The crowd’s eyes were glazed elsewhere as they inadvertently opened their own screen when they thought of the ‘status’ word.
Crossing his arms, The Observer scanned the crowd, unimpressed. “The points you earned in your test can be used to buy things from that massive thing behind me. Simply interact with it to open the shop. You’ll figure out the rest…”
“Also… Once you’re finished with your business here,” He pointed behind where we stood. A circle of light pierced from the bottom straight into the sky above, filling a decent amount of space from the empty field behind us. “That… is where you access your living quarters. Just walk into the circle and you’ll be given the option to do so.”
“This is exhausting…” he dipped his head, ”The final thing I needed to explain is the trial itself.”
With another snap from his fingers, my eyes saw another message.
[You are given the mission: Clear The White Trial. To check your missions, call the [journal]]
Journal…
Journal - Running missions
The White Trial
Clear The white Trial.
Progress: 0/1
Our eyes were drawn to the screen that was showing us our main goal. I mean, the description was brief, but it told us nothing. What exactly is the White Trial?
The Observer scanned our puzzled expressions, then, as if he read our minds, “The White trial isn’t too different from the test. You will be put into a team of whatever amount we are fond of that day, and you have to clear whatever task that we organized.”
We? As in… multiples of him? He’d always spoken as an individual before, but he changed his tone when he mentioned the trial…
A hint of a smile could be perceived, even when his face was masked, ”It won’t be easy, though. There’s a good chance that none of you will survive.”
Stepping closer to the Obelisk, he continued talking, “We will curate the Trial to fit the level of your competence, so don’t go around screaming that our intuitions are unfair later. If you can’t clear it, that means that you’re just not good enough. Got it?”
We answered his question with a blind stare.
He laughed, finding our reaction hilarious, “Well, like the shop, the obelisk also provides missions. Do those, and you shall find strength after all your struggles. Other than that… your fate is up to you.” He performed what I assumed was a sarcastic bow, “That is the extent of the help that I am allowed to give you. Other than that, you are free to do whatever you want.”
With another clap of his hands, he vanished into the air, leaving a bunch of dumbfounded cretins staring into nowhere.
What the hell?
I was in a state of shock; which I soon realized that it wasn’t just me. None of us knew what to say or what to do next, so we did what we thought was the natural thing to do: Follow his instructions. One by one, the remnants of what was left of our sanity forced our bodies to parade toward the obelisk and interacted with it.
The queue to the obelisk was lengthy. At this moment, there were thousands of us left — judging from the final spot on the leaderboards — and thus, the long lines and extended wait times. A few of us were intimidated by the long queue, which was understandable, and opted to go the other route and entered the portal at the back instead.
While I stood there, sandwiched between the crowd, my brain replayed the speech over and over again. In the end, one question stuck out amongst the others :
Can we trust him in the first place?
Inside the long line, I found a few of the familiar faces I saw from before. The old and young Asian pair and the gigantic guy were present, and also, a few others had drawn my attention too, for better or for worse.
Amidst these sorts of life-and-death situations, you could distinguish with ease between those who had the mettle, and those who were just there, following along and watching where the ride would end. In this case, I found those who had their eyes locked on the obelisk to be those who had the strength to go the furthest. They were looking at the future, instead of being stuck in the present like us — like me.
One of them was a small, white-haired Caucasian man, standing at about 5’4 feet — a stark contrast to the others around him — being nudged by the larger people, and yet, he held a resolved stare at… well, nothing in particular. That oddity was interesting and prompted me to pay closer attention to his blank irises. Then it struck me. He’s blind.
It was obvious that he couldn’t see; there was a noticeable lack of reflection in his eyes, even when there was such a strong light that emanated from a single point in the sky. Yet, he was able to follow the crowd with ease.
How did he manage to follow the line wasn’t something that I quite understood… No; How the hell did he manage to clear the aptitude test in the first place? Strange…
“STOP TOUCHING ME!” A yell drew my attention away from the blind person. Turning around, I witnessed a red-haired woman berating the guy behind her, whose face I couldn’t see all that well in between the sea of people. From her voice and mannerisms, one could surmise that she was brought up in a rough environment, and a glance at her face proved me right. Her blue eyes contrasted her otherwise saturated red hair, with freckles prominent all over her face. Like the gargantuan man I’d seen before, she had quite a presence too. Though I wouldn’t say that she was beautiful; interesting would be a better description.
The guy behind her raised his arms and adamantly denied her accusation, with his arms and head moving about. I mean, I don’t blame him, One couldn’t avoid contact with the other people inside this massive crowd, with the constant and repeated shoving that happened every once in a while.
“What a scene, huh?” A man in front of me said to the other, appearing to be friends. “What the hell are we doing here?”
The sea of noises and conversations overtook the ambiance of the nexus. The apprehension from the sudden, bizarre revelation lingered in the atmosphere, but like all the humans that were our predecessors, we excelled at one thing; that is, to adapt.
I’d love to figure out the status window right now, but the noise and constant shoving made it difficult to maintain my focus. Like it or not, I had to shove the status page aside and deal with it once the air around me was clearer.
My line grew thinner as I was about to reach the obelisk, and it only took a few more minutes before it was my turn, and under the light shadow of the massive structure, my hands touched the cold surface of the obelisk for the first time.
A screen opened. What am I expecting, really?
[Trial pass #1 detected.]
[Obelisk services are available for use. To access the higher leveled missions and Trials, you need to upgrade your Trial pass.]
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
[What would you like to do?]
[Access missions] [Access shop]
I selected the missions menu. The shop looked interesting, but I was curious about what kind of missions were granted to us since these were the key to getting stronger.
Another screen appeared, this time, it contained the missions that were available at my current Trial pass level.
Available Missions
You will earn 3x mission passes per day. Missions cannot be repeated.
Combat training(1)
Select arsenals of your choosing to train with your chosen weapon. You will be healed upon death, Experience gained will be reduced by 80%.
Requirements : -
No rewards.
Hunt goblins
Defeat 10 goblins.
Requirements : 1 Mission pass.
Reward : 100 points.
Reward(2) : 1x minor health potion.
Hunt a Lizardman
Defeat 2 Lizardman
Requirements : 1 Mission pass.
Reward : 200 points.
Reward(2) : 1x Day 2 Pass.
Secret mission
???
Requirements : 1 Mission pass.
Reward: ???
Reward (2) : ???
Goosebumps popped while a cold chill ran rolled down my skin as I saw the double Lizardmen mission. Them again.
Shelving that mission as my last, my eyes then studied the screen once more, screening every last one of them, then determined which of these suited me the most.
First, the combat training had the most value out of all three missions; the lack of requirements was nice - it was a free mission — and I could gain attributes by participating in it, albeit at a snail’s pace compared to how it should be. The sole requirement it had was time; and time, I had plenty of.
The secret mission was otherwise, interesting too. The goblin mission was the only one that I felt I had a realistic chance of completing, even with their inflated numbers. The points rewarded by the goblin mission weren’t a joke either, 100 points were more than I could ever ask for.
It was notable that I needed mission passes to access these missions, meaning that at most, I could only do three missions a day, unless I saved up these passes for the next day. Since I was quite far back in the line, most of us had finished using the obelisk, so I had all the time I needed to think.
However, I still didn’t know what these points could be used for, so I held on to participating in a mission until I knew what kind of direction I was headed. Or… I could save one mission pass for the missions that would come tomorrow.
As I watched the bodies of those who were accessing the obelisk dissipate — Which I assumed to be those who chose to do the missions right away — I wondered about the blind man from the line before. Did he make it here?
Scanning around the perimeter, I tried to spot his rather small figure below the obelisk. His small stature made it more difficult to see him too, but after a short while of searching around, I saw hints of his white hair concealed by the bodies of those around him. I couldn’t see the details of his face from where I was, but from a glance, he didn’t seem to be in trouble nor was he showing any semblance of emotions on his face.
There was something about him that drew my attention. For some strange reason, I felt a surge of unknown strength from his eyes, akin to how moths are attracted to bright lights. Perhaps I was just imagining things, but…
What am I thinking? This isn’t the time to care about others.
I resumed my focus on the missions list and closed the menu.
Next, the shop…
Trial obelisk shop
Current pass level : 1
Stock replenishes in 3 days.
Free weapon voucher : 2
Item name
In stock
Price
Minor health potions
50
25 pts
Minor Mana potions
50
25 pts
Rank 0 - Armor set
1
2000 pts
Rank 0 - Class stone
1
900 pts
Rank 0 - Spell / skill book
1
300 pts
Basic Iron spear
1
free
Basic Iron shield
1
free
Basic Iron sword
1
free
Basic Iron dagger
1
free
Basic Iron Bow
1
free
Basic Iron staff
1
free
Basic Iron Katana
1
free
Basic Iron Claymore
1
free
Basic Iron Warhammer
1
free
Arrows
1
3 pts
To put my feelings in one word, expensive.
There wasn’t anything worth of value that I could purchase from my measly 168 points. Which was a shame, since there were more than a few things that I wanted to get. Skill or spell books? Armor sets? Class stones? What the hell are those things? This wasn’t a game, so I couldn’t just assume that it would work the same way I expected them to.
But it was eerily similar, admittedly.
If I saved and earned all the points from the missions, the most realistic and useful thing I could get was one of the skill books or spell books. But that also meant I had to say goodbye to the potions or — and I hate to say this — anything else, really.
Hey, at least I get two free weapons.