Brawler ] has LEVELED UP!

16 → 17

“Finally, another level!” Aaron cheered as the sunny, ocean scene melted away and he returned to the obsidian hallway. “And a ring? Well, that sounds interesting,” he added as he inspected the ring.

Ring of Acrobatics [ Rare — F grade ]

This ring aids those who need a little more grace and dexterity.

Provides: +15 Agility, +15 Dexterity.

“Not bad,” he muttered as he slid the silver ring on and opened his status page to confirm that it did indeed work. “I’m always here for more Stat points.”

[ Name: Aaron Dober ]

[ Age: 23 ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Grade: F ]

[ HP: 3600 ]

[ MP: 3200 ]

[ SP: 3300 ]

[ Class: Brawler, lvl 17 ]

[ Profession: Ogre Taste Tester, lvl 12 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: 42 (+8) ]

[ Vitality: 57 (+9) ]

[ Fortitude: 59 (+17) ]

[ Dexterity: 69 (+29) ]

[ Agility: 87 (+30) ]

[ Intelligence: 5 (+5) ]

[ Willpower: 38 (+12) ]

[ Charisma: 5 (+5) ]

[ Perception: 16 (+6) ]

[ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer, Stamina Control Prodigy, Mana Control Prodigy ]

[ Traits: Fate Bender (Alpha), Minor Blessing of Oozagh the Rotund ]

[ Racial Skills: Inspect ]

[ Profession Passive Skills (2/3): Questionable Recipes, Conductive Gut ]

[ Profession Active Skills (1/6): Concoct Toxic Gloop ]

[ Class Passive Skills (1/3): Faux Core ]

[ Class Active Skills (3/6): Thick Skinned, Relentless Scourge, Gorgon’s Time Dilation ]

“Not bad. I’m getting pretty strong, aren’t I?”

He was dying to check out the viewing room and figure out what secrets it held, but he was also on a roll, and so he figured he’d smash out another trial first. Time was of the essence, after all.

With three levels remaining, and planning to save the third stage of the Trial of Dominance until he hit level 19, and to use it to push him over the cusp to 20, he needed another trial or two.

Aaron decided that it was time for another Trial of Endurance. It would be his first third-stage trial, and then he could grind out some food in the kitchen with the newly unlocked ingredients, assuming he was able to pass it. Maybe he could even have a bit of a movie night in the viewing room with what he cooked. He had earned a little relaxation after all the hell he’d been through. Then again, seeing people like the necromancer again was hardly relaxing.

Being a third-stage trial made it a little intimidating, but having more ingredients to grind out a few more Profession levels before meeting Yendal in combat again could prove the difference between impressing her and not.

Oh, don’t be a wimp. You got this.

Stretching out his arms, he entered the trial. The next Trial of Endurance was in the bowels of a volcano. All around him, lava was drooling across the rocky ground, and there was no escape from the imprisoning stone walls all around.

Aaron had selected Oozagh for a change, and he looked up at the ogre and winked. He already knew how he would handle this trial. Or at least he thought he did.

He began to slam his fists into the ground, blowing the lava away with shockwaves anytime it got close. The volcano shook violently against the power of his strikes, but it held together. Not that it was surprising. He had expected as much. If a contestant could just destroy the walls and escape the volcano, that would make the trial trivial for many, and so, as he expected, the volcano itself had been fortified to resist attacks.

Well, that was fine with Aaron, and so he continued his barrage, resting between attacks and relying on his Faux Core and his ample supply of food to help regenerate his mana before the lava could reach his feet.

However, it took a supreme degree of precision to time his strikes just right to efficiently keep the lava at bay. Strike too fast, and his mana would dry up. Not only that, but the vibrations caused by the shockwaves could make the lava bubble and splash all over the place. Ideally, he would knock the oozing magma back just enough to keep it from reaching him, and when the viscous stuff began to roll back in his direction, he’d strike again.

There was an art to it, though. And Aaron drained his mana a couple of times, and was punished by being burned to death. But he picked it up rather quickly, and although the size of his mana pool was small—thanks to being underleveled—he likely had considerably more endurance than even most elites that made their way here. After all, he had multiple Skills via [ Faux Core ] and [ Conductive Gut ] helping him, and perhaps more importantly, his mana anchors. Most likely, they wouldn’t have figured mana anchors or stamina veins out by now, and that would put the efficiency of their MP and SP usage at a sizable disadvantage to Aaron.

When he picked Conductive Gut, Aaron did so more because it sounded like the least bad option, rather than because he thought it sounded particularly good. But his opinion of the Skill had quickly changed. Combined with having an ogre gut thanks to Oozagh’s blessing, the Skill was really quite amazing. Thanks to the blessing, he could essentially throw food straight down his throat and consume it instantly, with no apparent limit to how much he could eat. On its own, the mana regeneration from the Skill was rather minor, and for most, would be pretty useless. This was an important insight, Aaron realized. He had turned two things that could be relatively weak on their own into a superior ability, and he would have to keep an eye out in the future if he got another blessing from Yendal, in case he could do something similar with a different Skill.

Chain Quest: The Trial of Endurance

Stage three of [ Trial of Endurance ] COMPLETED!

You have tested yourself against the raging inferno of a volcano fortified by magic and survived.

Quest Rewards: Pot of Flaming Breath [ Rare ], Crafting Station upgraded.

Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

Ding!

[ Brawler ] has LEVELED UP!

17 → 18

“Ding, ding, ding!” Aaron celebrated by throwing superpowered fists into the air. He had, of course, hoped that he would still gain a level from a third-stage trial, but couldn’t be entirely sure, after what he had been through, especially since it hadn’t been that hard.

Aaron already knew what he wanted to do now that he was back in the obsidian hallway, but a little gloating at Douglas first wouldn’t harm.

“Third stage, huh? Not bad,” Douglas shrugged.

“What do you mean, not bad? I thought you said this was where it got difficult?”

“Stage three or four. Besides, it isn’t uncommon to complete the occasional trial with more ease than usually expected. Most people who arrive here have specific skills tailored to specific trials. What’s impressive is a consistent ability to pass third-stage and above trials.”

“I feel like you’re moving the goalposts here,” Aaron groaned. “But whatever, by the time I leave this place, I’m sure I can get you to acknowledge me with more than a backhanded compliment.”

“You can try.”

Whatever, Aaron thought. If Douglas was going to discount him, then it was just one more person to prove wrong. Which simply meant more reason to succeed in his eyes.

Just two more levels and I can show that god what I’m capable of! Let’s see what mental gymnastics Douglas comes up with to avoid acknowledging my awesomeness after that.