Chapter 9 - Phase - 2 Begins !
Max woke up to a warm bath like feeling. Like the one you get at hotsprings in deep winters. Or more commonly, In your bathroom after pouring a hot mug over your head after a long day. But strangely, he wasn’t wet at all. Which was odd considering he was supposed to be bleeding out in a wet ditch.
…..draw the World! A booming voice resounded in his ears as he opened up his eyes and started to move. The pain in his muscles was slowly receding. He was covered with a warm golden light that was also fading now that he was almost recovered. The first thing that he noticed on looking around was that bloody timer that now read 00:02:43. At first he cursed thinking back to his quest when he noticed where he was. The forest, the lake, the rebels all of it was gone replaced by the volcanic scenery of the System’s Starting Room. As he got his bearings he caught the cloud demon dissolving back into the sky.
There was a sword and a bow in front of him positioned just like the musket before phase one. He quickly opened up his Status to see a plethora of notifications. In the interest of time he quickly just scanned over looking for something like a clear message and soon enough he found it.
Congratulations on clearing the First Phase!
Ignoring the how and why he tried to go logically like the MCs he read about should. Firstly, He had survived and somehow cleared the Phase due to some weird notifications he was seeing. But he filed the checking of the rest for later. Obviously he had missed the part where the demonic system was supposed to talk to him about results and other things and the second phase was going to begin. His first priority instantly became to examine and equip these new weapons to prepare for the next shitstorm he was gonna land in.
The weapons in front of him looked like the props of a medieval themed hollywood movie. One was a black pommeled sword in a brown scabbard that looked like leather while the other was a wooden bow of some kind. But strangely he could feel that these weapons weren’t simple steel. As he gripped them he felt a slight energy flow. Were these some kind of enchanted weapons?
But despite what you might think, instead of being happy, curious or excited, he was afraid. The elation of discovery had lasted for just a moment when a thought crossed his mind. What was he going to face in there if even this heartless demon of a system deemed it necessary to provide him with these kind of weapons.
His heart was beating faster as the timer reached its end. He tried to calm himself by taking a few deep breaths but before he could really settle a familiar white light flashed.
He had braced for a battlefield but he found himself staring at a rocky wall. The first thing he noticed was the cool breeze that struck his whole body. The second was the crushing weight he was carrying on his back. “Is something wrong brother?” A gruff voice asked him from his right. The nerves startled him and his he gave a little shriek. 3 days of dancing with death had drastically improved his bearing but he was still an inexperienced wreck. The strange language he could somehow understand didn't help at all.
It took him a moment to register that the almost naked man holding a spear was not moving in for the kill, and another to realize that he was drawing attention and the warriors around him were giving him funny looks. “Well, if you’re done staring then move on!” The man huffed out with an irritated look. Max looked around to see that they were all moving forward on the narrow path. Not wanting to cause a hassle with the scary-looking soldier he started moving.
He slowly glanced around trying to get a read on the situation. It seemed he wasn’t in immediate danger but walking towards it. He had replaced another soldier, but this time the weapons he had were the sword and the bow. He was part of an army of spartan-like warriors. They had their loins covered but nothing else. The only pieces of clothing they had on seemed to be the red cloaks they were wearing. They carried spears in one hand and a circular shield on their backs. While not all of them weren’t as stacked as the movies they all seemed to be in extremely good condition. The army was marching through some valley in order to face ‘the damned shorties’
Max was sure that whoever they were facing must have some other name but asking what it was seemed like a bad idea. He was surrounded by soldiers halfway through a march! How would they react if a fellow soldier randomly asked them what are they going to fight? He half expected them to be dwarves with the nickname ‘Shorties’. Was this the generic fantasy world this time with elves and all?
He decided to listen in for the time being to gather intel. But the conversations were short and grim. Probably due to the impending battle.Which was fine with him for now as he had another important thing to do. Yes, he wanted to check out his stats!
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STATUS
Name : Maximus Callahan
Race : Human(X)
Class : None
Origin : The Progenitor(Unascended)
Rank : Seedling(None)
Grade : Seedling(None)
Titles : - Defiant
Chaos Seed : —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nodes : 8,534,432,532(Effective - 10,000,000,000)
Level : 2(Effective 1)
EXP : 0/20,000,000,000
HP : 20/20
MP : 05/05
STR : 8
INT : 9
VIT : 6
Def : 7
Note - Stats suppressed due to ongoing special Origin Trial Limitations.
Skills : None
The first thing he noticed was that his level was bumped up to 2. He could not for the life of him imagine what the hell managed to give him almost 10,000,000,000 points of experience. The second thing he noticed was that his oh-so-mighty origin had struck again and his stats had been suppressed. This led him to go through the notifications that had piled up.
Progenitor is drawing from the title MageSlayer of the Inkaros Rebels(Temporary leadership). Conditions Fulfilled. Morphing Complete.
You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP
You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP
You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP
.
.
.
You have been offered the kill of a seedling enemy soldier. + 2 XP
There were hundreds of these notifications. He had no idea how he had been ‘offered’ these kills but from the notifications, it looked like it was somehow related to his chosen Origin and Title. It appears that even though the XP was quite small they were still somehow counted as his kills. He wanted to see if he could experiment somehow but the temporary title had vanished with the phase.
Congratulations on clearing the First Phase!
Your trial progress has been updated. Please choose a reward!
Reward? Did he miss a reward?
Time out. No choice made. Assigning default reward of 1 level up. Required experience points allotted.
Damn, looks like he missed the choice. But he was still satisfied. Although he had missed making a choice but he was pretty sure that the ridiculous requirement of XP his Origin needed was worth it. Seeing a 0 on the experience counter did seem a tad bit sad and daunting but it was no use to cry over spilt milk.
ALERT! Aid disabled, Unable to consolidate level. Level Suppressed. Stats not allotted
The damn system, so it won’t even allow him to benefit from his hard-won level up! He cursed for a bit as he was honestly looking forward to some kind of superhuman powerups. Maybe some kind of skill or equipment would have been better. After all, a dead man won’t have much use for levels.
But still, he filed away the fact that the system had refused aid. But could he do this consolidation on his own and breakthrough? Will that be possible? Will he get those points then?
Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements to a rare title.
Defiant - Death breaks many fools, but rare is a man that knows its horror yet still laughs in its face. You upheld your role to the bitter end and proved yourself worthy of the title that was bestowed upon you. The title is gone but your record is not!
(Given to seedlings who face certain death and survive.)
He was not sure about what this was supposed to be as its description was very cool but didn’t offer much more than that. He just sighed deeply and proceeded forward.
Examine your weapons and prepare for the second phase of the combat trial!
Well that about summed it up. Now moving on he checked out what he was supposed to do here among his new ‘brothers’.
MISSIONS
BABY protocol
Trial 1/3: Combat
Phase 2/7
Special Clause:
You who have chosen the path of the progenitor, represented by #21 of the Major Arcana the World.
You claim to know where you are and where you need to go.
Thus, You shall march the Grand Procession alone and aidless. For all around us follow the light, Except the one who bears the Torch.
(Squad size reduced from 10 to 1)
Your creatures are forever seeking harmony with you. They spend their lives seeking purpose, knowledge, power and peace. Never seeing the whole, never knowing the truth. But The world knows all, sees all, understands all.
(All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.)
To claim the seat of the Progenitor is to claim the seat of the Apex. Rise to the Apex or fall to the void.
(All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt)
(Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.)
Time Left : 71 Hours 35 minutes 17 seconds
E - Mission 000 : Kill 10 soldiers personally.(0/10)
D - Mission 001 : Kill 5 variants personally. (0/5)
C - Mission 002 : Kill 200 beasts personally. (0/200)
B - Mission 003 : Kill the forward Enemy Commander. (0/1)
A - Mission 004 : Identify and kill the traitor before he destroys the wall. (0/1)
S - Mission 005 : Hold the defence line for more than 48 hours . (0/1)
X- Mission 006 : Kill Imhotep(0/1)
Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker.
Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation
Extra Penalty: Death
Race Piece Penalty: To increase your rating, all previous missions should be completed.
Special Phase Clause
Although historically the battle was lost on the second day, you are a Progenitor. Merely reliving history does not suit you. Turn this loss into victory. Any who claims the path of the #21 of the Major Arcana should be able to do so. You must prove that a mere human is mere no more.
(The defense line must hold for the whole of 72 hours until the reinforcements arrive)
For a few seconds, he just stared at the pale blue window. “I am so dead.”