The mission board was a simple cork board that was as large as a wall, with hundreds of posters stuck onto it. There were even some posters near the ceiling. The board itself was situated in a gigantic room of its own in the ground floor of the training centre.
Many people loitered in the room. Some stood in groups, engaged in heated discussion while others stood in solitude.
Some of those solitary fellows were like hawks scanning for a target. Others yet, were just looking for a team to choose them out of pity.
Curiously however, only a few people stood close to the board, reading the posters. Everyone else simply looked at it from a distance. A fact that Janco curiously noted.
“Why is nobody closer to the board?”
“You’ll see” Came Idris’ reply.
A translucent blue panel appeared in front of him, causing him to yelp. His eyes darted around in embarrassment and he focused on the panel.
[Accept party invite from iris971?]
“Yes.” He said, to which Idris chuckled.
“You don’t need to say it out loud.” Idris remarked. He had a dark padded medieval vest and a sword dangling by his hip, which Janco was very curious about. When asked about it, the only answer he got was, ‘You’ll see’.
He looked at the posters near the ceiling and asked, “How is someone even supposed to read those? Are there ladders somewhere?”
“Like this.” Idris pointed his finger at a poster and flicked it towards Janco, who stared at the space in front of him with awe.
There was a glowing poster hovering in front of him, which he reached out towards. Of course, there was nothing there, only the image of a poster.
“Idris… This is… This is amazing! Who knew I’d live to see a hologram?”
Idris laughed, “See, now you know why I’m not concerned about the ‘future of humanity’ or whatever?”
“Come on. This and that have no connection to each other. But this is… this is amazing…”
It was exactly as Janco described: a hologram. Nobody was near the cork board, simply because there was no need.
The hologram of the poster hovered in front of him, reading as follows:
[
Claim the Legacy of The Yadava
Location: Hall of The Yadava, Profaned Capital
Threat Level: ???/5
Reward: ???
]
“What is this mission?”
Idris glanced at the hologram as well.
“Ah, I just picked a random one, but this is the mission everyone’s been speculating about. We’ll choose another one.”
“But what is it about? Any leads?”
“I don’t know. Nobody does…”
Another holographic poster appeared in front of them.
[
Collect berries
Location: Nameless village, Eryhtra province, the Empire
Threat Level: 5/5
Reward: Heavenly Berry juice x2
]
“What the fuck are these missions?” Janco murmured with his brows furrowed.
Finally, another one came before him, this one seeming doable. No, rather than looking doable, it seemed like it was almost mandatory for someone like him who’d never thrown a punch, let alone held a sword.
[
Combat Training: Beginner
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Location: ETC Barracks Training Hall, European Training Centre
Reward: Basic Swordsmanship skill, Basic unarmed combat skill
]
“This is the one all beginners are supposed to know. We’ll get your class first, then we’ll do this mission after your sword training.”
Another poster appeared in front of him.
[
Gather Rogue’s Morsels
Location: Outer Ring forest, Belhaven province, Kingdom of Firau
Reward: Healing Potions (equivalent to number of rogue’s morsels gathered)
Threat Level: 1/5
]
“Wait wait wait wait… Swords? Really? Why not just use a gun?”
“We’re not in the American training centre Janco, we’re Europeans…” Idris remarked sarcastically.
“But that’s a good point, I’d prefer a gun myself, not this thing.” Idris said, throwing a glance at his sword. Turning around, he surveyed the crowd as he spoke.
“I’ve seen some people with guns so I know they’re a thing. I’m just wondering why they’re not more widely used… I’ll ask around later. For now, let’s get your class.”
There was a hint of excitement in Janco’s eyes as he heard the word. Even with the threat of nihilism and the death of humanity looming over him like a dark cloud, his immediate future was exciting.
He wished to be a spellcaster standing from the backlines— raining fire and death upon his enemies from far above. Was that not the peak of power? To do so much with the flick of a finger?
The concept of magic was truly overpowered.
Or atleast, it was in Janco’s mind.
----------------------------------------
My body peeled off the smooth stone of the statue like velcro.
[Skill: Crawler
Description: You can climb on stone surfaces without getting tired and even if there is nothing to hold onto]
What a stupid fucking description. Not a single place did it mention that everytime my skin touched the stone, letting go of it was like ripping my skin off. The pain was immense, but my skin and body somehow held.
My arm peeled off the stone with a tearing sound and I slapped it higher, crawling up the walllike a lizard. I threw a glance down— only a few feet— and already those things were crowding around the legs of the statue which I was now climbing.
The scene of those writhing, tumbling shadows climbing up was so horrifying that every bone in my body wanted to shoot upwards. Relentlessly, I tried increasing my speed but to my horror I found that I couldn’t move that fast.
“Shit!”
The clicks and screams below me grew louder and my heart skipped many beats when I felt a touch graze my pants.
And then another.
And then another.
And when I felt a hand grab my pants, I kicked again and again with the ferocity of a rabid dog until it let go.
Another hand grabbed onto me, and the moment it did, I knew it was over. Unless I somehow increased my speed, I would be finished.
As soon as the idea struck me, I created the skill. This time, there wasn’t even a smile as I kicked the bastard. One of the many screams faded into the distance and I kicked off and upwards, letting my arms stick onto the stone.
My skin felt like sliding upwards and off my arms, but they held.
[Skill: Horse’s kick
Description: Your kicks are two times more powerful at half the energy cost!]
I kicked off the stone again, and climbed higher. I threw a glance back down and to my relief, they were further away than before. Even though my kicks were ‘two times more powerful’, I didn’t have that much power to begin with, so I wasn’t that much faster. The moment I took a break, I’d be a dead man.
Before I even knew it, I’d reached the upper back of the statue— roughly halfway through.
I glanced back down and those things were far enough that I could take a break for 10-20 seconds.
A sigh of relief escaped me.
I didn’t know it was going to be that eas—
Rumble…
The statue itself shook, and I could feel its instability through my skin. Something incredibly massive had hit the statue. I didn’t want to know what it was and just hoped it couldn’t climb up.
But it seemed the questions I didn’t want answered were answered.
At that moment, when I saw what it was, I wanted to die.
I’d read a story like this before. A deep sea diver working in an underwater research station went out to take a shit. Being that deep underwater ofcourse, meant that he would have to do the deed outside the station and in the dark, murky depths.
In the darkness he felt something down there, and when he turned on his light to see what it was, he was met with a giant, soulless eye.
Apparently it was a giant squid, and those things have eyes the size of dinner plates.
But whatever this was in front of me made me want to swap places with that diver. Because the single, unblinking eye in front of me was bigger than me.
I saw the vague outline of a face, and felt the air pressure increasing around me.
It was going to grab me and this would be the end.
Tears almost welled up to my eyes but I forced them down. Over the past few days I’d had to face my death more than the average person. And each time I did, I wanted to die fighting.
But what could I possibly do in a situation like this? Even if I jumped up, I couldn’t jump out of the way. This thing was going to destroy the statue— and my means of escape with it.
To my right I saw another giant eye.
A massive hand peeled my body from the statue, and I faced the giant eye, held up by its hand.
The darkness in front of me parted, and I saw a shadowy mouth.
I felt my entire being thrown forward into the shadowy mouth.
Ah. Classic.
I was going to die Attack on Titan style.
Chewed up like a peanut butter sandwich and turned into mush while I was still conscious.
As my body flew through the air completely defenseless, I kept thinking about peanut butter. That single odd image looped through my head, until a bolt of realization struck me.
‘Peanut butter’. Truly, it was the key to my survival.