“Whoa!” A yelp escaped my lips when as a beam of light zoomed past the top of my head. I laid face flat on the ground to dodge the first attack from the back, which came out a lot faster than I expected. The trigger for my evasive maneuver was the slight change of temperature that was heated up from the beam, which probably wouldn’t have been possible without the innate senses talent.
The slight movement of the cannon’s head from the one ahead and to the left urged me to stand up, entering an evasive stance to avoid them. The cannon to my left shot first, the beam of light heading straight at my torso. I rolled backward and jumped, nearly grazing the next shot from the other cannon.
I was near the edge when I landed. Sensing my location, the right and top cannon began charging their beam, and they both shot simultaneously.
What the- I slid past the beam from above, using my feet to stop my momentum when another beam landed right where my body was supposed to be - had I not stopped.
Did they shoot in 2 different directions? I cursed, as three cannons, each from the front, left, and right, began moving.
I paid closer attention to the cannons this time, attempting to determine their trajectory. It was a feat that was damn near impossible if I didn’t have my talent, but with my new sight, I could almost tell where they were aiming with a short glance.
The one from the left was aiming slightly towards my back. Judging from its charging time, it would be the one that shoots first. The right one would be next, aiming slightly ahead of my right foot, and the one in front would shoot last, pointing directly at my torso.
Okay… The first one’s going aiming at my head.
The left cannon fired a beam precisely where I expected it to hit. I leaned forward, feeling the heat passing through the middle section of my back, then focused on the next attack.
The one on the right…. My right leg.
It fired another beam at my right leg. I pushed hard against the floor with my right foot as I jumped, floating momentarily in the air before landing with a crouch. I watched the beam from the front cannon, which was fired during my jump, passing by harmlessly.
Alright.. This is doable.
The system cranked up the difficulty. Four cannons were now aimed at me, each one of them slightly deviated away from my body. The only one idling was the cannon from behind, which was admittedly the hardest one to predict. I rushed towards the middle of the platform, steeling my limbs for what was about to come.
Shit.. Not enough time to see all of them properly.
[30 seconds remaining]
All 4 of the cannons fired almost simultaneously.
No delays this time.
Luckily, I could see where all the beams were- and more importantly - where they were headed. The trajectory of the beams almost forced me to dodge in one specific method, which I had to perform cleanly to get the perfect score.
I jumped up, slightly away to the right, avoiding the beams from the front and the top cannons. The other two beams from the rest of the cannons approached both my left arm and right leg, which was a hassle to dodge midair; I had to contort my body awkwardly to dodge both, which I was successful at, but I landed on the platform with my face instead of my legs.
Getting up, I brushed my face with my arm, casting my embarrassment aside.
Fuck… that was way too close.
[20 seconds remaining]
Catching me completely not by surprise, all five cannons moved this time. Looking around, I jogged to a location where I could see all of them, which meant that I was near the corner of the platform.
I concentrated on gathering as much information as I could. The cannons fired one after another, forming some type of barrier which I could only pass through in a specific way.
“Whoa!” I yelled, rolling past the first beam then leaping up directly after, watching the other 2 beams of light blasting the floor beneath me. The rest of the projectiles were directed towards the spot where I would land had I jumped normally, but I’m anything but normal now, aren’t I?
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Instead of jumping ahead, I jumped far enough sideways to reach the walls of the cube, which was quite a distance away from the platform. I felt the empty, cold air blowing upwards from the deep chasm of nothingness as I lightly tapped the cold steel with my legs. The system didn’t expect this outcome, as the beams completely missed this time. I used the momentum against the wall and hopped back onto the platform.
As if the cannons wanted revenge, they began shooting at me one after the other with no downtime. I frantically somersaulted and weaved my way through the chain of attacks, the beams nearly hitting me more than a few times.
[10 seconds remaining]
My sweat dripped on the floor from all the strenuous physical activity. The heat inside the cube rose dramatically from the constant barrage of super-heated beams, doing their best to cook me alive.
[5 seconds remaining]
Using the same trick again, I jumped towards the sides of the wall, using the momentary peace to regather my orientation. However, the system was wise to my antics now and began firing at the walls of the cube too.
I jumped back, rolling and tumbling to dodge all the beams of light passing by. I was about to jump again to the wall on the left, and-
[1 second remaining]
All the beams fired simultaneously, right at the wall where I was supposed to land on. Realizing the cannon’s intentions, my brows furrowed as I skidded on the platform in an attempt to cancel my motion. The momentum from my sprint caused me to slide towards the edge of the platform, despite my heart yelling for me to not do so. Close to falling, I was relieved to find both my hands solidly grabbing onto the edge of the platform. Any inches more and I’d be falling to my death.
[0 seconds remaining]
[Congratulations! You cleared this trial in the highest difficulty with a perfect score!]
“Haa… Haa… Haa…”, I climbed back on the platform, catching as much air as I could.
I totally could’ve just let the last 5 beams hit me.
[Calculating rewards…]
[Your rating for this trial’s completion is : SSS]
[Well done, Player Zane Black]
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
A towering gate stood in the middle of a clearing in the lower level area of the forest. The wind was strong today - to which the players that stayed around it preferred - as the cool breeze swept the dozens of people that were gathered around it.
The gate itself was made of an unknown metallic substance, and any use of the system’s automatic analysis yielded the same result.
[Gate of beginnings - ???]
Surrounded by the crowds of people, Julie watched the one man who was standing on top of a wooden platform situated right in front of the Gate. Her teammates, Richard and Karl, stood beside her with their shoulders slumped. Well, obviously, they were embarrassed by how they acted during the colossal bear encounter. But that was not a problem she’d love to talk about here, out of all places.
The sheer density of the people that were gathered there meant that she barely had any space to stand properly.
Her party found the gate after a few hours of exploration around the lower leveled area. It shocked her when she realized she wasn’t the first one who found the gate. It was Reghan Morris and his crew of powerful party members. They seemed to be nice and friendly when she introduced herself, but nothing was ever that easy when it comes to people.
“Thank you for gathering here today.” The man on the podium spoke. His bald head reflected the sunlight from above, contrasted by his almost ebony-dark skin. The frame of his torso was like Richard’s, but the expression he carried was one of sheer strength and confidence, as opposed to the hulking giant beside her. “We’re here to discuss our plans to clear this tutorial and return to the earth.”
“First, I’m sure that all of you know, to open this gate, we require the four keys as mentioned by the system. What we need is to organize groups of parties to search for the keys, and also to gather resources and level up.” He continued.
He’s charismatic. Julie thought. She could see why people choose to follow him; When your life was constantly in danger, it was almost too easy for most weak-minded people to seek other individuals for strength and protection.
“We have made this spot as our base of operations. Our weapons are sharp enough to cut the trees, and with some ingenuity, we’ll figure out the ways to construct walls around here to protect ourselves.”, He said, inspecting the people gathered in front of him. “As long as we work together, I am certain that we’ll make it out of here alive.”
Bullshit. Julie cursed under her breath. Any remotely intelligent person knew he had a few other motives up his sleeve. You shouldn’t trust anyone when strength predominantly ruled the world you live in.
Thinking about her encounter with the shining figure way back at the start of this nightmare, she was shocked that she was given a class stone instead of a weapon. The [Elemental mage] class felt like a cheat code in some ways, as her projectile attacks guarantee her safety against most creatures at a distance. Mana was a problem initially, but after a few investments in her [capacity] attribute, she was relieved when she saw her mana began regenerating, along with increases to her total mana pool.
It’s possible that there are others who were given a class stone too. She thought, scanning the crowd that surrounded her.
Her teammates could be better, she admitted, especially the two guys that were stuck with her. Amanda was a superb partner, despite her obvious shortcomings, as her role in fights was mostly to scout ahead and finish up the weaker creatures.
There was one thing that bothered her, however. On her way back from her unfortunate encounter with the Colossal bear - which nearly killed her - she found a large pit that stretched a solid 30-40 meters underneath. When she inspected the pit, the system message puzzled her.
[Cave of the maddened Ant queen - Cleared]
She knew for sure that Reghan was not the one that cleared it, since he went the opposite direction from her since she last met. So it had to be someone else.
Is it the same person who killed all those wolves before?
Far away behind the crowds of people, Amanda sat below a tree, watching the scene with mild curiosity. Holding one of her daggers up in the sky, she examined it for damages, while thinking back about her encounter with the giant bear, along with more questions on her way back here.
The true test of the forest was just about to begin.