Chapter 28. Advice

"I won't," The sadness could be easily identified on the face of Luke and Lucy while Arthur appeared to have already predicted such an outcome. But I was not finished yet.

"But I can give you advice on things you don't understand." The atmosphere instantly brightened as you could see a smile on the twins' faces and shock on Arthur's.

"I will leave once you all are in reliable hands, till then I'll help as much as possible. But it will be hard you won't have a single day to rest. Understood?"

"Yes Sir." The response was energetic but my next line did make catch them off guard.

"Then come here and sit where I am, we begin now."

"...." Silence was the reply I got.

"Close your eyes and try to focus on your breathing. There is mana in the air, just like oxygen it enters your body as you breathe. It will circulate in a particular pattern, tracing and remembering that is the next step."

"Is there really something like that in the air? I don't feel it anything." Lucy said, focusing really hard on the task.

"Yes, there is. I can see mana, you just have to relax and not think of anything. That was how I first saw." Luke said, trying to help his sister.

"There is another way," I said. "That was how I did it. Get the skill Meditate, then level it up to twenty-five, and then when you rank up there is a high chance that the skill ranks up too."

"Rank up? What is that?" Arthur was the one to ask.

"Like in games, once you get at a certain level you can rank up. The first one is fifteen and the next one should probably be fifty. You start to get class skills on sixteen."

"Skills, like throwing a fireball or flash step?" Arthur was probably into games, he looked like a little kid that just got his favorite toy. But the reality was never how you wanted it to be.

"You could if you get the skill, just like how did in a game. But Arthur, this is not a game. Never treat this as a game, because in games you can respawn. Here, once you die you are gone forever."

"That goblin this morning would have at least killed three warriors and who knows how many civilians before it died if I was not there. The blood would probably attract more monsters and by now none of you would have survived."

"All dead, Like the camp we found today." There was gravity to my voice and everyone fell silent.

"Anyway, don't rank up unless almost every one of your skills is at level twenty-five. And that goes for class skills as well as general skills. This is it, for now, I will see you all tomorrow if you decide to come once again."

"Yes sir. Thank you." All three said as it was pre-determined. The twins left and only Arthur stayed behind.

"Thank you for agreeing to teach us. No one usually ever accepts if you ask them. I tried for a year and still, no one decided to agree to it. Thank you for giving me an opportunity." He said and turned around ready to leave.

"Arthur," I called out. "Can you tell about what happened in the trial?"

"I'd be happy to help in any way I can."

"We first started in a jungle. There were ten of us, probably from the same area as some people knew each other. At first, there was panic and that increased when everyone was made to choose a weapon.

'The System' was what we called it then because of the games and all. It then gave us the quest to survive and try to reach the first floor.

No one knew how to do that but now having a goal everyone was a little calm. We found a river and we decided to make that area our base. Everything was going good but that all changed soon.

Someone died." He said with a heavier tone, probably remembering the unforgettable scene. I waited for him to continue, not wanting a spoil his chain of thoughts.

"Wolfs attacked us. At first, we only heard howls but slowly they came out of the forest. We tried to fight and even killed some, but they took down one of us and ran away after we outnumbered them."

"That was when we realized the gravity of the situation. The possibility of death was high, and the one to die could be any one of us. From then on everyone started to move together.

We followed the river and found a barrier blocking our way. When we touched it, a prompt saying that we had to be level 15 showed up. But that was practically impossible, we were level 3 or 4 at that time and the leveling up by killing was slow.

So we followed the river once again but the opposite way. That was when we first time met the goblins. They too were F-grades but some of us got scared by just looking at their claws.

They were not as we imagined, and not wanting to fight we ran. They chased us but we reached a log house before they could catch up and barged in without even looking what or who was inside.

There were other people inside, all surrounding an old man. Everyone turned towards us when we entered. Some of the people in our group found their family or friends in the crowd.

From there we mixed in with people and learned about the 'Records' and the 'Merge' that our planet was going through."

"The Merge? What is that?" I asked him finally hearing something new.

"You do not know about the merge? I thought the guide explained that. Anyway, while we were in the tower, Earth was undergoing something big. According to the guide, it was merged with other planets."

'Merged? Interesting. There is now a possibility of other intelligent races being found living among us. Are they friendly or not will be the main question.' I thought as Arthur kept speaking.

"The Record, no one knows where it came from but it is slowly spreading to the corners of this Realm. We are currently towards the outskirts while the guide is from an area that is closer to the center. Where the Records is believed to have started from. That is what the guide said."

"I see. What happened after that?"

"We waited for a lot of people to gather, nearly a hundred thousand or probably even more. After the certain number was reached, everyone had to make a choice."

"The Path," I said

"Yes, probably the most important choice we had to make in the tower. I selected the path of peace, the death, and monsters still taking a toll on my mind." Arthur looked towards waiting for a reaction.

"And then?" I simply asked. A path is not something that is pre-determined, every road has its branches and each starting point is capable of bringing you to your desired end. You just have to be brave enough to take that.

He looked confused but still continued on. "Seeing that there would be no actual death made people more comfortable in selecting one instead of just opting to not continue at all."

'That was an option?' The old man really did leave out many of the details, not that I would have but still.

"This was where the hierarchy began."

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