(5)
The judge declared, ""I'm ending the discussion. All the best in your… First… Trial…!!""
---fwoosh---
Suddenly, pure white flames broke out of the floor. They began engulfing everyone. I told Sachi and Saki, "Don't show your fear, no matter what!"
---flick---
The next instant, I was standing in a barren land. An imaginary screen tab showed a note before me.
| Commencing Trial: 000.001 |
__________
I mumbled, "So the pixelation begins, eh?!"
---rumble---
Countless sounds rustled into my head. The next instant, tiny square particles spawned out of nowhere. In rapid motion, they began pixelating in different colours and formations, such that their pixelation led to the formation of a small grassland with purple-leafed trees here and there.
I started walking forward. That's when another note came out.
---beep---
| Trial: 000.001
Title: A New Beginning - Session 1
Aim: You've lost every trait from your living days. Step up and begin a new path which could help you surpass your living self.
Objective: Destroy all the golems.
Failure: Red Karmic reincarnations will be sent to hell living the life of a slave. On the other hand, Blue Karmic reincarnations get sent to the room of the High-Off Judges, to be chosen by one of them as a forever servant.
Special Note: LLBs will have to face a trail harder than others. |
__________
"What's with this special note? Is it mocking me 'cause I'm an LLB?!", I mumbled while glaring at the imaginary pad.
[This justification doesn't explain a bit. Destroy all the golems? I don't see anything in this imaginary field.]
---rustle---
A wooden hand popped out of the ground and grabbed my right ankle. I said, "What the?!"
---rumble---
Once again, the ground started to shake. The latter was followed by countless wooden hands and legs popping out of the grass. Soon, I found myself surrounded by a hundred wooden golems with human anatomy.
[What the heck is going on? This is quite different from the memories of those three cowmen.]
I then realized and looked back at my screen.
| Special Note: LLBs will have to face a trail harder than others. |
__________
"So, this is what the special note meant. Grane, Xona and Sim fought only one wooden puppet in their first trial. But that doesn't seem to be the case for an LLB like me!!", I mumbled.
---rattle---
All of those wooden puppets took different battle stances. Their movements produced sounds of woods rattling on one another which felt quite irritating, "So annoying!"
[My hostages faced so much difficulty just fighting a single golem in their trial because these puppets are designed in such a way that they do not use any form of martial arts but rather instincts.]
I chuckled, "Stupid toys, you want to show your fighting prowess, eh? Sorry to say this!", and charged at a golem,
---crash---
thereby crushing it into pieces with the tip of my index finger. I chuckled again, ""But your tactics won't work on this martial deity!!"", while releasing pressure.
---rustle---
At once, the remaining puppets charged at me. The sound of grass rang so vividly. I then closed my eyes, ""Sense of Martiality, First Form: Basic Combat Sense!!""
---fwoosh---
A black and red aura fumed out of me. I opened my eyes with red pupils.
[Using my Sense of Martiality in present realm will only make things worse for my low profile. I already stood out being LLB. I mustn't gain more attention than that.
For now, suppressing my realm to the lowest would be best. In that way, that admin who's looking at my trial would only think of this as a transformation.]
…
While I was busy with my trial, the lower judge who called herself Normante was peeking at my performance through an invisible portal. She was in a big empty room peeking at countless portals, overseeing the performance of all reincarnations. However, her main focus was me due to which I had a tingling sensation whenever she looked at me. She mumbled, "This reincarnation is so hard to understand for even a crook like me. What kind of talent is he?!"
She might look like a voluptuous demon but her true form was that of a crow's head with wolf's ears and a horsetail on her back. Her eyes were black and orange, meaning she was a dark crevasse. I was able to peek back at her using one of my shadows as her leech.
She mumbled again, "Unlike living beings, infinitos have limited shade of eyes. The colour of their pupils represents the realm they are in. No one can manipulate that. "So how in the world did his eyes change?!""
She then snapped out of her shocker, "No, maybe I'm thinking too much. He's an LLB. Things like this are possible for him!!"
On my side, I was beating the wooden golems like hell. They were crumbling to pieces one after another.
[That crowhead is peeking at me whenever I hit a golem. If not for her annoying surveillance, I would have broken these toys with the snap of my fingers.]
I attempted, ""This won't do!""
---thud---whump---
Immediately, I dipped my hand into the ground and took out a long wooden root of a tree. The golems stayed firm. I said, "I thought of exploding this place but found a whip-like weapon. How lucky of me?!"
---whiplash---
The next instant, I swang the flexible root. Three golems that were behind me crumbled from the root's movement. I broke the whip-like wooden root into two pieces and continued hitting every golem that came my way. Surprisingly, the trial ended in one minute.
---beep---
| Accomplished Trial: 000.001 |
__________
---beep---
| Achievements:
Your statistics have raised -
Strength(+10)
Speed(+10)
IQ(+10)
Mentality(+100)
Adaptability(+10)
__________
I attempted, "Auto-status!", to check my info.
---click---
| Artificiary Progress: 000.001
Statistics:
Strength - 10
Speed - 10
IQ - 10
Mentality - 100
Adaptability - 10
Character Abilities: 1
Martial Arts - Sense of Martiality |
__________
---fwoosh---
White smoke fumed out of my body. The sweat and fatigue that I faked upon myself vanished into the air. Another tab popped up by surprise.
---beep---
| Special Note: You have accomplished a hardest trial in your first attempt and were also the first person to move on to the next trial from all the reincarnations who came with you. As an additional achievement, you will be given character abilities. |
__________
[Character ability? I don't think I need such worthless things.]
---beep---
| Additional Achievement:
Character Ability - Whip Slasher, Boundless Courage |
__________
[... Are you serious, right now?]
I checked my Statistics.
---click---
| Artificiary Progress: 000.001
Statistics:
Strength - 10
Speed - 10
IQ - 10
Mentality - 100
Adaptability - 10
Character Abilities: 3
Martial Arts - Sense of Martiality
Whip Slasher
Boundless Courage |
__________
I clicked on character traits. Three imaginary screens beeped out.
---beep---
| Martial Arts - Sense of Martiality
A unique fighting trait created by Host Drake Adrian through hard-earned efforts. Exclusive to the host. Impossible to be mastered by common mortals.
Effects - Under usage, it's hard to be analyzed by all foes, impossible for opponents to counterfeit and maintains a firm mentality of the host on every occasion. |
__________
---beep---
| Whip Slasher
Anything upholding the properties of threads and strings can also uphold the properties of a whip-like sword that can cut through all beings.
Effects - All long and flexible objects become deadly weapons after getting into the hands of the host. |
__________
---beep---
| Boundless Courage
One's goals and ambitions are sure to be achieved as long as they have the courage to face any kind of obstacle.
Effects - The host becomes fearless in worst cases. IQ rises by 10%. |
__________
[They didn't mention much about Sense of Martiality. Well, that's to be expected since I only showed a portion of it. Whip Slasher and Boundless Courage are like active skills from a video game.
But one thing's for sure. The system of this so-called Artificial Sanctuary isn't self-operative.
The Lower Judge of a crook typed some buttons containing origin literature on her screen pad. That generated several other system tabs and were sent to me.
Not to mention her saying that per every ten trials, the Lower Judges who are also admins change. Just how experienced is she to type and send me these system panels within a split-second? Could it be her experience?]
Back in her chamber, she was typing multiple screen tabs, "Many people finished right after him but none faced this trial as difficult as his!"
---whoosh---
My shadow popped out of its hiding spot. She felt a cold breeze sweeping through her fur, "How come there be wind in this disclosed space?!"
Before she could turn around, my shadow turned into a tiny amount of black smoke and entered her ear without making a sound. She became puzzled, "Was I imagining things?!"
On my side, I got a signal from my shadow soul. I made an enchantment, "Authority to 'understand'!!"
---flick---
All of a sudden, Normante's eyes turned blank. She found herself opening her eyes in a rubbled land under a yellow-shaded starry night. She wondered, "Where am I?!"
""INSIDE MY HEAD!"", said an anonymous figure from behind. She turned around only to find out it was me, "Reincarnation Adrian? What did you do to me?!"
---clench---
Quickly, I grabbed her head and said, ""IT'S ADRONA!""
---fwoosh---
Darkened yellow flames escalated out of my hand and strangled the crook's head. She cried in agony, "Craaaaaw!!!!"
""WHAT A WEIRD WAY TO CRY?!"", I commented.
---flick---
With the flick of a second, things turned back to normal. Normante found herself in her usual chamber, 'What was that? It felt like I was dragged to somewhere unknown. Was I dreaming?!'
She then looked at me through one of her tiny portals. I was looking into my Artificiary pad. She flinched, "Oh no, I forgot to update the status of others!", and got back to her operation.
On the other hand, I was chuckling with a slight grin. The shadow replica that sneaked into her mind came back to me. I commanded through mind-communication, 'Good work, Scidra. Now, return to my soul dimension!'
---flip---
The eyes of the shadow soldier vanished. I mumbled, "All of my stats rose by 10 except for my mentality blasting up to 100. I wonder why?!"