The same events happened after The observer left. I returned to the waiting room, which was emptier than I remembered; Due to my rushing in and starting the trial before everybody else. It wasn’t just emptier, though, I’d say that it was as sparse as it could be while I strolled and studied the almost empty room.
The same few interesting individuals were here too, Starting from the Asian family, and then… Him.
Phillip was already here. I couldn’t help but smile; seeing his old face, particularly after witnessing his death, glad that the first friend I made was here, alive and breathing.
My smile extended to my wrists. I was only a few steps before thinking of the best route to approach this second chance granted to me.
There were two ways about it, first, do most of the things the same way, but only change the outcome of the last mission. No doubt that things would go smoother this time, I knew the precise conditions of all the missions, after all.
And then there was the next idea; To take things into my own hands and complete all the missions myself. This way, the maximum amount of points would be distributed between all of us. In theory, if everyone finished the missions on their own, their points accrued would quintuple.
There was also the third one, and this one was personal. I wanted to prove myself. Instead of them having my back, I wanted to be there for them this time.
And thus, I lowered the arm that was reaching to greet him. I’d wait and see until things settled down. It wasn’t like I’d lose the opportunity to be friends with him. Besides, he'd approach me la-
“Hello~” A playful voice played beside my ears, like snakes trying to slither inside my eardrums. “You made it out quick… and from the look in your eyes, you’ve seen a lot, haven’t you?”
Sidwell. The snake.
Sidwell’s voice caught Phillip’s attention; we knew how he felt about him. But he kept his mouth shut, since none of this was any of his business, and I’d prefer it that way.
“Maybe…” I replied, disinterested, “I got lucky a few times, but unfortunately…” Pausing, I elected to keep my accomplishments a secret, especially from him, “I couldn’t get past the Orc Warrior.” I feigned a sigh, acting the best-disappointed expression that I could perform.
“Ahahaahha!” Sidwell laughed, patting me on the shoulder. “Man, You’re a terrible liar...”
“What do you-“
I was interrupted when he slithered closer, placing his mouth near my ears, “You killed the orc, didn’t you? I know everything, Gray.”
My eyes popped open. How did he-
He patted my shoulder with a sly smirk, and winked, “I see through lies, friend.”
Then, being the storm that he was, he left me hanging, confused. I’d never been so disgusted by someone; Now, after he displayed the other side of his skin, I understood why Phillip hated him the way he did. Before I wasn’t anyone worth his attention, so he didn’t do anything that I’d consider too far for a mere stranger to do, but now… It was as if he became someone different.
How did he know in the first place? Is it a skill of his?
As my slumped figure slouched on the floor, dismayed, molested by his words, I gazed at the growing density of the crowd that was gathered inside this room. Phillip didn’t bother to look up after my little chat with Sidwell, and speaking of the devil himself, he left a few others dazed after whispering in their ears; To which I assumed he’d spilled a secret about them, the same secrets about this test that I wanted to keep.
Time passed, filling the room with an increasing amount of people. More familiar faces popped up every few minutes or so, starting from the ivory-haired woman I knew, Sarah, whose looks turned heads—men and Women alike—and then, Maria, whose presence was… dim, compared to the person before her. Her frown and a rather despondent attitude served as a reminder that she—like I was—didn’t do well in the aptitude test.
Speaking of Sarah… If I achieved the second spot, that meant that she would be pushed down to the third spot, and so was Phillip who was at 5 in my previous life—That’s a strange combination of words to say, Previous life? —And of course, that meant Katherine Gillian would lose her privileges from the coveted top 10, overtaken by me.
It didn’t take long before we returned to the nexus. The infamous sermon went and passed, the only difference this time was the glance that the Observer spared towards me at the end of his endearing speech. Watching this entire shit show again urged that strange sense of deja-vu to overwhelm me; In most cases, deja-vu was a short burst of feeling that happened in a random sequence, but this time, everything happened in the same manner. His speech, his attitude, and the eventual ashing, and then… The leaderboards.
LEADERBOARDS - Updated daily
Position
Name
Total points
1
Idris Bruneheart
312
2
Gray Mors
310
3
Sarah Winters
298
4
Miyamoto Hideyoshi
297
5
Asuka Hideyoshi
289
6
Phillip Jager
284
7
Xin Lee
278
8
Ameer Assaf
264
9
Maya Luthenberg
253
10
John Sidwell
246
[You acquired 1x Sapphire box.]
[Additional points awarded - 2nd spot: 700 points.]
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
[You gained access to the council.]
Council? What… is that?
Reaching my next milestone of 1000 points, I was granted the option of purchasing the class stone, and also, access to things that I had no clue about its existence. Then there was the enigma; the Sapphire box. I didn’t know what the contents were inside, and while my curiosity urged me to open it right away…
Well, to open this thing in this crowd would spell the end of my secrecy, I might as well advertise to everyone around me that I was, in fact, the second guy on the leaderboards.
Shelving those for later, I opened my status menu, hoping to see the numbers I used to.
I sighed, “Back to square one.”
STATUS
HEALTH
20/20
MANA
20/20
RANK
-
Level
0
POINTS
1010
RACE
HUMAN - 1
ACTIVE CLASS
-
SUB CLASS
none
FREE ATTR. PTS
10
ATTRIBUTES - BODY
ATTRIBUTES
Class Bonuses
Total Attr.
STRENGTH (0%)
0
-
0
SPEED (0%)
0
-
0
TOUGHNESS (0%)
0
-
0
VITALITY (0%)
0
-
0
RESISTANCE (0%)
0
-
0
ATTRIBUTES - MIND
ATTRIBUTES
Class Bonuses
Total Attr.
ARCANE (0%)
0 (+5)
-
5
ARCANE. POW (0%)
0 (+5)
-
5
ARCANE. DEF (0%)
0 (+2)
-
2
WILLPOWER (0%)
0
-
0
AFFINITIES
SOUL INTEGRATION
Equipped soul
Orc Mage.
Skill
-
Attribute bonuses
Arcane + 5, Arcane. Power + 5, Arcane. Defense +2
??? - unlocked after clearing the trial
On the bright side, I had 10 more attribute points to play with, but man, to see all those montages of deaths I’d accrued dissipate like the smoke in the air… Ah, it’s fine. I’d do it again. Again and again, no matter what it took.
At the end of the day, I failed to make sense of the reason I possessed this… uh, what should I even call it? Rebirth? Extreme premonition?; Whatever its name was, it didn’t matter. I’d admit that this kind of ability would be better utilized by someone of Phillip’s strength, or maybe Sarah, or if they weren’t there, Idris himself. But that wasn’t what fate had decided, and there was no point in wondering about things that couldn’t happen.
I rushed through the mystified crowd, attempting to get as close to the line that was about to form. But all that hurry was halted when I crashed into a smaller guy who reminded me of the kid that was kicked from his own party before. It was the blind man.
“Sorry,” I said, studying his lax expression.
He turned his blind eyes in my direction, opening his mouth, but stopped before producing any sound.
Then, he turned back at the obelisk, ignoring my apologetic look—well, it wasn’t as if he knew what kind of look I was giving anyway—and retreated towards the end of the line. I was puzzled by his strange decision, but I didn’t have the luxury to care too much about his fate, I had my own fate to take care of.
There were two things that I wanted to finish up at the end of the day. First, The weapons and the class stone, which I would take care of right away, and then the one spell book, which my total points should add up to when I cleared all the missions today. After that…
“STOP TOUCHING ME!”
Oh, this… I remember her.
Glancing back at the line, I watched the same rowdy scene that happened between the red-haired woman and the poor dude behind her. She was as rough-looking as always, and the proceeding events after went according to how I remembered them. Aside from the blind guy, he was nowhere to be seen, which surprised me.
Changing the positions of the leaderboards alone messed up the timeline enough, and there was a possibility that the events in the future would not match up with the events that happened previously.
“Tch.” The woman spat, “I was so close…”
Her last statement drew the attention of my ears. Was she… Katherine? No way, right?
“What is this? You are here…” Another voice roused me from my right, the snake, Sidwell, had positioned himself as close as possible to me, his head cocking sideways, his eyes as snaky as the venom in his voice, “Eager to start your path to be the strongest, I see…”
I ignored him. The way he acted now was the same way he’d approached Phillip before, no, I’d say that he was even more aggressive than how he was.
“Aww… Don’t be like that. I could be a great asset to you, Mr. Gray.”
His voice melded with the rumblings of the crowd behind me as I stepped as far away from him as possible. Returning my focus to the obelisk ahead, I exchanged both vouchers and a class stone, then opened the mission menu.
Before I took part in one, I felt the urge to wait and help Phillip first before continuing. However, since Sidwell approached me, hovering around near my spot, Phillip must be elsewhere in this nexus. I searched around the obelisk, and there he was, bellowing his request for help, and…
Well, since he was elsewhere, someone else rose to the occasion. It was the teen, the ones we considered recruiting during the second day, the one Phillip thought was okay.
I sighed relief. Everything was fine.
Opening the mission menu, I spared another glance at him before vanishing.
[You are now in the mission: Combat training. In this mission, upon death, you will respawn. The mission will be completed as long as you clear one of the difficulties. Attribute progress in this zone will be reduced by 80%. Time limit : 90 minutes.]
The foggy scene welcomed my isolated soul when I opened my eyes. The crystal whose shape I had memorized hovered in front of my cone of view, its little twirls challenging me. The first combat mission came with a free weapon of choice, which disabled my access to my voucher weapons.
I debated getting the staff this time, but I needed that base-level toughness and vitality to survive strikes from my adversaries in the future. The feeling of having every inch of your bones crumpling into pieces from the Hobgoblin’s slam was still fresh in my memory, and I’d appreciate it if I could survive such an attack if I focused on defense now. Also, the wordings the message used heavily implied that this mission would be over once I defeat something, it was a point I recognized from before, but I never spared it more than a thought.
So yes. To gain the most amount of attributes possible, I have to die. Either by the hands of the enemy, or myself. Both should work.
And of course, the best method to train would be using the shield, and the ideal enemy for that wasn’t the lizard, no, it was the orc that came after it.
Standing a great deal amount of inches shorter than the green monstrosity, I held my shield with both of my hands, gritting my teeth, and prayed that I could live through its onslaught for just a few seconds before perishing.
The first strike came like lightning, crashing into my shield and spreading aftershocks all over my arms.