"And that’s how 50,000,000 something years the battle for supremacy began or that's how our text of the past tells us boy, although not much is remembered of that bygone era"
Vesper Tuned out the old mans rumbling about the history of their world or multiverse whatever that was.
Looking up at the starry night sky he thought 'would i ever be able to..."sigh"
What was he thinking?
To unlock the system you first needed to be the age of 16 and once you became 16 you would wait for the winter solstice = when the system would whisk you away to put you through a trial, a terrifying challenge where you would fight a corrupted beast that the System calculates is appropriate for you, then you are thrust into a random scenario of the past on where you have to survive while the beast is constantly chasing you with only the equipment your person once the trial starts, as to why its does that no one really knows and not really worth thinking about it.
Because low and behold Vesper was an orphaned slum rat, his father was gone when he was just 6 years a old and his mother..."lets not think about her" how would he survive that kind of nightmare? What could he do? The solstice was in just 10 hours away, he had some hope but nothing to say he would survive that trial. That was why he was here asking the old coot some question before his fucking demise came.
"HEY!! OLD MAN"
"WHAT?? YOU SCRUNNY RAT"
"Enough of history can you tell me some tips so that i can sure fucking survive the trial in a week?" Vesper said while tangling the pouch with some coins to the old man.
"YOU-sigh alright" the old man said after seeing the pouch
"So, what do you want to know boy?"
"As i said before tell me about the trial, how is it going to be? how am I going to survive while being Sealed?" sealed was a term used to describe the stages of supremacy that the system used that being mortal to describe the lowest level of cultivation where everyone was born with.
" WHAT SEALED? boy how the hell are you still Mortal at the age of 15, even the most untalented 12 year old's achieve middle F grade before the start of the trial" the old man stared at Vesper with astonishment
Vesper gritted his teeth, did this old coot didn't think he knew that? he wouldn't be asking him of all people for ways to survive the trial if he was high F grade or even better E grade, he wouldn't have to worry for his life so much. But growing up he noticed that whatever he tried to do to raise his cultivation, the ambient qi wouldn't circulate through his body and not even the quack doctor next door knew what the hell was wrong with him.
"Just tell anything old man i don't have time left or you don't want this money?" Vesper said sarcastically.
"Sigh- ok you brat, first thing first from what the Beggers sect branch says, the Heavens will choose a scenario and a beast depending on your personality, talent and cultivation level, but first you need to go to the solstice square as that’s one of many spots where you can get some information on what you can get after passing the trial and where high ranked individuals will watch over your body".
“What do you mean watch over my body?” Vesper had known that the trial like an outer body experience, but he didn’t know it was actually true.
“Hm how can i explain this the solstice square has an underground section where the pull of qi and the heavens is greeter for some inexplicable reason, you will be escorted there by high ranked warriors of the imperial army and be given a spot where you can nod of as the system take you away, for us poor folk we go to the inner city square while the rich folk get to be supervised in a more well connected spot that qi is more ambient than even the solstice square is that clear and i assume you at least have a ticket to enter the inner gates?”
Vesper nodded and indicated to continue
" Okey so about my trial, when I was your age I had a trial that was to survive in an ancient forest that existed long ago on our planet presumably but I am still not sure as the stars were different form the night sky of today, The beast that was chasing me was an fallen beast that’s F grade if you don’t know, it was a fucking snake of utter size, I had seen many things since then but that thing was not natural even today i get nightmare from it corrupted creatures are more different than you run of the mill beasts here in our uncorrupted sector, i still get night terror from it and I barely survived even with the dagger and Armor my father gifted me, though the heavens are fair and you are usually given a scenario right around you level to survive a set of days or whatever the system deems worthy of a challenge depending on you cultivations if your cultivation and soil quality " the old man said
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Vesper sat there in confusion for a second before asking
“Soul quality? What that?”
The old man sighed before speaking
“You know about cultivation levels but how don’t you know about soul quality? Do you know what shards are?
“Uh, there 6 tiers of shards with 3 categories?”
“no” the old man said totally confused.
“There are 9 Tiers of shards with 4 categories where the hell have you been living to not know this very much basic information? Living under a rock? Even then you could have gotten this information for a small cost or even free from anyone that works at the Beggers sect information market.”
Vesper stared at the old man with a glum stare before he sighed and stared down at the table and mumbled
"ca..Casandra"
"Ah...oh, no need to explain then" while he shuffled uncomfortably.
Casandra was an information clerk that was notorious for being a piece of shit to people that she didn’t fancy of just for the heck of it, she had great pull as a soulless cultivator with the talent of becoming a hegemon or a half step one in her branch that ruled over slums that almost any other information broker wouldn't even let him in the sect branch for the past 2 years.
"Anyway when i was first taking the trial i was an late F grade brat so the system gave me a quest to fight and slay the corrupted undead serpent or evade it and find an escape exit" he coughed half embarrassed for some reason.
"After i almost died fighting that abomination with only succeeding in blinding it I hid from it for weeks, delirious and just surviving from the environment until I luckily I found a bottomless hole which was actually the exit"
Vesper heard this and was happy to hear the system would at least play fair and make him fight something as trashy as him, his hope had been rekindled but it wasn't enough he needed more information that just these snippets.
“What else?”
“Well I am happy you asked, as you seem to know jack shit let me tell you that once the trial is over you will be rated by the system and depending on your performance it will evaluate your soul quality and reveal your alignment, there are 5 soul quality ratings that being mortal, cultivator, saint, alpha and divine, as for you alignment it usually something with the elements of nature or and abstract concept but those a rare and nothing much is known about them.”
“I achieved the soul rank of cultivator with an alignment to nature manipulation...”
the old coot saw Vespers eyes full of disappointment at him and so he cracked.
"You... YOU!!! DO YOU THINK THAT SOMETHING TO LOOK DISSAPOINTED AT? "
*SIGH* he calmed him self down "that's all i have to say to the likes of you but one final tip and a gift because at least you have had the decency to pay me". "Fight and survive with your horrendous talent it would be a miracle because sorry to rain in on your parade there are no corrupted beings of the Sealed grade and if you get the chance to get into the Military academy do so for your own good, because those who pass the trial with good qualities get a chance to go there so don’t waste it like me who was to arrogant. Those who get acknowledged are usually those who start making something with their fate and realize their destiny.
“why would i go to place full of snobs?” vesper said with apprehension even if he survived the was no way in hell he would get a soul quality with his horrendous talent by the system or whatever it was that scored his grade.
The old man just snorted with a look of pity as he threw a dagger at him that barley missed him while hitting the wooden beam behind him
"WHAT THE HELL OLD MAN" Vesper shouted in blatant anger.
"hmph, take that dagger it might help you, it sure helped me back then. NOW GO YOU UNGRATEFUL RAT!!" the old bastard said after releasing his killing intent and aura.
Vesper quickly stood up, pulled the dagger from the beam with all the strength he could muster and run for the hills or in his case to the solstice hall where the trial takers would be whisked aways by the Wrathful heavens.
...
The old man watched the scrawny little rat go as he slammed the doo behind him and shook his head, there was no chance of surviving with that shitty constitution of his and that foul personality to boot but he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pathetic shit so he generously gave him one of his old daggers that he used when running with a gang for a while, he didn't know why he did it. It was just those eyes of his, it reminded him of himself when he was trying to seize his destiny with eyes burning with the will to keep on moving forward no matter the cost it was that kind of determination back then that allowed him to reach his current grade of E grade or soulless rank cultivator as the system called it.
But because of his mistake all those years ago his foundation was lacking and unsteady, his pathways riddled with impurities and his soul core unfiled from decades of inactivity, if only wasn’t that arrogant when he was young he could have went into the academy and become something greater than an low rank adventurer and later a shitty gang member.
" Well not my problem any longer if he survives he survives though the last titbit was mostly what he heard from others still it wouldn't hurt to give him some motivation now lets see how much the brat gave me" open the pouch the old man paused.
"... this... THIS!!!!" spreading the bags content on the table there was only one bronze coin and a bunch of metal scraps but how? He saw the contents before and he was sure he saw 5 bronzes in there scanning the pouch he saw that the was a neatly cut hole tha someone could pull coins out discreetly the boy had played him like a fiddle/
"Mother F-"
Did he just fall for the oldest trick in the book?
The old man run out his shack to catch the little shit but he was long gone.