Behind me, deep inside the heart of the crowd, the head of the giant man stood a head above the rest, searching the packed hall for… something. Yes, he was the same guy I saw back in the waiting room, and from the presence and the way he carried himself, there were good odds that his name started with Idris, and ended with Bruneheart.
From his build alone, one could tell if he’d beaten the lizard with almost 100% certainty. I didn’t know what weapons or armor he picked, but even without the extra help, he’d be more than capable of manhandling the goblin warrior with ease. He wasn’t just big either; there was a sense of balance from how his body was constructed, from the way his hips and shoulder were proportionate without outgrowing the other, giving off a vibe of someone that wasn’t just strong, but agile too.
And yet, the way he was searching for someone made it obvious that he was looking for help. It sucked that nobody seemed to pick up on it, or rather, they just wanted to steer clear away. I get it, his size and demeanor could be somewhat overbearing. And I said that when I was in the same boat as many of the others; which wasn’t a characteristic that I was proud of.
In times like these, helping others should be the last thing I was thinking of.
No, Scratch that, we are all thinking for ourselves.
The top ten get a special reward for their performance, and since surviving required us to get as many advantages as possible — even at the cost of being selfish — the majority would prefer to stifle the others rather than help them. If history was any indicator, human nature was predictable in a lot of aspects, and the recent worldwide pandemic had done nothing to change that sentiment.
The toilet paper? The hand sanitizers? I’d never forget those.
Dejected, he grumbled at himself and lowered his head, his eyes frowning at what I assumed to be his status screen.
The crowd around him dispersed to whichever direction pointed away from him, creating an empty radius of the circle around him with each step he took. I lost interest in the events behind me and refocused my attention on myself. Regardless of what was going on, I had more important things to focus on.
First, about the status page. There was a lot of information shown, some of them were easily understood, but there were a few that required a deeper look.
STATUS
HEALTH
20/20
MANA
10/10
RANK
-
Level
0
POINTS
168
RACE
HUMAN - 1
ACTIVE CLASS
none
SUB CLASS
none
FREE ATTR. PTS
5
ATTRIBUTES - BODY
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
STRENGTH
0
86
SPEED
0
24
TOUGHNESS
0
35
VITALITY
0
65
RESISTANCE
0
0
ATTRIBUTES - MIND
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
ARCANE
0
0
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
ARCANE. POWER
0
0
ARCANE. DEFENSE
0
0
WILLPOWER
0
0
AFFINITIES
??? - unlocked after clearing the trial
Just from a glance, you could think of a multitude of questions for which the answer might not be so obvious. First, why are all of my stats at zero? As out of shape as any person was, they’d still possess some level of strength or speed, right?
Unless… the attributes shown had nothing to do with how our body was before we entered here, and was measured in other ways? Confusing.
If that’s the case, then I didn’t know what to make of this. Let’s shelf this for now.
There was a field called PROGRESS beside each ATTRIBUTE field. My best and almost guaranteed guess would be that the PROGRESS field was there to show how close a person was to reaching the next Attribute point, but I couldn’t be 100% sure until that happened. STRENGTH was the closest state to reach the next point, and that made sense; I did smash that boar HARD before.
Also, another interesting note about those was the progress of all of my Mind Attributes was 0. If that meant what I thought it meant, there was a good chance that you’d earn MIND attribute points only if you used or practiced with what I assume to be magic.
My brain was rumbling, generating idea after idea about the concept of how this status system was supposed to be interpreted. If only thinking also increased my attribute points… When my sight landed on the Free Attributes, a message was shown.
[Assign attribute points?]
I’d love to do so, but until I knew more about what I needed, it would be best to save those until I inevitably entered another fight. Also, I would love for this status screen to show more information about what these attributes did in complete detail, but that didn’t seem to be happening no matter how hard I stared at each individual letter. If the screen could blush, they’d probably be tinted red by now.
“I… can’t…”
Hmm? As I grumbled in defeat, a massive shadow in the shape of a man crept on me from my side. It was the giant man himself, his intense scowl was somewhat alarming, but he wasn’t glaring at anyone in particular.
Then, to my detriment, he noticed my obvious attention on him.
“Hey, Can I ask for a bit of your time?”
Ah, fuck… Why did I do that?
Was it my look? Yeah, his whining drew my attention, but did I look like someone who was interested in talking with him? As much as I wanted to excuse myself, I found no reason to leave him hanging without listening to his request first.
“Can you help me?” He shrugged, looking embarrassed. “I sucked with computers and stuff, so all of this is kinda new to me.”
I had to lean closer since his voice seemed to drop with each word that he spoke. Was he ashamed that he had to ask me for help? He avoided my gaze when I looked at him like I was staring at a man out of time.
“Sure…” His request took me by surprise, and I felt the same force compelling me to say yes. I didn’t know why he’d ask me out of everyone else — perhaps it was due to my unassuming appearance — but I saw no reason to refuse either, not when we were only inches apart.
“You could’ve asked anyone else on your way here…” I scanned the empty space behind me. Wait, no one else is there…
Another shrug. “I can’t help it if everyone’s afraid of me.”
You think I’m not scared too?
But, his massive frame aside, he didn’t seem to be a bad person.
“Yeah… You’re right.” I blew a relaxed breath, dismissing my unfounded fear, “So, what do you want to know?”
And thus, a long chat about the status page began. And I kinda regretted helping him; it was like teaching a grandma how to use her computer for the first time, only the grandma was about 200 pounds heavier.
I suppose we all have our own strengths…
After a few minutes of questions and tiring explanations later, Idris — I assumed it was him — smiled ear to ear after he finally, finally, understood everything. And all I got in return was a slap on the back with “I owe you one, buddy.”.
You’d better. If I knew how little he knew beforehand, I’d say no with an unrelenting passion. “You’re Idris, right? Are all of your attribute fields at zero as well?”
He tilted his head as if I’d just said something egregious. “Yes, they are at zero too. But…” I noticed his bushy brows frowning, confused. “My name isn’t Idris. Do I… look like an Idris to you?”
Wait, what? “Maybe not… but with your size and stature…” I gave him another look, “Who are you, then?”
The tall man laughed. I had to look up even higher since he tilted his head upwards, “That’s a good question! There, my name’s Phillip.” He then pointed at the leaderboard hanging above us, “See? Number 5.”
I followed his finger, and sure enough, his name was on the list. “Sorry… I just assumed that you are the first, with how you look and all.” Then, I returned my gaze back to Phillip, “You killed the lizard? I couldn’t even put a scratch on it.”
“It was harder than it seemed at first. I wasn’t close to dying, but it was a good fight. One of its attacks got me good, over here.” He gestured towards his lower abdomen, which bulged from his visible six-pack. “The next one was what killed me. That Orc… I almost had to-” His eyes popped, as if he was about to say something he shouldn’t have, “-Nevermind.”
An orc? His strange reaction aside, I shuddered to think about the monster that could overpower this mountain of a man. What kind of strength did it possess?
“Alright!” He yelled, slapping both of his hands together. “All this talk only made me eager for another fight. I’ll do some missions to kill the time.” He stretched, looking at the obelisk with his blue, piercing eyes. “See you later, Gray. Just find me if you need help. I owe you one.”
And just like that, he faded into nothingness. No rest for the strongest, I guess?
Frankly, I found it hard to believe that he wasn’t Idris. He could be lying, but from his personality, it didn’t seem to be his type to lie about who he was.
His departure caused the swarm of people that had avoided us before to return. They each carried a curious look in their gaze, yet they didn’t approach me. I looked for the interesting individuals from before, but they were nowhere to be seen. At this point, most of us had participated in the missions.
Speaking of missions…
Should I take on one too? The idea of resting right away was tempting, I must say. I could use the extra time to air this stress out.
While my body felt great, my mind was… not as well as I’d hoped.
The Observer mentioned that we could access the living quarters, which I could access by using the portal in the back. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to try it out, but someone weak like me never had the luxury of resting if I wanted any chance of climbing to the top. There was a massive gap that I need to catch up on, and resting would only serve to widen it.
Time to ge-
Wait, what am I thinking? Me? Being at the top? Catching up?
Sighing, I stayed beneath the massive obelisk, unable to proceed. The mission list was a goal that I had to pursue, a goal I had to complete to take the next leap in my life; to be strong, to not break under the face of my adversaries.
The image of the lizardman, standing over my kneeling figure persisted, the disdain and pity in its eyes cast a chill wind inside of my heart. Not because of the pity by itself, but because it reminded me, that after years I’d spent living away from that memory-
I… haven’t changed.
Changing oneself was never an easy task. It wasn’t quick, it wasn’t simple. Unlike the movies, where actors could face a life-changing event and become heroes they were destined to be, real changes in life happened at a snail’s pace; and even when you did, there was always a chance you’d return to your past self if you stopped persevering.
Were there any reasons other than pride for me to catch up? Did I need a reason in the first place?
If I tried my best and failed, fine, I’d accept it. But to just keel over and let my despair ruin me was just… sad. I knew I was nothing, I knew that I will be nothing, then, so what? What was there to lose if I got up and persisted one more time? My weeping figure, kneeling before the spearman had shattered my self-esteem, and I had to pick up the pieces that were left and glue them all back.
Was I angry? Yes. Was I ashamed? Of course, I am. I was furious about how unfair this situation was, I was ashamed that I ended up being this fragile through no fault but my own.
Slapping both of my cheeks, I savored the lingering burn as I re-opened the missions list from the obelisk. As of this moment, I didn’t own any weapons or armor yet, so getting those would be my top priority after finishing the combat training.
I will change. For my own sake.
[You selected Combat Training. Good luck.]