It didn’t take long for the group of humans to start talking with each other, sharing their experiences during the first phase. Of course, after the embarrassing first impression he gave, the druid was outside of the circle that his fellow humans formed. Though, there was another one that didn’t seem to partake.
A hooded figure leaned on the white walls of their enclosure, opposite of him. Their entire body was covered in a tattered gray cloak, leaving only a small part of their face and boots peeking through it. They seemed both intimidating and relaxed at the same time.
The druid stopped looking their way when he noticed them turning their body towards him. Not wanting any trouble, he turned away and tried to focus on the conversation that the circle of humans were having.
He couldn’t hear anything, so he inched closer. This made him look even more like a creep. Some of them noticed, but with a bit of hesitation, they moved aside to let him join the circle.
“You haven’t missed much, we just decided to introduce ourselves, say which class we have, and what Level we’re currently at. None of us know what our next trial is, but seeing that they’ve all gathered us together, it must be some sort of group activity,” a tall man, even taller than the druid, said.
He wore studded leather armor that had pieces a few sizes too small for him and he leaned against a warhammer that was nearly his height.
“I’ll start. My name’s Roald. Class, Fighter - Berserker, Level 7,” the tall man said. “Let’s take turns clockwise.”
In a matter of seconds he managed to establish himself as an authoritative figure. The druid didn’t mind as he freaked out that the man was able to give a name, suggesting that he didn’t lose his memories. Am I the only one here that doesn’t remember? He thought.
The circle of less than 20 people continued and introduced themselves. The druid didn’t listen for most of it though as he thought of excuses as to why he can't give his name. But if he refused, the others could take it as a hostile gesture.
The turn to speak was fast approaching. It was the short, lively looking girl’s turn. The druid decided to listen and pay attention, because he drastically needed any kind of information regarding his situation. By the looks of the other people around him, it seemed like they had some sort of clue as to why they were there in the first place.
“Hello, my name’s Betty. I’m a Druid - Chloromancer. I’m currently Level 5 and most of my skills involve healing and buffing. Nice to meet you all,” she said with a smile.
The unpleasantly handsome man next to the naked druid had an ugly smirk on his face while Betty introduced herself. He didn’t pay any attention to it for now as he currently had bigger problems. There has yet to be a person who had a lower or even the same Level as him.
After a few more introductions, it was finally the half-naked druid’s turn. The entire group stared at him, waiting for him to say something. He let out a sigh, when he couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Um, I’m also a druid. A Druid - Metamorph. And, uh, I’m Level 3,” before he could explain his situation with the name and memories, someone cut him off.
Betty ran up to him and grabbed his hands.
“Oh! A fellow Druid! That’s why I thought you gave off this animalistic and natural feel! This outfit must be a part of your training, right? We should talk more about this later when–”
Betty puked, spilling undigested pieces of mushrooms and various other vegetables on him. Because of the tightened grip on his hands, he couldn’t get away. The only thing he could do was look up at the blank white ceiling.
He could hear annoyed grunts and sighs all around him. Even the hooded figure outside of the circle gave out a humored snort. Worst of it all the unpleasantly good-looking man next to him let out a hearty and equally unpleasant laugh.
A robed woman with a staff that had a large jewel on top of it stepped in front of him. He looked at her, she had an annoyed face that said that they were wasting time.
“Let me handle this so we can continue,” she said.
She pointed her staff at the lower half of his body and closed her eyes. Clear water formed at the end of it, gathered from the moisture in the air. After gathering a sizable amount, she lightly blasted him with it. Still, it was forceful enough to blast the particles away, he even feared that his leather diaper would come off. The spell made him think of a pressure washer.
It left red marks on his exposed skin. The skill blasted away the gunk, but he was left with a wet diaper.
“Alright, let’s move on. Finish your introduction so that we can continue,” Roald said.
“Ahem, so, I have this problem,” the druid said sheepishly.
“Spit it out already,” someone from the circle said.
“My name is currently blank on my status screen and my memory may have been wiped or I could be another soul inhabiting this body,” he said.
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Murmurs erupted from the group. Roald crossed his arms and furrowed his brows. The druid noticed that the handsome man next to him grinned.
“You don’t even remember the interview before you were sent to the tutorial island? I can’t recall if they mentioned anything about other people with a similar situation as yours,” Roald said somewhat sympathetically.
“Damn, not even your interview, huh? The entity said that if a person doesn’t have a name they’ll be named by whatever they first get called by,” the handsome man said.
“Is that so?” The druid asked nervously. He didn’t like the way this person acted.
“Hmm, since you were holding that piece of steak so close to your chest when you first got here, it must be something dear to you. How about we name you ‘Steak’?” The handsome man cackled alone at his unfunny joke.
The message flashed in front of Steak.
“What the fuck did you do, dick!” Steak shouted.
Steak’s eyes widened at the second message. He looked up to see the handsome man’s face contort. Several veins and wrinkles popped up from his face, furious. Now, the face seemed to match his personality.
It was Dick who drew his sword first. Steak kept his hands in front of his face, ready to morph them into whatever he needed.
“Why’d you have to go and ruin my plans? I already had a name in mind, just needed to have someone else say it,” Dick hissed.
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. How did it even register those as names?” Steak asked. He wasn’t entirely sure if he should be mad, he was just confused.
“Weren’t you briefed while you chose your starting Class? Those who were previously in debt in any form had to have something taken from them. And it looks like you had a lot of debt, with you losing your memories as well,” Dick smirked. “Someone, give me a name! There might be a chance to change it!” He pleaded to the others.
“Hey, me too!” Steak shouted.
Roald sighed and stepped closer to them. “Alright, you’re Richard,” he pointed at Dick. “And, you’re Smith,” he pointed at Steak.
Everyone in the white room waited for a while, anticipating for anything to happen. It remained quiet until Dick charged towards Steak.
“This was supposed to be my second chance!” Dick yelled, raising his one-handed sword.
Steak took a low stance, his claws at the ready. He waited for an opening to strike.
“Enough of this!” Roald’s voice boomed, momentarily stopping the momentum of the two. His already dominant voice seemed even more imposing. He used a skill. “The trials are not over, the next challenge might come at any time. We need to stop with this petty fight and start planning.”
As soon as Roald stopped talking, several blue squares flashed from the floor on the other side of the room. It was large enough to fit a couple of people in it.
The white room erupted in chatter. Most of the weaker people gathered around the ones that seemed strong during introductions. Steak wasn’t surprised to see no one approaching him, not even the other druid in the group.
Of course, after a display like that, several people surrounded Roald. He paid them no mind, carefully surveying the ones that weren’t desperate to have him on their team. His eyes landed on the hooded figure leaning against the wall, assessing their strength. But it was too much of a gamble to reach out to them. He considered the act of refusing to interact with their fellow survivors as a sign of mental instability.
Roald eventually made up his mind and approached the ones he wanted to recruit in his team. Seeing that he already chose people, the ones pestering him moved aside and chose another target, not wanting to annoy the big man any further. Roald tapped the shoulders of his candidates with his heavy hand. A healer, a spellcaster, a fighter equipped with a shield, and the lady that could conjure water. With him as the main source of damage, it was a balanced team.
Steak wasn’t chosen by Roald. In fact, nobody approached him. He attempted to talk to a few of the other people, but most of them refused with a pitiful smile on their face.
Glancing at Dick, he was surprised to see that he was a part of the second group that formed. They stood at the second highlighted area next to Roald’s team. Dick caught Steak looking his way, so he flashed him an annoying grin, boasting the group he had.
Upon closer look at Dick’s group, Steak noticed that the other four members were all women, even the other druid that puked on him earlier was there. This explained Dick’s somewhat evil smile.
“He’s really living up to his name,” Steak said under his breath, while giving Dick the side-eye.
While Steak entertained Dick’s pettiness, the rest of the people in the white room had found groups of their own. They only had to walk to their highlighted areas to finalize it.
Accepting that no one would willingly take him in, Steak started walking towards the last highlighted square. Though, he was surprised to see someone already on it. It was the person covered in a big cloak, their face still shrouded by the hood. Steak didn’t bother asking for permission to join them as he was already disheartened by the lack of people that approached him. He just stood on the other side of the blue square with his head down.
It’s not like he had much of a choice for teammates anyway, he just had to work with what he got dealt with. Since the beginning of his existence it has been this way, and he figured it would remain the same in the future.
It didn’t take long for the rest of the remaining squares to fill up. However, Steak and the hooded figure were the only ones in the last square. There were two others that refused to join them.
“Oh, no,” a timid looking girl sighed at the sight of both of them.
“Hey, come on, does anyone want to trade?” A man wearing heavy armor pleaded.
The people on the other squares averted their eyes. Silence fell on the white room for a second time.
“Damn it!” The man shouted, making the girl next to him flinch.
Reluctantly, both of them walked towards the last square.
“Can’t believe I got stuck with Mr. Antisocial and stinky,” the angry man said.
“Hello to you too,” Steak greeted sarcastically.
“Um, guys? There’s only four of us here. Don’t we need five people?” The girl asked.
“The rest of our batch that aren’t here are probably dead. There are 34 people here in total. And, two of the squares are grayed out,” the hooded figure quickly explained to the girl while pointing a finger at the boxes.
Steak couldn’t tell if they were a man or a woman by the voice. But they were nearly his height.
“That’s awful,” the girl said.
“Don’t feel sad for them. It just means that they were weaker than this naked dude,” the angry man nodded towards Steak. “If one of them were to join our team, they’d just be a liability. It was a good thing for us that they didn’t survive,” he snorted.
The other three didn't respond to him. The hooded figure made a snorting sound, but they weren't necessarily laughing at the unfortunate ones that didn't survive.
<2nd Boosting Trial Starts Now>