Dan awoke with a start. His dream about Geehel felt real. It felt like he was back there again.
He often thought about the angel or principality or whatever Geehel was while meditating. Aphariel too, but for different reasons.
He wished he could say he was above it, and he knew nothing would ever come of it, but he had a crush on Aphariel. She was so beautiful. So impossibly beautiful.
Even if something could come of it, Dan wouldn’t want that anyway. The only way to remain was to completely focus on his responsibilities.
Besides, he knew he didn’t deserve that or anything like it. He wouldn’t have his daughter look down and see him happy after how badly he failed her.
Dan did wish Aphariel or Geehel would visit him soon so he could ask about the abilities he had gained. He thought he knew what was going on, but having confirmation would be nice.
The Orbments he had had slotted the longest, for nearly his whole time in the Game, were Blink, Bind and Recall, and Teleport. He had Void Barrage for almost as long as those three as well.
His ability to blink and recall without having the Orbments slotted was too big of a coincidence to ignore.
He was certain they weren’t advanced mana-techniques – not with magma as a mana-type.
What he could do didn’t make sense. But it kind of did.
Those Orbments were part of him since nearly the start. He invoked them countless times. He knew exactly how mana felt flowing through the Orbment’s pathways as they were invoked.
And it was like those pathways were still there, still part of him.
The cooldowns and mana usage were very similar to how his old Class had modified Blink and Bind and Recall.
But there were some holes in his reasoning. He had tried invoking Teleport a bunch of times, and he couldn’t. He couldn’t even get it to sort of work.
Teleport had been just as much a part of his old Class as Blink and Bind and Recall were. He had also invoked Teleport countless times too.
But maybe that could be dismissed due to the Orbment needing so much mana and having such a high cast time.
He tried creating a new bind point to test his idea. That didn’t work. He tried recalling to other bind spots he had used. No luck there either, but he had switched those out pretty regularly.
Something else did end up working. An invocation similar to a Crown Orbment he had slotted and never switched out, Void Barrage. The result was different – it came from below instead of above and had no trace of void, only lava – but the mana cost, cooldown, and cast time were almost identical, as well as the area of effect.
That was it though. He couldn’t get anything else to work. Since he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he wouldn’t complain. He needed every advantage he could get.
The plan had always been to force himself in a direction to get good enough to beat Asmodon in a straight up fight without running or escaping.
Still, being able to blink and recall to his bugged bind point was more than just nice. Recalling had already saved his life a few times.
He just had to be careful and not come to rely on recalling when things got tough. Not this time.
He had a lot on his plate for the day. First, he had to meet Jun Huang and Valentin Klyugin again.
Dan recognized Valentin as the guy Maksim Igorovich Zamotin had killed in the forced arena fight to get into the last area. He thought the two were only friends. He was surprised to find out that Valentin was Max’s nephew.
Both Jun Huang and Valentin Klyugin had received and turned down offers of patronage. One from Beelzebub and the other from Moloch. They were both tough as nails and could be trusted.
Every morning, Dan prayed before he got up. He wasn’t going to waste any goodwill he had with God by asking for help for himself. He always asked God to watch over Amanda, and if He could, to also help his mother get better and help protect Nicky.
After his prayers, Dan stood up with a grunt and started stretching, trying to force his mind to stop thinking about Aphariel.
He had a lot to get done and a lot could go wrong. He didn’t want any more deaths on his conscience.
But if more deaths were added to his conscience, he’d have no choice but to bear it. He’d remain regardless. No matter how heavy the load he had to bear became, he’d remain.
It’s all on you, Dan. You can’t fail again. You’re gonna make your daughter proud for once, you piece of shit.
----------------------------------------
Before I forget, I should explain the trigger I mentioned Dan collected as loot before. You didn’t comment when I mentioned it, so I’m guessing you don’t know about them.
[Correct.]
I never heard of them before getting this job. They’re an extremely rare drop. I heard they’re a real thing outside the Game but very expensive and highly regulated. At least in Hell.
You connect an Orbment to the trigger, infuse a little mana to arm it, and it explodes after a few seconds. And not a small explosion. A huge one.
Legendary or Crown Orbments can’t be connected to them. Only Epic Orbments and below can. I’ve seen participants figure out how to connect multiple Orbments to the same trigger. Not a great idea.
Even triggers connected to Common Orbments usually kill the one arming it. Participants save it for a hard boss fight thinking it’ll allow them to win. It does, but it almost always kills them too. And it can mess the Trial up enough where it must be closed for repairs.
Setting one off outside but close to a Trial can damage it enough that the whole area gets shut down for repairs. They’re powerful.
I’ve worked on a lot of Games. Some participants, usually at least a couple thousand, always manage to survive, clear all the Trials, and summon the champion. Or think they are.
When a trigger is set aside for the purpose of using it for the champion, the participants end up using it on the first wave of demons that show up.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Those are the only Games where I’ve ever seen the second wave. That trigger explosion usually takes out most of the first wave. And most participants right along with the demons of the first wave.
If the first wave didn’t have devils, the second wave always does. A lot of them too.
I doubt a trigger would hurt the champion, but it handles the real demons and devils just fine.
I don’t know what comes after the second wave. I’ve only seen that wave when a trigger was used on the first.
I’ve seen a second trigger used on the second wave, but plenty of demons and devils survived it. And the two times I’ve seen this, that second explosion killed all the remaining participants.
I have no idea if the champion is included within the ranks of the third or later waves. Maybe the champion comes alone. There’s no way to know until I see it happen.
I’m assuming Dan knows about the waves. He knows far too much about everything. There’s no reason to believe he found a trove of knowledge within Carnegie Hall and doesn’t know more than I do about the summoned waves and champions. Same if he travelled back in time too.
I assume he’s holding onto that trigger for when the champion is summoned. He didn’t even look at it. A super-ultra-rare drop and he put it in his belt without even glancing at it curiously? I don’t think so.
What’s your opinion?
[If we do our job well, he’ll die long before summoning anything, so we’ll never know.]
That’s one way of looking at it, I guess. A very unfun way.
Wow! I just noticed the time. Any chance we can put a pin in this story and pick it back up tomorrow? Or the day after? I need to get back to my terminal and check on things. I really want to see the fruits of my labor and how badly I broke Dan.
[No. You’ll finish.]
Jeez. Okay. But I’m going to have to go quicker. I’ll briefly cover some boring shit, slow way down for some important shit that’ll take a while to explain, speed back up for a bit, and then slow down again when we get to my brilliant action that cut Dan down to size. I’m still betting you’ll stand and give me a very slow clap as your eyes water. You’ll see.
And to speed this up as much as possible, I’ll transfer this information to you telepathically. Open your mind to my great power. Embrace eternity!
[What?]
I’m just kidding. That would be awesome if I could really do that though, right? I wish.
Okay, Dan had already cleared the puzzle Trial in the Castle area. He didn’t really do Trials in order. He cleared some of them once on SS, others he’d grind over and over.
He continued grinding the Trial of the Shining One and Rapture. Pretty often too. Every couple of days he’d hit the Trial of Soul. He could easily stand through the whole Trial now. I’m not sure how that was supposed to help. Just figured I’d mention it.
Great Kobal, I want to skip a little ahead so badly! We’re almost at a really great part. One of my favorites. Don’t worry, I’m not going to, but I’ll zip through this real quick to get there.
[Leave out no important details.]
Come on, Boss. Give me a little credit here.
[And I’d like to know more about what’s going on with the rest of the team.]
Oh, you will. The great part I just mentioned, that’s all about them. Not to be rude but interrupting me isn’t helping, Boss.
[You constantly get sidetracked and go off on nonsensical tangents.]
Yeah. I know. That’s what Acesso LaBlacky does. I’m really trying hard not to again. I promise.
The SS reward for the Trial of Endurance is a 1-point increase to the Durability Attribute.
The Trial of Might gives a Legendary Orbment Foundation or a Crown Orbment Foundation. Dan selected the Crown Orbment Foundation.
The Trial of Power gives a Mana Step-Enhancer.
The Trial of Skill gives 3 Stat points.
In the Court area, the Trial of Body gives a 1-point increase to the Health Attribute.
The Trial of Mind gives a Reaction Step-Enhancer.
The Trial of Essence gives a Spirit Nexus reward, but the door to the reward room opened and slammed closed on Dan.
Man, I wish I knew how that room knew not to give Dan that reward. Isn’t that strange?
[I guess so.]
The Trial of Spirit gives a thousand trash Orbment Fragments or an item token. Dan took the token and turned it in at the forge for an indestructible pouch.
I don’t believe I mentioned it before, but his backpack was destroyed and there were no extras. The Indestructible Hide of Bak’ung has a hood. Either a bear, a lion, or a wolf head. Most participants never put the hood up since it makes them look like a stupid idiot.
Dan had sewn most of his hood shut with the needle and thread from the medical trauma kit and was using that as a backpack. Not easy or convenient. With the new pouch, he no longer had to do this. He kept most of the Orbments, Foundations, and expensive stuff in the pouch instead of his belt.
I don’t think I mentioned that by this time most everyone had either the Indestructible Hide of Bak’ung or Robe of the Last Remaining.
Only Leena and Luke had taken the robes. Most females that mortals find attractive usually take the robes. I was very surprised Becky didn’t.
Your guess is as good as mine why Luke selected the robes instead of the hide armor since the armor provides much better protection. My guess should be obvious. I’ll give you a hint – it rhymes with Smuke’s a smupid smidiot.
Oh, Dan took Luke to the high pantheon shrine to see if he could get some sort of patronage. See if they could get some use out of Luke’s useless Trait. Luke received nothing, as expected.
And while we’re talking about turning tokens in, once everyone in the two parties had 2-Star Souls, Dan escorted them to the forge and gave each a Trait token the last boss of the Trial of the Rapture sometimes drops.
He had them all get the Stalwart Soul Trait.
By this time, Austin upgraded his core and had the token from the Core Trial. They all turned that in for the Intellection Trait.
Dan told them that a boss in the final area dropped another token, and they’d get the Gifted Trait with that.
Hector didn’t go with them. He said he had to help a friend and would meet up with everyone later.
Dan also cleared all the Trials in the Crucible area. The…
[The Crucible area is the fifth area, correct? Out of six total?]
Correct.
[Did Dan increase his level before clearing the Trials in the Crucible?]
Nope.
[Is that odd?]
Yes, very. Everyone levels up and ascends as much as possible, both in the Game and out. At least the demons of my layer always do.
[What level was he again? Level 41, if I’m remembering correctly. Low Jade.]
Yes.
[What level was everyone else when he took them to the forge? That’s in the fourth area, correct? What’s it called? The Court?]
Yes, the fourth area’s the Court, but that has the high pantheon shrines. The fifth area, the Crucible, has the forge. Everyone had at least a 2-Star Soul by then and had leveled up as much as possible. Everyone was at least level 41. Only Dan was staying way under-level to clear shit.
[What’s the requirement for the last area? Actually, remind me of all the area requirements.]
The Boneyard requires level 1. Or it requires at least an F-rating on all the tutorial area Trials, a Class, and level 1. The Castle requires a 1-Star Class. The Court is just level 21. The Crucible is level 41. The Boss area is a 3-Star Class.
[That seems off. Don’t you think the requirements should be more stringent?]
No, not at all. This way is perfect. It really helps our side out. And the best part is that once everyone completes all Trials at SS, they assume they’re ready to summon the champion. Ha!
Most participants have a 5-Star Soul when that happens, but a lot of them usually don’t even have that.
And those are participants from turd and garbage worlds. That first wave always slaughters them easily. It’s awesome! Stupid idiots.
All these losers are from a shit world, so it should go even worse for these fools. Or it definitely would if Dan wasn’t helping everyone out, giving them all super-secret information that lowers the value of the true and real book only Bob, Az’ga, and I have, and him just being a huge prick in general.
Oh, did I tell you I’m going with shit worlds for planets like Earth that lasted the full cycle? I know it’s another word for excrement and I’m already using turd, but I just can’t think of anything better.
[Noted.]
Anyway, in the Crucible area, the Trial of War gives an Agility Step-Enhancer.
The Trial of Conquest gives 4 Stat points.
The Trial of Famine gives a Spirit Nexus piece. No help to Dan. It just closed on him.
The Trial of Death gives a point to either Durability, Health, or Spirit.
Dan just put all the SS-rated Trial rewards besides the Stat points in his pouch. He didn’t apply anything.
Actually, that’s not true. He turned in the item token as I explained earlier. He held onto everything else. Oh, and the Stat points. He applied those immediately too. But that’s it.
I know I didn’t explain the Trials or Dan’s performance in them. Just realize most were not easy. There were some real nail-biting moments where I truly believed that fat prick would die. I also thought he’d use the trigger on a couple bosses, as I had no idea how he’d win against them without it.
He did have to do his bullshit cheating portal thing a few times to escape deadly situations. What a fat, cheating prick. Man, I hate that guy so much.
[Show me Dan’s status at this time.]
We’ll get to that real soon, Boss. Have some faith in Acesso LaBlacky. I’m about to tell you that really juicy part I was telling you about. A part I love. Like, super love. It’s fabulous.
Believe you me, if I could cackle maniacally, I would definitely be doing so right now.