CHAPTER 216

Tom took the advice he had given everyone else and stepped immediately into his system room.

“Display experience.”

Experience: 98,325 (+63,125 from miscellaneous kills)

He was not surprised by that result. The earlier battle against the decay antelopes and that one powerful lizard had generated around thirty-five. This sixty thousand came from all the critters they had killed on the way and the thirty draconic lizards that had assaulted them.

Understanding the exact breakdown while interesting was unnecessary. All that mattered was that there was sufficient experience to buy the next four levels of elemental summoner class to boost his magic. Amongst other things, it would make it more feasible to keep a lesser elemental active. While the wisps had been useful against the wasps, they were too weak against the other monsters they had been fighting. A lesser elemental, however, would be effective against monsters in the coming scenario. The left over he would push into Lightning tank to boost his physical skills.

“Buy four levels of elemental summoner and everything else into Lightning Tank. Then display changes and new rank of each attribute.”

The wall changed in front of him to display the key information.

Classes Level – Twenty Nine

Lightning Tank: 16 (+2) - Expert

Elemental Summoner: 13 (+4) - Expert

Attributes

Strength: 119 (+6 Class, +3 Title: Strength Spring)—Rank 14 (+1)

Vitality: 139 (+6 Class, +6 Title: Vitality font)—Rank 16 (+1)

Agility: 109 (+12 Trait: Fates Agility)—Rank 13 (+2)

Magic: 115 (+22 Class)—Rank 13 (+2)

Fate: 202 (+12 Trait: Fates Agility, +6 Title: Competition Shaker (I))

Mana Pool: Magic * 2 = 230

Experience: 9,325 (-89,000)

A hundred thousand experience was no longer yielding as much it once had. Only six class levels in total. Tom was not surprised. Each level now cost over sixteen thousand, and every level that would increase by another five hundred. The experience monsters gave did not escalate either. It was a flat one thousand plus modifiers.

Tom did not know what all of them were precisely. He was aware that the relative size and rank of the killed creature mattered. He was also almost certain there was a modifier for sapients and probably a quality aspect on top of it.

None of the specific mathematics were significant. If you fought up ranks, or size, or quality, then you were rewarded. If you did the opposite, you got less experience. If you killed too much of the same type of monster, then you were penalised… The system was not set up to make it easy to level. The higher you rose the more experience each increment required and the harder it was to find monsters to challenge you.

If your rank was higher than the area you were in, then levelling came crashing to a halt due to the minuscule amount each death granted. It was this last bit that meant that kingdoms had an effective cap on average levels no matter how bloodthirsty the citizen was. Their elites would still grow because of trials and in some cases by leaving their home kingdoms to adventure in more deadly zones.

Unsatisfied with the gains, he returned to the real world and was surprised to see that everyone except for Harry had finished their upgrades. Tom had thought he had rushed through his own leveling process, but apparently everyone else had it easier. They must have just ordered the system to allocate all their experience to level gains, and that was it.

Mentally, Tom compared himself to everyone around him. They were all filled with nervous excitement. Micro smiles appearing and vanishing, shifting from foot to foot impatiently. He noted everything and then opened up his senses.

Without allowing it to reach his lips, he frowned. He had been hoping that because they were lower level that their gains would be greater than his own. Part of him had been running a fantasy where they had all jumped up three ranks and as a result were nearly matching him in raw physical skills. That wasn’t the case.

He must have been deluding himself. Part of him had thought that given their low-class level, they would progress faster, but he had not done any calculations. Mentally, Tom did the mathematics. Yes, the cost of their individual levels was less than Tom and their lower ranks should have boosted their experience gains relative to his own… but their percentage contribution to each kill would have been ten percent instead of his thirty and Tom also gained more attributes per level than them because of his titles.

Once all those moving parts were factored in, he guessed their new ranks made sense.

Tom summoned a lesser ice elemental to maintain the same diversity as previously. It appeared on his shoulder and he encouraged it to hide in his hair. It obeyed and he could feel the unpleasant lump of coldness.

Good job, he praised it and then because he didn’t want to freeze his brain he had it drift away from the hiding spot with the understanding that when they went through the portal, it would hide there again.

They stood in mostly silence as the minutes ticked down. Tom’s mana was recharging rapidly, which was why he had taken the risk of completing the summoning. With only two minutes left, Harry returned to the real world. His rank just like everyone else jumped up one.

Harry glanced between all of them, including noting Everlyn and Michael who had wandered away and was chatting silently half a cave away from them. He scratched his head. “Sorry for any holdups.”

“Its fine,” Tom said. “There is no advantage in entering the trial early.”

The ritualist looked relieved. “That’s what I presumed. Strategically,” he glanced towards Everlyn, but the scout was already focusing on him. “I’ve delayed picking the rituals I got for my class ups. I figured I’ll keep them in reserve and purchase something quickly if we need it. Hopefully, it will allow us to flex and adjust easily if we run into a difficult scenario.”

“Good plan.” Tom said with a smile. “I assume you were familiarising yourself with all the options available.”

The ritualist nodded. “I figured I might as well use the time we had assigned. Now that I have a couple of ritual purchases stored it’s harder to get my head around all the possibilities. The problem is that if I purchase a ritual, it opens more rituals. Then if I select one of them… Even more become available. The number of combinations rapidly gets out of hand. It’s not an issue it’s just complex.”

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“Is it time?” Everlyn asked.

“Close enough.” Tom answered and quietly they approached the portal. He looked back at Jingyi. The scout’s rank hadn’t changed and Tom knew it was because he had purchased skills to train while he waited. “Are you sure you don’t want to come? We could use you, and being trapped here will be boring.”

Jingyi smiled. “I appreciate the offer, Tom. But my mind’s made up.”

Tom forced another smile. The scout’s caution was absolutely ridiculous, but he had not lied earlier when he had praised Jingyi’s contributions. It was important to keep him friendly because when they got back from killing the dragon, Tom wanted him to stay in their team. Even if he was still a rank ten versus their thirty, Jingyi had skills that would continue to be useful for some time. “Good luck with your training.”

“And good luck slaying a dragon.”

Tom grinned. “We don’t need your wishes. We’ve already got fate at play. That dragon is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet. Everyone,” Tom ordered. “Enable your buffs.”

Tom paid the mana to activate Earth Sense. They didn’t know what they would face when they entered the trial. It was prudent to keep something like Earth Sense active even if the information he received could be overwhelming. With it active, nothing underground could launch a successful surprise attack and even above ground monsters would be visible. Plus, he had learnt to dial the intensity down. The tsunami of data generated by too many things moving in the domain was no longer the threat it once was. Instead of that situation incapacitating him it just meant he needed to ignore the skill until the movement calmed down.

He looked around and nodded. Everyone had their weapons in their main hand. Michael was hard to look at and pay attention to courtesy of some ability he had picked up. Everlyn carried her bow. Harry had his spear out, a determined expression on his face. “We ready?”

He got nods in return and a flash of white teeth from Everlyn and Michael.

This was it.

Tom turned around and felt hands land on his shoulder. They were about to enter the trial they had been dreading for the last couple of weeks.

Quietly, he reached out to the portal.

Once more, he was suspended in blackness. The same text as earlier floated in front of him. He checked to confirm nothing had changed unexpectedly. It was all the same, except for the time till the trial started and that his group had reduced by one.

Both changes were expected.

He thought his acceptance, and there was a flash of blinding light.

Tom knew instantly that he was elsewhere.

The air was different. The mugginess was gone, replaced by a cold bite in the air. There was a smell of flowers. It was almost like a spring morning. He rubbed his eyes to drive the bright light away. Part of his mind wondered why the trial had blinded them. Healing Tranquillity activated, but his eyes were not damaged. There was nothing magically he could do to get them working sooner.

He extended his Spark domain to confirm that there were no imminent threats.

The only people close to him were his companions, and they seemed to be rubbing their eyes as well. With immediate safety while not assured at least addressed, Tom concentrated on what Earth Sense was telling him.

His awareness spread out as his mind interpreted what was happening. From long practise he ignored the small rodents and wriggling worms in the ground. He registered that there were no signs of any threat beneath the surface and so instead focused on what was above. His consciousness swooped toward the surface spots where the soil had been packed together and had potential energy within it indicating a weight was still pressing down on it. Then he measured the vibrations coming from above ground. His spell ran calculations on the distribution of weight and how they changed as it could indicate that they were about to spring forward. With extraordinary speed, the positions of everyone standing on the ground within a large circle around him was marked.

The start of panic gripped him. They were not alone. He blinked more furiously to clear his blinded eyes.

There were living creatures near them. Well beyond the reach of Spark domain but at less than ten metres away whatever it was could be on them in a couple of seconds. Tom’s heart pounded as his adrenaline spiked. At least with Earth Sense active, they would get a warning.

“Hostiles,” he whispered on party chat.

Tom blinked his eyes aggressively and tried to clear out the water caused by the blinding light. Everything was indistinct and not only was seeing through the tears difficult, large patches of light robbed him of his full vision. He could see silhouettes that matched up with the positioning his Earth domain brought to him and none of them were moving in his direction.

Tom’s spear was already in his hands, but he shifted it up into a defensive position. His blurred vision was improving, allowing him to resolve more detail.

Humanoid shapes that were consistent with what his domain was telling him became visible. His friends were behind him and there were three other groups present. They were arranged like they had all been placed on the corners of a square.

A single individual filled the spot to his left. If his vision could be trusted, it was no bigger than Tom. Then two groups, one across from him with lots of shiny surfaces and then the group on his right a more muted group, at least colour wise. Tom hesitated. One of the members of that last group was unusually large and based on how the earth compressed under it, heavy as well. If there was a fight, that would be Tom’s first target.

He wondered if an arc of electricity would disable it.

“No action.” He reported dutifully. None of them were moving toward them.

“They’re humans.” Everlyn whispered in the party chat.

“What’s happening? Who are you?” Someone from the rightmost group yelled out. Not the big guy, one of the others. “Weapons, we have company.”

“Back away.” Everlyn ordered.

Tom did as instructed.

His domain allowing him to move smoothly even while blind.

Finally, his eyes started working.

Everlyn had not been lying.

They were not in the trial alone. Instead, they had been put here with three other groups, or at least that’s what he presumed from the placement.

Tom’s eyes went to the solitary person first. An ordinary man with a bushy blond beard. He was not super tall or muscular, but his weapon of choice was an enormous axe that looked like it had originally belonged to some sort of semi giant race. Tom’s earth sensibilities would have said it was far too large for the man, but Tom suspected the warrior could use the axe effortlessly.

He focused for a moment longer, keeping his senses open to assess him. The first obvious thing was that there was a sizeable gap in physical abilities between him and the other man. Tom fervently hoped that they did not get into a conflict with him. He was around rank twenty-three, but he was a far more formable opponent than the lizards. Tom didn’t even think his tier five dodge skill would help much in the fight. Assuming he had no titles, then that number of attribute points indicated eighty class levels.

The no title assumption was sus. Especially here in this trial for champions. Titles had been his main source of ranking points. Tom mentally reduced that level required down to fifty or so. It was still a massive gap to overcome. It was difficult to quantify, but fifty levels of class skills could counter his dodge ability.

The others we’re still retreating so Tom matched them as he studied at the other two groups.

The one opposite had come to the same conclusion Everlyn had. They were backing away with what to Tom’s inexperienced eye appeared to be significantly higher levels of coordination than his group. They were also armoured similarly. All of them possessed shields and short spears and collectively gave off military vibes.

The final group… The team who had one of their members panic and start shouting orders was closer to Tom’s own in appearance. They had also chosen not to retreat and held their position. About three quarters facing out to the humans but two of them had turned to watch their backs. They were not inexperienced; they were merely a mixture of individuals who were not a well-drilled unit like the soldiers opposite him.

“Who are you all?” The solitary man called out. “Why are you here?”

There was a ding before anyone could respond, and writing immediately swamped Tom’s vision. There was a no waving his way, so he read through it.

Zone Quest triggered.

An eternal war exists between the goblins and the sprites.

Choose a side and put an end to the senseless slaughter by defeating one of the forces. Once the ruler and all the material underlings of one side is defeated, the gates to other zones will open.

The quest text vanished the moment he’d finished reading and his eyes flicked between the three groups.

Tom’s mind was racing. How had this occurred? Where had all these people come from? He remembered the power of the dragon and wondered if this was how the gods were balancing things.

There was another ding.

Balancing quest triggered by failure to find common ground in the first minute of the trial.

Humans in the competitor champion race trial are divided.

The balancing items generated to offset inherent power differences between competition races will not be provided until a common consensus position is formed between all humans.

Tom stared at the quest in surprise. He didn’t want to, but given what he knew about this trial he was going to have to act as a leader.

“What the fuck is this.” One of the soldiers opposite him yelled out.

“I asked a question.” The solitary man roared.

“Enough.” Tom snapped. His spear vanished into storage and he stalked forward to the centre. “We need to talk.” He declared. “This trial is not what you guys think it is.”