Chapter 1
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Fight!
A claw swiped at his head. The teenager ducked, putting him in the path of another. The plate-sized natural weapon bowled him off his feet, leaving three deep, throbbing red lines on his thigh and sending the uniformed schoolboy tumbling across the needle-covered ground.
Without a second to spare, Elijah pushed himself up and rushed through the pine branches; dry twigs flew as he struggled to flee from the three-headed beast.
What the Hell? The young man thought. He was on the verge of panic. His injured leg gave out, and he stumbled. A bite from the leftmost head snapped the air where the sixteen-year-old’s pulsating jugular had been a second before.
What the Hell?! The adrenaline-filled boy shouted internally, pushing off his good leg to avoid the middle head’s slobbering chomp. Elijah was desperate; he didn’t see the tree that slammed into his back.
The wind was knocked out of the student. His vision swam as he struggled to focus on the monstrous dog. It had recovered from its failed attacks and was preparing the strike that would end him.
Taking the pained, wheezing breath that he knew to be his last, Elijah let out a deafening cry that channelled his fear, confusion, and anger:
“WHAT THE HELL??!!”
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You have DIED
Potential rewards will suffer as a result of dying whilst undergoing the Trial.
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The pain swiftly faded, as if it were naught but a dream. Except, this was all too real. Elijah looked at the videogame-esque window that appeared before him in the blackness. He had seen one like it only minutes ago. The first transparent screen had said something about a trial, but before he had time to read it, he had been interrupted by—
“Grrrrrr!”
A growl came from a patch of ferns that failed to hide the giant Cerberus. Elijah was alive again and standing in the same spot he had been unwittingly transported to the last time. His heart still hammering in his ears, the raven-haired boy didn’t waste any time. The second he felt as much as heard the nightmarish beast, he launched himself at a nearby tree.
Elijah had never been much of a climber, and the lower branches were small and fragile, but that didn’t matter. The memory of his painful death was fresh in his mind, and it spurred him on. He shimmied up the pole-like trunk to the safety of the canopy. Flakes of bark filled his hair, and tiny scratches covered his pale hands and face, but he didn’t care.
Looking down, madness lurking behind his bright grey-blue eyes, Elijah saw the horse-sized beast pacing around the base of his safe haven.
“What the hell is going on!”
The words came out softly through shivering lips; he didn’t truly expect an answer. The young man nearly jumped out of his cotton socks when the mysterious blue screen appeared before him, as if in response.
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The Trial of Evolution 1: Cerberus
You have reached Lv 25 as an immature Cerberus! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: beat the Evolved Cerberus to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.
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Accompanying the strange message were a series of barks and yips that sounded as if they could have come from a puppy version of the creature that still paced atop the roots.
Nothing felt real. This couldn’t be happening! Elijah passed his hand through the hovering screen. His digits went through without any resistance, and the electric blue window rippled slightly.
None of this made any sense. The last thing Elijah remembered was walking home from school with his two best friends, talking about girls, when he had slipped and fallen into a crack in the pavement… somehow. Next, he was here, running for his life.
Is this a prank? No! VR is nowhere near this good; it doesn’t let you feel pain either. Did I crack my head open when I fell? Am I sitting in a hospital somewhere in a coma? It was the best Elijah could come up with, though he knew in his heart that this couldn’t be the case.
Elijah felt airy, as if in a dream, but as soon as he pushed slightly on the rough bark with his finger he felt a prick that returned him to ‘reality.’
Wait… he wasn’t an immature Cerberus! That message didn’t make any sense.
“I’m not a mangy dog!” Elijah shouted, waving at the screen, trying to vent some of his rising emotion. The action was foolish and nearly sent him tumbling from his perch. One of the beastly heads below yipped in excitement when it thought he was about to fall but bayed in annoyance when he was able to regain his grip.
The window reacted to his words. It fizzed slightly and went static.
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ERROR
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A glitchy ERROR message popped up over the text for a moment, then the whole thing winked out.
“What the Hell!? You can’t just disappear on me. Fix this!” Elijah demanded. There was no response.
Before the young man could think of how to get that blue window back, a tremor went up the tree and nearly sent him flying. The Evolved Cerberus had grown tired of waiting. Two of its heads shook off the impact; the left was knocked out cold.
Still, it backed up, ready for another charge. Even through the fear he felt, Elijah noticed that its front left paw was limp.
Why? It’s not injured. Unless…
The second charge struck the tree. Elijah was able to hold on now that he knew it was coming. It didn’t stop his stomach from dropping out of him as he heard the terrible sound of cracking. One more attack and the tree would fall.
Thinking quickly, Elijah looked around for something, anything, to use. There wasn’t much. He was in an endless pine forest; small shrubs dotted the ground. One patch of brambles in particular caught his eye. When his tree fell, he might be able to jump to another, but then what?
He didn’t want to die again; he didn’t want to feel that pain. He had to do something.
CRASH!
The Cerberus struck Elijah’s tree, turning the trunk into splinters. It tipped and began to fall. With the beast injured, now was his chance to act.
“Timber!” Elijah cried. The tree fell one way, and he pushed off the other, falling right on top of the still stunned monster. He landed atop the beast with an oof from both parties. With the few seconds he had, Elijah smeared his sap-covered hands over one of the head’s eyes, trying to glue them shut.
It didn’t work as well as he would have liked. Its eyes were clearly sore as it kept blinking. He didn’t have a chance to assault the final head before teeth were gnashing at the boy squirming about on the splayed-out beast’s back.
It was time to move! Elijah’s ribs ached from the fall, and sucking in air was painful, but the dog had broken his fall well enough. The sixteen-year-old could still run, and so he did.
It didn’t take the Cerberus long to get back to its feet and launch after the boy. Elijah had only made it halfway to the bramble thicket he had spied earlier before two giant dog heads were nipping at his heels once more. He looked back and saw the frothing muzzles bare inches behind him.
Desperate, Elijah catapulted himself sideways. His body looked like a ragdoll being thrown. One moment he was running full speed, the next he was flung aside. It was a trick he had used ad hoc when roughhousing with his mates.
It worked, and Elijah was afforded a few precious seconds as the monster skidded on the loose dirt, trying to turn after him. School shoes danced between trees as he wove his way towards the bramble patch.
The Cerberus’s central head led the way. The left one had been knocked out, and the right was still trying to clear the sticky stuff from its eyes. It was up to him to end this pesky human.
The middle head’s eyes alighted with murderous fervour as the Cerberus rounded another tree and found the thing that had vexed it just standing there, facing him with its arms outstretched. This was it; he could already taste the creature’s blood.
Elijah threw himself to his right. The Cerberus, having seen this trick before, threw itself to its left to catch him. Or it tried to. With the leftmost head still out of it, the Cerberus’s left front paw was lame, and it went tumbling into the spiky brambles. That wasn’t the end of it, however. As the beast crashed through the underbrush, it revealed the sinkhole, which had been Elijah’s target all along.
He had done it! He had actually done it! Panting for breath and holding his side, Elijah couldn’t help but let out a cry of delight as he plodded over to the edge of the earthen pit and looked down to see the Cerberus trapped below.
The fall of twenty feet or so wasn’t enough to kill the beast. That said, as Elijah watched the canine paw at the crumbling earth that walled the pit, he was sure it could not escape. Keeping his eyes on the deadly predator, Elijah slumped down against a tree to rest. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but feel bad for the dog. That was until he realised:
I must have passed the trial! I can get out of whatever nightmare this is.
No sooner did he have the thought than did the game-like window return.
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The Trial of Evolution 1: Cerberus
This trial is not complete until the Evolved Cerberus is defeated.
Hint: Violent Monsters rarely admit defeat until they are dead, and sometimes not even then.
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Again, the visual message was accompanied by barking and general dog-like noises. Whatever this thing was, it clearly still thought Elijah was a Cerberus. He decided not to correct it. The young man needed answers, and he didn’t want to scare it away again.
Elijah tried to look straight at the screen in order to properly address it, but wherever he turned his head, it remained in the top left corner of his vision. Giving up on the fruitless endeavour, the sixteen-year-old sighed and spoke his thoughts aloud:
“Where am I? What is this place?” he asked, hoping for some kind of proper explanation. The window rippled and refreshed.
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The Trial of Evolution 1: Cerberus
You have reached Lv 25 as an immature Cerberus! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: beat the Evolved Cerberus to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
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Well, that was useless, Elijah thought, reading over the information again. Whatever this glowing blue thing was, it acted like some kind of game in that it had set responses.
Elijah had played a lot of a certain scrolls-based computer game series, and although he loved the worlds that the developers had created, he had lost count of the number of times he had selected a greyed-out dialogue option only to hear the same response over and again.
That meant he wasn’t asking the right questions.
“What are you?” Elijah enquired, doing his best to ignore the incessant growling that came up from the sinkhole. Whatever it was, it didn’t respond.
“Am I in some kind of game?” Again there was no response. Recalling the Isekai he had watched and the LitRPG he had read, Elijah tried another tack.
“Information,” nothing, “Attributes,” nothing, “Status,” nothing. Stumped, Elijah bumped his head against the stump he was leaning against.
What word do I have to use to see my stats! Elijah wondered, racking his brain for more words. No sooner had he had the thought than the game-like window expanded to fill his entire vision.
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Level: 0
Title: None
Name: Elijah L. Chimæra
Race: Human (Earth)
Age: 16
Class: None
Skills: None
Traits: 1
Attributes:
* Strength: 6
* Endurance: 5
* Vitality: 3
* Perception: 6
* Agility: 8
* Dexterity: 9
* Intelligence: 8
* Wisdom: 4
* Initiative: 7
* Luck: -10
Health: 24/30
Stamina: 3/50
Mana: 0/80 0
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That was a lot. Like, a lot a lot. There was so much text that Elijah couldn’t see anything except the glowing, translucent screen in front of him.
“Wait, did you just react to my thoughts? Can this thing read my mind?” Elijah asked, with a mixture of fascination and disgust. There was no response.
Returning his attention to the screen in front of him, Elijah examined it. No Title, he guessed that made sense. In any game he had played, someone only received a title for doing some great feat; he was still only 16.
It felt creepy that this computer-like hallucination knew his full name; that was unless this was some kind of dream. A part of Elijah still held out hope, but the rest of him couldn’t deny that this was real. He had been transported to another world!
Elijah had thought that, if he were ever put in this position, he would stride forth and become a hero. That couldn’t be further from how he presently felt. His school shirt was drenched with sweat, his thigh twitched with phantom pain, and he wanted nothing more than to go home.
Shaking off the sudden melancholy, Elijah reminded himself:
“Focus on what’s in front of you.” In this case, that was the stats page… his stats page. That felt weird.
Level, Race, Age, and Class were no surprise, but having 0 Skills felt like a kick in the teeth. Elijah consoled himself with the idea that, since this interface was reminiscent of a game, Skills were likely something different than he was used to. Maybe something magical?
Traits, surprisingly, had a listing. With his attention focused on the word, a new screen opened up in front of the first.
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Traits: 1
World Slider: Luck permanently set to -10.
You have slid, unnoticed, through a crack between the planes of reality and not become a smear on some Eldritch nightmare’s windscreen. That was lucky! Too lucky. Lady Luck feels she is owed a debt: -10 Luck for the rest of your, probably short, life.
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Elijah cursed at the suddenly smug-seeming screen.
“What?! I lost luck just for being Lucky? That makes no sense! And even if it did, surely being unlucky enough to ‘slip through a crack in reality’ would be enough to more than offset that.”
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Congratulations!
Lady Luck has heard your pleas and has responded. Trait: World Slider has been updated. World Slider: Luck permanently set to -20. Try me!
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Elijah fumed but wisely chose to keep his mouth shut. They’re just imaginary numbers on an imaginary screen, he reminded himself, though it didn’t seem to lessen the sting.
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Wisdom +1
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Elijah huffed and, with a thought, cleared away all the windows that were blocking his character sheet, for lack of a better term. Pouring over the numbers somewhat calmed him. They were numbers to be proud of. At least he assumed so. Elijah had no real point of reference. There were no surprises at least.
Average-looking Strength and Endurance made sense; he was not the first pick for P.E., but neither was he the last. Low Vitality Elijah had to admit also made a lot of sense. He had always been prone to illness and had gotten into trouble with his attendance as a result.
Perception was nothing too special, no surprise there. High Agility likely came from playing football on the local 16 and under team; high Dexterity was probably due to ten years of playing piano and guitar; high Intelligence was in line with his mock exam maths and further maths scores.
Wisdom was nothing special; that tracked; he was still only 16 after all. Initiative seemed flatteringly high. Then again, he had been able to come up with a successful plan to trap a horrifying and slightly cute, if not for all the wanting to kill him, monster in a matter of minutes.
Elijah pointedly ignored the last stat as he was looking over the list. Having no capacity for Mana was annoying; Elijah had often dreamt of slinging fireballs and firing icicles. But he doubted it would change anything even if that number wasn’t 0.
If this whole thing was real and he had been transported to some magical world governed by a System, that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t know the first thing about magic. What was he supposed to do? Feel the power in the tips of his fingers and toes and shake it out?
Elijah laughed at the thought. No, what he needed to do was go back home, and to do that he needed to complete this Trial. With that thought in mind, he stood up, dismissed the window, and peered over the edge of the pit at the dog-shaped monster.
He altered the system to show Health, Stamina, and Mana (which was greyed out) bars at the bottom of his vision, in the centre, to the left, and to the right, respectively.
Elijah had hoped that the beast would have calmed down and admitted defeat whilst his Stamina recovered. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The third head had woken up, and now the trio were snarling and barking in chorus, working each other up into greater and greater frenzy. Something had to be done.
As Elijah began searching the forest for heavy rocks, he reminded himself that he was no stranger to gruesome necessities. His grandfather had taken him hunting a number of times. He always enjoyed the dishes his grandmother would make with whatever they shot, but he had never liked gutting the animals. Still, his granddad had insisted he learn, and he was grateful for that now.
The first rock struck the beast, causing the skin on its hind leg to crack open. Thankfully the creature didn’t whine; it only grew more angry. Elijah didn’t think his churning stomach could have taken it if the Cerberus had started grovelling.
It took fifty-two stones in total to fell the beast, one for every week of the year. Even till the end, when it looked like nothing more than a bruised and battered mess, the monster was still defiantly growling and barking.
Elijah threw up; his vomit added to the horror show. The world around the boy faded to black and disappeared as the glowing window took centre stage.
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You have defeated a Lv 26 Cerberus Slasher:
Extra Xp is awarded for defeating an opponent of a greater level. Less Xp is awarded for defeating a defenceless opponent. 1286 Xp awarded. Xp will be held in escrow until you earn a Class.
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Congratulations!
You have completed the Trial of Evolution 1: Cerberus.
Grade: F
Objectives:
* Defeat the Evolved Cerberus Slasher without dying: ✕
* Defeat the Evolved Cerberus Slasher within 10 minutes: ✕
* Defeat the Evolved Cerberus Slasher without taking any damage: ✕
Rewards:
You have earned the right, if barely, to Evolve from an immature Cerberus into 1 of 1 mature Cerberus Evolutions:
* Cerberus Slasher
Choose Now!
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ERROR:
You are not a Monster and, as such, cannot Evolve.
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ERROR:
You have completed a Trial of Evolution and must Evolve.
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E̷R̸R̵O̵R̴:̶
̵Y̸o̸u̵ ̴a̷r̸e̴ ̷n̵o̵t̴ ̷a̴ ̶M̵o̸n̸s̶t̸e̷r̶ ̷a̷n̶d̴, ̷a̸s̵ ̸s̷u̴c̶h̷, ̶c̷a̵n̸n̸o̴t̷ ̷E̴v̴o̷l̷v̸e̷.̵
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E̵͇͆R̶͖̉R̸̙̈́O̷̯͠R̵̾ͅ:̶̞͝
̸̪̆Y̵͔͝o̶̬͂u̶̼͠ ̸̨͠h̸͚̾a̴̭̒v̴̙̒e̷̡͛ ̸͍͌ć̷͔ȏ̵̢m̵̧̀p̵̗͒l̶͚̏ë̶̦́ț̴̀e̶͙̒d̸̡̒ ̶͕͆ǎ̷͎ ̵̫̕T̶̫͌r̷͓͆ì̶͎ȧ̵̧l̴̡͠ ̴̻̇o̴̩͝f̸͙̆ ̷̮͊E̵̖͌v̵͙̓o̷͎̚l̵̙͆ü̸̜ť̸̮i̴̤͆o̸̡̐ń̸͙ ̸̭͘a̵͔̎n̶̛̳d̸̛̦ ̷͇͂m̷͑͜ự̵s̸̰̋ẗ̵͎́ ̷͈͘E̷̹͂v̴̗̕ỏ̵̳ļ̷͊v̶̳̌ẻ̴͜.̶̤̔
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Ȩ̸̫͗R̸̬͈̽̽R̵͔͆̚Ȍ̴͇͕̊R̵͎̬̐:̴̟͖̎
̴̨͇̍Y̷̪̼̏̊ö̶͖͕u̷̡͐͝ ̵̦͙̒̚a̸̪̱͌̃ř̶̝͖͐e̷͈͔͊̕ ̵̼̒͛n̶̜̦̓ö̶̡́t̸̘̆́ ̴̮̑̈ḁ̵̐ ̵̪͝M̴͙̃̾ö̸̰́͝n̴̤͛s̴̹̮̈́t̵̤̰̋́e̶̳̊r̴̦̬̓̿ ̵͎̿a̶̢̚n̵̳̰̋d̸̡̋͘, ̴̞͆̃ă̴̘s̶̰͎̋̉ ̷̼̆͋s̴̯̞̐u̷̪̓̚c̷̠̗̚h̸̝͑, ̷̬́c̷̡̞̆́a̵̠͕͝n̵͎̿ņ̴͒̾o̴̙̊̉ͅt̸̼̤̿̐ ̶̣͐͛E̵̳̐̉ṿ̵̰̋ǫ̴̟̾l̶̰̀͗v̵̻̋̍ȩ̷̭̽.̶̝͉̿͛
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A buzzing began to fill the empty space as the two ERROR messages opened on top of each other time and time again. With each cycle, they became more and more glitched and started to fuzz with static.
Elijah looked around for an escape, but there was none. He was suspended in a black void of nothingness. The fuzzy sound of vacuum tubes became more insistent as the messages came faster and faster until—
Pop! With the sound of a fuse blowing, the screens winked out, leaving Elijah in complete darkness. It terrified him. All sensation was absent; it could have been a millisecond or a year, but after some time, Elijah’s saviour, the screen, reappeared.
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New Evolution Class E̸v̴o̸l̴u̸t̴i̵o̷n̵ C̵͍̋l̷̝̚ä̶̢́s̷͕̏ṣ̴̃ Ẻ̴̡v̸͉͖̋ȏ̷̫̹͆l̶̡̂̋ṵ̷͐̿t̴̩̱̾ḯ̵͙̱o̸͚̊͆ͅn̸͍̿ C̸͔̬̕͝͝l̴̟̘̖̽͒͝a̶̞̻͓̒͑̆s̵͔̫̈́s̷͔̣̩͋̂̈ … Unlocked!
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The glitchy window quickly fizzled out, but this time it was replaced by Elijah’s character page. A new entry had been entered under Class. If Elijah looked at the page from one angle, it seemed to still say “none,” but if he shifted his head slightly, it appeared to say “1.”
Curious, he mentally clicked on the tab. A new window opened up before him. Its edges were ragged, and it was a pale yellow in colour. It looked like a page torn from a very old book. Through scribbled-over, glitchy text, Elijah made out the name of his new Class: Cerberus Slasher. Yet another window appeared on top.
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New Class Skill Unlocked!
New Class Skill unlocked:
Cerberus Slash: F
Use 25 Stamina to enhance the damage of your slashing attacks.
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“Cool,” Elijah said, unenthused, “Can I go home now?” To his surprise, the emptiness answered, not with words but with action. Mountains began to form around him, along with green lakes of what looked like acid. A new screen appeared in front of him, explaining the change.
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The Trial of Evolution 1: Slime
You have reached Lv 25 as a Slime! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: beat the Evolved Slime to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.
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This time the words were accompanied by a weird slurping, sloshing noise.
“Bollocks!”