The attributes I was used to getting had always been gradual, and hence, the effects of each point weren’t all that noticeable. This time, I was bombarded from all angles as 5 points worth of attributes from all fields were happening at the same time, so to say that the change was spectacular would be a slight understatement.
Safe to say, from the grins and smiles appearing on each of our faces, Idris’ decision to grant us a part of his strength was accepted in a positive light, which was a great outcome; Through his blessing, some form of a bond was made between us.
Before the meeting, none of us knew each other, nor did we intend to do so. Everyone was operating within their circle, forming their friends and party—which by itself wasn’t a terrible thing—but forming a kinship between high-ego individuals was a rare occurrence.
“Uhm!” A voice snapped inside the council room from a hidden speaker.
Oh, that’s right… This happened before.
“This is… the Observer speaking. I hoped everyone had a great time last night, but I need you to gather in the Trial Nexus now.”
Our relaxed expressions waned. Nobody, not even Sidwell himself, was overjoyed to hear our dearest Observer speaking. Xin and Ameer scoffed, their shoulders slumped, while Asuka and her father closed their eyes and listened.
“This isn’t a request, by the way. You have to come, or I’ll just snap you out of existence. You know how it is. So… let’s say that you better be there in 5 minutes, got it?”
If this was during my past life, that announcement would be it, but nobody expected that he would show up unannounced inside the council room right after. My worries were true, this timeline had twisted so far apart from my past that the fear of the unknown began to set in.
What if the Observer changed the missions today? What if he decided to make it even more difficult for all of us?
Idris, unlike the others, remained as composed as any human could get. The jasper of his eyes gleamed with fury, “What do you want?”
The observer took his time to stare at our bewildered faces, ignoring Idris’ question. What was his purpose for barging in here?
“This is unexpected. From your profile, I don’t expect that you’ll even think about sharing that boon with the others.” I caught a slight note of disapproval from the way he spoke, “But I digress, maybe you lot can make it through the first trial.”
“But if you just up and banded together will make things too easy, wouldn’t it?” I watched the observer’s back as he stepped past me, “So, what if I-” He tapped Idris’ shoulder, “-make it fun for you?”
“What do you mean?” Idris snapped back, his tone unwavering, “I don’t care if I am being rude, but you don’t seem the type to care about the fun, observer.”
The observer snickered after Idris swatted his hand away, “That’s right. But to see that the council was formed so quickly is a, uh…” He played with his fingers, “-A strange deviation. One that might speed things up a little bit.”
“Isn’t our purpose to gain as much strength as we can get?” I said, impatient, and frankly, I didn’t want Idris to handle everything on his own. He had done enough.
“That’s right. And hence, I needed to make sure that you were given the correct opportunity to attain as much strength as possible. Normal missions are given to normal people, which I assumed that you will be, but that just isn’t the case anymore.”
The observer snickered, clutching his mask with his other arm. Malice, the apt description of what his little chuckle made me feel, spread throughout the room, refusing to part ways with my eardrums and leaving a malicious imprint inside my brain. Even Idris himself, who had stayed as unflinching as he had been, was disturbed by the turn of events.
I thought of Sidwell like the annoying worm in your ear that you could not get rid of, but the observer was on another level.
“This is great.” The observer noted our mortified expressions, yet his chatter did not stop, “Oh, I have to tend to the others, but after today… We can start with that.”
Then, just like that, with that last sentence as his parting word, he vanished from the council room, leaving a bunch of befuddled people attempting to make sense of what had happened.
Idris shuddered, his face pale, and so were the others.
Did I just… trigger something I should not have?
All of us decided to part ways after that life-changing hilarity that came out of the observer’s hidden lips, but not before I told them about the orc chief; “Whatever you do, do not kill the chief’s son.” I said, garnering confused looks from the others. Xin was the first that left, triggering a chain reaction, leaving me, Idris, and Phillip as the last ones who were too disturbed by the Observer’s antics.
I debated about telling them about the missions today. But doing so, especially when the observer made it clear that he knew everything that was going on inside this room, rang all the alarm bells within me, alerting me that I shouldn’t disclose that I knew—in detail—of the precise knowledge about the future. The orc was an exception.
After watching them leave, I slumped on the table.
“Did we… do something we shouldn’t have?” My shaking voice was obvious, but I had to say it out loud, “I feel like we’ve made a mistake.”
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Silence. Everyone was deep in thought.
Then, a familiar tap on the shoulder relaxed the suffocating tension in my heart. It was from none other than Phillip, “Relax. We’ll survive whatever bullshit that thing throws at us.”
He’s just as nice as I remembered.
But passive encouragement wouldn’t change the shift that was about to happen to us. The Observer never mentioned what he wanted to do—an annoying quality that I wished he didn’t have—leaving us guessing, fearful of the true extent of his debauchery.
Idris lets out a heavy sigh, then slammed his fist on the table, “This is dangerous, Brunheart, I-“
His eyes popped open, realizing he had maybe done something that he shouldn’t have. I mean, was it even a secret at this point that he had two separate personalities living in his body?
“Who’s Bruneheart?” Phillip asked, clueless. I couldn’t help but chuckle at his somewhat insensitive—albeit, unintentional— remark.
Oh. I guess not everyone is aware of that.
Idris sighed, he was tired of dealing with everything, and he couldn’t make it any more obvious that he wished to be left alone, “We’ll meet again tonight. Live.”
And then, there were two.
I turned to Phillip, who smiled when he returned the same gaze, “I have a good feeling about you, friend. The name’s Phillip, but you already know that.”
“Yeah. I’m Gray.”
Hence, our first real interaction since my return happened.
It didn’t last long, however, he said something about helping this teenage kid, which was something that he would do, then left after waving his arm. I couldn’t help but smile after getting to know him again, and it was a friendly interaction to boot.
Then, I sat on the chair, alone, pondering my next move.
Of course, the first, and most important question I had was about my capability of handling a party mission on my own. And if I was able to do so, was it a wise decision to leave out the others?
My mind scrambled through the memories of my past, then stopped at Maria. She was helpful, regardless of her initial interest in sticking to the strong people—which was a decision I understood—she was more than willing to share what she had to ensure our survival. It was a trait that I deemed to be rare among the other prospects, and one that I wished to keep.
I had no doubts that she would join me if I asked, so maybe I should begin from that?
###
The snap happened. Thousands of lives were lost. Everything went according to the script, and the Observer left us in complete disarray, again. None of us bothered to speak up for a while, then globules of humanity started to work their problems by partying up with each other, and I scrolled through the crowd to find the person I was looking for.
And to my shock, she’d found her party when I found her.
“Sorry, Micheal!” Maria slapped both of her hands together, apologizing, “But I found my own party!”
Micheal? That’s the name I gave her yesterday… “Oh, that’s… cool.”
I shifted to the side, checking out the dependable-looking set of people that were crowding behind her. They looked strong and even better, diverse enough to cover each other weaknesses. Balance was important in any party formation, and that was an attribute we did not have in our previous run together.
They flashed an awkward smile, which I shrugged off, “It’s okay. I’m relieved that you found your group.”
“What about you?” Maria asked, “Are you able to find your party?”
I gave her two thumbs-ups, “I’ll be fine. I’m stronger than I look-” I extended my dominant arm, flexing the tiny bit of biceps that had grown bigger, ”-you see?”
“Yeah… Now that I see you again, I have to say, you look… slimmer?” She gave an awkward smile, not knowing if I was joking or being serious, “I- I gotta go. Be safe.”
Looking past her, I noticed that the rest of her party was waiting for our conversation to be over. One of them was huffing, losing his patience as he was tired of the loud surroundings, and just wanted it to stop. That made sense, after all, this happened right after the mass culling of our population.
She left with the others soon after, leaving me behind in the sea of crowds all around me. I remembered how chaotic the first part of the day was, and the density of people went away after we returned from the second mission we completed.
I presumed that they were either dead or had returned to their respective quarters, but after facing the orc mission…
Sighing, my eyes glazed over the prompt of the missions that were given out today.
Available Missions - Day 2.
You will earn 3x mission passes per day.
Combat training(2)
(SOLO)
Enter the training grounds. You will not perish if you die. Experience gain is reduced by 80%. No weapons will be granted. Time limit : 90 minutes.
Requirements: -
No rewards.
The goblin horde
Defeat the leader of the Goblin Horde.
Requirements : 1 Mission pass.
Reward : 1200 points.
Torch of flames
Deliver the torch to its rightful place.
Requirements : 1 Mission pass.
Reward : 1500 points.
The Orc chieftain
Survive the orc chieftain’s trials.
Requirements: 1 Mission pass.
Reward : 1800 points
Reward (2) : Trial upgrade pass
It’s the same.
I fist pumped, relieved that nothing had changed in today’s missions.
Now that Maria’s in her own party, I had the option to approach today’s missions on my own terms. The added attributes from the hand of the king further supported the solo route, but even with it, defeating the hobgoblin — especially when it was enraged — would still be a hurdle to climb through.
But the torch mission was… doable. With the summons and the bonus attributes, had I faced the previous torch mission on my own, the odds of me beating it were high, if not certain. The primary enemies in the torch mission were the lizardmen, and I knew my orcs were more than capable of handling them. So, if we take that logic…
Wait, don’t get ahead of yourself.
The last time I made a rash decision ended up with my head being chopped off. Trust me, that was not an image I would love to put inside my head. Watching your headless torso was just…
Well, there’s always the combat training mission. Let’s see how much stronger I got from the extra attributes I was given.