“Shut your mouth, boy. I’ve dealt with reincarnated ones before, and I need to swear on the GODs because anything below that leaves your kind suspicious. I’m on your side, and I won’t, and, in fact, can’t betray you.”

“Um… thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure. I’ve seen how disorientating this process is for all of you, and I feel for what you’re going through.”

“You understand what I need, don’t you. With the competition being as it is.” He shrugged to indicate both his desire and helplessness.

“I know.” She told him. “I’ve triggered the title. But you’re not here to focus on the outside. This is about you and using this to become stronger, isn’t it?”

He nodded uncertainly.

“The rules I’m bound by state that everything I learn is a hundred percent confidential and completely locked for fifteen years.”

“That short?” he interrupted in alarm. “Fifteen years isn’t long enough. I won’t be able to fight rank eighty assassins by then.”

“Calm down, Tom. Listen, and don’t jump to conclusions. I swore an oath on the GODs that I was on your side. If there was a problem, I would have started with that. Nothing that happens in here will put you in danger.”

“Oh,” he scratched behind his ear. “That’s good. That’s good.”

“After that fifteen-year exclusion period I can use what I’m told to help others, providing that the person who shared the knowledge has their anonymity preserved.”

The words, he was sure were, supposed to be significant.

“I don’t understand. Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you need to understand how this trial works. Because it’ll help you get the most out of later opportunities. If, let’s say, you told me a secret that could change the lives of everyone who came through here for the better, I wouldn’t be able to share it for fifteen years and possibly longer, since me talking about it straight away would have allowed them to track you down as the originator of that nugget of information.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“All you need to know is that any secrets you reveal will remain just that. I can’t betray you. This trial is here to allow you to get better.”

“And what can I get from it?” Frolicking in a large pond didn’t sound useful to him.

She frowned a little at that question:

“Less and more than you think.”

Tom raised an eyebrow at that response.

“This is a GOD’s trial. It’s not a standard thing. There are three entrances, one in each of the towns, and I oversee all three of them. It is exclusively for training. You’re fully protected, but the flip side is that you can’t earn experience, titles or rewards based on your actions.”

“Then why come here?”

She shrugged her eyes challenging him.

Tom said nothing, waiting for her to clarify further.

“I can’t give you stuff, and you can’t earn experience. Nothing else is blocked. There are even ways for me to work around the restrictions which we can discuss at a later point in time.”

“So, any practice in here counts to level my skills and contributes to progress toward evolutions?”

She nodded.

Tom recalled the details of the title that had just been activated to see if the effects of it were as boring as he remembered.

Title: Trial Speedster (IX)

Reward: Increases movement speed and perception of time by 180% when within a GODS trial.

Awarded for: Being the fastest to clear a dungeon that has been visited at least one million times for nine separate ranks.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Tom frowned.

He suspected he knew the answer, but had to ask anyway. “And how does the speedster title work?”

“It almost triples your time in here.”

“So, I have twelve hours?”

She hesitated:

“I can do some time dilation if explicitly requested. I can make it so that the four hours is extended to a little over nine, which, when combined with you title, will give you twenty-six hours.”

“Twenty-six hours,” he mused. “Does that mean I can use my fate pool twice?”

“You’ll be returned in the same state you came in with. So, the answer is yes. Providing you arrived with a full fate pool, visiting this place will effectively give you three fate uses in a day instead of one. In other words, what you started with, what you regenerate, and what the leaving restores. I’ve been told by others that it’s a massive boon.”

Tom frowned. He wished he had known that earlier. His pool was only two-thirds full.

“Good to know.”

The woman smiled, and Tom shook his head. She was not human - she was a trial administrator, and he didn’t want to think of her as anything else:

“Actually, is it possible for you to take your true form?”

“Yes, but I would rather not. A lot of human communication is non-verbal.”

“My preference is not to start thinking of you as a human.”

She bit her lip:

“Well… maybe I could… yes, that will work.”

As he watched, she became younger. Her skin lost any imperfections. A yellow halo appeared around her, and wings sprouted from her back - white, pure, and majestic.

“An angel?”

The face, which was inhuman because of how perfect it was, smiled at him:

“I think it’s appropriate. I keep the non-verbal communication, and you won’t be confused about what I am. Does this meet your criteria? Or…” she grinned teasingly. “Is this shell so beautiful that there’s a risk you’ll fall in love with me?”

“I’m four years old.”

“You’re not. If I had to age you, I would say you are slightly under forty.”

Tom did not bother interrogating the mathematics. If he only counted time around other people, then he was twenty-one or twenty-five, depending on whether Little Ta’s memories were taken into account or not. If you considered the tutorial as well, then he was over seventy. How she got forty from that was a mystery, and for the important parts of the conversation it was irrelevant. However, in terms of human emotion, she was wrong:

“My hormones beg to differ.” He told her. He was not sure this body could promote anything like sexual attraction, and, in any case, the angel was well into the disturbing uncanny valley territory.

She chuckled:

“But you’ll age. Biological impossibilities aside, if this form is too distracting, I can change.”

“No need,” he confirmed. There was no confusion now. He knew what he was speaking to was not human.

“Which brings us back to your original question.” She continued. “What can you get from this place? You can practice as much as you desire and have unlimited materials to do whatever you want. I had a boy come through. He hadn’t been reincarnated like you, but he was obsessed with building.”

“Building?”

“Yes. For ten years, I’ve supplied the wood, metal and tools for him to construct tree houses. They became more and more elaborate, and he ended up receiving some skills naturally via repetition or perfection, and others as a result of my specific guidance. By the time he turned fifteen, I imagine he could have constructed a modern house in a day. Pump a hundred levels into him, and he would have gotten work anywhere on Existentia.”

“Did he become that great?”

She shook her head:

“Identification rules. The fact I can tell you should have told you the situation.”

“Dead and forgotten.” He guessed.

She didn’t respond.

“Not a feel-good story. Plus, I don’t want to be a master builder.”

The angel laughed:

“It was just an anecdote. An unfortunate one that the system lets me use because it doesn’t compromise anonymity. But you are not limited. You can practice anything you want - alchemy, for example.”

“Fighting?”

She hesitated:

“Yes, I can support that, but unlike crafting, it’s not equal to fighting in Existentia, because you won’t get any combat bonuses. From the realism perspective, it will be identical to you clashing with real monsters. But as the system judges, it’ll consider it to be the equivalent of you training against someone actively not trying to kill you.”

“You mean, I can become a chew toy and get credited with the same benefits as someone crossing wooden practice swords with their brother?”

“Unfortunately so.”

“That hardly seems fair.”

“These are the rules I have to play under. But the realism will be perfect, and help you if you ever fight monsters directly.”

“Do you recommend me fighting here?”

“If that’s your path, then it can’t hurt.”

“Why should I go through the pain?”

“Do you understand how the basic weapon skills work?”

“Of course,” he answered, and she waited for him to elaborate. “You can get them two ways. One is performing the required movements thousands of times to a high standard, the other is executing them each once, but perfectly. A true master can reacquire the mastery skills instantly.”

“Close enough.” She confirmed. “The thing is, most people are much more likely to perform a movement perfectly in the throes of life and death combat, yes,” she continued hurriedly when she saw him go to argue. “Yes, even in a simulated combat under a GOD’s shield you’re more likely to get things right. Why, you might ask? Well, if you’re a doing a lunge, you’ll put more into it if the creature is retreating and you need the extra reach to kill it. At the base level, it’s basic psychology. As you said, an expert doesn’t need it. You, on the other hand, probably do.”

He considered that:

“If I perform movements perfectly, what happens if I’m not aware something’s required? You know, a specific move like a two-handed forward block or something.”

She waved her hand dismissively:

“The mastery skills are not that picky. Providing you’ve seen half the moves, you’ll get there.”

Tom nodded:

“So the trial is an opportunity. At its most basic, the time dilation and free fate will let me supercharge my magic development.” He looked her straight in the eye. “What about skills? Not mastery. I understand how to get mastery. I’m talking about the proper ones. Power Strike, Lunge, Teleport. Can you help me develop them?”